USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Kensington > Two hundredth anniversary, Kensington Congregational Church : organized December 12, 1712. Kensington, Connecticut, June 29th, 30th, July 1st, 1912 > Part 4
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Each society met and signified by vote their desire to fulfil the contract with Mr. Clark, if he should make known his choice. But for about two years the people of both parishes continued to worship in the old meeting house, each society providing its proportion of the salary and other necessary expenses. But when the Worthington meeting house was ready for occupancy, that society voted to "draw off from the old meeting house on Thursday ye 13th day of October, 1774," nearly two months before the Kensington society dedicated its
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new house. A meeting of the Hartford South Consociation in the Society of Worthington, adjourned to February 7, 1775, was "called to dismiss the Rev. Mr. Sam'l Clark from his pas- toral relation to the members of the Church of Christ in said Society & from said Society & to form them into a particular church state;" and February 9, 1775, the Worthington Church was "constituted, formed and embodied a particular and dis- tinct Church." Thirty-eight male members signed the Con- fession of Faith and Covenant. At a meeting, February 22, 1775, it was "Voted that the Church Clerk procure and enter upon his records a complete list of all the members in full com- munion within the limits of the Church and Society." The number of members so recorded was one hundred and four. The names of at least four-fifths of these, and all but three of the members who signed the Covenant, may be found on the roll of the Kensington Church.
This partition was accompanied by lamentable conse- quences in respect to the minister. Mr. Clark had built a fine house in the vicinity of the meeting house, and the question of personal damages was raised. Moreover to keep on equally good terms with the different factions through years of con- tention was more than could be expected of a human minister. His responses to the two societies, though apparently favoring Kensington, were so ambiguous as to be regarded indecisive. The Worthington society requested him "to attend and preach a lecture at the opening of the new house;" but there is no record of his compliance; and the Kensington society made a similar request in vain. He was also requested to "publickly warn a meeting of the Brethren of the Church of Christ that live within the bounds of this Worthington society, .... and to preside as moderator," for the proper organization of the church; and it was only after he had rejected such application, that the Consociation was called to act. Almost immediately after the distinct church was formed in Worthington, there was a move- ment for a council to dismiss Mr. Clark from his relation to the Kensington church and society. A petition to that effect uses language similar to that of the Worthington society, that Mr. Clark "be released & dismissed from his pastoral charge & relation to this Society & ye members of ye Chh. therein and ye Society & s'd members of ye church from ye special relation to him as their pastor, .... and that ye members of ye church here be formed into a distinct particular Chh. according
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to our constitution." This indicates that the petitioners thought that a new church organization would free them from the difficulties inherited from the past. But the South Associa- tion, apparently because that body met before the Consociation, expressed an opinion that "the prayer of the petition ought not to be granted." The death of Mr. Clark, November 6, 1775, terminated the trouble. It is interesting to find records of bap- tisms by Mr. Clark in the Worthington church less than a month preceding his death.
Before we continue to trace the history from this second and last division, let us glance back over the earlier period. The first settlers and founders were of the second or third generation from the pioneers in Connecticut. Much of the peculiar religious devotion of the first Puritans had been lost. It was a period of religious decline, rather than of marked spiritual fervor. Yet by common consent it was deemed neces- sary to maintain institutions for the worship of God. During this period came "The Great Awakening," as the remarkable religious revival which overspread the country is called. The movement began in 1734 at Northampton, during the ministry of Jonathan Edwards, who was a leader in extending it. George Whitefield, the English evangelist, visited New England in 1740 and mightily stirred the whole land. It may be observed that this movement occurred at a time when the Kensington Society was disturbed by the desire for division, so that a spiritual revival could hardly be looked for.
In the Library of the Historical Society at Hartford there is a manuscript volume of rare interest, written by a Kensing- ton man. It is a religious autobiography, entitled "The Spir- itual Travels of Nathan Cole." Another manuscript volume by the same writer, in the possession of the Cornwell family in Kensington, gives some further glimpses of a unique character. He was a carpenter and farmer, and evidently had little educa- tion. His home was near the present Philip Norton homestead, and he was buried in the Dunham Cemetery. He pictures vividly a hurried morning ride to Middletown to hear Mr. Whitefield, the immense concourse of people and the profound impression of the preaching. He was convinced of the truth of the doctrine of election, against which he had long struggled; but he was plunged into distress for a long period, fearing that he was not one of the elect, but destined to eternal misery, until at length, through an experience in which God appeared
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in a vision, light and joy came to him. He says that he was a member of the Old Church for 14 or 15 years, having joined it in his younger days, before the experience narrated. Men of this type found scant sympathy among the more staid mem- bers of the churches, and here and there groups separated themselves and formed what were called "Separate" or "Strict Congregational Churches." Nathan Cole says that the old churches "held several things contrary to the Gospel," one of which was:
"That unconverted men had a divine right to come to the ordinance of the Lord's supper & to give themselves up in covenant to the Lord, . ... And my mind run thus, that the person in owning the covenant did as much as to say, (and ye Church too) that he was a child of God, when many times there was no room for such a belief. So according to the true sense and meaning there was lying on both sides. I tried a long time to have these things mended, but all in vain."
Evidently he is referring to "the half way covenant." Our records contain the names of "persons who owned Cove- nant" between the years 1756 and 1772, fifty-six in number. His complaint against the educated and ordained ministers is, that they receive authority from men by their system of licensure and ordination, rather than from God. "And when they come to preach, they can't preach, but must have a writ- ing book to read before their eyes." So he says he separated from the "Saybrook Churches" in 1747. For several years his house was the meeting place for a group of people, at one time about twenty or thirty persons. For a while they had preachers. Afterward the "people began to fall away, thinking we never could set up a church hear, and even went back to the old meeting house again," until all were gone, "except sister Pack, wife to Samuel Pack." In 1764, some time after she died, Mr. Cole joined Mr. Frothingham's Church, now the South Con- gregational Church in Middletown, which was one of the "Sep- arate Churches." For many years he refused to pay rates for support of the "hireling ministers," as a matter of conscience. In 1765 he pleads for abatement of rates:
"I honestly confess that I dare not pay them & beleave it is a sin for me willingly to do it or for you to demand it. I have done ten times more to support ye Gospel by free will offerings than any man in Kensington according to his list ..... And you have sent your servants ye collectors & they have attached ye value of ten pounds of my estate & posted it for sale. for a lettel more than one pound which you demand for naught."
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He describes meetings of the Kensington Society when the question of abating his rates was considered:
"At one time Dea. T. H. Esqr. riseth up & said, 'as to Bro. Cole his morals are lovely, but as to his rates we have a law, & by our law I do not. know why he ought not to pay as well as we .. . . . At another time the Minister desired to speak to the case, & fixing his eyes on me he said: 'Mr. Cole, you ought to pay rates here out of obedience to the civil authority.'"
Mr. Cole replied, setting forth his principles, and his rates were abated by a great majority.
"Now one says the minister lookt pale, & others say it killed the min- ister stone dead; But a certain Esqr. said, 'I wonder he would come to us in such a spirit as he doth, to reflect so hard upon us.'"
Through a series of years his rates were abated, and others" also, long before a law in 1777 provided for the relief of such cases. It does not appear that he was ever actually impris- oned, though he was threatened with such action. But the following record, dated 1775, shows that officers of the society did actually imprison one who refused to pay his rates, but the society reversed their action:
"Voted, Whereas the collectors of this society have taken ye body of Miles Mark of Kensington and committed him to ye keeper of ye publick gole in Hartford for ye refusal of his paying ye taxes layd against him in Kensington, to pay ye lawful cost of ye collectors in carrying him to ye gole, and likewise to abate ye two rates for which he was committed and desire ye goler to set him at liberty."
The Kensington Society, after the Worthington Society was set off, proceeded to build the present meeting house, more than a mile west from the second building. The site was fixed by the committee that planned the division of the parish, and the land was purchased of Daniel Cowles, Jr. The committee was "impowered to take down and bring away what part of the Old meeting House now standing in Kensington they shall think proper and necessary and convey the same to the use of Building the New Meeting House." The Worthington Society also utilized its share of the timber. In the same manner the seats of the first house and some other material had been utilized in building the second, while the remaining material was given to those that were "at the charge of building ye same," so that it is possible that the old seats still retained in the north gallery may have once had a place in the first meeting house.
The present meeting house was dedicated December 1, 1774. The pastor of the church, Rev. Samuel Clark, either
THE HOME OF REV. BENONI UPSON, D.D.
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THE HOME OF THE MINISTERS SINCE 1870
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on account of his health or for other reasons, declined to preach on that occasion; but there is evidence that he did preach on the two following Sabbaths. Rev. James Dana, D. D., of Wallingford, preached from the text, "O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come," and the sermon was published. There are eight Congregational meeting houses in the State which antedate this, according to the "Connecticut Minutes." But only three of these, Wethersfield, Farmington and East Haven, are connected with older church organizations. The building was very plain, and at the time of dedication was probably unfinished. The report of the cost was made to the society in 1777, as £678-11s-11d. In 1789 it was voted "To paint the meeting house, the body thereof and the roof." As late as 1792 the finishing of the house was mentioned in a vote. In 1793 the society voted to "give liberty to have the meeting house painted withinside .... provided it be done without charge to the society." In 1798 "step stones" were provided. A "sign post" was ordered in 1786.
The following description of the meeting house of his child- hood is taken from an autobiographical sketch in manuscript by Nelson A. Moore:
"The color of the meeting house was a dull yellow. The meeting house was entered on three sides and had galleries on two sides and one end. The pulpit was on one side and was a great improvement on the later plan of making a long narrow church and putting the minister on one end and the audience at so great a distance. Instead of slips for seats we had the large square pews and you could turn your back on the minister or the singers who sat in the gallery in front of the parson. Large doors of the house entered directly into the audience room. At that time there were two old box stoves in the house. The pulpit was the old fashioned pan- elled box with doors and large sounding-board overhead. It looked more like a dome or top of a Turkish mosque, but flat on the bottom, which extended over the head of the minister about 10 feet above."
It is interesting to note the introduction of stoves. In 1820 individuals were given "the privilege of placing a stove in the society's meeting house." Apparently this was not done until 1824, when it was voted "That the society's comt. shall have liberty to set a stove in the meeting house, provided that they can obtain one by money subscribed." But a year later there was a vote, "To empower the comt. to give orders for the payment of the stove, $4.29;" and another, "That the comt. be empowered to supply necessary wood for the meeting house." Wall lamps were provided in 1845.
At this point the later history of this and other buildings for church purposes may be outlined, before other features of
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the history are presented. The bell tower was not erected until 1837. At that time Mrs. Ruth Hart, the widow of Gen. Selah Hart, gave to the society $500 and offered as much more on condition that an equal amount should be raised, for repair- ing the meeting house. At the same time interior alterations were made, by which the pulpit was placed at one end of the audience room, and the old square pews gave place to slips or pews with single seats. The door in the middle of the south side remained until 1868. A bell was procured and hung in the tower in 1852. Another remodeling in 1883 removed the organ and choir from the gallery to the side of the pulpit, recessed the windows, provided furnaces, new pews and pulpit furniture, at an expense of $4,000. There was a service of re-dedication, February 28, 1884. The sermon was preached by President Noah Porter of Yale College, and Pastor Benedict delivered an address upon "The Meeting Houses of the Ken- sington Society," which was published in the New Britain Herald. The addition of the parlors or parish house was com- pleted in 1902. The building was renovated, re-decorated and equipped with electric lights in 1912. The present parsonage was built in 1869-70. A debt of $4100, incurred in part on account of the parsonage, was raised by subscription in 1871. The Chapel, a mile and a half north-east from the Church, was erected in 1888, upon land donated by the Robbins Brothers, for the use of the growing population in that vicinity. It has been used at various times for evening meetings for worship, for social purposes, for an Italian mission and leased for a school building.
Even before the dedication of the new meeting house in 1774, a committee was appointed to dignify and seat the house, according to the ancient custom. Elderly gentlemen above seventy years were seated according to their age in the highest parts or seats. Men and women were seated in pews and seats together. The north gallery and the pews on the north side, not otherwise assigned, were to belong to the young ladies. At a later date certain seats were set apart for the use of colored persons. In 1780 it was voted to seat the house all by age without regard to list; but apparently that plan was not satis- factory, for two or three months later they reverted to the list with age. Again in 1812 the seating was by age, and again in 1814 it was so voted, but reversed a month later in favor of the list. Five pounds on the list was usually reckoned the
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equivalent of one year in age in the earlier years, and later the amount was seventeen dollars. Some of the difficulties of this plan of seating are indicated by the votes that no person should be seated lower than formerly, and that it "be esteemed dis- orderly for any persons not to take the seat wherein they were seated."
The relation of dissenters was a question of considerable importance. In 1781 and again in 1790 and for many years thereafter, certificates are recorded of those who claimed exemp- tion from paying for the support of this society on the ground that they were members of other religious organizations. There were members of the Episcopal Church in Wallingford, in Cheshire, and in Wethersfield and Berlin; members of Baptist organizations in Southington, in Westfield and in Kensington or Berlin; and members of the United Brethren (as Universal- ists called themselves) in Berlin. In seating the house in 1812 dissenters were to be seated, "if they engage to pay three- fourths of the tax the present year." A more liberal rule was adopted in 1815, to seat "all persons who live within the limits of the society without regard to their payment of taxes." The seating plan which is included in this volume is copied from an original draft which was probably made in 1815.
When the Constitution of Connecticut, adopted in 1818, made support of the church entirely voluntary, the sale of the use of seats was resorted to for the purpose of raising a revenue to defray expenses. A year later a subscription paper was cir- culated "to assist in defraying the expenses of the society (as regards the support of a clergyman)." During the years fol- lowing some members of the church filed certificates that they were no longer to bereckoned members of the society, and others failed to become members of the society, so that the church was under necessity of taking action concerning the matter, in 1839. At times the resources of the parish have been severely strained to meet the obligations for the support of worship; but only in one year, 1845, was aid received to the amount of $75 from the Missionary Society of Connecticut.
When the town of Berlin was incorporated, in 1785, in- cluding the societies of Kensington, New Britain and Worth- ington, the first meeting was held in this house; and until a town hall was provided more than half a century later, town meetings were usually in the meeting house, whenever in rota- tion between the three parishes they were in Kensington. In
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1829 the society voted, "To grant liberty to the library com- pany to keep their library in the pew under the north stairs;" and from that time, except for a few years when it was in Hart's Hall, it had a place in the meeting house, until the beautiful Peck Memorial Library building was erected by the Honorable Henry H. Peck of Waterbury as a gift to his native place. There was a library in Kensington as early as 1824.
The name of the church, without any particular action concerning it, has followed sometimes the name of the town and sometimes the name of the society. Accordingly we find the following names: "The Second Church of Farmington;" "The Church at the Great Swamp;" "The Church of Christ in Kensington;" "The First Church of Christ in Berlin." In later years, for the sake of distinction from other denominations, "The Kensington Congregational Church" is preferred.
The Sabbath worship of the olden time began in the fore- noon, and after an intermission of an hour (by vote in 1782), or two hours (1791), was continued in the afternoon. In 1876 the church voted to discontinue the preaching service in the afternoon during the months of July and August. Similar action in the years following extended still farther the period of relief from the afternoon worship, until it finally ceases to be recorded.
Beginning in 1795 the society made appropriations for instruction in singing, £10 being drawn from the treasury for that purpose. Three years later the amount specified for the same purpose was "40 dollars." In 1814 a committee was appointed "to assist the instructor in keeping order in the singing schools and also to assist in selecting music for the schools." The history of the choir and of music in the church is an interesting field, which the present paper leaves almost untouched.
This church has shared in the general movements for the progress of the kingdom of God. Before the organization of the Missionary Society of Connecticut, missionaries were sent by the General Association to spend four months in the new settlements in Vermont and New York, supported by contribu- tions from the churches ordered by the General Assembly. Rev. Benoni Upson was a delegate to the meeting at Cheshire in 1793, when that movement was inaugurated; and the fol- lowing year the Association met in Kensington at the home of Dr. Upson. On these two occasions Theodore Hinsdale, a
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native of Kensington and at that time pastor at Windsor, was one of the eight missionaries appointed.
The earliest record concerning a contribution in the church was near the beginning of the ministry of Mr. Clark, when it was "agreed that for the supply of ye Church Treasury, a Contribution should be attended on ye same Sabbath of every September for the future, and that every member should con- tribute a shilling, wrapt up in a paper, with the contributor's name." In 1775 and following, the treasurer's account by Selah Hart indicates a bi-monthly contribution, co-inciding with the communion months. He makes separate items of his own and his wife's rate, thus indicating that a certain sum was expected from each member, tho varying in amount at different periods.
Dr. Upson was an early contributor to the American Board of Foreign Missions, a gift from him through Dr. Calvin Chapin of Rocky Hill being acknowledged in 1813 in one of the first reports of the Board. The Auxiliary Foreign Missionary Soci- ety of Hartford County in 1831 received from Kensington, from a "Gents association," Rev. C. A. Goodrich, Tr., $16; and from a "Ladies association," Mrs. Martha Robbins, Tr., $24.17. For many years offerings were forwarded through the South Auxiliary of Hartford County. From 1842-1866 the amounts ranged from $40 to $50 yearly. As early as 1873 a weekly missionary offering was introduced as a part of worship, and it has been maintained until the present time. The dis- tribution of the offerings has been made according to a per- centage that has from time to time been readjusted. Since 1886 the list of benevolences has included all branches of Con- gregational work, and many other worthy objects. The ben- evolences for fifty-three years, 1859-1911, which are carefully tabulated in records at the Congregational House, Hartford, amount to $17,865, which is an average of about $337 annually.
The farewell sermon of Mr. Robbins in 1859 indicates how fruitful in new movements the period of his pastorate was. He says that before his time there was "no Sunday-school, no tract distribution, no temperance movement, no religious news- paper, no slavery agitation, no missionary collection, except one by proclamation of the Governor." An effective temper- ance revival occurred in 1842 with the conversion of some drunkards. The names of more than two hundred persons who signed a temperance pledge, recorded in the hand of Shel-
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don Moore, is an interesting memorial of that period. The first names, are Milo Hotchkiss, Sheldon Moore, Isaac Bots- ford, Albert Norton, Wm. M. Dean, Wm. H. Yale and F. H. Norton-one of the few who are still living. The records of the Wethersfield and Berlin Union show that pledge signing was quite general in the Sunday-schools at that period. There is evidence of the "slavery agitation" in the church records of 1840 at several meetings, with apparently neutral results, as the resolutions that were introduced, after being referred to a committee consisting of Jabez Langdon, Esq., Sheldon Moore and Milo Hotchkiss, were finally laid on the table.
The origin and history of the Sunday-school, which is the oldest of the modern organizations allied with the church, has been prepared by a former superintendent. The various organ- izations of women have fulfilled important ministries. In connection with the refurnishing of the meeting house after the alterations of 1837, the society voted, "to defray expenses of dressing the pulpit, carpeting the same & the pulpit stairs & the platform in front of the same, also chairs, as shall not be raised by the Ladies Sewing Society." There is a record of "The Maternal Association of Kensington," covering the years from 1836 to 1842. This was a benevolent society: several books for mothers were purchased, and a sum was paid the "Moral Reform Society." Lucy Moore was the treasurer. In 1848 the ecclesiastical society voted, "That Ira Kent be authorized to put on the blinds which are purchased by the young ladies sewing society." The record of a "Ladies Sewing Society" which was formed in 1848 is preserved. Money was raised by making shirts and bosoms and buckwheat bags. In 1855 a rule was adopted by which half the money in the treasury each year should be used for the benefit of the poor and the other half for the church. In 1859 or 1860 this was succeeded by a new Sewing Society, which continues its useful ministrations. The Auxiliary of the Hartford Branch of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions, organized in 1884, and the Woman's Home Missionary Society, dating from 1888, have fostered missionary interest and borne their share of responsibility for the kingdom of God.
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