USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Woodstock > In loving remembrance of the founders of the parish of Saint James Church in Woodstock, Vermont and of those by whose devotion their work was continued this memorial is set forth : 1827-1907 > Part 1
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01699 3948
GENEALOGY 974.302 W86IN
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Rev. Joel Clap, First Rector
IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE PARISH OF SAINT JAMES CHURCH IN WOODSTOCK VERMONT AND OF THOSE BY WHOSE DEVOTION THEIR WORK WAS CONTINUED THIS MEMORIAL IS SET FORTH
1827-1907
THE ELM TREE PRESS
WOODSTOCK VERMONT
This Edition is limited to Five Hundred Copies, of which this is Number 4
Foreword
N SUNDAY, April 28, in the three hundredth year of English Christian- ity in America, and the eightieth in the life of St. James Parish, Wood- stock, Vermont, there was held the last religious service in the Church edifice consecrated by Bishop Griswold of the Eastern Diocese, Septem- ber 28th, 1828, and preparations were immediately made for a more permanent building. As a memorial of the past; to mark the work of the Founders; and to show the walls towards which our hearts have ever turned in absence, where our ancestors for two gen- erations met to join in the universal hymn of praise, where we were brought in infancy to join the Church Militant, whence our fore-runners passed to the Church Triumphant; these pages have been assem- bled.
With tears we dismantled its altar and left this house of our love and our devotion. More imposing
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walls may arise, a new and stronger building will no doubt take the place of the old Church, but we who worshipped there are like the "priests and Levites and the chief of the fathers, the old men that saw the first house" in Jerusalem; and as "they wept with a loud voice" when they recalled those walls hallowed by sacred memories, so the tears well up in our eyes and our thoughts ever turn backward with longing for old Saint James, where we learned to love and rev- erence the Church of our fathers.
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Early Charters
N WRITING the history of St. James it is interesting to note that Vermont is peculiar in being the only one of the original communities which, as a state, was independent of both Great Britain and the United States, with towns chartered by a Churchman, with a reservation in each town so chartered for "a Glebe for the Church of England as by law established," and "for the incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." In that the Propagation lands remained in the possession of that Society, it is the only state a large part of whose territory has from the beginning been owned by an organization of the Anglican Church, and from which the wing of that Church has never been lifted. The town of Woodstock is also peculiar in having for the head of its first Church family-that of Henry Barlow Brown, Esq., barris- ter, of St. Andrews, New Brunswick-a niece of
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Governor Benning Wentworth, Mary Wentworth Appleton Clapham, who died here, so that mingled with the dust of the town is that of the family of him who gave it its name and charter.
Following his custom, Governor Wentworth, in the charter of the town of Woodstock, dated July 10, 1761, set apart equal shares for a Glebe and a Church society, and also acknowledged that other religious persuasions existed, by reserving an equal share for the first settled minister. In most towns this last share generally fell to one of the denominations,-infre- quently to the Church. This spirit of toleration and fairness was met by the usual display of Puritanical bigotry and intolerance. In pre-revolutionary times it was impotent to deprive the Church of its rights. With the overthrow of British rule this bigotry, thinly disguised in Vermont as patriotism, made its last exhi- bition of intolerance and injustice, forgetting the fact that the great leaders in the Revolution showed to the world that Churchmanship did not prevent men from exhibiting the loftiest examples of patriotism, nor did it prevent Washington from being hailed as "the Father of his Country."
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The Episcopate
URING most of this struggle for her property rights the Diocese of Ver- mont had no episcopal supervision. Bishop Seabury's consecration in Scotland in 1784 and the consecra- tior. in England of Bishops White and Provoost in 1787 and of Bishop Madison in 1790 had given the Church in this country not only the succession but a college of Bishops by whom the succession might be handed down. The General Convention of 1789 had adopted a constitution as the basis of union within the Church in this country and for the consecration of future bishops. But so far Vermont had not accepted the constitution nor secured the succession.
The initial convention of the Diocese was held in 1790. At the meeting in 1793 the convention elected as bishop of Vermont the Rev. Edward Bass, who after- wards became bishop of Massachusetts. He accepted the election conditionally upon suitable arrangements
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being made for his support, and with the un- derstanding that he would at first give only a portion of his time to Vermont. Before any action could be taken on his letter the Diocese, at a special convention held in Manchester the next February, elected as bishop the Rev. Samuel Peters, D. D., at that time residing in London, living on a pension granted him by the English Government in lieu of property confiscated by the United States at the close of the war. In spite of persistent efforts on the part of the Diocese to secure Dr. Peters' consecration in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury refused, on the ground that the Church in America was fully organized with its own college of Bishops and on the further ground that no proper cre- dentials of Dr. Peters' fitness were at hand. Balked in England, a second attempt to secure his consecra- tion, this time by the " American bishops", was also a failure because, since the Diocese of Vermont had not accepted the Constitution set forth by the General Convention, the bishops would not consecrate a bishop for her.
Vermont made no further effort to get a bishop of her own for a number of years. In 1805 the con- vention asked Bishop Moore of New York to take the Diocese under his care, or in the words of the resolu- tion told him she wished "to be annexed to his Dio-
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cese. " This Bishop Moore consented to on the con- dition that he should not visit the state. Finally in 1810 the Diocese adopted a new constitution, ac- cepted the Constitution of the General Convention, and united with the Churches in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, in forming the so-called Eastern Diocese, which thus included all of New Eng- land excepting Connecticut. Rev. Alexander V. Griswold of Rhode Island was elected bishop of the new Diocese and in 1811 was duly consecrated. From this time our Diocese has had direct episcopal supervision, having had her own bishops since the con- secration of Rev. Dr. John Henry Hopkins in 1832.
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Religious Life of Woodstock
E ARE all aware of the intolerance W towards adverse religious and secu- ular matters which characterized the people of New England before the nineteenth century. Its dying efforts are seen in the history of Woodstock, as given by Henry Swan Dana, its able historian, and a brief sketch of the religious life of the town must be given if we would understand the reasons for Dr. Gallup's letter to Mr. Clap, given in the appendix.
The "First Church" in the town was never in a secure condition nor did it worship under its own con- secrated roof till thirty-four years after its first meeting in 1774. It had seen most of its members form a Baptist body which erected a church edifice. It had through weakness united with that body to secure a place of worship. It saw, finally, its meeting house burn ; the Baptist body renounce its articles of faith and practice, and separate into individuals who did 1.ot come
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into its own organization. It had seen the Baptist body in 1797 strong enough to drive Lorenzo Dow from town when he endeavored to establish Methodism. It had witnessed the formation of strong bodies of Christians and Universalists. Even when under a consecrated roof of its own its life was vexed by con- flicts between pastor and people. With individuals thinking more of their own opinions than of adding to the harmony that should obtain in an organization, it is not strange that religious life was at a low ebb. The revivals which took place now and then did not fur- nish flame sufficient for permanent ardor, and the earn- est people of the town, who had its good at heart, looked for something better.
Among these was Dr. Joseph A. Gallup, sprung from a Connecticut family, and the first in the region to inoculate for "kine pox". Later he was to be known as the founder of the Vermont Medical College and its efficient head. The wife of Dr. Gallup was a native of Holland, of good family and high culture. Both were interested in whatever would benefit the town. Just before the war of 1812 there came from St. Andrews, New Brunswick, the family of Henry Barlow Brown, as before noted. This added to the religious elements of the town the leaven of the church, and marks the beginning of the influences that ended
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in the formation of St. James Parish. Between 1810 and 1820 General Lyman Mower, Colonel Justus Burdick, Amos Warren, Royal and Darius Blake, and Abraham Stearns became residents and took promi- nent places in the community.
10
Organization of the Parish
HESE MEN, among others, felt that the time had come for some action which might mend the irreligion and unrest that marked the community. So in 1825 they began seriously to discuss the condition of religious affairs in order to as- certain whether their individual desires for a change could be brought to an harmonious agreement for some- thing definite. In order to determine the number of those who would unite in endeavoring to secure such a change, a subscription paper that did not in any way effect an organization, but which looked toward the establishment of a Church parish, was circulated and ex- tensively signed. The number of signers was more than sufficient to form a congregation and the wealth and position of the signers, as well as the sums subscribed, guaranteed that it would be successfully financed. As Dr. Gallup had been prominent in the move- ment, he was authorized at a subscribers' meeting to
=
approach the proper authorities and have an Episcopal clergyman come and effect a permanent organization. Such a movement in the previous period of intolerance would have been provocative of decided opposition. As was noted in Dr. Gallup's letter to Rev. Joel Clap, "the people in general seem to be more catholic and charitable than on some former occasions." The sequel showed that the statement was true, for party spirit seems to have been laid aside and among the pew holders, or those who contributed to build the edifice, we find the names of those of other denominations who never became members of St. James Parish. Other congregations also, as a body, showed good will towards the movement and Mr. Clap was frequently invited to occupy the pulpit of the Congregational Church.
To resume; Dr. Gallup went to Montpelier to meet Mr. Clap, who was ministering not only in Shelburne but also in this district, but failed to see him. On his return he wrote to him at his residence in Shelburne, under date of October 18th, 1825, as shown in Ap- pendix I, inviting him to come to Woodstock to organ- ize a parish, and suggesting the two Sundays immedi- ately before December 1st. The dates proving suita- ble, Mr. Clap came to town and preached in the Court House on Sunday, November 20th, 1825. As shown
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in the Observer, he "preached a lecture" on the fol- lowing Wednesday, 23d, remaining through the week in consultation with the leaders in the movement. Or. the following Sunday he again preached in the same place, and to a body fully determined upon their future actions. On the next day, Monday, November 28th, 1825, he met the future members of the parish in the Court House with Articles of Agreement drawn up and ready for signing. These articles and the list of signers are given in Appendix IIA. In this manner "The Parish of St. James Church" began its existence. From time to time during the winter, as his duties per- mitted, Mr. Clap preached either in the Court House or as above stated.
The meeting of November 28th adjourned to Jan- uary 2d, when a prudential committee was appointed to "superintend the affairs of the society till organiza- tion." They made choice of General Lyman Mower, Colonel Amos Warren, and R. Blake. On Easter Monday, March 27th, 1826, the organization was effected by the election of the proper officers, viz: "Dr. Joseph A. Gallup, Mr. R. Blake, wardens; General L. Mower, J. A. Pratt and O. D. Richardson, vestry- men; and John P. Richardson, clerk." Mr. Royal Blake was chosen delegate to the convention, which was to meet at Middlebury in June. A committee was
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also appointed to draft By-Laws. This committee reported at a meeting held on the following Friday, 31 st, and the laws were adopted. (See Appendix 11B.) All parts of the "records of the Society which relate to its organization" were, at the request of the Rev. Mr. Clap, referred to the Standing Committee of the Dio- cese, by which they were approved April 18th, 1826. (See Appendix IIC.) There seems to have been some informality in the previous articles of agreement as well as the subsequent proceedings so that, probably at the suggestion of the Standing Committee, the articles of agreement after revision were renewed on June 22, 1826, and the By-Laws revised and readopted. (See Appendix IID for changes and new list of signers.) This was after the election of the first Vestry. (See above.) They held office until the next regular elec- tion, April 16, 1827. Dr. Gallup was the Moder- ator of these meetings, and served as senior warden until 1835. A building committee had been appointed in the spring, consisting of Colonel Justus Burdick, John A. Pratt and Abraham Stearns, whom we re- member fondly as our senior warden for forty-two years.
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A. Blake
R. Barker
Clergyman
W. Fitch
JA Gallup
S. Edson
SI
17
D. Warson
E. S. Hayden
7. Bridge
/2
W.P. Gibson
B.F. mower 3 8
G. W. Rice
=
. a. Stearns
O. P. Chandler
m. Mason
D. Morsh 3
Goo Wilder
J. Cutting a
J. Udall
E. Hutchinson
. L. Mower
& J. Weymouth
& T.W. Bradley
B . F. mower
& m L. Bullard
$ J.a Pratt
M A Stearns
B. F. mower 20
a Jones
Public
Public
J.a. Gallup
a. Jones
n. Williams
J.D. Powers
48 T. a. Pratt
2.2
a stearns
Whitney ST
R Barker
& J. Eaton
JS Gallup
a stearns.
6.
4 A.D.Granger
Geo. Gallup 32
a warren y
Lorenzo Pratt
L. Mawer
A. Barker
¥ J. Burdick
J. a. Gallup
a warren M
Public
2
Original seating plan of St. James Church
40
T. Danforth
à a. Stearns
J. Dunbar
D. Blake
Jas. Fisher 36
The First Building
HE SITE for the edifice was given by Dr. Gallup for the sum of one dol- lar, to be held solely for the erection and maintenance of a church in the Protestant Episcopal Order, "as long as wood grows and water runs." The financing of the movement was left to the substantial men in the par- ish, and from the account-book of the building com- mittee we find that General Lyman Mower and John A. Pratt advanced, in about equal proportions, three- fourths of the cost of the edifice. As soon as the organization of the parish was satisfactorily accom- plished, plans for the church were drawn, calling for a building with two alleys, the chancel projecting into the body of the square building with three pews on either side facing towards it (see plate); the organ and choir being in a gallery, and the whole heated by a large stove at the right of the door. The recessed chancel and vestry and organ rooms were added subsequently.
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In the Observer for October, 1826, the committee advertised for bids for "the building of a Church 46 by 62 feet : the walls to be made of stone, 25 feet high, and to be completed in the course of the next season." During the succeeding winter stone was brought from Bridgewater. The site of the building had been a depression permanently filled with water in the early days of the town, and so large that the boys skated thereon in winter. A "potash" had been erected there about the beginning of the century and the spent ashes had been used to fill in the pond to the depth of two feet or more. When, therefore, excava- tions were begun in the spring of 1827, water and fine glacial sand were encountered, and it was thought to be quicksand, which would not sustain a stone edifice. The surplus stone was therefore sold to be used in building the two houses at the southeast corner of the common, next the library, and the church was con- structed of wood. It was finished in time for the first service on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24th, 1827. On the next day the Holy Communion was celebrated for the first time in the church.
On the following New Year's day (1828) an auc- tion of the pews of the church was held to repay the sums advanced, and realized $4301.12, which was sufficient to place the church free from debt. On
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Saint James Church, 1863
--
September 28, 1828, the building was consecrated by Bishop Griswold. In the Woodstock Observer for the following week there appeared a notice of this event, with the following comment on the occasion :---
" It is very pleasing, at least to the true Churchman, to notice the very liberal manner in which this Church is not only built but furnished with everything neces- sary to the decent celebration of Divine Service,- with Books, Communion Plate, an Organ " and a Bell, and long may it remain not only an evidence of the liberal spirit of its founders, but an ornament and a blessing to the flourishing and growing village in which it is situated. This work we trust has originated in no spirit of hostility or intolerance towards other persua- sions in religion, but purely in a desire to enjoy the in- stitutions of Christianity as settled at the Reformation by some of the wisest and best of our English Ances- tors, and by the holiest of martyrs upon the model of the most primitive ages of our faith."
* The Communion Plate and Organ were given in 1869 to Holy Trinity Church, Swanton Falls.
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Visitations of the Bishop
T HE PARISH thus organized and supplied with a church edifice and minister, contained at first very few church people. There could not have been more than two or three com- municants as the outset. As Dr. Gallup wrote Mr. Clap in the letter referred to above, the people were without Prayer Books, and so unfamiliar with them that they would need guidance in making the responses. But the men and women who organized St. James Parish were deeply in earnest and they welcomed the Church so readily that when Bishop Griswold came to the parish on the 25th of June of the next year, 1826, he confirmed twelve, who " with several others devoutly united in commemorating that adorable sac- rifice which alone can expiate sin and give spiritual life." This was, as the bishop reports, the first time the Communion was celebrated here " according to our mode." He was much gratified with the conditions
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he found in St. James and noted not only the number and character of the people who had organized the parish, but their earnestness and zeal and the " devout attention which they gave to the varied services of the day."
In the records of the Ladies' Sewing Society we find that the first person confirmed at this visitation was Mrs. Nancy Spooner, the mother of Mrs. Robert Bar- ker.
At the bishop's second visitation, September 28, 1828, he not only consecrated the church, as has been already mentioned, but ordained Benjamin Hale, pro- fessor of "chymmistry " and metallurgy at Dartmouth College, to the Diaconate. It is interesting to note that this ordination was in the afternoon.
At this time Mr. Clap was in charge of the parish at Bethel as well as our own. But it was felt that each parish would be the better for its own rector and efforts were made looking to this arrangement. The bishop, under date of 1830, writes of the desirability of such a plan and says that the two parishes, if they are making efforts to accomplish this, " certainly merit aid from the funds if any can be spared for that pur- pose." Mr. Clap was persuaded to stay in Wood- stock, and on the " 21st day of October in the year of our Lord 1831 " was duly instituted rector of St.
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James Parish by the Rev. Abraham Bronson, acting as the agent of Bishop Griswold.
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Diocesan Growth
EANWHILE the life of the parish was strong and its growth was marked with vigor. The same conditions seem, in a general way, to be charac- teristic of the state, for Bishop Gris- wold says in his report for 1827 that Vermont is the most flourishing part of his Diocese. So greatly had the Church increased that by 1831 it was felt that love for Bishop Griswold must no longer delay the Diocese in obtaining that oversight which he could not possibly give her without neglecting his other districts. So Ver- mont withdrew from the Eastern Diocese, which soon separated into its original divisions and so ceased to exist as a separate Diocese. Bishop Griswold's com- ment on Vermont may not prove uninteresting; "I leave it in great prosperity. Eighteen years ago they had one, or at least two, officiating clergymen: now they have twelve or more. Then they had not one church edifice properly their own: now they have
- --
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twelve new ones which are consecrated and five or six more which are built or in building. Then, if I rec- ollect aright, they had three organized parishes: in their late Convention twenty-four were represented."
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Ladies Charitable Society
W ITH the coming of Bishop Hopkins to the Diocese in 1832, a new rector came to St. James. Mr. Clap, after seven years' service, left for Maine; and the Rev. B. C. C. Parker was chosen to succeed him. Perhaps the most significant event of his ministry of seven years, so far as the par- ish life is concerned, was the formation on June 20, 1835, of the Ladies' Charitable Society. This was an important move from the point of view of the future because by it the ladies were banded together for parish work, and out of it came great gains in every way. For many years they paid a stated sum into the treasury for the support of the rector. Their rec- ord books are still in existence and bear witness to their good works and their help to the parish and to the church at large Many of the major improve- ments in the church, particularly the purchase of a new organ in 1868 and the changes in the church building
23
made at that time, were largely rendered possible by their efforts. Through them, too, the parish came into touch with the wider work of the church. Among other entries we find mention of money given to the Greek Mission at Athens and the resolution that " 25 doll be forwarded to Bishop Chase for the use of spreading the Gospel in the state of Missouria." This was in the very beginning of the life of the Society. It would be a mistake, however, to think of the La- dies' Charitable Society as merely an organization for raising money, or for ministering to the needy. The Altar was under its care and flowers were secured for its decoration " almost every Sunday in the year." It is difficult to say how early this was done. It is men- tioned in the summary of the work of the first fifty years written by Mrs. Hatch. To her pen we owe, too, a series of notes descriptive of the meetings in the early days. The ladies assembled at two o'clock in the afternoon, and sewed diligently until time for sup- per. Mrs. Parker opened the meetings with extem- pore prayer and the reading and exposition of a chap- ter from the New Testament. " During the hours of sewing the most strict discipline was preserved and one lady was required to read aloud from standard writers for the instruction of those that were performing their duty by work." The membership of the Society
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embraced all the women of the parish, both the older and the younger ones. At the supper time there was a relaxation of the strict discipline which did not allow a word to be spoken and the ladies, now reinforced by the presence of some of the men, spent a little time in " social converse," after which " all present were re- quired to attend diligently to their work until eight o'clock." It was at this time more especially that the first object of the Society was fulfilled. This was, in the words of the Constitution: " To improve our minds in social and religious information to make us better acquainted with the true principles of our Holy Religion, and to establish within us that peace which the world cannot give nor take away; which we hope to obtain through the merits of our blessed Lord and Saviour who has promised that when two or three meet together in His name, He will be in the midst of them." Accordingly we find Mr. Parker reading to them out of some book which he had " recently from Boston," or that the whole evening was taken up in the discussion of theology, or that Dr. Palmer would tell them of various matters in the world of science. " Both Rev. Mr. Parker and Dr. Palmer were re- nowned for their very great conversational gifts. The ladies did not talk but listened, while their fingers were never idle." Mrs. Hatch says that at the time of
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