The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1902-10-10
Sherman S Centennial
Celebration.
A CENTURY OF TOWN
AND ECCLESIASTI-
CAL LIFE.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE TEN.


CHURCH AND SCHOOL STAND HIGH
in all New England life, and Sherman
was not lacking in esteem for these
foundati of all true civilization.
The schoolhouses of that period
were differently planned from the
modern buildings, and could not al
ways have been very comfortable with
and the rough stone tireplaces, which
being at the end of the room doubt
less heated it very unevenly. Children
were often sent to school at three
years of age, and when we realize
what it must have been for the rest
less little beings to sit quiet from nine
in the morning until four at night, we
wonder how they could have endured
the ordeal day after day, summer and
winter, with only a months vacation
in the whole year. Four times day
the little one said his A 3 CS to the
patient teacher, who, often times hav
ing between ten and twenty just such
little ones, cannot have given many
minutes to a lesson. The teacher
must also set all copies and make and
mend all pens. Then there were the
other lessons, particularly the class in
Daball'S arithmetic, that famous
book whose name inspires awe for it's
pages and for those paragOns of learn
ing who mastered them, and the pars-
ing class in the English reader, with
it's extracts from such classics aS1Ope,
Addison and Shakespeare. No won
der it was sometimes nearly dark be-
fore school was dismissed, and each
child had made it's parting obeisance
and gone home. The teachers of these
distinctly ungraded schools, where only
every second Saturday was recreation
day, and all other holidays, such as
Thanksgiving and Christmas, must be
made up at the end of the term, will
scarcely be envied by modern teachers.
especially when it is known that the
salary rarely exceeded 75c or 81 week
AT THIS PERIOD EVERYBODY WENT TO
CHURCH,
and the old meeting house. seating
probably 800 or 600 people, was well
filled Sunday after Sunday. Coming
from all directions some on foot, some
in lumber wagons. but nearly all on
horseback, the people gathered at the
old church on Sunday morning. In
winter they carried footstoves filled
with Goals, for there was neither fur
mace nor stove in the church. Enter
ing the Westinghouse, each family
went to it's own pew, which was large
and square, almost like room, with
door on one side and seat around the
remaining three sides. Around three
side walls of the church ran large
gallery, and here the singers took
their places, bass in the south gallery,
treble in the north and tenor and
counter together in the west. With
no organ to lead the voices or drown
the diScOrdS, it is not strange that
there was much careful drill in sight
reading of music and singing schools
were feature of the winter evenings.
At 1870 the morning service began
and a sermon an hour long was listened
to with the deepest attention and
greatest reverence. Service over at II
O'Clock, there was an hours intermiS-
sion when the people went to the
neighboring houses to eat their lunch.
con and to fill their fOotStOves from
the generous tireplaces. During the
intermission, also, the minister taught
a Bible class in the nearby school
house. At l O'Clock came another
hour long sermon in the church and
the people returned to- their homes
Oftentimes in winter not arriving I'm
! the churches of to-day, Astounding ir
comfort and beauty, this old meeting
house, bare and cold, seems cherries
enough, yet it was the very house O
God to the people who knew and love(
it. Thither they came with eager
minds and hungry souls for the truth
that never was denied them. Those
were the days when church and stat
united in action, when every mar
must be property holder and churcl
member before he could help to max
the laws; when the whipping post ant
stocks were in use upon this YER
green. 50 different from our own ar
the customs of that time that the
seem almost to have belonged to
different people, yet only Ger
fury ago these men and women tray
eled the roads and titled the fields an
} looked upon the hills and valleys tina
we know and love SO well.
Presidents Roosevelt has lately give
us the three essential elements of
man who is fitted to be citizen of
self-gOverning nation, character, cou
} age and common sense. These thre
, elements our fore-fathersIpre-e minen
ly pOSsessed; the common sense, whic
is the prerOgative of the Yankee at a
times, the courage, which, disregard
? ing all difficulties, goes straight TO
, ward in the work that is to be don
. and the character which is f0unde
!. on true nobility of spirit, lofty sta
, dards, high ideals, and an unfalterir
i trust in God and obedience to II
! laws.
Z May we, who are the children