USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Claremont > History of the town of Claremont, New Hampshire, for a period of one hundred and thirty years from 1764 to 1894 > Part 9
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There is no mention in this narrative of his having organized the church in Claremont at that time. In an article in the " Churchman's Magazine," of August, 1805, it is stated that " this church was organized by the Rev. Samuel Peters, in or about the year 1771," and in the documentary history of the church of Vermont it is positively asserted that in "1771 he was on mission- ary duty in the western part of New Hampshire and organized the church in Claremont."
The first record of a parish or vestry meeting in this town is as follows :
November, 1773. Being the first Vestry-meeting holden after the Rev. Ranna Cossitt returned from England with Holy orders, at which Samuel Cole, Esq., was appointed clerk; Captain Benjamin Brooks and Lieutenant Benjamin Tyler were chosen wardens; Daniel Warner, Asa Leet and Ebenezer Rice were chosen vestrymen.
UNION CHURCH, WEST CLAREMONT.
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HISTORY OF CLAREMONT.
The late Rev. Isaac G. Hubbard, D. D., then rector of Trinity Church, Claremont, in an historical address, delivered at Union Church, West Claremont, on the occasion of the centenary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Claremont, September 27, 1871, and from which address much of our data is derived, said :
The discouragements and privations attending the position of a missionary over such an outpost in the wilderness may readily be conceived. They must have been great enough in periods of ordinary quietness, for his people were struggling, with small resources, under the necessity of lifting off, before they could mark the ground from which to derive their support, the burden of a dense forest, the growth of centuries. They had, also, first to pay their rate or tax, as did all the people of the town, for the support of the Congregational order.
Mr. Cossitt, said Dr. Hubbard,
Was surrounded by constantly increasing numbers who were hostile to their faith and worship, which he was commissioned to uphold and defend. And, as for support for himself and family (to say nothing of the luxurics with which ministers, in those days, were in no danger of being pampered), he might pray for his daily bread, but, so far as human eye could see or human help appeared, the prospect was very dismal. We find, in the records, no mention, at the time of his settlement, of any salary beyond the sum of thirty pounds sterling allowed him as a missionary by the venerable society. But in 1777, at the Easter meeting it " was agreed by the Vestry to give the Rev. Ranna Cossitt thirty pounds lawful money for preaching the last year." This proved too heavy a burden, and in 1778 they " agreed to give Mr. Cossitt fifteen pounds for the year ensuing."
In January, 1771, they " agreed with the Rev. Ranna Cossitt to give him thirty pounds for a year ending at Christmas, allowing him four Sundays to visit vacant churches. And the Rev. Ranna Cossitt agrees to throw by all other business and apply himself to the work of the ministry." This probably continued to be his salary until he left.
The support, however, proved inadequate, with the utmost econ- omy, to protect him from the galling bondage of debt. An anec- dote is related of him, which appears authentic, and which I give as showing the power of patient endurance to develop a noble magnanimity. He had given his note to a prominent man and
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landholder in town, to an amount about equal to his yearly income. He had already paid some small installments upon the note, together with the interest, when, one day, his creditor called upon him and demanded the whole amount. Mr. Cossitt replied that it was out of his power to pay any portion of it immediately, but that when his salary became due he would pay a definite sum, which he named. This answer was not satisfactory; the whole sum must be paid at the time mentioned. The minister replied that it would be impossible. He must reserve enough to buy bread for his family. "Unless you promise to pay me then," said the creditor, "I shall sue you at once, and take all you have." "You can do that," he answered. " You can attach my furniture, my library, and my horse ; you can confine me in jail. But you will not obtain nearly enough from my effects to satisfy your claims, and you will put it out of my power, not only to support myself and those dependent upon me, but to redeem my pledge to you, which, God being my helper, shall certainly be fulfilled in a rea- sonable time." But the creditor clung to the pound of flesh, and, as he departed, he loudly proclaimed his intention to bring an exe- cution that very night. Seeing him inexorable, and blank ruin staring him in the face, the good man went to the door and called back the hard usurer, and said, "My friend, if you are determined to carry out this purpose you will need your note. When you were here to get the last payment which is indorsed on it, you inad- vertently left it on my table. I have kept it safely. Here it is, sir." It is hardly necessary to say that the note was not sued, and that the minister took his own time in which to pay it. But greater trials than these awaited both minister and people.
"We can hardly estimate aright at this distant day, and in the. midst of circumstances so greatly changed, the position in which churchmen found themselves at the breaking out of the Revolu- tionary War. The period of religious toleration had not arrived, and the spirit of the ancient contests, which had raged for cen- turies in the Old World, and in a measure spent their force, was here revived in all its intense bigotry and malignity. It was not
REV. ISAAC HUBBARD, D. D.
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the fear of such men as Samuel Cole and Ranna Cossitt, in a civil point of view, that led to their cruel persecution and abuse. Doubtless they were loyal to the government, and most warmly attached to the Church of England. But they were peaceable, law-abiding men. There was no treachery or sedition in them. Their own principles taught them to obey the powers that be. While the great struggle was going on they could not be hired or driven to take up arms against the King, neither would they take up arms, nor plot nor conspire against the lives and hap- piness of their fellow citizens. They desired to remain quiet and await the decision of Providence. And when that decision came, if it were adverse to their hopes, they would be as faithful and obedient to the new government as they had been to the old.
" The speaker is not attempting to defend their political position. His own ancestors, though churchmen, were on the other side. The blood of a Revolutionary soldier flows in his veins, and he has been nurtured from infancy on the bread of liberty. It was not incompatible with church principles to espouse the cause of the Republic. When the civil power was shaken, under which they had reposed in safety, when the Provincial Governor had fled to the northern dominions of the Crown, then the storm broke on their defenseless heads."
Dr. Hubbard read two letters, the first from Col. John Peters to his brother, the Rev. Samuel Peters, in London, and the other from the Rev. Ranna Cossitt. Colonel Peters's letter was dated Quebec, July 20, 1778, and was as follows :
Rev. Dr. Wheelock, President of Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, in conjunction with Deacon Bayley, Mr. Morey, and Mr. Hurd, all justices of the peace, put an end to the Church of England in this State, so early as 1775. They seized me, Capt. Peters, and all the judges of Cumberland and Gloucester, the Rev. Mr. Cossitt and Mr. Cole, and all the Church people for 200 miles up the river (Connecticut), and confined us in close goals, after beating and drawing us through water and mud. Here we lay some time and were to continue in prison until we abjured the king and signed the league and cove- nant. Many died; one of which was Capt. Peters' son. We were removed from the goal and confined in private houses at our own expense. Capt. Peters
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and myself were guarded by twelve rebel soldiers, while sick in bed, and we paid dearly for this honor; and others fared in like manner. I soon recovered from my indisposition, and took the first opportunity and fled to Canada, leaving Cossitt, Cole, Peters, Willis, Porter, Sumner, Paptin, etc., in close confinement, where they had misery, insults, and sickness enough. My flight was in 1776, since which my family arrived at Montreal, and inform me that many priso- ners died; that Capt. Peters had been tried by court-martial and ordered to be shot for refusing to lead his company against the King's troops. He was after- wards reprieved, but still in goal, and that he was ruined both in health and property ; that Cossitt and Cole were alive when they came away, but were under confinement, and had more insults than any of the loyalists, because they had been servants of the Society, which, under pretense (as the rebels say) of propagating religion, had propagated loyalty, in opposition to the liberties of America.
Mr. Cossitt's letter to the secretary of the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel, was as follows :
NEW YORK, June 6, 1779.
I arrived in this city last Sunday, by permission, with a flag, and am to return in a few days. I trust the Society cannot be unacquainted with the persecutions the loyalists have endured in New England. I have been by the committee confined as prisoner, in the town of Claremont, ever since the 12th of April, 1775; yet God has preserved my life from the people. I have con- stantly kept up public service, without any omissions, for the King and royal family, and likewise made use of the prayer for the high court of parliament, and the prayer to be used in time of war and tumults; have administered the Lord's Supper on every first Sunday in the month, except two Sundays that we could not procure any wine. The numbers of my parishioners and commu- nicants in Claremont are increased, but I have been cruelly distressed with fines for refusing entirely to fight against the King. In sundry places where I used to officiate, the church people are all dwindled away. Some have fled to the King's army for protection ; some were banished; and many died."
Notwithstanding these persecutions, many of the most promi- nent inhabitants of Claremont sought the society and communion of the Episcopal church. Among these were Benjamin Sumner, Daniel Dodge, John Marsh, John Marsh, Jr., John and Ichabod Hitchcock, James Steel, Bill Barnes, Joseph Norton, Abner Cole, Asa Jones, Timothy Grannis, William McCoy, Daniel Curtis, Ab- ner Meiggs, and Ambrose Cossitt - sixteen families.
€
INTERIOR OF UNION CHURCH.
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HISTORY OF CLAREMONT.
In 1785 the Rev. Ranna Cossitt left this church and was ap- pointed missionary at Sidney, in the island of Cape Breton, where he remained until his death, in 1815.
Union church was erected in 1773, two years before the war. It was built according to a plan furnished by Gov. John Went- worth. The master carpenter was Ebenezer Rice. The Governor promised to furnish the glass and nails when the work had reached a certain point. He also pledged them a good bell and organ. But the state of the country compelled him to flee before his promise was fulfilled. It also interrupted the work of building. Only the frame was erected and the roof and outer boarding put on, the floor laid, and some temporary arrangements made for holding service in it in summer. And so it remained until August, 1789, when, according to a previous vote, twenty-five pews were sold in order to purchase the nails and glass where- with to finish it. The frame of the church, constructed of the mighty forest trees then abundant, is exceedingly heavy and pow- erful, made of the strongest and best kinds of timber. It is said that on one occasion, in the early part of the present century, a tornado swept over the country while the people were assembled for divine worship. Among them was a Mr. Dodge, who had been employed as a carpenter when the frame was raised. He was a very large and strong man and had a seat near the door. When the trees began to fall about the building, many were greatly alarmed, and rushed for the door, where they found Mr. Dodge defending the passage, denying all egress, and with his brawny arm pushing back the crowd, saying: " I know this frame. No wind can demolish it. Your only safety lies in keeping beneath its shelter." I may as well mention here that the tower and belfry were added in the year 1800, and the whole church was re-covered, except the north side and part of the east end, and the entire exterior was painted. A bell weighing six hundred and eighty-two pounds was procured and hung in 1806, and an organ, whose whistling pipes were the wonder of our childhood, was subsequently placed in the gallery. In 1820 an addition of
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twenty feet was made at the east end of the church, to accom- modate the increased congregation. The original size of the church was fifty feet in width, and one hundred in length, with posts twenty feet high.
After the departure of the Rev. Mr. Cossitt the church contin- ued vacant several years, but the services were kept up by lay reading. Mr. Ebenezer Rice was chosen to keep the records, and also to read prayers and sermons, with liberty to call in what as- sistance he should think proper.
In 1784 the town voted to lay out four acres for the use and ben- efit of the Episcopal church, commonly called the Church of Eng- land, for a churchyard, including the ground on which the church now stands. In 1785, a service for the Holy Communion was pro- cured, of pewter, which continued to be used until another of more valuable material was presented by Hon. S. Kingsbury and Mr. Dustin in 1822. In 1787, an agreement was made with Mr. Abra- ham Towmlinson, a clergyman, as I suppose, to read prayers and preach for a term of seven months, from the eighth of September to the next Easter.
July 14, 1785. It was voted to send letters to the clergy of Con- necticut for better satisfaction about their connection with Bishop Seabury. "October, 1785. Voted, to choose Mr. Bill Barnes to represent the Church of Claremont at the adjourned convention to be holden at Boston on the twenty-sixth of October inst. Voted to send our united thanks to the convention for taking pains to send us their doings. Voted a concurrence with their progress." "April 28, 1791. Voted not to accede to the constitution formed at Boston. Voted to adopt the doings or alterations of the Book of Common Prayer as proposed at Philadelphia." In 1788 an arrange- ment was made with the Rev. Solomon Blakeslee to officiate as minister of the church, on a salary of fifty-two pounds, with the use of the glebe, together with the rents then due thereon.
Mr. Blakeslee is represented as an eloquent preacher, of easy address and exemplary conduct, possessing an unusual faculty for attracting people to him and the church. Such was his influence
-
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that thirty families from the Congregational society conformed to the Episcopal church in one day. Mr. Blakeslee, at his own re- quest, obtained a dismission in 1791, and removed to East Had- dam, Conn.
In the town records of 1796 are certificates of the following gen- tlemen, most of whom professed to have united with the Episcopal church, protesting against paying any more taxes for the support of the Rev. John Tappan, then minister of the Congregational society, viz :
Elisha Sheldon, Francis Chase, John Cotton, Peter Russell, Benj. Swett, Walter Ainsworth, Matthias Stone, Jonathan Emerson, John Stone, Asa Dunsmore, Samuel Atkins, Joseph Wilson, Abel Dustin, Jonathan Shaw, Jr., Nicholas Carey, Christopher York, Josiah Rich, Stephen Barber, Roger Philips, and Lemuel Dean.
Petition for Incorporation of Episcopal society, and proceed- ings thereon, being verbatim copy from Town Papers of New Hampshire, Vol. XI, pages 382 and 383 :
To The honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court con- vened Humbly shew
Benjamin Sumner & Ebenezer Rice - Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Claremont in the County of Cheshire that said Church has laboured under many and great inconveniences for want of an incorporation, they there- fore pray your honors to incorporate said society by law and make them a body politic capable of receiving and holding property both real and personal and to have and enjoy all the privileges and immunities belonging to a cor- porate body, and as in duty bound will ever pray
Claremont December 26th 1793
BENJ'A SUMNER In behalf of the EBENEZER RICE Church
State of New In the House of Representatives Jan'y 21 1794
Hampshire
Upon reading and considering the foregoing petition & the report of a Com- mittee thereon, Voted that the prayer thereof be granted and that the Petition- ers have leave to bring in a Bill accordingly
Sent up for concurrence
NATH'L PEABODY Speaker
In Senate the same Day Read & Concurred
NATH'L PARKER Dep'y Sec'y .
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HISTORY OF CLAREMONT.
In the year 1794 this church was incorporated by act of the New Hampshire legislature, with the name of Union Church. The records show that a parish meeting was warned for May 13, 1794, " to take into consideration a proposition made to them by the Con- gregational people to join with them in hiring Mr. Whiting to be the minister for both Congregationalists and Episcopalians." Mr. Whiting was a Congregational minister. At the meeting referred to it was voted that they would join with the Congregational peo- ple, provided they could agree upon the terms. Then it was voted to choose seven men as a committee to meet the other committee. " Chose Messrs. Bill Barnes, Ebenezer Rice, Ambrose Cossitt, David Dodge, Sanford Kingsbury, John W. Russell, and Captain George Hubbard. Voted to authorize them to hire Mr. Whiting to offici- ate for such term as they should agree upon, as a candidate for settlement over the whole town, on the following conditions, viz : 1st, That he receive Episcopal ordination, (as he had done Con- gregational), and 2d, That he officiate alternately at the church and at the meeting-house. That on these terms this society will agree that Mr. Whiting be settled over the whole town, and that the town reap the benefit of the public lands belonging to the church so long as he continues to be our minister." The meeting was adjourned to the twentieth of May. It then met and heard the report of the committee, which was, in substance, that the Congregational society would not comply with the terms.
The Rev. Daniel Barber became rector of this church in 1795, and continued as such until 1818. He was a native of Simsbury, Conn., the birthplace of Bishop Griswold. Mr. Barber was born and educated a Congregationalist. He was ordained by Bishop Seabury at Middletown, Conn., October 29, 1786. He is reported to have been an eccentric character, doing and saying many queer things, and quite wanting in dignity. It is due to him to say, how- ever, that he kept the church together for many years, and that it increased very considerably under his ministry.
The rectorship of Mr. Barber ended disastrously to himself. In 1817 his son, Virgil H. Barber, who had already been ordained
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both deacon and priest, joined the Roman Catholic church. Soon the father confessed that he had embraced the Roman Catholic faith, began to use his influence in favor of that church, and to try to unsettle the minds of the people. While Mr. Barber still re- mained rector- but rumors having arisen respecting his defection, and not a little dissatisfaction existing in consequence - at a meet- ing called for this purpose expressly, on September 29, 1818, it was " Voted that the Rev. James B. Howe be hired to preach among us for such time as he will agree to, not exceeding one year." No- vember 12, 1818, " Voted to dismiss the Rev. Daniel Barber from the rectorship." April 19, 1819, called the Rev. James B. Howe to the rectorship, on a salary of seven hundred dollars.
Mr. Barber remained with his son, Virgil H., a few years, and then went to Connecticut, from there to Georgetown, D. C., where his daughter-in-law and two granddaughters were in a convent, and died at Saint Inigoes, Md., in 1834, at the age of seventy-eight years.
The building nearly opposite Union church, intended for a church, school, and dwelling, erected by Virgil H. Barber, with the aid of means furnished by Catholic friends in Canada, was begun in 1823, and completed a few years later. There services were held regularly on the Sabbath, and during the week a school, which was quite largely attended by sons of his father's former parishioners, and students from distant parts, was kept up for sev- eral years, and was occupied by the Catholics for religious services until 1866. Dr. Hubbard says that Virgil H. Barber's efforts here were " without fruits so far as conversions to Romanism were con- cerned, the only family from this church, I believe, that followed Mr. Barber in his apostacy was that of Mr. Noah Tyler, whose wife was a sister of Mr. Barber. The son of Mr. Tyler, William, became a Roman Catholic bishop, and the daughter, Rosetta, the Lady Superior of a nunnery. Sanford Spaulding, also, who had married an Irish woman, concluded to join his wife, and two ladies by the name of Alden went to the Roman Catholic church."
" The Rev. James B. Howe, who succeeded Mr. Barber, was born
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in Dorchester, Mass. He had been a successful classical teacher in Boston for some years previous to his ordination, which took place not long before his call to this parish. He was recommended by the Rev. Dr. Eaton, the venerable and excellent rector of Christ's Church, Boston. About the time he assumed the rectorship, a large, round, brick building, erected by a sort of ecclesiastical union, in which I believe Universalism was the predominant ele- ment, standing on the present site of Trinity church, Claremont village, was purchased as a chapel by Union church, and therein, during the greater part of Mr. Howe's ministry, services were held alternately, one Sunday in this church, and the next in Trinity chapel. Mr. Howe was a man of very different quality from his predecessor. He was truly a gentleman of the old school. Like Bishop Griswold, he continued to wear, as long as he lived, the long stockings and short clothes of the olden time. He was open, frank, hearty, courteous, sincere, true to his convictions of duty, earnest in his religious feelings. In short, he was a man to win the confidence and affection of his people. Until the unfortunate strife arose as to the rights and interests between the two parts of the parish, in which, from his position and residence, he was neces- sarily involved, no parish was more united or more cordially attached to their rector. There may have been individual excep- tions, but they were rare. I believe that those who in the heat of controversy were bitterly opposed to him, will now, when these feelings have subsided, be ready to acknowledge his good qualities, his high-minded and noble Christian character. Very soon after he commenced his ministry a large number of persons, headed by Colonel Josiah Stevens, a deacon in the Congregational society, joined this parish. I find the names of over forty men, mostly heads of families, residing in or near Claremont village, enrolled in 1819 among the voters in the parish meeting. The first con- firmation during the rectorship, September 14, 1819, numbered forty-six. In 1824 this parish came into possession of a fund amounting to over five thousand five hundred dollars, devised by will of Major Oliver Ashley, one of the original proprietors of the
TRINITY CHURCH.
REV. HENRY S. SMITH.
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town. The income of this fund was given for the support of a clergyman of this church. Thus this church, with the Ashley fund and the income of church lands, was provided with the means of abundant self-support, amounting to more than eight hundred dollars."
There were local and other causes which finally resulted in a division of the parish. Mr. Howe's connection with the contro- versy which preceded the division was such that the last years of his rectorship were made very unpleasant for him, and unprofitable for the church. He was dismissed peremptorily by the majority, who sympathized with the western portion of the parish, because they supposed him to sympathize wholly with the village portion, and, after a hearing before the standing committee of the diocese, he was advised, on certain conditions, to resign. A new parish was formed in the village, and the Rev. Henry S. Smith was called as assistant to the rector of Union church parish, and began his ser- vices there after Easter in 1838, officiating alternately there and in Trinity church, Cornish, and so continued four years. After the resignation of Mr. Howe, Mr. Smith was elected rector of Union church, which he held twenty-nine years, ending in 1871. He re- signed on account of his age.
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