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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01818 4496
GENEALOGY 974.302 B27DAU
One Hundred Fifty
Years
of
Methodism
in
Barre, Vermont
by Corinne Eastman Davis
ـكة
-
Hedding Methodist Church Barre, Vermont
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS OF METHODISM IN BARRE
by CORINNE EASTMAN DAVIS
-
Copyright 1948 by Corinne Eastman Davis
Printed in U. S. A. by Capital City Press Inc., Montpelier, Vt.
Dedication
+
To the men and women, the young people and children, no longer living, who loved this church and moved happily within its walls, and gave to it a brimming measure of devo- tion.
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Dr. Eldon H. Martin Stephen E. Billings Mrs. Deane C. Davis
DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE
Miss Alice Beckley Raymond Bosworth
co-chairmen
Miss Alice Bartlett
Mrs. Lottie Churchill
Mr. and Mrs. Truman Eastman
Mrs. Clyde Fussell
Miss Mary Higgs
Mrs. Lionel Lawliss
A. LeRoy Smith
Mrs. Leon Snow
CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF MINISTERS
8
FOREWORD 11
I. BEGINNINGS 13
II. GROWTH 27
III. MID-CENTURY YEARS 33
IV. END OF AN ERA 43
V. THE NEW DAY 48
VI. TURN OF THE CENTURY 58
VII. TRANQUIL YEARS 63
VIII.
THE TWENTIES
72
IX. DEPRESSION YEARS
78
X. THE NORTH BARRE COMMUNITY HOUSE 91
XI. WAR YEARS 100
XII. SESQUICENTENNIAL 104
CONCLUSION 114
SOURCE MATERIAL 116
METHODIST MINISTERS SERVING THE BARRE CHURCH 1797-1947
1797-98
Ralph Williston
1823-24
Haskell Wheelock Samuel Morris
1798-99 Joseph Crawford
1799-1800 Joseph Crawford
1824-25
David Kilburn Haskell Wheelock A. H. Houghton
1800-01
Timothy Dewey
1801-02
Thurman Bishop
1825-26
John Lord D. Leslie Elihu Scott
Paul Dustin
1826-27
A. D. Merrill
1803-04
Samuel Draper
J. D. Templeton
Oliver Beale
1827-28
J. B. White E. Jordan R. L. Harvey Amasa Buck D. Stickney
1806-07
Philip Munger
1829-30
J. D. Templeton J. Morgan
1807-08
Samuel Thompson
1830-31
J. A. Scarrit
Eleazer Wells
J. A. Deming
1808-09
Solomon Sias
1831-32
N. W. Scott
1809-10
Warren E. Bannister George Gray
1832-33
N. W. Scott George F. Crosby
Esquire Streeter
1833-34
1811-12
Nathanael Stearns
1834-35
1812-13 E. F. Newell
Joseph Dennett
1835-36
1813-14
David Kilburn
1814-15
David Kilburn
1836-37
Jason Walker
D. Wilcox
1815-16
Joel Steele
1837-38
Elihu Scott Moses Lewis
1816-17 Joel Steele T. C. Pierce
1838-39
N. W. Aspenwall
1817-18
Leonard Frost
1839-40
Newel Culver
1818-19
Leonard Frost
1840-42
John Currier
1819-20
Leonard Frost
1842-44
J. L. Slauson Alonzo Webster
1820-21
S. B. Haskell
1846-47
Ella Dunham
1847-49
1821-22
J. F. Adams
1849-51
Abraham Ho!way
1851-52
John Dow
1822-23
1852-53
Edmund Copeland
J. F. Adams D. Leslie
1853-54
Elijah Robinson
1805-06 Elijah Hedding
1828-29
Dan Young
Jonathan Cheney
R. H. Deming
1810-11
Eleazer Wells
S. H. Cutler J. Nason Nathan Howe Otis F. Curtis
J. Jewett
George Putnam J. Wooster Elihu Scott
T. C. Pierce
1844-46
J. W. Perkins R. Bedford Caleb Fales
Elijah Chichester
Thomas Branch
1802-03 Solomon Langdon
1804-05 Oliver Beale
D. Goodhue
1854-55
Edmund Copeland
1887-90
Leonard L. Beeman
1855-57
Isaac McAnn
1890-93
Wilbur S. Smithers
1857-59
Andes T. Bullard
1893-98
Walter R. Davenport
1859-61
J. L. Roberts
1898-1902 A. E. Atwater
1861-63
David Packer
1902-07
Ralph F. Lowe
1863-65
H. K. Cobb
1907-12
E. O. Thayer
1865-66
J. W. Bemis
1912-16
Elmer F. Newell
1866-68
Lewis Hill
1916-23
B. G. Lipsky
1868-70
Joshua Gill
1923-28
W. T. Best
1870-71
Joseph A. Sherburne
1928-29
Charles M. Charlton
1871-74
Peter Merrill
1929-31
Charles C. Chayer
1874
J. M. Puffer
1931-37
Laurence H.
1874-75
Walter Underwood
Blackburn
1875-78
William H. Wight
1937-42
Norman Moss
1878-81
Harvey Webster
1942
Ralph W. Kelley
1881-84
Joshua R. Bartlett
1942-46
Daniel T. Hill
1884-87
Abram M. Wheeler
1946
Eldon H. Martin
FOREWORD
I wish to express my deep appreciation to the members of the Research Committee, Miss Alice Beckley, Miss Alice Blodgett, Mrs. Fred Blodgett, Miss Alida Carpenter, Mrs. Clyde Fussell, Miss Ruth Guerin, Mrs. Harold Hawes, Mrs. Eugene Lyon, Mrs. Fred Smith, Mrs. Leon Snow, Mrs. Philip Vercoe, for splendid cooperation given me in finding and sifting material for this book; and also to Miss Marjorie Hanton, Dr. Eldon H. Martin, and Mr. Glenn C. Car- penter for valuable assistance.
It is too much to hope that there are no errors or omis- sions. Written records and the human memory are alike faulty on occasion.
Attention is called to the fact that all the secretaries' records of the Official Board prior to 1921 have been lost or destroyed. For all the years preceding that time, there are only a few legal papers and the trustees' small record book which begins in 1908.
For this reason it is doubtful if this history contains the names of all the local preachers and deaconesses whom Hedding Church has given to Methodism. Furthermore, there are in the available records few references to the many gifts we know have been made to the church.
It is a very humbling task to write the history of a great church, a history that is correct, inclusive, and readable, and one that may be of some future helpfulness. It is sin- cerely hoped that this book will bring a degree of pleasure and satisfaction to the members who love Hedding Church, particularly the older members. If this is so, I too am satisfied.
C. E. D.
Barre, Vermont January 27, 1948.
CHAPTER I BEGINNINGS
This is the story of Methodism in Barre, Vermont.
This is the story of beginnings in a small New England village at the close of the eighteenth century, of growth and expansion across the breadth of the nineteenth century, and of continued prosperity and increase through almost half of the twentieth century to the year of our Lord 1948.
This is the story of one church, its struggles, its hard- ships, its successes and its failures.
This is, finally, the story of the people who identified their lives with the life of this church and who worked and sacrificed unstintingly for its welfare.
Methodism was founded in Barre in 1797, when the first Class was organized. At that time, the United States of America, the "new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedi- cated to the proposition that all men are created equal," had just come of age at twenty-one years. Vermont, the first state in this Union to prohibit slavery by constitution, was six years old. Barre, destined to become the state's most cosmopolitan and democratic city, had been an or- ganized town only four years. It seems appropriate that Methodism, with its stress on individual worth, individual salvation, and individual responsibility, should very early have planted its seeds firmly and strongly in this particular setting.
Methodism was still a pioneer religion in the world, the first Methodist Societies of John Wesley having been organized in England but fifty-eight years before. In this
13
·
country, the new Methodist Episcopal Church was but thirteen years old in 1797. It had existed in New Eng- land but seven years and had had its beginnings in eastern Vermont but one year before.
Much of Vermont was still primeval forest. It was very sparsely settled, much more so than most of New England, and there were few religious organizations. Barre itself, first known as Wildersburg, was a sleepy, country village of less than nine hundred people. The granite industry with all its accompanying activity was many years distant.
Very early in the hearts of this small community, there was evidenced a desire for religious services. A record of the third town meeting, held September 3, 1793 on West Hill at the home of Calvin Smith (later the old John Kelley farm and now owned by Lionel R. LaMontagne) states that it was "voted to petition the General Assembly to alter the name of town of Wildersburg," and "that the man that will give most toward building a meeting house in said town shall name the town, and the town will petition the General As- sembly for that name. The name of the town was vendued and bid off by Ezekiel D. Wheeler for the sum of sixty-two pounds lawful money, he being the highest bidder, and said Wheeler named the town Barre." Of more general belief concerning the naming of the town is the episode of the fist fight in this same Calvin Smith's barn that is narrated in Thompson's History of Vermont (1842), although the town records make no mention of this fight. At another town meeting ten years later, September 3, 1805, it was "voted that the note given by E. D. Wheeler and others, for the privilege of naming the town of Barre be destroyed and not collected." Whether there is any connection between the cancellation of this debt and the affair of fisticuffs in the old barn is a matter of conjecture.
On March 17, 1794, the same town meeting that "voted that the swine should not run at large the present year," decided not to act upon article 15, which read: "To see if the town will erect some cheap log building in the center of said town for the purpose of holding their meetings in, to do town business, and to meet in on the Lord's Day for the publick worship of God."
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From then on, almost every public meeting included discussion concerning the location and erection of a place of worship, and the problem of procuring and paying a 7: 1
preacher.
There had been some Universalist preaching during these earliest years, and on October 28, 1796, an organization document of sixteen names was filed with the Town Clerk by this sect. Local sentiment seems to have favored Uni- versalist doctrine at this time when doctrines were taken with the utmost seriousness, for on May 22, 1797, it was voted "that the committee chosen to supply the town with preaching, in March last past, should hire a preacher of the Universalist Denomination out of the publick monies aris- ing from the town's Ministerial Leased Lands, as many Sabbaths as the said committee shall judge will be a just proportion of said monies as would belong to the Universalist Society in said 'Barre, upon an equal division of the same . . . "
The same fall that the Universalists organized, 1796, Methodist preaching was introduced in Barre as a direct result of the formation of the Vershire circuit earlier-that same year. This circuit was the first organized center of Methodism east of the Green Mountains and, as such, is of great importance in the history of the denomination in this state.
Two townships, Corinth and Bradford, vie with each other in claiming to be the birthplace of Methodism in eastern Vermont.
The neighborhood in the southwest part of Corinth was very early called "the cradle of Methodism", in Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer, Volume 2. Meetings were held there at the home of John Langdon (now the Darling farm) as early as 1797. There is record that funerals and weddings took place in 1792 in a "new barn", less than a mile from Langdon's home. In the light of what is known of Langdon's later activities, it is probable that religious ser- vices were also held in this barn.He was very influential in getting a church built in this neighborhood. This church, located practically on the town line between Corinth and Vershire; was not only the first Methodist Church in eastern Vermont, but probably the first one of this denomination
15
in the state. It was extremely primitive. There were no means of heating it, and the members carried warming pans and heated stones with them to make it possible to sit through the long services in freezing weather. John Lang- don was the first recording steward, and also the first local preacher in this vicinity.
From old letters, it is learned that he was in no small part instrumental in getting Nicholas Snethen, a circuit preacher, to come to this region. The fact that the circuit was named Vershire adds weight to Corinth's claim, since Vershire borders on this neighborhood of Corinth.
Bradford, however, is a serious contender for the honor of being the birthplace of Methodism in this section. Here it traces its origin directly to John Wesley. In his home prior to her marriage to Giles Peckett, Margaret Appleton was employed as housekeeper for three years, and was converted to Methodism. In 1774 she and her husband journeyed to America, and some years later settled on the outskirts of the village of Bradford in the locality known as the Plains. In 1790 Mother Peckett, as she came to be known, introduced Wesley's teaching in her neighborhood.
Any decision regarding the truth of these two claims to local fame is a matter of point of view. If the organization and outstanding activity of a church is the deciding factor, Corinth's claim would seem to be sustained. On the other hand, if the earliest organization of a Methodist Class hold- ing religious services is the criterion, Bradford is probably the birthplace.
Whichever claim is valid, certainly both of these small, rural communities rejoiced when the Conference finally persuaded Nicholas Snethen to ride the many long miles from Connecticut to their vicinity to take charge of the newly organized Vershire circuit, which was the first circuit wholly within what is now the state of Vermont.
Mr. Snethen was later one of the founders of the Metho- dist Protestant Church which, in protest against certain practices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was organized over thirty years later. At one stage of his career, he served as chaplain in the national House of Representatives. Perhaps his caliber is best illustrated by the fact that he was
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twice selected by the great Bishop Asbury as a traveling companion. As head of the new circuit, Mr. Snethen came to Barre, which was part of his territory as was all eastern Vermont, to introduce Methodist preaching.
With him came Jesse Lee, the founder of New England Methodism and the eloquent speaker who had set Boston afire with his stirring words. He, like Snethen, had served as chaplain in Congress. He was perhaps the most popular preacher of this denomination in the whole country. A Virginian born, of fine physical stature, his genial, unassum- ing manner drew people to him wherever he went. A special friend of Bishop Asbury, he often held Conference for the Bishop when the latter was ill. In addition to monumental work as a circuit rider from Georgia to the borders of Maine, he also wrote the first history of Methodism.
Such were the two men, Snethen and Lee, who held the first Barre meeting at the home of Colonel John Walker in the fall of 1796, when George Washington was still president of the United States. This meeting place was a log cabin, built on Millstone Hill in what is now Websterville, next door to the home of Ezekiel D. Wheeler, who earlier had "bid off" the right to name the town. The next generation built a frame farmhouse slightly in front of the cabin, and some of the materials from the earlier building were put into the farmhouse. This is still standing, and is commonly known as the Lewis Keith place. Destiny seems to have put a Methodist stamp on this site, for in this second build- ing Emma Batchelder was born in 1851. She later became the wife of John Luther Beckley of the Beckley Hill Beckleys, and the mother of Alice Beckley of the present generation. This name is an illustrious one in the annals of the Barre Methodist Church.
At this initial meeting, Jesse Lee preached and one wo- man, Catherine Thompson, was converted. A second meeting was held the next day on the Montpelier road, and at this time Isaac Thompson, husband of Catherine, was converted. He had served as one of the three town listers in 1793, and as constable and collector in 1796.
Catherine Thompson lived to be ninety-three years old, but she never forgot this first Methodist sermon. Again
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and again she told in meeting of her earlier experience. "Jesse Lee," she testified fervently, "prayed as though he- knew God and God knew him."
After the conversion of these first two, interest in the new religious sect grew. Others were converted, and in the fall of 1797 the first Methodist Class was formed which was the nucleus of the first church. The meetings held by this Class were similar to the old class meetings which many of the present generation remember,-informal in character, with all the members taking part in the service of prayer, testimony, scripture reading and exhortation. The Class was the most common type of gathering in Methodism's humble beginnings. .
Eleven members made up this first Class. They were the founders of Methodism in Barre and to them we owe an incalculable debt of gratitude for their conviction, their sincerity, their initiative, and their enthusiasm. Their names are as follows:
Catherine Thompson Timothy Patterson Nathan Howard
Isaac Thompson Elizabeth Patterson Mary Howard
Jotham Carpenter Chauncey Carpenter Samuel D. Cook
Polly Boutwell Ruby Colton
Organization papers were filed by the Methodists in Febru- ary, 1799.
Joseph Crawford followed Mr. Snethen as head of the Vershire circuit, 1798-99, and Barre appeared on the plan of appointments for the first time, although preaching had been fairly regular since 1797. Under his leadership, the circuit increased from 100 members to 270.
Jotham Carpenter, a member of this first historic Class, became the local preacher, a forerunner of the lay preacher of today. He also did some circuit preaching. He is the first of a long line of men that Barre Methodism gave to the ministry. He was an eccentric man, but very loyal and earnest, a basket maker as well as preacher, and he served the church well.
The following story is told to illustrate his seriousness regarding his beliefs. One local man made a bet with an- other that he could buy a basket of Mr. Carpenter on the Sabbath day. When the preacher was approached on the
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subject, just as he was entering a place of worship, his reply to the proposition was brief and to the point: "No joking or jesting on this day."
The local preachers always served without pay, al- though Mr. Carpenter received a little compensation for his circuit work. The town itself from time to time voted money to help the different denominations, and in 1799, the Methodist Society received $11.72 as its share of the "Minister money," this sum being just twenty-eight cents less than that allocated to the Universalists.
Although every year since the organization of the town in 1793 saw discussion regarding a meeting place for public worship, nothing definite was accomplished until the turn of the century. Then a Methodist Church was built. One historian of Methodism in Barre states that, according to an old church record, it was built in 1800. The deed of the site was not given until 1801, but this fact in itself does not disprove the historian's contention, for prompt and precise attention to legal procedure was not rigidly observed.
This deed of land, executed March 30, 1801, and filed with the Town Clerk, March 31, 1801, was important to the Methodist Society for it legalized any discussion, agree- ment, or verbal arrangement that may have taken place previously. By this deed Reuben Carpenter, Ansel Patter- son, Samuel D. Cook, Joseph Thompson and John Baker, trustees for the Methodist Society in this matter, received title from Henry Gale and his son, Thomas Drury Gale, for the sum of $30, to a piece of land about one-half acre in size, and roughly the same measurements as that now in- cluded in the city park. It was the express condition of this sale that these trustees and their successors in office should "erect a House or place of Worship for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America" and that they should "at all times for- ever hereafter permit Such Ministers and Preachers belong- ing to Sd. Church as Shall from time to time be duly Authorized . . to preach and Expound God's Holy word therein."
The church which the Methodists built was a good sized, frame structure, and was located on the southwest corner of
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the land later called the Common (now the city park), facing south, and opposite the present Universalist Church and parsonage. It was not fully completed until nearly two decades later, but by town meeting day, March 1, 1802, it was sufficiently usable so that at this time it was voted that in the future, town meetings should be held in the "Methodist meeting house". With one or two exceptions this custom was followed for almost twenty years.
The writer inclines to the belief that the actual date of the erection of the church was 1801, for this reason. As eager as the voters of the young village were, as shown by their records, for a suitable place to hold their meetings, they would hardly have waited until 1802 to decide to meet in the church if it had been completed for use in 1800.
This church was not the first church to be erected in Washington (then Orange) County. That distinction goes to a log cabin Quaker meeting house, no longer standing, that was built on the Towne Hill road in Montpelier in 1793. But very probably the Barre Methodist church was the earliest frame building in the county erected for public use, antedating the first State House by five years, and it represented a milestone of progress, not only for the Metho- dists, but for all the inhabitants of the little village of 1000 people.
It is of interest to note that the spot selected for the church was in one of the more sparsely settled portions of the township of Barre, actually little more than a crossroads. At the time the building was commenced, the great portion of settlement and home building was in the area embraced by what is now Websterville, South Barre, and West Hill. (Even as late as 1821, the Universalists saw fit to erect their first meeting house in South Barre.) The decision to locate the building which was to be used both for religious worship and for town meetings in the approximate geo- graphical center of the township indicates the abundance of faith which the earliest settlers had in the ultimate settle- ment of the balance of the township.
At the time the deed was filed, there was a primitive log cabin schoolhouse on this same plot of land, near where the war memorial is today. Thus, in all kinds of variable
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Vermont weather, these two buildings, the church and the school, stood staunchly, symbolizing and giving substance to three of the basic, priceless principles on which American democracy was built: the right to worship, the right of individual participation in town affairs, and the necessity for free public education.
The first Methodist Sunday school in Barre was started sometime early in the century, to become, from that time on, an integral part of the church life. When the Sunday school thrived, the entire church body was healthy. Con- versely, one of the most serious upsets the church ever ex- perienced was the result of a fevered, old-fashioned Sunday school row.
The Barre Methodist Church, in the year 1804, had the honor of being made head of an independent circuit with a membership of 337. This new circuit included:
Barre
Northfield
Washington
Brookfield
Plainfield Williamstown
Berlin
Moretown
Middlesex Montpelier
Orange Calais
Waitsfield
The Barre Church with 73 members held regular preach- ing services every Sunday some years before any other town in the circuit. Only Vershire and Barnard antedated Barre as circuit towns in eastern Vermont. One hundred years later, Hedding Church was to commemorate this event as an important milestone of progress. At this time, 1804, there were three Classes in Barre, with the following leaders: Nathan Howard, Isaac Thompson, and G. Baker.
The custom now commenced of naming two men to the circuit, one, an older pastor of experience, the other, a young and vigorous man of ambitious temperament. Un- doubtedly the growing work of the circuit, with its member- ship scattered through thirteen towns and outlying districts, required the services of two men. With few exceptions this custom was followed until 1838, and on occasion three men were appointed to the pastorate at one time. While there is little record of regular salaries paid at this time, it is recorded that in 1804, Oliver Beale, senior preacher, received the total for one year of less than $100, while the receipts of
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the junior preacher, D. Goodhue, were a little more than $50.
The story of early Methodism is the story of the circuit riders, and the story of the circuit riders is an integral part of the story of America. These intrepid travelers carried the new-old message of Jesus of Nazareth as a personal, immediate, and redemptive Savior to the mountain-top settlements, to isolated farm communities, to the small villages and towns in the valley, through the length and breadth of the country. Without them, a great civilizing and moral force would have been lacking.
Here in eastern Vermont, it was often a rich and satis- fying experience to ride about the countryside. But at times, this traveling became a strenuous ordeal. In early spring, fierce gales swept down from the nearby mountains; the narrow, country roads became treacherous mudholes, feet deep. On the hottest days of summer, the humidity increased with the soaring temperatures, and made traveling a burden for man and beast. Too soon after the gorgeous pageantry of October and the brief interlude of November Indian Summer, the long bitter Vermont winter set in. Then there were huge drifts to plow through; the wind was an icy knife cutting through the warmest clothing. Later, with the thermometer plunging to thirty and forty below zero, still, dreadful cold held the countryside in a vise for days at a time.
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