Church Edifices
By: Edgar H. Lane
From: A History of Jericho, Vermont, c.1913. Originally presented
1891.
In discharging the duty assigned me by your committee
in this Centennial Anniversary, of giving a description of the church
edifices or places of worship here for the past century, I have thought
it might be of interest to go back to the organization of the town,
and give a brief account of the places where public worship was held
before the building of the first meeting house, as it was always called.
The providing of places for holding public worship
until about 1800 and the building of the first meeting house was done
by the town, in town meeting. I cannot better give you an account of
the actions and doings upon the subject, or bring before you those sturdy,
resolute pioneers of a century or more ago, in their efforts to establish
public worship and to build a temple for the worship of God in their
new wilderness home, than by copying, verbatim, the language of the
records made at the time.
- At a town meeting held April 14, 1789, it was
"voted to hold meetings of public worship at the usual places
viz.: at Dea. Roods and Capt. Bartletts." This is the first public
action of the town recorded, of voting a place where meetings should
be held, although at a town meeting held November 29, 1786, the year
of the organization of the town, it was "Voted to appoint a committee
for the purpose of providing preaching the ensuing year."
- At a legal town meeting held July 10, 1790,
it was "Voted that two-thirds of the time we meet at William
Smith's and one-third of the time at Capt. J. Russell's."
- "April 4, 1791, Voted to meet for public
worship on the Sabbath at Wm. Smith's barn for the future."
- "Nov. 14, 1791, Voted to meet for public
worship at Elon Lee's the ensuing winter."
- April 16, 1792, "Voted that we meet for
public worship at Lewis Chapin's barn the ensuing summer."
- At the annual town meeting held March 4, 1793,
"Voted to meet for public worship at Elon Lee's in cold weather,
and Wm. Smith's barn in warm weather for one year from this date."
- October 2, 1794, "Voted to meet for public
worship at the school house at the river one-half of the time, the
other half at the school house by Wm. Bartlett's the winter coming."
- Nov. 18, 1795, "Voted to meet for public
worship at the dwelling house"- (here the record omits the name.)
Oct. 2, 1794, a town meeting was called for the purpose of providing
for the building of a meeting house, at which it was:
1st. "Voted to build a meeting house."
2nd. Voted that every man write his place for a meeting house and
put it into a hat-Tryed-counted-twenty, by the burying place, eighteen,
the flat between Lewis Chapin's and Wm. Rood's, one, between Azariah
Lee's and Wm. Rood's.
"Chose a committee of five to set a stake for a meeting house,
viz.: Noah Chittenden, John Lyman, Dudley Stone, Jedediah Lane,
Thos. Bentley.."
This meeting was then adjourned to Dec. 10,
1794, at which time "the town's committee reported that they
had agreed on a place on Capt. Bartlett's lot to build a meeting house,
Tryed, no vote, then the flat proposed, Tryed, no. vote-the burying
place proposed, Tryed, no vote, place by Azariah Lee's Tryed, no vote."
It was then "Voted to choose a committee
and they to be appointed by the County Court to set a meeting house
stake. Amos Brownson of Williston, Samuel Bradley of Essex, Phineas
Loomis of Burlington said committee."
- At an adjourned meeting held Jan. 27, 1795,
it was
"Voted to choose three men as heads of classes
to provide materials for building. Benj. Bartlett, Roderick Messenger
and Jedediah Lane were chosen."
These classes, as they were termed, were a division
of the men of the town into three companies or bodies, each to be
directed in their labors by their respective heads.
In providing the materials
for this first meeting house, to which this refers, the men of the town
went into the forest which was all around them and cut the trees, hewing
such as were suitable for the frame and getting to the saw-mill such
as were to be used for finishing; and this division into classes, as
they were called, was for more efficient and organized work.
It is commonly understood that the place selected
by the committee appointed by the County Court for the location of the
meeting house was the center of the common or green, and so it proved
to be; but the meeting house stake set by that committee located the
common, around which this little village is built, for in town meeting
June 3, 1795, it was "Voted that the town procure four acres of
land for a green around the meeting house stake. Chose Noah Chittenden,
Benj. Bartlett and Thos. D. Rood a committee to lay out the land for
a meeting house green."
"Voted that the three heads of classes
see to chopping and clearing off the land for the public green the
present summer, equally one-third each."
The fact that there was no
common or green until after the setting of that stake explains the difference
of opinion as to the location of the meeting house, as shown by the
records which I have read. In town meeting November 18, 1795:
"Voted to build a meeting house by selling
the pews at public venue at the next adjourned town meeting."
"Voted to build 50 X 54 feet."
"Voted to choose a committee to number the pews and to sell the
same at public venue."
This meeting adjourned to December
9, 1795, when it was, in the language of the records,
"Voted to sell the pews, first bid, to
be first pick, and so on and to pick every one his bid on the plan
now on the spot."
"Chose Noah Chittenden, Esq., Superintendent to take care of
and oversee the building of the meeting house."
Forty-three pews were then bid
off, the first and highest bid being by Noah Chittenden, Esq., for £61,
the last and lowest bid being for £5, amounting in all to £941,
or (I suppose) about $4,000-a large sum at that early day; nor was this
the whole cost of the house.
The record further says it was "Voted that the
Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury have liberty to choose a pew for his family.
"He came forward and chose the pew by the pulpit stairs and proposed
to give toward the building of the meeting house £45 to be paid
out of his salary."
I have not been able to find a record of the exact
time when this first meeting house was built and completed, but suppose
it must have been done in the years 1796 and 1797, as this sale of the
pews from a plan of the house and before it was built, was made December
9, 1795, and it is recorded that the annual town meeting held March
8, 1798, was adjourned to the 20th of the same March to meet at 2 o'clock
P. M. at the meeting house. Still it may not have been completed until
a year or so later, as a town record made October 30, 1800, reads
"Opened a meeting of the proprietors of
the meeting house. "Voted to sell the gallery pews. Voted to
adjourn to the 25th of Dec. next-closing with an entry made by the
then Town Clerk, Thos. D. Rood, as follows: "the remainder of
the proceedings of the proprietors of the meeting house will be found
recorded in their clerk's office."
This book of proprietors' records I have not been
able to find and never saw. Neither have I been able to learn that this
meeting house was ever formally dedicated, as is the modern practice,
and presume it never was, as it was always used both for church and
town house, as long as it stood.
This first meeting house was built, both frame and
finish, of the choicest pine. The frame timbers were very large and
numerous, and the raising of it was a great event. Most of the people
of the town were there, and many from adjoining towns; three days were
spent in the raising. There was an additional interest and curiosity,
aside from that in the building. There were many who did not believe
that a building, framed, much of it, in the woods where it grew, the
parts of which had never been tried together, could ever be raised,
as this was the first or among the first frames, laid out and framed
by the square or mathematical rules now in use-the framing and building
up to about that time having been done by the old "cut and try,"
or scribe rule, as it was called. But it was successfully raised, only
one small mistake being made.
The framing was laid out by John Messenger, a son
of Roderick Messenger, the work of the building being under the direction
of Capt. Abram Stevens of Essex.
This meeting house was built with a square or four-sided
roof, coming to a point in the center, without steeple or spire of any
kind. There were two rows of windows, one above the other. The pews
were square, with seats on the four sides except the pew door, or entrance,
so that the occupants sat facing each other, forming a hollow square.
The sides of the pews were high, but below the top moulding and rail
was a row of turned spindles about 6 to 8 inches long; except for the
open work framed by these spindles the children, unless pretty well
grown, were out of sight when seated in them.
There was a row of these pews around the entire house
next the wall, except the space for a wide door in the middle and for
the gallery stairs in each corner of the south end, and a space for
the pulpit opposite the door, in the north end. The door opened directly
into the audience room, there being no vestibule or porch. There was
a wide center aisle running from the door to the pulpit, and two side
aisles turning to the right and left from the front entrance, running
around inside and next to the wall pews, and meeting at the center aisle
in front of the pulpit, and a double row of pews between the center
aisle and the side aisles.
There was a wide gallery on three sides with a seat
in front on the two sides, and two seats across the south end opposite
the pulpit; and between the aisle, back of these seats, and the wall
on the three sides, was a row of pews like those below.
The pulpit was in the shape
of a mortar, round, or nearly so in front, set up on a post, the bottom
as high or higher than the tops of the pews, with not much spare room
except for the minister. Suspended directly over the pulpit, by a small
iron rod, was a sounding board, as it was called, made of thin boards,
hollow, like a huge bass viol, but round or nearly so, some four or
five feet in diameter, the thickness in the center being about one-half
the diameter, the top and bottom being oval: this was supposed by some
principle or law of acoustics to aid in making the voice of the speaker
audible at a greater distance. This meeting house was never painted
outside or inside; had no chimney, or any provisions for warming. Almost
every family carried one or more small foot-stoves, which I presume
all present have seen, getting the coals for warming them from the surrounding
houses. I fancy in these modern times it would tax a Talmage to draw
a congregation, and hold them through two services, to a church without
furnace or fire-especially on some of our coldest winter days. After
stoves came into use one was put into the center aisle, the pipe going
out through the roof. The difference in the temperature which this stove
made was largely one of imagination.
An important personage in those days was the tithingman.
A tithingman, as Webster defines it, is "A parish officer annually
elected to preserve good order in the church during divine service,
and to make complaint of any disorderly conduct, and enforce the observance
of the Sabbath." They were elected by the town at their annual
meeting, and in these early days discharged their duties most faithfully.
The principal field of their labors during divine service was in those
high backed pews in the gallery, where the youngsters, who were allowed
to sit there, could hide out of sight. This officer, varying in number
from one to four, continued to be elected until 1840, when the office
was abolished.
The last public action of the town that had any reference
to this first church building was at a town meeting held Jan. 27, 1836,
from the records of which I copy as follows: "Whereas the proprietors
of the building heretofore denominated the old meeting house in Jericho
have sold or transferred their interest in the same and the said house
is about being taken down whereby the said town will, be deprived of
the usual place of holding town and freemen's meetings, Therefore Resolved,
&c." The old meeting house was taken down the May following-May,
1836.
The result of this town meeting was that at a meeting
held September 5, 1837, the town completed arrangements with the proprietors
of the new meeting house, whereby they secured the right to occupy the
basement room of the same for all political meetings by the payment
of two hundred dollars, and which they have occupied ever since.
After the Academy was built, about 1825, the lower
floor of which was finished for meetings and public worship, the Baptists
having the first right to the use and occupancy of it, this Society
having the second right, so that, from that time until a very recent
period, this Society used it, more or less, as a vestry room for weekly
and evening meetings, and also for services on the Sabbath for the few
months between the taking down of the old meeting house, and the completion
of the new one. This was always known and designated as the Conference
room. The first action towards providing for the building of the new
or second meeting house was at a meeting of citizens called and held
at the Conference room November 7, 1833, at which meeting preliminary
steps were taken to form an association for that purpose, appoint a
committee to draft a constitution, draw a plan, estimate the expense,
&c. The committee appointed were David T. Stone, Nathaniel Blackman,
Hosea Spaulding, Anson Field, Lemuel Blackman and Thomas D. Rood. This
meeting was adjourned to November 28, 1833, at which time the following
plan, substantially, was adopted, viz.: that shares of $25 each be subscribed
for; that said house shall be built of brick, and shall be for the use
of the First Congregational Society of Jericho, and shall not be applied
to any other purpose or use except by the votes of two-thirds of all
the proprietors, each share of $25 having one vote, which mode of voting
shall obtain in all transactions relating to said house. Also, that,
when the house was finished, the whole cost should be apportioned upon
the several slips or pews by a disinterested committee, and sold at
public auction; no bid on any slip or pew to be received under the appraisal
of the same; each subscriber being obliged to take the amount of his
stock in slips or pews.
The whole business of erecting and finishing said
house to be managed by a Superintending Committee of three persons appointed
by the subscribers to the stock. Said committee to proceed to act until
$2,500 stock shall have been sold. Dr. Jamin Hamilton, Nathaniel Blackman
and Hosea Spaulding were elected building committee. The year 1834 was
spent in procuring subscriptions for stock, deciding upon a location,
making the brick, and generally getting ready. The building was erected
in 1835, and finished in 1836. The whole cost of the house was $4,017.75,
which was apportioned upon the slips by Wm. Rhodes of Richmond and Horace
L. Nichols of Burlington, and they were sold October 6, 1836.
The house was finished at that time except painting
inside. I copy the following from the church records, viz: "January
25, 1837, at 10 o'clock A. M. the brick meeting house was dedicated
to Almighty God for his worship. Sermon by Rev. Pres. "Wheeler
of Vt. University." Signed E. W. Kellogg, Pastor.
The mason work on this church building was done by
Reuben Rockwood, he making the brick for the same in the old brick yard
below the now residence of George C. Bicknell.
The wood work, both framing and finish, was done
by Jonathan Goodhue. The whole of the inside wood work was finished
in panel and moulding, and all, as well as the sash and doors, were
made by hand out of seasoned boards in the rough,--the planing, even,
being done by hand. In these days, when almost everything is done by
machinery, this would seem a formidable undertaking.
The change of this second meeting house to the present
one is of so recent date that I presume the construction is generally
remembered; but for preservation, a brief description, on this Centennial
occasion, may not be amiss, especially of that part which has been renovated
or changed. It was built of brick, 44.64 feet outside, with solid walls
18 inches thick to the galleries and 12 inches above, thus forming a
shoulder on which one end of the gallery timbers was laid. There was
no inside frame or lath, the side walls being plastered on the brick.
The chimney was built inside the rear wall. There were two rows of square
windows, and a modest steeple for a bell; the bell was purchased with
funds raised by subscription about the time of the completion of the
church, the cost of it not being included in the sum apportioned on
the slips, and was, I think, the first church bell in town. There were
two front doors opening into a lobby; at the corners of this lobby,
to the right and left of the doors, were the stairs leading to the gallery.
From the lobby were two doors nearly opposite the front ones, opening
into the audience room; between these was the pulpit. From each of the
doors an aisle ran straight to the rear wall. The seats were slips or
long seats, such as are now in general use, of which there were sixty-two-three
in each corner at the right and left of the pulpit set parallel with
the aisles; a row of fourteen each set between the aisles and the side
walls, running back to the rear wall, and facing the pulpit, and a double
row of fourteen each between the aisles. There was a gallery on the
two sides and the end opposite the pulpit, with a double row of seats
around it.
The provision for warming was, at first, two large
stoves set in the front end of the basement, enclosed in brick-a sort
of hot air furnace-the best known in those days, but which proved a
failure. Afterwards two stoves were placed above in the aisles near
the entrance doors, but they never proved a success in warming the house.
In the month of April, 1877, the pew owners and members
of this church and Society held a meeting at which it was decided to
repair the brick meeting house, and the result was the appointing of
Edgar H. Lane, Edwin W. Humphrey, and Martin V. Willard a committee
to superintend and direct such repairs. A subscription was circulated
to raise funds. By a provision of the Statute the slips of all non-resident
owners, and of resident owners who did not favor or consent to the repairs,
were appraised May 29, 1877, by Andrew Warner, Stephen Dow and Gordon
Smith, a committee selected for that purpose, and the very few who did
not relinquish their claim to or pay for the repairs on their seats
were paid the appraisal.
The repairing was done between June, 1877, and February
20, 1878, at a cost of $4,900. The rededication of it was February 20,
1878; sermon by Rev. George B. Safford, then pastor of the College Street
Church in Burlington, from Psalm 73, v. 25.
In making the repairs the entire wood work, including
the doors, windows and window frames, between the timbers overhead and
the timbers under the floor, was taken out, and the belfry, as it was
called, and shingles from the roof. Nothing of the old church remained
but the lower floor timbers, the overhead timbers and roof and the side
walls, which were considerably torn out and filled in, in changing the
style of the windows.
After the discussions and differences of opinions
as to how and what should be built within the old walls left standing,
usual in such cases, a condition of things, as we find in pursuing this
history that cannot be claimed as a modern discovery, the result of
the repairs, or rather rebuilding, is before you. The further description
of it I leave for the person who shall write upon Church Edifices here
in 1991.
And now as we bring before us the beautiful, convenient
and comfortable church edifices of today all over the land, and in imagination
place them beside those of a century ago, I fancy the thought and feeling
first and uppermost in the minds of all present is the same--not one
of pride or boasting or superiority, but of deep, devout and sincere
gratitude and thankfulness to and veneration for those early pioneers,
our ancestors, who, among their first acts, amid all their privations
established the public worship of God, which made possible the churches
of today.
As we look around and see on every hand, not alone
that refined taste that lead us to make beautiful the places of our
worship, but the numerous Christian Associations that throw around the
young, wherever they are, the restraint and protection of the Christian
home,-the Sabbath School, a branch of worship training and fitting the
young for more intelligent Christian manhood and womanhood-the many
and various organized charitable efforts to each, help, lift up and
save all of every grade and condition who need help, inspired by that
unselfish love taught by Him who gave Himself for us--all these, and
more, the growth and fruit of that early planting of the public worship-(and,
for want of a better place, in some convenient house or barn)--of Him
who was born in a manger, our emotions find fitting utterance in that
doxology, more than two centuries old-
"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." |
