USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > Jericho > The history of Jericho, Vermont > Part 3
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Even at this short range, the memories are all exceedingly pleasant. It was a succession of choice events, admirably exe- cuted, historical, reminiscent, and spectacular. The preparation had been tedious, the results amazing, and all that need be added is that "This was Jericho's way."
Following will be found the various committees.
The General Committee. Elected by the voters.
Buel H. Day, chairman; Chauncey H. Hayden, vice-chair- man and treasurer; Eugene B. Jordan, secretary; La Fayette Wilbur, Luther C. Stevens, Rev. S. H. Barnum, Frank S. Jack- son, Rev. A. H. Sturges, Frank S. Ransom, Theodore B. Wil- liams.
Auxiliary. Chosen by the General Committee.
Mary B. Day, Sadie C. Brown, Jennie R. Williams, Medora Schweig, Ethel G. Hawley, Cora W. Chapin, Harriet Higgins, Linnie C. Buzzell.
The Historical Committee.
Chauncey H. Hayden, Luther C. Stevens, La Fayette Wil- bur, and Rev. S. H. Barnum.
Sub .- Committee on Church Services.
Rev. S. H. Barnum, Rev. A. H. Sturges, Rev. William Cash- more, and Rev. C. A. Nutting.
Sub-Committee on Sacred Concert.
Eugene B. Jordan, Mrs. Ethel G. Hawley, Mrs. Linnie C. Buzzell, Fred A. Percival, Rev. William Cashmore, Frank M. Hoskins, Mrs. J. H. Safford, Park H. Brown, and Mrs. Ira Thorpe.
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
Sub-Committee on Dramatic Entertainment.
Mrs. Medora Schweig, Chauncey H. Hayden, and Frank S. Ransom.
Sub-Committee on Old Home Day.
Rev. S. H. Barnum, La Fayette Wilbur, Rev. A. H. Sturges, Eugene B. Jordan, Mrs. Cora W. Chapin, and Frank S. Ransom. Sub-Committee on Loan Exhibits.
Mrs. Harriet H. Higgins, Mrs. Medora Schweig, Mrs. Cora W. Chapin, Mrs. Fred S. Tomlinson, Mrs. M. Alice Hayden and Mrs. M. C. Hale.
Sub-Committee on Markers.
Luther C. Stevens, Chauncey H. Hayden and Frank S. Ran- som.
Banquet Committee.
Chauncey H. Hayden, Buel H. Day, La Fayette Wilbur, Frank S. Jackson, Mrs. Sadie C. Brown, Mrs. Medora Schweig, Mrs. Ethel G. Hawley, Mrs. Cora W. Chapin and Mrs. F. S. Ran- som.
Sub-Committee on Floats and Pageants.
Buel H. Day, Luther C. Stevens, Frank S. Ransom, Frank- lin S. Jackson, Theodore B. Williams, Mrs. Mary B. Day, Mrs. Sadie C. Brown and Mrs. Jennie R. Williams.
Children's Committee. (Special).
Luther C. Stevens, Mrs. Mary B. Day and Mrs. Harriet H. Higgins.
Sub-Committee on Evening Musical Entertainment.
Mrs. B. C. Hawley, Mrs. Linnie Buzzell, Mrs. Cora W. Cha- pin, Mrs. Jennie R. Williams and Mrs. Harriet H. Higgins. Printing.
B. H. Day, C. H. Hayden and E. B. Jordan.
Local Committees at Jericho Center.
Marshals :
J. H. Safford, Andrew Fitzsimonds.
Reception Committee :
B. G. Brown and wife, Dr. M. O. Eddy and wife, S. M. Packard and wife, G. C. Bicknell and wife, A. K. Morse and wife.
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
Information Bureau :
Mrs. J. W. Hart, Emma Bicknell, F. A. Fuller, Dr. C. G. Barnum, Gertrude E. Barnum, Helen M. Chapin. Decorations :
Mrs. K. B. Isham, W. J. Nichols and wife, F. M. Hoskins and wife, Irving Ballard and wife, Leon Hall and wife, Mrs. C. Bell, Lester Packard.
Refreshments :
Mrs. E. B. Jordan, Mrs. E. H. Smith, Mrs. H. E. Bates, Mrs. C. F. Nealy, Mrs. L. D. Moulton, Mrs. B. Heywood, Mary Moran, Helen Bolger, Mrs. Wm. Millham, and Mrs. L. Whitte- more, Mrs. C. C. Bicknell, C. F. Nealy and F. A. Stiles. Feeding Horses :
C. C. Bicknell, Earl Hurlburt, L. B. Bolger.
Transportation.
E. H. Smith, R. O. Wilder, C. Schillhammer.
Amusements :
Mrs. H. H. Higgins, Florence Bicknell.
Ushers :
H. P. Hall, E. W. Fay, F. Bliss, F. Perrigo.
AT JERICHO CORNERS.
Reception Committee :
Judge and Mrs. C. S. Palmer, Rev. and Mrs. Cashmore, Rev. and Mrs. Nutting, Mr. and Mrs. L. F. Wilbur, Mr. and Mrs. Frank P. Percival, Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Byington, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Hutchinson, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Tomlinson, Mr. and Mrs. Frank K. Howe, Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Rice, Mr. and Mrs. Warren Buxton, Mr. and Mrs. W. V. Ring, Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Hulburd.
Committee to see that churches, streets and houses are decorated :
Mr. and Mrs. S. E. Curtis, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Buxton, Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Percival, Mr. and Mrs. H. T. Chase, Mr. R. B. Field, Miss Julia Porter.
Committee on care of teams :
A. P. Byington, F. K. Howe, D. E. Rood, W. V. Ring, Henry Desany, Bert Gomo, Mr. Pettingill.
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
Marshals :
George Costello, Andrew Johnson, D. Bissonette, Charles Scribner, O. H. Brown, James Safford, A. Fitzsimonds, B. C. Hawley, Irving Irish, F. S. Jackson, Bailey Brown, E. Varney, M. Fitzgerald, W. E. Buxton, Lloyd Hulburd.
CHAPTER IV.
EXERCISES OF AUGUST THIRD.
In commemoration of the 150th year of the charteral exis- tence of the town, the people of Jericho gathered in their churches Sunday, Aug. 3, 1913, to listen to special music and historical addresses as a suitable way to begin the celebration of this im- portant event.
The service at the Congregational Church, Jericho Center, 10: 30 a. m., Rev. S. H. Barnum, Pastor, had the following :
ORDER OF SERVICE.
Organ Voluntary Call to Worship "Holy, Holy"
Invocation, closing with Lord's Prayer
Hymn of Praise
Responsive Reading
Recital of Beatitudes
Gloria Patri
Scripture Anthem,
Pastoral Prayer
Notices and Offering
Hymn
Historical Address-Rev. Frank W. Hazen
Hymn
Closing Prayer Benediction
Postlude
The audience was large and enthusiastic. The historical address is given in full.
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
FRANK W. HAZEN, ADDRESS.
I. Samuel 12:24. Only fear Jehovah, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done for you.
One hundred and fifty years are not long in the 50 centuries of fairly authentic history by which the progress of mankind may be traced. Yet this last century and a half is of greater moment in the history of this earth, has wrought mightier changes among men, has witnessed greater progress than the preceding 50 centuries.
One hundred and fifty years ago these United States, of which we are so proud as the greatest nation upon which the sun shines or ever shone, had no thought of ever being a nation, they were wilderness, the abode of savage beast or of red men, or contented colonies of the Mother Country, England. One hundred fifty years ago this beautiful region of the Green Moun- tains, to the human eye, had not the slightest prospect of ever becoming an independent state, as she became 14 years later for the 14 years prior to her admission into the Union in 1791, had not the slightest prospect of becoming one of the great sisterhood of states to which she has belonged these 122 years.
Here were the New Hampshire Grants. The controversy with New York was just on the verge of becoming acute, but at that time the settlers were in the peaceful possession of their grants, and had no thought of any attempt at dispossession, no thought even of the change of jurisdiction from New Hampshire to New York. This town, as far as we know, was unbroken wilderness, without a white man within its limits, and with the red man having here no settled habitation, only passing through the forests to hunt or fish or go on a foray. Mount Mansfield lifted his majestic head and kept his eternal watch at our back door, much as today. Bolton Mountain acted as our sentinel to the East. From the summit of Birch Hill the Indian, by climbing a tree, might have caught a glimpse of Lake Champlain, shimmer- ing in the light of the setting sun. Lee River, Brown's River, and Mill Brook, though known by other names, if known by name at
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
all, flowed as they now flow, only with larger volumes, the Wi- nooski River alone presumably bearing the name by which we now know it, and flowing through the southern part of the town, as described in the charter. Is there anything else that the pass- ing traveler of 150 years ago would recognize today? A few forests he might recall, but he might not look upon one tree that was familiar to him in the whole town. A few weeks ago I rambled over "The Rocks" and looked for the old oak tree which we boys used to climb and under which we used to play, but could find only a decayed stump. Over at the old parsonage two trees remain, not very different from what they seemed 35 years ago, but at least one of the older trees is gone, and the trees that were four or five inches through at that time are grown beyond all recognition now, and one has grown to a good size and fallen, and only its stump is there. This beautiful park in front of the church, with trees of considerable size today, was a bare "Common" 35 years ago, with three separate baseball dia- monds, one in front of the church for the young men, one in front of the store for the middle-sized boys, and one down in front of the old parsonage for the small boys. One hundred and fifty years ago, yes 120 years ago, the "Common" was not a com- mon at all, it was wilderness, with not even the stake set for the location of the church building, and it was not until 1795, 32 years after the town was chartered, that the town voted to "procure four acres of land for a green around the meeting house stake," and chose a committee of three to lay out the land for a meeting house green, and "voted that the three heads of classes see to chopping and clearing off the land for the public green the pres- ent summer." Within the short space of 120 years the "green" has changed from virgin forest to cleared land with a church in the center, to a "common" with baseball fields, and back again to a beautiful grove. Not all the forest land has changed so much, but it is safe to say that none of it is quite as it was 150 years ago, and most of the land in the town is entirely different from what it was then. Streams and springs the same, but with smaller volume, hills the same, only deprived of their virgin forests, plains and valleys the same, only so different as to be unrecognizable without their miles and miles of unbroken forest. the skies the same, the climate milder, if we are to believe the
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
common judgment regarding the old-fashioned winters; every- thing changed, much for the better, we are sure. The solitary wilderness has become the pleasant abode of some 1,300 pros- perous, contented, intelligent, useful citizens of a great republic. If it be true that man is the measure of the universe, that the worlds have value because man gives value to them, that this earth was wrought out of the void to be the home of man, then making this 6 square miles of wilderness into homes for men was simply continuing the great work of creation, making the earth bear the fruit it was intended to bear, pressing onward God's great plan for the world.
We are not to recite today the story of these 150 years, we shall listen to that story from more eloquent lips next Tuesday. Nor are we today to tell the story of the 122 years of organized church life here. That story is printed for the first 100 years, and with the record of the last 22 years you are more familiar than the speaker. We are rather concerned today with some les- sons which may be gleaned from the story of this church, we are concerned with the divine plan and purpose in the past and for the future. You know it is said history is not completely written until it becomes His story.
Two things have deeply impressed me in my knowledge of this church and community as they were a generation ago, as ac- cording to my observation I believe they have been since, as re- viewing the history of the town since its organization in 1786. seems to reveal them. Some may have difficulty in reconciling or explaining these two somewhat contradictory elements in the story ; nevertheless, I think I am right in giving them as character- istics to be observed here in an uncommon degree. They are these : First, that the dominant influence in this community in all these years has been this First Church of the Town of Jericho, and second, that the support of this church has been one long story of struggle and sacrifice, heroic struggle and heroic sacrifice.
First, then, this church has dominated, has moulded this com- munity. I remember very well the habit we boys had, when we were driving to Richmond with father, or from Richmond, of looking back, or looking forward, from the hills beyond the old Elliot farm for the last glimpse or the first glimpse of the steeple of this church. And that habit has not forsaken me now. I would
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
do the same thing today if I were to drive over that road. About three months ago I rode on the train from Essex to Cambridge, the first time in a good many years, and a little above the Corners, I looked out of the car window over in this direction. I do not know whether there was in the dim recesses of my memory some faint recollection that it might be so, or whether it simply came to me then and there that it might,-but there was the spire of this church, the only sign that there was any village in this di- rection, and it looked beautiful to me, and I called the attention of my companions in the car to it,-as far as I know they had never heard of Jericho Center before. Less than a month ago my brother Austin was taking the same trip, and he told me what a surprise it was to him that the steeple could be seen from there. He had entirely forgotten the fact, if he had ever known it. Not less surely has the influence of this church dominated this com- munity for the last 120 years than its beautiful spire has domi- nated the landscape for the last 35. Some people may seem to have forgotten it, to their inestimable loss, its influence may not have been what it might have been if men's minds had all and always been set on the things that are true and good and beautiful, and they have not been, any more than their eyes have always been open to the beauties of the earth about them. Nevertheless this church has been here, standing for the things of Christ, and has been a perpetual reminder, even to the careless, even to those who think they have forgotten such things, or would forget them if they could, that the divine life is the true life and is the life worth while, that the things that are not seen, the things that are eternal, are the real things, that God has something great and good for his children now, and something greater and better for them in the greater future.
In the early days the connection between the town and the church may have seemed more vital than it has been since. Even before the organization of the church, which you recall was in 1791, the town voted in 1786, the year of its organization, to ap- point a committee for the purpose of providing preaching the en- suing year. In 1788 the town chose a committee to hire a candi- date, and voted to raise money to pay a candidate for preaching two months. In April, 1789, the town "voted to hold meetings of public worship at the usual places. viz. : at Deacon Rood's and
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Capt. Bartlett's," and in September of the same year "a town tax was granted to pay Rev. Mr. Parmelee for preaching the past season, 6 pounds 5 shillings, 10 pence." In March, 1790, the town chose a committee to hire a candidate to preach on proba- tion for settlement, and in September of the same year the town voted to give the candidate secured, Ebenezer Kingsbury, a call to settle in the work of the ministry, and voted "200 pounds law- ful money settlement, including the first minister's right of land, and 35 pounds lawful money salary for the first year, and to rise with the list until it amounted to 80 pounds," which was to be the stated salary. The church was organized in March, 1791, and June 22 of that year a council met to ordain Mr. Kingsbury, when the church voted to give Mr. Kingsbury a call to settle in the gospel ministry, presumably because the call by the town was not deemed by the council sufficient. But even after the or- ganization of the church the town had the finances in charge. In November, 1791, the town voted that "three pounds lawful money be allowed for providing for the 'Ordaining Council last June'." In the succeeding years a number of votes of the town are recorded regarding the places for meeting for public worship and preaching. In 1794 the town voted to build a meeting house, and chose a committee of five to set a stake for it. But that church was not paid for by the town, for in 1795 the town "voted to build a meeting house by selling the pews at public vendue at the next adjourned town meeting." Three weeks later that meeting was held and the pews bid off, those who bid, I suppose, becoming "the proprietors" of the meeting house, the progenitors of the more modern "Society." But it is not very clear just what of its rights the town gave up, for a town record in 1800 reads, "Opened a meeting of the proprietors of the meeting house. Voted to sell the gallery pews." "The remainder of the proceedings of the proprietors of the meeting house will be re- corded in their clerk's office." But the town certainly used that first meeting house for all its town meetings, and in 1837 by the payment of $200 gained the right, a right which it still enjoys, to use for that purpose the basement of the new church.
Did the town at first dominate the church, until the church grew strong enough to dominate the town? The fact that the town took such interest in the church shows that even then the
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
church dominated the town. Remember that the church is more than the church organization, the Christian church was here with its leavening influence when the first Christian man, Azariah Rood, settled here in 1774, and it continued here in all those try- ing years before the organization of the church (except during the Revolution, when all the inhabitants had to leave). That the town voted so consistently for the support of preaching is proof enough that it was dominated by Christian ideals, that the real church was having its say. The town was a church. And I doubt if there has been a time in all these 127 years since the or- ganization of the town, whether there was any church build- ing or not, whether the church stood in the center of the green or on its northern edge, whether it had a dome or a spire or only a plain unadorned roof,-I doubt if there has been a moment in all these years when the most conspicuous as well as the most mighty influence in this community has not been the Christian church. I know it was in the 15 years of my boyhood that were spent here. I believe it was before and has been since.
You will think of the school,-and we are glad to see a bet- ter school than we ever thought of seeing here; and we will not say one word against the influence of the American public school. It is very great and very good. But it is not belittling that influ- ence to say that the influence of the church is greater and better and more necessary. Dr. Hillis says you might as well expect to cleanse the water of typhoid germs by painting the pump in har- monious colors as expect to cleanse the human heart by culture of the brain. Education, culture, the training given in the schools, have had a good part in making this community what it is, but not the best part. It is the church that has held up continually and conspicuously and mightily the high ideals, and been the minister of the power to make those ideals effective, that have redeemed the life of this community and made the name of Jericho Center dear to so many of us.
But we must go on to the second characteristic that we named, that the support of this church has been one long story of heroic struggles and sacrifice. It was not easy for those hardy pioneers out of their poverty to give 80 pounds for the sup- port of their first minister. It was not easy for them to raise the, for that day, very large sum of $4,000 to pay for the first
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
meeting house. It was not easy a generation later to raise a like sum to build the original brick church. Many of us remember the struggles of 35 years ago to raise nearly $5,000 to remodel that old brick church and fashion this one which was thought to be very beautiful then,-I remember hearing it often spoken of as one of the most beautiful of country churches, and it is beautiful today.
It has never been easy here in this scattered community to pay a minister a living salary. In the printed history of the church it is plainly stated regarding four of the ministers that they were dismissed "for want of proper support," or because "they could not raise the salary," or because "the salary paid is not enough to command the best talent or help to the best work, and God's blessing cannot be expected." (In the manuscript copy of that history my father wrote in lead pencil. "Most min- isters have left for the same reason.") Meagreness of the sal- ary and the difficulty of raising that is undoubtedly the cause of the large number of short pastorates here,-22 pastors in 122 years, the three remaining longest being here 20, nearly 18, and 7 years, and the next longest, your present pastor, who has been here nearly 6 years. Do not think that I am casting it up against the church that they have not paid more; I am rather trying to show how hard the struggle has been. I believe the church has done nobly to pay what it has paid.
It is no disgrace to be poor. At Burlington last June Dr. Cadman congratulated the University of Vermont on being poor. I believe it was Senator Dolliver who declared a few years ago, "If I had $10,000 and a boy, I should keep them apart." It is not the colleges who have had most, nor the boys who have had most, that have amounted to the most; nor is it the churches that have had the largest number of liberal givers and paid the larg- est salaries and raised them the easiest that are most worthy of the Lord's words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
And not all the struggle and sacrifice have been on the financial side,-that has been the least of it. Some years ago a member of a wealthy church was remarking upon how hard a poorer church had to work to continue self-support, and a mem- ber of the poorer church replied "But we love our church." There is the case in a nut-shell. It is human nature,-or divine
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human nature-, to love that for which we have sacrificed. And the sacrifice of luxuries and even comforts that the support of this church has cost has been transformed into a deeper love for the church, and for the Christ whose the church is. The heroic devotion that has entered into sustaining the Sunday School, the prayer-meeting, the missionary societies, the choir, as well as the stated public worship and the private living of the gospel, if it could all be known, would seem the larger element of the sacrifice. It is this that God sees, and it is this that has given the church its power in this community. It is this that has really proved the church Christ's church, proved that it stands for the things for which His life stands, love and truth and service and sacrifice. It is this that proves that God has been working in this community through His church to lift it out of a selfish worldliness, the seeking of comforts, enjoyments, wealth and luxury for their own sake, into the divine unworldliness that seeks to use the kingdoms of the world and all their glory for the upbuilding of the divine character of Jesus Christ in the community and in the men and women and children of the com- munity. And looking at the achievements of the years, achieve- ments through sacrifice, who shall say that one sacrifice here for the church and for the work of God has been in vain, has been too great? Who will not say that the greatest glory of these 150 years has been the sacrifice made here for the love of God and His church?
And now a word as to the future. What of the future for this little church and village and community among the hills ? Let us come back to the words of our text, the words of the aged Samuel to Israel as they were starting out in a new and untried way: "Only fear Jehovah, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done for you." All the great things of which the history of these 150 years can boast are simply what God has done for you and through you. Can you doubt that still greater achievements await the descendants of the fathers, IF THEY BUT FEAR THEIR FATHERS' GOD, AND SERVE HIM IN TRUTH WITH ALL THEIR HEART? if they keep the church, the work, the kingdom, the will of God dominant in the community, and if they serve the church,
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
the work, the kingdom, the will of God with the same devotion and sacrifice that the fathers did?
As a motto for the next century and a half, for church and town, I want to give the burden of Joaquin Miller's poem, "Co- lumbus," of course with its deepest spiritual implications :
Behind him lay the great Azores, Behind the gates of Hercules ; Before him not the ghost of shores, Before him only shoreless seas. The good mate said: "Now must we pray, For lo! the very stars are gone,
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