The Press., 1888-12-27
Issued Every Thursday Evening.

of the selectmen was reinforced by a sup.
 plementary petition signed by ten names.
 It began after the usual form of address,
 with a statement "That our infant town
 has fallen into unhappy circumstances and
 divisions respecting the gospel ministry
 among us." And, after stating the case, declares -"That ye interests of Religion
 will suffer and ye Town not flourish unless
 this Honorable Court will please 10 do
 something for our relief"
 This petition was dismissed by the legis- lature. Nothing daunted, Nathan1 Badg- CT, William Ward and Robert Paul, select
 men, together with six others, memorial
 ize the general assembly at its session in
 October, 1885, saying, "We remain still
 in sad contentious circumstances, to Ye
 great hurt of Religion and of ye Town"
 They make n most bitter complaint of the
 other party who persist in hiring Lawyer
 Oalkins, and, lest they should get into better way, have established th@ commit tee for four years. This, I suppose, was
 dismissed. Then, May 20, 1736, comes a
 statement from disinterested parties, the
 committee appointed to receive the tax, consisting of Judge Timothy *Perrce, J Just ice Philip Eastman, and Capt. John Perry. , They report to the general assembly :
 "The inhabitants of said town being small
 in Mo-, and are unhappiIy fallen. into al. visions which will prove fatal to them un- ss:seasonably directed. Some they say)
 have hired Rev. Saml Terry, others James
 Calking of Lebanon. The Memorialists have received G100 tax money. Some for b. d paying Mir. Terry, others are not will ling Mir. Calking should have the money,
 so the committee pray the general assem- ply to take the whole premises into their wise consideration"
 The general assembly did so, aud with great impartiality directed the committee to pay both men according to the time of their preaching. And so the gospel ship in the good old days had to bo launched through the breakers with great peril. , But it aOas launched. We hear no more : of the dispute.
 Rev. Dr. Hammond, in the appendix to his sermon preached at the rt-dedication
 of this house. states that Rev. Jacob Ba- = con preached 54 Sabbaths in 1735 and '36. MT. Hezekiah Bissel and Mir. BenI 'min C Troop preached as candidates in 1736, and . "Rev. Timothy Allen began bis noted ca. U reer as a candidate in Union in 1737.
 The people seem to have been united iu = settling a minister in 1738.
 , After matters were aInicably adjusted
 among themselves, a church formed, aud j. g minister settled, the conflict continued o between the inhabitants and proprietors - Rev. Ebenezer Wyman, eIsaac Sheldel z and Joseph Gilbert appear as the agents v 7. of the town to secure the power to sell th' n property of non- residents who will not pa, U their taxes. Mir. Wyman stated that 1, 00( ', acres, being one-fourth the town, was II U hands of non residents, and put the situa n ,a ton of affairs forcibly, and won his cause " In later years Rev. Caleb Hitchcock ha' " also to make statement to the genera assembly, how through the fault of tn :, proprietors he had been without his salar. . for year.
 It was the ever new and the ever ol story. where the land speculators seize to l' large an inheritance and make their breth D. ren pay tribute. But these fathers il yyt Israel had a1remedy in their hands, an, Is they applied it thoroughly. They neede m m.n no one to plead their case. They scene, - A to have sense that the legislature of tn T, colony was on their side, and they cam Si and told their story with the utmost frank !, ness.
 a as What paternal government that gen . ~ eral assembly was, in the the view of tn a' selectmen and ether Memorialists at least ~a It was petitioned ito appoint aud fix v minister among them for a term of years. 'o And, again, "to appoint a committee t l1 .9 regulate them and provide preaching fo at them" And when, through William Mo 10 Nall. agent, they obtained the boon of be " ing formed into church estate, they aske ~. the privilege to ordain minister with tn o' advice and consent of the neighborin ,o ,J ministers.
 Ue The consent of the legislature was given o, ;m and committee appointed to fix a spo .r or for the location of ye meeting house Af This committee repair to the town Nov
 II oiF haor Hf
 bates. and, according to the general desir s,A sH of the inhabitants, fix upon tile south-ea ' hill of the ten acres appropriate d by tn ,6 proprietors for a place to build a meeting {. L house. Then they drive stake, mark N ., with the letter U, direct that the sills ( oi the house be laid around that stake, an H. make report to the May session of tue gel y, eral assembly, 1739. Their report was at iu l cepted, and it is to be presumed that th ';:, meeting-houS went up about that time, ( not long after. A plain and decent struc
 ure. .inclosed on the outside and with bencl us te es for seats within. The church was O sn :a ganized Dec 13, 1738, and Rev. Ebenez' sa1 Wyman was ordained and installed th .I m same day in a private house m the Roc ne Meadow district, now occupitd by NJ v, Williams.
 o' I have no means of knowing how man II. II, members belonged to the church at tt io beginning, but I find in a sermon preacl U; T; ed by my father, Nov. 1s41, reference to se church covenant dated 173S, signed by tt ee pastor, Mir. Wyman, and 15 more males. n3 Many of you are familiar with the lool t" of that venerable house that was built fC . MT. Wyman, which stood to shelter tl nr lr last settled pastor and his family for tim ol A decent house no doubt for the time lS and of the same style of many houses lu, that day. With its huge timbers all no enormous stone chimney large enough fC Sa monumental pile, that nos0 lies prone, sSe, low wall in front of the old parsonage yarC he There were four rooms in the main built is iss ing, two below and two up.stalrs, and ''' lean to or extension of one roof toward tl 'u. ground for little more thau n stoi .a o furnished space for several additi' n , nu rooms. At one end of the house stoo nF what was once magnificent mulberI I pr tree, that furnished great black luscior ne berries an inch in length, that were the jC ''i of birds and boys. Tbe tradition ia thu 'n' Rev. MT. Wyman received thimble flu of mulberry seed from some one who gay "o all the ministers of his association Q lil v quantity. He planted the seed, and or le' enormous tree was the result, but long b ,u- oo,HId t,ovo .rrtoxvr, vorv lar