USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Granville > History of Granville, Massachusetts > Part 20
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And so this early Methodist church grew in size and strength, and became one of the corner stones of that faith in this part of the country, being composed of courageous men and fearless women who were zealous for the Kingdom of God.
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In their enthusiasm for their church, it had been finally decided that the meeting house should be built partly on land of David Frost and partly on land of Daniel Diver, who owned adjoining farms, very probably because these two men would give the neces- sary site for little, or no compensation. The fact that the church authorities had no title to this land seems not to have disturbed any one until 1801, when a deed from Diver and Frost was obtained. This deed was given to Anson Fairchild, Gaius Cooley, Joel Ban- croft, Amasa Hall, Ebenezer Barnes, Benjamin Barnes, Jr., all of Granville, and Elijah Shepard, of Blandford, to be held by them and their successors in office, in trust for the benefit of the Methodist Church, as set forth in considerable detail in the deed, and if a vacancy should occur in the board of seven trustees, the deed pro- vides how a successor must be chosen, who "must be twenty-one years old and have been a member of the church not less than one year." It is interesting to note that the consideration expressed in the deed is "twenty cents specie," and it is dated March 9, 1801, signed by Daniel Diver and Margaret, his wife, and David Frost and Esther, his wife, all of Granville, and the description of the land is as follows: "a certain piece of ground on which the Meth- odist Meeting house now stands, being on the line between said Daniel Diver and David Frost's dwelling houses in Granville; be- ginning at the northeast corner of the Meeting house, thence south parallel with the main road thirty-four feet; thence west parallel with the Meeting house forty-two feet; thence north parallel with said Meeting house thirty-four feet; thence east forty-two feet to the point of beginning." This deed is recorded in Hampshire Reg- istry of Deeds in Volume 40 at page 228.
The church prospered, notwithstanding the facts that its con- gregation was so very much scattered and that they had to endure the intolerance of the established church and pay the expenses of their own church in addition to the regularly assessed rates for the support of the established church.
Here is an instance of the violence of the religious hostility of those days, told by Armor Hamilton, a member of this church in the days when this incident occurred, and upon whose authority it is here retold. A young man by the name of Norton Loveland and
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his sweetheart were living in the Town of Otis. Their parents were members of the Rev. Elihu Buttles' church. Mr. Buttles was a resi- dent of the town and a regularly ordained minister in the Methodist church. This young couple wished him to marry them, and he did so. The Congregational minister entered a complaint against Buttles for illegally performing a marriage ceremony, and he was arrested and fined $25.00 and costs. (Probably the Justice of the Peace was an orthodox Congregationalist.) This caused much feel- ing in Town, and when it came time to choose a representative to the General Court, Mr. Buttles was elected and instructed to peti- tion the legislature to have the fine remitted and the law changed so that such a thing could not happen again. Both of which the legislature did.
Although the times were difficult and the members scattered, the Beech Hill church bore its fair share of the expenses of preaching there. Collections were made at every quarterly meeting for the support of the New England Conference, to which the Granville Circuit then belonged. The first one we have a record of was in 1794, when £ 1, 16s, 4d, was taken. This amount seems small to us who are only familiar with our own environment, but when one considers the economic status of rural hill towns in New England in the late years of the eighteenth century, that sum assumes quite different proportions. Then money was scarce and hard to get. At three quarterly meetings in 1797, the sums of £ 2, 3s, 8d, £ 2, 8s, 21/2d, and £ 2, 17s, 9d, were received. At a meeting held one Sab- bath at a private house in Granville, the collection amounted to 15s, 1d. After 1800 the money is noted in dollars and cents. One quar- terly meeting collection in 1804 was $6.71, and in 1812 it had risen to $8.13.
About this time the fertile lands in western New York and Ohio beckoned so strongly to the people of New England that many followed the trail of that courageous party which left Granville in 1805. The Beech Hill church, as well as other churches, felt the drain and slowly but steadily its membership became reduced and it came to be just a small hill church. The Granville Circuit was travelled until about 1840, and thereafter Beech Hill was supplied, sometimes from Otis, and sometimes from Becket. After 1849
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Beech Hill was detached from the New England Conference. Finally, so many of its members had gone to the west or had died that preaching became only intermittent and at last ceased alto- gether. Rev. W. H. Adams was their last regular preacher. This was in 1869.
Then came the last sad chapter. The old meeting house which had withstood the storms of nature and the detractions of critics finally began to yield to the onslaughts of the weather. Its roof began to leak and from that time its dissolution was rapid. Soon part of the roof fell in and finally some boy, or boys, who lived near by, set fire to the old landmark one Fourth of July. Its career had wound up in a blaze of glory. Its record then was history. This stroke of fate fell about 1879. Thus passed from physical vision one of the militant outposts of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but its memory still survives as one of the cherished recollections of this historic old Town.
Two visible, tangible reminders of this old church remain. One, an old violin, the other, the original door step of the old meeting house. When the charred wreckage was torn down, some of the material of which it was made was saved by the late Horace Ripley and was by him made into a violin which is now in the possession of the New England Methodist Historical Society. This old instrument bears the following inscription: "The wood of this violin made of the old church by Horace Ripley." The original door step of the old meeting house is a large slab of granite and it lies on the ground just as it was used at the entrance of the old building. Upon this door step has been erected a large granite boulder bearing a bronze tablet having this inscription :
On this spot was erected in 1797 the first Methodist Episcopal Church west of the Connecticut River.
Here Rev. Francis Asbury and Rev. Jesse Lee held the third New England annual Conference September 19, 1798.
Erected Sept. 19, 1907.
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This tablet was unveiled with due ceremonies, upon which occa- sion the same Bible was used that had been used when the meeting house was built in 1797. The original foundation of the building is still mostly in place so that the outline of the ancient structure can easily be traced, and when standing before this ancient door step one may reverently pause and reflect that the hardy and brave men and women who wrought here are our ancestors, and that this heri- tage belongs to us.
The views of citizens of Granville upon some subjects were as divergent one hundred years ago as they are today and the subject of temperance was discussed quite as freely as in the days of the Eighteenth Amendment. In northern and western Granville, agita- tion upon the subject came to a head November 16, 1833, when a meeting was held in Otis, at which residents of Granville were present, together with representatives from Otis and Blandford, and the Society of the Granville Circuit for the Promotion of Tem- perance was formed and a constitution adopted. The purpose of the Society was stated to be "for the promotion of temperance on this Circuit." A fleeting glimpse of what this considerable number of people thought of the bibulous conditions then prevailing may be had from part of the preamble to their constitution. It says : "Whereas the intemperate use of ardent spirits is one of the greatest evils that are affecting the community .. . " The following is a list of the names of residents of Granville who signed the constitution and became members :
Marilla Baldwin
Otis F. Blair
Abigail Barnes
Patty Blair
Benjamin Barnes
Patty Blair
Charles C. Barnes
Charles Church
Adam Blair, Jr.
John Church
Clarissa Blair Cuema Blair
Loviah Church
Emily F. Blair
Lucinda Farnum
James C. Blair
Matthias Farnum
Justin Farnum
Joseph L. Blair Leicester H. Blair Linus Blair
Salome Gowdy Curtis Hall
Mary T. Blair
Joel Hall
Phebe Hall
Nancy A. Blair
Jane M. Diver
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Rachael Hall
Rowland Noble
Rachael Hall
Roxeny Noble
Molly Hamilton
Silas Noble
Rev. Philo Hawkes Denison C. Healy
Eliza W. Oatley
Cynthia Knox Harriet Knox
Joseph Oatley
Almon Peebles
Almira Moore
Emeline P. Richards
Henry Moore
Abigail Ripley
Elsey Nichols
Elizabeth Ripley
Maria Nichols
David F. Robinson
Abigail Noble
Rhoda Robinson
Huldah M. Noble
Celestina Smith
Lucinda A. Noble
George S. Stannard
Melanthy D. Noble
Hannah Wadhams
Henry B. Wadhams
The Society had 213 members, 76 men and 137 women. Thus we can see that the question of temperance was a real live issue.
The West Parish Church (Tolland)
As noted on a previous page, some of the residents of the West Parish, now Tolland, organized a church in that Parish in 1797. This, however, was not a new idea at that time. It had been in the minds of their leaders for several years. Even as early as 1791, it was planned to have their own church and their own meeting house. They went so far as to select and acquire a site for their house of worship, because in that year Titus Fowler, John Hamilton and Abraham Granger, describing themselves as a "Committee of the West Parish" took a deed from Westol Scoville, Jr., of an irregular shaped piece of land at the southeast corner of his home lot described as follows: "beginning at the southeast corner and to run west twelve and one half rods; then northerly seven rods on my land; then east six rods to the County road; then south ten rods on said County road to the place of beginning ; said land was bought for to set a Meeting House on, to be the property of the said West Parish in Granville for public use." This deed is dated February 17, 1791, and is recorded in Hampshire Registry of Deeds in Volume 68 at page 191. For some curious reason not now apparent, it was not recorded for more than thirty years after its date.
Wealthy T. Noble
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Having secured their site, the next thing was to provide a meeting house. It should be borne in mind that the residents of the West Parish were farmers and were not conspicuously well to do. Fur- thermore, the burden of the depression following the War for Inde- pendence rested quite heavily upon them. So it is not astonishing that it took a few years to prepare for the considerable expense and effort involved in building a new meeting house. This, however, was accomplished and in 1795 the new house was so far finished as to be usable. This first meeting house did not stand where the present one stands, but was further to the southeast. It was on the triangular green in the fork between the roads leading to New Boston and to Otis. It stood there until 1841, when it had fallen into a sad state of dilapidation. In that year it was taken down and rebuilt, some- what enlarged, on the site where it now stands. The present meeting house was completed in 1842.
Events moved slowly but surely in West Granville, now Tolland, in those days, and it was not until 1797 that a council was called and a church officially organized. In the Granville Jubilee, page 44, it appears that the following were chosen as Deacons at the time of organization : Thomas Twining, Marvin Moore, Silas Knight, Wil- liam Freeman, Warren Gates, Philo Smith, Erwin L. Tucker and Elizur D. Moore. Without doubt this list is correct, but the original records of the church are so fragmentary that it cannot be checked. This young church was now ready to function and promptly set about finding a minister to serve them. The names of the original members of this church, appearing in the handwriting of Rev. Mr. Harrison, are as follows :
Thomas Twining and wife Jabez Rogers and wife
Elijah Twining and wife Azariah Mather and wife
William Twining and wife Marvin P. Moore and wife
William Twining David Wright
Eleazer Twining
the wife of Robert Hamilton
the widow Suviah Rogers
They had the good fortune to come in contact with one Roger Harrison, a young preacher who had studied theology in southern Connecticut, and in 1795 had been licensed to preach. He was born February 2, 1769, in what is now North Branford, Connecticut,
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being the third child of Samuel Harrison, Jr., of that place. He attended Yale College and graduated there in 1791. So far as can at this late day be discovered, the West Granville Parish was his first pastorate. A call was extended to him and it was accepted, to the mutual profit of both parties. He was ordained and installed, according to his own statement, January 23, 1798, but according to Dr. Timothy M. Cooley, January 13, 1799. One would expect Dr. Cooley to be correct, but the date he gives is clearly an error, prob- ably made by the type-setter of the Granville Jubilee. Mr. Harrison came to West Granville and settled down to be the spiritual leader of those people. How successfully he accomplished his task is indi- cated by the fact that he served his flock nearly thirty years faith- fully and acceptably. His particular strong point was his remarkable voice and musical ability. It was said that he could sing anything. It is well known that he wrote sundry hymns and the music to which they were sung. Some of his hymns were quite popular. He served on the town School Committee for more than ten years, until West Granville was set off as a separate town. The School Committee during that period was composed of the three ministers, Dr. Cooley, Mr. Baker and Mr. Harrison. They were directly responsible for so many of the boys who were born and raised on the Granville hills going on to the fields of higher education. As a team of ministers this trio was hard to beat. Dr. Cooley could excel in convincing sermons, Mr. Baker could make a prayer to be remembered, and Mr. Harrison was a singer in the class with the late Ira D. Sankey. They all had the ability to lead and teach these serious people who wrung a living out of the rock ribbed hills. Sometimes they had a season of religious revival. One such was held in Mr. Harrison's church in 1806 which resulted in the addition of thirty-six members to his church.
Mr. Harrison was in the full vigor of his ministry when the West Parish became the Town of Tolland in 1810. He finally was dis- missed and severed his connection with the church in March, 1827, but continued to serve the Town in various ways during the rest of his life. He was at different times, their post master, their Town Clerk and their representative to the General Court. He was married twice and at his death left one son. He lived in the two-
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story frame house on the south side of the main east and west road through the village. He died in Tolland August 31, 1853, at the ripe old age of 84 years.
The Universalist Church
Religious life in New England in the first half of the last century was stern, rigorous and unbending. The orthodox church, unmindful of the fact that repression breeds discontent, combatted all new and liberal ideas, such as the tenets of the Methodists on the one hand, and the tenets of the Baptists on the other. Any relaxation of the early Puritanical austerity was due to meet strong opposition. By the middle of the century, Congregational churches were beginning to be more liberal, but most Baptist churches were still unbending and were described colloquially as "hard shelled." In an atmosphere of such religious severity, it was inevitable that groups of liberals should arise ; groups having an equal faith, but a milder and broader outlook upon life. So it naturally came about that Universalist churches began to appear in this stronghold of orthodoxy.
Granville, being a normal New England town, also felt the urge to a more liberal conception of religion. Some there were who were members of, or had attended, Universalist churches elsewhere, and others who had become dissatisfied with the narrow doctrines of the local churches, and were unwilling longer to subscribe to all their requirements. This condition must have existed for many years, but just when it began to take form does not appear. It is certain, how- ever, that the Universalists were quite numerous here and active as early as 1854, and probably before that date, because in the diary of a Universalist lady of that time is a notation that on Septem- ber 17, 1854, Universalist services were held in the Northeast school house. And again on November 26, of that year, that services were held in the Academy Hall, where they were held thereafter until their meeting house was available some fourteen years later. These services seem to have been held intermittently for a time, but later with considerable regularity.
On February 23, 1858, the ladies of this group organized a Ladies' Sewing Circle which was very much of a success, for it is
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recorded that frequently sixty, and sometimes seventy, women were present when this Circle had its regular meetings which were held around at the homes of the various members. On May 30, of that year, a Universalist Sunday School was organized.
The affairs of this group appear to have been going on vigorously and successfully until they were checked by the breaking out of the Civil War, which slowed down their activities, so that it was not until June 19, 1866, that most of those in the east part of the Town having Universalist leanings met at the home of Nelson Godard, and voted "to organize a legal Universalist Society in this Town," and in a very business-like way a committee was chosen to secure a warrant for the calling of a meeting to that end. And further, another committee of five was chosen to secure ways and means "to build a Universalist church in this place." Application for the necessary warrant to convene a legal meeting was made the next day to Rowland H. Barlow, a Justice of the Peace, who duly issued the proper document and designated July 5th as the time and Tinker's Hall as the place for this first meeting. It was served by personal notice to all the Universalists in the vicinity. Tinker's Hall was in the same building with a hotel and store operated by Frank A. Tinker on the site where Gibbons store now stands. At the meeting on July 5th, officers were elected and the Society was duly organized and it was voted "to call this Society the First Universalist Society in Granville" and a committee was chosen to select a site upon which to erect their meeting house. A constitution prepared by Ansel D. King was adopted. The list of the original members of the church has not survived and the only substitute for it seems to be the list of those who signed the petition for the warrant which called the first official meeting when the constitution was adopted. It is as follows :
James H. Gibbons
John M. Gibbons
Salem P. Rose
Ely Strong
Lyman Smith
Martin T. Gibbons
Melville F. Clark
Elizur M. Pomeroy
George T. King
Adolph Bruch
Goodwin Brown
Edward Holcomb
Edgar Holcomb
Linus O. Gibbons
Justus Rose
Henry W. Tryon
John C. Carpenter
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It will be noted that the petitioners were all men. It is rather inconceivable that a church would be organized and established without any women members, so it is submitted that the above list is far from being a complete list of the original members of this church. The record shows that Ansel D. King, Nelson Godard and DeEtte Godard, his wife, were very active in organizing the church, and they were without doubt, together with others, among the original members.
Such rapid progress was made by this young Society that on July 25th a building committee was chosen consisting of Melville F. Clark, William Moore, Edgar Holcomb, Edward Holcomb, John M. Gibbons, William Wells, Orland Gibbons and Ansel D. King. This committee had such success in performing its preliminary duties that the Society voted on October 15th "to proceed to build a (meeting) House forthwith." No delay occurred in securing a site. A deed for the same was obtained from Nelson Godard and wife conveying the plot of land upon which the meeting house now stands. It is dated October 23, 1866, and conveys a certain plot of land "for the purpose of building a church edifice thereon and for no other, beginning on the highway at the southwest corner of Betsey Barlow's house lot, thence northerly on land of said Barlow seventy-two feet; thence westerly forty-eight feet; thence southerly seventy-two feet to the highway; thence easterly on the highway forty-eight feet to the place of beginning; containing thirteen rods more or less." This deed is recorded in Hampden Registry of Deeds in Volume 251 at page 576.
Work on the foundation began October 30th and went on apace. In the winter of 1866-67 the timber, some of which was hewed and some of which was sawed, was made ready. Boards were secured and shingles obtained. On April 11, 1867 the frame was raised, but before it could be roofed over and boarded in, a wind of hurricane violence arose on May 1st and blew down the newly erected timbers, frightening the occupants of the Barlow house, next east of the meeting house, nearly out of their wits. This misfortune was a delay, but not a damper, to the enterprise. On the 4th, some of the leading men of the church went to the scene of the disaster and sorted out all the material which could be salvaged, and the re-erection of the
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framework was begun. On June 28th this had been completed. The building was ready for use early the next year when the finishing touches were completed by the placing of the window blinds. It was dedicated April 15, 1868. The bell was not acquired until 1885 when it was installed with ceremony and a picnic in the rear of Gibbons store on July 4th.
That the women of the church were responsible in no small degree for the success in establishing this church appears from an entry in the record which states that the Ladies' Sewing Circle, an organization within the church, on May 23, 1868, paid the sum of $617.73 "toward the church." To have accomplished what this church did in less than two years is a record little short of astound- ing, especially is this so when one considers the small membership.
The Rev. C. H. Webster, of Granby, Connecticut, was very active among the Universalists and was said by some to have been the energizing force which started this church on its way, and in one place he is referred to as "our pastor," but neither recollection nor record discloses that he was ever settled over this church as a regular pastor.
But the race is not always to the swift. The perennial misfortunes of life soon beset this little church. Some of its members died; some removed elsewhere; and all grew older, whereby the irresistible surge of middle life was slowed down. Others did not come forward to carry the increasingly heavy burden. It is believed that this church had only one regularly settled pastor, Rev. Selwyn T. Nye, who served the church about three years, and that its preaching services were at all other times conducted by a supply from other places. As the years passed, services were held less and less frequently until about 1881 when the then newly organized Methodist Episcopal Church made arrangements to use the meeting house half the time. Later Universalist services were given up altogether and the Meth- odists used the meeting house until 1915, when they too, ceased to conduct religious services there. The building was then unused until the Town Hall was condemned, when the use of the meeting house was offered to the Town until it could provide a suitable place in which to transact the Town's business. The annual Town meeting in 1916 was held in the meeting house, as were all subsequent Town
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meetings until September, 1927, when the new Town Hall was dedicated. Since that time it has been unused. The number of the members of this church has been reduced to a scant half dozen.
The Methodist Church (Granville)
Methodism had been more or less in abeyance in Granville ever since the church on Beech Hill had passed out of existence. This does not mean that there were none of that persuasion in town. There had been a few scattered down through the years, members of churches elsewhere, but residing in Granville, and all they needed was a spark to galvanize them into activity. It so happened that the Fortieth Annual Session of the New England Conference, held from March 31 to April 6, 1880, in Boston was the vitalizer. Imme- diately after that Conference, a few of the Granville Methodists met to discuss the proposition of establishing a church in town. Ways and means were considered and an informal committee took the matter up with the Presiding Elder of the District, Rev. D. H. Ela, and obtained his consent to go ahead. They next waited on the Rev. L. White, who was then stationed at Mundale, and secured his services. Then arrangements were made with the Universalist Society in Granville to use their meeting house every other Sunday. They were then all set to try their experiment.
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