USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Sturbridge > Historical sketch of the First Congregational Church, Sturbridge, Mass. : read at the dedication of the new church, May 11, 1910 > Part 5
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The Church having agreed as a corporate body to assume and pay all lawful debts of the Congregational Society and to meet all the obligations thereof forever, the final record reads: (September 5, 1898) "The First Congregational Society of Sturbridge this day trans- ferred by deed, through their Committee, duly chosen and appointed for that purpose, all the real and personal property in their possession, with the records and papers, to the First Evangelical Congregational Church, and was, as per vote of the Society, thereupon disbanded and ceased to exist as a corporation."
Until the end of Mr. Bond's pastorate, money for the maintaining of public worship at the center meeting-house was raised by taxes assessed on the inhabitants belonging to that society. In 1831 their collection was "put up to the Lowest Bidder," and struck off at $9. In the first year of Mr. Clark's pastorate, 1832, "the Society voted to try the experiment of raising money the present year by subscrip- tion, and the trouble of passing a subscription paper through- out the town be put up to the Lowest Bidder." It was struck off for $4.50, and the ringing of the bell and care of the meetinghouse with sufficient wood for the stove went to the man who bid $13.00. By 1851 a heavy debt had been incurred, which was raised by subscription. In that year a movement took form to secure the pews for the Society, by purchase or by gift, in order that their annual rental might yield the necessary revenue for parish expenses. A consider- able number were given up, and in 1852 began the annual sale of choice of seats and their rental for a stipulated sum. In 1855, after much preliminary negotiation and the calling in of two disinterested committees of out-of-town men as ap- praisers of pews, the consent of the old pew-owners was secured, and alterations were made in the plan of seating which furnished "more and better seats than it supplied before." The former pew-owners were compensated by being given title to new "slips," and the additional pews were sold. Under
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date of March 10, 1856, there is recorded an appraisal of each of the 75 pews, at rentals ranging from $4.00 to $47.50 .* It was arranged that a subsequent appraisal should be made by three disinterested men from out of town. In 1861 a debt which had reached nearly $1900 was cleared off, the donors being shown informal assessments on their property, when asked to subscribe. In 1863 it was voted to raise the appraisal of the pews to $1500. In 1879 it was determined to raise $1300, to pay current expenses, by rental of slips and by weekly offerings. In 1893 the plan of raising money for current expenses by pledged weekly offerings was definitely adopted, and the following year it was voted that the sittings in the church be free.
In 1835 the meeting-house underwent a thorough modern- izing, and the old-fashioned square pews were removed.t October 18, when the Church and congregation assembled for the first time after this transformation, the church "was dedicated anew to the service of God." In 1856 the interior of the meeting-house was remodeled by placing the pulpit at the East end and reversing the slips. Eight years later the church building was again somewhat remodeled, and turned a quarter way around, so that its front was made
*The pastor's record reads; "The Meeting House has been repaired and remodeled and the slips made Parish property and rented for the support of the Ministry." September, 1856.
+In a letter accompanying his donation toward the building of the new church, and dated on his eightieth birthday, (Sept. 26, 1909) Mr. C. H. Merrick of Ottumwa, Iowa, writes: "My memories of the departed Church reach back a little more than three-quarters of a century to the time when it had externally three entrance porches and internally the old-fashioned square pews with the spindle railings around their tops, although these memories are somewhat dim, for the modernizing of the Church was done I am quite certain before I was five years old.
"That modernizing, however, I remember very well, and how, during the summer when it was done, services were held at the old yellow Vestry, which was enlarged for the purpose by taking out its windows and building lean-tos on its sides supported by rough tree-trunks set in the ground and seated with plain planks, the backs to the seats having been omitted to economize space or money or possibly both.
"I remember, too, when the Church was well filled, the Walkers coming from the North, the Potters and Plimptons from the South, the Porters, Wheelocks and Stones from the East, and the Wights and Holbrooks from the West."
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parallel with the main highway. In 1897 the old stoves were removed and a furnace installed. Six years later the "electrical rods" were removed from the building. In the summer of 1908 the "vestry" was moved from its former site, with the intention of joining it to the meeting-house at the north end and adapting it more fully to the social and religious service of the Church. But these alterations were never completed .*
WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CHURCH.
It is impossible to give statistics of membership for the whole period of this Church's life for the reason that the records of Mr. Paine's pastorate of nearly forty years have been lost. They are said to have been stolen from his house. Taking the record of admissions for the rest of the period from 1736 to 1910, they number 1250 of whom 411 have been males and 839 females.
It will be remembered that of the original fourteen mem- bers of the Church of Christ in New Medfield all were men.
*It is desirable that there should be placed on record a brief statement as to the other real estate which has been owned by this Church and Society.
The original grant of land to Caleb Rice was to him as an individual and not as a permanent holding of the pastor of this Church. Most of this land he sold within a few years. His successors bought or rented houses suited to their needs. Thus, Mr. Austin bought the house now occupied by Mr. R. W. Gifford, and for some years after his own resignation, he rented this house, which was known as the "parsonage, " to at least one of his successors. Twenty years later it became difficult for the pastor to rent a conveniently located and comfortable house; for about a year Mr. Richardson had to rent a house in Snellville, a mile and a half from the church. Accordingly, March 30, 1868, the Society voted unanimously to buy a half-acre lot and build a house for a parsonage, and it was forthwith erected where it now stands. Fifteen years later, 1883, a barn was built for the parsonage, as a gift from Mr. Chester Walker.
The Rev. Mr. Bond was greatly interested in stimulating the young people of the community, and through his urging the "Vestry" was built to give an opportunity for social and literary gatherings, as well as for prayer-meetings and other week-day reli- gious exercises. Several years after its erection, the land on which it stood was deeded (March 2, 1831) by Capt. Perez Walker to the deacons of the Church and their successors, for the uses of the Church; it was to revert to his heirs and assigns, when it ceased to be so used. For nearly four-score years the Vestry was the scene of some of the most earnest and fruitful activities of the Church. Then, in the summer of 1908, it was moved to the rear of the meeting-house, but before the proposed alterations were com- pleted, both buildings were destroyed.
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It was not the habit of the seventeenth century to accord much initiative in public affairs to the "weaker vessel." But the next year seven women were admitted and only two men, and from the fourth year of the life of this Church the men, as is true in most churches, have been in hopeless minority. In the early years the women doubtless did their full share of the genuinely religious work in this community, but their activities were for the most part in the background. They occupied separate galleries and sections in the meeting- house, and it was an occasion for "large debate" in town- meeting, when a dozen of them petitioned for permission to build a pew where they could see the minister. In the church records of the first hundred years, except for the lists of those admitted to the Church, and except also for their considerable proportion of the cases of discipline, there is hardly any mention of women.
There have been various women's associations connected with this Church, but most of them have been too informal, too modest, or too unsystematic to keep records of their doings. In 1812 there was formed the Sturbridge Female Society, which adopted a quite elaborate constitution, introduced by this preamble: "Impressed with a sense of the importance of Virtue & Religion & desirous of promoting them by every means in our power, we agree to unite together in a society, for purposes of religious improvement." Meetings were to be held the first Tuesday in every month for religious exer- cises and improvement. Each member was to contribute fifty cents a year for charitable and religious uses. It was stipulated: "Whatever shall be said or done, by any one in our Society shall not be made public." Beginning in 1812, there are 73 names signed to the constitution, the last appar- ently added in 1843, although there are records for two years later. The meetings were held regularly at the house of one of the members, who was paid two or three dollars a year for her trouble in supplying a work-room. The proceedings included prayer and reading from the Bible and from other
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books of devotion, quite a library of which was gradually brought together by the Society, for use at the meetings and to be loaned to members. There are still extant scores of letters, written to be read at the meetings, by members who were obliged to be absent or who had moved out of town .*
A committee was chosen each year to solicit donations, which were made not only in money but in labor, in wool, or in articles of clothing, etc. In 1829 it was voted: "That in consequence of having cloth badly manufactured that but two persons be employed in spinning our wool the present year and that they be paid for their services unless it be gratuitous." The following year the treasurer recorded: "Paid Mrs. Dunton seven yards of flannel for spinning and weaving our charity cloth." The disbursement of the
*These were intended to contribute to the religious improvement of the members. Most of them detail the writer's own searchings of heart, and record her gratitude for the help received from the Society's meetings. One gives details as to the hopeful conversion of a frivolous young woman in Brimfield. Several report on the state or religion in the towns to which they have removed. The letters are very long. Their flavor may be indicated by one or two extracts. The first is from a much valued mem- ber, who had made her home in Homer, N. Y.
(Jan. 15, 1827.)
"Dear Sisters in the Lord
Not all the flatteries of this vain world nor the kind attachments of surrounding friends can make me forgetful of the ties which bind my heart to my distant Sisters of Zion Little did I think when I received your kind token of friendship it would alain so long unanswered but did you know the many changing senes and afflictions which I have ben caled to pass you would not wonder and I presume you would excuse me if you knew what a task it is for me to write but I must be short for I have to take the midnight hours while my family are through the goodness of a devine protecter in health and silent slumber I was in hopes to have had time to a given you a full account of the out pourings of the holy spiret here among us the year past but I have not learnt the correct number that has been hopefully converted in all our Churches but proverble you will have the account in your panoplists [This was doubtless the "Panoplist, or the Christian's Armory," "Conducted by an Association of the Friends of Evangelical Truth," Boston.] this month, and as I expect you will receive these imperfect lines by the hand of Brother J G if his life should be spaird to arrive at Sturbridge, dear Sister Plimpton he will tell you more about our situations as it respect our religeous societies in twenty menits than I can write in an hour.
I must close with wishing you all the prosperity both in spirituale and temperal affairs that this imperfect world can afford in hast please to answer this by Brother J if convenient if not as soon as you can from your unworthy Sister in the Lord P Goodell
I think if nothing happens I shall write again before long
To the Sisters of the female Society."
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Society's donations was determined by vote at the annual meeting .* Occasionally special aid was given to some needy person in town. At the very first annual meeting, it was voted that "two dollars thirteen cents be given for the sup- port of the Bass Viol." Considerable contributions were made to different organizations to constitute the pastor a life member of them. But this Society of godly women specialized on aiding young men in their preparation for the ministry. Sometimes it was a Sturbridge youth who was thus favored. For quite a series of years the principal record was: "Voted: To cloathe David T. Lane [son of the pastor,
"To the Ladies of the Female Society in Sturbridge. Sturbridge, Jan. 19th 1813.
Dear Sisters,
Feeling impressed with a sence of the awful realities of etarnity I take this oppor- tunity to address you with a short Epistle on the Subject. For a moment let us cast our eyes on the ravages of time and consider how swiftly one after another passes away no age nor order is exempt from this bold ravager call,d death wherever and whenever it has has its commission it preys on the body without a moments delay, how oft have we seen bereaved companions sinking under a load of grief resigning up the partner of their youth and their dependance in, Old age, no bribe of gold, or appendage of honour, or the tear of grief, or the prayer of the Soul, can save from this predetarmined hour; how apt are we to promis or rather figure long life for a healthy child, we are apt to forget the emphatical word thou shalt surely dye; when we see the form, plump, the cheek rosy, the mental powers quick, and activ, the bodily organs performing with ease their function, we are ready to forget mortality and delight ourselves with this mortal corruptable worm, which is as the flower which passes away, not suspecting the fallacy of our hopes or discovering the rottenness of our structure untill by some blast of sickness it falls motionless and inactive, never more to rise untill it shall be awaked by the mighty sounding trumpet of the archange, which shall awake all nations from their cold beds to the general judgment of the most high God; . . . . [After portray- ing the contrast between the resurrection of the redeemed and of the lost, and exhort- ing the sisters to watchfulness and prayer, she concludes:]" And may that God who hears prayers have mercy on each member of this society and crown them with that spiritual good which is life etarnal Patty Johnson.
Pleas to excuse the liberty I have taken in writing with the length of this Epistle and errours in writing and shoul be glad to receiv a letter from each or any of you."
*Payments in 1824.
Payments in 1826.
"Carding wool
.74
Making pantaloons .50
Weaving
1.80
Carding wool 1.48
Dressing 15 } of cloth
3.03
Flag handkerchief .92
Making pantaloons
00.58
Pantaloons
1.08
Coat trimmings
00.83
One pair of fine shirts
2.53
One pair of Shoes
2.00
W. Bullock in part for making coat
2.00
$13.51
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from whom the Society received appreciative letters of acknowledgement] and assist him as we are able." In 1828 it was voted "that David T. Lane have all the Cloth that he needs, let it be more or less, and the remainder be sent to the Education Society." This was "The American Society for Educating Pious Youth for the Gospel Ministry," which that year sent to this Sturbridge band of women its receipt for "One Piece Flannel of 21 yds, worth $10.50 as a Donation."' Four years later the gift was more varied. The treasurer's record shows that donations of wool had been received from a dozen different persons, amounting in all to 22} pounds. It continues:
"Made thirty-two yards of flannel and paid Miss Fay for weaving thirty-two yards . 75
paid Mrs. Johnson for weaving twenty yards of flannel, the wool for this last web was collected in 1831. 1.60
This fifty-two yards of flannel and a Box of Clothing containing the following articles was sent to A. Education Society. 2 Bed Quilts 2 pr Sheets 7 pr Pillow Cases, 9 pr Stockings, 3 Shirts, 6 Collars & 1 Towel, and Twelve Dollars. Received receipt."
In 1833 Mr. Clark mentions as one of the events of the year that a "Young Ladies' Reading Society had been formed with very flattering prospects." For many decades the Ladies' Benevolent Society has pursued its varied and useful labors. In the early days their pious fingers sewed for young men preparing for the ministry in Massachusetts academies and colleges. Much has been accomplished by them for the help of those in need in our own community .*
*A most interesting and cheering instance of bread, cast upon the waters, returning after many days, has just been seen. Year after year, the women of this Church have knit and sewed and given money that the little children in the "parish, " so to say, of our good friend, Miss Remington, (the "Remington" settlement, Buffalo, N. Y.) might share in the joy of Christmas. And now when we have been trying to build again our Church home, little Italian children in Buffalo, by their grateful contributions of a few pennies apiece, have made a substantial donation to this Church,-a gift which must help to hallow these walls.
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Mention should also be made of the fact that the women of this Society have proved excellent financiers. Again and again the proceeds of their sales and suppers have cleared off deficits, or provided needed repairs or improvements; they procured the first pipe organ and their treasury has contributed a liberal sum to the cost of building this Church.
For a century, though zealous in all good works, the women seem to have obeyed the Pauline injunction as to their demeanor and part in public meetings. In 1832 there is one record that looks far ahead: the Church was about to ballot for the election of a deacon, when the motion was carried that "The Sisters of this Chh. be requested to vote." I find no other indication of their voting or being asked to vote until 1876, when the question formally arose whether the By-Laws should be so altered as to "give the Female members the right to vote in all Church matters." This additional By-Law was then adopted: "All Members of the Church of the age of eighteen years and upwards, in good and regular standing, shall be entitled to vote, on all business that comes before the Church." Fifteen years later, (Sep- tember 5, 1891) it was voted to add two women to the Church Committee, and their representation in the management of the Church's most important interests is now fully assured.
MISSIONARY INTERESTS AND ENDEAVOR.
This Church has not been unmindful of its duty to bear its part in missionary effort. As early as 1808 it voted to join as a body the Evangelical Missionary Society of Wor- cester County, and to contribute $10 to its objects. Twenty years later the Church became auxiliary to the Society for Mutual Assistance of the Churches, and for years this work was included among the objects to be supported by the con- tribution taken at the Lord's table. The proceeds of this collection also covered the cost of the communion bread and wine, the lighting and heating of the Vestry, and the "aiding
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of the poor of the Church. A gleam of worldly wisdom (or a hint of some discouraging experience) is found in the vote of 1835 that a previous resolution of the Church to "support its own poor" be so modified as to limit its application to those who have their legal settlement in the town of Stur- bridge"; a few years later the vote to support the Church poor was reconsidered and rescinded, thus making poor- relief distinctly a secular charge.
From time to time the Church contributed considerable sums to various educational institutions; thus, in 1834 about $40 was given to "the College in West Tennessee," and $50 was appropriated to assist young men of this town pursuing their studies in Monson Academy." For a number of years a most modern method was employed in administering our missionary benevolences: this Church voted that the $100 appropriated by them for the use of the Home Missionary Society be applied to the support of the Rev. Benj. C. Cressey as this Church's Missionary at the town of Salem, Indiana. Letters from this frontier worker were read here, and he is repeatedly referred to in the records as "the Missionary of this Church in Indiana."
This Church felt the evangelizing impulse which led to the forming of the "American Board." During the pastor- ate of Mr. Bond, the Female Charitable Society was reorgan- ized as the Ladies' Society, and a Men's Association was also formed, the prime object of each being to develop interest in and support of foreign missions. The movement met with a surprising degree of success. Gradually foreign mis- sions became the most appealing object of benevolence, gaining while donations to other causes nearer at home were dwindling. This Church made its largest contributions to benevolent objects during Mr. Clark's ministry. In 1837, -the year of the great financial panic-while the Home Missionary Society was given only $69.25 in place of the customary $100, out of a total of about $610 devoted to benevolences there was contributed to the American Board
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$323.03. And this was the very year in which the Church reconsidered and rescinded its earlier vote to support the Church poor.
CHURCH MUSIC.
In the early days, both Church and Town recognized it as a duty to promote singing. Their activities in this regard overlapped each other. At the third meeting of the Church of Christ in New Medfield (March 17, 1737), it was voted that Moses Allen "Set the Psalm in the Congregation upon the Sabbath day." What the substance of their tuneful lays should be, was determined in 1765, when the question in the warrant for the Church meeting "Whether we shall sing any other portion of the Psalms than we now sing, and if so whether tate and brady's with the Appendix of Hymns or Watts version of the psalms" was decided in favor of the former. In 1768 an article in the warrant for the town- meeting was to "See if the Town will grant the Petition of Sundry of the Inhabitants of the Town requesting they may have the Liberty of takeing their seats in the Meeting House in the front Gallery, or whare the Town Shall think proper, in order to carry on the Deuty of Singing with more regularity decency and good order." Permission was granted them to take their seats in the front gallery "for the better Carrying on Singing ... Dureing the Town's Pleasure." Ten years later (November 18, 1778) a town-meeting warrant reads: "& whereas an uneasiness Subsists among a number of the Inhabitants of this Town in Regard to Singing in Public Worship on Sabbath Days, therefore: To See if the town will Enquire into the Causes of Said uneasiness, & pass such vote or votes as they in their wisdom may think most likely to unite the minds of the People in that part of Public Wor- ship." But "after some debate," it was voted not to act upon this knotty subject. The Church, however, was not deterred from acting upon the matter, and a committee was appointed which after several weeks of investigation
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brought in a report setting forth clearly the differences which had arisen between the Singers who aspired to sing "by Rule" and conservatives of the congregation who wished to continue to make melody unto the Lord, each after his own fashion. The records of the Church for that period are lost, so that it is not known what action was taken upon this report, but its admirable spirit must have helped greatly to relieve the strained situation .*
*REPORT OF A COMMITTEE IN REGARD TO SINGING.
To the Revd Joshua Paine,
To be Communicated to the Church.
Whereas there has been some very unhappy matters of Difficulty & uneasiness in the minds of Some in this Town, with respect to Singing in the Worship of God in our Christian Assembly, since the late Indeavours of Learning to Sing by Rule: The Church Did at a meeting on the 15th of July last, being Deeply Impresd with a Sence of our unhappy Scituation with respect to Singing, it being more affecting con- sidering the sore Distress & Calamity wee are under in this Land: The Church being Desierous of Removing said Difficulties, cementing Differences, Restoring Peace & Preposeing some Plan, whereby wee might Carry on that part of Public Worship in Love & Harmony according to the Rules of good Order & Edifycation: the Church Chose us, the Subscribers, a Committee for that Purpose :-
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