Address at the Centenary of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Conn.

The children of Isaac, son of Jacob and Grace, were Almira, (Mrs. Henry Hurlbutt and an old choir member); and Eliza, (Mrs. Nathan Whitehead, the mother of Mrs. James C. Newkirk); and Sally Ann, (who married Thomas Brady); and Cornelia, (the late Mrs. Henry Chase); and Antionette, (Mrs. Edward Messenger) ; and Gould D., (a vestryman of St. Paul’s church, and who was respected by the entire mercantile community); and William S. ; and Margaret, (Mrs. Joel Grumman) and Catharine, (the mother of Miss Nellie Baird principal of the Norwalk Female Seminary,) and Joseph H., (the father of Isaac Jennings, of Trinity church, South Norwalk), and Edgar. 64 the building committee, and had full direction of the work. This was the parsonage house* which gave way, in 1849, to the present home of the rector. And now, with the church in good condition The father of the Norwalk Jenningses, Jacob, of Pew No. 34, was a Bostonian. One of his sisters married a Bedfield, another, it is thought, a Dimon, and another a Marquand. Isaac Marquand, founder of the famed New York city jewelry house of that name, studied his art in this town (in a building which stood immediately north of the Connecticut hotel) under the direction of his uncle, Jacob Jennings. Mr. Jennings’ brother, or brothers, settled in South- port) The father of the Thomas Brady, of St. Paul’s church, was James, who married Jacob Jennings’ daughter Grace. James Brady’s father was Thomas Brodie — the Brady’s, formerly Brodies, are of Scotch descent — and Thomas Brodie’s wife was a French lady, of the family name of Celeste. Seth Jennings, son of Jacob and Grace, married a Miss Trowbridge. He died on the Island of St. Thomas, of yellow fever. Lucretia Jennings, daugh- ter of Seth, married Conrad Newkirk. In Pew No. 35 sat Captain Joshua Bouton, of old Bouton blood, a relative of Esaias and Samuel, and who was engaged in the East India trade, his home being what is now the property of Mrs. Elizabeth McLean. Mrs. Captain Bouton was a Miss Margaret McLean, an individual of sweetly-blended virtues of character. Their daughter, Harriett, afterward Mrs. Langdon Mott, was a member of St. Paul’s church choir, and sang in the church with Isaac Adams, of Westport, (father of Charles, of Norwalk,) and William Cornwall, and Miss Ann Boult, and others. She appears to have been a lady of fine musical accomplishments, and her rendition of this portion of the chubch service, especially at festival seasons, earned for her highly flattering acknowledg- ments The choir, in former times, was large, and almost filled the west gallery of the old church. Among Mrs. Mott’s cotemporaries were Samuel Camp, and Jemmy James, and Eben and Charles Boult, and the two sisters Boult, and Miss Eliza Jennings. An organ was first placed in the church about the year 1830, and a plate was put upon it memorizing the appropriation from the Betsey Hall fund, of one hundred dollars in aid of its purchase. The instrument was a small but pleasant-toned one, and was put in by Mr. Pierson, of New York. The line of St. Paul’s church organists is as follows : Edward Street, Horace B. Gaylord, William A. Barlow, Edward Street, again. Miss Emily Street, Miss Susan Hubbell, Miss Mary Esther Camp, Mr. William M. Betts, Miss Mary L. Hoyt, Miss Alice Fitch, Miss Nettie Camp, Miss Ferry, Mr. Frederick H. Nash, Mr. Stephen Hatch, Mr. Edward Jackson, Miss Jennie Nash, and Messrs. Hatch and Jackson again. 1786, down to Dr. Mead’s Josiah Cornwall, William J. Street, Jonathan Camp, Jr., Charles Finney, James Finney, Israel Lockwood, Reuben a. Williams, Horace B. Gaylord, William a. Barlow. Obadiaii Wright, of Pew No. 45, was from Westport. He was formerly the owner of the tract to the river, whereon the new Christ church now stands. His granddaughter is a member of Christ church parish, Westport. The owner of Pew No. 46, Mr. Eliaklm Warren, having removed to Troy, New York, sold it, on August 15th, 1801, to Jonathan Camp. Peter James, the owner of Pew No. 49, was the grandfather of William K. James. Daniel, the third son of Peter and Mercy James, was born in 1773, and married (January 18th, 1798,) Anna Kellogg. Their second child, William K., was born September 15th, 1800. He was one of Norwalk’s substantial men, and a liberal son of the parish. The line of choristers acceptance of the parish hezekiah Jarvis, Isaac S. ISAACS, Holmes Saunders, Barnabas Marvin, Noah Jarvis, David Boult, William Betts, James James, Nathan Jarvis, from the consecration, in runs thus : Jacob Boult, Charles Boult, William Cornwall, Samuel Camp. Hezekiah Bennett, Grove Cornwall, Isaac Adams, Dennis Nash, Uriah Taylor, *See note page 65, 65 and a proper abode for their clergyman, action as follows was taken : “We, the subscribers, being desirous to establish a permanent One of our oldest church families was that of Asa and Betsey (Stuart) Olm- stead, (father and mother of Dr. David W. Olmstead, and his sisters Julia and Fanny), of Belden’s Hill. Mr. Asa Olmstead belonged to St. Matthew’s parish, Wilton, but during the closing years of its existence himself and family attended at the St. Paul’s, of 1786. His son. Dr. David W., studied under Bev. Dr. William Smith, and graduated at the New York Medical College. He was unmarried, as was alse his sister Julia. His sister, Fanny, married William Harrington. His cousin Charles (father of two communicants, in 1886, Mrs, Edwin and Mrs. George Beers) resided in Cranberry Plains, and his cousin, Silas, lived at Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson, and was one of the wealthy and most prominent citizens of that place. The nearest Norwalk descendants of Asa and Betsey Olmstead, now living, are the widow of Murrain Raymond, and Mrs. Julia Ann Hayes, and Mrs. Andrew Selleck. Captain Alfred Taylor, of Poplar Plains, nephew of Paul Taylor, of West Norwalk, is probably the oldest churchman in St. Paul’s, or either of its daughter parishes. He was born in 1791, and was, therefore, something of a child when the pews were first disposed of, in 1794. He is too infirm to attend upon the public services of religion, but his faculties, with the exception of his healing, are remarkably preserved, and the fervor with which the rare old faithful (whose memory antedates the rectorships of Dr. Mead, Dr. Kem- per, Dr. Sherwood, and Dr. Judd and extends through that of Mr. Whitlock, to the rectorship of Dr. Smith) engages in the private offices of the church, is impressive. He has come, with the partner of his days — fouryears his junior — gratefully, to the ending of a long life, both of them speaking tenderly of the blessings which, through the pilgrimage, have been vouchsafed them; and, together, looking hopefully forward to re-union in the land of endless youth and ceaseless song. ♦Around the old parsonage (see cut) crowded many interesting associations. Beneath its roof Mr. Whitlock spent the concluding months of his parish connection, and Dr. Judd went in and out, and Dr. Sherwood resided for fourteen years. It was Mr. Richmond’s temporary home, and he planted a tree outside of it which reminds us to-day of the birth of a daughter within it. Dr. Kemper thoroughly enjoyed, and Dr. Mead was much attached to it. Under its shade such as Drs. Harry Croswell, and Francis L. Hawks, and William Shelton were welcomed. Bishop Brownell there met his gathered clergy. Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk knew the place. Dr. Muhlenbergh spent many pleasant hours therein. Dr. William F. Morgan read in its study. Dr. Thomas W. Coit was accustomed to its tones of greeting, and so was Dr. Gurdon S., his brother, and Dr. Ambrose Todd, of Stamford, and Revds. William Jarvis, and David and Abel Ogden, and Charles I. Todd, and B. M. Yarrington, and John Purves, all gone with the exception of the well remem- bered rectors of St. Thomas’, New York, and Christ church, Greenwich. The ancient spot witnessed to protracted discussions, and brave attestations to the church’s doctrines, and advocates of modern “developments” found no audience. The sound old churchmen thought and taught that it is by the spirit of the Lord, that the world progresses, and the notion, that because of the march of mind truth must change its base, seemed as senseless to them as the fear lest the “chaotic tendencies of Hume and Hobbe” should supplant the Divine revelation seemed shallow. Three parishes, in this old Episcopal see, were wont to be represented within the hospitable walls of that parsonage : The three— formerly as now— import- ant cures of Western Connecticut: St. John’s, Bridgeport, St. John’s, Stam- ford ; and St. Paul’s, Norwalk. The rectory of the latter, standing about mid- way between the other two, and close on to the old Post Road, naturally be- came the place where the clergy would frequently meet. The Revs. Philo Shelton, Jonathan Judd, and Reuben Sherwood, and, later, Drs. Gurdon S. Coit, Ambrose S. Todd, and William Cooper Mead, were cotemporaries. These clergymen were of one mind with regard to ecclesiastical polity, and the fun- dametals of the faith; their laity were churchmen from conviction, and dur- ing an era marked by “departures,” the parishes were a unit in insisting that there should be “no tampering with the landmarks.” The three have gone growingly on ; each can count, in missions, or in established parishes, at least five daughters ; and although the easternmost ranks its sisters in having been the first to rear, upon “a fair site,” a noble temple of stone, beautiful within and without, a temple worthy of the parish antecedents, still the other two have no cause to look regretfully back upon their achievements. 66 fund for the support or maintenance of the rector or minister of St. Paul’s Church or society in the town of Norwalk, county of Fairfield, State of Connecticut, and in consideration of the provisions and