The Press., 1901-01-03

~~>ON~~OO> the noble lives of the fathers to cherish the memory of their virtues, their heroic deeds, is the best proof that the children are worthy of their ancestry.
 We are rich as people in the legacy we have inherited from our fathers. This noble and goodly land, reduced from barbarism-these hill valleys, once the hunting ground and battle field of savages, reclaimed and subject to cultivation these thriving cities and beautiful villages teeming with happy life, and rich in the appliances of high civilization-the free religious and civil institutions which they planted with assiduous care and nourish- ed with most precious blood, which have contributed not alone to the unparalleled prosperity of our nation but to that of the world"
 It was such men as these who founded and kept alive the church from which we sprung. All honor to their names and Cody lives?
 3. Looking back to-day to fifty years ago.
 On March 12, 1850, council advised the formation of a new church at the Springs, out of the membership of the old mother church. This advice was carried out. The prime movers in this new enter prise were Daniel Smith, Henry c. Baker, John Winchester, Caleb 1T. Chapin, Joel Smith, David B. Bacon, Geo. M. Ives, Lyman w. Crane, James Chandler, James Soule, Chauncey Smith, Edwin H. Little, Asa w. Whitney and William Smith. With characteristic promptness the new church, the life blood of the old one, be- gan worshiping in a hall, and at the same time set to work to build place of wor. ship. The building was finished in 1851. uvn ont {Va rx,iA I<~n<r It was painted white, with its blinds green, and had symmetrical steeple. The cost was about $5, 5,500, large sum for the small constituency to raise. But a store was let in the basement, and that paid the interest on money borrowed. Every thing was inorder for most successful and uplifting work.
 The entire debt was cancelled in April 22, 1858, and in '65 keen pleasure came to the people in the shape of five lamps, with all fixtures, including extra chim- neys, the gift of MT. J. E. Holden of New York.
 The vestry had been remodelled in the year before. At which time the position of the desk was changed and new settees with revolving backs" put in. The par sonage was built in 1871, and Is a great improvement over what John Adams called the mean hut" that MT. Willard lived in.
 To-day, as we view these last fifty years, what do we see?
 Our borough, which was in its veriest infancy in the '40's. Is now grown into tiourishing manhood. Its manufacturing interests, which, next after it's first early forge, grist mill, and trip hammer and with the decline of the iron industry, be- gan with the Granite mill, are all four ishing. Many stores of various kinds are here. The streets are now we'll laid out, and cared for since the '70's, and, within few years, have come the water supply and the electric lights.
 All this is sharp contrast to the time when 1t was necessary to go two miles up the hill for the mail-perhaps to congre- gate in old Jasper Hyde's hotel, which was at that time under the management Of MT. Gilmore, the grandfather of the celebrated band master of that name. Then there was no Press, and only the weekly Connecticut Courant. This is quite contrast to the old days, when the manufacturers and merchants had to haul and ship from Palmer or Hartford, with horses, or, indeed, to 1910, when first the horse wagons came into use.
 To-day we do not stop to think of these advances, and step into our post office quickly and go into our nice business blocks, as If they had always stood just where they are.
 And here is this beautiful church home In which we live and rejoice, whose beau | ty has been added to again, and whose usefulness has been enlarged, by the gift of the substantial time-piece that hangs on yonder wall.
 It was staggering blow that the un controlled, on-rushing waters did us that March day in 1877, and yet it has proved | to have been not without it's blessings, just as later disaster in the church life but served to make it a democratic body to wipe out all chance of jealous strife and to call attention to the truth which our Lord spoke to His disciples, 'Ht that Is the greater among you let him be- I come as the younger: and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For wheth CT is greater he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth al meat? But I am in the midst of you as one that serveth."
 | By hard struggle the town has gradu ally made good its losses, and out of the flood has come this church, whose beauty can not be too highly spoken of. Ii l ship of neighboring churches, through their great help rendered so promptly and lovingly.
 It is quite needless for me to speak o the changes in pastorates. They are be fore you in various forms for reference
 I may, perhaps, be pardoned, however, i a warm and appreciative tribute is paie to the consecration and devotion of Rev c. c. Painter, and personal reference
 made to another matter which has pecu liar interest for me, l. G., the fact tha the clergyman who preached the installa tion sermon of Rev. A. w. Ide, the Rev J. M. Bacon, of Essex, Mass, was tn,
 pastor of Dr. Burnham of St. Louis, wht was so recently with us, and was tn,
 means of his conversion and turning iron the farmer-cobbler's bench into the worl of gospel ministry.
 The church activities, with the excep
 ton of the newer organizations like tn Y. P. s. c. E. and the Willing Workers
 have continued much the same in thes
 fifty years, although the old singing
 school of more than fifty members, con ducted by B. F. Taylor, is no more, an } our good ladies now have, instead of sew . ing circles, rummage sales.