USA > Vermont > Windham County > Rockingham > The old Rockingham meeting house, erected 1787 and the first church in Rockingham, Vermont, 1773-1840 > Part 4
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Rev. Elijah Wollage, the second minister, was born in Bernardston, Mass., April 13, 1769, the son of Elijah and Polly Wollage; graduated from Dartmouth Col- lege in 1791; was pastor of churches in Guilford and Cambridge, Vermont, previous to coming to Rocking- ham; removed from Rockingham to New York state and took up teaching; resumed preaching in 1835, and died at Starkey, N. Y., in 1847. He married Sally P. Babcock of Westmoreland, N. H., and had five children, one of whom, Elijah, was a Presbyterian minister in Arkansas.
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The Minister
Rev. Samuel Mason, the third minister, was born in Cavendish, Vt., September 9, 1797, the son of Daniel and Betsey Mason. No record is available of the college from which he graduated, or any pastorates previous to coming to Rockingham. After leaving here, he preached in Lempster, Washington, and Kingston, N. H., and in 1846, removed to Newburyport, Mass., where he died April 9, 1847. He married at Cavendish, previous to 1821, Abigail Sawyer Whitcomb of that place.
Little can be found regarding Rev. Broughton White, the fourth and last settled minister, except that he is said to have been an aged man when he came to Rockingham and that he died in 1839, while serving the church. The records of the Consociation in Wind- ham County show that in June, 1836, Mr. White was moderator of the meeting of the Consociation at West- minster (West Parish), and was accredited there as the pastor of the church at Dover, Vt .; in 1838, he appears as a delegate from Putney, Vt .; and in 1839, as both a delegate from Putney and as pastor of the church in Rockingham. He was also for several years a member of the Association of Ministers in Windham County.
Within the past year, an old leather trunk was dis- covered in an attic in Brattleboro containing the original record books of various early church and ministers' associations of Windham County, which furnish addi- tional and definite information regarding the early church history of this section. These are now in the possession of Rev. R. A. Beardslee of Springfield, Vt., the scribe of the Windham-Union Ministers' Meeting. This trunk contained the records of the Consociation in Windham County from its organization in 1797 to its dissolution in 1840; of the Association of Ministers in Windham County from 1823 to 1828; of the Windham County Bible Society from its organization in 1830 to 1840; and of the Windham Association of Ministers
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
(now the Windham-Union Ministers' Meeting), from its organization, in 1775, for over a hundred years; as well as the original manuscript records of ordination councils at various churches during the early years of the nineteenth century.
_ "
IIJ
CHAPTER IV
The Meeting House Restored
T `HE Old Meeting House, abandoned in 1839 as a place of regular church worship, still continued to be used for town meetings until 1869, when they too followed the changed centre of population to Bellows Falls. In 1906, the interior of the building was put back into its original condition, partly by town and partly by private money, and it stands today as one of the finest examples of colonial church architecture re- maining in New England, both in exterior and interior.
After the death of Rev. Broughton White, in 1839, no further effort was made to resuscitate the First Church in Rockingham, or its successor, the Congrega- tional Church of Christ in Rockingham. Irregular church services have been held in the old Meeting House to the present day, especially in the summer. In the summer of 1914, Sunday School services were held there each week, and preaching services every alternate week under the auspices of the Bellows Falls Ministers' Association. These were well supported and it is possible they will be continued each summer.
The town continued to hold its meetings in the old building and it was possible to keep it warm by erect- ing a small chimney and installing two stoves. The pulpit was removed about 1851, and its place taken by a low platform for the convenience of the moderators of these meetings; and the rows of front benches removed for the sake of greater space. The exterior of the build- ing was kept in good repair by the town, and in its original condition; but the interior fell sadly the prey to curio seekers. The spindles from the pew-rails, the
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
old hand-forged hinges from the pew doors, even the nails that held the pews together-likewise hand- wrought or whittled from wood-all gradually disap- peared. In their place, appeared countless names and bits of choice poetry on the walls, which certainly added but little to the dignity or beauty of the building.
In 1869, the town deserted the building, holding its last meeting there March 19 of that year. Nearly ninety per cent of the legal voters lived at a distance from the building, while they were particularly central- ized around the villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River. By a close vote on March 19, 1869, the town of Rockingham voted to hold their meetings thereafter at the village of Bellows Falls, where suitable quarters had been guaranteed to them, free of charge, by eight leading citizens. Saxtons River fought hard for the meetings, but lost out. After several meetings held in Wightman's and Engine House Halls, they settled on Union Hall, where they were usually held, until the Opera House Block, or Town Hall building, was erected by the town in 1887.
Deserted first by the church, and then even by the town, the Old Meeting House stood on its hill, ever increasingly a memento of the past.
On May 15, 1906, at a special town meeting, it was voted to appropriate five hundred dollars to repair the Old Meeting House thoroughly, and restore it to its original condition as far as possible, with the under- standing that at least a similar amount should be raised by private subscription. This was done, and a total of about twelve hundred dollars obtained for the purpose, the private subscriptions coming both from local people, and from descendants of old residents now living at a distance; and ranging in amounts from fifty cents to fifty dollars. Mrs. Horace W. Thompson of Bellows Falls was largely instrumental in starting this movement and in raising the money to carry it to a
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The Meeting House Restored
successful completion. Mrs. Thompson's maiden name was Elizabeth Billings Jackson, and she was a grand- daughter of Samuel L. Billings, one of the most promi- nent citizens of Rockingham from 1840 to 1863, and a great-granddaughter of Susannah Billings, one of the members of the First Church after its reorganization in 1818.
The work was done under the personal supervision of Myron H. Ray, first selectman of the town of Rock- ingham, to whose great interest and carefulness is due in no small degree the successful working out of the plans. The work included placing the building in thorough repair by overhauling the underpinning, putting on a new slate roof, and repainting the outside with another coat of fresh, white paint; and the com- plete restoration of the interior to its original condition as shown by record and family legend. In accomplish- ing the latter, the stoves were removed and the long benches replaced; sixty pew doors replaced, using a replica of the old hand-wrought hinges; over fourteen hundred spindles put back into the rails separating the pews ;* the pulpit rebuilt at its old height and in as near its original form as could be determined; and the walls re-dressed in their original whiteness. In all interior woodwork, California redwood in its natural state was used, as most closely duplicating the weath- ered pine already there.
The restoration was completed late in the fall of 1906, but the re-dedication was delayed until the follow- ing summer, in order that it might serve as an Old Home Day, at a season when many of the old time residents and their descendants could attend.
On August 17, 1907, the Old Rockingham Meeting House was re-dedicated in the presence of nearly twelve hundred people, gathered from far and near to do honor
*Only two old spindles were found in place, while 1,400 had been removed.
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
to the building and to those who erected it and wor- shipped there, and who decided in it the momentous questions of town and state in the most critical period of our history. The Rockingham Grange served as hosts during both the picnic dinner at noon and the afternoon services. After an address of welcome by N. L. Divoll of Rockingham Village, the address of the day was given by Hon. Kittredge Haskins of Brattle- boro, who took as his theme, "Vermont and what it has done for the entire country". This was followed by short addresses by a number of Rockingham men and descendants of early citizens, including Rev. H. H. Shaw of Marlboro (a direct descendant of Rev. Samuel Whiting), Rev. L. O. Sherburne of Bellows Falls, Rev. Rodney W. Roundy of Ludlow (a "Rockingham Boy" now in Keene, N. H.), W. C. Belknap, Dr. E. R. Camp- bell, and C. W. Osgood of Bellows Falls, and Foster B. Locke of Saxtons River. The following resolutions,* introduced by Dr. E. R. Campbell, were unanimously passed by the assemblage:
Resolved, that we, here assembled on Rockingham Old Home Day, to re-dedicate the old meeting house, hereby tender to Mrs. Elizabeth B. Thomp- son a vote of thanks for her most earnest and suc- cessful work in making possible the restoration of the old church and the exercises of today.
Resolved, that she is hereby appointed to co- operate with a committee of five to be selected by herself to arrange for an annual or biennial gather- ing at this place.
In this last clause was laid the foundation of the Annual Pilgrimages to the Old Church, which have grown to be an ever increasing factor in the summer life of the town of Rockingham.t
In addition to the money which made this restora-
*A framed copy of these resolutions hangs now in the Old Meeting House beside a short history of the restoration and a list of those making it financially possible. +Chapter VI.
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The Meeting House Restored
tion possible, there was presented to the old church at this time the following gifts of value: A visitors' register especially designed and gotten out for the church by Frank S. Whitten of Lynn, Mass .; a pair of curtains for the circular window behind the pulpit, by Hope Lovell of Rockingham; cushions for the seat in the pulpit and the one in the deacon's pew front of the pulpit, by Mrs. Thompson and J. E. Keefe; a copy of the reprint of the Records of the First Church, by Thomas Bellows Peck of Walpole, N. H .; and a copy of the History of the Town of Rockingham by the Select- men.
Several relics of the church were also on exhibition at this time, among them being the key of the old original lock* on the door, now in the possession of T. R. McQuaide of Claremont, N. H .; two pewter goblets and the linen forming part of the Communion service used by the First Church, and the original record book of the First Church. All except the key are now in the posses- sion of the Old Rockingham Meeting House Association.
Two plates marking the pews were also dedicated at this time. One bears the inscription, "In memory of Nathaniel Davis, one of the first settlers of Rockingham, who, with his family, occupied this pew for many years. Given by the children of John H. and Susan B. Davis". A second, in memory of the family of Caspar Shana Wolfe, who came to Rockingham in 1784, was placed on his pew by Mrs. Sarah Millard Rogers of Charles- town, N. H. Since this date, the pews have been similarly marked which were occupied by Joshua Webb, who came to Rockingham in 1768; Ebenezer Allbee, who settled in town in 1770 or 1771; Wm. W. Pulsipher; John Wiley 2nd; and Josiah Whitet who
*The lock itself is also in the possession of the McQuaide family.
tJosiah White is shown by the town records to have taken a very active part in the affairs of the town from his removal here in 1773 to his death in 1806. He was especial- ly active in the formation of the State of Vermont and the struggle for independence from the Mother Country that followed, being one of the men from Rockingham who "marcht to Manchester" in 1777. He made his home on the farm in the north part of the town now known as the Chester B. Hadwen place. A copy of the inscription on his tombstone is given in Chapter I, p. 25.
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
joined the settlers in 1773. At the Annual Pilgrimage, August 4, 1912, a bronze tablet in honor of Dr. Reuben Jones* placed on the wall to the left of the pulpit, was presented by Mrs. Frederick E. Wadhams of Albany, N. Y., a great-granddaughter of Dr. Jones. The tablet bears the following inscription :
"In memory of Dr. Reuben Jones, who wor- shipped for many years in this Meeting House. Born, March 7,- 1747; died January 7, 1833. He and his wife were received into the church on Febru- ary 13, 1780, and their children were baptized here. He was the first physician in Rockingham; a Liberty Man in the Westminster Massacre and a soldier of the Revolution. He represented Rockingham in the conventions which resulted in the formation of the State of Vermont; and served in the first general assemblies of the state."
An appropriate poem was written expressly for the re-dedication of the Meeting House by Miss Mary O. Divoll, of Rockingham, and read by her at that meeting.
*The inscription on the tablet in memory of Dr. Reuben Jones gives only a small idea of the part he took in the early affairs, not only of Rockingham, but of the entire State of Vermont. He, with Captain Azariah Wright of Westminster, were the leaders of the liberty party in Eastern Vermont throughout the entire Revolutionary period, taking much the same place in this part of that State that Ethan Allen took in the western part. Later he took a decidedly leading part in the formation of the State of Vermont and its admission into the Union. He was one of the original grantees of the town of Concord, Vt., and obtained from others a share in the previously granted islands in Lake Champlain, early known as the "Two Heroes." He moved from Rockingham to Chester, which town he also represented in the Legislature; and later removed to the state of New York, at Keesville, in which state he died in 1833. His son also, Dr. Reuben Jones, was a leading physician and judge of the state of New York, and served as surgeon in the War of 1812. Pages 687-689 of the History of the Town of Rockingham give in detail all the information available regarding this remark- able man.
n.
K HAM;A LIBERTY MAN IN THE
IST NSTER MASSACRE AND A
R OF THE
PRESENTED INGHAM IN "THE CONVENTI ICH RESULTED IN THE FORMATION OF THE STATE OF VERMONT, AND SERYCH AS THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLIES
THE DR. REUBEN JONES TABLET
JOSIAH WHITE
OWNED THIS PEW SOME SIXTEEN YEARS SELLING IT AUGUST 16,1803, TO DR.LEVI SABIN JOSIAH WHITE
DIED SEPTEMBER 1,1806, AGED 92, LEAVING 323 DESCENDANTS LIVING AND 62 DEAD.
THE JOSIAH WHITE PEW MARKER
CHAPTER V
The Old Rockingham Meeting House Association
O N the afternoon of May 1, 1911, nine interested citizens of Rockingham and vicinity met in Hotel Windham, at Bellows Falls, and formed the Old Rockingham Meeting House Association, the objects of which were stated by them as follows:
"In order to preserve the Old Rockingham Meeting House and other buildings or monuments of marked historical interest in Rockingham and the neighboring towns, and for the purpose of commemorating important historical events in the settlement and growth of Rockingham and adjacent territory; for providing an Annual Pilgrimage to the Old Rockingham Meeting House, and for fur- ther purpose of encouraging love for the civic, social and religious principles and institutions in- corporated in our local, state and national govern- ment. "
Following is a list of those thus banding themselves together: Prof. Franklin W. Hooper of Brooklyn, N. Y. and Walpole, N. H .; Dr. H. D. Holton of Brattleboro, Vt .; Miss Mary O. Divoll of Rockingham Village; C. W. Osgood, Rev. A. P. Pratt, W. C. Belknap, N. G. Williams, L. S. Hayes, and H. W. Mitchell, all of Bellows Falls.
The association was incorporated June 28, 191I, by filing with the Secretary of State the Articles of Association, and the following officers were elected soon after:
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The, Old Rockingham Meeting House
Prof. FRANKLIN W. HOOPER, LL. D., President
Gen. NATHAN G. WILLIAMS, Ist Vice-President
Mrs. JOSIAH G. BELLOWS, 2d Vice-President
HENRY D. HOLTON, M. D., 3d Vice-President
CHARLES W. OSGOOD, 4th Vice-President
Rev. ARTHUR P. PRATT, Ph. D., Secretary
WILLIS C. BELKNAP, Treasurer
LYMAN S. HAYES, Librarian
Executive Committee
Hon. HORACE A. PERRY, Walpole. THOMAS BELLOWS PECK, Walpole. CHARLES N. VILAS, Alstead.
HON. JOHN W. PRENTISS, Alstead.
NATT L. DIVOLL, Rockingham.
HERBERT W. MITCHELL, Rockingham.
JUSTUS DARTT, Springfield.
Rev. HENRY L. BALLOU, Chester.
These officers continue the same today, except that Warren L. Hooper has taken the place of T. B. Peck on the executive committee, and Merrill L. Lawrence, that of Justus Dartt. Professor Hooper has recently died, and his place as president will be filled at the next annual meeting. The membership has increased to sixty-six, and includes people from New York, South Dakota, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, and Illinois, in addition to those from Vermont and New Hampshire. Efforts are being made at the present time to materially increase this membership, and to raise a permanent fund of twenty-five hundred dollars, which would yield an income sufficient to cover the expense of the Annual Pilgrimages, with the help of the collections each year. So far, the expense of these has been met by circulating subscription papers. If this plan works out, it would certainly serve as a very fitting memorial for Professor Hooper.
The constitution of the Association* provides that an annual public meeting shall be held on the last
*Appendix V.
59
Old Rockingham Meeting House Association
Monday in April in Bellows Falls; and that an Annual Pilgrimage to the Old Rockingham Meeting House shall be arranged the latter part of July or the early part of August of each year. Both these meetings and Pilgrimages* have grown to be important factors in the life of the town and have done much to stir up public -- interest in things historical and civic. Speakers of prominence have been obtained for each meeting, who have taken as their subjects some phase of the historical or civic life of this vicinity.
The Association was formed to carry forward the Annual Pilgrimages to the Meeting House, which were presaged in the resolutions adopted at the re-dedica- tion of the building in 1907, and which had become an annual feature between that date and the organization of the Association in 1911, but it has already gone farther than this.
To Professor Franklin W. Hooper, more than to any other man, belongs the credit for this entire work. To his interest in the Old Meeting House and all it stands for, and his untiring devotion to the work involved, is due to a large extent the present organization and all for which it stands. In his death, which occurred August 1, 1914, the Association has lost its leader and its most faithful servant, and his place will be hard to fill. Professor Hooper was a great-great-grandson of David Pulsipher, one of the original members of the First Church of Rockingham at its organization in 1773, the keeper of the "Inn" at Rockingham Village at that time, one of the four men presenting to the town the land on which the Meeting House was built, and a noted patriot of the town of Rockingham in the War of the Revolution.
Prof. Hooper's interest in Rockingham is shown by the following extract from a letter written by him soon after the pilgrimage to the Meeting House in 1913:
*Chapter VI.
100101111 11.21.11.1.
1
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
"I am realizing, more and more, as the years go by, that the great majority of us, who have not been in touch with the history of Rockingham do not appreciate as we otherwise would just what Rockingham has done for the State of Vermont and for the country at large."
The following extract from his obituary in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, summarizes the life of this man better than can other words:
"No man ever did so much to dignify the posi- tion of the old City of Brooklyn, in the world of science and art, as Professor Franklin William Hooper. A native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Harvard, a specialist in biology and geology, he came here first as a professor in Adel- phi College, where he taught natural science for nine years. In 1889, he became the director of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. For a quarter of a century his energetic activities have been given to the development of this institution which has become the pride of the city and a model for work in many other cities. "
The Association has also lost another leader in the past few months, in the death of Thomas Bellows Peck, also of Walpole. Mr. Peck was one of the first men to appreciate the value to the present generation of the Rockingham Meeting House. His reprint of the Records of the First Church in Rockingham was prob- ably largely responsible for the present interest in this subject, centering as it does around the Rockingham Meeting House Association and the Annual Pilgrimages to the Meeting House. He died at Salem, Mass., Jan- uary 2, 1915.
SURROUNDED BY ITS BURYING GROUND
THE DEACONS' SEATS
CHAPTER VI
Annual Pilgrimages to the Old Meeting House
S INCE the re-dedication of the Old Meeting House in 1907, Annual Pilgrimages have been made to that shrine each summer; in fact, these pilgrimages might be said to antedate the re-dedication, since on July 28, 1907, about three weeks previous to that service, a meeting was held there under the leadership of clergymen from Walpole and participated in by about one hundred people from Walpole, Bellows Falls, Rockingham, and Springfield. This meeting largely took the form of an old time church service.
The second Annual Pilgrimage occurred July 29, 1908, when about two hundred and fifty people gathered at the Old Meeting House and listened to an able address by Rev. Edwin N. Hardy of Quincy, Mass., on "The Old New England Meeting Houses". The ser- mon was preached by Rev. Samuel M. Crothers of Cambridge, Mass., on the subject, "Ideal Qualities of a Christian".
The third Annual Pilgrimage on August I, 1909, brought together about three hundred people from the surrounding towns. The address was by Professor Calvin M. Woodward, LL. D., of St. Louis, on "The Ideal of New England", while the sermon was by Dr. Thomas R. Slicer, D. D., of All Soul's Church of New York, on "The Fear of a Noble Mind".
July 31, 1910, about seven hundred people gathered at the Old Meeting House for their fourth Annual Pilgrimage, and plans were laid for the formation of a permanent organization to take charge of these pilgrim- ages. Addresses were made by Hon. Edwin A. Mead
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The Old Rockingham Meeting House
of Boston, on "The New England Meeting Houses", and Pres. John M. Thomas, of Middlebury College, on "Vermont's Service to the Nation". Mr. Mead spoke of the Rockingham Meeting House as occupying a position almost unique among the meeting houses of New England, since it is almost the only one built in the eighteenth century which stands today in its original condition of both exterior and interior.
In 1911, the Old Rockingham Meeting House Association was formed not only to take charge of these pilgrimages, but to further in every way possible the interest in historical matters of the people of this vicinity.
The fifth Annual Pilgrimage to the Old Meeting House, and the first under the auspices of the permanent organization, took place July 30, 1911. Hon. John A. Mead, Governor of the State of Vermont, delivered the address of the day, speaking particularly of the State and its good work; the sermon was by Rev. A. J. Lyman, D. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., on "The Deeper Unity of the New England Religious History", and a short address by Professor Hooper, President of the associa- tion, covered the history of the movement compre- hensively. All these addresses were listened to with much attention by nearly six hundred people present.
At the sixth Annual Pilgrimage on August 4, 1912, a tablet on the wall of the old church, in memory of Dr. Reuben Jones, was presented to the town by F. E. Wadhams of Albany, N. Y., as the gift of his wife, a descendant of Dr. Jones .* A poem, "The Candle in the Choir",t relating a legend of the Old Meeting House, was written for the occasion by Percy MacKaye and read by the author. At the time of this pilgrimage, the two old pewter tankards and the Communion linen, formerly used by the First Church of Rockingham, were first seen in their new glass case in the Meeting
*Chapter IV p. 56. +Page 11.
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