USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Norwich > A history of Norwich, Vermont > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
71
THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
in close alliance and walked hand in hand. Sunday after Sunday and year after year, in summer and winter, great congregations of old. and young, rich and poor, were gathered from all parts of the town, where the tabernacle of their faith had been set up, there to participate in a common service of prayer and praise, and to exchange friendly greetings with neighbors and townsfolk.
Even the accessories of worship, such as music, were carefully pro- vided for in town meeting. It is interesting to read, upon the pages that record the business transacted by our ancestors on such occasions, entries like the following : "Mr. Benjamin Hatch requested that some Persons be appointed to assist in tuning the psalm on Sundays, etc. Voted, that Mr. Benj. Burton, Mr. Joel Stimson, and Mr John Burton be desired to assist as choristers." At the annual March meeting in 1791, it was voted "that there be a Committee of five to promote singing the year ensuing, by taking in subscriptions, etc. Chose Sam1 Hutchinson, John Hatch, Jr., Constant Murdock, Hezekiah Goodrich and Bliss Thatcher such committee."
No data have been found showing the dimensions upon the ground or the seating capacity of the first meeting house. As originally built it contained upwards of forty pews, upon the floor and in the gallery. Probably ten persons to a pew would not be thought an excessive al- lowance for its seating capacity. There is little doubt that the build- ing was often made to accommodate (by the aid of movable seats or otherwise) a much larger number. It was a substantial frame build- ing, clapboarded without and plainly finished within, but without steeple or bell. One who remembers it well as it appeared in the days of his boyhood, thinks the outside at least was never painted; but it appears from the town records that in December, 1791, a tax of £50 was levied for that purpose, "Sª tax to be paid one half in wheat and one half in flaxseed at cash price." At the same time it was voted "to have the Meeting house underpinned with as good natural- faced stone and pointed with lime mortar as the Chapel at the Col- lege,-with good stone steps, well faced with as good stone as can be provided in this town." As was usual in the New England meeting houses of its time, there was no provision for heating in winter, what- ever artificial heat was enjoyed by its occupants being derived from
72
HISTORY OF NORWICH
the diminutive foot-stoves that our great-grandmothers carried with them to church.
It is not strange that having served its purpose for nearly forty years, the meeting house should come to be considered a little anti- quated and a demand arise for something better. Since its foundations were laid in 1778, the town had more than doubled in population and in wealth. A new minister, Rev. James W. Woodward, had been set- tled in 1804 as the successor of Mr. Potter, and though supported only by the voluntary offerings of the congregation, had succeeded after a ministry of a dozen years to more than the esteem and regard bestowed upon his predecessor. The desire for improvement took shape in the summer of 1817, in the erection of a new and more commodious meet- ing house (40 by 60 feet on the ground), near the site of the old one. On the 24th of December that historic old building wherein the pious aspirations of two generations of worshippers had found a voice, and where the fathers of the town had so often formulated their ideas of civil policy in town and state-a building that to Norwich stood for all that Faneuil Hall and the Old South Church together stood to Boston-was sold to Constant Murdock, the highest bidder, for $100. The Sunday following (Dec. 28, 1817) services were held in it for the last time. A commemorative discourse was pronounced by the pastor, Mr. Woodward, on that occasion, a few passages from which, charac- teristic of the speaker and well befitting the hour, we gladly quote : "Towards this house," said Mr. W., "which for the space of nearly forty years has been devoted to religious uses, with those who have here united in divine worship, peculiar emotions must be excited whilst we are met for the last time within its sacred walls. Who, that ever received pleasure in a visit to this sanctuary, in reflecting upon the times in which he has ascended this hill of the Lord, must not be ready to acknowledge his attachment to its homely walls?
"In reflecting upon past scenes it will be natural to call to mind the names of those who have met with us in this place. Of those who were concerned in the building of this house, or were original pro- prietors, the greater part have fallen asleep. We may here and there behold one who saw in youth its early glory while it stood encircled by the forest. A few hoary heads are still waiting at this gate of wis- dom, whose ears were addressed by the first messages of God communi-
73
EXTRACTS FROM COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE
cated from this desk. The most of their contemporaries are gone. Among the early occupants who have died, are the names of Water- man, Bartlett, Olcott, Hatch, Richards, Partridge, Hutchinson, Smalley, Boardman, Murdock, Loveland, Bush, Burton, Hopson, Brown, Goodrich, Stimson, Morse, Percival, Wright, Thatcher. Their places have been filled by their successors, many of whom also have gone the way of their fathers, from which there is no return. The whole number of which the church has been composed is a little less than 300. Of seven deacons, successively chosen to officiate in its temporal concerns, four have died-Joseph Smalley, John Burnap, Nathaniel Brown and Jonas Boardman.
"This house is endeared to me by a thousand recollections of which I have been the unworthy partaker. Has any benefit accrued from my labors, this you should refer to the giver of every good and per- fect gift. For I consider it among the choicest mercies of my life, if I have been used as an instrument in any degree of promoting your Spiritual welfare. Let us never forget, my hearers, the goodness of the Lord. If we are ever permitted to tread the ground upon which this house now stands, let us revere this spot of earth from the remembrance of the merciful kindness of God to us and to our fathers who have frequented this holy tabernacle."
CHAPTER VIII
CHURCH HISTORY CONCLUDED
The present meeting house at Norwich Plain* was built in 1817, and dedicated November 20th of the same year. On the following day, Reverend R. W. Bailey was ordained pastor and continued as such till November, 1823, when he was dismissed. The ordination sermon was preached by Nathan Perkins, Jr., A. M., pastor of the Second Church in Amherst, Mass., from Isaiah LXII, 6-7 .- "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night; ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Mr. Bailey was afterwards settled in Pittsfield, Mass., and later became president of Austin College, Texas.
The church, which consisted at its organization of only eleven mem- bers, was quite small at the outset, increased during the ministry of Mr. Bailey to an aggregate of forty-seven members.
After the dismissal of Mr. Bailey, the pulpit was supplied by Rever- ends James W. Woodward and J. R. Wheelock, and by Reverend Doc- tor Roswell Shurtleff till December, 1831, when Reverend Thomas Hall was installed pastor and continued with the church about three years. Under the ministry of Mr. Wheelock thirty-three, and during that of Mr. Hall nineteen members were added to the church.
After 1834 Reverend Doctor Shurtleff again supplied the church, preaching for about six years. During the ministry of Doctor Shurt- leff there were two considerable revivals of religion, one in March, 1835, conducted by the famous Jedediah Burchard, continuing
*The writer is informed that the architect of the building was Ammi B. Young, who planned the additions to the White House at Washington, D. C.
75
MEETING HOUSE AT NORWICH PLAIN
eighteen days, the second in June, 1839, under the direction of Rev- erend Sherman Kellogg. During Doctor Shurtleff's ministry 116 members were added to the church.
From 1840 to 1853 the church had no permanent minister, the pul- pit being supplied mainly by Reverends J. D. Butler, Sherman Kel- logg, David Kimball, and Professors Haddock, Noyes and Brown of Dartmouth College.
In 1844, on the dissolution of the church at North Hartford, twelve of its members became united with the church at Norwich. On Jan. 2, 1855, Reverend A. G. Pease was duly installed pastor of the church, and so continued till July, 1857, when he was succeeded by Reverend S. W. Boardman, who continued till September, 1859, to be followed by Reverend Austin Hazen (March 28, 1860). Mr. Hazen was dis- missed March 24, 1864.
Mr. Pease and Mr. Boardman were dismissed at their own request, the former on account of continued ill health and the latter to accept a professorship in Middlebury College.
The dissolution of the North Church in 1854 resulted in a large accession to the church at Norwich Plain, amounting to over sixty members. During the ministry of Mr. Hazen twenty-three united with the church. In 1859 the total membership of this church had increased to 261 persons.
The church was again supplied with preaching mostly by the Presi- dent and Professors of Dartmouth College, until June, 1865, when Reverend William Sewall, then of Lunenburg, Vt., was invited to sup- ply the pulpit. The services of Mr. Sewall proving acceptable, he was duly installed as minister Sept. 27, 1866. His connection with the church continued till Oct. 27, 1876, during which time there were more than one hundred names added to the church (sixty-two by profession and forty-seven by letter).
From the last mentioned date the church has been supplied by Rev- erends G. F. Humphrey (1876), Allen Hazen (1877-78), and for briefer periods by other clergymen, and occasionally by professors from Dartmouth College.
Reverend N. R. Nichols was acting pastor and pastor of the church from February, 1880, until his dismissal in 1904. During his ministry 195 persons united with the church.
76
HISTORY OF NORWICH
The meeting house was first located on the east side of Main Street (opposite the present residence of Samuel A. Armstrong), and front- ing thereon. There it remained until 1852, when it was moved to its present location.
"In the winter of 1817, Joseph Emerson and others on the Plain were very active in getting subscriptions for a new meeting-house and in getting out timber with which to build it.
"The subscriptions were obtained on condition that the house be built north of Mr. John Emerson's. In the meantime those in favor of building on the old spot had appointed a Committee who were en- deavoring to contract with some one for an amount of brick sufficient to build a meeting-house.
"Some of the Committee on the Plain beginning to be afraid of in- volving themselves too deeply, proposed selling out the frame then ready to raise. The bargain was soon closed at the price of £1,000,- the Plain Committee making a verbal agreement to come forward and buy pews and not to build another house."-Church Records, Vol. 2, p. 130.
The Congregational Church of Norwich is among the oldest of the Congregational churches of Vermont, only four others having preceded it in the date of their organization, viz .: those of Bennington, New- bury, Westminster, and Windsor. It was the earliest and for many years the only ecclesiastical organization in town. Some of the first settlers had been members of this church in Connecticut before set- tling here. These would naturally associate themselves for public worship, and as early as June, 1770, by the aid, it is said, of Reverend Peter Powers, the pioneer minister of Newbury, the nucleus of a church was gathered, consisting at the beginning of about a dozen members. Joseph Smalley and John Burnap were the first deacons. August 31, 1775, Reverend Lyman Potter, a native of Plymouth, Conn., and a graduate of Yale College in 1772, was installed over the church, at that time consisting of thirty-six persons. Before the settle- ment of Mr. Potter, the Norwich people had attended religious services at North Hanover and at the College. Women and children walked from three to six miles to attend these meetings. Mr. Potter was
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NORWICH VILLAGE (ERECTED IN 18:7)
77
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF NORWICH
ordained in the open woods, upon the site of the old cemetery on the hill, near the place where the first meeting house was built some years later.
Up to the year 1784, meetings were held at private houses, barns, or in the open air, according to the season or as seemed most con- venient. A large barn erected by Colonel Peter Olcott was much used for this purpose. In the year mentioned the meeting house was so near complete as to be used for meetings. The ministry of Mr. Potter con- tinued twenty-six years, until his dismission in 1801. Two revivals of religion are mentioned as occurring during his pastorate, the first soon after his settlement when about forty persons were added to the church, and the second in the years 1780-81, when an extensive re- vival prevailed at Dartmouth College and in all the towns of the region. At the time of his dismission the total membership was about one hundred. Only a few fragments of the church records during Mr. Potter's ministry have been preserved. These with the somewhat fuller records of his successors in the old North Church have recently been deposited in the office of the town clerk.
After the dismission of Mr. Potter in 1801 the church was without a settled minister for about three years, during which time preaching was supplied chiefly by Professor Shurtleff, then a tutor in Dartmouth College and by Reverend Mr. Waters. Sept. 4, 1804, Reverend James W. Woodward was installed over the church and continued to act as pastor until June 8, 1821. During the period of Mr. Woodward's service many of the original and early members of the church were removed by death, and there was a large emigration from town to northern Vermont, to New York state and the farther West, especially from among the young people. There were several seasons of unusual interest but no general revival of religion while Mr. Woodward was pastor. In 1808, nineteen were added to the church and in 1817, four- teen ; and about fifty were admitted by profession during his ministry. The benevolent disposition and scholarly graces of Mr. Woodward made him universally respected and beloved. A man of singular purity of character and life, his name still lingers among the older inhabitants of the town-a tender and fragrant memory.
Towards the close of Mr. Woodward's ministry an unfortunate controversy arose respecting the location of a new meeting house,
-
78
HISTORY OF NORWICH
which resulted after a heated contest and considerable bitterness of feeling in the building of two church edifices, one near the site of the first meeting house, and the other at Norwich Plain, then beginning to put on the appearance of a rising country village and to aspire to become the business center of the town. The new meeting houses were each completed for occupation in the latter part of the year 1817, the one at the Plain being dedicated Nov. 20th, and the other Jan. 1, 1818. On both occasions the dedicatory sermon was preached by Mr. Woodward. The division of the congregation soon led, however, to the formation of a new church, known as the South Congregational Church of Norwich, which was organized June 19, 1819, with eleven members. Soon after, about twenty more were dismissed from the North Church (as the original church was thenceforward called) to join the church at the Plain, and further accessions in the years closely following raised the new organization and allied society to very re- spectable numerical and working strength. Still, for nearly a score of years later the North Church appears to have held the precedence in numbers and in the support of the old families of the town. Mr. Woodward was dismissed from this church June 8, 1821, having been settled nearly seventeen years. The membership was then about the same as at the time of his settlement, one hundred.
Prior to the year 1800, Methodism had scarcely gained a foothold in Vermont. The first Methodist society in the State is said to have been formed at Vershire by Nicholas Sucthen in 1796. Two years later, only one hundred church members were returned as residents in the Vershire Circuit, then including the whole of eastern Vermont. Zadock Thompson, in the first edition of his Gazetteer of Vermont, published in 1824, gives the number of preachers, traveling and local, at that time as about one hundred, and the number of societies much greater. Probably no religious body ever made so rapid a growth in the state or the country as did the Methodists during the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century. Although largely outnumbering every other at the present time, its later rate of increase is comparatively slow.
We have no information that fixes the time at which Methodist meetings began to be held in Norwich. The earliest preaching was
METHODIST MEETING-HOUSE, BEAVER MEADOW (BUILT IN 1837)
79
METHODISM IN NORWICH
by circuit preachers, and of these Eleazer Wells and Nathaniel Stearns were among the first. Both of these men had the certificates of their ordination to the ministry (as early as 1810 or 1811) by Bishop Mc- Kendree entered upon the town records, and both doubtless labored here more or less about that time. Rev. Amasa Taylor was also here some part of the time about 1813. About 1815, the first church building was erected by the Methodists-a wooden structure of modest dimensions, which stood near the forks of the highway leading from Union Village to Norwich Plain, and about two miles south of the former place. Some members of the Waterman family were among the earliest adherents to the Methodists in the north part of the town. The Johnson family also was early represented. The first church building continued in use about twenty years. In 1836, the present brick church at Union Village was built, and the old church taken down and converted into a parsonage at that place. Here Methodist meetings have been regularly supported for nearly ninety years. The organization is styled the "Methodist Episcopal Society of Norwich and Thetford." The number of families at present worshipping with the society is about 150 from Norwich and Thetford; the number of scholars in Sabbath school, ninety. Morrill J. Walker was secretary and treasurer of the society from 1840 to December 28, 1879, when A. V. Turner was elected secretary, and still holds that office. E. M. Fullington is treasurer.
Either the same year or the year after the building of the brick church at Union Village (in 1836 or '37), a small church building was completed at West Norwich (Beaver Meadow), the better to accom- modate the southern and western parts of the town, with adjacent portions of Sharon and Hartford. Full congregations were gathered here for many years; but deaths and removals, together with a con- stant decline in population, have greatly weakened the society in re- cent years. Stated meetings were, however, continued a portion of the time until 1884. Calvin Sawyer, Esq., a leading member of this so- ciety, died in 1883, at the advanced age of eighty-five years.
Although the strength of the Methodists has always been in the northern and western portions of the town, several prominent clergy- men of the order resided at the Plain between 1820 and 1840. About 1833-35, Rev. Amasa Buck, and an associate, Moses Lewis, supported
80
HISTORY OF NORWICH
a school at Norwich Plain, which they called Franklin Academy. Rev. Zerah Colburn, the great mathematical prodigy in early life, resided here for five or six years previous to his death, which occurred in 1840.
No assignment of resident preachers was made to this town previous to 1822. From that date, we have compiled out of the records of the Conference, and by the assistance of Rev. C. H. Walters of Union Village, a complete list, it is believed, of the Methodist clergymen who have since preached for any considerable time, either at Norwich and West Norwich, or (since 1840) at Union Village, as follows :
AT NORWICH AND WEST NORWICH
1822-Eleazer Wells 1847-Perez Mason, J. House
1823-25-Joseph B. White
1848-J. House
1826-Elijah Spear
1849-Albert Carter
1827-Caleb Dustin, Zerah Colburn, Elijah Spear
1850-Norman Webster
1851-52-Frederick T. Dailey
1853-54-Erastus Pettingill
1828-Caleb Dustin, C. W. Levings
1829-Russell H. Spaulding
1830-J. Cumming, C. Granger
1831-Henry J. Wooley, James Campbell, Aurin Gale
1832-Washington Wilcox, C. Lys- comb
1833-Moses Lewis, Z. Colburn, W. J. Kidder
1834-Moses Lewis, Newell Culver 1835-6-Samuel Richardson
1837-David Wilcox, Elisha Adams 1838-Richard Bedford, -Camp- bell
1840-Newell Culver, Jonas Scott 1841-Newell Culver, Lyman Wing 1842-A. T. Bullard, H. P. Cushing 1843-44-Henry J. Wooley
1845-James Smith
1846-Perez Mason, C. D. Ingraham
1860-61-N. B. Spaulding 1862-63-John S. Little 1864-65-M. R. Chase 1866-Dennis Wells 1867-M. D. Herrick
1868-69-C. S. Buswell
1870-D. H. Bicknell 1871-J. S. Little 1872-73-F. T. Lovett 1874-76-Joseph Enwright
1877-L. Dodd
1878-David Kilburn
1880-C. M. Brown, C. P. Flanders 1882-83-C. H. Walters
AT UNION VILLAGE
1841-Ira Beard 1842-William Peck 1843-Abel Heath
1868-69-C. S. Buswell 1870-D. H. Bicknell 1871-J. S. Little
1855-John LeSeur
1856-Pliny N. Granger
1857-58-Othniel R. Edwards
1859-Mulford Bullard
-
METHODIST CHURCH AT UNION VILLAGE, REV. EMANUEL C. CHARLTON [ERECTED IN 1836]
81
THE BAPTISTS IN NORWICH
1844-45-H. Gurnsey
1872-73-F. T. Lovett
1846-P. Mason, C. D. Ingraham
1874-76-J. Enright
1847-P. Mason
1877-79-L. Dodd
1848-J. L. Smith
1880-81-C. P. Flanders
1849-P. Merrill
1882-84-C. H. Walters
1850-51-S. G. Kellogg
1885-87-W. A. Bryant
1852-53-D. Wells
1888-G. T. Hedges
1854-R. H. Spaulding
1889-92-H. F. Forrest
1844-A. L. Pratt
1893-J. Narramore
1856-E. Pettingill 1857-E. Dickerman
1894-95-H. A. Evans
1896-97-J. E. Badger
1858-59-J. LeSeur
1898-T. Robinson
1860-61-W. B. Howard
1898-G. Lawton
1862-63-J. Enright
1900-1-H. N. Roberts
1864-66-E. Pettingill
1902-J. L. Beeman
1867-H. G. Day
1903-5-E. C. Charlton
In Norwich, as elsewhere, the Baptists were the first of the dissenting sects to contest the ground with the dominant New England ortho- doxy. Soon after the settlement of the town we find mention made of Baptists here, and it is probable that a few of the very earliest settlers were of that faith.
The following documents are transcribed from the town records :
"WILLINGTON [CT.] October ye 6, 1780.
" This may Certify all Persons whom it may Concern that Calvin Johnsen of Willington is of the Babtist Perswation and is one of the society of the Babtist Church in said Willington and is ready to help to support the gospel in that order. " ANDREW MAIN, Clerk."
" WILLINGTON, September 24, 1784.
" This may certify that James Johnsen belonged to the Babtist society and his father and mother are Babtist.
" Signed in behalf of the Church,
"ANDREW MAIN, Church Clerk "
The above certificates were doubtless procured and lodged in the town clerk's office by the persons whose names they bear, with a view to exempt themselves from taxation for the support of the Rev. Mr. Potter, the settled minister of "the standing order" in the town at that time, as well as to relieve them from expenses for the building of the first meeting-house then in progress. A law of the state early
82
HISTORY OF NORWICH
made taxation for these purposes compulsory on all taxpayers who did not thus prove their connection with some other church organiza- tion differing in religious sentiments from the majority of the town. This law, called the "ministerial act," continued in force till the year 1801, when it received important modifications in the direction of liberality to dissenters, who were then a numerous body in town. It was finally repealed in 1807, since which time all religious organiza- tions in Vermont have depended wholly upon voluntary contributions for their support.
As early as 1799 the town records show the existence of an organized society of Baptists in Norwich. Asahel Lewis was at that time clerk of the society, and his certificate is on record showing the following members : Israel Brown, Elias Partridge, Jesse Geer, Jude Allen, John Lewis, Baxter Newton, Eli White, William Winslow, Nicholas Allen, William Wade, Amos Phillips, Martin Brown, Elisha White. Although this list is probably far from complete, the society was never very numerous in town, nor does it appear ever to have had a meet- ing house or a settled minister.
A Baptist society had been formed in the north part of Sharon and adjacent parts of Strafford as early as 1792, by the efforts of Rev. John Hibbard, a pioneer Baptist missionary, who, it is probable, may have divided his time to some extent with the small flock in Nor- wich. From causes unknown to the writer, the Norwich society seems to have dissolved early in the century, and the members, in many in- stances, attached themselves to the Methodists, after the formation of a Methodist church here.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.