USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, Volume I > Part 69
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642
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Beginning at a rock near the road from the town plat in Waterbury to New Haven, distant from the meeting-house in Waterbury two miles, one half and sixty rods, called the Mile rock, and thence to run east one degree and thirty minutes south to Wallingford line; thence in said line to the tree called the Three Brothers, thence south to the Beacon Cap, thence to the southeast corner of a farm formerly belonging to James Richards [Prichard] lying on Beacon hill, thence west to the mouth of the Great Spruce brook the west side of Naugatuck river, thence keeping the brook westwardly to the mouth of the brook that comes off from Red Oak hill, thence northwesterly to the place where Moss's road crosses Derby line, thence northwardly in said road to Enos Gunn's dwelling-house, thence a north line so far as to intersect a west line from said Mile rock.
It may be interesting to the present generation to know exactly how much money was expended by the Judds Meadow men in get- ting the above act passed, and to whom it was paid:
£ s. d.
May, 1772, an account of money at Hartford paid out at the Assembly to take care of the memorial, O
7 10 October, 1772, money paid out to Mr. Hillhouse, O 6 0
For money paid out, O 6 8 For money paid at New Haven, 0 O II
May, 1773, paid to Mr. Hillhouse, 0
6 0
For money paid out at Hartford, O
I3 7
For money paid out agoing to Westfield, O
I 8 For money paid to Mr. Hillhouse, O
6 0 For money paid to have the memorial served, . O
I 6
2 IO 2
The first society meeting was held on the first Monday in June, 1773. Captain Gideon Hotchkiss was chosen moderator; Ashbel Porter clerk; for society's committee, Captain Gideon Hotchkiss, Captain John Lewis, Stephen Hopkins,* Samuel Lewis, Esq., and Captain Samuel Porter. At this meeting a "rate " of two pence on the pound was laid (John Hopkins collector). At the next meeting, in December, Gideon Hickox, J. Lewis, Jr., and John Hopkins were added to the society's committee, and a school committee con- sisting of Isaac Judd, Israel Terrill and Ashbel Porter, was appointed. It was voted that "the school be paid by the rate, what the publick money doth not pay," with Thomas Porter, Jr., the col- lector, and a tax of five pence on the pound was laid. In 1774 Daniel Warner was chosen grave digger. In 1774, also, the first attempt to secure stated ministrations of the gospel was made. In August, Mr. Remily was invited to preach on probation; in Octo- ber, Mr. Miles was called for settlement; in April, of 1776, the Rev. Abraham Camp was invited on probation; in March, 1777, the Rev. Mr. Barker received the same invitation; in January, 1781, it was decided to give a call to the Rev. Medad Rogers.
* The elder Stephen Hopkins, who petitioned for a Winter Parish in 1765, had died in 1769.
643
THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN SALEM.
During all these years we must not forget the great conflict that was reducing the life-forces of the country, the personal property of its people and even the products of their soil. It is not sur- prising that Judds Meadow obtained no settled minister in those years of stress of war; but it is exceedingly creditable to its people that they kept on in their endeavors to obtain one, and also that their coming meeting-house grew in their thoughts and aspira- tions. Even in 1776, they took a step forward in that direction. During all this period, 1773-1781, no church was organized. The church waited for a minister, perhaps; at all events its formal organization took place February 22, 1781, "in the presence and by the advice and assistance of Mark Leavenworth, Benjamin Trum- bull and Alexander Gillet." The original members of this church were:
§ Gideon Hickox,
Mrs. Philena Hickox. (wife of Gideon Hickox, Jr.),
Mrs. Sarah Hickox,
Samuel Lewis,
Mrs. Sarah Smith,
( Mrs. Eunice Lewis,
(wife of Austin Smith, Jr.),
Amos Osborn,
John Lewis,
Mrs. Elizabeth Osborn,
Enoch Scott,
Ashbel Porter,
Samuel Porter,
Samuel Scott,
Mrs. Hannah Porter, Gideon Hickox, Jr.,
Samuel Hickox .*
When the site for the meeting-house came under consideration there was a wide difference of opinion as to its proposed location. The territory now within the town of Prospect held a considerable proportion of the inhabitants of the society, who naturally wished the meeting-house to be as near to their hills as might be, but they, like their predecessors in other societies, submitted to arbitration. The Court's committee set the stake high on the hill eastward of the river, on land of Gideon Hickox. On this land, without having obtained a title to it, the meeting-house was built by the church and society. As the years go on, the following work which one man did for this first meeting-house in Naugatuck, will not lose its interest :
May, 1782, for work done towards the Meeting-House since the two-penny Rate. For going to Goshen for a lode of clabords. For carting timber a day.
For a day to West Haven to get shells.
For carting a load of shells and paid for them.
For 2 days making pins [for the frame]. For my cart to cart stones a day, by Philip.
* For some reason (perhaps he was on service in the war), Captain Gideon Hotchkiss was not present. He, however, was admitted to fellowship the next month.
644
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
The above and other charges are succeeded by the following:
December 20, 1782-Paid twenty pounds toward the Meeting-House which was my signment. Beside what I found raising.
June 17, 1782. Things that I provided for the Raising of the Meeting-House and Steeple:
For a Barrel of Sider.
For a Bushel of Ingen Meal.
For Half a Bushel of Malt.
About nine pounds of salt pork.
About thirty pounds of fresh pork.
For two the best sheep I had.
It was said in 1876 by the Rev. Charles S. Sherman in his memo- rial discourse (delivered at Naugatuck in commemoration of our national centennial) that there were no records showing when the building was completed, but an old account book has delivered up the secret in the following words:
Monday June 17: 1782. This day we laid the sills of the Meeting-House and Steeple in Salem and finished Raising on Saturday Morning June: 22: 1782.
Thursday; November: 28: 1782: this day we met in our new Meeting-House, it being a day set apart by these States for a day of publick thanksgiving.
For all of the foregoing facts relating to the building of the meeting-house we are indebted to Captain Gideon Hotchkiss, one of the first two deacons of the church, who faithfully recorded them in his account book at the time of their occurrence .*
The building seems to have been fully equipped with its "fore door" and "communion table" in time only for the ordination of the first settled pastor, of whom the account book says:
Salem, December 4, 1784. This day we agreed with Mr. Fowler to attend His ordination in this place on Wednesday, the 12 day of January next.
Wenesday: January: 12: 1785: this day the Revd Mr. Abraham Fowler was or- dained over the Church and Congregation in Salem.
Wenesday March: 13: 1799. This day the Revd Am Fowler was dismissed from the Church and Congregation in Salem.
Two years after the first service was held in the meeting-house on the hill, on December 12, 1784, Gideon Hickox, the owner of the land on which it stood, conveyed it to the church and society.
This church building remained on the hill forty-nine years. It had a bell in 1794 (if not earlier), at which date it was agreed to have the meeting-house bell rung, at the cost of the society, on each Sunday for all public meetings which are held at the meeting- house, for funerals when desired, and at nine o'clock each night, Saturday nights excepted.
* Under date of April 11, 1785, he recorded: This day I measured the snow as it lies solid in the woods, and it is eighteen and half inches deep.
1
645
THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN SALEM.
In regard to the non-heating of meeting-houses, the generally accepted theory is that our ancesters looked upon the proposed heating of them as a kind of desecration. The writer has not met with the slightest proof that this theory is founded on fact. The destruction of a meeting-house in the days before insurance com- panies had their origin, would have been an irreparable loss to a society. To have accomplished the heating of one with wood-fires, even had the meeting-houses been built with chimneys, would have been well-nigh impossible, and would have involved night service both before and after the day of meeting. To say that the meet- ing-house was of too much importance to take the risk of its burn- ing by having a fire in it, is undoubtedly true.
In March of 1831 Daniel Beecher made a deed of gift to the society, as follows :
For the consideration of the good will which I have to the ecclesiastical society of which I am a member, a piece of Land lying in Salem society a little westward from Salem Bridge, containing Two Roods and Ten rods [bounds here omitted], to be used as a public green and to erect a Meeting-House thereon for said Society and Church, holding the doctrine and faith and practice of the present Society and Church, provided that said society or any other person shall not erect any Building or any other obstruction between the Meeting-House to be erected and the south line of said piece. . . It is understood that provided sd society should wish to remove sd Meeting-House hereafter from sd land, they have liberty so to do, to sell sª land and apply the avails for the benefit of sd church and society .*
To this land, given by Daniel Beecher in 1831, the meeting-house on the hill was removed the same year. In 1853 after a service of seventy-one years the old meeting-house was again moved to give place to the present church edifice. A portion of this building is still in use as a store. A fire partially destroyed it in 1893.
Mr. Abraham Fowler was the first settled minister. He was ordained in the meeting-house on the hill, January 12, 1785, and installed over a church of thirty-one members. He was dismissed March 13, 1799, t leaving a church that had lost at that date by death, it is believed, but four of its 122 members. The pastors, to 1844, were as follows:
* Two months after the above deed was recorded, Daniel Beecher also gave, for "the consideration of his good will to the Episcopal society of Salem in Waterbury," ninety rods of land directly south of his former gift. It is described as "an oblong square ten rods East and West and nine rods North and South." It was given "for the purpose of a public Green," with restriction of building between the church then on the same, and the north line. Ten years later the same Daniel Beecher " for the consideration of his friendship for his descendants and Family connexions"-conveyed to them a plot of ground west of the Episcopal church- " for the purpose of a family burying Ground and no other." It was six rods and twenty links east and west by two rods and nineteen links north and south.
+ Among the scarcer pamphlets of the present day is the following : " A Farewell Sermon, delivered at Salem, in Waterbury, April 17, 1799, By the Rev. Abraham Fowler, late Pastor of the Church in that Society. Printed by George Bunce. New Haven: 1799." Another of Mr. Fowler's published sermons is referred to in the chapter on Masonry.
646
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Mr. Abraham Fowler, January 12, 1785, to March 13, 1799.
Mr. Jabez Chadwick, December 2, 1800, to March, 1803.
Rev. Stephen Dodd, 1811, to April, 1817.
Rev. Amos Pettengill, January, 1823; died August 19, 1830.
Rev. Seth Sackett, October, 1834, to January, 1838.
Rev. Chauncey G. Lee, January, 1838 to November, 1840.
The deacons for the same period were:
Samuel Lewis, 1783; died in 1788.
Gideon Hotchkiss, 1783; died in 1807.
Elisha Stevens, 1788; died in 1813.
Calvin Spencer, 1791; died in 1846.
Truman Porter, 1813; died in 1838.
Thaddeus Scott, 1813; died in 1832.
Lucian F. Lewis, 1834; removed 1853.
Deacon Calvin Spencer, Deacon Elisha Stevens and Mr. Israel Terrill were, on March 27, 1803, appointed ruling elders.
During the sixty-three years that the Salem church was one of the churches of Waterbury it had a settled pastor but thirty- nine years. It was organized without a pastor; in 1800 it enter- tained, apparently without a pastor (at the house of Irijah Terrill), the members of the "Consociation of the Western District of New Haven county," consisting of eleven reverend elders and ten dele- gates ; it passed, without a pastor, through the momentous period of religious excitement caused by the preaching of Nettleton, during which time eighty-two members were received into its old ; and when, in 1831, the old church building and its congre- gation came together into the valley, they came without a pastor- for he had preceded them into the valley of death .*
When, in the coming time, the History of Naugatuck shall be written, and the history of her First church shall take its place therein, the coming writer will doubtless search the records of the church and society with care, and will be rewarded with much valuable information-notably in regard to her sons and daughters who went out to settle towns in New York and Ohio, and whose history remains unwritten. And surely that writer will be able to give testimony to the patriotism of a church organized on the anniversary of Washington's birthday, the sills of whose first meeting-house were laid on the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, and whose first service was held to give thanks that the Revolutionary war was virtually at an end.
* The Rev. Amos Pettengill, who died in 1830 and was buried in Hillside cemetery. For his literary record see Vol. II, p. 955.
CHAPTER XLI.
A REACTION FROM " INDEPENDENCY "-THE YEAR 1722-"BISHOP BROWN," IMMIGRANT -. THE FIRST MISSIONARY - MESSRS. ARNOLD, MORRIS AND LYONS - DR. MANSFIELD'S LONG MINISTRY - THE PARISH OF ST. JAMES, AFTERWARD ST. JOHN'S - THE FIRST CHURCH - JAMES SCOVIL, FIRST RECTOR-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD-TRIALS FOR THE MINISTER AND THE PEOPLE-SOLOMON BLAKESLEE AND OTHERS- A SECOND EDIFICE, 1796 - DR. TILLOTSON BRONSON - VIRGIL H. BARBER, S. J .- ALPHEUS GEER, FROM 1814 TO 1830-ST. PETER'S, NORTHBURY-CHRIST'S CHURCH, WESTBURY-ST. MICHAEL'S, NAUGA- TUCK.
N EARLY all of the early Massachusetts settlers regarded them- selves as members of the Church of England, but they had evangelical leanings and were opposed to what they thought excessive liturgical and prelatical observances,-a reforming body within the church. They had, however, in this country developed a decided church polity of their own, and had practically become "Independents." The government was organized on a religious basis. The early towns were really churches; the minister was "called " in town meeting, and his support was provided for by town grants and a town tax. The beliefs and methods of the Church of England, as then practiced, were not congenial to them, and they were allowed as little foothold or countenance here as was deemed consistent with a due regard for the ultimate powers of the English government. Time and distance, however, while they emphasized and rendered possible a great divergence of faiths and practice in some minds, softened early prejudices, and a love and longing for the old church and her forms grew up in many hearts. Her shortcomings were forgotten, her virtues were more clearly seen, especially where they could be favorably contrasted with the deficiencies of the New England system. In this way, or in some such way, a preparation for a reaction had for some time been going on.
The year 1722 was a notable one in the history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. In that year Dr. Timothy Cutler, rector of Yale college, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, a graduate and former tutor
648
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
of the college and at that time pastor of the Congregational church in West Haven, and Daniel Brown, a tutor in the college and a class- mate and intimate friend of Johnson's, all declared their adhesion to the Episcopal Church, gave up their positions and left for Eng- land to be ordained-there being no Bishop in this country until some sixty years later. On April 13, 1723, Brown died of small- pox in England, greatly mourned and lamented. The other two were duly ordained and returned to this country to pursue their work.
In this same year, 1722, James Brown, a resident of West Haven, then about thirty-eight years of age, a cousin of the father of the above named Daniel Brown, and doubtless a parishioner of the above named Samuel Johnson, removed from West Haven to Water- bury. He lived at Naugatuck on the east side of the river, was a farmer and hotel keeper and soon became a somewhat prominent man in the new settlement. Some years later he removed to Water- town, to the place known of late years as the Captain John Bucking- ham place, above Oakville.
He is said to have been the first Episcopalian in Waterbury. Perhaps he had been a fellow-student and investigator with his cousin and his pastor. He certainly sympathized with them, for his Episcopacy was of so pronounced a character, and his zeal so active, that he earned for himself the soubriquet of "Bishop Brown " from his jocular neighbors. He seems for some years to have been the only incumbent.
There were, however, doubtless a few persons already here who knew something of the Episcopal Church and were well disposed towards it. Witness the following: The Rev. X. A. Welton writes, " Mr. Stephen Hopkins Welton has an old prayer-book containing the following inscription, which I copied from it myself ":
This book was first the property of my great-grandfather, Richard Welton, who was the first male child born of English parents in Waterbury# and one of the first Episcopalians in said town. At his decease it became the property of my grand- father, Richard Welton, Jr., and at his decease it became my property. I gave it to William S. H. Welton, the eldest son of my nephew, the Rev. Alanson W. Wel- ton, deceased. Said Samuel [sic] is the fifth generation from the original proprietor of this book and the sixth from the only man of this name that was ever known to cross the Atlantic and settle in these British Colonies.
All the way by primogeniture.
Attest: ABI WELTON.
* See page 167. The view there expressed is confirmed by an old document recently found among the papers of the First church, which opens thus: " The settlement of Waterbury commenced in 1677. Rebecca Richason, born April 27, 1679, was the first English child born in Waterbury. John Warner, first male English child born in Waterbury, March 6, 1686."
649
THE EPISCOPAL PARISH TO 1830.
Richard Welton, first named above, was born, according to town record, March, 1680, and by family tradition September 27, 1679, and died in 1755. So he may not have had this book until after Mr. Brown came here; and the possession of the book is not to be taken as proof of his opinion, but from the fact that he lived at the extreme end of the town from Mr. Brown, and that the Weltons were among the first to join with him, it seems likely that they were already well affected.
It is recorded that in 1734 Mr. Johnson, then rector at Stratford, ascended the valley of the Naugatuck as far as Waterbury and bap- tised an infant son of Nathaniel Gunn .* Dr. Beardsley in his His- tory of Episcopacy in Connecticut says of this service: "This was undoubtedly the first instance in that town of the dedication of a child to God 'by our office and ministry,' and the first occasion on which the forms of the liturgy were used by a clergyman of the Church of England."
All organized work of the Church of England in this country at that time was under the charge of an English Missionary society founded in 1701 and styled the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. In later years the society was styled Ven- erable, and became so well known that for ordinary purposes the initials "Ven. S. P. G." were a sufficient description. This society continued to have charge of all church work here up to the time of the Revolution. It appointed the clergy, paid their stipends and received their reports. In 1737 it appointed the Rev. Jonathan Arnold (who had succeeded Mr. Johnson in the Congregational church in West Haven, but had later embraced Episcopacy) a mis- sionary for West Haven, Derby and Waterbury. At this time a few families (some accounts say two or three, others six or seven) living at this place, desired the ministrations of the Church. Mr. Arnold did not reside here and his ministry was very brief. He is said to have baptized two children here. He was a native of Haddam and a graduate of Yale College (1723.) He seems to have been a man of erratic disposition and not adapted to a successful ministry. For two or three years after this, occasional services were held here by Mr. Johnson, then of Stratford, and Mr. Beach of Newtown. The Rev. Theophilus Morris was the next missionary in charge. He fixed his residence at Derby. He was an Englishman. One of his contemporaries, the Rev. Mr. Johnson, wrote of him:
He is in many respects a gentleman of good accomplishments, but it does not seem likely that he will suit or be suited with the disposition of these country
* Presumably Abel, born August 12, 1734.
650
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
people, so that I very much doubt whether he will be happy in them or they in him, and I wish that he was better provided for and that some young man previously acquainted with this country or that could suit his disposition to it, were provided for them.
One reads between these lines pretty clearly what Mr. Morris's limitations were. He seems to have been a well meaning man with considerable energy, but his zeal was not according to knowledge; he involved himself in difficulties with his brethren here and he soon after returned to England apparently to his own and their relief.
Mr. Morris's successor was the Rev. James Lyons, an Irishman by birth, of whom the historian of the church says that "if he had genius and zeal, he was another example of a tiller in the field that needed a special missionary to watch him and keep him from run- ning his plough upon the rocks." Mr. Lyons was here about four years. He resided in Derby and preached one-third of the time in Waterbury. During these years, notwithstanding some defects in the missionaries in charge, the church had greatly increased. In the year 1740 the famous Whitefield preached throughout New England, and his preaching was followed by a condition of intense religious excitement. The result of this was to turn the attention of the staid and moderate portion of the community to the more quiet and con- servative methods of the Episcopal church, and there followed a great accession to the Episcopal ranks. Dr. Bronson says: " The prosperity of the Episcopal church in Waterbury dates from about 1740." It is said that twenty-five heads of families at one time transferred their membership from the Congregational to the Epis- copal society.
Mr. Lyons's successor was the Rev. Richard Mansfield. He was the son of Deacon Jonathan Mansfield of New Haven, and was born there, October 1, 1723, and graduated at Yale college in 1741. For five years he was rector of the Hopkins Grammar school, and as during this time he connected himself with the Episcopal church (the Hopkins Grammar school being distinctly a Congregational institution) and still continued for some years to hold the position, it is evident that even at that early age he must have possessed a rare combination of firmness, gentleness and attractive traits of character. In 1748 he was ordained in England and appointed a missionary, on a salary of £20 a year, to the villages of Derby, West Haven, Waterbury and Northbury, and established himself at Derby, that being a convenient point for the care of this extensive charge. On October 10, 1751, he married Anne, daughter of Cap- tain Joseph Hull of Derby. She had reached at that time the
651
THIE EPISCOPAL PARISH TO 1830.
mature age of fifteen years and four months .* Her elder sister had, the preceding summer, married the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, the Congregational minister of Waterbury. For ten years Mr. Mansfield administered the affairs of this large district with faithfulness and success. After Mr. Scovil took charge of the parishes in the neighborhood Mr. Mansfield restricted his labors to Derby and vicinity, and there he lived, universally beloved and respected, until April 2, 1820, when he died in the ninety- seventh year of his age and the seventy-second of his ministry; one of the longest, if not absolutely the longest, of pastorates on record. His Alma Mater in 1792 conferred upon him the degree of D. D., he being the first Episcopal clergyman to whom she extended that honor. He was one of the persons proposed to succeed Bishop Seabury, but declined to be a candidate. In his ninety-sixth year he presided over the convention which elected Bishop Brownell.
As early as 1742 measures were taken to provide a place of wor- ship, and application was made to the town for a lot for a site. After some negotiation, in April, 1743, the town gave them, instead of a site, £12 in money to pay for such a one as they might pro- cure. The site had already been selected and preparations for the building made. Although the sum of £12 was named in the deed as consideration (perhaps to make the acceptance of the town's gift legal), the lot was really presented to them by John Judd and is described as taken from his house lot. It was on the corner of West Main and Willow streets, the lot now owned by Charles M. Mitchell-and is described as forty-five feet on the south side, twenty-eight feet on the west, fifty feet on the north and thirty- nine feet on the east. The church and parish bore the name of St. James. In those days church buildings were not warmed, but it was customary to have a small building in the neighborhood, with fire-places, where those who came from a distance could spend the hour between services and be warm and comfortable while they ate their luncheon, and could fill their foot stoves for the afternoon service. These buildings were called Sabbath-day houses-or, in the language of the time, "Sabbady houses." A building of this sort containing several rooms stood on South Willow street near where is now the residence of Mrs. William Brown. t
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