USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Meriden > Years of Meriden 150: published in connection with the observance of the city's sesquicentennial, June 17-23, 1956 > Part 2
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Remnants of the Mattabesitts became pitifully few. Hardly more remained of the Quinnipiacs. Land was bought for them eventually up Farmington way among the Tunxis, after their last sachem died on the old reservation held in East Haven. The Hartford Courant magazine section of January 22, 1956, carried a piece by Lawrence C. Nizza about the four remaining Indian Reservations in Connecticut. Situated in North Stonington, Led- yard, Kent, and Trumbull, they comprise together 799 acres and contain 15 houses. Only 23 recognized tribal members live
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INDIANS
on the reservations part-time, or the year-round.
Most of the descendants of the original Indians have married with other ethnic groups. Integration is so complete that there seems no further need for reservations or special handling of "Indian affairs." How much of our Mattabesitts or Quinnipiacs from this section remains in the life blood of the present gen- eration is a question. But the little knowledge we have of their presence here when the white men came adds that aura of an- tiquity to our history which gives it color. As Odell Shepard says the possession of even a little Indian lore deepens the Connecti- cut landscape enormously by lending the dimension of time.
Throughout Indian Connecticut, according to Shepard, it was believed that the men who lived in this place had a special access to the Divine. Indians here had a particular awe for stones. Indian lore has it that larger boulders in field and forest were kept always well supplied with offerings of corn or trailing moss. Huge rocks were chosen for council meetings. So we may believe that Meri- den's Hanging Hills and the rocky promontories of Mt. Lamen- tation still echo with reverent, philosophical tributes from the Indian orators of the distant past.
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CHAPTER THREE
First Meeting Houses
As EARLY as 1679 the people of Wallingford voted to build a "meeting house," a building 28 feet long, 24 feet wide and 10 feet high. So small was the group, and so burdened were they by poverty and the business of merely living, that it took several years for the completion of this small building. Two years later there was another vote, "to go on and finish the house." As their population and wealth increased, they enlarged this first meeting house to 40 by 28 feet. This was in 1690 when the town had grown to 73 families. The following year it was voted to "ceiling the house" and to build two pews. This was evidence of great luxury because, before this, seating arrangements had been long hard benches, occupied on one side of the house by men and boys, and on the other by females of the congregation. Growth and change continued, even as they do today, and in April 1706, we find "The town chose Deken Hall, Samuel Roys and Goodman Culvert, a commetee to procure workmen to come and buld gallers (galleries) for the In largement of the meeting hous."
During this time the people who lived on farms scattered about the north section of town had great difficulty in getting to meeting, especially in winter. Roads were scarcely more than paths through the woods and swamps, and horseback was the only means of transportation. Consequently, these devout people peti- tioned to hold their own religious services closer to their homes. On the town records of Wallingford, under the date of Decem- ber 1, 1724, appears the following: "In respect of ye north farmers the town voated that they may hire a Minister four months this winter on their own charge." This vote was the first act that in any way separated the area of Meriden from Wallingford, or that recognized that these north farmers num- bering 35 families, were a distinct community.
That same spring, at the May session of the General Assembly, this resolution was passed: "Upon the petition of the north farmers in Wallingford and those inhabiting the land northward of said Wallingford, commonly called Wallingford Purchase
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Lands. This Assembly grants that they be a separate society for setting up and carrying on the publick worship of God among themselves, with all such liberties, powers and priviledges, as other such societies in this colony have and do by law enjoy ... " In May 1728 the farm of Meriden was added, and the parish from then on was known by that name.
Therefore, although there are no records to prove it, it can be assumed that after December 1724 the farmers of Meriden no longer made the arduous journey to Wallingford on Sunday, but had a place of worship in their own territory. There is a tradi- tion that these services were held in the Daniel Hall homestead until the meeting house was built.
An entertaining tale, which may or may not be true, is often told in connection with the building of this first church in Meriden. According to the story, the farmers living in the most northerly section, along the old road, and those to the west, in Milking Yard and Pilgrim's Harbor, wanted the meeting house to be located near the junction of Curtis and Ann Streets; but those living to the east, near Dog's Misery, insisted that it be built nearer them, on what has since been called Meeting House Hill. Finally, it was settled that the building should be placed on the western slope of this hill, and the materials were collected there, ready for the actual "raising." During the night a group of the other faction - presumably the Royces, the Robinsons, the Collinses, the Coles, the Fosters and the Merriams - brought teams and hauled the timbers down the hill, over the brook, and westward, on what is now Ann Street, to the spot they preferred. This, naturally, caused a great furor, but eventually the Dog's Misery group won - the Yales, the Iveses, the Whitings, the Levits and the Halls. The men who had worked so hard in the night to carry out their scheme were forced to haul the material back up the hill in broad daylight, their ears, no doubt, ringing with the taunts of their adversaries.
At any rate, in 1727 the meeting house "about thirty feet square and built in the very plainest style" was erected on Meet- ing House Hill. The site, at what is now the corner of Ann Street and Dryden Drive, is marked by a large boulder placed there in 1904 by the First Congregational Society. The first burying ground in Meriden was about fifty rods to the east, near the top of the hill. Two years later the society resolved to form a Church,
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and on October 22, 1729, after a day of fasting and prayer, the Church was duly organized with 51 original members.
The Reverend Theophilus Hall, of Wallingford, was the first preacher. He still held this post at the time of his death 30 years later. Toward the end of his life his salary was raised, but for many years it was £50 and firewood - about $175 annually - a sum which might be paid in either money or provisions. Mr. Hall lived in a house at the southeast corner of Curtis and Ann Streets and he also owned a large farm in what is now the center of uptown Meriden. It was on a part of this farm, slightly east of the site of the present Center Church, that the second meet- ing house was erected, probably between 1752 and 1755. Un- fortunately, the society records until 1755 are missing. Under the date of December 11, in that year, is found the first entry relating to the new church - a receipt for £150 advanced by Mr. Hall for building. Thus, it appears that the church was built by Mr. Hall, and that the society gradually repaid him.
This new meeting house, about 64 by 44 feet in size, replaced the earlier one which the society had outgrown in the 25 years since it had been built with such unchristianlike behavior on the part of its members. Originally, this second building had no bell nor steeple, but these were added in 1803. For 75 years this structure served continuously as a place of worship.
In 1831 the present Center Church was built on almost the same spot. This was about the first building of any architectural pretensions to grace our town. Together with its neighbor, the First Baptist Church, built in 1847, it still adds charm and beauty to our city today.
There was a division in the organization in 1848 when a part of the congregation moved with their pastor to the "Corner" in West Meriden and built a church there. Those who remained took the name of Center Congregational Church. The white colonial wooden church at the "Corner" was replaced in 1876 by the granite structure, located a little farther north on Colony Street, and known today as the First Congregational Church.
The Baptists have the next longest history in this area. The church which was organized in Wallingford, with about 10 families, in 1735 (or 1739) was the third Baptist Church in the entire colony. This church, however, ceased to exist after a time, but some of the families continued to hold to their faith, and in
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FIRST MEETING HOUSES
1786 another Baptist Society, consisting of 12 members, was organized in Meriden. For several years after this, meetings were held in homes in the southeastern part of town. Their first house of worship was a dwelling purchased near the present dividing line of Meriden and Wallingford to accommodate Baptists liv- ing in both towns. In 1815 the Meriden Baptists built a second meeting house, nearer the center, on a site which is now the south corner of Broad and Charles Streets. This building was sometimes spoken of in derision as the "Salt Box," from its un- pretentious appearance and scanty furnishings. Fifteen years later the society moved this house to a lot directly across the street, adjoining the Broad Street graveyard. At this time the structure was raised over a basement story, and was also adorned with a steeple. This remained the place of worship for the society until 1847 when they built the beautiful church which today stands almost next to the Center Congregational.
Here again, there appears to have been some argument, and no doubt tempers once more were hot, because the Congregational Society placed an injunction to deter the construction of this new church so close to theirs. It was pointed out that there was no objection to the Baptists "as a Christian people, as good neighbors and worthy citizens." The Congregationalists' argument was that the Baptist minister had "a peculiarly sharp ringing voice, so that beyond a question, he would disturb their society in wor- ship."
The Episcopal Church in Meriden was organized about 1789 in the Moses Andrews homestead on West Main Street, now the home of the Meriden Historical Society. Samuel Andrews, a brother of Moses Andrews, was the last missionary to the Episcopal Church in Wallingford, in the service of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." When the Revolutionary War broke out all Episcopalians were suspected of being Tories, and Moses Andrews was forbidden to leave his farm without special permission of the town selectmen. After his petition to attend church in Wallingford was denied, Moses decided to have a church in his own home. Using slabs and blocks of wood from a neighboring sawmill as benches, he in- vited his neighbors in for weekly services, at which he was the lay reader. With these simple beginnings, a society was formally organized in 1789, preceded by a declaration of conformity to
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FIRST MEETING HOUSES
the Church of England, and Moses became its first clerk. It was not until 1816 that a tiny wooden structure was built on the southeast corner of the old burying ground on Broad Street (probably the very spot where Olive Street is now) and con- secrated as St. Andrew's Church.
Mrs. Frances A. Breckenridge in her charming book, Recol- lections of a New England Town, describes one of the festivals held in this first church: "In the very first years of the existence of St. Andrew's as a parish the yearly Christmas 'illumination', as it was then called, was with tallow candles. Wooden frames to fit the windows were so arranged that a candle was at each window pane. These panes were about seven by nine inches, and probably thirty panes to a window. The frames were carefully kept from year to year to be produced and used at the proper time. A chandelier of tin, precariously suspended from the arched ceiling in the center of the church, and side lights of tin fastened to the posts which supported the galleries, held the inevitable tallow candles. All of these that were accessible were duly vis- ited once in a half hour or so by someone armed with the 'snuffers'. The inaccessible lights had to be left with toppling wicks to drip tallow onto whomsoever it might fall. The last illumination was in 1833 or 1834. Until the later years of the century the festival of Christmas was only observed by the small congregation that worshiped at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. Except, that persons from other denominations would attend there upon Christmas eve to hear the music. The little church was always crowded on these occasions, as their annual recurrence was the one musical event of the year."
This earlier church was replaced by "a new and elegant Gothic church of brownstone" in 1848. Within twenty years the in- creasing membership of the parish made it necessary to build a larger place of worship. Therefore, in 1866, this second church was taken down and the stone from it used for erecting the present St. Andrew's Church on East Main Street.
This, then, is the story of the three church societies estab- lished in Meriden during the eighteenth century, and of their houses of worship which, in the early days of the last century, clustered about the old burying ground on Broad Street.
One other denomination, the Methodist, was established in town before the middle 1800's. About 1830 a meeting house was
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FIRST MEETING HOUSES
built on East Main Street. Mrs. Breckenridge has this to say about it: "Near the bars that lead into the East Cemetery is the barnlike Methodist Church, with its bare wooden benches and packing box pulpit. To this house, one bleak, snowy Jan- uary day, queer 'Preacher' Baldwin brought his infant child to be baptized by himself, his wife the only witness. He had the grace and mercy to borrow a bowl of warm water . . . The building ... was bought, moved onto Curtis Street and made into a joiner's shop. It was finally set on fire by some children playing in the old pulpit, and was burned to the ground." Ac- tually, the Methodist Society was not organized until 1844, fol- lowing a series of revival meetings held in what was known as "Old Bethel," a long shop owned by Charles Parker. Here the congregation sat on boxes which gave them a good view of the preacher. In summer a large tent was pitched in an open lot be- tween High and Broad Streets. It was 1847 when the society built a wooden church on Broad Street near Charles. This was used until the First Methodist Episcopal Church, at the corner of East Main and Pleasant Streets, was erected in 1867.
Perhaps we should digress for a moment to discover what "going to meeting" was like in these early days of Meriden. First of all, the houses of public worship were never heated. In- deed, to have done so would have been considered a sign of degeneracy, if not of actual profanation. Even as late as 1831, when the present Center Congregational Church was built, "it was with great difficulty that the society could be induced even to allow chimneys to be built, though they were to be erected gratuitously." In winter the temperature must have been bitter for the people, many of whom had traveled several miles on horseback or on foot to reach the meeting house. The only artificial heat allowed was that from the women's foot stoves, little square metal boxes filled with glowing coals from the home hearth.
It has been told that men with bald spots were sometimes forced to put their mittens on their heads to keep warm; and preachers often complained that their voices were drowned by the noise of persons stamping their feet to keep them from freezing. The prayers, during which the congregation stood, were long and sermons even longer. In 1849 the Reverend George W. Perkins wrote, "As prayers and sermons then (before 1800) were much
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FIRST MEETING HOUSES
longer than 'moderns' will endure, the winter hearers of those days must have endured a species of martyrdom. ... As a partial relief to such suffering, some persons built near the church, what are often mentioned in the old records as 'Sabbath day houses' - little cabins about 10 feet square, finished with a fireplace, chim- ney and some chairs. Here the owner retired with his family at the intermission, and partook of some refreshment prepara- tory to the freezing process of the afternoon."
There were probably several Sabbath day houses around the first meeting house, and one was plainly mentioned in a deed of 1740, as standing on land north of the church. But the second meeting house must have had a rash of them, because at least 13, and maybe more, stood east and north of the church. The first entry on the land records referring to these houses was. made on July 23, 1757, when Theophilus Hall deeded to "Deacon Benjamin Whiting, Ensign Amos Camp and Bezaleel Ives a spot of land sufficient for three Sabbath day houses with stables adjoin- ing, of the dimensions of those now standing on said spot ... " These men lived in the extreme southeast district, too far away for them to go to their homes during the "nooning" on Sundays. Also near the church stood two "Sabba' day" houses, each of which was 20 feet square and was probably shared by two or three families. According to Mrs. Breckenridge, "The one room had a fireplace, and the fuel and a barrel of cider were provided by 'joining'." This fireplace was also useful for replenishing the coals in the women's foot stoves.
Even in the second Congregational meeting house the seats must have been mere benches, because the story is told of a restless little girl who "slipped from the seat and made her way under the benches, on all fours, to the door where finally she was captured by her dismayed pursuers on the last step."
In addition to frigid temperatures in winter, hard seats and sermons "timed by an hourglass which was sometimes turned twice before the word 'lastly' was heard," the congregations of those days were plagued by the tithing man. He not only took up the collection, but kept order, particularly in the galleries, and tickled, with a fox tail or rabbit's foot on the end of a pole, those inclined to sleep, and also prevented anyone from leaving before meeting was ended.
The singing, too, was very different from our present idea of
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FIRST MEETING HOUSES
church music. The two or three tunes, which never varied from one year to another, were keyed from a pitch pipe and were sung without benefit of instrumental accompaniment of any kind.
In old records there was frequent mention of a curious custom, that of "beating the drum" on the Sabbath. Since the early meeting houses had no bells, a substitute was found in a drum. According to the records of 1673, one "Sam'll Monson shall be allowed 40 s. for maintaining and beating the Drum in good order for the yeare ensuing."
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CHAPTER FOUR
Place Names
THE NAME of Meriden derived from "Meriden Manor" by which Andrew Belcher dignified the estate he owned by purchase from Jonathan Gilbert. Since the property is referred to as Meriden before it was acquired by Mr. Belcher, the supposition is that the choice was Gilbert's. There is no proof of why he selected the name. It has been suggested it was because it means "pleasant valley" and consequently was, and still is, an apt de- scription of that part of Meriden.
Perkins' Historical Sketches gives a totally different explana- tion which has long been a popular folk story here. He says the name is compounded of "merry" and "den." Since there were so many merry meetings of travelers in the old stone house over which Andrew Belcher presided as host of the inn, the place acquired the affectionate nickname of "Merry-Den."
It is generally believed, however, that the true source of the' name is Meriden, England. Nor is this assumption less prosaic than the folklore so suggestive of revels. Scenically, topographi- cally, Meriden in Warwickshire is very like this piece of Con- necticut. Furthermore it lies in the very center of England.
One of London's great daily newspapers carried some years ago a feature article on the British Meriden which remains to this day a quiet little town, quite outstripped in population and industry by her American namesake in Connecticut. The writer of the piece illustrated his feature by a drawing which represented a cut-out map of England poised in perfect balance on the tip of a sharply pointed pencil. The spot thus demonstrated as the exact center of England was the village of Meriden.
Meriden, Connecticut, is not the precise center geographically of its state. But its location earns the description of "central." Moreover it was certainly the center upon which converged the two strongest Puritan influences which fused into the democratic philosophy which in turn sired our American Constitution.
There is a little story related by Odell Shepard in his Con- necticut Past and Present which says a visiting Frenchman in
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PLACE NAMES
Washington to study our form of government heard of one famous American after another who had been born in Con- necticut. He looked in an atlas to discover the location of this phenomenal place and found it to be "only a little yellow spot on the map." Years later he was called upon for a Fourth of July oration before a group of Americans in Paris. He spoke of Con- necticut as "that little yellow spot on the map that makes the clock-pedlar, the schoolmaster, and the senator. The first of these gives you time; the second tells you what to do with it; and the third makes your law and civilization."
Meriden has produced its clock-pedlars, schoolmasters and senators. She is typical Connecticut. Odell Shepard also speaks of the way "Meriden crouches ... beside her mounded hills." Between her hills there are valleys, ponds, and streams still known by names used by the earliest settlers. For instance Jonathan Gilbert's first grant of land was specified as in the "vicinity of Cold Spring." Derivation of that name is easily understood since waters welling out of masses of rocks there are sparkling and cold.
Professor Silliman wrote about Cold Spring for the American Journal of Science back in 1821. He described a natural icehouse in the masses of fallen trap rock where "ice remains usually the year around." He said the small brook running to the south of the natural icehouse has "been known to the youth of the vicinity since the middle of last century, so they have been accustomed to resort to this place, in parties, for recreation, and to drink the waters of the cold-flowing brook." At one time Cold Spring was a projected spa on which considerable sums of money were spent for development.
Nearby "Cat Hole" no doubt was so called because wild animals posed a peculiar threat in that narrow cleft between rocky hills through which one of the earliest known paths was trodden. According to Doctor Davis in his history, Crow Hollow, the "locality near Julius Parker's shops about two miles west of the city," has an equally obvious source. There were a great many crows wont to congregate in the vicinity. "Bangall" on the road toward Middletown derived its name, he says, from the fact that Captain Benjamin Hall who kept a tavern on the Noah Pomeroy place, said a party from Middletown continued their frolics there throughout one night and "banged all creation."
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PLACE NAMES
Pilgrim's Harbor, sometimes without an apostrophe and some- times with the apostrophe after the S, was the name of the south- western part of Meriden through which Harbor Brook runs. It was called by that name in an Indian deed of 1664. Barber's history written in 1838 says the name came from a tradition about the regicides said to have stopped there in their wanderings. But the assumption now is that the name, antedating those flights of regicides from political persecution, came from the fact that the area offered some protection from cold and winds in the nature of a "harbor."
Black Pond still earns its name without question. Dog's Misery nearby, south of the Middletown road, was a morass thickly covered with tangled vegetation where wild animals took refuge from the chase to the complete bafflement and sometimes to the death of dogs on their trail. Meeting House Hill naturally ac- quired its name from its selection as the site of the first house of worship in Meriden.
Hanging Hills is another name entirely obvious in origin. Falls Plains and Little Plain were once in common usage for the sec- tion now referred to as Hanover and the upper section extend- ing toward the old main road to Hartford. The first title also obviously got its name from the falls in the river going through the plain - a plain that was apparently regarded most favorably by the pioneers since it was one of the first areas to be staked off into lots.
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