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 III > Part 15
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697
THE STORY OF METHODISM.
labor .* Philo Mix, the father of John Mix, was a life-long Metho- dist. He was born in 1773 and died at East Farms in 1842. He left a brief manuscript dated 1832, containing the names of Methodist preachers to whom he had listened, the list being prefaced by the following statement:
The subscriber to this manuscript not only had the honor of being contem- porary with the first Methodist preacher that ever came into New England and his successors, but also the pleasure to adhere thereto for forty years last past, and has the texts now in manuscript from which he heard them preach at different times and on various occasions The preachers herein named are a part of those I have heard preach in the eastern part of Waterbury. I have also the texts in manuscript from which I have heard various other preachers abroad, among whom is Bishop Asbury.
1790. Jesse Lee, Daniel Smith. 1802. Nehemiah U. Tompkins, James Annas, Abner Wood, John Sweet, Lo- renzo Dow (June 23).
1791. George Roberts, George Pick- ering, John Allen, Nathaniel B. Mills. I792. Richard Swain, Aaron Hunt, Lemuel Smith.
1793. Joshua Taylor, Benjamin Fis- ler, James Covel.
I794. Menzies Rainor, Daniel Ostran- der.
1803. Burge. 1804. Nathan Emery.
1806. Zalmon Lyon.
1807. Oliver Sykes, Reuben Harris.
I808. Phinehas Rice, Joseph Lock-
1795. Freedus Aldridge, Nicholas Snethen, John Clark.
wood. I809.
Noble W. Thomas, Coles Car-
1796. Evan Rogers, Joel Ketchum, penter. John Lee, Freeborn Garretson, Matthias 1810. Swain, William Thatcher, Augustus Jocelin, Laurence McComes.
1797. Timothy Merrit, David Buck, John Finnegan, Peter Van Ness, Leeds, Bishop.
1812.
Gad Smith, Scholfield.
1813. Elijah Woolsey, Walter French, Stephen Beach, Daniel Ives, Carrington.
1814. William Jewett, Peter Bussing, Eli Barnett, Doane.
1815. Smith Dayton, Alvin Abbott.
1816. Elijah Hibbard, Nathan Bangs.
1817. David Miller, Samuel R. Hickcox. 1818. Harshal [Herschell] Sanford.
1819. Henry Eames, Ransom Johnson. I820. Cyrus Culver, Elijah Willard,
Johnson.
I82I. Josiah Bowen, John Luckey,
180I. Luman Andrus, Elijah Bach- Phinehas Cook, F. Buyington. elor, Sylvester Foster.
1823. Aaron Pierce.+
*Eldad Mix was " listed " in 1793 at £31, 15s, 6d. He had three two-year old heifers, one horse, eight acres of plow land, four of meadow and pasture, ten of bush pasture, one acre of bog meadow, fifteen acres unenclosed, second grade, and seven unenclosed, third grade,-a total of forty-five acres. He had no watch or clock, and no house of his own. His grandson, John Mix, died August 15, 1893, in the ninety- third year of his age. He joined the Methodist church in 1831, and at the time of his death was its oldest living member .. While the Methodist meeting-house stood on Union square he was its sexton for many years. In his later life he became a strong Universalist, but retained his membership in the Methodist church. His two sons, David and Philo, gave their lives in the service of their country during the war for the Union.
+ Mr. Mix adds : "No preaching now in the east part of Waterbury, as formerly."-PHILO MIX, 1832.
1798. Peter Jayne, Shadrach Bost- wick, Timothy Dewey, Sylvester Hutch- inson, John Nichols, Jo. Crawford, Jesse Stoneman, Zeb. Cankey, Camel, Amos G. Thompson, Webb, Canfield, Cyrus Stebbins.
1799. Roger Searle.
1800. James Coleman, Jonah Hine, Newton Tuttle, Reuben Jones, Jesse Kilby, Julius Field.
Gilbert Lyon, Chandler Curtiss. Jesse Hunt.
18II.
Ebenezer Washburn, Dyer
698
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
This list contains the names of just one hundred preachers,-men who cleared the way, ploughed the soil and sowed the seed in these regions in the years before Methodism had any house of worship within the present bounds of Waterbury. Some of these were men renowned for ability and eloquence, and have a place in the pub- lished histories of the church. Others were circuit riders in a more limited field, and others were "local preachers," engaged in secular labor during the week and going out on Sunday to preach and to hold meetings where otherwise there would be no services.
. There was doubtless a Methodist " class " for many years at East Farms, but it did not grow to be a permanent church organization. Some of its members became connected with the society at Pros- pect and others with the church organized in Waterbury centre
The same itinerants who planted Methodism at East Farms and Columbia found preaching places in that part of Waterbury which in 1807 was set off as the town of Middlebury. Probably the earliest of these preaching places was the house of Daniel Abbott in the Breakneck district. He is said to have been the leader and the first male member of the first "class" formed in these regions. It is said that his grandmother, Hannah Frisbie Abbott, who died in 1803 at the age of 103 years, when she heard that Daniel had joined the Methodists lifted up her aged hands, and exclaimed: "Oh ! has Daniel become a Methrodate?" and, after groaning three times, said again: "Has Daniel become a Methrodate ?" She was a godly Puri- tan woman, but to be a Methodist was to her mind as great a calam-
- ity as to be a reprobate. Her grandson David and his wife after- wards joined the class, and the commodious kitchen of their farm- house became the Methodist meeting-place and their home a well known Methodist headquarters for many years .*
The wife of David Abbott was Sarah Tyler, daughter of James and Anna Tyler of Middlebury, who were also the parents of the noted old-school theologian, Bennett Tyler, D. D. (see pages 556-558). Sarah was married to David Abbott in 1786 and, living at Break- neck, came under the Methodist influences that centred at Daniel Abbott's house. In 1789 she was deeply moved under the preaching of Peter Van Ness, one of the noted itinerants of that day. "How can I forsake his ministry?" said the new convert to her deeply grieved father ; " his word has awakened my soul; what shall I do?" "Thank him and let him go," said the staunch old Cal-
* This house, enlarged and improved, still stands on the corner opposite the Breakneck district school- house.
699
THE STORY OF METHODISM.
vinist. Under family pressure she united with the Congregational church in Middlebury, and continued in its membership for fifteen years, meanwhile, however, attending the Methodist meetings. She found that she could not accept the old-school doctrines, nor was she satisfied with her Christian experience. In 1812, under the labors of Gad Smith and Benjamin Griffen, she obtained a clearer view of the way of salvation ; her inquiring mind weighed and accepted the Methodist teachings, and in the new belief she found great light and satis- faction. She and her husband, who had been converted under the preaching of Laban Clark, and their son Alvin, united with the Methodist class. In January, 1813, she asked for a dismissal from the Congregational church. The action of the church upon this request is preserved in its old records and is of much interest. She was visited by a committee- Deacon Seth Bronson, MO Aaron Benedict, Daniel Wooster, Roswell SARAH TYLER ABBOTT. and Titus Bronson-who made a written report, reciting the rea- sons she gave for desiring a dismissal. These were in effect as follows :
It was inconvenient for her to attend services at the centre ; Methodist meetings were held at her house ; she enjoyed the latter, feeling that there was more love and zeal and more of the power of religion among the Methodists ; their doctrines were more agreeable to her feelings and to her understanding of the Bible ; and moreover, she was not going to abandon her profession nor the church of Christ, which, she said, "is wherever Christians are found." She desired a formal dis- missal that she might go away "in charity with the church and have no hard feel- ings on either side."
Church meetings were held to consider these reasons, and on May 17, 1813, it was voted that they were not sufficient to justify the church in granting a dismissal. A formal complaint was then entered against Mrs. Abbott for " violation of the covenant obliga- tions in absenting herself from the communion of this church and joining herself to another denomination," asking that she be cited to appear before the church "to give a reason for her conduct and give satisfaction, that we may walk together in the fellowship of the gospel." Mrs. Abbott did not see fit to appear in person, but sent instead a communication of withdrawal, on which final action was taken and recorded as follows :
Monday, June 21, 1813. A communication from Mrs. Abbott was then read, which was attentively and seriously considered ; whereupon voted : "Whereas
700
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
our sister Sarah Abbott has withdrawn from our communion in a disorderly man- ner, and refuses to return to her duty, and we are directed to withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly, we do hereby withdraw our watch and fellowship from her, agreeable to the apostolic direction."
The yeas and nays, being called for on the vote of withdrawal, stood as follows : Yeas, Aaron Benedict, Ebenezer Richardson, Deacon John Stone, Lamberton Mun- son, Philo Bronson, Nathaniel Richardson, Ezekiel Stone, Marcus Bronson, Gad Bristol, Loammi Fenn, Eli Thompson, Deacon Seth Bronson. Nays, Titus Bron- son, Roswell Bronson .*
Adjourned.
Attest : MARK MEAD, Pastor.
Sarah Tyler Abbott died in the faith, July 14, 1855, aged eighty- six years. Her husband, David Abbott, died in 1826, aged sixty- two. Of their children, Anna, who married Aaron Tuttle, and Sarah, who became the wife of Hawkins W. Munson, were devout and honored Methodists and with their husbands did good service in the Middlebury church. Alvin Abbott, who was about nineteen years of age at the time the church withdrew its fellowship from his mother, and his brother Ira, who was then a babe in arms, became Methodist preachers. From overwork on his first circuit, and from austere abstinence, which in those days was much enjoined, Alvin was early laid aside from active service, becoming subject to a strange nervous infirmity, but preached occasionally for many years. He removed to Waterbury in 1843, and from that time till his death in 1861 was connected with the Waterbury church. His wife, to whom he was married in 1817, was Fanny Wooster of Oxford. She was for the last forty years of her life one of the "mothers" of the Waterbury church, going to her rest in 1884 in the ninetieth year of her age. A large company of her children and children's children "arise up and call her blessed." Ira Abbott commenced his ministry in 1839, was pastor of the Waterbury church in 1849-'50, and continued an effective member of the New York East conference till 1875, when he retired to the old homestead at Breakneck. He died in the house in which he was born, April 15, 1883, aged seventy-one years. In his old age he was cheered by the assurance that more than a thousand spiritual children were among the fruits of his ministry. Four grandsons of David and Sarah Abbott are also Methodist preachers in the ranks of the New York East conference : Larmon W. Abbott and Alvin V. R. Abbott, sons of Alvin, Bennett T. Abbott, son of Ira, and Joseph O. Munson. These men have given collectively more than
* In the record of this vote we miss the name of one of the committee, Daniel Wooster, who about this time joined the Methodists himself, and for forty years was a well known local preacher in Middlebury and the region round about.
701
THE STORY OF METHODISM.
a hundred years of active service in the ministry. Besides these ministerial sons and grandsons of David and Sarah Abbott, many others of their descendants have been and are among the active workers of Methodism in various parts of the country. Of these descendants and those united to them by marriage, the names of not less than fifty appear during the last fifty years upon the roll of the First Methodist Episcopal church in Waterbury. It is therefore not unfitting that the difficulties which the " disorderly" Sarah Tyler Abbott encountered in becoming a Methodist, and the influences which emanated from the old headquarters at Break- neck, should find mention in the annals of Waterbury Methodism.
The foregoing sketches indicate how the elements were forming which were to crystallize into a flourishing church in the thriving city into which Waterbury was yet to grow. The early itinerants
RUINS OF THE BIRTH-PLACE OF THE WATERBURY METHODIST CHURCH.
found their opportunities not so much in village centres as in out- lying districts. So it came to pass that the class or society which has grown to be the present prosperous church in Waterbury had its beginning in the "Pine Hole" district, now Waterville. The class was formed in 1815 at the house of James Wheeler, Jr. The ruins of this house, the birth-place of the Waterbury church, are
702
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
here shown as photographed in 1889. It stood about half a mile northeasterly from Waterville, on the Greystone road .*
Of the beginnings of Methodism at this place, the Rev. and ven- erable Edward Perkins, t of Weymouth, O., who was present at the first meeting (a boy of ten years), wrote as follows:
James Wheeler and his wife, being Methodists, got a local preacher, Walter French (this Walter French became the founder of the auger manufacturing busi- ness in Seymour) to preach at their house on a Sunday not long after they came there. He preached there for some time, and, I think, one or two other local preach- ers, and it was not long before the circuit preachers came and a class was formed.
This class was organized in the summer of 1815 by the Rev. Samuel Cochrane, preacher in charge of the Litchfield circuit under the Rev. Nathan Bangs, presiding elder of the Rhinebeck district, to which the Litchfield circuit then belonged. At the first enrollment it consisted of five persons : James Wheeler and wife, Samuel R. Hickcox and wife, and Mrs. Azubah Tuttle. Samuel R. Hickcox was a young miller residing at what is now Oakville. He and his wife, and Mrs. Tuttle, who was the wife of Captain Obadiah Tuttle, living east of Oakville, used to wade the river to reach the Pine Hole meetings. Others who joined directly afterwards, and may also be consid- ered original members, were David Wheeler and wife of Pine Hole, Samuel Chipman and wife of Town Plot, and the widow Mary Peck, from Waterbury centre. There may have been others whose names were added during the year 1815, but the records of church mem- bership prior to 1851 having been lost, other names cannot be given with certainty. The following are known to have become members during the embryo period of the society, 1815 to 1831 :
Lois, wife of David Warner, Mrs. Asahel Warner, Timothy and Betsey Ball and Finette Ball, their daughter, all of Bucks Hill; Obadiah Scovill and wife, Miss Marenda Scovill, Moses Beach, Reuben Nichols and Lydia, his wife, all probably from Westside hill; Phelps Hayden and Augustus Hayden and their mother, Hannah Glazier, Alvira Hall, Jesse Brown, Edward Perkins, Jr., and Delight (Smith) Perkins, his wife, all of Pine Hole; and Mary Philena Peck, Julia Pratt and Ebenezer Welton and wife from Waterbury centre.
Samuel R. Hickcox, then twenty-five years of age, was the first class leader of the society. He became an exhorter and afterwards a local preacher. Succeeding class leaders were Timothy Ball,
*This house was directly opposite the factory occupied for some time by the Tucker Manufacturing company. James Wheeler, Jr., of Oxford, we find by the land records, bought this property on "Hancox brook " in 1814, including the mill. privilege and the sawmill then standing near the present factory. He sold it again in 1816 to David Downes, and the locality was long known as Downes's mill. This James Wheeler was an uncle of the Hon. Nathaniel Wheeler of Bridgeport. He removed to the west and has descendants now residing in Eaton Rapids, Mich. He died in Michigan in 1848, and his wife in 1849. Wherever they lived their home became a preaching place for the Methodist itinerants.
+ Mr. Perkins died December 29, 1893, in his ninetieth year.
703
THE STORY OF METHODISM.
Jesse Brown, Edward Perkins, Jr., and Edward J. Porter. After James Wheeler, Jr., removed, in 1816, the house of his cousin David Wheeler became the Methodist headquarters, and so continued until some time after David Wheeler's death in 1822. This house, which is now the residence of Byron Welton, stands east of the New England railroad in Waterville. Here for many years the little company of Methodist worshippers frequently met, as also at the house of Timothy Ball at Bucks Hill. Prayer and class meetings were the usual Sunday services, with occasionally a sermon by a local preacher, The circuit preachers came once in two weeks, preaching on stated week-day evenings.
In 1816 Litchfield circuit was divided into Goshen and Burling- ton circuits, and Waterbury was assigned to the latter. In 1822, a New Haven district having been formed, Waterbury came within its bounds, and in 1829 became a part of Derby circuit.
While the society still centred at Pine Hole, Mother Mary Peck opened her little red house on East Main street (near where Brown street now is) for Methodist services, and it became the cradle of the church at the centre. Here for many years meetings were held, and here the preachers and presiding elders were enter- tained. Many were the seasons of spiritual refreshing enjoyed by those who came together around her fireside. Hither came, privately, men struggling against the bondage of evil habits, and in Mother Peck's prayers and words of encouragement they found help for the conflict. Said an old resident, passing the house in its last days, "There have been more prayers offered under those shin- gles than under any other roof in Waterbury." Many, too, were the pranks inside, and the disturbances outside, of the "boys" of that day, who looked upon Methodists as legitimate subjects for fun and mischief. Outside, there would be howling, shouting, sing- ing and throwing of stones; snow would be piled against the outer door to obstruct the exit of the company at the close of the ser- vices. Inside, strange parodies of the hymns could be heard min- gling with the devotional lines of the true worshippers. The room being crowded, solemn faced young men would sit in lap, three or four deep, when suddenly the knees of the undermost would fail and there would be a mass of wickedness sprawling on the floor .*
* From the following communication, published in the Waterbury American of November 10, 1848, it may be inferred that twenty years later than the date given above Methodist congregations were still liable to be annoyed by unmannerly youths :
"MR. EDITOR : There is a certain smart young man who attends the Methodist church in this village for the purpose of showing off his hoggish ill-manners during the service, who is hereby admonished, for the last time, that unless he changes his conduct for the better the arm of the law will be put in force, and without mercy. Let others also, who trample on the rights of that congregation, take warning. This is the last appeal of moral suasion .- MANY MEMBERS."
704
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
When attendance increased, meetings were held in the East Centre school-house (on Union square), in the "bell school-house" or old frame "academy" on West Main street, and later, in the stone academy and in the ball room of the then new Tontine hotel. At times the school-houses were closed against the Methodists, but occasionally, as a more liberal spirit prevailed, they were again opened to them.
At no time during this period did the members number more than twenty-five or thirty, and it has been said that by 1829 their number was reduced by death and by removals to thirteen. But in the spring of that year a notable addition was made to the working force of the society. The family of William Eaves had come to Waterbury from England, and Mrs. Eaves, who was an earnest Wesleyan and also a woman of ability and an excellent singer, entered warmly into the Methodist fellowship, and ere long her husband and son became practically interested. The addition of these converts greatly strengthened the society and helped to prepare the way for the ingathering that followed.
The summer and autumn of 1831 was a season of religious revival in Waterbury. The movement began among the Methodists under the preaching of the Rev. Heman Bangs. Mr. Bangs was a man of physical, mental and spiritual vigor, strong and original in his expressions, kind and gentlemanly in his personal demeanor; a convincing reasoner, full of faith, enlivened by recent successes in other parts of his circuit. His first sermon was preached in the "bell school-house," from the text "Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead." The revival thus commenced was continued under frequent visits from Mr. Bangs and his young colleague, the Rev. Daniel Smith, and the Methodist membership was increased to about one hundred.
Mr. Eaves, who at this time had charge of the button shop at the Scovill factory, was, with his family, very helpful in this revival. He opened his house near the factory for the meetings, which for several weeks were held at six o'clock in the morning, at noon, and every evening. Some of them were held in the factory itself.
The names of many of the itinerants who preached at Pine Hole and in Waterbury centre during the period from 1815 to 1832 have been preserved in Philo Mix's manuscript. The following may be added:
Nathaniel Ruggles, Samuel Merwin. Cyrus Silliman, Henry Hatfield, Stephen L. Stillman, Samuel Luckey
Samuel D. Ferguson. Elbert Osborn.
Gershom Pierce.
Wells Wolcott,
Laban Clark,
Lucius Baldwin.
Luther Mead. Quartus Stewart,
Charles Sherman. Chester W. Turner,
Sylvester Smith.
705
THE STORY OF METHODISM.
The increase of members resulting from the revival of 1831 necessitated the erection of a house of worship. Private houses were too small, and the stone academy was closed against the society under a vote that it should no longer be let for religious services. It was for a long time impossible to find a property owner who would sell a lot for the Methodists to build upon. It was argued that wherever they obtained foothold "they were like the Canada thistle; they were sure to spread and could not be kept down; it was easier to keep them out than to root them out when once in; they would be like Samson's foxes, carrying fire into all the standing corn."
But at length, by use of legitimate strategy, a legal con- tract was obtained from Eunice and Mary Baldwin, maiden sisters, for a lot at what is now the corner of Scovill street and Union square. Conveyance was made to Tim- othy Ball, who sub- sequently, by deed dated May 26, 1832, conveyed it to Rufus Patchen, William Eaves, Edward Per- kins, Jr., and Eben- ezer Welton, trustees of the church, the consideration being THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, 1833. $116. Subscriptions were obtained and the erection of a plain frame building, measuring thirty-six feet by fifty, and costing about $2700, was soon accomplished .* It was dedicated April 27,
* This building, divested of its high stoop and of the not very graceful spire which rose from its front, is now a tenement house, standing on the original site.
45
706
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
1833, the dedicatory sermon being preached by Dr. Wilbur Fisk. The pulpit-platform was placed at the west end, and the singers' gallery over the vestibule at the east end; there were also side galleries. The pews were forty-eight in number, and the first year's record of sales shows thirty-two pews rented to forty pew holders for $212.60, a sum which was not materially increased for at least twelve years thereafter. The Rev. Davis Stocking, a young unmarried man, was the first stationed preacher. In the gallery was duly installed a choir composed largely of the Eaves family.
From the completion of the meeting-house the society was favored with regularly stationed preachers, and for the twenty- one years during which the building served its purpose enjoyed general prosperity. A Sunday school was organized in 1833, with William Eaves as superintendent, which at the end of the first year numbered fifteen officers and teachers and sixty-three scholars. E. J. Porter was chosen its superintendent in 1842 and was succeeded in 1852 by James R. Ayres. In 1854 the total Sunday school membership was 208. There were several seasons of revival during this period, "protracted meetings" being usually held each winter, at which preachers from abroad assisted the pastor in the work. Record is made of a meeting in 1837, which continued for six weeks. In the winter of 1849-50, during the pastorate of the Rev. Ira Abbott, there was a revival resulting in valuable increase. The membership in 1840 was 143; in 1845 it had increased to 185, and in 1850 to 245, besides a good list of probationers.
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