USA > Vermont > Windham County > Rockingham > The old Rockingham meeting house, erected 1787 and the first church in Rockingham, Vermont, 1773-1840 > Part 3
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In April, 1797, a letter was addressed to the select- men by five citizens (of whom only one was a member of the church), asking them to call a meeting of the congregation to consider Mr. Whiting's "proceedings and non-performance of Duty". The meeting was called by the selectmen and a committee chosen to confer with Mr. Whiting and make report at a later meeting. The committee did their work so well that the record of the adjourned meeting simply states "after some conversation the meeting was dissolved".t
*Appendix III: C.
tAppendix III: D.
1415122
The Church Organization
35
The Meeting House, the walls of which were raised in 1787, had not yet been completed, though a lapse of twelve years had gone by, but it was finally finished in 1801 .* It is probable that this delay and the lack of support of the church during this period is not due so much to lack of interest as to the fact that the citizens were harrassed on every side by the expenses and troubles incidental to the Revolutionary War and the organization of a new civil government.
The Records of the First Church contain no entries from March, 1798, to February, 1809; nor does a care- ful search of the town records shed much light on what went on in this period. Under date of February 24, 1809, Mr. Whiting wrote the selectmen asking that he be dismissed from the ministry of the town church, giving as a reason his greatly impaired health which precluded his further usefulness. He urged that some formality attend his dismissal, and reviewed touchingly his long service of thirty-six years and all the changes this time had brought both in his congregation and in the country. The town, after appointing a committee to discuss the matter with Mr. Whiting, voted April 10, 1809, to unite with the church in calling a council to dismiss him; and further voted to exempt $200 from his grand list for the balance of his life. Mr. Whiting was dismissed by a council convened at Rockingham, May 18, 1809, thus ending a long and creditable service for the people of Rockingham. So much light is thrown on the personnel of the people and the conditions under which they were laboring, by the complete records of the letters and meetings of both the church and the town, leading to the dismissal of Mr. Whiting, that they are copied entire in the Appendix (III : E).
During the next nine years, or until 1818, little definite information can be found regarding the history
*Chapter I.
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
of the church. It is probable that services were held more or less regularly, but with no settled minister.
Interest apparently was at a low ebb, and the organ- ization of churches of the various denominations in other parts of the town, which were growing more rapidly than Rockingham village, made it increasingly difficult to keep up the town church.
Up to this time, five other church organizations had been formed in Rockingham, as follows: 1786, a Baptist Church at Rockingham, and 1790, a Universalist Church at Rockingham; (both of these organizations used the town Meeting House for their services for a number of years, and then died a natural death); 1798, the "Protestant Episcopal Society of Rockingham", which also used the old Meeting House until 1817, when it removed to Bellows Falls, and is still existent under the name "Immanuel Church of Bellows Falls"; 1812, "The Baptist Church of Christ in Westminster and Rockingham", now the First Baptist Church of Saxtons River. About 1803, regular meetings were started in this town by the Methodist denomination, later grow- ing into the Methodist Church now existent at Bellows Falls. In addition to these, the churches organized at Chester in the early days undoubtedly drew from the support of the church at Rockingham.
In July, 1818, Rev. Elijah Wollage came to Rock- ingham to supply the pulpit in the Meeting House for four months. At the end of this period, a call was ex- tended to him to become their pastor for a term of four years. Little could be found of the original church of Rev. Samuel Whiting, the old members having largely died, left town, or joined some other denomination. Accordingly a new church was organized November 5, 1818, with seven members, and under Mr. Wollage as pastor, declared by the council to be the "Congre- gational Church of Christ in Rockingham" .*
*Appendix III: F.
L061
THE PULPIT
THE MAIN ENTRANCE
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The Church Organization
After the repeal, in 1807, of the "Law regulating the support of the gospel", it is probable that the control of the temporal affairs of the First Church were turned over by the town to the church society itself. In the record of the reorganization of the church in 1818, the phrase "the Society gave him a call to preach with them four years", marks the first evidence of such action of a temporal nature other than by the town. The adoption of the word "Congregational" at this time, as witnessed by the last phrase of the record of the reorganization, and by continual later records of similar nature, also marks a new epoch in the life of the church. Thus we may regard the church organiza- tion formed at this time as a distinct Congregational Church, not in any way connected with or supported by the town, though a natural outgrowth in a reorgan- ized form of the original town church.
The church, as thus reorganized, grew steadily, the records showing the following as the membership on the dates given: June 1, 1820, forty-five; June, 1821, forty-eight; January, 1822, fifty.
Little account is given of the petty bickerings so constant under Mr. Whiting; but more attention was evidently paid to the exact wording of the creed and covenants.
Mr. Wollage probably remained as pastor for the full four years, or until July 1, 1822. After he left, there is no record of any settled minister until 1836, and it is not known who supplied. The church organ- ization was evidently kept up, as there are occasional entries of new members, or old members dismissed from the church. The records of the "Consociation in Windham County" show that there were forty-four members of this church in 1824. It is also probable that church services were held more or less regularly during this interim.
On January 3, 1837, Rev. Samuel Mason was or-
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
dained as pastor,* after having supplied the pulpit for some months. His pastorate was beset by many trials and dissensions, and after only about eighteen months, he was dismissed by a council convened August 22, 1838. The account of his dismissal in the Records of the First Church absolved Mr. Mason from any blame in the matter and intimated that it might be impracticable to ever settle another pastor.f
As foretold in the minutes of the council of dis- missal, this marks practically the end of the church organization and the regular use of the Meeting House for church purposes. Several records appear in the book in 1838 and 1839, signed by "Broughton White, Moderator". It is inferred that he was settled, at least temporarily, over the church, though the only definite evidence of this fact in addition to his signature on the church records is the following entry :
1838 At a communion season Brother Joel Brown was received to the communion & fellowship of this chh by profession.
On the previs preparatory Lecture day was chosen Moderator.
B. White.
He was an aged man and soon after his death, which occurred in 1839, the church organization fell to pieces, and has never been revived. The last record found of any church organization is the presence of "Bro. Pul- sipher and Bro. Brown" as delegates to the Consocia- tion in Windham County on September 16, 1840. A further entry in the records of this meeting is as follows: "Memorials were presented by (aggrieved?) members of the Church in Rockingham and referred to the Standing Committee". The Consociation was aban- doned soon after this and no further action regarding it is recorded.
*Appendix III: G. tAppendix III: H.
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The Church Organization
Many entries occur in the Records of the First Church showing that personal disputes were taken up by the church body as a whole, and often a satisfactory settlement effected by this means. If resource to this was of no avail, in a few cases the question under dis- pute was let out to arbitration by parties from neigh- boring churches, or even a council of neighboring churches called to adjust the matter. A few extracts from the Records will serve as examples :
"By the desire of Brother Asher Evans I in- form'd the Chh & Congregation of his Sorrow for his foolish & Inconsiderate Conduct with Nathl Bennett. Voted Satisfactory."
"Chh tarried after Publick Worship, read Jona- than Burrs Complaint against Nathaniel Davis & Chose Peter Evans & Elias Olcott to meet with them & endeavour to reconcile the Difficulties be- tween them. "
"Chh tarried after Publick Worship When Peter Evans Junr & Elias Olcott upon Brother Davis Saying that wherein he had broke the good Rules of the Chh he was sorry for it, Said it was to the same purport to what they had Advis'd to & Bro- ther Burr was satisfied with, and he being Satisfied withdrew his Complaint & both Parties agreed not to mention again the old Story wherein they differd & which was the foundation of the Dispute."
Nathaniel Davis apparently had continual difficulty in getting along with several members of the church, and was the subject of numerous church meetings. The records show that after a number of disputes in which he was the chief actor, on May 19, 1782, the church voted to "send this Admonition to Brother Nathaniel Davis in the Name of the Chh". September I, they voted to leave the question to the Ministerial Association for settlement, but the ministers "declined attending to the Matter or giving their Advice". January 26, 1783, the church "Voted that the Pastor
40
The Old Rockingham Meeting House
send this Second Admonition to Mr. Davis in the Name of the Chh". This was evidently unsatisfactory in adjusting the matter, for May 21, 1783, the church voted to call a council "to hear & advise as to his Matter of grievance". A committee of six members were appointed to lay the matter before a council composed of delegates from the churches at Charles- town, Walpole, and Westminster. The matter was apparently finally settled in this manner, since under date of July 6, this entry is found :
"After Publick Worship Brother Nathaniel Davis desiring the Congregation to Stop, read to them a paper in these Words or nearly. If I have said anything that has given just Occasion of Of- fence to any in this Chh I am sorry for it."
This is the last record of any trouble with Brother Davis.
A careful study of the Records of the First Church yields little definite information regarding the exact covenant or platform of religious beliefs on which it was founded, previous to the reorganization in 1818. Indirect evidence shows that there was a written covenant, but unfortunately it was not copied into the Records. The principal entries bearing in any way on these questions are copied into the Appendix (III: I).
Only two questions are really mentioned, and they are more or less interlocking: Baptism and the "Half Way Covenant" so-called. In 1778, the church re- fused to adopt the "Half Way Covenant" which "admits persons to Priveledges & taken under the Watch & Care of the Chh without promising an Attend- ance on the Lord's Table". Finally, on June 15, 1784, this covenant was adopted after some weeks of discus- sion and it is copied entire in the appendix .* A list of twenty-one people admitted to "Priveledges" under this covenant is given in the appendix.f It is probable
*Appendix III: I.
tAppendix I.
41
The Church Organization
that this list is not complete, since entries are only found between the years 1795 and 1803.
The church evidently did not allow the baptism of children whose parents were not members of the church previous to this time; believed strongly in infant baptism; and required as a condition of church member- ship that a person must promise an "Attendance on the Lord's Table".
The Confession of Faith and Covenant subscribed to by the members at the time of the reorganization, in 1818, is happily given in the Records, as are also more detailed statements agreed to November 1I, 1819. These latter renounce entirely the "Half Way Cov- enant". Both of these will be found in the Appendix (III: J).
May II, 1837, the church adopted the "Articles of faith and covenant, approved by the Black River association ".
The church participated by its pastor and delegates in councils of ordination or organization, or to settle especial difficulties, of other churches in the surround- ing country. A list of those of which records have been found may serve to throw light on the history of other early town or Congregational Churches. The dates given are those of the appointing of delegates :
June 26, 1774, Newfane, Ordination and probably organization.
June 26, 1774, Westminster, Ordination.
October 6, 1776, Putney, "To assist in gathering a Chh & Installing a Minister".
October 13, 1778, Westminster, Probably to settle some church difficulty.
Dec. 11, 1781, Cornish, "Ecclesiastical Council".
Mar. 26, 1785, Westminster, "Council".
Nov. II, 1787, Reading, "Ordination of Mr. Sar- geants there".
Nov. 2, 1788, Thomlinson (Grafton), "Ordination of Mr. Hall".
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
June 6, 1789, Windsor, "Ordination of Mr. Shuttles- worth" over "Christian Catholic Society".
June 26, 1791, Woodstock, "To hear their Difficul- ties and Consult thereon".
Oct. 25, 1795, Wardsborough, "Ordination there Nov. 4th".
Nov. 11, 1837, Chester, "Installation of Br. S. H. Hodges" Nov. 15.
Sept. 25, 1839, Saxtons River, Dismiss Rev. Nelson Barber Sept. 26.
In March, 1819, "all necessary furniture for the Sacramental Table" was purchased by popular sub- scription. The list of those contributing contains forty-four names, only seventeen of which have been found on the Records of the First Church as members. The remaining twenty-seven are listed in the appendix, at the close of the list of members of the church,* since they furnish additional evidence of the names of those interested in the church at that time. At the end of the subscription list in the Records of the First Church is the following:
"In addition to the foregoing, the Female Socie- ty advanced three Dollars and purchased the Bap- tismal Bason. Mrs. Eunice Richards gave the Table cloth and two small Napkins or towels. The whole furniture, in addition to the foregoing, con- sists of two large Tankard Pots, four Cups, two with handles, and two small Platters.
Capt. Thomas Gould procured the subscrip- tions, collected and paid over the same to Mr. Royal Earl".
The baptismal bowl was broken at the time the last member was taken into the church, and it was con- sidered at the time a "forerunner of trouble" for the church. The Communion service, the mended bap- tismal bowl, one napkin, and the table cloth were preserved with the Records of the First Church in
*Appendix I.
COMMUNION CUPS AND LINEN USED IN THE OLD MEETING HOUSE
THE HIGH PULPIT AND SOUNDING BOARD
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The Church Organization
Rockingham, by the descendants of David Pulsipher Ist, and his wife, Elizabeth. They were for many years in the possession of Mrs. W. H. H. Putnam of Springfield, one of these descendants. The Communion service was destroyed in a fire there in 1898, while the linen* and the record book have been recently pre- sented to the Old Rockingham Meeting House Associa- tion. In addition to these, two old pewter cups with- out handlest were recently found in the possession of J. B. Divoll at Rockingham village. They are entirely different from the service purchased in 1819, though they were probably used at some time on the Com- munion Table of the First Church. They have also been acquired by the Association and with the linen are kept in the Old Meeting House.
June 24, 1820, the church became a member of the "Consociation in Windham County", an organization of the Congregational Churches formed October 3, 1797, at Brattleboro, Vt.
*Appendix I.
¡The communion cups and linen are shown in the illustration on the opposite page. The linen, yellowed with age, bears the inscriptions "Jesus is the bread of life" and "The blood of Jesus is drink indeed," written with ink and still legible despite the passage of the years.
CHAPTER III
The Minister
A S told in detail in Chapter II, the Town of Rock- ingham had two preachers previous to the organ- ization of the church: Rev. Andrew Gardner from 1769 to December, 1771; and Rev. Elisha Harding, for at least part of the time between 1771 and 1773; and four settled ministers over the church-Rev. Samuel Whit- ing, from the organization of the church, October 27, 1773, until May 18, 1809; Rev. Elijah Wollage, from the reorganization of the church, November 5, 1818, probably until July 1, 1822; Rev. Samuel Mason, from January 3, 1837, until August 22, 1838; and Rev. Broughton White during 1839. Each of these men probably left his mark on the people of the town of Rockingham, but especially must this have been true of Rev. Samuel Whiting, who for thirty-six years, through the critical time during and after the Revolu- tion, was the town's leader in spiritual affairs, and, we may well believe, of great influence as a wise counsellor in things temporal. It is well that we should consider what kind of men these were.
Rev. Andrew Gardner* was one of the original grantees of the town of Rockingham, coming here from Fort Dummer and other points in the lower valley; before that, in 1746, he was in Charlestown, N. H. In addition to being a minister of the gospel, he was a skilled physician and surgeon, and served the various settlements in the dual capacity. After leaving here,
*Much of the material for these brief sketches of the ministers has been obtained from Thomas Bellows Peck's Historical Introduction to his reprint of the Records of the First Church, pp. IX to XI, and the History of the Town of Rockingham, Chaps. XI and XII, and pp. 786-788.
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The Minister
where he had made his home for some years, he went to Bath, N. H. Thus for many years he was intimately connected with the various settlements up and down the Connecticut Valley, and took much interest in their affairs, both spiritual and temporal.
Rev. Elisha Harding probably never lived in the -- town of Rockingham, though he is known to have come into this vicinity as early as 1755. At the time of his serving as preacher here, he was chaplain in the large family of Col. Benjamin Bellows at Walpole, N. H., and was evidently conveyed back and forth when preaching at Rockingham .*
Rev. Samuel Whiting, the "First Settled Minister" of the town of Rockingham, came to the town as a young man of only twenty-three years, and spent his entire mature life here, dying at the "Minister's House" in his seventieth year. Of the forty-five years he spent in town, for thirty-six he was the town's minister. This period covered the American Revolution and the period of construction and growth of the State of Ver- mont. It was unquestionably the most critical era in the history of the State, or of the towns of which it is composed. Throughout this period, his kindly person- ality and broad judgment stamped itself indelibly upon the people of the town in which he was both a respected citizen and an honored official; and through them, had its effect in the formation of the infant State.
In the ministry, he was a leader throughout the scattered settlements in this part of Vermont and New Hampshire, and often participated in councils to settle or dismiss ministers, or to adjust church difficulties. At his home, in June, 1796, was held the first meeting of the General Convention of Congregational Churches of Vermont, a work in which he took a prominent part, as he also did in its outgrowth, the Vermont Missionary
*Chapter II, p. 27.
-
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
Society. He was one of the ministers forming the "Association of Ministers of the Gospel of the County of Cumberland (Windham), in the state of New York",* formed in Brattleboro, October 17, 1775. It must not be overlooked that in those early days, a minister occupied an even higher position in the community than he does today, when educated men are so much more common. At the time of his resigning the minis- try over the First Church, he was the oldest minister in Vermont in point of service.
Mr. Whiting was, moreover, a business man, a thing not always to be found in a minister even in these keener days. While his salary was probably very small, he obtained from the town concessions of land which enabled him to live the nine years after his resignation, in comparative peace and comfort for those days. As has been mentioned in Chapter I, he disposed of between six and seven thousand dollars worth of property in a comparatively short period of time, and still had valuable properties left.
While none of his sermons have come down to us, side lights which we have on the man indicate that he was bright and keen, and probably gave his hearers the best to be had. A legend handed down from genera- tion to generation has it that one of his parishioners once complained to him that he was giving them "poor preaching,-very poor preaching", to which Mr. Whiting replied, "You must not forget that I receive poor pay,-very poor pay". Possibly this was during one of the many periods when his pay was a year or so in arrears.
The liberality of his religious views may be judged from the fact that at one time he is said to have chosen a young Baptist student to assist him in his church work for a while. It is also related that after resigning the ministry, he habitually attended church services
*Thompson's Vermont, pp. 177, 178; and Records of Windham Association of Congregational Ministers.
THE MINISTER'S HOUSE
HEAVY ROOF TIMBERS IN THE ATTIC OF THE MEETING HOUSE
The Minister
47
at the old church, paying no attention to what denomi- nation they might happen to be. When asked the reason for his so doing, he replied, "They may be right and I wrong". Such liberality of religious views was very rare in those days.
Soon after coming to Rockingham, the Rev. Samuel Whiting built for himself a home, known for many years as the "Minister's House". He located it on land given to him by the town as part of the Minister's Right, probably on Lot II of Range 6. The house is still standing about a mile north of Rockingham village on the road to Chester. It is known as the Stowell place and is now owned by Mortimer J. Granfield.
It is a beautiful example of colonial architecture, and, like the old Meeting House, has stood for much in the history of the town. In the olden days, the Minister's House was a semi-public building, used for smaller meetings of all kinds. In Mr. Whiting's office, attached to the rear of the building (see illustration of the minister's house), was held the first General Conven- tion of Congregational Churches of the State of Ver- mont, in June, 1796; here also were held meetings of both the Consociation in Windham County, and the Windham Association of Ministers. Here were solem- nized most of the marriage ceremonies performed by Mr. Whiting, as recorded in the Records of the First Church; and at his table in this small room was written year after year the story of the growth and later troubles of his church as they have come down to us in those Records.
Mr. Whiting continued to occupy the house after his dismissal from the ministry, and there died in 1819.
Rev. Samuel Whiting* was born in Wrentham, Mass., January 28, 1750; the son of Joseph Whiting of Franklin, Mass., who traced his ancestry back to
*History of Rockingham, pp. 786-788.
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
Nathaniel Whiting, who was in Dedham, Mass., in 1641, and married Hannah Dwight in 1643. Mr. Whiting graduated from Harvard College in 1769; received the degree of A. M. from Yale in 1772; was ordained pastor of the First Church in Rockingham, October 27, 1773, becoming their first settled minister; dismissed from the church at his own request, May 18, 1809, after thirty-six years of strenuous labor which had left him in poor health; and resided in the old Minister's House until his death, which occurred May 16, 1819. He married, May 24, 1774, Mary Goldsbury of Warwick, Mass., who died August 7, 1799. Both are buried in the old burying ground which surrounds the meeting house for which they gave so generously of themselves. They had nine children, of whom only two survived their father: John Goldsbury, who married first Phoebe Locke of Saxtons River, and second, Crissana Bailey, also of Saxtons River, and who was the grandfather of Mrs. Henry N. Weston and Mrs. Frank Proctor, still living in the northern part of Rockingham (Mrs. Crissana Bailey Whiting died at the home of Mrs. Henry N. Weston in 1912 at the age of one hundred and two); and Joseph, who married Clarissa, daughter of Jehiel Webb of Rockingham, and removed after a few years to Springfield, Vt., where descendants are still living.
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