USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 5
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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 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
Close upon this recruitment came the Rev. E. B. Hulbert, who always said that the Manchester church "had more theology than the Chicago Divinity School." When his sermons did not please local theologians, they assailed him at the foot of the pulpit. "One ancient maiden lady was especially gifted in this respect. The young pastor would deftly get the leading lights engaged in controversy one with the other, and then he would slip away to dinner."
The Rev. T. S. Archibald was remembered by one of his parish- ioners as being exceptionally powerful in prayer. She never forgot the first time she attended the Manchester church. As the pastor ended his pastoral prayer, an admirer in the congregation ex- claimed audibly, "I wish he would pray forever."
During the anti-Masonic excitement, the Baptist church, in com- mon with all churches in this vicinity, suffered greatly. So strong was the anti-Masonic feeling that as late as 1900 a prominent mem- ber of the church said, "The only thing I have against my pastor is that he is a Mason."
The following men have been pastors of the Baptist church in Manchester. A complete list of their tenures, however, is not avail- able.
Joseph Cornell 1778-1792
Beriah Kelly 1794
Calvin Chamberlain 1800-1824
John R. Dodge 1823 E. P. Reynolds
Moses Field
Silas Kennedy
Dexter P. Smith
D. W. Burroughs
Harvey I. Parker 1842-1844
G. S. Stockwell
Winthrop Morse Stephen Wright
T. S. Archibald 1853-1857, 1877-1880
A. M. Swain 1861-1863
O. C. Kirkham 1864
E. B. Hulbert 1865-1868
C. J. Butler
W. S. Blaisdell
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Above: St. John's Episcopal chapel at its second location in the Village is used during July and August. Origi- nally the chapel was situated on Sem- inary Avenue. Left: First Congrega- tional church in Manchester Village as it appears today. It was built in 1871 to replace a brick edifice. Below: Zion Episcopal church at Manchester Center. Consecrated in 1821, the building has been much remodeled.
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Manchester Elementary School, which was dedicated in 1951. This centralized educational-community center replaced seven smaller scattered schools.
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Burr and Burton Seminary, 1829-1961, Vermont's first privately endowed academy and first coeducational school above the elementary level.
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CHURCHES IN MANCHESTER
D. F. Estes 1874-1876
J. A. Swart 1881-1887, 1893-1898
E. E. Brown
Herbert Probert
O. F. Waltze
J. A. Swart
J. N. Lattermer
D. R. Weston
J. S. Brown 1901-1906, 1912-1922
H. S. McCready 1906
E. M. Fuller
F. S. Clark
J. A. Donald
C. W. Turner 1925
Paul Goodwin
Philip Gregory
Arthur M. Clark
Albert R. Phillips
Philetus McDowell
George W. Peck, Jr.
Edgar W. Johnson 1947
§ First Congregational Church
DURING the years of conflict Manchester's earliest religious socie- ties struggled into existence. The first "ministerial labor" per- formed here was by the Rev. Seth Swift in 1776. He was a Congrega- tionalist. In October 1780 those interested in the denomination instructed a committee to "procure some agreeable person to preach the Gospel," but it was many years before they had the services of a resident pastor.
The Congregational Society, officially organized in 1782, had a moderator, clerk, treasurer, collector, and committee of three in general charge of business. The church itself was organized with seven members in 1784, all Revolutionary soldiers or their wives: Nathan and Phoebe Richardson, Amos Richardson, Andrew and Mercy Richardson, Mercy (Mrs. Gideon) Ormsby, and Sarah (Mrs. Josiah) Burton. Andrew Richardson and Asa Loveland in 1805 were the first two formally elected deacons. The two separate or- ganizations did not unite until December 28, 1925, when the So-
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ciety voted to join with the church in a new corporation called "The First Congregational Church."
Probably the most important early pastor of the church was the renowned Lemuel Haynes of African descent. The Rev. Haynes came here in 1818 after a thirty-year pastorate in West Rutland. He left in 1822. During his tenure in Manchester he served as spiritual advisor to the Boorn brothers during their celebrated murder trial. His biography has been published, an excellent pic- ture of an early divine.
In the fall of 1829 the original meeting house was razed to be replaced by a brick church built through the efforts of the church and Congregational Society. Ebenezer Colby was the contractor. Members subscribed to a church building fund and the following IOU dated April 17, 1830 shows how subscribers met their pay- ments in times when currency was scarce :
Jonas Woodbury promises to pay $25 to Ebenezer Colby in one year from date five dollars to be in store pay, ten dollars in grain, five dollars in good full cloth, the remainder in pork and live hogs; to pay interest until the principal is paid, it being for half a pew in the new Congrega- tional meeting house.
During construction Sabbath services were held in the Court House. It was expected that the building would be ready for the ordination and installation of the Rev. James Anderson, but it was not finished in time and the exercises were held August 12, 1829 in Governor Skinner's apple orchard on the same side of the street, but south of the present site of the Episcopal chapel. Dr. Griffin, president of Williams College, was the ordaining pastor.
The brick church had galleries on three sides, one of which was, in 1833, reserved for Burr Seminary students. The pews with doors were raised a little from the floor. The pulpit was at first placed on the west side between the doors. However, after a few years the Rev. Anderson expressed himself as "uncomfortable" both from the noisy entrances and from the direct heat of the stoves on his right and left. In fact, he is said to have remarked that he "pre- ferred not to be roasted alive." By reversing the pulpit and gallery, not only were the places of the pastor and choir changed, but also the direction in which the pews faced. This was quite agreeable to
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the worshippers who disliked facing the entire congregation upon entering the church.
During Anderson's long and fruitful pastorate, nearly 300 mem- bers were added to the church. It was also during this time that Burr and Burton Seminary students presented their oral "exhibi- tions" before parents and friends in the meeting house. A minister of the old school, the Rev. Anderson was still clearly remembered by Mrs. Mary Munson when she came to write her history of the church in 1934. As an old man, she said, he "protested against the milk trains which had begun to run through the valley on Sundays."
Agitation for a new church began in 1864 when the congregation became weary of the tottering cupola, the dingy exterior, the shat- tered blinds, faulty heaters, and cushioned and uncushioned seats. The Sunday School, too, was so large that Mrs. Anderson was forced to conduct her classes at the Court House. (Her headstone at Dellwood Cemetery is inscribed "The Children's Teacher.")
Franklin H. Orvis, at the height of his business wizardry, wrote his personal opinion of the new church in a letter from New York City to S. J. Hawley in Manchester on July 27, 1869:
If a new church can be built on the Munson lot as talked of and a park on the old grounds I think it will be a very good change for our village. Try and help the matter along. We must make our village as inviting as pos- sible to strangers. The new railroad will fill us up next summer and I fully expect to see a larger hotel built there before long. Talk with your father on the church matter and give my respects to him.
Orvis got his wish. The church was built a little further to the north and he was able to get the schoolhouse removed from the Village green to a location on the West Road. This opened up a fairly good view for his porch-sitters at the Equinox House.
In April 1871 laborers found the old brick edifice so well and strongly built that it was difficult to tear down. Some of the bricks are supposedly still in the woods north of the Peru road on the Long Trail where they were used for charcoal kilns. The contractors and architect for the new church were from Troy, New York, and the firm of Cummings and Burt. The laborers, also from Troy, boarded at Mrs. Vanderlip's hotel across the street. Even the wood- work in the new church is said to have come from a Troy factory.
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
Apparently the laborers' language was not always the most com- mendable. The Rev. Mr. Cushman, sitting in his parsonage on the corner of Seminary Avenue, found it necessary late one afternoon to send a message across the street-"Mr. Cushman wishes to re- mind you of the edifice you are at work upon."
While the church was being built, services again were held in the Court House and also at the Music Hall on Union Street at the in- vitation of Mr. Orvis. The expense of the building was somewhat defrayed by the sale of pews which went for 25 to 100 dollars to the highest bidder as was the custom. From member subscriptions came $15,000 of the total required $23,000, while the remainder came from outside friends. The church and new carriage sheds were com- pleted during the week of July 17, 1871, and the building com- mittee found it necessary to ask for payment without delay.
The slate-roofed church with the magnificent spire 150 feet high was dedicated August 23, 1871. The clock was given by Henry Hurlburt of New York City, the 4,000-pound bell by Mark Skinner of Chicago, and the pipe organ by Pierpont Isham of New York and his son, Edward S. Isham of Chicago. Some ten years later, Judge Skinner gave a second bell to replace the earlier one, which cracked.
Two people intimately connected with the Congregational church over a long period were the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Joseph D. Wickham. As headmaster and trustee of Burr and Burton Seminary, Dr. Wickham was never official pastor of the church. But greatly be- loved by the parish, he often officiated in the minister's absence at weddings, funerals, and church services. He conducted a huge and popular Sunday School class. A Yale graduate, Wickham had a re- markable knowledge of Scripture and was said to have been "a walking encyclopedia of the religious work of his century." He contributed frequently to religious periodicals and once confessed that his thoughts "ran in Latin."
Mrs. Wickham, notable for her literary efforts in behalf of the church, published the story of a fugitive slave, sexton of the Man- chester church from 1840 to 1869. She frequently contributed church news and history to the Manchester Journal. One of several hymns she composed was sung at rededication ceremonies August 31, 1892, when the Rev. J. Douglas Adam was installed.
Eminently involved in the affairs of the church for over fifty years was Mary Campbell Munson, wife of Judge Loveland Munson. She
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joined the church in 1883 and probably had more influence upon it than any other woman. She taught a girls' Sunday School class over half a century. Her major contribution to the church is a some- what rare history of the organization done with unusual detail and a distinctive literary style.
The Congregational church rented pews, at least until 1887, for prices varying from five to twenty-five dollars. Between 1925 and 1931 the church interior was redecorated and rearranged with the chancel and choir stalls placed at the center east end of the church against an early-English style stained glass window given by Mrs. J. N. Pew of Manchester and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. A new Estey organ was also installed. In 1928 the old parsonage (Orvis Inn Cot- tage 1960) was sold and the new Manse built on the West Road. The church was again rededicated June 2, 1929.
The 150th anniversary of its founding was observed August 26, 1934, when the offertory was sung by Miss Betty Swift, great-great- great-granddaughter of the Rev. Job Swift, organizer and first offi- cial pastor of the church. The speaker was the Rev. Dr. Harry Lathrop Reed, president of Auburn Theological Seminary and son of the Rev. Albert C. Reed, pastor of the Manchester church 1878- 1884.
Since 1945 the church kitchen has been remodeled; repairs on the steeple completed; a spire-lighting project carried through un- der sponsorship of the Manchester Business and Professional Wom- en's Club; and a new heating system and organ, the gifts of Mrs. Sarah Given Larson, installed. A set of electronic chimes were the gift of Mrs. George Hoeger in 1958.
Located in the church are the "Anderson Portraits" which were the property of Mrs. W. R. Bullock of New York City, granddaugh- ter of the Rev. James Anderson by his first wife, Mrs. Caroline Bull of Hartford. These portraits are of the Rev. Anderson; Mrs. Ander- son; Miss Sarah Aiken, soloist at Mr. Anderson's ordination; the Rev. Dr. Joseph D. Wickham; the Rev. Dr. Rufus S. Cushman; and the Rev. and Mrs. Anderson together taken at a later date.
Pastors of the Congregational church in Manchester have been:
Seth Swift 1776 Job Swift 1783-1785 Mr. Bogue 1797-1798 Mr. Wetmore 1803-1804
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
James Davis 1804-1805
James Farley 1805-1812
Amos Pettengill 1813-1816 Lemuel Haynes 1818-1822 Ed. Rossiter 1822-1823 Horatio Parsons 1824-1826 Mr. Johnson Mr. Tilden
James Anderson 1829-1858
Nathaniel Upham 1859-1861
Rufus S. Cushman 1862-1877 Albert C. Reed 1878-1884
Allen Clark 1885-1886
Edward P. Wild 1887-1890
J. Douglas Adam 1892-1893
George T. Smart 1894-1902 John Barstow 1902-1906 Vincent Ravi-Booth 1907-1909
Sidney Perkins 1910-1921
John Ten Dyke 1922-1925
D. Cunningham Graham 1925-1931
Eric Allen 1931-1939
Walker T. Hawley 1939-1947
Lawrence W. Fairchild 1948-1951 Raymond Putnam 1952-1955
E. H. Nickerson 1955
§ The Episcopal Church
THE Episcopal parish in Manchester was organized during the first settlement of the county by emigrants from western Connecticut and Dutchess County, New York. Some fifteen or twenty families held services in the courtroom of the building then serving as a Court House in the Village, in homes, or in schoolhouses.
A. M. Prindle was an early lay reader. In 1768 and 1772 the Rev. Richard Mansfield and the Rev. Samuel Peters, Connecticut missionaries for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, held services here. The Rev. Gideon Bostwick of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, visited the parish eight times over a seventeen-year period.
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CHURCHES IN MANCHESTER
The first organization was October 4, 1782 under the Rev. Bost- wick, when twenty-four Manchester Episcopalians formed a parish of the Church of England. In 1785 the church voted to hire the Rev. James Nichols. He preached here about a third of the year, aided greatly by warden Samuel Hitchcock, who later moved to Burlington and married Ethan Allen's daughter. The Rev. Abra- ham Bronson, a traveling Arlington clergyman, held services at the Court House every other Sunday from 1802 to 1825 as well as in other towns throughout the state. From 1825 to 1833 he was resi- dent pastor here.
It should be recalled that under Vermont township grants made by the provincial government of New Hampshire, three rights were set aside for religious purposes-one was for the first settled minis- ter (in Manchester, he was the Baptist pastor, Joseph Cornell); one was for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the missionary organization established under the British flag as early as 1650; and one was for a glebe for the minister of the Church of England. The two latter rights have been the cause of much controversy.
The major portion of glebe in Manchester involves approximately 118 acres lying in the area between the Village and Manchester Center. It is bordered on the west by the West Road and extends easterly across U.S. Rte. 7 into pastureland generally known as the "Munson farm." In early years, this land, through which the Glebe Brook runs, was too low and swampy to be of any great use to the church or town. Later years have proved it to be one of the richest farming tracts in town and now, with modern equipment, it is suit- able for the site of a main road. A second section of glebe, consisting of approximately 100 acres, lies west of the West Road at the foot- hills of Mount Equinox on Three Maple Drive.
For a while the two parishes, Zion in Manchester and St. James in Arlington, continued to receive revenue from glebe, but it was only after long litigation lasting from 1790 to 1815 that the contro- versy about glebes in the state was settled. The courts decided that except in the two parishes named, which had been in existence since the first settlements, there was no organization eligible to receive the grants. Thus the government of Vermont could resume the title and reappropriate the lands. St. James still receives revenues
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in full from its glebe. In order to avoid an expensive lawsuit, Zion church entered into an agreement with the town of Manchester whereby one-half the rents are paid to the town. This agreement is still in effect. The 1901 town meeting released the Episcopal So- ciety from paying rent on glebe land.
The rights of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel were also subject to controversy. In 1794 the Legislature passed a law appropriating these lands to the use of the schools and for the use of the state. This caused much debate, during which the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont became especially indebted to Manchester law- yer Anson Sperry. He recalled that peace treaties signed between the colonies and Great Britain promised that "all private rights and grants shall be respected." The propagation lots, he reasoned, were certainly the property of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
After consulting lawyer Ahiman Miner, the Rev. Bronson, and diocesan authorities, Sperry brought suit and carried his argument to the higher courts. It was tried in Boston with Daniel Webster on the defense. But in 1841 the lots were confirmed to the possession of the Society by the Supreme Court and ordered restored to it. To repossess the land it was necessary for the Society to have the power of attorney vested upon some authority in Vermont. A Board of Land Agents affiliated with the Diocese of Vermont was estab- lished and revenues were used for the work of the Episcopal church in the state.
Truman Purdy, father of Mrs. Levi C. Orvis, was the first agent to locate and lease these "propagation lots." According to a speech by Dr. Edmond L. Wyman before the Manchester Historical So- ciety September 4, 1926, there were twenty of these lots in town and Purdy located and leased twelve. Noble Hard of Arlington leased two and Major Jabez Hawley of Manchester the rest. Hawley later became agent until 1873, when he was succeeded by Dr. Wy- man, who cared for the lands for fifty-three years. About 1925 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel voted to give their lands to the Diocese of Vermont.
According to the listers' quadrennial appraisal of 1958 there were eighteen individuals holding glebe land and paying rental totaling $90.71 to the Episcopal Society. Six property owners paid
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CHURCHES IN MANCHESTER
$119.66 on school lots and two paid $33.33 to the Congregational church.
On July 1, 1806 the local parish was reorganized under the name "Protestant Episcopal Church Society of Manchester."
The deed of May 23, 1820 for the purchase of land upon which to build a church reads in part :
Know all men by these presents that we, Hosea Williams of Danby ... and John H. Williams of Manchester . . . for ... forty dollars ... paid by the Protestant Episcopal Society in Manchester . . . have released to said Society the following tract of land ... beginning at the southwest corner of a piece of land owned by Samuel C. Raymond and is part of lot no. 57 in the first division .. . containing about 72 rods of ground ... for the purpose of building and keeping thereon a church or house for the publick worship of God and also all sheds and out buildings necessary for the accommodation of said church. ...
The church was probably built in 1821, but the dates vary. It was consecrated October 17, 1821 by Bishop Alexander Viets Gris- wold and received the name "Zion." Though a plain wooden build- ing, Zadock Thompson praised it in his "Gazetteer" of 1824, call- ing it "an elegant building." The cost was $4,500.
Mrs. Susan Miner, prominent in local Episcopal history, recalled the ceiling of the new church as being "arched with the pulpit very high and the preacher's head ... above where the present flat ceil- ing ... is. The pulpit was reached by a long flight of stairs. There was a large box stove in front of the gallery ... which was across the south end of the church. On the bell tower was a tall slender spire, topped with a weather cock. It was the only weather vane in this vicinity."
The church organization was incorporated in 1826 as Zion Par- ish according to the General Laws of 1797. On June 16, 1828 it was reorganized under Act of the Legislature of 1814.
The belfry was repaired and a new bell hung in 1831. In 1844 the church voted not to use its building for political or secular meetings. By 1861 membership had increased to sixty and the church was enlarged and remodeled according to plans drawn up by Bishop John Henry Hopkins. Special features added were a stained glass chancel and a trinity window. About 1882 other such
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windows were installed, including the Bronson and Baxter memorial window. During the summer of 1886 the rectory was built. On June 11, 1939 Zion parish house on land adjacent to the church and rectory was dedicated after being renovated from a private home.
About 1953 the entire interior of the church was renovated again. Construction of an extension to the parish house providing for three church school classrooms easily converted to a dining room area seating 100 was begun in September 1960 at a cost of $20,000.
An unsuccessful attempt on the part of year-round residents of the Village to move the church there occurred in 1843. Not only did the influx of summer visitors make it seem necessary to have Episcopal church accommodations in that part of town, but the residents also wanted a church which could be attended more easily without the long and sometimes arduous trip to Factory Point.
The courageous spirit behind a later action to acquire a chapel for the Village was Mrs. Levi C. Orvis. She faced much opposition but with the help of her daughters and a few villagers, she was able to raise enough money to buy a lot on Seminary Avenue back of the Orvis Inn property. In 1867 Truman Perkins, contractor, built the chapel for $5,000. Unfortunately, because of the extremely damp location near a small stream, the building began to deteriorate so much that the trustees declared it unsafe. A new site had to be found.
In addition to these difficulties, the new church also had an un- pleasant time politically speaking. Title to the property was held by a private party which refused to transfer it to church authorities. In 1869 Zion church, under the Rev. Germont Graves, resolved to hold services in the Village if the little chapel was willing to meet part of the expense. For reasons difficult to ascertain, the chapel was not willing. In a vain attempt to settle the issue, Bishop Bissell visited Manchester. The Rev. Graves resigned. Even some of the communicants of Zion church resigned to form a new parish under the name, "St. John's." This church was organized in 1870 by the Bishop and the Rev. G. V. C. Eastman was the first pastor.
The issue, however, continued controversial. In 1894 St. John's became a diocesan mission. About 1915 the local freedom of the St. John's congregation was apparently curtailed without what it
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felt was sufficient warning or reason. By August 1917 the argument reached such a pitch that Dr. Wyman, George Miner, and Richard L. Makin traveled to Burlington to ask Bishops Hall and Bliss for some restoration of that freedom. It was successful in that a plan was drawn up and signed by the rector, W. H. Bamford, the vestry of Zion church, Bishop Hall, and the people of St. John's whereby $100 annually would be paid to Zion church. In the winter, when St. John's was closed, the rector would continue to minister to such Episcopalians as needed his help. St. John's is, therefore, part of Zion parish except in July and August, when it reverts to a diocesan mission.
Dr. Edmond Wyman, as a leading layman of Zion church, was most friendly and constructive during these controversial years and earned the respect and admiration of the entire parish. In 1952 a stained glass window at Zion was dedicated to him and Mrs. Wyman.
In 1906 members of St. John's voted to buy property on U.S. Rte. 7 in the Village as a site for their new chapel. The church on Seminary Avenue was dismantled in 1910. Miriam Miner Wolff, in the June 29, 1958 bulletin of Zion church, told the story of the new chapel:
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