USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Bennington > Memorials of a century. Embracing a record of individuals and events, chiefly in the early history of Bennington, Vt., and its First church > Part 2
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The first public meeting in Bennington, whose minutes are preserved, - a proprietors' meeting, - was held on Feb. 11, 1762, - one year lacking a day before the treaty was signed ceding the province of Canada to the British Government, and so ending the formidable French war. Therefore, an- ticipating the termination of this war, immigration had begun to press upward along the western slopes of these mountains. The first immigration had reached here seven months and twenty-three days before this proprietors' meeting, June 18, 1761. It consisted of the families of
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Peter Harwood, Eleazer Harwood, Samuel Pratt and Timothy Pratt, from Amherst, Mass. ; Leonard Robinson and Samuel Robinson, Jr., from Hardwick, Mass. The party, including women and children, numbered twenty- two. During that summer and fall other families to the number of twenty or thirty came into town, among whom were those of Samuel Robinson, Sen., and John Fassett, from Hardwick, Mass. ; Joseph Safford, John Smith, John Burnham, and Benajah Rood, from Newint, Conn. ; Elisha Field, and Samuel Montague, from Sunderland, Mass. ; James Breakenridge, Ebenezer Wood, Samuel and Oliver Scott, Joseph Wickwire, and Samuel Atwood. In that winter, January 12, the first child was born in the settle- ment, Benjamin Harwood, a very worthy and intelligent citizen, whose death did not occur until January 22, 1851, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, connecting vividly that distant period with our times.
Our early immigrants had apparently to themselves travelled much further to reach the place of their destina- tion than the present generation would have to do to go over the same ground. One of the descendants of the Montagues, a resident in Sunderland, Mass., whence the original inhabitants in this town of that name came, in an- swer to an inquiry, suggests that his relative did not probably remove to Bennington, but farther north toward Canada. There can be no reasonable doubt that the rela- tive was the same Samuel Montague who was the modera- tor of the first town meeting here of which we have record. The mistake, it is probable, originated in an impression, prevalent in the communities our immigrants left, that they, in removing to Bennington, were proceeding not only to an unknown but also to a very far-distant northern clime. The first year of the settlement must have been one of much privation and hardship; the tenements, huts with
23
HARDSHIPS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
logs for walls, and bark and brush for the roof ; the settlers numerous the first winter, - a part women and children. In a tavern-bill preserved of Samuel Robinson, Esq., at a tavern in Charlemont, Mass., about midway on the route from Hardwick, Mass., to this place, there is also a charge for wheat as early as April 9, 1761 ; and the inference may be that he was then on his way here, some two months in advance of the removal of families, to prepare as much as possible for their comfort. The seed for sowing the land must be brought upon horses for many miles ; also pro- visions for subsistence before crops could be grown here. The season, however, appears to have been uncommonly mild; the setting in of winter providentially postponed to an unusually late period.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
HE first public meeting, according to the proprie- tors' records as preserved, has been incidentally mentioned. The first transaction at this meeting, after electing the proper officers, was as fol- lows : -
" Chose Deacon Joseph Safford, Esq., Samuel Robinson, John Fassett, Ebenezer Wood, Elisha Field, John Burnham, and Abra- ham Newton, a committee to look out a place to set the meeting- house."
By the record of an adjourned proprietors' meeting, February 26, 1762, we find the place to set the meeting- house determined by the following vote : -
" The north-east corner of the right of land, No. 27, as near the corner as may be thought convenient."
No public plot had then been laid out; it was evidently assumed that the place for the meeting-house should first be selected, and then that roads and other public improve- ments should adjust themselves somewhat to that. May 14, 1766, it was
"Voted, To give six acres, out of the sixty-four acres called the town-plot, for three acres where the meeting-house now stands, for public use." .
" Voted, That the road from the meeting-house to Samuel Saf- ford's will be the main road, and shall be four rods wide."
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FIRST MEETING HOUSE ERECTED IN VERMONT,
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COST OF THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
We find subsequently in the records the three-acre lot on which the meeting-house stood, termed the meeting-house plot ; and at a still later date the widened road northward designated as "The Parade." The first meeting-house stood somewhere midway between the site of the present one and the Walloomsac House.
The precise date of the building of the first meeting- house is not known. It was built.in time to be occupied on or before the year 1766. The cost of it, in the first instance, appears to have been met, in part, by a tax upon the several rights of land, and in part by a subscription. A vote is recorded,
" To send a petition to the General Court of the province of New Hampshire to raise a tax on all the lands in Bennington, resident and non-resident, to build a meeting-house, and school- house, and mills, and for highways and bridges."
In a meeting of later date, May 9, 1763, it was
" Voted, To raise six dollars on each right of land in Bennington for building a meeting-house and school-house."
The sixty-four rights of land, according to this tax, would raise three hundred and eighty-four dollars. The following minute upon the town records will show that the meeting-house was in an unfinished state, and that a subscription had had something to do with its erection : -
" October 22, 1768. - This may notify all persons who have signed a subscription for building a meeting-house in this place, to meet at said meeting-house, to see if they will do anything further toward the finishing of the meeting-house. To see if they will lay out the pew ground, and dispose of the same by public vendue."
There is preserved, in the possession of Dewey Hub- bell, a subscription list to further finish the meeting- 3
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
house. This undertaking was in 1774, some ten years after the building of the house. In this subscription list are some one hundred and sixty names, and subscriptions as high as ten pounds, others as low as ten shillings. The agreement was, that if the finishing and repairing cost more than the aggregate subscription, the additional amount should be paid by the subscribers in the propor- tion of their subscription, and if less, the balance should be deducted from their subscription in the same propor- tion.
The size of this meeting-house was fifty by forty, with the addition of a porch twenty feet square. There was no steeple. The porch extended upward to the roof, and in the upper story a school was kept for some years. In 1797, Miss Sedgwick, sister of the Rev. Job Swift, D. D., taught school there; in 1798-9, Miss Thankful Hunt, sister of Jonathan Hunt, was the teacher; she afterward returned to Northampton, Mass. There were galleries on three sides of the house ; and square pews ornamented with lit- tle railings in the place of a top-panel, the balusters of which would be occasionally loose so as to turn round in their places, and furnish a little diversion for listless young worshippers. There was a sounding-board over the pulpit ; three doors for entrance and exit, - one, through the porch on the east side, toward the burying-ground and opposite the pulpit, which was in the middle of the west side ; and two other doors opposite each other on the north and south sides respectively. The building lengthwise stood north and south, with the roof sloping to the east and west ; there was a main aisle through the centre from the pulpit to the porch running east and west, and aisles from the north and south (end) doors going round and so arranged as to leave a tier of wall pews all round the house, and two tiers of square pews on each side of the main aisle in
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MEMORABLE SCENES.
the body of the house. In the front seat of the gallery opposite, and on either side of the pulpit, sat the singers. That there was not always due order in the house in time of worship appears from an entry in the town records, March 26, 1777 : -
" Voted, That such persons as do continue playing in the meet- ing on the Lord's day, or in the worship of God, be complained of to the committee of safety for said town, who are hereby au- thorized to fine them discretionary."
In this meeting-house proprietors' meetings were repeat- edly held ; also town meetings ; even after the erection of the court-house, town meetings were held occasionally here. In this first meeting-house the people met to wor- ship God and give thanks after the taking of Ticonderoga, when that redoubtable fortress obeyed the summons of Ethan Allen "to surrender, in the name of Jehovah and the Continental Congress." Col. Allen being a resident of Bennington, and having returned with other officers to be present at the services, this circumstance gave peculiar interest to the occasion. From the pulpit under that sounding-board the Rev. Mr. Dewey preached a war ser- mon the Sunday preceding the Bennington battle. To this meeting-house the Hessians and others, prisoners cap- tured in that battle, were brought for safe custody. It was as they were marching in solemn sadness hither, and while they were passing the Catamount Tavern, near by, that " Landlord Fay " stepped out, and with a gracious bow in- formed the prisoners that the dinner was then ready, which their officers, confident of gaining the victory, had haugh- tily ordered by a message sent in the day before. In the same meeting-house the first Legislature of Vermont held its June session, 1778. The General Assembly of 1779, also that of 1780, and in some instances successive Legis-
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
latures, met here.1 On the journal of the General Assem- bly of 1778, under date of June 5, is the following rec- ord : -
" Voted, That the Rev. Mr. Dewey be presented with the com- pliments of this House, to desire him to pray with the Assembly at their opening in the morning, for this present session."
In this first meeting-house, also, for want of room in the court-house, was conducted the famous trial of Whitney and Tibbits for the alleged wanton murder of the Indian, Stephen Gordon, - in which trial Pierrepoint Edwards was successfully employed for the defence, coming all the way from New Haven, Conn., for that purpose.
But not alone for secular transactions and scenes was this primitive sanctuary memorable. Of its spiritual his- tory there shall be a more full relation hereafter. Let it suffice to say that from beneath its sounding-board the Rev. Mr. Dewey preached during his ministry here ; also the Rev. Mr. Avery and the Rev. Dr. Swift. Within its walls the fathers and mothers of the church, and of the churches, in this town, met together for public worship ; and here were witnessed signal displays of the reviving and converting grace of God. In it was held for long the Friday prayer-meeting, a weekly meeting held in the after- noon, and remembered with interest, and often alluded to, by aged inhabitants of the town familiar with the memora- ble days of the old first meeting-house. A few incidents connected with this Friday meeting will be found in sub- sequent pages of this volume.
1 The first Legislature of Vermont was organized and held a session in March (1778), in Windsor, and adjourned to hold another session in Bennington. It met according to adjournment, and opened in formn (June 4, 1778) at the house of Captain Stephen Fay, the Catamount Tavern, and adjourned to meet the next morning in the meeting-house where the remainder of the session was held. The Bennington session of the General Assembly of 1799 was held also by adjournment of a Windsor session of the Assembly.
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FAREWELL TO THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE.
Soon after the close of the Rev. Dr. Swift's ministry here, and before the installation of his successor, the old meeting-house was superseded by the new one, and removed away. The following is an extract from the sermon of the Rev. Daniel Marsh, preached at the dedication of the new meeting-house : -
"We can say of the new meeting-house, it far exceeds the for- mer in magnitude, riches, and elegance; but can we hope the glory of the latter house shall be greater than that of the former in the gracious presence of God? Though the latter Jewish tem- ple was far inferior to the former in its earthly splendor and glory, yet the latter exceeded the former in glory in being hon- ored with the personal presence of Christ, and his promising that in that place he would give peace. But can we, my brethren, hope for greater special blessings in this latter house than your fathers and yourselves have experienced in the former? You can look back to the ancient building and remember the many pre- cious showers of divine blessing whichi have there been shed down from the Father of mercies. You can remember the gra- cious outpourings of his Holy Spirit, which fired the hearts of his people with love, which caused sinners in Zion to tremble, and many souls in captivity to sin and Satan to be set at liberty, and shout the praises of Zion's King! You can remember the many joyful hours you have spent in the demolished house of God, and take your final farewell. But never, no, never, will it be erased from your remembrance how often your blessed Jesus hath met you, mingled with you, and communed with you there; how often you have sat under his banner of love with great delight, and his fruit was sweeter than the honeycomb to your taste. With mingled emotions of joy and sorrow, do you not now take your last leave of yonder spot of earth which had been devoted to the service of your God for this more spacious building ?"
There appears to have been, for some portion of the time at least, a place of common resort, apart from the meeting- house, for social religious services between the preaching services on the Sabbath. A communication in the " Vermont
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Gazette " of May 3, 1803, mentions such a place, where, during the intermission, " the church generally convened to pass that period in suitable exercises and prayer." It is related that Mrs. Samuel Robinson, Sen., had such meet- ings in her house, and also the Friday meetings, if not constantly, for a period at least, on frequent occasions.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHURCH.
I. ORGANIZATION. - It is time we leave the external house, and turn our attention to the body of believers, to the efforts, and the divine blessing upon them, to gather, main- tain, and perpetuate the ordinances, the assembly of saints and the body and succession of Christian people. The high use of the house of worship is as a home for the family of brethren and sisters in Christ, and the sphere of their concentrated spiritual labor for the salvation of souls. Hitherto I have consulted more prominently the pro- prietors' records and town records; let us turn now to the church records.
We find that the church of Christ in Bennington - which was the original designation, without any denomina- tional epithet, of the first church organized within the limits of the present State of Vermont - came into existence on December 3, 1762. - The next was the church in New- bury, organized in September, 1764. - As we have seen, early in February, 1761, the committee was appointed, by vote in proprietors' meeting, to select the site for the meeting-house ; early in December of the same year the first church was organized.
The entire minutes of the record of organization are as follows : -
" BENNINGTON, December 3, 1762.
"The church of Christ from Hardwick, and the church of Christ from Sunderland, met together and after prayers agreed upon and voted : -
1
.
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
" 1. That said church from Hardwick and said church from Sunderland join together and become one body, or church of Christ in Bennington.
" 2. That John Fassett shall be the clerk to keep the records of the aforesaid Hardwick and Sunderland churches, and also now Bennington church records.
"3. It is agreed upon and voted by the church of Christ in Ben- nington, that they make an exception in the fourth paragraph, in the eleventh chapter in Cambridge Platform, in respect of using the civil law to support the gospel; and also the ninth paragraph in the seventeenth chapter, in respect of the civil magistrate's coercive [co-hersive] power.
" 4. Voted, To receive in Joseph Safford and Anne Safford his wife into full communion with this church.
"5. Voted, To receive Stephen Story into full communion with this church.
" 6. Voted, To receive Bethiah Burnham, wife of John Burnham, into full communion with this church.
"7. Voted, To receive Eleanor Smith, wife of John Smith, into full communion with this church."
Antecedents. - Of these Sunderland and Hardwick churches more is to be said hereafter; it is now chiefly to be noticed that there were already churches existing here, though not here organized ; and it is to be inferred that church privileges were here enjoyed. Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sen., and James Fay were or had been deacons of the Hardwick Church.1 According to tradition, John Fassett was or had been deacon, probably of the Hardwick Church. Joseph Safford, who came here in the summer or fall of 1861, had been deacon of a church in Newint, Conn., as appears by records of that church preserved by his de- scendants in this town. By these records it also appears that Bethiah Burnham, Ann Safford, wife of Joseph Safford, John Smith and Eleanor Smith, who united with the Ben- nington church at the time of its organization, were from the
1 Hardwick Centennial Address of the Rev. Mr. Paige.
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ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.
church in Newint. The attorney for Redding was John Burnham, Jr., a lawyer evidently of some influence and force of character, and we find upon the Newint church records the name of his father, John Burnham, and also of Bethiah Burnham, Jr. Stephen Story, one of the original members of the Bennington church, and deceased 1766, in the seven- tieth year of his age, had, as appears upon his grave-stone in our burying-ground, been a deacon somewhere. From records now in Sunderland, Mass., we learn that Experi- ence Richardson, Elisha Field, Jonathan Scott, and Samuel Montague were members of the Sunderland church before its removal to Bennington. Preparatory, therefore, to the organization of the Bennington church, there must have been a stalwart community of Christian men and families, who had arrived a twelvemonth, more or less, before ; and who from the first of their arrival had been recognized mu- tually as the followers of Christ, meeting together on the Sabbath and at other stated times for religious worship, and celebrating together the communion of the Lord's Supper.
Original Members. - Of the members of the Bennington church, at its organization, so far as the names are pre- served, there were thirty-two males and twenty-five females, making a total of fifty-seven. - The number indicates a large influx of people the first year and a half of the, settlement of the town. - The names are as follows : George' Abbott, George Abbott, Jr., James Breakenridge, William Breaken- ridge, David Doane, Jonathan Eastman, John Fassett, Dan- iel Fay, James Fay, James Fay, Jr., Elisha Field, Jacob Fisk, Benjamin Harwood, Eleazar Harwood, Zechariah Har- wood, Aaron Leonard (Martha, his wife, was one of the separating members from the old church in Sunderland), Samuel Montague, Samuel Pratt, Jedidialı Rice, Oliver Rice, John Roberts, Samuel Robinson, Silas Robinson, Joseph Safford, Simeon Sears, Jonathan Scott, Jonathan Scott, Jr.,
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Elijah Story, Stephen Story, Samuel Tubbs, Benjamin Whip- ple, Ichabod Stratton, Martha Abbott, Rebecca Abbott, Pearce Atwood, Bethiah Burnham, Elizabeth Fay, Lydia Fay, Mehitable Fay, Elizabeth Fisk, Bridget Harwood, Elizabeth Harwood, Martha Montague, Marcy Newton, Baty Pratt, Elizabeth Pratt, Hannah Rice, Experience Richardson, Elizabeth Roberts, Marcy Robinson, Ann Saf- ford, Elizabeth Scott, Eleanor Smith, Sarah Story, Hepzi- bah Whipple, Prudence Whipple, Martha Wickwire.
Of six of the names in this list, it may be interesting to know the number of individuals of the same name on the church roll for the first century of its existence. This enumeration is as follows: Sears, twelve; Fassett, thir- teen ; Safford, sixteen; Fay, seventeen ; Scott, twenty ; Harwood, fifty-one ; Robinson, fifty-six. Of names not on the list of original members, instances of highest enumer- ation of individuals are as follows : Hubbell, and Nichols, each, twelve ; Bingham, thirteen ; Hinsdill, sixteen ; Hath- away, nineteen ; Henry, twenty-one ; Hicks, twenty-five.
II. THE WESTFIELD CHURCH AND PASTOR. - At the first business meeting of the church after its organization, a standing committee was appointed.
"Chose brethren Joseph Safford, Elisha Field, and John Fassett as helps to examine into persons' principles who offer to join themselves unto this church; and also to provide preaching."
At the business meeting May 24, 1763,
" Gave the Rev. Mr. Jedidiah Dewey a call to the work of the ministry among us."
Ministers were not so numerous then as now. Of Mr. Dewey they had heard, and that there was a possibility of obtaining him, and for him they sent.
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MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL.
But they were in pursuit not only of a minister, but of more members also; they had already absorbed two churches, and now they essayed a third, the church at Westfield, Massachusetts. They, however, preferred to take minister, church, and all.
1137030
Westfield Council. - That they might proceed very or- derly, an ecclesiastical council was employed. The partic- ulars of this council will be sufficiently given here by insert- ing the minutes respecting it, preserved upon the Benning- ton church records. They are as follows : -
" The act of the Council at Westfield, August 14, 1763.
" At a council convened at Westfield by letters missive 1 from the church of Christ at Bennington : Present, John Palmer, pastor of the church of Christ in Scotland (Connecticut) ; Israel Haw- ley, pastor of the church of Christ in Suffield (Connecticut) ; Jonathan Underwood and Stephen Remington, messengers of the church at Suffield; the church at Bennington being present by three delegated brethren; together with the church at Westfield. The council was received into fellowship. Chose John Palmer for moderator, and, after solemn prayer to Almighty God for divine assistance and direction, proceeded : -
" The first thing laid before us was the proposed contract be- tween the church at Westfield and the church at Nine Partners, respecting the church at Westfield removing to Nine Partners, and becoming one church with them; and in the consideration thereof the council found said contract was made void by consent
1 The assembling of this council was a laborious undertaking. Carrying letters by post was then unknown in these parts. In 1783, the Governor and Council of Verinont established a weekly post (twenty years after the summoning of the Westfield council) between Bennington and Albany, N. Y. The next year the Legislature established five post-offices ; one each at Bennington, Rutland, Brat- tleborough, Windsor, and Newbury. Between these several places a mail was transmitted once a week each way, and Anthony Haswell, Esq., of Bennington, was Postmaster General .- (Thompson's Vermont.) By a church record of 1780, of Bennington church, a council was called, and a messenger appointed to go in person and carry the letters missive. The messengers of the Westfield council must have gone in person with the letters missive to the invited Connecticut churches.
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
both of the church at Westfield, and the church at Nine Part- ners. 1
" Second, the request of the church at Bennington to the church at Westfield, namely, that the church at Bennington and the church at Westfield unite and become one church under Mr. Jed- idiah Dewey, pastor of the church at Westfield; and, in consider- ation of the circumstances of both churches, the council thought advisable for the church at Westfield to answer the above said re- quest, which they did by solemn convenanting according to the above proposal.
"1. The church at Westfield consented to join with the church at Bennington by solemn vote; 2. The church at Bennington did the same by vote; 3. Both together signified their consent to be- come one church under the pastoral care and charge of said Jedi- diah Dewey, pastor, with uplifted hands before God.
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