The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-09-30
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TEE BAPTIST CHURCH.

God. II IL, too, the Scmi-Ccntcnnial ami
versary year and almost the anniversary
day of the church. We wish that the dcd-
ication could have been appointed for
Tuesday, the 25th of November so that
their church building could have been died.
dictated and set apart from worldly uses.
on the day that, fifty years before, its then
small number had assembled and, in az
cordancc with the rules and llsagcs of the
denomination. organized themselves into,
and were recognized as, q church of Christ.
II was however ordered otherwise, but
the observance Of exact anniversaries
where they can he established beyond Ques-
ton may no, have the peculiar force. I'M
mend them 50 much to H.. Passing by the
matter of a few days. or weeks it may not
be unintcrcsiing or Improbable TO briefly
refer to. and recount. the history of the
church, and this we do although We have.
heretofore. on different occasions and in
a different capacity detailed these facts
somewhat at length. Notwithstanding
this, it seems to us a proper day, hour and
connection, in which, once more, to recall
the past and present IA fifty years may
hc brought into Il single day. Before
speaking oi the church in Rutland, il may
be well TO glance briefly, at the denomna-
tion in Vermont \ school boy upon be-
ing asked where the first white settlement
was madc in Vermont. would promptly
answer at Dummcrstown although il was
actually made on Isle la Motto. while the
real, substantial, continuing settlement of
the state commenced in the southwestern
part of crnont, IN what i, now known as
Bennington county. 1t used to he related
that every family Of immigrants. coming
into the state, was met hy committee
with an enquiry in reference to their de-
nominatlonal proclivities. and upon being
spondcd in substance: If YOU are Baptists,
60 to Shaftsbury if Congregatonalists.
to Bennington; if Episcopalans, to Ar
lngton; and if you have no religion at all,
20 to Pownal. The anecdote is. doubtless,
apochryphal, hut it expresses the true idea
of the then condition of the settlements in
Vermont
SALISBURY was the mother OF the Bap-
iist church in Vermont. Here was found
ed in 1868 the parent church in the state,
the fourth church of any denomination
in Vermont and the second west of the
Green Mountains. Here. too. was formed
in the barn Of Thomas Madison. the first
association of that denomination, in our
commonwealth. being the third in New
England and the seventh in the United
States The Salisbury Baptist Associa-
ton" was organized ON the 18th day of
June, 1881, the churches composing it,
however, with the exception of two in
SALISBURY the second in that town. or
in the state. being formed in l1SO-were
in Massachusetts and New York. Here
let us correct an error into which an early
Vermont Baptist historian has fallen. In
speaking of these early churches, he says
their members were called at that day
"Separatists :" while, in fact the Congre-
gational church in Bennington was estab-
lished by "Separatists,' who came at one
time to be known as "Strict Congrega-
tionalists :" and it was, in fact. almost
solely owing to this separation or division,
that that part of Vermont was settled at so
early a day, and the Congregational church
there established. 1t is doubtless true that
many of the Separatists' afterwards became
Baptisis, established churches, etc, and it
may logically follow therefrom, that they
formed the first Baptist church in YER
mont, hut in no sense of the word is it
true that the 'Separatsts" were Baptsts.
But to proceed Soon after the date first
mentioned. II church was established in
Guiliord and others at different places. In
the early history OF the denomination,
there is noticeable contrast between those
days and the present in the multiplication
of churches in the same town. For exam
pie In twenty years Shaftsbnry had four
distinct clurchs Guiltord established the
same number in about the same time and
Pownal, at first the place of mo reli-
gion, established two at an early day. As
early. certainly, as 1856 We know not
how much carlier-thcrc was church in
Wallingford, of which Elder Henry Green
was the first settled minister" and which.
ut the date mentioned, had a membership
Oh torty-f@ur. Poultncy, also, preceded
Rutland in the organization of II continu-
iug church, Rev. Clarl, kendrick being or
dained there in 1902 while Middletown
contests the priority. in Rutland county,
with Wallingforl, having church there
established as early ms 1884. In 1888 the
Vermont Association" was formed in
the harm Of Elder Joseph Cornell, in
Manchester and to this association the
church here belonged until its disbandment
union or merge in 1876. In the year last
mentioned 1863. the two associations
The Vermont and SALISBURY -united and
merged into one, calling themselves the
Vermont and SALISBURY Association"
This association is composed only of
'""i'H'N, We pciieNe, III hNtldnu ana ben
nington counties, and is not to bc con
founded with the "Vermont Baptist State
Convention" which assemblies here to-mor-
row, and which represents all the churches
or associations in the state. Our review
OF the history of the church has been,
necessarily, hasty, cursory and brief, and
was only designed to illustrate, imperfect
ly perhaps, the situation of the church here
with other churches OF the state.
AT how early date persons of this de-
nomination settled in Rutland we know of
no means, at present, of ascertaning, and
it may never be known. In 1887, law
was enacted compelling every inhabitant
in the town or parish "to be of, and to sup