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 6
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I must linger a little longer on this period of your history, in order to bring out a phase of it that may escape other speakers. It seems that in 1820 there ex- isted in Haddam a "Young Men's Bible and Missionary Society." A full history of this society is given in the thorough and able "Historical Sketch" of this church (pages 45, 46) by Mr. Lewis. It appears that it was first formed as "The Haddam Bible Society," Feb- ruary 15, 1819, at the house of General John Brainerd. Mr. Selden Huntington, a double cousin of my mother, was chosen president, and my father secretary. At the
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first annual meeting, a month later, "it was voted that when twenty members shall add to their subscriptions fifty cents each, this society shall become a Bible and Missionary Society."
Eighty years ago, my father delivered the annual ad- dress on its second anniversary. To show how he could rise above the physician (for Haddam seems to have been a provokingly healthy place), he began his ad- dress by saying that since the establishment of the society (two years), "a holy Providence has not per- mitted its ranks to be broken by death." Think of a physician saying that, unless he had been remarkably fortunate in his cases! The address was one that Mr. Lewis would find appropriate if he should read it to- day, the only question being: Is there in Haddam a Young Men's Bible and Missionary Society? The ad- dress is profoundly religious, and breathes the utmost sincerity, and yet neither he nor my mother was yet a member of the church.
I have with me another address delivered by him at a meeting of "The Literary Society of Haddam" on the evening of January 1, 1819. It appears that at this time there existed in Haddam "A Young Men's Bible and Missionary Society" and a "Literary Society." The town was rich indeed in what is best. How much of it was due to Mr. Marsh I do not know; but as the pastor and the doctor were under the same roof, and one had unbounded energy, and the other probably con- siderable leisure, they cooperated in creating these soci- eties. This address is most significant. It is a simple and graphic unfolding of the brevity and uncertainty of human life, closing with a solemn appeal to pre- pare for death and the judgment. And yet my father
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was not a member of the church. What renders this still more strange is that he speaks of "the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us, the stately goings of the Al- mighty have been seen in these streets, the stubborn and rebellious heart has been subdued, the voice of joy and praise has been heard from the mouth of new-born souls." He, however, was not one of them. Such a fact as this discloses a not infrequent condition at that time. My father had undergone a soul-searching experience in Yale College, but had not come out into the light. I think it probable that, not feeling the joy, he doubted the reality of his experience. Perhaps he doubted his election. Dr. Field, in his "History of the Towns of Haddam and East Haddam" (page 40), says that in these towns "God has usually taken his elect here and brought them singly into Zion," and that the great revival "produced no extensive effects." Hence, many questioned their election and stayed without the church who were, perhaps, as conscientious and devout as those within it. However it may be, my parents, notwith- standing their training and the usual influences about them, deemed themselves unconverted until, in a new country where their responsibilities were more weighty, and with children about them, they saw and felt duty in a new way.
But I pass to the May period, which is the subject assigned to me.
It would help me greatly if I could find something more to say of my ancestor than is to be found in the history of the town by Dr. Field, and by Mr. Lewis in his sketch of the church. I once asked Professor Park how he could find enough in the life of Dr. Emmons to make so large a book upon him. The professor laughed
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and said, "When Dr. Pierce of Brookline was returning from the funeral of Dr. Emmons, his horse ran away and the chaise was broken by collision with a tree. If I had found anything equally exciting in the life of Emmons I would have hailed it with delight." But Professor Park, in lack of interesting features in Dr. Emmons's history, made much of the "Moodus Noises," near which, if not into which, Emmons was born, and ascribed something of his theology to their effect on the mind of the growing boy,-not a wholly wrong conclu- sion when we consider the nature of the theology. I have not even the "Moodus Noises" to help me out in describing the life of my ancestor. I feel sure that he was a man of good character and respectable ability, or Dr. Field would have stated it; for when a pastor who came under his notice was lacking in these qualities, it was set down with great plainness of speech.
I see no way to make a history of him except to build it out of his lineage and some slight traditions,-as exegetes do when they can find nothing else to say about a Bible character.
Fortunately, there is a May Book, of a very superior order. It begins with John May, born in Sussex in 1590, and traces his lineage and their affiliations down to 1878, through so many thousand persons and families that they embrace a large proportion of the population of New England. John May, a shipmaster, having made several voyages between London and Boston, finally settled in Roxbury in 1640. Eliot, the Apostle, in whose lineage I am proud to count myself, says of his (May's) wife, "Sister Mayes died a very gracious and savory Christian."
A grandson, Hezekiah, came to Wethersfield in 1696,
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and was made deacon of the church there. His grandson was the father of Eleazer May, who was born in 1733. And now legend and conjecture must take the place of history. It is necessary to connect young Eleazer in some way with Lebanon. Trumbull the artist, in his autobiography, speaks of a school kept in that place as the best in New England, and that it drew pupils from the West India Islands and the South and New Eng- land and other northern colonies. It is possible that Eleazer was sent there to prepare for college. A more romantic and better founded way of getting him to Lebanon-the home of Sibyl Huntington-is through the family tradition that in the romantic period of his youth he chanced to see on sale-in Hartford, probably -some paintings by this young woman. They were so beautiful that he vowed his willingness to fall in Jove with the artist, if he should ever meet her. Either before or after his graduation at Yale in 1752, he ap- pears in Lebanon-perhaps preached in the pulpit there, when painter and preacher met and yielded to mutual charms and in due time were married.
I confess to a deeper interest in my feminine ancestor than in her husband, notwithstanding the fact that he carried his parish through the Revolution, and built a meeting-house and-greatest achievement of all-in- troduced a new hymn-book into the service of the church. I am of the opinion that the wife should share his honors. When a pastor serves a church for forty-seven years, and weathers all the storms, and keeps the love and respect of the parish all through, it is safe to set down three quarters of it to the wife. Tradition is not at fault in presenting her as a highly educated and accom- plished lady, with a very special talent for painting.
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It is handed down in our families that she gave early lessons to young Trumbull, and taught him how to mix his colors and prepare his canvas. There is some doubt as to this tradition, though it was repeated to me by my mother. Sibyl Huntington was born in 1734, and Trumbull in 1756, when Sibyl was twenty-two years of age. She was married in 1754-two years before Trum- bull was born. It is possible, however, that in her visits to Lebanon during Trumbull's youthhood, she may have inducted him into his art. I confess that probability inclines in this direction, especially as there was intimacy between the families of Jonathan Trumbull and Cap- tain Samuel Huntington. Besides, the tradition hardly could exist without some fact behind it.
I am not aware that any specimens of her art are still in existence. There is, however, a tradition that in the old red parsonage there was a painted panel in the "keeping-room" on which was depicted a hunting-scene by the hand of the young mistress. But house and panel have disappeared, the hunting-scene is long since gone, and there is no record or sign of Sibyl Huntington, wife of Eleazer May, save the ever increasing descendants of their ten children, who soon began to fill the red par- sonage.1 The best token of their bringing up is the fact that the shortest-lived died at forty, and their ages aver- aged seventy-four years. The four boys and six girls all married, and how many Mays and Arnolds and Dwights and Seldens and Fullers and Townsends and Wellses and Robinsons and Houses and Sages and Brain- erds and Whites sprang from them is partially indicated by Mr. John May's book.
It is not to be expected that I should enter into the. 1 Since reading this paper I have learned that the panel is still preserved by Mrs. Huntington in Higganum.
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details of Mr. May's ministry. They are, at the best, meager; and, such as they are, they have been set down in the very thorough "Historical Sketch" by Mr. Lewis. There you will find how many children were baptized in the long ministry-almost a thousand; how many were received into the church, two hundred and thirty- nine, or about five a year. If the rate seems small, the times must be taken into account. There were years, during the Revolution and long after, when a pastor did well if he could keep together those already in the church.
Of the preaching of Mr. May I can say nothing au- thoritatively. If his sermons were of the length of those of his son-in-law, Rev. David Selden-my grand- father-I can give you ocular proof that they were short, for here are three of them. I have all my life been faithfully urged (but without effect) to preach shorter sermons. Evidently, heredity in this matter does not cover one descendant. These sermons would require about twenty minutes, if moderately delivered. If the writer was well up in his theology, as I think he was, an hour was about all that would be required for their writing, to shift the kaleidoscope and bring out the proper doctrinal result under the text. I have no reason to think that Mr. May's sermons were longer or differ- ently constructed. I wish to speak with all respect of my revered ancestors, but I am inclined to think that so far as the writing of sermons was concerned, they had a very easy time of it. I am also disposed to think that in this brevity they were shrewder than we have been apt to think. They preached short sermons, they were orthodox, and why should they not have lived on in peace for nigh half a century, dying where they were
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ordained ? What fault could be found with ministers so considerate of their flocks, and so careful of the doctrines as to refrain from saying too much about them ?
I would not intimate that they were idle. On the contrary, I think they were quite as busy as their modern successors who live in their studies, and take ten news- papers and six magazines, and read a new book every week, and go to the city or into the country on Monday, and lecture as often as they are asked, and belong to three or four clubs, and take the lead in all the organ- izations of their parishes, besides doing a good deal of outside work. It was not this kind of work that kept our forefathers in the ministry busy. They stayed at home and took care of their parishes; that is, they shep- herded them, watched over them as a flock, looked after them singly, as need required. I doubt if there was man, woman, or child in Haddam that Mr. May did not know through and through; nor a household that did not frequently receive him, and undergo or enjoy his inqui- ries into their spiritual condition, and receive his advice or benediction. And what he was to the family, he was to the schools, and to the town in all its public affairs. That he kept his parish forty-seven years, and died honored and loved by all, is a testimony that allows no blemish to rest on his memory, and that certifies to a life of laborious fidelity to his high calling. This thing is to be said about the ministers of those days : they were pastors of the Standing Order, and they knew it,-knew its dignities and its duties.
If I were to summarize the life of Mr. May, I should say that its chief work lay in the fact that he carried his parish safely, not to say strongly, through the Revo-
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lution. The pastors who stayed at home and kept their flocks together and shared their poverty, as Mr. May did, rendered quite as great service to the country as those who went to the war. The churches were not only de- pleted in membership and resources, but during the war and long after they suffered a defection from the faith and a low state of religion, due to the wave of French infidelity that swept over the country. Mr. May, it ap- pears, held up his church and carried it through with- out other loss than financial weakness.
Another achievement was in building a new church, and another in revolutionizing the service of song by in- troducing Watts's Hymns and dropping the lining off the Psalms. To live through building a church and avoid the darts of disturbed musical sensibility are triumphs for a minister then and now.
We look at the career of Mr. May at a hundred years' distance. It is like looking at a mountain twenty miles away. There is much that we cannot see, rough places and smooth, hidden ravines and bold projections. We cannot see these features of it, but we see the whole mountain, its majestic height, its place in the broad general landscape, the soft and blended lights that in- fold it, its dignity and its solemn beauty. So, I think, we look upon this venerable man we have been con- sidering. There is not a great deal we know about him; he is too far off; but we see in him the unquestioned figure of a Puritan minister of the Colonial period; well-born, well-educated in the humanities and in his profession, wed to a beautiful and accomplished wife, the father of ten children who bore in life the impress of their training; a clerical citizen, who put the strength of his life-a sacred and uplifting influence-into a
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half-century of the history of this town, unambitious, contented, magnifying his office, satisfied to do the work committed to him, and leaving a memory which no written or printed line and tradition left in the air touches with blame or disrespect. On a funeral piece wrought in silk by his granddaughter, my mother, is the inscription :
The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when they sleep in dust.
To-day, we fulfil the tender words, and pay honor and gratitude and love and reverence to the memory of Eleazer May.
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THE REVIVAL ERA
REV. EVERETT E. LEWIS
THE first great revivals in the history of the church occurred during the third half-century, especially in connection with the ministry of Dr. Marsh, which began in 1818. We therefore designate this period as the revival era.
Spiritual awakenings preceded and have followed this earliest, powerful, and wide-spread work of grace, but, measured by the extent of its influence, by the manifold increase of the membership of the church, and by the potent impulse given to religious activities, no other half-century is as interesting and fruitful.
Dr. Fisk, in his "Handbook of Revivals," divides the modern era into five periods. The first and second of his divisions precede the birth of this church. The third period, 1730-1750, covers the labors of John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards, who were both born in 1703, and also of Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. In 1734, the revival first manifested its power in North- ampton, where Edwards estimated that during six months three hundred were hopefully converted. The interest spread rapidly to other towns.
Rev. Phineas Fiske and Rev. Aaron Cleveland were the pastors here during those years. Mr. Fiske died while the movement was yet in its infancy; yet, from the fact that the two following pastorates were short and broken, we have some reason for thinking that the 6
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growth of the church in the first fifty years was chiefly under his leadership, as it certainly was in the third half-century under Dr. Marsh, whose pastorate was also followed by frequent changes. The membership in 1700 did not probably exceed thirty-five, while in 1756 it had risen to one hundred. So marked a change points to the existence of the evangelistic spirit and to special seasons of religious interest. Mr. Cleveland sympathized heart- ily with the revival spirit and movement. He is one of the twenty-three, including the famous preacher and evangelist Joseph Bellamy, who earnestly protest against legislation hostile to revivals.
During Mr. May's long ministry we reach the fourth, according to Dr. Fisk, of the revival eras, extending from 1792 to 1842. Griffin, Backus, Dwight, Emmons, and . especially Nettleton and Lyman Beecher, two mighty champions in the battles of the Lord, are upon the stage.
Dr. Griffin says: "In 1792 began the unbroken series of American revivals; in November, the first that I had the privilege of witnessing showed itself on the borders of East Haddam and Lyme, which apparently brought one hundred souls to Christ." At this date, Mr. May was approaching the end of his extended and able min- istry. His health was feeble. Other causes also united to delay any decisive revival movement for a score of years. Six, however, of the forty-seven years of his un- tiring service are noted as specially fruitful.
In 1804, the first year of Dr. Field's ministry, there is a steady inflow of communicants on fourteen different occasions, amounting in all to forty-five, of whom all but five came on confession. It was a good year and prophetic of larger harvests. One of the number was Stephen Tibbals, from whose generous interest in the
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church came, July 3, 1836, "a silver tankard, costing one hundred dollars, for sacramental use," which still, on each returning communion, bears silent witness to "his attachment to the ordinances of Christ."
Again, in 1809, twenty-four names are added to the roll, and in 1810 thirty-one, the additions being gradual and revealing a healthful spiritual condition, but not giving promise of any wide-spread revival awakening either in the church or in the community. Among these additions are the names of Deacon Ezra Kelsey and his wife Sally Hubbard, whose son kindly sends us for this occasion a letter replete with pleasant reminiscence, of Rev. David Pratt, of Rev. Eleazer Brainerd, and of many others whose memory our older people delight to recall.
For a general quickening, pervading the town, we wait for the coming of Rev. John Marsh, son of Dr. Marsh of Wethersfield, a graduate of Yale at sixteen years of age, and a teacher for several years, who came here in 1818, at the age of thirty, well equipped for a ministry of great evangelical power. He was excep- tionally persuasive in address, earnest, aggressive, hop- ing great things and daring the same. From one hun- dred members in 1756, to one hundred and nine at the coming of Dr. Field in 1804, and to one hundred and sixty-five at his dismissal in 1818, the revivals of the following ten years swelled the enrolment to over three hundred and sixty, and gave enduring impulse to every form of Christian activity.
Dr. Marsh's ministry opened auspiciously. The first of June he was in the pulpit. By the fifteenth of De- cember, the date of his ordination, very great results had already been accomplished. Isaac Parsons of East Had-
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dam, just beginning his forty years' pastorate, and under whose leadership eight revivals enriched the sis- ter church in numbers and in devotion, in giving to Mr. Marsh the right hand of fellowship, earnestly con- gratulated him on the bright outlook for the immediate future. Mr. Marsh himself was aflame with expecta- tion, from what he had already witnessed of the "won- derful operations of the Word and the Spirit." The following extracts from a long letter,1 written by him to Dr. Field soon after the awakening appeared with marvelous power, are of exceeding interest, both as giv- ing a vivid account of the origin and development of the revival, and especially as indicating the methods em- ployed for increasing its influence. It seemed to start of itself, heaven-sent and sustained, at a time when the church was listening to candidates, of whom Mr. Marsh chanced to be one. In preaching, the most alarm- ing truths were presented and yielded the best re- sults. The use made of neighboring pastors and of district gatherings is also noteworthy. A strong point, always emphasized by Mr. Moody, is equally ac- centuated in the intense solicitude of Christians for the conversion of their friends. The recent conversion of two "important young men in the street" is spoken of with great satisfaction, and illustrates a type of ex- perience far more common at that time than now. One was "at rest under inability and election, but the Lord showed him his sinfulness and took away all his excuses, so that he was a very distressed man for the three days before he became, we trust, a new one."
1 This letter was copied from the orig- inal, which was found among the manu- script papers of Dr. Field preserved in the library of the Historical Society at
Hartford. Special acknowledgment is here made of many favors received through the kindness of Mr. Bates, the librarian.
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A sister's great solicitude for his conversion had much exercised the other. "He has scarcely eaten a full meal for six weeks, and worked exceeding hard to make him- self better, and, to use his own expression, meant to get religion without letting people know it. But his distress was so great on our day of Fasting and Prayer that he could not sing. It broke the pride of his heart and he gave himself up to Christ." The royal tribute of the young preacher to the pastor so recently dismissed is as complimentary to the writer as to his honored prede- cessor. Few ministers, indeed, have an opportunity to write such a letter, reporting one hundred conversions only two months later than their first appearance in a pulpit as candidates for settlement. Its date is August 10, 1818.
I believe I came to Haddam soon after you left. My first Sab- bath was 7 of June, but I did not remain here that week. The next Sabbath I perceived what was unknown to me before (for I was as ignorant of Haddam as of Chilicothe), the revival be- coming deep & indeed bursting out in almost all parts of the place.
Since that period to the present time, it has been uniformly great. The number who have obtained hope is about 100. Many cases have been deeply interesting. Some families have been as distressed as at the loss of a relative. Esteeming it important, our meetings have been abundant & I believe to the satisfaction of the people, so that they have felt no disposition to go after other teachers. In 58 days I have preached 56 times. Besides, we have had preaching from Mess. Hotchkiss, Parsons, Jun. & sr., Hovey, Beardslee, Vail, Selden, sen. & jun., Smith & Talcott. This might appear at first too much. It would be to the same people. But you know the extent of this town, that a man may preach every day and not go to the same school house once a fortnight. We have 3 meetings on the Sabbath & two on Wed- nesday in the meeting house. Our other meetings are at Hig- ganum, Candlewood Hill, Ponset, Turkey Hill & lower district school houses. They are always crowded & solemn. There has
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been no enthusiasm and, but in one instance, such distress as to make me stop preaching, when a young woman was carried out. Deep seriousness, solemnity & anxiety have always been manifest. I have found the most alarming truths the most useful. Sinners have been told with plainness that they are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, that it is nothing but the pleasure of an offended God that keeps them out of hell, that they must immediately repent, yield to Christ and become holy. And against the Son of God & doctrines of grace there is but little cavilling.
On Sat. afternoons the young Converts assemble together in Gen. Brainerd's Ballroom & I address myself to them in their new character. These have been very solemn and useful meetings. Such as are anxious come in & some members of the church. They love to sing "Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Chris- tian love." And often do they say, O, that Mr. Field could look upon us in this room & this character,-how it would rejoice his heart.
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