Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-01-21
OUR OLD MEETING HOUSE.
BY CATHERINE NJ. sEDGwIcK.


Meeting House, not church. That
designation originated with the Romisl
hierarchy, and was continued by its elder
sister, the Church of England, and oil
course was rejected by the Puritans.
Our old Meeting House in Stockbridge
has passed away. 1t is remembered by
that thin congregation, "the oldest in
habitants," and in their minds it is as
sociated with few pleasant memories.
1t was huge unsightly edifice, with
ont form or comeliness, built on bleak
hill side in the geographical centre OF
the town, in the proximity of but one
family, thus putting every other under
the necessity of breaking the fourth
commandment by making the horses
wolk on the Sabbath day, which at that
period was observed in our Puritanical
districts with judicial strictness. A bit
fer quarrel between the agricultural
population at the northern extremity of
the township, and the aristocratic cen.
tire, the village, had been appeased, not
settled by an arbitration which decreed
this site.
Instead of one party being made gra-
cious and happy by triumph over the
other, both were dissatisfied aud dis
contented, and met weekly with an i'll
suppressed hostility most uniting the
day that should be hallowed by peace
and goodwill.
That generation has passed away.
1.-THE rude forefathers of the hamlet, IS
sleep in peace in the village church
yard, and the chickering's ard silly ieal-
ousies that bespattered and sullied their
lives ore forgotten.
God forbid that we should recall them.
1t is not for this unkind purpose that
we revert to the old Meeting House,
but to preserve the relics of Puritanical
observances, and rustic manners that
are becoming irretrievably lost.
On every Sabbath morning the whole
population of the town wended their
way to the old Meeting House, then
Cromwell's Church. The old independ.
ent Congregational regime was our only
authorized Christian organization. We
had no stronghold for papacy like the
stone edifice now il process of erection
under the conseclating shadow Of
"Laurel Hill" no indication that the
august Protestant Episcopal Church
4 (from whose ordinances our ancestors
had escaped) could ever exercise its
ritual here as il now does at it's St.
Pauls, in the very centre of our village.
There were few dissenters. A handful
of Methodists might worship in seques-
tered groves or little band of Baptists
might, unmolested, immerse their
followers in obscure brooks. There
4 f.. L.. A
shirk the Sabbath duty, and very few
vagrants that escaped its coercion. On
every Sunday two coaches (there were
but two in the boundaries of our town
ship, wagons, one-horse shays, riders
and pedestrians might be seen travelling
the roads from north, south, east and
west, that conducted to the old Meeting
House. Our way led over a lonely
plain, and along the declivity of the
hill which the Meeting House sur
mounted. The road was narrow and
without railing, and the monotony of
the day was not unfrequently relieved
by the perils of restive horses and reck-
/ less drivers over this dangerous pas
sage; and now and then, the lovers ol
excitement were gratitied by wagons
overset, and their living cargOes rolling
over the hillside, not always escaping
broken limbs and SCARED faces. The
pedestrians had the best of it, secure
from accident, lingering by the way
side at the stations under the broad
shadows of willows and elms, and sure
like Charles Lamb, of coming away
with the earliest though they arrived
with the latest.
There were two stations deservin.
grateful remembrance Aunt Silla'
humble dwelling, where the rich dam
ask rose blossomed in luxurious pro
fusion, and were freely bestowed on lie
favorites, who were invited to partake o
less ethereal refreshment from whit
earthern mug filled with home brewed
innocent beer-a most thin potation-
but far superior, in our grateful recol
lection, to the champagne and Char
treuse of these, our later days. Aun
SiIla's wayside charities did not stol
here. We were allowed to pluck on
of her little garden green stems of car
away, "dell," and fennel, pleasan
spices, that were helps to old womei
and children through the tedium of tn,
sermon, Our last station vss a clear