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

The Propagation Society’s prayer books, which belonged to the former church, with the rector’s marginal or interlined addition of successive sovereigns’ names, in the prayers for rulers, are kept in the parsonage. The communion table and rail, with the desk which was used in the same church, now stand in the Sunday school room, and the old pulpit is preserved. The west-end door of the church of 1786, a door fastened together with wrought nails, and hung with long iron hinges, and furnished with an old- fashioned door handle and latch, is preserved, folders, head piece and mouldings, almost intact. An instrument for “pitching ye tune,” and used as long ago as in the church of 1742, is now the property of Frederick H. Nash, a descendant of Dennis Wright and of Micajah Nash, choristers of that day. The following is one of the provisions of a will dated Norwalk, November 23d, 1761. Isaac Isaacs, son of Ralph, bequeaths “unto St. Paul’s church, in said Norwalk, the sum of fifty pounds. New York money, to be laid out in plate for the use of the communion, for ever, in said church, and my name to be put upon the plate.” Witnessed by Jeremiah Learning, John Belden, and Joseph Hitchcock. The fund has disappeared, and further facts concerning it cannot be obtained. St. Mark’s parish New Canaan, is St. Paul’s oldest daughter. It was incor- porated in 1790. St. Matthew’s, Wilton, is next oldest, it having been orga- nized, in 1802; Christ church, Westport, (1834) follows next; then HolyTrinity, Westport, (1860); and Trinity, South Norwalk, is youngest daughter. St. Paul’s church, Norwalk, Ohio, was organized, in 1820, with eight commun- icants—five of whom were from St. Paul’s parish, Norwalk, Connecticut: These were Luke Keeler and Jemima, his wife; John Keeler and his wife; and Ruth Boult. Luke Keeler, senior warden of St. Paul’s, Norwalk, Ohio, from its incorporation until his death, in 1859, was the son of Phineas Keeler and Mary Camp. Mary Gamp was born December 5th, 1748, and was daughter of the Jonathan Camp, of that date. Norwalk, Ohio, is the namesake of Nor- walk, Connecticut; and the St. Paul’s of the former is not only a namesake, but may almost be said to be a daughter of the St. Paul’s, of the latter. During the incumbencies of the brothers, Caner, the parish numbered one hundred families. There were one hundred and seventy communicants belonging to the par- ish at the commencement of the Revolutionary War. After the withdrawal of the New Canaan and Wilton families, St. Paul’s still numbered one hundred and twenty households. There were two hundred and twenty-four communicants in the parish when Dr. Kemper came to it. Nineteen communicants were added during Rev. Mr. Richmond’s charge. The circular window work, in the church of 1786, was made by Daniel Nash the grandfather of Messrs. Edward and Andrew Nash, of Westport. Lovers of old narrations will excuse , perhaps, thisdesulory recital of parish memorabilia. 69 Two or three conditions are appended, after which some of the names and figures are : Ebenezer D. Hoyt, $700; Jonathan Camp, $600; Samuel and LeGrand Cannon, $600; Daniel Nash, $550; Daniel Nash, Jr., $500; Henry Belden, $500; Isaac Belden, $500; Esaias Bouton, $300; Josiah Church, $300; Paul Taylor, $300; Bichard Camp, $250; Nathaniel J. Street and William J. Street, $250; Abraham Camp and Thomas L. Camp, $240; Eseck Kellogg and Ebenezer Church, $325; Hezekiah Jarvis and Nathan Jarvis, Jr., and Isaac Church, $290; forty-one others in different amounts, $1,775. Total, $7,980. The fact and the figures speak; and this accomplished, the next agitation was that of the school question, the outcome of which was the construction, in 1821, of a parish school house. It was built by a stock company and upon the church property. The shares were in number one hundred, and then* value twenty dollars each. Samuel Cannon subscribed for ten shares; Henry Belden, ten shares; William J. Street, for ten shares; Daniel Nash, Jr., ten shares; Josiah Church, ten shares; Daniel Nash, five shares; Eseck Kellog, five shares; Nathan Jarvis, five shares; Jonathan Camp, five shares; Isaac Belden, five shares; Kichard Camp, three shares; Jesse Cur- tis, three shares; Dennis Nash, two shares; Joseph Platt, two shares; Abraham Camp, two shares; Benjamin Isaacs, two shares; and Bev. Beuben Sherwood, the balance, eleven shares. The building cost $1,375, and a report to that effect was made to the shareholders at a meeting, held February 5th, 1822, and a call for the amount, being thirteen and seventy -five one hundredths dollars per share, demanded: all of which was upon motion of Mr. Eseck Kellogg accepted and granted. The building was used for day and Sunday school purposes until 1844, when it was sold and removed, and the matter closed up by the receiving, in April of that year, a note for $456. 75, and the sale of the academy bell for $40. On June 15th, 1818, a number of the members of the parish met at the house of E. D. Hoyt, Esq. , and adopted the constitution of what was termed ‘ ‘The Norwalk Episcopal Society for the promotion # of Christian knowledge,” which had for its object “the establishment of a society’s library, the obtaining and as far as practicable the gratuitous distribution of the Bible, Book.of Common Prayer and religious tracts. The constitution had fifty-seven signers, including the Bev. Beuben Sherwood, in all probability the leading spirit in the matter, and Hezekiah and Nathan and William Jarvis, and William J. and Edward Street, and Jonathan Camp, Sr., and Jr., and LeGrand Cannon, and Isaac and Henry Belden. and J ohn and Charles Isaacs, nnd Eben and Edwin Hoyt, and Ebenezer Church, 70 1st., ancl David St. John, Jr., and Eseck Kellogg, and William Cornwall, and Margaret and Esther Mary Belden, and Eebecca Cannon, and Betsey Church, and Esther Street, and Lucretia Newkirk, and Mary E. St. John. Meetings were regularly held for several years, and quite a sum of money received and disbursed. The final meeting, of which we have any minutes, was the annual meeting of October 29th, 1824, at which time William J. Street was elected vice-president, and E. H. Street, secretary, and E. Hoyt, treasurer, and William K. James, librarian; while Jonathan Camp and Eseck Kellogg and David St. John were chosen collectors. This was the foundation, at least in modern times, of our present parish library.* The last subscription paper which can with any propriety be claimed as ancient, and this for the single reason that it holds two names which were on the subscription rolls of 1821 and 1816, and one of them was on the subscription of 1792, is dated forty-seven years ago this month, and is the subscription list for this present edifice of the parish. The two names to which refer- ence is made are tho e of Jonathan Camp, Sr. , and Benjamin Isaacs, both of w hom lived to a good age, but neither of them long enough, thank God, to unlearn the glorious old time lesson of generosity, but together gave for this calm and beautiful house of prayer the sum of $600. f There have been legacies left to the parish, the incomes fromwdiich are helpful to it; and one bequeathment has been made from which those who come after us will derive the benefit. The corner stone, a solid block, for the stone church in which, divine providence so ordering and permitting, the centenary of 1986 w ill be held, is even now laid. I Other records may be lost or obliterated, but such, never, whilst immortality endures. The report wrhich summarizes the accomplishments of a century which is completed, must of necessity embrace performances with whicn all are more or less familiar, and these consequently need no detailed explanation. The corner-stone of this fifth parish church was laid in 1840, and the church was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk, in 1841. A new parsonage was built in 1849, and in 1854 a new organ wras procured. The sum of $1,125 w'as paid for the site of the new Trinity Chapel, South Norwalk, the corner-stone of which was laid *This library, in 1797, numbered sixteen volumes. tThe subscription paper for the new church (of 1840) was put into the hands of Messrs David St. John, Jr., S. F. Mills, Jonathan Camp, Jr., Asa E. Smith, and William Atwill, committee. Before this committee was appointed, Mrs. Sarah MacGregor, of Main street, had contributed $100. tThe legacy of the late William K. James. 71 in 1860, and a stone church erected, under the direction of Rev. Dr. Mead, John H. Smith, Jonathan Camp, and Charles F. Osborn, building committee, the cost of which church was nearly $8. 000. In 1868 a chancel was added to this church, and stained replaced its plain glass windows; the furniture of this chancel was the gift of a summer worshiper,* whose tasteful bounty enriched the chan- cels of both the church and South Norwalk chapel. Between 1886 and 1879 over one hundred thousand dollars passed from the parish for objects wholly outside its limits. From 1885 to the present time, between twenty-eight and twenty-nine thousand dollars have been raised. But while it may be thought, and justly, too, that many words have been spoken, it can truly be declared that much remains to be said. May some industrious hand be found to gather of the harvest which is left, t