USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Meriden > One hundredth anniversary of the Congregational Church at Meriden, N.H. : May 2d, 1880 > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01821 5795
GENEALOGY 974.202 M545CC
CENTENNIAL .
ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH T
MERIDEN, N. H.,
MAY 2d, 1880.
LEBANON : PRINTED AT THE FREE PRESS JOB OFFICE. 1880.
ONE HUNDREDTH
ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH A T
MERIDEN, N. H.,
MAY 2d, 1880.
LEBANON, N. H. : PRINTED AT THE FREE PRESS JOB OFFICE. 1880.
A
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN MERIDEN, N. H., MAY 2, 1880.
At a meeting of the church, Feb. 26, 1880, it was voted that M. F. Colby, Jas. S. Wood, Mrs. J. S. Wood and Mrs. B. R. Catlin, with the pastor, Rev. C. M. Palmer, be a com- mittee to report an order of exercises for the centennial of the formation of this church, which they had decided to observe.
At a subsequent meeting, they chose a committee of ar- rangements, who appointed later, a committee on floral deco- rations, and another to have charge of the service of song.
The services of the day, Sabbath, May 2, were opened with an Invocation by the pastor. The Scriptures were read and prayer offered by Rev. A. Heald of the Baptist church, followed by a hymn contributed by the Rev. C. H. Richards, Madison, Wis.
CENTENNIAL HYMN.
I. Lift your voices, let us sing 'Till the hills and valleys ring ; For this Christian brotherhood Here a century hath stood. Still Christ's holy banner flies Where He set it, 'neath these skies. Red-cross knights, 'mid toils and fears, Here have fought a hundred years. II. Noble mission had this church ;
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INTRODUCTION.
For his Truth, God bade it search,- With it Christian soldiers train,- Speed them over sea and main, 'Till Earth's grim and gloomy night Should be banished by their Light. So it wrought, with prayers and tears ; God has blessed the hundred years.
III.
Thanks we render to our Lord For His mercies, thus outpoured. Thanks for saintly life or word That have here been seen or heard ; Many walk the golden street- Thanks for holy memories sweet ! Now we pray, 'mid hopes and fears, For a better hundred years.
Rev. L. A. Austin, a member of the church and a teacher in Kimball Union Academy, delivered to a large and deeply interested audience, the accompanying discourse, followed by a hymn written by Mrs. M. W. Palmer.
In the afternoon, the pastor read a letter of reminiscences from C. S. Richards, LL.D., of Howard University, for nearly forty years connected with the church, and Principal of the academy. This was followed by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In the evening a goodly company gathered to listen to letters from the only surviving ex-pastors, Rev. F. P. Wood- bury, Rockford, Ill., and Rev. E. E. P. Abbot, Newport, N. H. The exercises closed with an address by Rev. A. Heald, giving a narrative of the formation and history of the Baptist church.
At a subsequent meeting the church voted to publish the address with the hymns furnished for the occasion.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
One hundred years ago to-day, probably at the house of Ben- jamin Kimball, the church which celebrates this anniversary was organized. Let us call up the circumstances under which it was established. Let us look in upon our town fathers and mothers in the employments that occupied their attention in those far-away years. The town was a wilderness, with only here and there a clearing about a house and barn, generally of logs. The meadows and grain fields were dotted with black- ened stumps. The roads wound their uneven way through the forests, dangerous to any but the strongest of old-fashioned country wagons. Where these then jolted along, but a short time before there had been only bridle-paths, and from the north part of the town the settler had carried his bag of grain upon his shoulder, by a line of marked trees to the mill at the falls, about a mile this side of Plainfield Plain. Even after the or- ganization of this church, from many a remote cabin the meet- ing house could be reached only on foot or on horseback, by a narrow path through the woods. Only six years before, the road from the west had terminated on the top of this hill ; and even at that time there was only an imperfectly cleared road- way two rods wide, with a crooked track winding among the stumps down the hill toward the south-east.
After their primitive style they did a good deal at road-build- ing in those days. And what else were they doing? They were clearing up the wilderness, and fighting bears and wolves. They were holding a great many town meetings and proprietor's
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
meetings, drawing for their "hundreds," their "fifty acre lots" and "ten acre pitches ;" getting mills built on "Blow-me-down Brook," and at "the falls on Blood's Brook ;" voting, and with some trouble collecting, taxes for highways and other ex- penses ; "centering" the town, and laying out at the center, a meeting house lot and burying yard, and building (on paper) a grand village there with streets six rods wide, bordered by the homes of the "sixty-four proprietors of the town ;" trying to locate the corners of the town, and "purambleating" town lines ; signing the non-intercourse covenant in hostility to the British government, and every man who saw the paper signed it, "ex- cept tew ;" expressing their loyalty in other ways,-getting a town stock of ammunition and distributing it at the rate of one pound of powder, four flints and a sufficient portion of lead to every man who owned a gun ; voting that every one who should "go a scouting, receive six shillings a day, finding his own provisions and other necessaries." "Some" in that very summer of 1780 "Did Searvis found horses or Provitions in an alarm to Roy- alton and Newbury," and one Geo. Avery was taken prisoner and carried to Canada. And they were trying to raise volun- teers for the continental army, not always succeeding, even by the offer of bounties ; sporting a great many military titles ; raising taxes in money for the expenses of the war ; trying to settle values by a depreciated and variable currency ; furnish- ing their quota of beef and other provisions for the army, though sometimes, I fear, slyly transporting such property into Vermont, to get it beyond reach of the tax gatherer ; for a state law was passed, to go into effect just a hundred years ago to- day, forbidding all persons to sell or buy "Cattle, Beef, Rum, or Molasses," to be conveyed out of the state. And the inhab- itants of Plainfield were in those years anxiously trying to find out where they lived. In 1778 town meetings were dated Plainfield, Province of N. H. In 1779, N. H. Grants, Plain- field. May 3, 1780, one hundred years ago to-morrow, the town voted that they did not consider themselves under the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. In 1781, having accepted the articles of union between Vermont and certain towns lying east
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
of the Connecticut, they dated their meetings, State of Vt., Plainfield.
Let us now see what had been done in this town to provide for religious instruction previous to the organization of this church. At the first town meeting held in Plainfield, N. H., March 11, 1766, the first vote after the election of officers, was to appoint Amos Stafford, Lieut. Thomas Gallup and Francis Smith as a committee to lay out a meeting house lot and bury- ing ground. These lots as laid out by the committee were not accepted by the town till Jan. 5, 1779, thirteen years later. The town never built a meeting house, nor did it ever settle a minister, until it helped settle Rev. Micaiah Porter at the cen- ter of the town in 1804. Dec. 22, 1769, the town refused to act on a proposition to procure a minister of the Gospel. It was a bad vote for the anniversary of the landing of the Pil- grims. The spirit of the day and of Plymouth Rock was clearly not in the ascendant at that meeting. The first positive action of the town looking toward the employment of a minis- ter was on Sept. 9, 1772, when they voted "That the town will meet on the Sabbath Day at the Dwelling house of Mr. Na- thaniel Dean." This was near the mills about a mile this side of Plainfield Plain. At the same meeting, Benjamin Chapman, Nathaniel Dean and Francis Smith, were chosen as a commit- tee to procure a minister. This was more than nine years after the settlement of the town, and it is pretty certain that up to this time there had been little if any preaching in town. This long delay in providing for the religious wants of the people, is in marked and painful contrast with the early introduction of the institutions of the Gospel in most of the surrounding towns. Cornish had a settled minister three years after the settlement of the town. Claremont, in five or six years. Charlestown had a church and a pastor a few months after its settlement. Acworth, in two or three years. Lebanon had an organized church in five years. Hanover had a minister and a place of worship in one year. Haverhill had a settled minister two years after its charter was obtained.
Soon after the vote mentioned above, Mr. Isaac Smith,
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
brother of one of the committee, was preaching here, and at a town meeting called for the purpose, Dec. 25, 1772, a commit- tee was appointed to treat with Mr. Smith concerning a settle- ment. The following action was taken: "Voted that we will give Mr. Isaac Smith thirty five pound, Lawfull money for the first Year Salary and Rise as the List Rises in the town till we Rise to Seventy five pound Lawfull money per year and that to Be the Stated Salary Yearly one half to Be paid in money the other half to Be paid in Specie at the money price." This is a peculiar use of the word specie as found in these old records. It is used as a general term to include everything in which pay- ment could be made except money. Money in those days was scarce, and then and at a much later date many a man could pay his debts, or taxes, or subscriptions only in the labor of his hands or the produce of his farm. We may understand then that the salary offered Mr. Smith was payable half in mon- ey and half in whatever the people might have to pay with, such things to be reckoned at their market value. This call was not accepted. March 10, 1773, the town voted to continue their call with an increase of five pounds to the salary, the "specie" part to be paid in provisions. It was also "Voted to Give Mr. Isaac Smith forty pounds Lawfull Money For his Settlement to Be paid in Labour Materials For Building or other Specie." An article in the warning for that meeting, proposing to raise a tax to settle with Mr. Smith for what he had already preached, was not acted on. Mr. Smith was not settled here. Whether because the salary was still insufficient, or the "settlement" too small, or offered in unacceptable "specie," we do not know. Possibly the refusal to raise money for services already per- formed, gave too poor a prospect of support. So Mr. Smith went away and the next year was settled in Gilmanton, where he remained as pastor till 1817, when death closed his long pas- torate of forty-three years. He is said to have been an accom- plished scholar, an able preacher, and a faithful and beloved pastor.
For fifteen years the town of Plainfield made no more ef- fort to secure a minister. A few months after the departure of
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
.
Mr. Smith, in Aug. of 1773, Rev. Abraham Carpenter was set- tled as a Congregational minister at the center of the town, without any action of the town. But, although the town did not settle him, nor aid in his support, in 1779 it voted to ac- cept him as the minister of the town, so that he secured the land set apart by the charter for the first settled minister. His preaching was mostly in private houses or in the open air. Quietly and faithfully for fifteen years he did hard work in a hard field. He gathered some fruit of his labor, but it was not a permanent growth. He had no successor, and in a few years the church he had gathered and cared for became extinct, and there was no preaching in that part of the town until the or- ganization of a new church in 1804. After leaving Plainfield, Mr. Carpenter became pastor of a church in Rutland, Vt .. where he died and was buried.
In the seventh year of his pastorate here, our church was organized. Mr. Carpenter's services, though somewhat migra- tory, were mostly at the center of the town or beyond there, from three to seven miles distant from families in the eastern part of the town. There were many enterprising and prominent men in this vicinity. Some of the best lands were about here. The mills were conveniently near. So it came to pass that the pop- ulation of this part of the town increased more rapidly than any other. Added to these there were a large number of fami- lies toward Grantham Mountain, then citizens of Grantham, but with no road over the mountain, and so geographically joined with this people in all their interests. So in a call for a town meeting Sept. 7, 1779, an article was inserted in the war- rant as follows : "To see if the Town Will Come into measures to Be Divided for the Purpos of Accommodating a Parish in the East Part of Plainfield and New Grantham." The town refused to act on that article. But if towns will not divide. societies can be formed ignoring town lines. So a month later, Oct. 8, 1779, there was a meeting, probably at the house of Benj. Kimball, at which the following paper was made out and signed :
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
"A COVENANT.
We the subscribers, Inhabitants of the Towns of Plainfield and New Grantham Considering our Local situation far from any place of Publick worship and our own contiguous situation for that purpose and having a due sense of ye great obligation all men are under to meet together for social worship do in a sol- emn manner covenant associate and agree with each other for the following purposes. (viz) : 1st, That we will be ready at all times to do according to our abilities in procuring and sup- porting the Gospel Among us according as God has appointed in his word.
2dly. That we will when it shall be thought that the sub- scribers are able do our proportion towards building a house for publick Worship on ye hill by Mr. Ben Kimball's Barn as nigh where ye Barn now stands as the conveniancy of the land will admit of.
And for the further confirmation of this Covenant we all say Amen by subscribing our names."
Forty-one names are appended to this document. First comes the name of Benj. Kimball, who in those early days was a leading man in town, and the leading man in this part of the town.
The second name is that of Abraham Roberts. Other names, which then or subsequently were prominent in church or society were Robert Miller, Abel Stevens, John Stevens, Jr., Joseph Kimball, Daniel Kimball, Parley Roberts, Nathan Young, Micaiah Adams and Abel Stafford.
The Society thus formed, at once took action toward building a meeting house. At meetings held Jan. 13, and Apr. 17 and 24, 1780, they decided to build and adopted a plan, the building fund to be raised by the sale of pews. In the summer or early autumn of 1780, the Parish was incorporated. The name of Meriden is said to have been given it by the late Dr. Samuel Wood, of Boscawen, who preached here early in 1780, and whose labors resulted in the formation of this church. This same year Mr. Wood received a call to Newport, which he declined. The next year, Oct. 17, 1781, he was ordained at Boscawen, his first and only pastorate, where he preached the Gospel more than 55 years with great success. His church at
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
one time numbered more than three hundred members. At his death, Dec. 24, 1836, he left a name still venerated in all that region of country.
The parish thus organized and named, at a meeting held March 5, 1781, voted to "ratify, confirm and establishi" the votes of its predecessor, the Society, with regard to building a meeting house, and appointed a "committee of three to procure preaching for ye future." The meeting house, as finally decid- ed, was thirty-six feet long, twenty-nine feet wide and nine and one-half feet between joints. There was to be a row of pews around the outside-old-fashioned pews, about five and one-half feet square-leaving a space of four feet in front for a door and seven feet at the rear for a pulpit. The remaining space on the floor of the house was to be occupied by five seats twenty feet long, divided by a partition in the middle. The pews were sold at auction, as we learn from the report of a com- mittee accepted December 25, 1781, bringing in the aggregate £46 15s, or about $150, which certainly could not be expected to build much of a meeting house. At this sale the pews by the door brought the highest price. The house was begun some time that year, 1781, and finished-never. The materials were furnished and the work done mostly by the people themselves. This was the most convenient, and in some cases, doubtless, the only way in which they could pay their proportion of the cost. It was "voted to allow three Shillings for men and two Shil- lings for oxen Per Diem for work on ye meeting house." Early in 1782 the frame of the building was up, or ready to go up ; for at a meeting held January 28th of that year, there was a call for plank, roof-boards, "clabboards," "good white pine boards fit for ceiling" and "good Shingles that will Lay five Inches one with the other,"-all "to be delived at ye meeting house frame." But these materials came in slowly, possibly because the parish offered less than six dollars a thousand for those "good white pine boards" and two dollars a thousand for those good shingles, and for other lumber in proportion with these prices.
The frame remained only a frame, and if it had been set up
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
it fell again, or some accident happened to it. At any rate four months from that time it was on the ground and in need of re- pair ; for at a parish meeting held June 18, 1782, the parish "voted to repair and set up ye meeting house Frame and finish ye house," and "chose Abel Stafford and Daniel Kimball a Committee for the above purpose." The work then went on, and the house was enclosed so as to be occupied Aug. 22. It was still only a summer residence for the church, and never was much more. At its best estate it was boarded up like a barn, for the "clabboards" called for never came. It had plac- es for windows, but most of them were covered up with rough boards. Its interior was in the same unfinished condition. The "good white pine boards fit for ceiling" were never put on. The pews were partitioned off with unplaned boards, and the pulpit was only a part of the floor enclosed in the same way. The long seats for the congregation at large were rough bench- es. And so it remained, a serious trouble to the parish, a poor investment in which they were unwilling to sink more money, yet it had cost too much to be thrown away. They wavered between the two courses, until in 1776 they voted to build a new house. And under date of March 22, 1797, we find this item in the parish records : "Voted to sel the old meeting House to the highest Bider and the same was struck off to Capt. John Stevens for twenty one Dollars." This was about twice what he paid fifteen years before for rough-seated pew No. 6. This meeting house stood toward the southeast corner of the common, in front of the spot on which the Academy now stands, and was, I believe, the first meeting house erected in Plainfield.
The organization of this church one hundred years ago to-day, as has already been said, grew out of a revival of religion under the preaching of Mr. Samuel Wood early in 1780. The organization was effected probably at the house of Benjamin Kimball. It was no formal organization. There is only this record in faded ink on a leaf of coarse paper yellow with age : "Then the Chh of Christ in the East- ern part of Plainfield Was gathered in the presence of the Rev.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Isaiah Potter of Lebanon." The names of the constituent members are as follows :
Benjamin Kimball
Hannah Kimball
Mrs. Israel Ballard
Abraham Roberts Ruth Pool Josiah Colton
Mary Roberts Micaiah Adams
Mrs. J. Colton
Samuel Bloss Elizabeth Adams
Keziah Short
Mrs. Samuel Bloss Israel Ballard.
Of most of these we know but little. Ruth Pool was hap- tised by Mr. Potter at the organization of the church. Several of these names are perpetuated in their descendents yet living in town. Most prominent of all is Benjamin Kimball, who with his son Daniel first settled on this hill, and owned nearly one thousand acres of land hereabouts. He is described as a man of "stalwart form, and broad, frank, manly English counte- nance." He built the first mill in this part of the town, at what is now called Mill Village, and for doing this received one hunded acres of land from the Proprietors of the town. And there at his mill he lost his life in August, 1796, by fall- ing from the dam. The church conferences for several years were nearly all held at his house, and probably many of the preaching services also.
Micaiah Adams was prominent in religious work in the early history of the church. He was elected moderator and clerk at its organization, and continued to fill these offices until the set- tlemeat of Mr. Estabrook in 1787.
Of all the founders of this church, the one best known to this generation is Mrs. Hannah Kimball. Of all their number, she alone comes fully. within our personal knowledge. Many of you remember her. Her husband, Daniel Kimball, united with the church about 1782, and soon after that their house - the "grand house" it was called then - be- came the acknowledged headquarters of both church and parish. There the parish meetings for many years were held. The parish cicrulating library was there, and Mr. and Mrs. Kimball acted as librarians. In their wide kitch- en many a church conference was held, and many a sermon de- livered. There Mrs. Kimball cooked for all the builders of the
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
meeting house in 1797-8. There assembled the Councils for settling at least three pastors, and there the three "Ordination dinners" were served. In all the early history of the church Mrs. Kimball probably did more for it than any other woman, and her love for it lived to the close of her life. She died June 17, 1847, aged 89. Let me quote from the record made by the church clerk at the time of her death : "A patron of religion and of learning, with many constitutional peculiarities, she was still, in the strong confidence of christian charity, a mother in Zion, and was found 'waiting for the consolation of Israel. Both she and her husband, who for more than thirty years was the foremost man in all this section, have proved themselves patrons of religion in the setting apart of funds, from which more than $150 are derived annually for the support of the Gos- pel in this church. They proved themselves patrons of learn- ing in giving the bulk of their property to the establishment and endowment of Kimball Union Academy. Their enduring monument, nobler than any other inhabitant of Plainfield has ever reared, is that plain brick building yonder and the work it has done in the world."
It is probable that a Confession of Faith and Covenant were adopted at the organization of the church, but there is no men- tion of them. But at the first church conference of which we have any record, May 14, 1783, it was "voted that all the members of this Chh Shall Sign the Confession of faith and Covenant With their own hands." What these articles were, I have not been able to learn. The oldest copy of such a docu- ment I have found, I judge to have been printed early in the present century. If, as I have reason to suppose, this was not very different from the articles originally adopted, the church was very liberal in everything except its Calvinistic theology. Congregational in government, but a very comfortable home for a Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Episcopalian, comfortable at least so long as these could have no home of their own. This opinion is confirmed by the following facts : They called them- selves "The Church of Christ, in Meriden," avoiding every- thing denominational in the title. There is plain indication of
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Presbyterian sentiment in their records. On one occasion a vote of the church declares that one who had expressed the views of a Seventh-day Baptist, had not forfeited his standing. And later there are evidences of strong Baptist sentiments in many members of the society, and some in the church.
But if our church in those early days was tolerant with re- spect to opinions, it was strict in its demand for evidence of a change of heart in all received to its communion. It had no "half way covenant" for the reception of the unconverted. On one occasion they voted not to receive an applicant, a prominent man, "until they had some further evidence that he was a con- verted man."
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