USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Haddam > The two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church of Haddam, Connecticut, October 14th and 17th, 1900. Church organized, 1696. Pastor installed, 1700 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
Some of the scholars [he continues] would learn so many verses that the teachers would not have time to hear them all. The sum- mer was very happy with the teachers and the scholars, and for several summers the school was very prosperous. About two or three years after, it was blessed with a powerful revival of religion, and several of the children were hopefully converted. And to that school we might well look for the stability of the young peo- ple of Haddam, and much of the strength of the church, of which a good proportion of the school became members.
Tell the teachers and scholars to be faithful, to remember that life is short, and a glorious crown is for those who overcome.
Here is the program which was probably used during the first summer :
RULES AND REGULATIONS
FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ESTABLISHED IN HADDAM
1. The children are to attend meeting every Sabbath morning, with hair combed, hands, face, and clothes clean, and sit together. 2. To be at the School Room at half past 12 o'clock.
23
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
3. To take their seats immediately on entering the School.
4. To say, together, the Lord's Prayer, after the superintendent.
5. To have some lesson learnt, to say to their Teachers, and to say it in a low voice.
6. To behave well in School, and neither laugh nor whisper.
7. To be grateful and attentive to their Teachers.
8. To love one another, and avoid contention and quarrelling.
9. Never to swear, or tell a lie, or call names.
10. To go to meeting in the afternoon in procession, and be- have with solemnity.
Punctuality, Good Behavior, and Proficiency in learning, will be rewarded by Tickets and Premiums.
Good reasons must be given for absence from School.
Then follow four stanzas of a hymn to be learnt by all the Children, and sung each Sabbath, in Bath.
The following resolutions were adopted at a Church meeting held on May 5, 1822:
I. The male members of this Church shall constitute a Sabbath School Society.
II. The object of this Society shall be to encourage an atten- dance on the Sabbath School and promote its interest.
III. Every member of this Society shall pledge himself to send punctually, as far as convenient, his children to the Sabbath School, and other children committed to his care, and shall en- courage other parents to do the same.
IV. This Society shall appoint a Committee, annually, of one, at least, in every school district, whose business it shall be to visit all the families in such district, and to take the names of the Parents, and the children between the ages of seven and sixteen, and the ages of the children, and transmit them to the Pastor of the Church in three weeks from their appointment, and who shall induce and encourage, by conversation from time to time with the parents and children, the attendance of the children on the Sabbath School.
V. As rewards are absolutely necessary for the encouragement of children, every member shall pay annually ten cents for the
24
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS OF HADDAM
purchase of them, which sum shall be collected by the Deacons at the Communion in July and expended according to the direc- tion of the Pastor or Deacons.
Brethren Fiske Brainerd, Simon Hazelton, Comfort Cone, James Gladwin, Selden Huntington, Eliot Brainerd, Joseph Scovil, Mar- quis D. Thomas, Thomas C. Smith, Stephen Tibbals, Archelaus Tyler, Daniel C. Dickinson, Henry Smith, Selden Tyler, Edward Rutty, were appointed a committee for this year.
Attest, JOHN MARSH, Pastor.
It seems strange to think of the Sunday-school as a modern institution, but this is impressed upon us by the fact that there are now living three members of that first Sunday-school in Haddam: Miss Larissa Shailer of Tylerville, born in 1800; the Rev. Daniel Clark Tyler (son of Moses Tyler) of Oneida, N. Y., born in 1808, who supplied the pulpit of this church for a short time in 1844; and Nathan T. Dickinson of Burlington, Penn., who was born in 1805. No doubt you will be glad to hear what Mr. Dickinson-now a veteran of ninety-five-has to say of the first Sunday-school. He writes :
I was a member of one of the very first Sabbath Schools in the United States. That school was organized by the Rev. John Marsh in the summer of 1819; there were a very few other Sab- bath Schools organized in the year 1818, in other parts of Con- necticut and in Massachusetts.
My teacher was John May. My classmates were John Smith, George Childs, Alfred Carter, and others that I will not mention. There were two early superintendents whom I remember. Their names were, Marquis Thomas of Ponsett, and Comfort Cone of Walkley Hill School District.
There were so many influential young men in the school as teachers and officers, that it is impossible for me to be positive about the superintendents. Of the male teachers there were George Brainerd, Alva Shailer, Ezekiel Clark, Watson Boardman;
25
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
females: Orpha Clark, Huldah Smith, and my sister Eliza. Clark and Ashbel Tyler were in the class, but not teachers. I could have given you more names of scholars, but I will make it a general thing. The scholars who came from Candlewood Hill School District, were the Scovils, Baileys, and Burrs; from Hig- ganompus School District were the Brainerds, Boardmans, Glad- wins, Childs, and Huntingtons; from Walkley Hill were the Walkleys, Brooks, and Cones; from Cockey Ponsett the Hub- bards, Thomases, Spencers, Tibbals, and Bonfoeys; from Beaver Meadow were the Smiths, Knowles, and Brainerds; from Turkey Hill District were the Dickinsons, Tylers, Arnolds, and Rays; from Middle or Red School House District were the Shailers, Ventreses, Elys, and Shermans; Lower District, Tylerville, the Shailers, Tylers, Arnolds; from Haddam Neck District, Arnolds, Dudleys, Clarks, Brooks, and Brainerds. So you see they came from all over the town.
I can recall the acts and faces of my classmates as plainly as though it were but yesterday that I was among them. It is a great pleasure and pastime to think of their familiar faces.
The picture presented by Mr. Dickinson is a very pleasant one-of the boys and girls flocking from all parts of the town to the meeting-house on the morning of each Lord's Day. Think of the distances traveled ! From Candlewood Hill, "Higganompos," Tylerville, and Ponsett! Yet doubtless the weekly gathering was anticipated with pleasure.
Possibly some present to-day may remember the bands of children trooping over the beautiful hills and valleys to the meeting-house, bearing in their hands shoes and stockings which were put on just before reaching their destination.
Some time during the next decade a Sunday-school was established in Candlewood Hill auxiliary to the Had- dam school.
The list of teachers between 1834 and 1841 will recall
26
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS OF HADDAM
to some of the older members many interesting remi- niscences of their labors.
Cyprian S. Brainerd was elected superintendent in 1839, and served most acceptably for many years. Ben- jamin H. Catlin was the assistant superintendent. The same year, Mrs. Submit Field taught a class of boys.
We can give but the names of the remaining teachers between 1834 and 1841:
Mary Arnold
Asa Mitchel
Cyprian S. Brainerd
John May
Charles Brainerd
James Noyes
James A. Brainerd
Miss Peck
George S. Brainerd
Edward Rutty
Eliot Brainerd Ansel Brainerd
Elizabeth Rutty
Emma Brainerd
Mary Ann Shailer
Ursula Brainerd
Larissa Shailer
Hurlbert Swan
Miss A. Bonfoey Hiram Brooks Ellen Boyce
David A. Strong Miss Catlin
Mrs. Lucy Buell
Comfort Cone
Rev. T. S. Clark
Mariah Chapman
Mrs. Huldah Clark
Willard Cook
Cynthia Child
Ebenezer Cook
Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Child
Chauncey Dickinson
Mrs. H. Child
Charles Dickinson
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin H. Catlin Mary L. Dibble Selden Huntington
Rev. D. D. Field
Sarah Huntington
Mr. Fiske
Elizabeth Huntington
Miss Gould
Armenia Hubbard
Gilbert S. Gladwin
Miss Hazleton Ezra Kelsey
Russell Gladwin Marietta Gladwin
Daniel Kelsey
Alexander W. Hall
Mrs. Davis Kelsey Sally Kelsey
Theodore D. Hayes Ira Hutchinson
27
Mrs. E. Scovil Alva Shailer
Fanny Brainerd
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
Lorinda Hull
Sophia Smith
Chauncey D. Skinner
Rowena Smith
Mrs. Spencer
Marinda Ann Smith
Miss M. C. Snow Mrs. Willard
Daniel Clark Tyler
Elizabeth Tyler
Oliver P. Smith
Mrs. S. Tyler
Henry Smith
David B. Ventres
Linus B. Smith
Mary Ann Walkley
James Smith
Mary Ann Warren
Betsey Smith
Miss Warner
Emily Smith
"These rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."
During the pastorate of Mr. James L. Wright, we find the following names on the roll of teachers :
John A. Brainerd
Hattie Brainerd
S. Worthington Shailer
Hattie Wright
Fanny Ventres
Hattie Clark
Nancy Williams
Mrs. James N. Russell
Mary Brainerd
Mrs. Elihu B. Rogers
Martha E. Brainerd
Emily Smith
Mary Emma Brainerd
Memories of faithful and efficient laborers will be re- called by the following list of the superintendents and their assistants during the last thirty years :
Superintendents
John A. Brainerd Arnold H. Hayden Marvin W. Brainerd Miner C. Hazen John H. Odber
Shailer B. Walkley Frank H. Arnold Ezekiel Shailer Rollin U. Tyler
28
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS OF HADDAM
Assistant Superintendents
S. W. Shailer
Helen Russell
Charles A. Dickinson
Mary Hazen
Edward C. Arnold
Mrs. James N. Russell
Edward W. Hazen
Hattie Clark
Roger E. Dickinson
Mrs. G. A. Dickinson
Mary E. Brainerd
Mrs. E. B. Rogers
Kate R. Kelsey
Mrs. A. H. Hayden
Mrs. E. E. Lewis
Mrs. A. R. Shailer
Martha E. Brainerd
Mrs. Samuel Arnold
The advancement of the school during this period is more largely due to the pastor than to any other one person. His Bible class has been a source of profit and enjoyment to its members, and his constant interest in the school has added greatly to its prosperity.
In addition to the officers of the last thirty years might be mentioned the following teachers :
Mr. Cephas Brainerd, Sr.
Mrs. Ellen Brainerd
Mr. Cephas Brainerd, Jr.
Mrs. Miner C. Hazen
Mrs. Eleanor Boylston
Mrs. S. W. Shailer
Mrs. A. W. Tyler
Mrs. J. H. Odber
together with a score of others who are at present car- rying forward the good work.
In the death of John A. Brainerd in 1875, the school lost one of its most able and willing workers.
Ten years later Miss Martha E. Brainerd, who for more than half a century had labored with untiring devotion and sympathy in the interests of the school, was taken home.
Memories linger with us of Mrs. E. E. Lewis. The
29
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
results of her influence upon the boys whom she had under her care will not be known here; but her earnest prayers, the personal notes, the word fitly spoken, and her unfeigned interest, have borne fruit, and many rise up and call her blessed.
Many now grown to manhood and womanhood re- member their first happy days in Sabbath-school with their gentle teacher, Miss Mary Brainerd. She had for years a large class of little folk, and used often, after the opening exercises were over, to take them to her own home, where they spent a bright hour, then sped home- ward bearing a tiny red book from the little library kept there.
But time would fail me to make mention of the many who have been instrumental in the upbuilding of Chris -. tian character here.
It is uncertain when the school first availed itself of the inspiration of a varied service of song. For a long time it seemed content with simply the opening hymn by the teachers and that sung in closing by the children.
Probably about 1853 a little song-book-"The Sab- bath-school Hosanna"-was adopted; some years later this was replaced by the "Happy Voices." This was used until 1880, when Mr. Cephas Brainerd, always a warm supporter of the school, provided the song-book in use until this occasion-"Spiritual Songs for the Sunday-school"-which he to-day replaces by the gift of "In Excelsis for School and Chapel."
A library has been connected with the school since 1830, possibly longer, and has been a source of enjoy- ment and helpfulness. Mr. D. C. Hubbard was one of the earliest librarians.
In 1889, Mr. Owen B. Arnold presented fifty dollars
30
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS OF HADDAM
to be expended for new books, and at various times the funds of the school have been used for its replenishing. At present, access to the excellent town library lessens the importance of this part of the school's equipment.
Liberal contributions have been regularly made by the school to the work of foreign missions, and to Sun- day-school work in the West and in our own State.
It is of interest to note that the school at its begin- ning had a teachers' meeting, held throughout the year at the house of Mr. Marsh, the pastor.
The teachers' meeting, which has been held weekly during the last twenty-seven years, has been of untold benefit to those who have availed themselves of its priv- ileges. We recall the animated discussions, the flashes of wit, at some of these gatherings, when our pastor was surrounded by a group including Mrs. Rogers, Miss Martha E. Brainerd, Mrs. Ellen Brainerd, Mrs. Fannie Clark, Miss Mary E. Brainerd, and others, all intent on reaching the heart of the next Sabbath's lesson.
In 1870, "The Child's Scripture Question Book," "embellished with twenty-one engravings," was in use; the answers, as far as possible, were printed in the words of the Bible. Lesson II opens as follows :
Who were Cain and Abel?
The Sons of Adam,-Genesis iv: 1, 2.
Of what did Cain make an offering to the Lord? Of the fruits of the ground, etc., etc.
In 1873 the International Lessons were adopted, and have been followed since that time.
What a marvelous gain this course has been to the school! The surroundings of the sacred story, the cus- toms of the people, the geographical and historical set-
31
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
tings, the multiplicity of illustrations, the thoughts of greatest minds, and an almost bewildering array of helps, serve to make the Bible a living book to the pupils of to- day. How much greater the responsibility of the youth of 1900 than ever before! "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required."
Our oldest member,-Miss Larissa Shailer,-who bears with her an atmosphere of sunshine and serenity, and has just passed the hundredth milestone of her journey, looks back upon a century of wonderful progress and achievement.
Our youngest member,-Lucy Kelsey,-aged four, stands upon the threshold of a century full of possibil- ities.
What will it bring to the Sabbath-school of Haddam? . What will the Haddam Sabbath-school give to it?
32
THE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR HOMES
ROLLIN U. TYLER
TN 1614, Captain Adrian Blok and his crew of Dutch- men, in the ship Onrest, sailed up the Connecticut for fifty miles, and named the stream, in distinction from the saltish Hudson, "Fresh River." Then they sailed down the Sound and discovered Block Island, which to this day retains the old skipper's name. These were doubt- less the first white men to set eyes upon the rugged hills of Haddam. Their discovery was twenty years before the settlements at Saybrook and about Hartford, six years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and only seven years after the first permanent English settle- ment in America was planted at Jamestown, Virginia.
The present territory of Haddam and East Haddam was purchased from the Indians for a trifling amount by a committee of the Connecticut Colonial Legislature in May, 1662, or about one month after the signing by Charles II of the Charter of Connecticut. At that day, there were only about a dozen settlements along the Sound shore from Stonington to Greenwich, and about half as many more along the river above us to the Massa- chusetts line. Norwich had just been settled by a mi- gration from Saybrook. All the rest of Connecticut was a wilderness, uninhabited by the white man. The new plantation of Thirty Mile Island was to form the con-
33
3
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
necting link between the settlements on the river and those on the Sound.
There were twenty-eight proprietors who took up the purchase and, with their wives and families, began to arrive here from Hartford and vicinity, in the summer of 1662, or soon after. They were (1) James Bates, Samuel Butler, William Corbee, Abraham Dibble, Sam- uel Gaines, John Hannison, Richard Jones, Stephen Luxford, John Parents, Richard Piper, Thomas Smith, Joseph Stannard, John Webb, and John Wiatt, four- teen of them, whose names and families were practically extinct in Haddam before 1700; and (2) Nicholas Ack- ley, Joseph Arnold, John Bailey, Daniel Brainerd, Thomas Brooks, William Clarke, Daniel Cone, George Gates, Thomas Shaylor, Gerrard Spencer and his son . John Spencer, Simon Smith, William Ventres, and James Wells, fourteen of these last, all of whom now have descendants of their names in the original town- ship, except James Wells, who has descendants, but not of the Wells name, that name having become extinct in Haddam with the death of Oliver Wells, Esq., in 1820.
Two settlements were formed, the larger, known as the Town Plot, extending along the old road from the southeastern end of Walkley Hill to the neighborhood of this church; the other, called the Lower Plantation, along the back road in what is now Shailerville, from Mill Creek nearly to the Baptist church. Wiatt, Jones, Ventres, Corbee, Shaylor, Bates, Hannison, Parents, Dibble, and Ackley settled at the Lower Plantation, in the order named, from Mill Creek south. The other pro- prietors, except Gaines and Webb, settled on the Town Plot.
At first all the land was owned in common. Soon after
34
THE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR HOMES
the settlement, each proprietor was assigned a home lot, the record of which, in the town book, was evidence of his individual ownership in the property, and constituted his certificate of stock in the common enterprise. By successive allotments and grants during the next hun- dred and fifty years, most of the remaining lands passed into the hands of the individual inhabitants.
Desirable persons were admitted by vote of the town to the privileges of inhabitants, and were granted, ac- cordingly, shares in the common proprietorship and allotments of land to their individual use. Undesirable persons were not allowed in town, as witness the fol- lowing :
April 10th, 1673, "it was agreed by voate that John Sled and his wief should not be entertained in the towne as inhabitants or resedence and also Goodman Corbee was forewarned not to reseave him into his hows becose they weare not persones quali- fied according to Law."
January 1st, 1683; the townsmen [selectmen] were ordered "to warne frederick Elies and his wief to depart the towne by next march insueing."
A few enduring landmarks, like Wells Brook, the old burying-ground, the roads to the woods, "the parsonage lot forever," and Mill Creek, enable us, with the aid of the early records, to locate the first homes of the settlers with some degree of accuracy, and to say some- thing about the occupants.
I think we must assume that there was a thoroughfare through the town before the settlement (only a cart-path, or perhaps a bridle-path, following an Indian trail), as otherwise Saybrook would have been for many years
35
1127820
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
without overland communication with the up-river towns. And this was probably the origin of the old "country road" through the Town Plot along which the proprietors built their first rude cabins.
On the Ephraim Pierson place, about where George W. Parmalee's house is, was the home of Samuel But- ler, son of Deacon Richard Butler of Hartford, formerly of Cambridge. In 1667, Samuel was one of the impor- tant committee of three from Haddam appointed by the town "to treate with Sea Brooke men about ye bounds." The next year, he sold out his interests at Haddam to Richard Walkley of Hartford, and moved to Wethersfield, where he became a deacon of the church. The Walkley name has ever since been associated with that part of Haddam.
John Spencer, eldest son of Gerrard, dwelt next south of Butler, his lot extending to the brink of the hill over- hanging the brook. Each of these two home lots ex- tended from the highway to the river, and contained eight acres. John Spencer died young, before his father, and left what is known as a "narrative" or "nuncu- pative" will, probated at Hartford, then our county seat.
A seven-acre lot on the east side of the road, in the ravine where the brook runs, was laid out to James Wells, after whom the brook was named; but his house was half a mile away, near the present Academy lane. Before coming to Haddam (1650), he had lived with William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield. He was captain of militia in 1694. He died four years later, full of years and honors. His descendants were very prominent in this community for one and a half cen- turies, after which the family name became extinct within our borders.
36
THE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR HOMES
As the "country road" reaches the summit of the ridge a few rods south of Wells Brook, we have a com- manding view of the Town Plot as far south as the bury- ing ground. Before us the ancient thoroughfare mean- ders along by the edge of the rising ground and up the hill to the court-house, as if it were following an Indian trail rather than a survey of the white man. On the left of it were the four-acre "home lots" of the settlers, fronting seven or eight rods on the road, and stretching northeasterly to the Great River. Opposite, on the rising ground to the right, were the three-acre "additional lots," corresponding.
On the next lot south of Wells's ravine, and opposite where we are now supposed to be standing, was the home of Thomas Brooks the blacksmith. Tradition says that his forge was opposite Harry Arnold's house, near the corner of the road which leads up the hill to the new watering-trough. Thomas is thought to have come over in the Susan and Ellen in 1635. He kept a hotel at New London in 1659. By his second wife, Alice Spencer, he became the father of Thomas Brooks the second deacon, and the grandfather of Thomas Brooks the fifth deacon, of this church. He died in 1668. The probate court ordered Mistress Alice to teach her son (the future deacon) how to read and write; his sisters how to read only. The homestead was inventoried at £35; the iron and brass in the smithy at £3; the guns and sword at £3. Five years later, the widow had become the second wife of Thomas Shaylor.
Stephen Luxford lived next south of Brooks, on the summit of the ridge. He died in 1676, fourteen years after the settlement, leaving a widow, but no children. His homestead, measuring eight rods in front and eighty rods deep, was inventoried at £18, and sold to William
37
HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
Spencer. The high knoll in his additional lot, west of the road, land now owned by Mr. Cephas Brainerd, was called "Luxford Hill" within the memory of the oldest inhabitants of former years.
The next home lot to Luxford's, reserved at first for the blacksmith, was given by the town in 1667 to John Elderkin of Norwich, upon his agreement to build a grist-mill, as the town was in "greate nasesity" for the same, and was too poor to build one. Elderkin sold this lot next year to Peter Blatchford of New London, after whose early death it became the property of Daniel Cone. John Elderkin was a celebrated master-builder and contractor in his day. He was great-grandfather of Rev. Dr. Joshua Elderkin, pastor of the church from 1749 to 1753.
Just south of the "blacksmith lot," and next to the old highway which leads down to the "White House Landing," was the lot reserved for the first minister who should settle here. Our second minister, Rev. Nicholas Noyes, was admitted to the privileges of an inhabitant (1669), and was granted the rights appurtenant to this lot. It is uncertain whether a house was ever erected upon it. In the southwest corner of the fence, where the road turns toward the river, may still be seen the top stones of an ancient well. Who dug it, or how many generations have used it, we do not know.
On the south side of the river road was "the parsonage lot forever." It remained in the control of the town, and of its successor, the first ecclesiastical society, for nearly two centuries, when, in 1859, it was leased by the society for nine hundred and ninety-nine years to the father and brother of the late Mr. Zechariah Brainerd. The fine old parsonage was burned a few years ago.
1
38
THE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR HOMES
Gerrard Spencer, the patriarch of the community, had his dwelling just opposite the site of the present house of Captain Parmalee. He was at Cambridge in 1634; later at Lynn, where he was granted a ferry in 1639; six times a member for Haddam in the General Court, and ensign of the Haddam "trayne band" in King Philip's war. The descendants of his six sons and as many daughters are numbered by the tens of thousands. From his daughter Hannah are descended all the Brain- erds; from Mehitable, all the Cones; from Alice, all the Brookses and some of the Shailers; from Elizabeth, the numerous Stannard family of Westbrook; and from Ruth, who married Joseph Clarke, many of that name.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.