Two Centuries of New Milford Connecticut. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ as they were called, built a house of worship in 1761, near the entrance to the present cemetery. They disbanded in 1812. The Baptists had a small church in “The Neck,” now Bridgewater, in 1788, but soon moved away. The Baptist Church in Northville was formed in 1814. In 1825 the Methodist Church was established at Gaylordsville. The Methodist Church in this village was erected in 1849.

      The Quakers were early in the field, their first meeting-house in the south part of the town being built about 1742.

      The present Congregational Church edifice was built in 1833. In 1883 the beautiful new St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is one of the chief ornaments of our Main Street, was completed. All Saints’ Memorial Episcopal Church was organized in 1880. The beautiful church building was erected later on Aspetuck Hill, in memory of the late Judge David C. Sanford, by his wife. It was consecrated in 1888. The Church of St. Francis Xavier, Roman Catholic, was built about 1860, and has a large and flourishing congregation. The most recent addition to our list of churches is the Advent Church, which has done an excellent work already in our community. It was built in 1901.

      From very ancient times it seems to have been ordained that harmony and discord should go hand in hand in the churches, for no subject was more prolific of disturbance than the singing. In the first days of New Milford the deacons led the singing, standing in front of the pulpit. There seems to have been a difference of opinion as to any change, for, in 1739, a meeting was held “to consider about the singing of God’s praises in the congregation,” and it was voted “that we should ‘half’ the time; that is, to sing one day all the old way, and the next Sabbath all the new way, for the space of one year, and then have a reconsideration of the matter.” Samuel Bostwick was chosen chorister for the new way, and “Nathan Botsford second, in case of the other’s absence.”

      The difference continued, for the following year a meeting was called to “agree about the singing in church.” It was put to vote that all in favor of singing all together the old way should go to the east end of the meeting-house, and those for the new way to the west end. On being counted, thirty favored the new way, against sixteen for the old. They peaceably voted that the majority should rule.

      Eight years later a new trouble arose as to using Dr. Watts’ version of the Psalms. It was voted “that Dr. Watts’ version be sung the last singing in the afternoon on the Sabbath and at lectures.” The next year it was voted to sing from the old version in the morning, and from Dr. Watts’ version in the afternoon, for one year, and then altogether from Dr. Watts. Who could imagine Dr. Watts as a dangerous innovation!

      Up to this time no reference is found here to any musical instrument but the pitch pipe. The bass viol and the rest of the stringed instruments must have come into use in the church services soon after. How the old fugue tunes, with the parts chasing each other all the way through, must have shaken the rafters and waked all the sleepers, without the help of the tithing man!

This town very early began to uphold morality and order. In that first century it fined certain persons “for bringing into the town unwholesome inhabitants.”

      The care with which the town guarded its temporal interests is shown by an early vote, “that a black bonnet, a red woman’s cloak, and a worsted gown belonging to Hannah Beeman, deceased, be kept for her daughter till she is of age; if she die under age, the town to have them.”

      The cause of education went hand in hand with that of religion in those early days. When there were but twenty-five families in the town, a public school was ordered. In town meeting, September, 1721, it was voted that a school be maintained for four months, the town to bear half the charge. The next year a committee was appointed to raise money to hire a schoolmaster three months in winter, and a schoolmistress three months in summer. One of these early schoolmistresses was the little daughter of John Noble, who had come hither with him alone through the wilderness. Deacon Sherman Boardman, son of the Rev. Daniel, mentions going to school to her, and says she was an excellent teacher. The “little red schoolhouse” was preceded by the log schoolhouse, which was soon a frequent landmark through the town. The town was often divided into new districts. In 1782 there were twenty-one school districts. In 1787 a new building for townhouse and schoolhouse together was erected at the north end of the Main Street.

      The singing schools were a pleasant feature of early days, and, in a time of few pleasures, afforded a harmless enjoyment. They were usually held in the schoolhouses, but sometimes at a dwelling in the neighborhood. In 1792 Mr. Cyrene Stilson is recorded as beginning a singing school at a private house. There are to-day treasured in many of our homes, brass candlesticks that were kept bright by our grandmothers to carry to the schoolhouse for the evening singing school. They suggest many bits of romance. When the boys were privileged to walk home with the girls, they carried the candlesticks, we hope, and they doubtless lingered on the broad doorstep sometimes, in spite of zero weather.

       CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

HOME OF NATHANIEL TAYLOR. JR. Gen. LaFayette lodged here for a night during the Revolution

HOME OF REV. NATHANIEL TAYLOR. Count Rochambeau spent a night here during the Revolution during the Revolution

      One of the brightest spots in New Milford history is the patriotism the town has shown through all its generations. This sentiment seems to have been a perennial spring in the hearts of the inhabitants, ready to burst out into action whenever a crisis arose.

      The long list of soldiers in the wars is proof of this. The War of the Revolution called out a host of brave men from New Milford. Not less patriotic was the minister, Rev. Nathaniel Taylor. He had long before served as chaplain in the French and Indian War, and, in 1779, he remitted his entire salary to alleviate the suffering caused by the war. It is inspiring to read that in this same year the county treasurer at Litchfield received the sum of ninety-four pounds sixteen shillings, by the hand of Col. Samuel Canfield—money contributed by the first Ecclesiastical Society of New Milford, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of the towns of New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk.

      The actual conflict came no nearer than Danbury. A large number of our citizens participated in that battle. The sending out of troops, and the mourning in many households for those who did not return, must have kept the war very near to the hearts of all the inhabitants of the town. Furthermore, the presence of three brigades (nearly 5000 men) in camp on Second Hill, for nearly a month in the autumn of 1778, brought the war atmosphere almost to their very doors.

      Once during the war Lafayette and Rochambeau were entertained over night here; Rochambeau, at the home of Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, north of the present Congregational Church, and Lafayette, at the house of the son of Rev. Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Jr., south of the church.

      There was a pretty romance of the war here also. Major Jones of Virginia, in charge of the commissary stores kept here the summer after the burning of Danbury, fell in love with pretty Tamar Taylor, the minister’s daughter. We have the story from Mrs. Helen Carr, the granddaughter of Tamar Taylor, as she heard it from the lips of her grandmother. The Major’s affection seems to have been returned, but her parents frowned upon the affair for the sole reason that they could never let their daughter go to that far country—Virginia. The wooer was said to be “a very fine man, who won golden opinions from everyone,” the question of distance being the only obstacle to parental consent.

      Four years later Major Jones wrote to Daniel Everett of New Milford, his sweetheart’s brother-in-law and his near friend, from Yorktown, during the siege, СКАЧАТЬ