Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-12-26
FOREFATHERS' DAY.

FOREFATHERs' DAY.
ITS 270TH ANNIVERSARY AND THE CEN
TENNIAL OF THE CONGREGATION
AL CHURCH OBSERVED.
The celebration of Forefathers' day
was this year somewhat out of the usual
order. With it was combined the COM
memoration of the Tooth. anniversary of
the Middlebury Congregational church.
which was organized in $780, A portion
of the exercises were held at the church
on Sunday evening and on Monday even
ing came the ladies' social party in the
vestry. The attendance on both occa-
sions was large.
SUNDAY EVENING.
President Brainerd presided on Sunday
ening-when, by the way, the church
was first lighted by electricity. Mrs.
Miner was at the organ and the singing
was by a quartet composed of Misses
Cady and Bond DR.. w. II. Sheldon and
Mr. Thomas. First on the programme
after the voluntary was Mendelssohns
anthem, 81 waited for the Lord" Rev.
A. A. Cambridge, pastor of the Baptist
church, made the Invocation and read
the l45th Psalm. Mrs. Hemans' famil-
lar ode, "The breaking waves dashed
high" having been sung, Prof Granville
Yager offered prayer. Then Mozarts
hymn, ''The saffron tints of morn ap-
pear" was given.
Rev. DR.. George n. Webber made the
address, and good one it was, too. He
said among other things equally inter-
esting:
In passage of the epistle to the Ro-
mans Paul recalls to Israel's mind their
wonderful history. They were the chos-
en- people. They were come into the
heirship of all the life of Cod the eternal
verities, heroisms and saintliness of
race. What is said of Israel can be af-
firmed of us as Il people. For our insti-
tutions both civic and religious we are
indebted to our ancestors. This day is
the 270th anniversary of the landing of
the Pilgrims. This year is the centen-
NAL year OF the organization of this
church. The hour is crowded with his
torical memories and suggestions. But
|
preserved in Judge Swift's history and
elsewhere. You are all familiar with the
facts In the endeavor to say something
which may in some degree befit the two
fold historical interest of the day | shall
remark upon some of the salient charac-
teristics of the earlier settlers of New
England.
The first settlers of New England were
of good stock. Some of them were de-
scendants of families of rank, as appears
from the recent display of coats of
arms. Most of them were of the middle
class, sturdy yeomanry and enterprising
merchants. Now blood tells in the life
of a people. The first settlers of Middle
bury were of the old stock, which, on Its
way hither, passed through Connecticut,
where it lost nothing of its pristine rigor
or vigor. Gentlemen from Salisbury,
| Conn.,, obtained a charter of lands includ-
ed in three towns bordering on the Otter
creek, surveyed the tract, laid out the
lots on paper and gave names to the
townships Salisbury on the south, New
Haven on the north and Mddlebury be-
tween them. In the early history of
these communities the leaven of Puritan
and Pilgrim principles is everywhere Wis
ible. The first thing | mark in these men
is an inyincible adherence to purpose.
| They had the courage of their convic-
tions. When the hardships of founding
a colony in the dead of ii New England
winter had thinned the ranks of the Pill
grims and more than half their number
were laid away in moundless graves on
Coles hill, not one of the survivors
would accept the opportunity to return
with the ship they came in. Similar her
oism is displayed in the settlement of
this town more than a century later. In
these days emigration to a new country
is a small matter. The settlers of Mid
dlebury had to cut their way through
dense forest 60 miles to place where not
"a bushel of grain could be raised without
first clearing the woods. But these pio-
neers wanted homes so they were ready
to shoulder the woodman's axe and with
brave hearts and sturdy blows and much
endeavor transform the wilderness into
fruitful fields, and this because they felt
they were not only making a place for
themselves but planting and building for
generations to come.
\ vigorous domestic sentiment was a
marked trait of the forefathers. They
regarded the home as sacred institu-
ton and they guarded its purity with
stringent legislation. Small families were
not fashionable, but looked upon much
as one looks on a hen parading around
the yard with one chicken. Single bless
edness, Lying in clubs and hotels, is a
modern institution. The domestic senti-