Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

towns and parishes of Fairfield and Norwaik. Our fathers and mothers trudged a-foot or rode on horseback nearly five miles to attend church. Fairfield town and parish originally embraced what are now the different parishes of Greenfield Hill, called the Fairfield North Parish, Southport, Greens Farms and Fairfield North West Parish or Norfield, now called Weston. It was but natural that the people settled in the Greens Farms district and in Compo, Saugatuck and Crosshighway should in time find it burdensome to journey the long distance that was necessary to attend upon divine wor- ship in the mother church at Fairfield. The record tells! us that in 1715 Captain Thomas Nash, who had cornel from New Haven and settled in Greens Farms some, years ago, got tired of taking this journey each week,', and that he. with six others, organized the church in; Greens Farms. This church thirty-six years ago cele- brated its 150th anniversary. It has an exceedingly rich and interesting history. It is not my purpose to speak at length of the parish bordering upon the west. The church and town of Norwaik are to-day entering upon their celebration of their 250th anniversary. All those years "The Prime Ancient Society" was minister- ing to' the spiritual wants of the early settlers in that locality as far east as the Saugatuck river. There the Rev. Thomas Hanford. the first pastor, was growing old. But the people respected this ancient servant of God, and the town in 1686 passed the following vote: "We do desire Mr. Hanford to proceed in the work of the gospel ministry, and therein to continue in the said work, until the Lord by his providence shall dispose of him otherwise : promising to endeavor to our ability for to give due encouragement.'' Meantime, William Lees did engage to beat the drum and sweep the church decently once a week, and for said services he was to re- ceive for the year the sum of one pound and ten shill- ings. Stern tithemen were appointed to keep the youth in order in the meeting house on the Lord's Day and to the best of their wisdom to keep them from uncivil be- havior in time of public worship. From what has been said, it will be seen that Congregationalism is not young in what are now the limits of our town. Churches were early established on each side of the Saugatuck River. The town of Westport was incorporated in 1835. It was formed from the towns of Fairfield, Norwaik and Wes- ton. May next our town will be sixty-six years old. R7 Long previous to this date, while as yet there was no town of Westport, there was a village of considerable size, bearing the significant and euphonious name of Saugatuck (mouth of the river). Everyone who has given the matter the least particle of thought, deplores the change of name which took place when the town was incorporated. The new town should have borne the name of the old village. Hall in his history of Norwalk speaks feelingly upon this subject: "Were I a resident of that town T would never cease to petition the Legisla- ture until the change of name to the original Saugatuck was granted." The church whose beginning we now note has been more loyal to tradition and the early name than has the town. Upon the first page of a book en- titled "Records of the Congregational Church of Christ in the Village of Saugatuck" we find the following re- corded: At different periods for several successive years prior to 1832 the subject of organizing a church and ec- clesiastical society in this village became one of conver- sation and inquiry among the inhabitants of this village, then constituting a part of the ecclesiastical society of Greens Farms. After long consultation, it was finally decided to take measures and make preparations for the building of a meeting house. We find that as early as 1830 there was formed the Saugatuck Meeting House Association. This association appointed a committee consisting of the Hon. Samuel B. Sherwood, Ebertezer Jesup, Dan Taylor, Thomas F. Rowland, Samuel Avery, and Sullivan Moulton, who should have in charge the important matter of building a meeting house in Sauga- tuck. Of course the first thing was to secure a suitable site. True to patriarchal instincts, was not the ancient temple set upon a hill? And in conformity with time- honored custom, had not the fathers for generations cho- sen the till tops as most fitting abodes for Zion? They chose the lofty and commanding heights on which the church now stands. This plot of ground consisting in part of what was known as the "Academy lot," Ebenezer Jesup had purchased from Stephen B. Hanford in 1803. In 1830 Mr. Jesup, together with Sherwood and Avery, other members of the building committee, received the title of a tract of land consisting of one acre and twenty- nine rods adjoining said academy lot on three sides thereof, and held said land in trust for the Congregational Society until 1857, when a quit claim deed was given the society by said Avery and by the executor of said Jesup, and by the heirs of said Sherwood. The story of the old academy for many years at the rear of the church building, with its upper rooms, is almost as historic as that other upper room at Jerusalem long years ago. It has a peculiar interest to many still living. It was de- voted to both secular and sacred uses. There for forty years Miss Leavenworth, of precious memory, taught the youth of the village not only in things that pertain to this life, but also of the things pertaining to Godliness. Many of the earlier meetings of the ecclesiastical society were held in that room and frequently it was the place appointed for prayer and conference. After the site had been procured, the next thing in order was to raise funds for the erection of the meeting house. It is interesting to run over the names of some of the first givers to this worthy enterprise: Avery, Allen, Banks, Baker, Brad- ley, Burr, Bennett, Chapman, Coley, Downs, Grey, Gor- ham, Hanford, Jesup, Jackson, Keeler, Morehouse, Moulton, Meeker, Nash, Piatt, Rowland, Raymond, Sherwood, Richards, Richmond, Swift, Scriber, Staples, Taylor, Thorpe, Townsend, Turney, Wood, Wright, Wheeler, Wakeman, Winton. A noble list of names and not so ancient but the memory of them is still fresh in the minds of some still living. Uriah Ambler was contractor for the building. The specifications were most carefully and minutely drawn by Samuel B. Sherwood, a lawyer of repute. No details seem to be over-looked. We see evidences throughout the contract of the clear, shrewd, business mind of Squire Sherwood, and also the great care and pains-taking that everything entering into the structure should be of the best material and finished after the most approved style. In the elder days of art Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part, For the gods see everywhere. I have been much impressed with the earnest and devout spirit which actuated those who first conceived the idea, and undertook the work of establishing a church in this place. The building committee in sub- mitting their final report employed the following words: "Your committee beg leave to report that in their judg- ment the house on any calculation is worth its cost. But 89 when considered in its relation to the moral influence it may effect on society and its connection with the char- acter and prosperity of this village, its value cannot be estimated. We all know that individually we can do but little, but by union of heart and action we can, with the blessing of God, procure for ourselves and families those blessings which result from moral and religious institu- tions and which tend to sweeten all our intercourse, enrich the enjoyments of society and scatter in all our ways the charm of domestic life. "The meeting house was completed and dedicated, and the church organized June 5, 1832. The original members numbered thirty- six and were all dismissed by letter from the church in Greens Farms. The following is the list of members: Eliphalet Swift, William Richards, William Bradley and Sarah his wife, Benjamin Bradley, Walter Thorpe and Betsy his wife, Samuel Wood, Alithea Wood, Caroline Wood, Jesse B. Scribner and Sally his wife, George W. Comstock, Charles Jesup and Abby his wife, David Richmond and Lydia his wife, Eliza Richmond, Mary Riley, Eliza Winton, Frances Nash, Alithea Andrews, Mary Andrews, Abby J. Swift, Charlotte Jesup, Deborah, wife of Samuel B. Sherwood; Janice M. Brush, Maria, wife of John Q. Wilson ; Elizabeth Bennett, Samuel Jackson and Esther his wife ; Molly Bennett and Sally Piatt. The above named persons, having been dismissed for the purpose from the church in Greens Farms, gave their formal assent to articles of faith and a covenant of their adoption, and were formally constituted and organized by council as the Congregational Church of Christ in Saugatuck. We can easily see how it would not be altogether agreeable to the mother church to lose at once, this goodly number of communicants and pew- holders. It is not so strange, when we think of the frailty of human nature, that Rev. Mr. Davis, the next Sunday after the exodus, chose a text which possibly embodied somewhat of resentment. The text was 1st John 2:19: "They went out from us because they were not of us ; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us ; but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." Among the ministers of the council called to assist in the forma- tion of the new church was Rev. Samuel Merwin of Wil- ton, Joel Mann of Greenwich and Edwin Hall of Nor- walk. The records state that Rev. Mr. Benedict of Nor- walk and Rev. Mr. Davis of Greens Farms were invited 90