Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-02-10

ieal society.
Henry F. Middleton, a New York an
tiquarian, has found at the homo Of Ja-
son Aldrich, farmer living near East
Cornwall, Conn, the old box stove
which was the innocent cause Of Litoh-
fields celebrated stove war in the Sab
bath day house ON Litohfeld green dur
ing tho ministry of the Rev. Lyman
Boeeher, and has carried it off to New
York in triumph He had been in search
of the stove for several months. Aldrich
had owned the stove for years, having
bought it ct an auction.
The stove is a box shaped affair, stand
ing on slender wrought iron legs more
than 10 inches long. 1t isa wood burner
and Will take in sticks 8 feet long and
10 inches through The door is at the
trent, and the pipe is at the back.
There are still a number Of Litohheld
people who remember tho story of the
stovo war. Lyman Beecher, the Congre-
gatioualist. preached i'll the Sabbath day
house from 1910 to 1926, and it was
during his term of service there that the
trouble occurred. Henry Ward Beeoher,
his son, was born in this historic town,
aud more than once referred to the mat
ter in his after life as a good story illus
trative Of the difficulties encountered by
progressive church people i'll the early
days.
The box stove had already invaded
the sacred but frigid precincts Of mum
ber Of churches in Connecticut. Some Of
the most influential persons among the
Ldtohaeld Congregationalists deter
mined to get one to see what it would
do toward temporing the frost fingered
gales which howl in the winter across
the bleak Litehfeld hills An unexpeot-
edly determined opposition was imme-
diately encountered il the church, how.
ever, and a fierce war was waged against
the stove, the principal grounds for
which were that it would desecrate the
house Of Gcd; that it would promote
disease by rendering the members of tho
congregation unduly sensitive to cold,
and, still further, that the auditors
ought to be SO imbued with the fire and
glow ef religion as to pass unnotioed the
Tigors Of winter during the delivery by
the preacher Of the two long midday
disooursea, which were then the invari-
ablo rule on Sunday.
Tho church split in two factions upon
the matter-the stove party and the
antistovo party-and for several weeks
the stove was the topic of the hour The
deacons Of the church were besought and
buttonholed and the members were ar
rayed individually on one side or the 9th
er The women were especially active,
many Of the older ones who had lowered
shiveringly over foot stoves in the old
church for years being most pronounced
in their condemnation or the innovation
as an invention Of the evil ono.
At iength the stove party triumphed
in SO far that they were permitted to
place q stove and pipe in the church on
trial. and ono Saturday afternoon in
November tho stove was put in place
1t was set we'll into the room, very near
to the tenor gallery The members Of
the stove committee were early at church
on the following day to see how the
much hated, new tangled production
was received.
AS the congregation came in the an
tistoyeites noticeably turned their steps
as far away as possible, and one Of their
number, elderly Mrs. Peck, as soon as
she reached her pew, firted open large
fan and began using it vigorously, de-
claring that the heart Of the stove made
her faint. At length she created consid-
cradle connection in the church by
throwing up her hands and apparently
swooning. She recovered. Then Deacon
Thomas Trowbridge came in. He was
very venerable and one Of the simplest
and most worthy Of men, who had been
induced not to oppose the introduction
of the stove. He walked up past tho Of
Tending article in question, shaking his
head doubtingly as he reached out his
hand and felt the heat from it, and he
gathered up tho skirts of his greatooat
tremblingly as he took his seat at the
head Of the broad aisle. Next entered
"Uncle" Noah Stowe, a wealthy farmer
Of the west end, who was rank anti
stoveito, and seowled at the detested
stove which he had been bitterly de-
nouncing fer weeks Hezekiah Marsh,
another farmer and also an antistove
man, advanced nearly half way into the
room before he saw the stove, and then
he turned on his heel and walked out,
the maddest man in Litchfeld.
All this seemed to strike the stove
committee as ridiculous, and when they
saw Editor Bunce Of the village news
paper come in and, walking up to the
stove, wafIa his hands over it in a thor
oughly satisfied manner, rubbing them
in evident enjoyment, they came near
bringing down reproof upon them
selves in consequence Of their unseemly
1evity.
But the climax came when Mrs Peck,
who had been apparently overcome by
the heat from tho sinful stove, was
forced to go out in the middle Of the
service, wiping her face with her hand
kerohief and unable to bear up longer
under her suffering Then it was that
the stove committee fell over backward
out of sight in the bass gallery, where
they had been sitting, in paroxysms of
laughter
AS matter of fact, no fire had been
placed IN the stove for the day, the
weather being too warm to warrant It,
1t was the knowledge Of this and the
actions Of the members Of the oongrega-
ton who were so oppressed by the heat
4,ot onpvuIsed the committee The bit