USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 16
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support." Also "that the Committee Chosen to hire preaching should provide for the aforesaid Minister." Also "to allow Phineas Pratt for a Journey to Salmon (Brook) and money laid out for the Society in getting acknowledgement of a deed of that Land on which the Meeting house stands, the sum of Four Shillings." Also voted "that Mr. Phineas Pratt should get the Deed of that land on which the Meeting house stands upon Record .... "
So the trouble was settled. Mr. Pratt had gone after the deed which was executed October 11, 1753, and it was duly recorded in Hampshire Registry of Deeds in Volume X at page 147. It is as follows :
Know all men by These presents that I, Moses Tuttle, of a place called Bedford in the County of Hampshire in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in new England, Clerk, for and in Consideration of five Shillings to me in hand paid by Daniel Brown and others, Inhabitants of sª Bedford; Have Granted bargained sold Conveyed and Confirmed and I do by these presents fully and absolutely Con- vey and Confirm unto him the said Daniel Brown and Others their Heirs and assigns forever one half acre of land in Bedford afore- said it being part of One Hundred acres conveyed to me the said Moses Tuttle by Josias Boyles and Cap. John Wendell sª half acre of Land is bounded as followeth viz; beginning at a Chestnut tree marked Standing on the North Side of the road or Highway about five rods South East from the Meeting House, thence west ten rods Bounded South on sª Highway, thence North Eight rods, thence East ten rods, thence South Eight rods to sª Chestnut tree.
To Have and To Hold the above granted premises with the appurtenances to him the sª Daniel Brown and Others Inhabitants of sª Bedford their Heirs and assigns forever with all and Singular the profits privileges and Commodities hereby for my Self my Heirs Executors and administrators Covenanting and agreeing with the sª Daniel Brown and others and with their Heirs and assigns that at and Untill the Ensealing of this Indenture I am Lawfully Seized of the premises in a good and absolute Estate In Fee Simple and I will the same to him and them in the Law forever Warrant Secure and Defend against the Lawfull Claims and Demands of any Person or persons whatsoever.
In Witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and Seal this Twenty Seventh Day of August Ano 1751.
Signed Sealed and Delivered
in Presence of
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Moses Tuttle & Seal
Ebenezer Seaward Jonathan Rose
In Simsbury In Hartford County on ye 11th Day of October 1753 Then personally appeared the above named Moses Tuttle & acknowledged ye foregoing Instrument to be his free Act & Deed Before me Jos. Willcockson, Just. pacs. Recd. Novem™. 22ª 1753 & Recorded from the Original.
Edwª. Pynchon, Reg".
That part of Mr. Tuttle's life spent in Bedford was not without its thorns. His second wife was very difficult to get along with. His home was destroyed by fire, together with its furnishings. He had such trouble with his congregation that they had parted in hostilities. Yet it cannot be said that all his efforts had gone for naught. He had served a pioneer community six years and had built a larger and better meeting house than the one used when he went there, and so far as appears, the parish was not in debt.
After leaving Bedford he went to Kent County, Delaware, where he had a pastorate over a Presbyterian Church in 1756. Later he had another pastorate in Maryland and still later he came back to New England and lived in South Windsor, Connecticut, for a time. He had four children, all daughters, and died November 21, 1785, in Southold, Long Island.
So it came about that Bedford was without the services of a settled minister for over three years, and this interregnum came just at the crucial time when Bedford was passing out of the picture and Granville was appearing, but it must not be thought that the church or its affairs were out of mind or neglected any more than the religious turbulence then existing made necessary. Their religion, like the land they tilled, was stern and rock bound, and was too much a part of them to be laid aside or forgotten because of the absence of a regularly settled minister.
That the settlers were in a state of religious turmoil is clearly indicated by a vote of the inhabitants on April 15, 1754, when they voted that they would not choose a committee to secure a minister, but at the same meeting voted to raise five pounds, old tenor, for the support of the gospel, and that Jonathan Church should take care of the meeting house. It is also interesting to note that it was voted that he (Jonathan Church) should be paid one shilling for
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care of the meeting house during the last year. It would seem that being a care taker of the meeting house was a labor of love and the chief compensation was the dignity of the position.
Another evidence of religious unrest in Bedford is the following excerpt from the church records. (The first four "rules" have been omitted as they state no new or pugnacious ideas. )
"Some General Rules agreed upon by a number of Chh members in Bedford in order for the gathering and setting up a Chh in Bedford . .
5th As for that that is called the half way Covenant we see no Scriptural warrant for it neither do we admit it into our Chh.
6th As for the Stodarian Principal we will have nothing to do with it.
7th We also agree and it is our opinion that the Power of Gov- ernment is in the hands of the Chh as such and not in the Minister.
June 14th 1754.
The foregoing voted & accepted by sª Chh."
The people of Bedford certainly knew where they stood in mat- ters concerning religion. They were staunch followers of Edwards.
In the latter part of that year (1754) or early in 1755 the serv- ices of an orthodox minister were secured. A Mr. Cornelius Jones served the settlers for a few Sabbaths, and at a meeting of the inhabitants on May 5, 1755, a committee consisting of Samuel Wheeler, David Rose, Jr., and John Rose was chosen "to treat with Mr. Jones to preach six sabbaths more." This was accordingly done and Mr. Jones gave such satisfaction that we find the inhabitants on June 24th of that year voting to extend a call to him. For some reason negotiations lagged, perhaps on account of the financial side of the business, for on September 17th at another meeting it was voted to offer Mr. Jones £ 40 to settle here. In some way, however, it all came to naught, and the settlers got along in a hit or miss fashion until Mr. Jedediah Smith appeared, some time in 1756. Such was the attractiveness of Mr. Smith's personality that in a short time he was duly settled over the parish. The terms of his settlement appear to have been that he was to receive £ 100 upon settlement and £ 50 a year for his services and the parish would furnish him with fire wood "as long as he gets it within a mile of
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his house," and it was voted that he be ordained on the first Wednes- day in December 1756.
After the ordination of Mr. Smith, the District on December 20, 1756, voted "to make provision for seats and pews in the meeting house," and we can easily imagine the stir and flutter incident to setting the meeting house in order for the new pastor. But such a task moved slowly, for we find another vote on March 26, 1759, "that the meeting house be finished at the Town's cost," and yet another vote on July 24, 1760, "that the Town will finish the meet- ing house by putting seats in the side galleries." This is an eloquent tribute to the attractiveness of the Rev. Mr. Smith's preaching. So we may take it that the second meeting house was finished in 1760.
Whether some progressive member of the parish desired to intro- duce some new scheme or whether no one wished for the job of caring for the meeting house does not appear of record, but all doubts in that matter are cleared up by a vote at the annual District meeting March 19, 1764, that the Selectmen should have the care of the meeting house. Also keeping the meeting house in repair seems to have been a part of the duties of the Selectmen, for in the next year it was voted "to pay twelve shillings and six pence for 246 ft. of pine boards for seats in the lower part of the meeting house."
It has been said that coming events cast their shadows before them. There are times when this is so clear that it bars all difference of opinion. The growing population of Granville was not confined to any particular locality, unless it may have been that the west part of the District grew faster. In any event, there was soon heard the demand that not all the church services be held in the meeting house, but that a portion of them be held in other parts of the District.
An attempt had been made in 1766 to set off the west part of the District "as far east as Ore Hill Brook" into a separate town, which had come to nothing, but the proponents of that measure came to the annual meeting the next year determined to do or die, for hotly contested voting in Town meetings is nothing new in Granville. On March 16, 1767, it was voted "to raise £ 200 to build a meeting house near the Widow Ruth Hubbard's now dwelling house." The kind and gentle hand of the Rev. Jedediah shows its rare qualities
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in keeping his flock together. Apparently the progressives had won the day and were all set to go, but they had reckoned without their host. In the first place £ 200 is quite a sum to raise, especially if opinion is divided. Then too, very likely some, if not most, of the District officers who had to do with raising and expending the public funds were lukewarm to the project, if not actually hostile to it. Then again, there was the Rev. Jedediah in the background. The result was that another District meeting was called and on Decem- ber 14th the hasty vote of March 16th was rescinded. The race is not always to the swift.
It would seem that the Rev. Jedediah had a compromise ready when the time came for the next annual meeting, March 14, 1768, for it was then voted that "the Rev. J. Smith preach 12 the time in the West part of the District and preach 1/4 the time in Benjamin Barnes' house and preach 14 the time in Joseph Clark's house." Thus appears the first intimation of the later division of the Town into three parishes.
A curious little incident occurred which indicates how determined some of his parishioners were in their feeling of hostility toward the Rev. Smith. It seems that a new baby had arrived in Granville and the household of Gerard Pratt was made glad. Of course the child must be baptized as soon as reasonably convenient. Mr. Pratt and his good wife did not like the doctrines of the Rev. Jedediah and they did not want their child to be baptized by him, so they took the baby to the Rev. John Ballantine, in Westfield, and re- quested him to perform the rite. In his diary, in which he relates this incident under date of July 3, 1768, he closes with this com- ment, brief and to the point : "I refused." It does not appear when, if ever, or by whom this child was baptized.
There was one duty in connection with the meeting house which did not devolve upon the Selectmen. This was seating the congre- gation, for in 1769 "seeters" were chosen "to seat the people in the meeting house."
By the latter part of 1770, the increasing friction in the church had reached a point where a District meeting on November 12, 1770, took it up as a matter of public concern, and it was voted "to call a Council to settle the differences in the church between
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church, minister and town." Note the order of importance ; church, minister, town. Again diplomacy quieted the factions and quenched the fire brands of discord. It seems to have been another victory for the Rev. Jedediah Smith who appears to have been able to put into practice the Scriptural teaching that a soft answer turneth away wrath.
The specter of another church in Granville would not die, and the progressives were on hand in force at the annual District meet- ing March 16, 1773, and took the conservatives by surprise. It was voted "to choose a committee to advise in the matter of another church." The make up of this committee is interesting. It con- sisted of
Benjamin Day, of Springfield
Wm. Boys (Boise), of Bland- ford
John Owen, of Simsbury
Nathan Barlo, of Granville
Ephraim Munson, of Granville
Timothy Robinson, of Granville
Luke Hitchcock, of Granville Jonathan Tillotson, of Gran- ville
John Rose, of Granville
Dan Robinson, of Granville
Joseph Miller, of Granville
Samuel Bancroft, of Granville
It will be noted that all the Granville members of this committee except Nathan Barlo and Samuel Bancroft were residents of Middle (now West) Granville, and they were the majority on the com- mittee, seven to five. It may be easily forecast what the committee would report.
But all this strategy came to nothing. Packed meetings seem to have worked no better then than they do now. Another District meeting was called immediately and on April 30, 1773, the vote naming the above committee was rescinded, and it was voted "to do nothing in the matter, nor allow anything to be done." Here is where the conservatives got out their steam roller and proceeded to flatten out their opponents. This, too, is a policy of questionable wisdom.
The next year another tack was tried. Again it was proposed to divide the District and a committee different from the one appointed in 1766 was named. This one, however, made no more progress than the earlier one had made. By this time the Revolution was on the horizon and the church scrappers in Granville patriotically
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dropped their petty bickerings and turned their attention to larger things.
Rev. Jedediah Smith was born in Suffield, Connecticut, in 1726, and was the eldest of ten children born to Ebenezer and Christiana Smith. He was educated in the local schools and attended Yale College where he graduated in 1750. He taught school for a few years while studying theology, and upon receiving a call from the church in Granville, which he accepted, he was ordained in Gran- ville in the church built by his predecessor, Rev. Moses Tuttle. He was a delightfully cultured gentleman and conspicuous for his piety. It is said that the charm of his conversation was irresistible. He took hold of the pastoral work in the parish with a will and for a few years the church prospered and all went well and smoothly. It transpired, however, that he was falling under the influence of the doctrines preached by the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northamp- ton. Most of his flock in Granville were believers in the Jonathan Edwards type of religion, with hell fire as the reward for original sin. The mellowed doctrine of Rev. Stoddard appealed to him and when remonstrated with by his deacons and others of his parish, he remained of the same opinion. He was in favor of the half way covenant and similar Stoddardean principles of church administra- tion, which sounded of rank heresy to the rock-ribbed believers in Granville. This led to a long dispute which extended over a number of years, all the time waxing hotter and more bitter. In the mean time political tension between the Colonies and the Mother Country was strained almost to the breaking point. On this point he was a firm Loyalist, while the parish was almost a unit in opinion, word and deed for the Colonies. So the doctrinal difficulties and his political attitude brought about his dismissal on April 16, 1776.
He had married Edith Bates of Granville, and ten children had been born to them. The oldest, Jedediah, Jr., went to Blandford where he lived a long and active life. The house where he lived and held court is still (1935) standing on the road from the Ripley farm, near the Borden Brook Reservoir in Granville, to Blandford. The Rev. Jedediah with all his family, except Jedediah Jr., sailed from Middletown, Connecticut, on May 1, 1776, with a company of pioneers who were going out to establish a colony on the Missis-
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sippi River above Natchez. He became ill of a fever soon after their vessel began to ascend the Mississippi and in his delirium he jumped overboard. He was rescued, but the shock, in his weakened condi- tion, was so great that he was unable to rally and he died at Natchez September 2, 1776, at the age of fifty years. He was buried on the bank of the river, which later, in a time of high water, washed away the bank at that point, together with the grave and its contents. It would be interesting to know whether or not his former parishion- ers in Granville, who had dismissed him less than five months before his tragic end, considered his fate a matter of retribution. His family went on from Natchez and took part in founding the contemplated settlement, and for many years some of his descendants were to be found there.
After the dismissal of Mr. Smith, the church was without a settled pastor for about twenty years. The excitement and emotion of the Revolution and the hard times in the years immediately following the war took up so much of the time, attention and strength of the people that the affairs of the church dropped, temporarily, into second place in the thoughts of the parish. Services of ministers were accepted from time to time as the occasions offered. They did pause long enough to vote at a Town meeting January 21, 1777, "that no person be introduced into the pulpit of the meeting house unless he have a certificate from some proper authority." Whether the people had been imposed upon by some unlicensed quack preacher or not, does not appear, but it is clear they did not propose to deal with anyone who just happened to come along.
The population of the Town had grown to such an extent that the Town was in 1784 divided into three parishes, designated as East Granville, Middle Granville and West Granville. In addition to this geographical change, an even greater one was brought about by the trying times of the Revolution. In some way, without any formal action, the control over the church exercised by the Town was allowed to lapse, so that all the affairs of the church came to be handled by the Parishes and not by the Town. This lapse of the Town control was completed by the division of the Town into three Parishes. It was a sort of separation of Church and State, and it worked to the advantage of both.
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HISTORY OF GRANVILLE
One of Granville's revolutionary soldiers, Capt. William Cooley, lived in the northeast part of the District with his wife, who was Sarah Mather, of Suffield, Connecticut, and four children, when on March 13, 1772, the number was increased by the advent of another son. This event, though little noted at the time, was momentous for Granville, for this child was destined to spend his life in Gran- ville and exert a greater influence upon the Town than any other single individual who had lived within its confines. This child was none other than Timothy Mather Cooley. He was a frail boy and considered not strong enough to undertake the rugged life of a farmer. In speaking of his health in childhood and later, Dr. Cooley at the 1845 Jubilee said: "At the age of five years when my revered father buried two of his children in a single week, he noticed a burial place for a third, which he expected me soon to occupy. After hope- less weeks, God raised me up, and I have not been confined to my room a day for 68 years."
He was studious by nature and after mastering such education as was to be obtained in the district schools, he studied and fitted for college under the Rev. Noah Atwater, of Westfield, according to the best traditions of the day. He then attended Yale College from which he was graduated in 1792. After graduation he taught a year in New Haven, Connecticut, and the next year in Litchfield, in that state. Then he began the study of theology under the Rev. Charles Backus, in Somers, Connecticut, and in June 1795 was licensed to preach.
His first sermon was preached in his home meeting house in East Granville, and we can readily understand how much interest was at once created when this event was announced and became generally known. The old meeting house by the Great Rock was on that Sabbath packed to overflowing. Some were there by reason of their religious impulses, but not a few were present to see what Capt. William Cooley's boy could do. The slim young minister preached to them earnestly, sensibly, with no thought of the morrow. That first sermon, preached on the first Sunday in June, 1795, must have been a clarion call to better living, not soon to be forgotten. After the services we can see the good people, neighbors and friends,
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crowding around their young townsman, shaking his hand and congratulating him upon the occasion.
He then went to Salisbury, Connecticut, where he preached four months. It was during this period that the people of the East Parish in Granville discussed "Capt. Cooley's boy," pro and con. And it turned out that there were more pros than cons. In fact the latter could scarcely be discerned, because on November 15, 1795, a call was extended to the boy to come back home and preach to his neigh- bors. And back to Granville he came, to begin a notable pastorate of over sixty years. A fortunate decision for Granville.
He was ordained February 3, 1796, and like the sensible man he was, he married Content Chapman in the following May, and settled down to be a spiritual and educational leader in Western Massachu- setts for more than half a century. Here he preached the gospel, baptized the children, married the youth and performed the last rites for the dead, until his death December 14, 1859, nearly sixty- five years. Nor is this all. He taught many young men, inspiring them with the desire for education, and fitted them for college. He wrote much. He was a member of the school committee in his school district for fifty years. He was a trustee of the Westfield (Massa- chusetts) Academy; a trustee and later vice-president of Williams College. He was a member of most of the church councils within a radius of fifty miles. He kept a detailed record of his activities, and at the beginning of his labors he collected and put into record form such details of the vital statistics of the Town as were at that time remembered of the period from the departure of the Rev. Smith to the beginning of his own pastorate. He was an indefatigable worker and a great leader. He was a product of the Granville hills and he understood his people. His death was an irreparable loss to the Town.
As before mentioned, one result of the Revolution was to sepa- rate the control of the Church in Granville from the Town govern- ment. For many years the people in the western part of the town had been trying to get another meeting house, so as to have one of their own nearer home. Having tried at various times without suc- cess to get permission from the town to do this, they at last, in 1778, went ahead of their own accord and built a meeting house in Middle
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HISTORY OF GRANVILLE
Granville. To be sure it had no steeple, bell, stove, blinds or cushions, but it was a place where they could meet if they chose. In 1781 the First Church voted that those of their numbers who lived west of the Great Valley might be allowed to form themselves into a sepa- rate church. This they did and on November 19, 1781, the Second Church of Christ in Granville was duly organized, of which more will be said later. The Second Church naturally took many from the membership of the First Church and this voluntary separation was made official in 1784 when the Town was formally divided into three Parishes.
Another event of importance to Granville, which soon happened, was the branching off from the First Church of a group of twenty- five members, some of whom had been excommunicated by the First Church, because they had come to be believers in "that pernicious doctrine" held by the so-called Baptists. This group led by David Rose, one of the excommunicated, met in a private house (very likely it was his own house) together with representatives from the Baptist churches in Westfield and Suffield, and on February 17, 1790, organized themselves into the Baptist Church in Granville of which more later. Thus another branch had broken from the ancestral tree, and the Old Church was again diminished in numbers.
The era of church expansion in Granville was not yet over. Many new settlers in the West Parish tended inevitably toward the estab- lishing of a new church in that Parish. It was a long, and at some seasons of the year, arduous trip to attend church services in Middle Granville, and the desire for a church nearer home resulted in organizing a church in the West Parish in 1797. The members of the new church were naturally drawn from the membership of the Second Church. Although the West Parish in Granville had been set off as a separate parish in 1784, it remained a part of the Town of Granville until 1810; yet curiously enough the name of the church appearing on the first page of the church records is "The church of Christ in Tolland." This is in the handwriting of Rev. Roger Harri- son, and was apparently written in 1798. It may be that this particu- lar portion of the West Parish was called Tolland as early as that date.
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