Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-10-10


church he was chosen its first deacon
and clerk, and so served, until, on the
lst of December, 1900, at the age Of
76, he passed from the church militant
to the church triumphant.
Asa Bond we have mentioned as one
of the three pioneer settlers. He was
now in his 32nd year, and was the first
selectman of the town, living on the
farm now owned by n G.. Moore. He
and his wife seem to have united with
the church by profession, and their
three children were baptized ut the time
Of the organization. The family re-
moved to Vershire not long after 1850
and subsequently to Thetford, where
Mr.. Bond was deacon of the church,
and there died, full of years and with
an unblemished name.
From Belchertown, Mass, as we
have said, Enos Smith and wife had
come to Chelsea in 1886. Dea. Smith
came Of an old and honorable family,
family long connected with the church
iu his old home. A younger brother,
John, who was with him in Chelsea
for a time, graduated later at Dart
mouth and entered the ministry, being
finally professor in Bangor Theolog-
ical Seminary. Enos was now in his
2Sth year, and his wife was nearly %.
The farm on which he lived was the
one now owned by G.. L. Hayward, and
I l.. ol, fI fha
town, and was for many years promin-
ent in its affairs. Shortly before the
death of Dea. Linkon, he had been
chosen deacon, and in 1905 he became
clerk of the church, the records of which
seem to have been kept by Pastor Thomp-
son since his installation. There must
be some here who well recollect Deacon
Enos Smith, and think they will say
that for many years he was the leading
man in the church. He died in 1874, in
his S3rd year. leaving as his legacy TO
the church, his son, John W., the Deacon
Smith of later days, whom all but the
youngest here remember, whose presence
was benediction. and whose memory is
| blessed. The names and the influence of
| the father and the son run through all our
records and all our traditions,and justly
deserve all the tribute we can pay them
to-day.
Another original member, and one
prominent in the churchs early history,
was Ivory Douglass. He was from New
London, Conn.,. and was one of the gran
tees of the town, settler in 1877, far
mer on the Waterson place, and for ma
| ny years almost constantly an officer of
the town. He was now % years old; of
his IA children, four had now been born,
and were baptized at the time of the or
ganization. At some unrecorded time,
not earlier than 1905, he was chosen dea-
con. In 1925, Dea. Douglass and his wife
drove to his old home in New London.
and while there he was drowned in Long
Island Sound, while bathing, at the age
of Ga.
OF the other original members less can
be said. for less is known. Jonathan Lane
was farmer and shoemaker in the west
ern part of the town, had come here from
Lebanon among the very earliest of the
settlers, and was one of the listers of the
town at the time of which we write
| Mrs. Huntington was the wife of Col.
Samuel, who had come from Lebanon in
l7S6 or z, was prominent in town busi-
ness and in the organization in 1893 of
the Society connected with the church,
and returned TO Lebanon, or perhaps to
Hanover, n. H., in 1900. Mrs. Jewell
had come from Winchester with her two
brothers, Thomas and Samuel Moore, and
had been married to David Jewell in l7SS.
After his decease, she married one Ben
jamin Cady and removed to Windsor, VT.
This completes the list of those who
can with any certainty be reckoned as
our original members. 1t would be easy
to write at length of many other mep
and women who in the early as in the la
ter days have borne an honored name in
the community and the church, but we
must set ourselves some limit, and the
line draws itself most naturally here, and
we will pass to some account of those
men who have filled the pastorate of this
church.
First, it will not be inappropriate to
make some mention of one, whe though
never settled as pastor, was the first per-
son to preach stately in town. At the
town meeting of l795,it was voted to hire
Mr.. Hobart, Hubbard, the records give
the name; but there is no doubt as to the
identity of the person., to preach four
Sabbaths, beginning with the last Sab
bath in April, and by subsequent votes
his services were continued until into
September. This was James Hobart. who
was born In Plymouth, n. H., in l166,
graduated at Dartmouth in 1894, and af-
ter a years theological study with Asa
Burton at Thetford was licensed t0preach
in the spring of 1875. Where Mr.. Hobart
preached in Chelsea is not as yet ascer-
tanned, but clearly in some place provid-
ed by the town. The building on the
present site of j. b. Atwoods store, in
which was the upper arched ROOM used
for some wears for all nuhliC nurp0cec
seems to have been erected in the autumn
or late summer of the same year, 1895.
This building. which now stands in alter
ed form across the street from origin
al site, was the only house of worship
till the erection of the court house in
1901. This in turn was employed for
church services till 1911, after which for
some two years the church worshiped
in the hall Of the lower hotel, on the site
of the Hinckley house, till the compile
tion of the present church edificc. Mr..