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 3
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JOHN PALMER. ISRAEL HAWLEY. JONATHAN UNDERWOOD. STEPHEN REMINGTON."
The following further minute touching these proceed- ings is on the Bennington records : -
" September 12, 1763. - The church of Christ, in Bennington, being legally warned, met together; and, after prayers, the com- mittee which was sent to Westfield made their return with their doings ; and the church unanimously voted their concurrence with the above said council, and the doings of the above said council, with uplifted hands."
III. EARLY GROWTH OF THE CHURCH. - The Ben- nington church was now fairly on its way. The Sunder- land brethren, the Hardwick brethren, the Westfield brethren, and those here from Amherst, Mass., Newint, Conn., and other parishes, - who in those parishes respec- tively felt feeble and doubtful, and here also in the infancy
1 A family tradition has Mr. Dewey preaching to the church at Nine Part- ners temporarily at this time.
37
ENLARGEMENT OF THE CHURCH.
of the settlement and the embryo state of its institutions had but just made a beginning - were now united to- gether in one church, in the land of their choice and where many of them expected to pass the remainder of their days ; where the whole land was theirs, and the future in- vited them to labor and hardship, but with the prospect of enlargement and ample reward. They had obtained a minister in whom they had great confidence. At once we see in the brief and imperfect church records new life- startings. In the same month, September, 1763, after the ratification at Bennington of the doings of the council at Westfield, we find a record of the return to full agreement and fellowship with the church of a brother who had been under discipline. He had departed from his profession of faith and covenant with the church "by denying its article of baptism and rejecting his own infant baptism ; " but he now returned, having surrendered his objections, - or his objections having surrendered him, - and this breach in the fellowship of the church was healed.
In the next month, "October 2, then Abraham Newton was re- ceived into full fellowship or communion with this church; and also the wife of Benajah Rude, from the church at Newint, was received into this church."
Thus onward. Successive entries in the records, at short intervals, inform us that the church grew ; there being fre- quent and ofttimes numerous additions to it. Take one page of the records as an example : -
" Jan. 3, 1765. - Then Ebenezer Wood, Timothy Pratt, Mary Story, wife to Stephen Story, and Margaret Harwood, wife to Peter Harwood, were all received to full communion with this church." "Jan. 11, 1765. - Then John Smith, Matthew Scott, Thomas Henderson, Esther Pratt, wife to Samuel Pratt, and Mary Fassett, wife to John Fassett, were all received to full com- munion with this church." " March 3, 1765. - Then Peter Har- 4
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
wood was received to full communion with this church." " April 4, 1765. - Then Rebecca Robinson, wife to Leonard Robinson, Hannah Abbott, Bershaba Scott, wife to Oliver Scott, Joseph Richardson, Hepzibah Wood, Marcy Robinson, and Timothy Abbott were all received into full communion with this church."
There are preserved upon the records, imperfect as they must be, the names of seventy-two individuals added to . the church during the ministry of Mr. Dewey. Of these, nearly half, thirty-six, were received in 1765. That must have been, therefore, a year of religious revival and great spiritual prosperity. This was the fourth year or there- about of the settlement of the town.
From lists extant there appear to have been by June, 1765, about one hundred men in the town. About fifty men, according to the records, became connected with the church. The condition of the community at this time is thus stated in the " Vermont Historical Magazine" : ---
" By the year 1765 a large portion of the town had become oc- cupied by industrious settlers from Massachusetts and Connecti- cut, who had cleared much of the land, erected dwelling-houses and barns, with mills, opened and worked highways, and estab- lished schools for the instruction of children and youth, and were living in a comfortable and thriving condition."
Bancroft, in his "History of the United States," referring to a letter of Gov. Hutchinson to Gov. Pownal of July 10, 1765, speaks of Bennington thus : -
"Men of New England of a superior sort, etc., etc., had formed already a community of sixty-seven families, in as many houses, with an ordained minister; had elected their own munic- ipal officers; formed three several public schools; set their meeting-house among their primeval forests of beech and maple ; and, in a word, enjoyed the flourishing state which springs from rural industry, intelligence, and unaffected piety." 1
1 Quoted in Vermont Hist. Mag.
39
THE OLD CHURCH COVENANT.
The Rev. Mr. Avery, successor to Mr. Dewey, in refer- ring to the time of his pastorate generally, says : -
" There have been seasons of especial awakening and attention here, and in the judgment of charity a happy number have been renewed and added to the Lord. This circumstance has con- tributed not a little to the gaining them respect, and even fame abroad as a religious people."
In the year 1765 the controversy of the inhabitants with New York about their land titles began to be a matter of public concern ; this would naturally interrupt and prevent for a long time to come special attention to religion.
IV. ROLL OF THE CHURCH FOR ITS FIRST CENTURY. - With regard to the roll of the church for the first century, it must be stated that it is far from complete. A covenant has been found among some papers thrown into the street, which would seem to have been adopted and signed at or near the time of the first formation of the church. This paper doubtless got among the condemned pile entirely by mistake. So soon as it was discovered it was preserved with religious care. It is interesting and comprehensive, but too long to be inserted here. A portion of the docu- ment, as found, had been torn off and lost ; perhaps one- third of the signatures were on this lost portion. Not all the names on the part of the covenant preserved were on the church records, so much of them as has been preserved. The same may be true of that portion of the sheet which had been lost. The names on that lost portion of this covenant may not have been placed elsewhere on any church record; and the fact, whether they were members of the church or not, it may now be impossible to ascer- tain. There are names, on the records of the Newint Separate Church, of persons known to have been resident
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
here and yet not on the Bennington church records. Such persons, at least some of them, were in all probability members of the Bennington church, but because their names were on that part of the covenant torn off and lost, or for some other reason, they have never been put upon any record of the church. John Burnham, who was with the autumn immigration of families in the first half year of the settlement of the town, and on the committee appointed at the first proprietors' meeting to choose a place to set the meeting-house, and who was in the military com- pany of Captain John Fassett in 1764, has his name among the Newint church signatures, but not on the Bennington church records. During the whole of the Rev. Mr. Marsh's ministry, a period of about fifteen years, no records were kept, so far as is now known, excepting some letters of dismission and recommendation of individ- uals kept on file, and some names of persons received to the membership of this church, jotted down here and there upon detached pieces of paper. All the names thus accessible have been gathered up, and arranged in order in a book. Every document that could yield any assistance has been laid hold of with incredible patience and zeal by Mr. Haswell, late clerk of the church, and so far as was thus possible the omissions in the records have been sup- plied. In this way many names are preserved which would otherwise have been lost.
The roll of members thus gathered yields the follow- ing analysis of statistics for the first century of the church : -
Number of members at the organization of the church,
including five members added on that day . .. 57
-11
Ps
Pa
P
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TABLE OF ADDITIONS FOR THE CENTURY.
Admitted during the pastorate of the Rev. J. Dewey : -
1763
2
1768
3
1764
4
1773
3
1765
36
1774
2
1766
4
1775
5
1767
5
1776
8
Total
72
Without a pastor : -
1779
1 I 1780 .
7
Total
8
Pastorate of the Rev. David Avery : -
1782
1
Without a pastor, - Messrs. Burton and Wood preach-
ing temporarily : -
1784
40
1786
3
1785
. 4
Total
47
Pastorate of the Rev. Job Swift, D.D. : -
1786
5 1790
8
1787
4 1792
2
1789
9 1795
2
Total
30
Without a pastor, - The Rev. Messrs. Davis and Spaulding preaching temporarily : -
1803 93
Pastorate of the Rev. Daniel Marsh : -
1811
38
1817
22
1812
1
1818
1
1813
1
1819
7
1816
7
Total
77
4*
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Pastorate of the Rev. Absalom Peters, D.D. : -
1820
33
1823
3
1821
13
1824
7
1822
10
1825
5
Total
71
Pastorate of the Rev. Daniel A. Clark : -
1826
5
1829
6
1827
101
1830
11
1828
3
Total
126
Pastorate of the Rev. E. W. Hooker, D.D. : - -
1832
18
1838
2
1833
14
1839
7
1834
90
1840
8
1835
5
1841
5
1836
7
1843
14
1837
2
1844
2
Total
. 174
Pastorate of the Rev. J. J. Abbott : -
1845
1 1846
3
Total
4
Pastorate of the Rev. R. C. Hand : -
1848
5
1851
10
1849
6
1852
10
1850
10
Total
41
Pastorate of the Rev. Isaac Jennings : - -
1853
11
1858
31
1854
12
1859
1
1855
17
1860
3
1856
7
1861
2
1857
50
1862
8
Total
. 142
T
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TABLE OF OFFICERS.
V. OFFICERS DURING THE FIRST CENTURY.
PASTORS.
Jedidiah Dewey - became pastor of the Bennington church by the action of the Westfield Council, August 14, 1763 ; deceased December 21, 1778.
David Avery- was installed May 3, 1780; dismissed June 17, 1783.
Job Swift, D.D .- was installed May 31, 1786; dis- missed June 7, 1801.
Daniel Marsh. - By town records, Society recommended " the committee to hire Mr. Marsh for the year ensuing," at a meeting on March 27, 1805 ; also at a meeting May 12, 1806, requested the church "to unite with Mr. Marsh in calling a council for his installation." He was dis- missed April 25, 1820.
Daniel A. Clark - was installed June 13, 1826 ; dis- missed October 12, 1830.
Edward W. Hooker, D.D. - was installed February 21, 1832 ; dismissed May 14, 1844.
J. J. Abbott - was installed April 26, 1845 ; dismissed August 17, 1847.
Richard C. Hand - was installed January 20, 1848 ; dis- missed November 26, 1852.
Isaac Jennings - commenced his ministry here June 1, 1853, and was installed September 21, 1853.
DEACONS ELECTED.
Eleazer Harwood, - June 9, 1768,
Joseph Safford,
Resigned Dec. 14, 1770. Died in 1775.
Died May 19, 1813.
Moses Robinson, John Wood, May 22, 1789, R'md to Malone, N.Y., 1810. Died March 13, 1813.
Samuel Safford,
Hezekiah Armstrong, Sept. 6, 1812, Died March 4, 1816.
Calvin Bingham, July 16, 1813, Died Feb. 19, 1831.
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MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Jotham French, Stephen Hinsdill,
Erwin Safford,
Noadiah Swift, Aaron Hubbell,
Sept. 23, 1831, Dec. 15, 1834,
Samuel Chandler, - Sept. 19, 1845.
John F. Robinson,
George Lyman, John W. Vail,
H. H. Harwood,
April 12, 1816, May 10, 1822,
Died April 30, 1825. Dismissed to Hinsdillville Pres. ch. Nov. 19, 1834. Removed to Philadelphia, Pa., Sept., 1830. Died March 21, 1860. Died Dec. 26, 1844.
Died Jan. 25, 1862.
CLERKS.
Aaron Robinson, Jan. 24, 1820. Wm. Southworth, Dec. 12, 1846. Jonathan Robinson, Jan. 28,1785. Wm. Haswell, Sept. 28, 1849.
There is no record of the appointment of deacons at the organization of the church. There were deacons on the ground already, - deacons of the other churches which had removed hither, and were merged in the Bennington church, and also other deacons. Upon the church records no dea- cons appear for the period 1775-1789 ; Eleazer Harwood had resigned in 1778; Joseph Safford died in 1775; the next election, according to the records, was in 1789 ; the probability is, that during this interval, 1775-1789, Joseph Bingham and Nathaniel Harmon were either acting dea- cons, or had been elected and the election not recorded. They both bore the title of deacon, and were members of the church, and resident here at that time, and both excel- lent men. Deacon Joseph Bingham died November 4, 1787, in the seventy-seventh year of his age ; and Deacon Harmon, in November, 1792, aged eighty.
VI. INTERESTING MEMORANDA. - Of the fourteen adult persons who settled Bennington, all with the exception of
0
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John Fassett, Dec. 3, 1762. Jeremiah Bingham, Jan. 13, 1779,
Feb. 14, 1862.
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INTERESTING MEMORANDA.
one, who died at an early age, were or became church members. The fourteen were : Bridget Harwood, Zacha- riah Harwood, Eleazer and Elizabeth Harwood, Peter and Margaret Harwood ; Leonard and Rebecca Robinson, Sam- uel and Hannah Robinson ; Samuel and Baty Pratt, Timothy and Elizabeth Pratt.
The other members of the pioneer company were eight children whose united ages were less than twenty-seven years. One of these, an infant child of Mrs. Hannah Rob- inson, died ; of the other seven, two : Stephen Harwood, and Persis Robinson (Safford), united with this church ; the other five married and removed from Bennington. Sam- uel Robinson, Sr.,- who appears to have brought his family early in the first half year of the settlement, though not with the very first immigration of families, - had six sons and three daughters, all of whom became members of this church. Mrs. Bridget Harwood's four sons, who came to Bennington, became also, with herself, members of this church.
Mrs. Bridget Harwood was the mother of nine children. At the time of her immigration to Bennington her husband had deceased ; also one child in infancy. As already no- ticed, Samuel Robinson, Sr., had nine children, who came to Bennington ; these composed his family, one child hav- ing died at eleven years of age. One, Samuel, Jr., with his family, preceded his father a little time in the order of removal hither ; his father, the real pioneer, being detained as to actual removal with his family, a little, by important business. Deacon Joseph Safford, the father of eleven children, came with his family in the second company. In 1837 - seventy-six years afterward - a genealogical record of these three families (the Harwoods, the Robinsons, and the Saffords), and their descendants - including of course such persons as married any of the list - was published
46
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
by Mrs. Sarah (Harwood) Robinson, one of these descend- ants. Upon this genealogical record-the count being made with perhaps not absolute accuracy, but nearly so - there is found an aggregate of some two thousand one hundred and thirty-six individuals.
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CHAPTER IV.
SEPARATISM.
HEN we learn by the records that the church in Bennington was formed by the union of the Sun- derland church and the Hardwick church, and that soon afterward the Bennington church ob- tained a pastor by taking to itself the Westfield church and its pastor, we are curious to know if these churches of Sunderland and Hardwick and Westfield left no churches behind them. Upon inquiry we find that those towns, respectively, have, meantime, had churches bearing the same titles, which know nothing of any remo- val to Bennington. These churches date their origin far back of that of the Bennington church, and they have never ceased to bear the designation that they now do, and to occupy the places that they now occupy. How is it, then, that we find upon our Bennington records . mention of churches of the same name removing hither and being swallowed up in the Bennington church? The explanation is, that the churches which removed to Bennington were " Separate " churches, irregularly organized in the view of the churches then and there existing, and therefore by ยท them never recognized as churches of Christ. Some mem- bers of the old church believed that it had departed from its original faith and order, and on that account refused to commune with it, and established a separate church. The original churches in several instances excommunicated those separating members, and in all cases, it is believed, refused
48
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
to recognize the separate organization as a church of Christ. A sad state of things, the reader will say, for a Christian community. It could not have been otherwise than full of trials to all concerned. But, as we shall see, God overruled it for good. Let me adduce some portions of the records of the church still at Sunderland, the original church founded in 1718. The first introduction of the subject into these records appears to have been in a vote on March 3, 1749 : -
" Voted, That those persons who have separated themselves from this church, and absented themselves from the public wor- ship and ordinances among us, be desired and required to appear and attend upon a meeting of this church, that the church may have an opportunity to know from them the reasons of their ab- senting themselves from them; and also what doctrines they hold and advance."
In compliance with this vote, a subsequent meeting was held according to due notice. Some of the Separates at- tended, and asked more time; more time was given by adjourning the meeting. At this adjourned meeting a paper was read on behalf of some or all the separating members, giving their reasons for their course, which, as was to have been expected, were not satisfactory to the old church. Others separated, and their reasons, too, were demanded by more voting of the old church. Divers more meetings were held, with no favorable results toward bringing back the separating members. Under date of August 24, 1753, some four and a half years after the first proceedings, we find this record : -
" Voted, The following declaration agreeable to the advice of the neighboring ministers, called in to discourse with persons sepa- rating, etc. : -
" Whereas, - have gone out from us, renouncing our communion, and thereby have made it manifest they do not belong to us; and we, having used many means to reclaim them,
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CAUSE OF THE SETTLEMENT OF BENNINGTON.
and waited long upon them, and they still persisting obstinately in their separation from us, we now declare : they are now cut off from all the privileges of this church, and are not to be esteemed members hereof, and that we have no further care of them as members of Christ's Visible Church."
At the same meeting it was also, -
"Voted, That we judge it to be unlawful and dangerous for per- sons to frequent, and make a practice of attending upon, and es- pecially to join in worship at, the meetings of the Separatists, and a just matter of offence to this church." "Which votes on the Lord's day following were read before the congregation; and the pastor, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great head of the church, publicly declared before the congregation, agreeably to the vote of the church, that all and every one of the persons whose names are mentioned in said vote are cut off from all privileges in this church, and are no more to be esteemed members of Christ's visible church - praying that the proceedings of the church may be, ' for the destruction of the flesh in them, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.'" 1
Fifteen persons are named in the above vote of excom- munication, four of whom appear upon the roll of the Ben- nington church.
Many of the old churches did not proceed to equal ex- tremities. The church in Hardwick did not.2 The church in Westfield did not, in the case of Mr. Dewey. But even without the additional hardships of excommunication, this process of separation must have been attended by many painful circumstances both to the old church and the separating members.
These ecclesiastical troubles were a principal cause, with- out which the early settlers of Bennington would not have
1 The original Sunderland church records were destroyed, but the church ap- pointed Deacon John Montague, a man of extraordinary memory, who had pre- viously kept the records, to restore them. The above extracts are from the re- stored records.
2 The Rev. Mr. Paige's Centennial Discourse.
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50
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
come hither in the numbers and at the time they did, - as religious troubles were the principal cause of the Pilgrims coming from the Old World to the New, in the first settle- ment of New England. In saying this, it is at the same time not intended to ignore the interest of secular adven- ture encouraged by the prospect of fertile lands, the exten- sive possession of which in fee-simple might be obtained . at a trifling pecuniary cost.
This Separate movement attained vast proportions in the country. It excited a profound concern at the time, and has been studied with deep interest by the ecclesias- tical historian. There is space here for only a glance at it. It was a vital part of the Great Awakening of a There had obtained in the
century and a quarter ago.
churches a vast amount of formality. The "half-way covenant" had been extensively adopted by them. At length the numbers became formidable of those who viewed this innovation as a fatal departure from sound doctrine and true Christian order. Many were ready to welcome Whitfield, with his unwonted power in the pulpit as a revivalist and reformer of the churches, and many more were awakened by him and led to enlist with great zeal in the cause of religious reformation. Edwards irresistibly assailed the formality and laxness of church usage with strong doctrine and ponderous arguments from the Word of God.
Many extravagances, the natural result, under the cir- cumstances, of so profound a religious excitement, came into vogue. James Davenport sought to imitate Whitfield, and then to go beyond him, and did surpass him, in intem- perate zeal, much more than he surpassed moderate men. Many staid churches and many staid ministers opposed the revival movement as a whole. The churches were divided into two antagonistic parties, one for new measures, the
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"OLD LIGHTS" AND "NEW LIGHTS."
other against them, - the "New Lights" and the "Old Lights." The question came up whether it was right for these " New-Light " preachers to be abroad, in other minis- ters' parishes, stirring up so much excitement, and being the occasion of discord. It became the practice to perform itinerant labors on the part of the more earnest pastors. These did not confine their efforts to their own parishes, but " went everywhere preaching the word." Also lay-ex- horters were by the friends of the innovation encouraged, - persons with gifts and zeal, but without liberal education and without regular ecclesiastical license.
In Connecticut these disorders, so terined, were made the subject of a prohibitory statute, enacted in 1742 by the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut, - not without the consent and approval of some of the clergy. By this statute ministers were forbidden to preach in any parish other than their own, without invitation of the pastor or people, under the penalty of forfeiting all title to the benefit of the laws for the support of the ministry. And it was provided that a regular information against any minis- ter to this effect should, without trial of the fact, work such a forfeiture, and bar the collection of rates for his support. By another section of the act, all exhorters were forbidden to exercise their gifts, unless permitted by the parish au- thorities ; and all strangers, of whatever ecclesiastical dig- nity from out of the colony (of Connecticut), presuming to teach, preach, and publicly exhort without such permission of pastor or parish, were to be sent as vagrants from con- stable to constable out of the bounds of Connecticut.1
The " New-Light " minorities in the churches would not endure this. They maintained their right to hear such preachers and worship God in such a manner as they deemed to be most in accordance with the word of God,
1 Article of the Rev. R. C. Learned in the "New Englander " for May, 1853.
52
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
and they did this the more earnestly because they believed themselves alone to adhere to the genuine principles and order of the original New England churches. The number of Separate churches increased rapidly under this treat- ment. A general meeting of the " New Lights " was called at Stonington, Conn., in 1754; elders and brethren from forty churches met there, namely : twenty-four in Con- necticut, eight in Massachusetts, seven in Rhode Island, and one in Long Island.1
It was not long before another enactment was adopted by the General Assembly of Connecticut, which added much to the burdens and embarrassments of the "New- Light" party. There had been a law that all who soberly dissented from the prevailing order might, upon taking certain oaths, be allowed to establish separate worship un- molested ; though still liable to be taxed for the support of the parish minister. This law was repealed. Thus the worship in the original society came to be still more odi- ously known as the Established worship, or the worship of the Standing Order.2 The Separates came at length to call themselves "Strict Congregationalists."
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