USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Wilton > Wilton Parish, 1726-1951 : being a brief historical sketch of the Wilton Congregational Church and Ecclesiastical Society from the establishment to the present day : with additional comments concerning traditions, events & personages of the venerable old town > Part 3
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Later, so that the Academy could erect its own building, Mr. Comstock granted land across from the Church to a committee of the Society "for the advancement of literature and science, and especially for the good will I have and bear to the Presbyterian Society of Wilton." The building, to be used not only for the school but "for religious and singing meetings," was erected in 1820 on a spot between the present parsonage and the Old Town Hall now known as the Garden Center, was later moved twice, and is now a private home. (Town meetings were held in the Meeting-House until this first Town Hall was built in 1832.)
Later the school was headed by Mr. Olm- stead's son, Deacon Edward Olmstead, who conducted it for forty-three years, until his death in 1898. During more than forty years, Edward Olmstead was clerk of the Church, and in a resolution after his death the Church spoke of his "rare mental power and spiritual devotion" and praised the school for fitting students "for marked influence in Church and State." The Academy educated boys who later
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became Governor, U. S. Senator, and leading Pastors.
By the beginning of the present century, Wilton's population was about one-third lower than at the high point forty years before, and still faced a further sharp decline. It was pointed out that in twenty-five years, the Town had lost about one hundred families; yet the member- ship of the Church had been increased slightly during this period.
The Parish went ahead in 1901 to celebrate the 175th Anniversary and on this occasion issued a 62-page book with hard covers to com- memorate the event. However, the Reverend Mr. William D. Hart, who was Pastor from 1889 to 1910, took note in his address of the difficulties :
"The problem of the country Church is upon us. We have to face the question now to main- tain a strong Church in a community where the population is continually decreasing. We have come to expect that many of our active members will go to the cities and larger towns for their permanent residence . .. Notwith- standing this constant drain upon our resources, the old Church has still a living, working force."
The 1910 census showed some increase over 1900, but the next decade brought a sharp drop, on down towards 1,200 persons. The Town simply could not struggle against the economic and social forces at work. Village industry was
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out-dated, and the factories of the cities were attracting the workers. Yet, psychologically, many of the Town's citizens could not go back to the old pattern of subsistence farming on rocky soil.
Wilton's present distinctive characteristic, an interest in the arts, literature, and music, was foreshadowed when the Reverend Mr. Fred- erick M. Hollister, Minister from 1915 to 1920, founded the Community Chorus, now the popular and active Wilton Choral Club. Mr. Hollister also reflected the growing ecumenicity of Protestantism in initiating a series of union meetings with other Church groups in Wilton because of "the religious situation brought about by the great World War, which calls for a united Christianity to meet the added respon- sibilities for the moral and spiritual life of the people." Mr. Hollister resigned from this Church to enter home missionary service.
Reflecting the Wilton Church's concern in the world-wide Church, the Reverend Mr. Fred R. Bunker was called in 1920 from the mission field in Africa to provide leadership during those quiet days of the Town's history. Good works increased on the part of the wo- men's groups, combined under Mrs. Bunker's leadership and known henceforth as the Wo- men's League. One of their sons, Sidney Bun- ker, was commissioned and sent from the Church as a missionary to India, and he is now head
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of Jaffna College in Ceylon.
Meanwhile, Wilton's picture began to change. If faster transportation had created such com- petition as to eliminate most of Wilton's little industries, now it converted the community into a suburban town for those working in New York and nearby Connecticut cities. From 1,284 in 1920, population rose ten years later to 2,130 and twenty years later to 2,829, and on up to an estimated 4,600 today. Now the Town Planning Committee suggests it may be as high as 8,000 by 1960. It seems a long time since it was possible to write, as the WPA Guide of 1938 did, that Wilton is a "community where life is still unhurried as it was during Colonial days!"
This rapid influx meant a marked change in the complexion of the population. Soon, two- thirds of those in the Town were persons born outside New England. A study by the De- partment of Sociology at Connecticut State Col- lege, published in 1939, showed that the new- comers were generally younger than the old- timers, and were, therefore, generally in the young-child stage of family life.
This meant a population with a potential high interest in Schools and Churches. The days of the Wilton Academy, which had drawn many of its pupils from almost every state in the union and even from foreign countries, seemed already far away. Steps to make education more
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up-to-date were taken in the district schools during the Twenties, and, in 1929 and 1934, Wilton centralized its schools. This has meant construction of two modern buildings, and now the talk is of another primary school and sepa- rate high school as well. Thus far has education advanced here since the Church began the first little class 225 years ago.
In the early years of growth, the commuters largely passed the Church by, and the sociol- ogists noted that "Congregationalists include mostly the older residents." The Congregational Church included 37 heads of households, of whom two-thirds were considered active.
The most serious aspect of the report was the finding that the majority of the people in town belonged to no Church at all. "While 95 per cent of the Wilton householders have religious preference of some sort, less than half carry it as far as actual membership in a church," said the study. "Of those who do, five out of eight are affiliated with outside churches." Only 55.2 per cent of the Congrega- tionalists in the Town belonged to this Church.
"It seems clear that the suburban influx to Wilton has passed by the local churches to a very large extent," the sociologists concluded. "How is the relatively greater secularization of Wilton (than other Connecticut towns) to be accounted for? ... The best suggestion would be to seek the answer in terms of the highly
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intellectualized and individualized mental pat- terns of the newcomers, their urban background, and their lack of the traditionalism which has been a prime support of rural life and its at- tendant religious institutions."
However, these depressing conclusions were reached during a time when, for several reasons, the Church was undergoing a difficult period in its history. The years of financial depression had cut the income from endowed funds. The membership had been reduced by death and removal from the Town. The older members, who had served in office and borne the brunt of financial difficulties for years, could no longer see the possibility of making needed changes. Unfortunate personal difficulties had arisen, as in so many instances during the past history of the Church. With the help of the Connecticut Conference of Congregational Christian Church- es and their able representative, the Reverend Mr. Paul Lynn, matters were adjusted, new interest aroused and needed compromises ef- fected. The real vitality of the Church was evident at this turning point in its history.
For the first time a young man of western experience came to lead the Congregation. The Reverend Mr. Carl A. Hansen, who had just been graduated from Yale Divinity School and who had formerly been a superintendent of schools in Colorado, served the Church from 1942 to 1944. He brought energy and enthu-
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THE REVEREND MR. ALBERT C. RONANDER
THE OLD COMMUNION SERVICE STILL IN USE
Used continuously as a parsonage since that time. THE PARSONAGE, BUILT IN 1832
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siasm to a growing Church.
In more recent years, commuters have come to make up a fair proportion of the Congrega- tion. And the Church has been growing even faster than the Town. Between 1940 and 1950, the population of Wilton rose 61% but resident membership of the Church shot up 190%, from 78 to 226 and it is still going up.
This does not mean that the numbers of those outside the Church are not still much greater than those within. However, recogniz- ing some of the inadequacies of the efforts to in- terest new families, the Parish in its 225th year has set up a large Calling Committee which is beginning to welcome newcomers and tell them about the Church.
During the pastorate of the Reverend Mr. Marvin P. Halverson, another young man from the West and a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary, the Congregation began a general renovation of the old Meeting-House -not to "modernize" it this time, but to re- store it to lines more like its original ones. The soundness of the old structure and its Con- necticut oak timbers has been demonstrated through the years; even the notorious hurricane of 1938 did not blow it over. Mr. Halverson, in addition to his interest in early New Eng- land ecclesiastical architecture, also reintroduced the use of vestments worn by the clergy in that period, a practice which is becoming more com-
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mon among present day Congregational Min- isters.
The remodeling work got underway shortly after World War II. To date, an estimated $50,000 has been put into the Church restoration and the building of a new addition at the rear of the Church.
One of the most significant events, under- lining the good relationships of the Wilton Churches, was the Sunday morning meetings of the Congregation at St. Matthew's Church, jointly with the Episcopal Parish, for a month in early 1946, while the restoration work was underway.
The Connecticut Yankee Fair, a gigantic auc- tion with added attractions, was conceived to help raise money for the reconstruction. The first Fair in 1944 was a great success and six others have been held since. A vigorous cam- paign for funds was also inaugurated. The generous response on the part of the whole community was a measure of the awakened in- terest in the Church. Almost without excep- tion, every member gave according to his means. In addition, many other friends responded. A larger part of the gifts went into the general fund, many of these being sacrificial gifts.
A feature of the renovation was the installa- tion of the present wine-glass pulpit, in the Eighteenth Century style, which was a gift of the daughter of Mr. William D. Hart, devoted
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and beloved Pastor of the Church for twenty- one years.
At the same time, the pipe organ installed in 1876 was replaced by the present organ, first a loan and later a gift from Deacon G. Evans Hubbard. Then carillonic bells, played from the choir loft, to echo from the bell tower, were put in, as a gift in memory of the parents of Mr. Charles A. Dana. They were first played on Christmas eve of 1948, and formally dedi- cated two days later. Meantime, illumination of the tower by spotlight on the ground had been started, to make the steeple stand out white and stately against the night.
In 1947 the Church received its present Communion Table, given in memory of Pro- fessor and Mrs. Strong Comstock by their children. It was an earlier member of this family, Major Samuel Comstock, who gave the silver for the Communion Service, still in use in the Church. Major Comstock served as a Revolutionary War officer, State legislator and long-time clerk of the Ecclesiastical Society. He willed his family silver to the Church in 1821 with these quaint words:
"My Silver tankard which is a piece of Antiq- uity descended to me through a long line of honor- able ancestors, and as there are a number of my nearest relatives members of the same Church with myself (that in the event of my decease) there are some anxiousty anticipating the use and enjoyment of that little valuable piece of antiquity, and as I am
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not willing to disappoint any of them in this respect, I can devise no way to dispose of it that will be so congenial to my own feelings and desires as to deposit it in the bosom of the Church of which I am a member to be used at the Lord's Table where they and all the members of the Church may participate in the sacred use of it forever to whom I bequeth it with all my heart that it may no longer travel from generation to generation through the world. If they see fit to new model it they can do it at their pleasure."
The silver was melted down and fashioned into flagons, cups and plates, now to be seen in the case at the rear of the sanctuary.
Meantime, the parsonage also has been com- pletely modernized, thanks to the Building and House Committees, during the past ten years.
The present Hillside Cemetery, which had replaced the Sharp Hill Cemetery during the Nineteenth Century, consists of three parcels. Jonathan Middlebrook in 1817 gave the first, "one acre more or less . . . west on my own land so as to include in the grant the graves already made." Another, managed privately after burials began in 1853, was given in 1918. The most recent addition was in 1950 when a friend of the Church gave nineteen adjoin- ing acres. While the earliest stone in this ceme- tery is dated 1817, graves also are believed to include Revolutionary soldiers and early mem- bers of the Middlebrook family.
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The vitality of the Church today has been indicated by several new activities during the present pastorate of the Reverend Mr. Albert C. Ronander, now rounding out five years. In 1947, the Men's Club was formed for all in- terested men of the community, and it sponsors the Wilton Cub Scouts. The next summer, in cooperation with the League of Women Voters and St. Matthew's Parish, the Church started the Wilton Forums, on which have appeared such prominent speakers as Raymond Massey, actor; Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian, and Wal- ter White, leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Al- so, in 1948 the Young Couples Club was formed.
A member of the Federal Council of Church- es and the World Council of Churches, this Church contributed to the numerous inter- denominational relief drives following the War. The Social Action Committee has supported several projects, one of the most important of which was aiding in the relocation here of two "displaced persons" from Latvia, Dr. Aina Auskaps and her mother.
As the Church marks its 225th year, it looks forward to years of still greater activity and services ahead. One major objective is the com- pletion of the restoration. Plans, now under consideration, call for construction of a large new Parish House with classrooms and hall,
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restoration of the early vaulted ceiling and box pews and reconstruction of the bell tower to recapture the original graceful lines. The Congregation proposes to do this in the convic- tion that it has the responsibility and privilege to preserve this heritage for posterity.
But if the Church's vitality during the early days lay in the Colonial pioneers who braved the hazards of the interior to found Wilton, so, today, its future depends, not on its ancient Meeting-House, but on its people.
The members are confident as they face the future that despite the dislocations caused by war and the present tensions affecting all na- tions they can, with the help of God, continue to keep alive the faith of their fathers and press on hopefully to the goal of a better world.
MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH
ROBERT STURGEON
1726-1732
WILLIAM GAYLORD
1733-1766
ISAAC LEWIS
1768-1786
AARON WOODWARD
1794-1800
JOHN I. CARLE
1801-1804
SAMUEL FISHER
1805-1809
SILVANUS HAIGHT
1810-1831
SAMUEL MERWIN
1832-1838
JOHN SMITH
1839-1848
GORDON HALL
1848-1852
THOMAS S. BRADLEY
1853-1857
CHARLES B. BALL
1858-1859
SAMUEL R. DIMOCK
1859-1861
WHEELOCK N. HARVEY
1862-1867
SAMUEL J. M. MERWIN
1868-1880
FRANK THOMPSON 1881-1883
CHARLES E. UPSON
1884-1886
DWIGHT M. SEWARD
1886-1889
WILLIAM D. HART
1889-1910
RUFUS S. UNDERWOOD
1910-1913
ROBERT L. F. BERRY
1914-1915
FREDERICK M. HOLLISTER
1915-1920
FRED R. BUNKER
1920-1926
JAMES ANDERSON, JR.
1926-1928
CHARLES W. LEGGE
1928-1941
PAUL R. LYNN
1941-1942
CARL A. HANSEN
1942-1944
MARVIN P. HALVERSON
1944-1946
ALBERT C. RONANDER
1946-
Two hundred and fifty copies of this book were printed by Betty & Ralph Sollitt, as a labor of love for the old Meeting- House, at The Redcoat Press, at Westport, Connecticut. Collo- type illustrations by the Mer- iden Gravure Company, Meriden, Conn. June 1951
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