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

wood, that he was the organizer of the Sunday School in this par- ish. The school first met in the gallery of the old church, and numbered, as far as can be ascertained, some fifty teachers and members. It is believed that not one of its teachers, among whom were Mrs. Jarvis Street and Miss Betsey Church, both of them too earnest and too devoted to be soon forgotten, is now liv- ing. The last survivor was the late Edwin Hoyt. Jarvis Street, who was active in the parish, had charge of the school instruction books.* *The late Miss Amelia Belden was connected with this school ; also the present Mrs. Jonathan Camp, and Mr. Josiah Raymond. IIThe following is an exact copy of a programme 61 years old : SCHEME OF THE EXERCISES AT THE EXHIBITION OF THE EPISCOPAL ACADEMY, IN NORWALK, OCT. 12, 1825. 1. Music 2. Latin Oration, by John S. IVinthrop. 3. Forensic Disputation, On the compara- tive benefits of the Art of Printing and the Mariners Compass, by Benjamin Edwards and Stephen Reed. 4. Music. 5. Poem, To the memory of Byron, by R. John Everitt. 6. Oration, On the intellectual powers of man, by Milton Crawford. 7. Oration, On national prosperity, by Henry R. Winthrop. 8. Music. 9. Dialogue — SOBISKI. Stanislaus, Pulaski, Sobiski, Anhalt, 10. Epilogue, H. R. IVinthrop. R. J. Everitt. Charles R. Smith J. S. Winthrop. Edward Sellon. It is the order of an entertainment given by the pupils of Dr. Sherwood’s school. The Winthrop’s referred to, viz., John S., who made the Latin ora- tion, and Henry R., whose theme was “National Prosperity,” were grand- sons of Fitch, son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers of Norwalk. Fitch Rogers’ second daughter, Harriet, (sister of Mrs. Dr. Sherwood) mar- ried John Winthrop, Esq. The Winthrop House in Stamford stood on the east side of the triangular “green,” a few rods distant from St. John’s 4 17 April 26, 1830, the Rev. Alexander H. Crosby* was invited to the rectorship, but declined. The Rev. Henry 8. Atwaterf officiated from June 27 to December 19, 1830, and from the register which he kept it is noticeable that, with but one exception all of his marriages — he had several — were church, and neighbor to the Brown, and Fitch Rogers, Jr., and Holly Homes. The Rogers family pew in the old St. John’s, right prosperous mother to-day of several daughters, is still remembered. Dr. Sherwood’s engaging pupil, Henry Rogers Winthrop, was Yale valedictorian, class of 1830, and his cousin’ Edward, of New Haveu, was valedictorian next year (1831) at Yale. It is an interesting fact that the cousins should, each in his respective class, have borne away the highest honors of Alma Mater, and it is testimony to their intellectual capabilities also because in both instances, the race for the distinction was a sharply contested one. The cousins had for competitors two thoroughly cultured and earnest classmates, brothers, from South Caro- lina. Edward Winthrop, (valedictorian of 1831,) was son uf Francis Bayard Win- throp, of New Haven His brother, Charles, and himself, were second cousins of Mrs. Dr. Sherwood and old members of the Norwalk school. Edward was afterward elected rector of St. Paul’s church, Cincinnati, Ohio, and after that of St. Paul’s, Norwalk, Ohio, and he being grandson of Moses and Sarah (Woolsey) Rogers was gr. gr. grandson of Ralph Isaacs. The Benjamin Ed- wards mentioned in “The Scheme,’’ was from Long Island, and of the Yale class of 1829, and his discussion of the art of printing and the mariner's com- pass was probably his farewell to school, while his disputant, Stephen Reed, was a Greek student and belonged to the Reed family of West Norwalk. R. John Everitt was a young man who belonged to the institution and was bap- tized by Dr. Sherwood while under his care: and Edward Sellon, who pro- nounced the parting words, was the son of a clergyman of the English church ; there were two brothers, Sellon, who attended Dr. Sherwood’s school. The connection of the Norwalk Rogerses and the Massachusetts Winthrops was through Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers’ son Henry. His (Henry’s) son, Dr. John Smith Rogers, married Gov. Thomas L. Winthrop’s daughter, Augusta, sister of Robert C. Winthrop. John Smith, after whom Dr. John S. Rogers appears to have been named, was one of the king of Great Britain’s American treasurers. IT In the beginning of Dr. Sherwood’s rectorship St. Paul’s numbered about one hundred communicants; and at its close the number was in the neigh- borhood of one hundred and sixty-four. Some forty communicants had died or removed during Dr. Sherwood’s fourfeen years care. The Diocesian Convention of 1828 met in Norwalk, and in his report of that year i Which was his last but one), the rector of St. Paul’s mentions that he had attended two hundred and fourteen funerals. “Supposing then,” he goes on to say, “the whole number of souls in the parish, including men, women, and children, to amount to seven hundred, which is thought a large calculation, we find that a number nearly equaling one-third of the whole congregation, has within the last twelve years been numbered with the dead. And if on this computation, which is certainly a reasonable one, we extend our views forward, it will be found that within the short space of thirty-six years, there will have died in this parish a number fully equal to the whole congregation at the commencment of this period.” Dr. Sherwood’s limitation of thirty-six years expired, in 1864, but extend the time sixteen years so as to include Dr. Mead’s entire rectorship, and over 1,600 have been attended. The report of Dr. Sherwood concludes very properly with the words, “Teach us, O Lord, so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” * Studied under the advice of the well-read and universally beloved Dr. Samuel Nichols (father of Rev. George Warner Nichols, now residing in St. Paul’s parish), of Bedford, N. Y., and while naturally sedate, yet was pre- possessing and engaging. “St. Paul’s,” says one who has fresh remembrance of him, “would have done well to have secured him.” He became rector of St. John’s church, Yonkers, and continued such eleven years. I t Ambrose. Todd, D.D., brought Mr. Atwater to Norwalk, and took him at once to the new home of the late Stephen Smith, on Newtown avenue, where he was cordially welcomed. His first administration of baptism in this par- ish was in Judge Smith’s house, on the evening of Whit Sunday, 1830. Mr. Atwater spent the latter part of his life in the west. 18 solemnized in the church. Previous to his day such public celebra- tions had been rare. It is believed that the church of 1786 had almost completed two-thirds of its existence before it had witnessed such a service. One of the contracting parties in the first marri- age known to have been solemnized in that edifice still survives, a revered communicant,* to whom children lovingly minister. + On Easter Monday, 1831, the parish, through its vote, asked from Bishop Brownell a nomination for the rectorship. Action was promptly taken, and the fondly-remembered incumbency of Jackson Kemper + was soon inaugurated. The spirit, the heart, and * Mrs. Edwin Hoyt. t The second marriage in the church of 1786 was that of James Stevens, Esq. to Fanny Whitlock, April 4th, 1821, and the latest marriages in the same edi- fice, and after it was removed t<> the Jarvis lot in order to make room for the erection of the new church, were George Hayes Bradley, or New Haves, to Theodocia Fitch Daskam, of Nox-walk, October 7th, 1840, and on January 20th, 1841, George A. Lally to Frances B. St. John (daughter of Charlotte St. John, formerly of St. Paul’s, Norwalk, but later of St. Paul’s, New Haven,) and Charles Frederick Osborn to Caroline Kellogg, March 23d, 1841.