Ye church and parish of Greenfield; the story of an historic church in an historic town. 1725-1913.

Contents

PAGE

Dedication 5

Foreword 7

Foreword

A CHURCH that has had an honorable existence through more than six generations and is fast approaching its two-hundredth milestone most certainly deserves a printed record of its achievements. Although there may be a few pages of the 186 years of our history to which we cannot point with pride, yet the record in the main is one in which we glory and compares favorably with any sister church in our land. A study of the years gone by brings to light as noble and as self-sacrificing a body of Christian men and women and as brilliant, gifted and earnest a band of preachers as have ever labored together in a country parish in New England.

When we stop to consider the hallowed associations that cluster around our four old meeting-houses, within whose walls have been preached sermons that are moving the world to-day, we cannot but wish that their memory might be perpetuated. Our pride still further swells as we recall that Greenfield enjoys the distinction of having furnished Yale College with one of the most noted presidents she ever had, or in the words of Judge Sherman of Fairfield, "No man, except the father of his country, ever conferred greater benefit on our nation than President Dwight, the fourth pastor of the Greenfield Church."

So this history is written and published in the hope that the rising generation may read it and become familiar with a church that has had its part in the shaping of a nation; and it is written with the idea of preserving whatever information the older residents of the parish can furnish us before it is too late. There is never a death of an old resident in the parish but a feeling of sadness comes over us, for never again can that dear one tell us of the days

8 Forezvord

of long ago. And moreover the handwriting of our church and parish records is fast becoming indistinct, and the pages themselves from age as well as from being handled and rehandled, bound and rebound, indicate that these old records of our forefathers will in time crumble to decay; so in these pages that follow there will be preserved the most important of the events of our church's history.

There are many churches in Connecticut as old or older than our own, but the history of their earlier days is usually shrouded in a good deal of uncertainty. For example, the mother church at Fairfield, known as the Prime Ancient Society, considers 1639 as tne starting point, but up to nearly the end of that century very little is known of her history, the records having become lost. We claim, however, to have in our possession all the records of our existence as a church, although they are in many respects incomplete.

In the preparation of the pages that follow, the writer has found the historical discourse of Rev. H. B. Smith, delivered in 1876, of great value. We are indebted to Mrs. Milbank for several of the illustrations; and there are others who have contributed in various ways, to whom thanks are due. No doubt between these covers are errors and omissions, particularly in dates and names, which may be accounted for to some extent in having been prepared from records which were often carelessly written, and to-day are not in the best state of preservation. Perhaps in the years to come some student of history will dig deeper down into the past and add to these pages further facts that shall be of interest to us all.

G. H. M.

Greenfield Hill, Conn., March 4, 1913.

CHAPTER I. The Parish in its Infancy

THE Northwest Parish of Fairfield, now called Greenfield, had its beginning in the year 1725. From the time of the first settlement of the town in 1639, the residents of this section had on every Sabbath day made the long journey to the Fairfield Church, there to worship their God. Rev. John Jones had been the pastor there up to 1664, followed by Rev. Samuel Wakeman, who preached until 1692, and now Rev. Joseph Webb, already well advanced in years, and so feeble as to require an assistant, had been preaching to them the words of life for more than a generation. But in the month of May, 1725, the following petition was sent to the General Assembly, in conformity with the law concerning the formation of new parishes and the erection of new houses of worship :

"To the Honorable General Assembly sitting at Hartford the second Thursday of May, 1725. The humble prayer of the inhabitants of Fairfield North Village humbly sheweth, that there are about fifty-five families living north of Fairfield, at a considerable distance from the town, some five or six miles, and the nearest of them about two miles and a half or more, whose lists amount to 4,000 pounds, which inhabitants labor under great difficulties on account of their enjoyment of some of the precious means of grace, especially the proclaiming of the word of life, in the ordinary way and means God uses in the conversion and bringing home poor, lost and undone sinners. Not only ourselves are frequently obliged to be absent from divine worship, but our poor children are under a kind of necessity of perishing for lack of vision, both which are very troublesome to those who are inquiring what they shall do to be saved, and that are hungering and thirsting after Christ and salvation and righteousness in and through him. The distance of the way, especially in bad weather, utterly incapacitates many perio Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield

sons, old and young, to go to the house of God, which makes us willing rather to expend considerable of our earthly treasure in maintaining the public worship of God among ourselves, than to lose our spiritual treasure and undo any of our poor immortal souls, esteeming each of them better than a one thousand worlds.

"Hoping and humbly begging and praying that the honorable gentlemen of the Assembly will pity us, and be nursing fathers to us, and deal with us as they would be dealt with; encouraging of us in our endeavor to honor God and obtain eternal happiness beyond the grave, that they would please to consider that there are many places made district societies, the less than we, and nearer the town; as West Haven, Newington, and many others; and also that the town from which we separate is well able to maintain their minister without us, they having without us, 13,000 pounds on their list. If the Honorable General Assembly will be pleased to hear this our prayer, we will ever pray, etc.

Signed by Thomas Hill and sixty-nine other men.

On consideration had in the lower house this petition was rejected.

Test, Theodore Kimberly, Clerk."

The time was not yet ripe for the formation of another parish, for strange as it may seem to-day, the mother church at Fairfield strongly opposed a separation, and even sent her agent to Hartford to present arguments against it, evidently believing the people of the northern section of the town could make the long journey for generations to come. Many of the church supporters from the upper parts of the town were men of means and the old society could not think of letting them go without a struggle. But through the persistence of Thomas Hill and a number of others, another petition was soon presented to the Honorable General Assembly, asking for a committee from that body to come down, look over the parish and report to the next Assembly in October of that year. This petition was granted and the committee was appointed consisting of Messrs. Copp, Lewis and Hawley. These men took back such a favorable report that the General Assembly at once

The Parish in its Infancy n

ordered the formation of a new parish, to be known as the Northwest Parish of Fairfield, as shown by the following order signed by the secretary of state :

"At a General Assembly holden at New Haven, in his Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, in New England, on the 14th day of October, in the 12th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George, King of Great Britain, 1725, upon ye petition of Thomas Hill of Fairfield in behalf of himself and others of his neighbors living within ye bounds following : westerly by the west parish in said Fairfield ; south-southwest by the rear of the building lots in Fairfield; easterly by the Mill River, so called; east-northeasterly by ye parish of Stratfield; north by the north bounds of Fairfield; first brought to this Assembly in May last and continued to this Assembly, desiring they may be made a parish :

This Assembly after hearing ye reasons offered by Mr. Ebenezer Wakeman, agent for the old parish in Fairfield why said Hill and neighbors should not have parish privileges granted them, as well as the arguments of said petitioners why they should be a parish ; do hereby order and grant that said petitioners shall be a parish and are hereby enabled to set up the worship of God among themselves, and that the bounds above said shall be the bounds of said parish, and so be and remain until this Assembly shall order otherwise; and it is hereby enacted that said parish shall have and be allowed all the privileges and advantages as are by law allowed to other parishes in this government.

A true copy of Record;

In less than three weeks from the date of the above enactment of the General Assembly, there was assembled the first parish meeting ever held upon this hill. The exact date was November 4, 1725 ; Dr. John Hide was chosen the moderator and Thomas Hill the clerk. It is a matter of interest to note that practically the only business transacted was to choose a committee consisting of Dr. John Hide, George Hull, Benj. Banks, Jehu Burr, and Peter Burr, to treat with one, a Rev. John Goodsell, in regard to "settlement in the ministry."

i2 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield

The parish at this time was large in extent, for it reached to the section known as Redding on the north and on the south to a line which ran across the town a few rods south of what is now the entrance to Oak Lawn Cemetery, and was marked by a rough rock which has recently been reset and lettered by the late Dr. I. D. Warner, the owner of the adjoining property. The population within these bounds was perhaps somewhere between 400 and 600 people.

Just one week after the first parish meeting a second was held, this time to arrange for a school. Thus we see that the cause of education among our forefathers was destined to go hand in hand with the preaching of the gospel, and ever since then in hundreds of towns in old Connecticut, the church and the school have stood side by side, the one standing for the building of character, the other for the development of the mind. At that meeting, November 11, 1725, it was decided "that the meeting-house shall be the place for the school to be kept six months of the year"; also voted "that the country money shall not be divided; and that what the country money lacketh of maintaining the school, shall be paid by the scholars proportionately, according to the time they go to school." The school committee appointed consisted of Joseph Rowland, Moses Ward and Jehu Burr.

The meeting-house mentioned above was no doubt a small building erected before the division of the parish, to be used for school purposes and stood near where the flag-pole is now located, towards the southwest corner of the present school green. Some sixty years ago, after the "new academy" was built, this little school building was purchased by Mr. Samuel Grant to be used as his shoeshop, and may be seen to-day in its dilapidated condition, just at the foot of Academy hill, now the property of Mrs. Lloyd Griscom. This same building is mentioned in the

The Parish in its Infancy 13

old parish record book, as being the market-place for sheepproprietors two nights each week, as follows :

"Jan. 25, 1726. Att a meeting of ye proprietors of ye sheep of ye Northwest Parish of Fairfield it was voated by ye maj'r part of sd proprietors of sheep that there should be a flock of sheep keept in sd parish for ye summer ensuing and Thomas Hill, Moses Dimon, Jr., and Benj. Banks was all chosen by a maj'r voate of sd proprietors to be sheep-masters for ye yeare ensuing to take of ye sd flock of sheep and to hiare sum meet person to keep these sd flocks of sheep belonging to sd proprietors.

"And it was also voated that ye sd Moses Dimon, should let ye sd flock of sheep and keep ye account what they fetch and to whom they are let, and it was also voated ye place to let ye sd sheep should be att ye House where ye sd parish now meets on ye Sabbath Days, and ye time to let sd sheep should be on Monday and Friday nights."

Evidently the above refers to the pasturage of the common, a large part of the Northwest Parish being located on what was originally the "mile of common," and there being at this time, 1726, still much common and unoccupied land. It might be mentioned in passing that the southern boundary line of the original mile of common was the road extending along what we now call the pumping station near Samp Mortar, westerly past the old Bulkley's district school corner and continuing westerly from there along the foot of White's Hill, joining the Hull's Farm road to Westport. From this line as a base, the common had originally extended, one mile in width up to Redding, but of course was now fast being distributed to settlers.

The third parish meeting on record was held January 10, 1726. Jehu Burr and Thomas Hill were appointed a committee to settle up accounts with the old Fairfield parish, and find what was due them from this society. At this meeting it was voted that two sign-posts should be erected, one at ye meeting-house and one at Hull's Farms, these to be used for parish meeting warnings; and it was agreed that in the future any warning signed by the committee or clerk and placed upon these posts five days before the meeting should be legal.

On one of the rear fly leaves in the oldest record book of the society is the following order dated 1726, and signed by the captain of the military train-band :

"Northwest Parish of Fairfield under Capt. Thomas Hill ; ordered that ye training days shall be warned by one sergeant and a drummer with him, to beat from Samuel Whitlock's house to Joseph Barlow's, and ye sergeant to make proclamation when ye day is to be; and the place of rendezvous is to be by Samuel Whitlock's house.

Entered by me, Thomas Hill, Capt."

These few lines with such a military ring give something of an insight into the old training days of nearly 200 years ago, and which were continued upon our hill down to within the memory of our older inhabitants. The location of the Whitlock and Barlow homesteads is to-day a matter of conjecture. The fact that the home-lots or farms of many of the earliest settlers were bounded in part or on all sides by common land, leaves us to-day with no method of determining the exact place where their homes were located. It is quite probable that the Whitlock house may have been on or near the spot where now stands the residence of the late Agnes Murray.

Chapter II

Rev. John Goodsell, i 726-1 756.

REV. JOHN GOODSELL began his ministry in the Northwest Parish on November 1, 1725, being at that time under nineteen years of age. He came from Stratford, Conn., where he was born December 21, 1706. He had graduated from Yale College in 1724, and had married Mary Lewis, also of Stratford, July 20, 1725.

At the time of the beginning of his pastorate in this place there was no organized church and no church covenant had been adopted. The committee of five men appointed by the parish November 4, 1725, had made a business agreement with Mr. Goodsell whereby he was to settle permanently in the parish. The agreement follows:

"This indenture or agreement is to signify to all to whom it shall come that I, John Goodsell of Fairfield, in the colony of Connecticut in New England, being of the one party, and we, John Hide, Benjamin Banks, George Hull, Jehu Burr, and Peter Burr, all of said Fairfield, being of the other party, and being chosen a committee by the Northwest Society of said Fairfield to agree with and settle a minister according to the laws of this colony, have and do with the approbation of this Society covenant with the abovesaid John Goodsell as follows :

That is to say, I the aforesaid John Goodsell being entreated with by the abovesaid committee do promise by God's assistance to preach the word of life and officiate in the ministry in the said society according to the present profession of this government, for a consideration of an hundred pound per year of bills of credit of this colony to be paid yearly for my salary; and we, the abovesaid committee do, with the consent and desire of the aforesaid society, promise that the abovesaid John Goodsell, beginning the time of his service the first of this instant November, for the time being, and as long as he shall continue in the work of ye ministry, and afterwards when through age or other inability he is unable, to give him an honorable support or maintenance; shall have one hundred of pounds current bills of credit of this colony a year for his salary, or other bills of credit that currently pass in said colony equivolently; provided the aforesaid John Goodsell shall not neglect the said service by his own default; and I, the abovesaid John Goodsell, do by these presents, covenant, promise and oblige myself faithfully to perform the abovesaid service as providence shall permit ; and we the abovesaid committee, do by these presents covenant, promise and engage that the abovesaid sum of an hundred pounds shall be the stated salary which the abovesaid John Goodsell shall receive yearly for his service for the time being and hereafter as above expressed.

In witness hereof we subscribe with our hands and seals November ist, 1725."

Signed, sealed and delivered John Goodsell seal

in the presence of: Benjamin Banks seal

David Williams John Hide seal

Joseph Banks George Hull seal

Jehu Burr seal

Peter Burr seal

In the spring of 1726 some members of the parish began to be anxious to subscribe to a form of church covenant; and also to ordain the Rev. Mr. Goodsell as pastor. Accordingly on March 28, the parish voted that the third Wednesday of May should be the day to ordain Mr. Goodsell, and that the house we meet in should be the place in which to ordain him. Thomas Hill and Moses Dimon, Jr., were chosen the committee for the society to "sign the letters to ye elders, and to take care of ye elders, and provide a place to entertain them with ye messengers."

So on May 18, 1726, Rev. John Goodsell was ordained, the service taking place in the little rough old school building, 18 by 20 feet, and on the same day the following church covenant was "subscribed to by the christian professors of Fairfield Northwest parish, embodied in a church state by divine allowance" :

"We, underwritten, through the strength of Christ, without whom we can do nothing, and in the presence of God and this assembly, do covenant and promise to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present evil world; solemnly avouching the Lord Jehovah to be our God, and the God of our seed, giving up ourselves and ours to be his people, to live to the glory of his great name; solemnly avouching also the Lord Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man, to be our Prophet and Teacher, our only Priest and Propitiation, our Supreme Lord and Law Giver, professing ourselves heartily engaged to a sole dependence on His doctrine, to an entire reliance on His righteousness, to a willing obedience to His government; solemnly avouching also the Holy Ghost for our Sanctifier and Comforter, to be led by His conduct, to cherish and entertain His holy motions and influences, subjecting ourselves to the government of Christ in His church, and solemnly engaging to walk one with another in brotherly love, watchfulness and communion, and hereto may Christ Jesus our Lord help us. Amen."

To this covenant subscribed eleven men, all recommended by the Prime Society of Fairfield, except John Goodsell, who was recommended by the church at Stratford, and Theophilus Hull, recommended by the church at Green's Farms. This original covenant and the one adopted at the organization of the Green's Farms church in 171 5 were almost identical, each having been taken in all probability from the mother church at Fairfield, whose earliest records have been lost.

On June 19, 1726, fifteen women were recommended by some of the neighboring churches, and added to this church by consent of the eleven brethren, and so the church grew until at the end of the first year it numbered seventy members, thirty-one of whom were added on profession of their faith.

For nearly a year after Rev. John Goodsell settled in the parish the little school-building also served as the meeting-house and in it were held all Sabbath-day services and all parish meetings. On October 7, 1726, the parish voted

"that a meeting-house should be built at their own charge, to be begun the year ensuing; that its dimensions should be : length 52 feet, width 42 feet, and 24 or 25 feet between joints (referring to the height of posts) ; that it shall be set and stand halfway between Samuel Whitlock's northwest corner of his home lot, and the meeting-house where Ave now meet; that Thomas Hill, Jehu Burr, Moses Dimon and Benjamin Banks shall be a committee to take care of building the meeting-house, and agree with some person or persons to build the same."

The builders of this house of God were Samuel Thorpe and Benjamin Darling, and they did their work so well that a year later they were voted five pounds, twelve shillings more than their bargain for framing the building; this amount to be deducted from their tax rate the year ensuing and the year thereafter. This meeting-house must have been well-built, well-proportioned and comely for its day, since from the Green's Farms records we learn that in 1737 a committee from that place came up to visit Greenfield meeting-house and get ideas. They erected soon after a building of almost the same dimensions but with belfry and short spire.

The location of this, the first real church that ever stood upon this hill, has for many years been a matter of much speculation. While it stood and people worshipped there for thirty years and more, yet no one has handed down to us a record that can tell us just where was the exact spot of ground over which the Rev. John Goodsell preached those 3000 or more sermons of his long pastorate. We have a hint as to the location, given in the above vote of the parish meeting, and again in 1757 when the piece of property now the residence and home lot of Wm. H. Banks, was described, it was stated as "lying and being near the meeting-house" ; so no doubt this first house of worship occupied a part of the triangular spot of ground between the residences of Wm. H. Banks and Mrs. Mary N. Milbank. Many of the older residents of the parish agree that this was the precise location, basing their opinion on what has been told them by parents or grandparents. Of course it is not impossible that the first church building may even have stood where to-day runs the highway northwest by southeast, past the Banks and Milbank residences, for Connecticut history states that it was not until about 1750 that carriages and wagons were used by a few wealthy in the larger towns, ox-carts and sleds being used for carrying produce, and journeys for business or pleasure being made on horseback. So the highways of to-day were nothing more than crooked paths and perhaps not even that in 1750. It is earnestly hoped that when the site of the first church on this hill shall have been determined that some public-spirited and loyal citizen or body of citizens shall cause to be erected there a monument with the proper inscription, so that generations to come shall never forget where stood the first temple in which Rev. John Goodsell so faithfully ministered.

It was during the year 1727 that the name of the parish was changed from Northwest Parish to Greenfield, as the following record will show :

"CONNECTICUT COLONY.

At a General Assembly holden at New Haven, in His Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, in New England, on the 12th day of October, in the first year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George Second, King of Great Britain, 1727. This Assembly orders that the Northwest Parish of Fairfield shall be called by the name of Greenfield, and be so recorded."

The first time that the parish is called by the new name of Greenfield on the records is December 16, 1728.

The new meeting-house which was so acceptably framed during the summer of 1727, was not completed at once.

The members of the parish were evidently not inclined to tax themselves too heavily during any one year, for we must remember that all parish expenses were met by a tax rate levied at the annual parish meeting precisely the same as we now levy the annual town tax. So each year, for five years or more, the parish voted to raise a rate for Mr. Goodsell's salary, and for the carrying on of the work on the meeting-house. We have conclusive evidence that the new meeting-house was in use at least as early as 1730 for the records of the meeting held October 13 of that year state that "ye school shall be kept in ye old school-house where ye parish used to meet in."

We note the scarcity of clocks and watches by one of the records of this year which states that a meeting was adjourned until Monday next, sun an hour high at night.

In the early days at Greenfield all school matters were decided at parish meetings, and at least one meeting each year was wholly or in part devoted to school questions, up to the year 1798. At first school was kept only six months of the year, and that at Greenfield center. A few years later, it was kept four months at Hull's Farms, four months at Banks' Farms, and four months at the center. On October 27, 1796, it was voted "to form said parish into a school society agreeable to an act of the General Assembly of the state of Connecticut made in 1795, entitled 'an act appropriating the moneys which shall arise on sale of western lands belonging to the state of Connecticut' and also to choose proper officers for said school society." Accordingly, in March, 1797, a committee consisting of Eben. Hill, Lewis Goodsell, John Albert, David Hubbell, Jonathan Banks, Abel Wakeman and Hull Bradley, was appointed for the purpose of dividing and limiting the several school districts of the parish. This committee laid out eight districts and placed the bounds of the same on record. The districts are these: Center, Hull's Farms,

Bulkley's, Burr's, Banks', Sherwood's, Deerfield, and Hoyden's Hill. In October, 1798, we find the last mention of schools or school meetings on parish records, after that time each district looking out for itself.

At a meeting held December 11, 1730, the sign-post at ye old school-house was ordered to be removed to ye new meeting-house; it was at this same meeting that we find the first written indication that Rev. Mr. Goodsell's services were appreciated, the record stating that the parish shall provide his firewood ; appoints David Williams to furnish it for three pounds, nine shillings, and at the same time raises his salary twenty-five pounds.

In 1732, a question that seemed to be particularly in agitation throughout the parish was the matter of what was called "parsonage lands." It seems that the prime society at Fairfield owned a considerable amount of land, the income of which belonged to the settled preacher. The daughter churches, Greenfield, Green's Farms, Redding, and Stratfield, now supporting resident preachers at their own expense, claimed a share of the income from this land. Greenfield parish had voted to give Rev. John Goodsell the benefit of any income from parsonage lands during his continuance in the ministry among them, and now appointed "Jehu Burr, Daniel Williams, and Benj. Gilbert a committee to use all measures they think fit to obtain this parish's share." This same action was repeated at subsequent meetings, and the parish even voted that if an agreement with the prime society could not be made, to apply to the court. But an agreement was made and adopted on March 15, 1733-

"This parish adopts ye agreement concerning all lands called 'parsonage lands' in this township, in an instrument bearing date ye 8th day of March 1733, made by their committee and ye committees of ye several societies, parishes, and parties concerned therein and order ye same to put on our parish records, and moreover, we confirm ye said agreement in all parts and particulars thereof that concern this parish, and make ye same binding to this parish forever.