The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1891-04-16
NEW ENGLAND CHURCHES.



Meeting Houses.
in all the Puritan meetings, as then
ind now in Quaker meetings, the men
sat on one side Of the meeting house
and the women on the other; and they
entered by separate doors. 1t was .
great and much contested change when;
men and women were ordered TO sit to-
gether sspromiscuoslie. In trent, ON
either side Of the pulpit Tor very rarely
in the foremost row In the gallery, was
seat Of highest dignity, known as the
'.foreseat," in which only the persons
of greatest Importance in the commun-
ity sat
Sometimes row of square pews were
built on three sides Of the ground floor,
and were each occupied by separate
families, while the pulpit was on tho
fourth side. II any man wished such
private pew for himself and family,
he obtained permission from the church
and town, and built it at his own ex-.
pense. Immediately in front OF the
pulpit was either long seat or Square
inclosed pew for the deacons, who sat
facing the congregation. This was usu-
ally foot or two above the level of the
other pews, andwase reached by two or
three steep, narrow steps. On still
higher plane was a pew for the ruling
elders, when ruling elders there were.
What we now consider the best seats,
those in the middle OF the Church, were
in olden times the free seats
It is easy to comprehend what a
source of disappointed anticipation,
heart-burning jealousy, offended Dig
nifty. unseemly pride, and bitter quar-
reling this method Of assigning seats,
and ranking thereby, must have been
in those little communities. How the
goodwives must have hated the seating
committee! Though 1t was expressly
ordered, when the committee rendered
their decision, that "the Inhabitants are
to rest silent and sett down satysfyed,"
who can still the tongue Of an envious
woman or an insulted man? Though
they were Puritans, they were first of
ell men and women, and complaints
and revolts were frequent. Judge
Sewall records that one indignant dame
treated Captain Osgood very roughly
on account of seating the meeting
house." To her the difference between
seat in the first and one In the second
row was UNNECESSARILY great. 1t was
not alone the Scribes and Pharisees who
desired the highest seats I'M the syna-
gogue.
1t was found necessary at very
early date to dignity the meeting, :"
which was to make certain seats, though
in different localities, equal in dignity;
thus could peace and contented pride
be partially restored. For instance, the
seating committee in the Sutton Church
used their ''best distressing and voted
that s.the third seat below be equal in
dignity with the foreseat in the front
gallery, and the fourth seat below be
equal in dignity with the foreseat in
the side gallery ETC., thus making
many seats of equal honor. OF course
wives had to have seats in equal impor-
lance with those of their husbands, and
each widow retained the dignity appor-
toned to her in her husbands life
time. We can well believe that
much ''discnssing" was necessary
in dignifyiHg as well as in seat
ing Often, after building a. new
Westinghouse with all the painstaking
and thoughtful Judgment that could be
shown, the dissensions over the seating
lasted for years. The pacificatory FASH
ion Of "dignifying the seats chung long
in the Congregational Churches of New
England. In East Hartford it was not
abandoned until 1924.
Many men were unwilling to serve
on these seating committees, and re-
fused to 'meddle with the seating
protesting against it on account of the
odium that was incurred, but they were
seldom ''let off," Sometimes the diff
Guilty was settled in this way: the en-
tire church Tor rather the male menu
bers) voted who should occupy the fore
seat or the highest pew, and the voted
In occupants of this seat Of honor
formed committee, who in turn seated
the others of the congregation. ATTAIN
tic MONTHLY