The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-05-25

with any response in September, 100,
request was sent to the Rev. Will
liam Vesey of Trinity church, New
York, that he would visit them to
preach and administer the rite Of
baptism" The distance was so great
he did not personally comply, but the
request bore fruit for one year later
on the second of September, lI06,
there came riding into the town Two
men whose coming aroused the great
est hostility among the Congregation
al element The one, was Rev. George
Muirson of Rye, N Y, a man we
read having a very happy way OF
preaching and considering his years
(but 31y, wonderfully good in argu-
ment and his conversation without
blemish, held by the people in great
esteem for his piety and virtue. The
other, Hon. Col. Caleb Heathcote, a
leading man in the Province of New
York. a member of the first vestry OF
Old Trinity, ever active in promoting
the interests of the church at large.
Though threatened with prison and
hard usage, Mr.. Muirson preached to
considerable assembly and baptized
about 35 persons, principally adults.
This visit was followed by two or
three others in the space of few
months. We read with amazement of
the open hostility of those who, while
advocates of religious freedom We're
unwilling to extend it to those who
walked not with them. OF how, on the
second of Mr. Muirson's visits, a
member Of the council, on the Lord s
day, stood in the highway and en-
powered several others to forbid any
person to so to the assembly of the
Church of England and threatened
them with a fine of five pounds. The
rarishionerS subsequently complained
that their members had been seized
and imprisoned in the county goal for
refusing TO pay the sum demanded FOR
the support of the Congregational
minister About the first of April,
1907. the parish was organized by the
election of wardens and vestry, and
in 170S the s. P. G. granted their re-
quest that Rev. Mr.. Muirson be APP
pointed their missionary, but before
the intelligence reached this country
the loved priest OF God had rested
from his labors. In 1712. Rev. Francis
Phillips was sent out by the society
to take charge of the parish but re-
NAMED only a few months. Being"
wrote Col. Heatheote, "of a temper
very contrary to be pleased with such
conversation and way of living as
Stratford affords" In IT'S, the vestry
again wrote the society, bewailing
their sad condition without shep
herd, concluding with these words ''as
to our outward estate, 1t may very
well be said we are inconsiderable;
but as to our plumber, we have had at
least one hundred baptized into the
church, and have had thirty-six at
enc time partakers of the Holy Com
munion of the Lords Supper, and
have several times assembled in our
congregation between two and three
HUNDRED persons" After four years
more of waiting, the long desired min
lister of God came among them in the
person Of Rev. George Plgot, and a
brighter period dawned for the strug-
Cling parish The good seed sown by
Muirson, and the preaching Of Pigot
awakened a spirit of inquiry among
the Congregational ministers of the
state, two of whom-Rev Timothy
Cutler, rector of Yale college. who
for ten years previously had been the
minister at Stratford, and Rev. Sam
uel Johnson, then a minister at West
Haven, gave up their positions lin
1722) and went to England for Holy
orders.
ct
suppose wrote President Woolsey
one hundred and fifty years later.
that greater alarm would scarcely be
awakened now, If the theological fac
ulty of Yale were to declare for the
Church of Rome, avow their belief in
ransubstantiation and pray to the
Virgin Mary" In 1923 the church was
built and given a bell. For five gen
erations the bell has summoned the
people to worship. added It's jubllant
tones to those Of the general, rejoicing
over the news of the Declaration OF In
dependence, rung it's bendiction over
those whom God had Joined togeth-
err" and tolled requiem for those
departed hence In the Lord" and to-
day is a priceless possession of the old
parish.
In 175i, Dr. Johnson, having been
chosen the first president of Kings
(now Columba) college, New York.
resigned the parish and was succeeded
by Rev. Edward Winslow. THE only
clergyman for some years in the state,
finding but one parish organized and
no church building completed Dr.
johnson left ten or eleven clergy ana
twenty-five small churches, Justly
has he been termed 1.-THE father or
Episcopacy in Connecticut
An agreement was made In 1855 with
Gilbert Deblois, of Boston, Mass, for
the purchase of an organ, costing 56o
and payable in six annual payments
without demands of interest. The organ
was the first instrument Of its kind In