USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Narragansett > Old St Paul's in Narragansett > Part 2
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The Flags in Old Narragansett Church
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Church Records. Whether the lottery was run, and if so, how successful it was does not appear.
The old trouble between the northern and southern parts of the Parish was still in evidence, and apparently one element was attempting to block matters by keeping control of all papers and records. Beginning with 1794, the records were kept in a small home-made book consisting of small sheets of paper fastened together. This probably was due to the fact that the record book was not available.
At every meeting of which we have record from 1794 for a number of years, the records show votes relative to attempts to get the papers and Record Book back from the Gardiners. On March 3, 1794, the Church obtained a new charter in place of the one obtained in 1791. We have not been able to find out why this was considered necessary.
Between 1794 and 1798, there are no records of the meet- ings in existence today, but that there were meetings and were records of the same is shown by a vote of December 3, 1798, regarding the dealings which Walter Gardiner had with the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts to facilitate his ordination. From this vote, it appears that he, not having the well being of this Church in view, his dealings were declared null and void and were ordered to be marked as such in the margin of the records. (No such records are in existence now in the records and papers of the Church.)
In 1798, November 16, Jeremiah Brown and Daniel Up- dike were appointed a committee in behalf of the Wardens and Vestry and Congregation of St. Paul's Church to bring suit in the United States Circuit Court for the recovery of a devise made by the late John Case Esq. of his "Quaker Hill Farm" on Tower Hill to the Church. They were allowed $60 and more if necessary.
A meeting was called for November 26, 1799, for the pur- poses of taking into consideration the propriety of moving the Church to some more eligible situation. Evidently the time had come when the location of the Church was interfering with its work. The Parish no longer consisted solely of the big planta- tions as it did when the Church was built. In fact, due to re- peated divisions of these big plantations among the heirs, the big plantations no longer existed. The sea instead of the land
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was offering the attractive means of livelihood. Villages and other centers were attracting the people away from the lonely farms far removed from neighbors. As there were so few from South Kingstown at the meeting on November 26th, the meet- ing was adjourned to November 30th, and for the same reason was again adjourned to December 3, 1799.
At this meeting it was voted to move the Church to Wick- ford and that the people in North Kingstown be allowed to move it. The vote was as follows: Yeas. Lodowick Updike Esq., Peter Phillips Esq., Daniel Updike Esq., Col. James Updike, Capt. Thomas Cole, Mr. Sylvester Gardiner, Mr. James Cooper, Mr. Lodowick Updike son of Lodowick Updike Esq. above and Mr. Richard Updike. Nays-Hon. George Brown Esq. and Mr. Jeremiah Brown. Martin Reed declined to vote.
It was also voted that a Church be built on the lot given by the late Dr. MacSparran provided it was done without ex- pense to St. Paul's Church in North Kingstown. It was also voted that a committee be appointed to demand the money given by the late John Case Esq. to assist in building the Church. Martin Reed received a vote of thanks for his atten- tion to the preservation of the plate. It was voted that the plate belonging to St. Paul's Church in North Kingstown be deposited with Rev. Joseph Warren for the use of the Church.
It was also voted that the Rector officiate in North Kings- town at Wickford and at the Glebe in South Kingstown alter- nately until some other provision is made for preaching in South Kingstown, provided that South Kingstown shall pay half of the subscription for the support of the minister.
Pursuant to the vote for moving the Church, it was moved the next year 1800 to the lot in Wickford, designated by the original Lodowick Updike in his will as a lot for the Church, and given by his grandson Lodowick Updike, where the Church now stands.
While we have no record showing how the Church was moved, we have the general tradition that the building was dis- mantled and the several sticks of timber and boards carried to Wickford and there rebuilt in to the Church as we see it today.
Mrs. Griswold, whose grandmother was living in Wickford at the time that the Church was moved, in her "Old Wickford - the Venice of America" states that the church was taken
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down, moved, and rebuilt and that for some period following its rebuilding that there were no pews in the building and the worshippers sat on planks resting on pieces of logs. The Church's resources were exhausted by its removal to Wickford so that there wasn't any money left to finish and also furnish the interior. Later the pews were put back substantially as they are today. In April 1804, the records state that there were 30 pews in the Church and that they should be let for a dollar a year. Evidently they were installed at about that time.
Martin Reed, who lived in the door yard of the Church, acted as Sexton and Clerk for a great many years, and un- doubtedly was as familiar with the old building as anyone could be, drew a plan of the Old Church as it was before it was moved from the Platform. This plan shows that the altar has been moved from one end of the Church to the other. This was done so that the altar would be in the east. This was necessary be- cause the front of the Church faced the north at the Platform while it faces the south in its present location. The position of the stairway and the lines of the pews all indicate such a change in the interior as would not be made if the Church was moved as a whole. Further if we consider the roads over which it would be necessary to move the Church - rocky, rutted nar- row roads as well as several steep hills together with the avail- able methods of moving at that time -- we are bound to believe the tradition that the Church was taken to pieces, moved and rebuilt to suit its new location rather than the old legend of the Wickford people bringing 24 yoke of cattle and some timbers as skids on a clear cold night of January 1800, stealing the Church and skidding it to Wickford on the heavily crusted snow. After the Church was moved, there was some delay in completing the interior.
In 1811, we are told, a steeple was built on the west side of the Church. The round window in the gable end was closed up as it was covered by the steeple. Before the Church was moved, there was a stairway in the corner of the Church, but this was done away with, and the stairway was built in the steeple. A door was cut in the west end of the Church so as to give access to the galleries from this stairway. A short time after this a bell was added. This steeple fell down on a clear calm night the last day in December 1866.
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Either at the time the Church was rebuilt, or within a few years thereafter, a chimney was placed on the roof of the Church. This chimney was of the hanging kind, suspended from the roof beams but not coming below the ceiling. There is no record of the building of this chimney or of the original purchase of a stove or stovepipe, but later in 1830, the records include the appointment of a committee to see about repairing the stove. This lack of any record relative to this chimney and the purchase of the stove can only be explained on the theory that this was done during the period for which the records are missing. We have no records for the period beginning with the year 1800 and extending to the fall of 1803 and for a period from the spring of 1805 to the spring of 1818 except a single meeting in March of 1812.
A big change had come over the Church during these years, and if we could only find these lost records, they would give us much information about a crucial period in the life of the Church. Before this period we have a small and struggling church body divided by dissensions of various kinds, worship- ping in an old and dilapidated church building far removed from any center of human habitations. At the end of the period, we find the Church in a flourishing condition, worshipping in a tho- roughly repaired Church building located in the center of the biggest village in the whole community.
We know that there must have been regular meetings throughout this period. Rectors were changed and new ones were elected. Other Church officers must have been elected reg- ularly as required by the Church customs and the Rules and By-Laws of our Church. Besides there was so much which had to be done-taking an old Church, moving it to a new location, and making from the old building a building adequate to the needs of the times-that many meetings of the Vestry and of the Church must have taken place. The minutes of the meet- ings which are preserved show us that care was taken to have full and complete records of the various votes. I believe that the answer to this lack of records is that due to the impossibility of getting hold of the original record book that the minutes were kept on home-made blank books and scraps of paper with the idea of copying them later in the Record Book; that they never were copied; and that the pieces of paper or home-made
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Flagon left to old church by Nathaniel Kay, Collector of Port of Newport
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books became scattered, lost or destroyed through succeeding years.
We have some scattering records of meetings in 1803, 1804 and 1805 still extant in a small home-made blank book. In 1803, they elected their rector, Rev. Joseph Warren, rector for the ensuing year with the understanding that he was to offi- ciate half of the time in the Church in Wickford and the other half in the Glebe in South Kingstown. These meetings were held at Martin Reed's house adjacent to the old Platform.
During all this time the trouble with the Gardiners still continued. Samuel E. Gardiner still held the old Record Book and papers, and Walter Gardiner still held the Glebe lands. At the meeting in April 1804, it was voted that Jeremiah Brown and Nicholas Gardiner call on Samuel E. Gardiner to receive the records and to settle the lease with Samuel E. Gardiner and Walter Gardiner and that if Gardiner refused, to take legal means to obtain them. It was also voted on April 2, 1804, that Martin Reed take a lease of the house and lands for one shilling for one year, and that Jeremiah Brown be allowed $13.40 for defending the Church Yard against Job Sweet.
It would appear from the foregoing that the installation of the pews had been completed by this time. At a meeting held April 15, 1805, it was voted that the same arrangements be made relative to the renting of the pews for the ensuing year. Due to the fact that the Church was now in Wickford and Martin Reed was living in the house adjacent to the Platform, the question of a sexton came up for a vote. It was voted that the Rector choose the Sexton and pay him $4.00 a year out of the pew rents.
The next meeting of which we have any record was held on Easter Monday, March 29, 1812. At this meeting Rules of Procedure for the conduct of Church meetings were adopted and it was again voted to hold services alternately in the Church at Wickford and at the Glebe in South Kingstown.
This was followed by another hiatus in the records and the next recorded meeting was on March 30, 1818. At this meeting it was voted to lease the Platform for 199 years to Stanton Haz- ard. The lessee was to fence in the Burying Ground, and St. Paul's Church was to have the privilege in the house with a com- fortable fire for the meetings of said congregation on every Easter
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Monday and any adjournment thereof to transact the business of the Church. The rent was to be $13.00 a year for the house and lot payable in advance.
Although it was voted to build a church on the lot given by the Rev. Dr. MacSparran on the northwest corner of his farm as far back as December 1799, this was never done. When the time came to build, the South Kingstown members of the Parish chose to build their Church in the Village of Tower Hill, and it was not actually built until 1818. By November 1818, the Church was sufficiently completed so that a Tax could be levied on the pews of the new Church at Tower Hill to be deducted when the pews were sold.
At the Easter Monday meeting in 1819, a tax of $25.00 was levied on each pew for painting and repairing St. Paul's Church in Wickford.
During this period, Church Meetings were held at the Church in Wickford, in the new St. Luke's Church on Tower Hill, and at the Platform.
On April 24, 1819, it was voted to request Bishop Griswold to consecrate the Old Church. Perhaps it might seem strange to some that a Church should be used for 112 years before it was consecrated, but we must remember that there was no Bishop in these parts until after the Revolutionary War and that the Church was leading a rather precarious existence for the next twenty-five or thirty years. So it is not to be wondered at that this matter was not attended to earlier.
In 1822 a committee was appointed to notify the lessee in possession of the lot where the Old Church formerly stood to put up and repair the wall around the Burial Ground on said lot.
The Rector at this time had made some alterations and improvements in the Old Church, for in June 1822, it was voted to approve them, but the records are silent as to what the al- terations and improvements might be.
Early in 1824, it was recommended that the Glebe be sold and on May 15th of that year, it was voted to ask the Legisla- ture to amend the Charter so that the Church could sell the Glebe. In April of the following year, it was voted that the arrangement whereby the Rector should serve half of the time in North Kingstown and the other half in South Kingstown be repealed and that the Rector should serve the Wickford Church
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three quarters of the time and the Church at Tower Hill the balance, and this arrangement should continue until the South Kingstown Church should pay as much as is paid by the Wick- ford Church by subscription. .
At this meeting it was voted that the meetings be held in Wickford and no longer at the Platform. It was also voted to hold meetings in the Old Church monthly at early candlelight.
The Glebe was at this time leased to John Watson for a yearly rental of $118.20.
In May 1830, a committee reported that the Church should be shingled and other repairs made to the Church and steeple. A tax of $90.00 was levied on the pews for these repairs. The pews were valued for this purpose and the total valuation was placed at $554.00 for the 31 pews. At this time it was voted that a special contribution be taken up on the second Sunday of every month for the incidental expenses of the Church.
In the early days there was no method of heating the Church. Individual members of the Congregation brought heated soap stones to keep their feet from freezing or else had small perforated metal boxes known as foot stoves, or foot warmers, which were filled with live coals. We have no record showing when the question of heating the Church was first taken up. Very likely it was in the period between 1805 and 1818 for which there are no records. Any question as important as the heating question would surely have been mentioned in the records if it was taken up during the period for which there are records. In May 1830, we have a committee appointed to look into the question of the repair of the stove in the Church. This would indicate that the stove had been in service for quite a while. In October 1834, there was a committee appointed to see about repairing the stovepipe and exchanging the stove for one burning anthracite. Surely if the records of the vestry meetings saw fit to mention repairs on a stove and on a stove- pipe, they certainly would have mentioned such an innovation as the installing of a heating system if it was done in the period for which there are records.
There must have been some arrangements for lighting the Church even in fairly early days as we find some records of eve- ning meetings. In 1826 we note the regular establishment of candlelight services. Probably even during the Colonial period
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there were candles in sconces around the sides of the Church, and this method continued through the first third of the nine- teenth century. In the fall of 1834, a committee having in- vestigated methods of lighting the Church, ten brass hanging lamps and four pulpit lamps were purchased.
In Mrs. Griswold's "Old Wickford - the Venice of America", we find the following description of the Old Church as it was in Colonial Times. "It was a plain, oblong structure with curved ceiling, many windows, some of them arched, and all with innumerable small panes of glass. A wide gallery was added in 1723, on the front and two sides, with six round sub- stantial pillars upholding it. There was an old-fashioned wine glass pulpit, with reading desk below. The chancel and altar were in the east apart from the place of Common Prayer and preaching. Square box pews surrounded the sides and were in the center. A broad double door of entrance was in front and a smaller one on the west. There was originally no tower or spire. Access to the galleries was by stairs leading from the main floor."
From what we can learn, the above description would equally well apply to the Church after it was moved and re- built, except that ten long slip pews had taken the place of the box pews in the center of the Church.
The next change which would affect the old description was the adding of the tower and spire in 1811 and the moving of the stairway to the gallery from the interior of the Church to the tower. The next change was the moving of the chancel and altar from the east to in front of the pulpit.
The chancel rail was made semicircular. The Communion Table was placed in front with the reading desk, immediately behind and still further back was the wine glass pulpit. This change I believe was what was referred to in the records of June 1822, where it stated that "it was voted approval of the alter- ations and improvements in the Church by the Rector." The placing of a stove in the middle of the main aisle with a stove- pipe running up to the chimney above the ceiling must have changed the whole aspect of the interior of the Church. We have already mentioned the installation of the hanging lamps to take the place of the old candles and sconces.
On August 4, 1834, it was voted that alterations be made
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in the pulpit desk and chancel and pews in the old Church to make a greater number of pews. Pursuant to this vote "a mod- ern incongruous, oakstained pulpit was substituted for the original in 1835 when a new clergyman had charge and the chancel was then made straight and three narrow pews on each side were formed from the square ones previously existing. This ended the changes away from the old description. After years of desolation came the period of restoration and from that time on all alterations except the addition of the sacristy were changes bringing the Old Church back as it originally was.
The first step in these changes back was due to the ele- ments and not to any act of man. On a calm winter night, De- cember thirty-first, 1866, the steeple collapsed and fell to the ground. It was never replaced as the Old Church had been deserted in 1848 for the new St. Paul's. As the Old Church did not have a steeple, its removal was one step towards making it as it was in Colonial Times.
Coming back to our old records, we find in the records of the meeting of April 23, 1832, an inventory of the property owned by the Church at that time with the probable income for the year.
The Case estate in the possession of Rowland Hazard value $1333.33 income $53.34.
The Case estate in the possession of Elisha Watson value $266.66 income $10.87.
The Case estate in the possession of Joseph Watson value $2150.00.
The Glebe estate in the possession of John L. Watson value $1970.00 income $118.20.
The Sweet Lot (Platform) in the possession of Joseph Congdon value $216.67 income $13.00.
In March of the following year, St. Paul's Church in South Kingstown claimed one-half of all the net rents and profits of all lands held by St. Paul's Church for the maintenance of the minister, through the Trustees of Donations of the Protestant Episcopal Church. This was soon after the Parish was divided into the North Kingstown section and the South Kingstown section.
Old St. Paul's Church representing the North Kingstown Parish refused even to consider that the South Kingstown
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Slave Gallery
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Church had any claim to this money. Later the North Kings- town vestrymen became more conciliatory and the question was taken up for discussion.
On March 31, 1834, it was agreed that the Old St. Paul's Church should surrender to the South Kingstown Church all claim to the Case Estate and that all claim to the so-called Hill Farm, the Glebe, and the Platform should be surrendered by the South Kingstown Church to Old St. Paul's. In this way the final step was taken to end forever the dissensions existing between the two factions for well nigh seventy years.
In 1835, the South Kingstown Church was incorporated as St. Luke's Church.
In the records for 1835 we find another inventory of the income producing property of the Church. We note the Case Estate in the possession of R. Hazard valued at $1333.33. The Glebe Property and the Platform comprise the property of Old St. Paul's after the division. The income for these pieces of property was the same as in 1832 except the piece in pos- session of R. Hazard which now produced an income of $79.99.
In 1838 the Church was flourishing except from the finan- cial standpoint. At that time it was voted to take up a subscrip- tion to defray last year's current expenses, and if any money remained in the treasury, it was to be paid to the rector. The Church for a great many years had been troubled in collecting the rent from John L. Watson. Back in April 1832, it was voted to sue John L. Watson for his failure to pay the rent on the property he holds. In 1840 the property had apparently re- verted to the Church because in that year, at the time the Rev. John H. Rouse was elected Rector, a committee was appointed to procure a tenant. In March 1842, it was voted to advertise the Glebe lands for sale. At the meeting held March 22, 1843, it was reported that the Glebe Estate had been sold at public auction. In 1845 it was voted to petition the General Assem- bly for authority to sell the Chimney Pasture Lot in South Kingstown, but it was not sold until 1860 when it brought $850 for its 70 acres.
From then on almost all the entries in the records refer to the new St. Paul's which was built in 1847 and consecrated in 1848.
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On July 24th, 1851, the vestry voted that the Silver Bap- tismal Bowl, a priceless relic given originally by Queen Anne at the time of the building of the Church and used by Dr. Mac- Sparran and all the other Rectors of the Church for over a century and a quarter in baptizing hundreds of the members of Old St. Paul's, be melted up and be made into "as many plates as practicable". The same committee perhaps to make amends for their destroying one memento of our early rectors was ordered to erect a marble tablet in the new St. Paul's Church to the mem- ory of the Rev. James MacSparran D.D. and the Rev. Samuel Fayerweather. Earlier in the same year the Chapel was ordered erected, and in 1855 the money was raised to build a parsonage on Hamilton Ave. On May 11, 1857, it was voted to lease the Platform for 999 years to James A. Greene. This is equivalent in everything but name to a sale.
On December 6, 1868, the Vestry voted to allow the Mac- Sparran Monument Association to erect a monument to Mac- Sparran and Fayerweather on the original site of the Old Church. This monument of Westerly granite surmounted by a cross is 14 feet high and was dedicated on June 25, 1869.
Immediately following the dedication services, the people returned to Wickford and visited the Old Church before re- turning to their homes. This seemed to be the turning point in the affairs of the Old Church. Since the time when the new St. Paul's became the Parish Church, the Old Church had been abandoned and neglected. For over 20 years nothing had been done to protect it from the elements, or for that matter, from the hands of mischievous children. Following this visitation an interest was aroused in the old building and in its preserva- tion. It began to be felt that the Old Church, the mother of South County Churches, had a sentimental value and an his- torical value and that it should be preserved for future genera- tions. It certainly deserved some better future than to be mere- ly a dilapidated storehouse for old lumber and other rubbish. The Rector, Dr. Daniel Goodwin, formerly of St. John's Church, Bangor, Maine, became very much interested in the Old Church and in its preservation as well as in its history. He later edited and published in three volumes Updike's "History of the Nar- ragansett Church."
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