The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-08-29
CHURCH 125 YEARS OLD.
Celebration of the Anniversary in Win
 chester.

chester.
 Winchester, Aug. 2S.-The first eccle- siastical society was organized in this town in 1771 in the part now known as Winchester Center, and which then was the only part having any settlers. In the same year the town was also incor- porated, In remembrance of this l25th anniversary arrangements have been going on for long time to celebrate the occasion in fitting manner, Not in twenty-five years has such a time been seen In the lofty settlement, or has such throng of visitors assembled as occurred Wednesday. Every door in the place was hospitably thrown open for the reception of the guests and gay decorations were to be seen on every hand. The crowd came chiefly from Winsted, Torrington, Norfolk, New Hartford and other Litchfield county towns, but a number travelled many miles farther to assist in the exercises. The exercises began In the present or or third meeting house at 10:30 in the morning and were continued till late in the afternoon. At 12 o'clock a rest was taken an the thousand or more visitors enjoyed free dinner.
 The address of welcome was by w. M. Bronson, president of the day. B. W. Pettibone read paper on the orig inal church members, The pastor, the Rev. A. Goodenough, delivered the his torical address. Judge c. M. Caring ton and the Rev. John Cunningham, pastor from 1852 to 1854, made interest," ing addresses in the afternoon, follow ed by a solo by Miss Tibbals and re- marks by neighboring clergymen, for mer residents and distinguished men. H, F. Wetmore read an original poem. The exercises were interspersed with singing by the quartet and the choir and congregation The historic al rooms in the chapel were open all day.
 The first meeting house, says the Hartford Courant, was indeed primi- tive affair. John Boyd In his annals of Winchester describes it as a low, steep-roofed building, tlsrty feet long and twenty-four rect wide, with nine- foot posts, covered With wide rabbeted boards one inch thick. It stood on a side hill above the road, the rear rest ing on the ground and the front SUD- ported by sections of chestnut logs, three to four feet in diameter, lying diagonally under the corners. A huge chestnut butt set up perpedicularly at the front door, with a series of steps cut crosswise of the timber, gave &C., cess to the second floor. Opposite the door was the pulpit or rostrum, three to four feet high. The seats were rough blanks or slabs witM legs at the ends inserted in augur holes. Original | ly there was no floor overhead, but as more room was required to accommo- date the worshippers, joists were in- serted in the cross beams and boards laid down loosely for floor, except on place nine feet square over the ros- trum. This was the gallery. Access was gained to 1t by plank ladder out side, at one of the ends of the building, ascending to a door in the gable The space beneath the building was open on three sides, affording shade and shelter for vagrant sheep, pigs and calves. In this primitive edifice the fathers worshipped summer and win ter for seventeen years, with no warm ing apparatus but the foot stoves of the women and the sound doctrine of the minister. Two choristers to lead the singing and two readers to line the psalms were regularly appointed at each annual meeting. When this church was built the population of the town was twenty-one families and 110 | souls.
 i The second meeting house was built early in this century, and finally the present structure was erected. The more recent meeting house is a neat, well repaired building, with it's wooden Doric portico, tower and bell, facing the green at the east. The present pas tor of this church is the Rev. Arthur 1 Goodenough, a native of Jefferson, N r., and graduate of Yale, who has been retained by the people for the past I tWentysix years. MT. Goodenough's S historical address was among the most interesting parts of the celebration.