The Newtown bee., 1904-02-05
TOWN TOPICS.

lOWl IN lOf>lNo.
 AN HISTORICAL PAPER OF GREAT VALUE. KINDLY LOANED THE BEE BY E. L. JOHNSON.
 There may be few now living in Newtown who remember when the Episcopalians in the eastern part of the town including Zoar and Half Way River were set off from Trinity, and St James church was built and located on the hill just across the road from where the Gray's Plain schoolhouse stands. In 1920 they petitioned the mother parish to turn over to them a portion of the permanent fund. This petition is of particular interest now in showing how strong the church was as to numbers as far back as that, in that part of the town. At that same time the Baptist church stood just north of the Eli J. Morris property.
 To the Wardens, Vestry, Committee
 and members of Trinity Parish in
 the Town of Newtown, in Societies
 meeting assembled:
 l The petition of the members of St. James's Parish, ,Zoar,in said:Newtown, by their Wardens, Abner A. Nettleton and Calvin Hyde, appointed in Parish, humbly doth represent:
 Brethren-Itis deemed unnecessary for us under the present circumstances to detail or represent to you the req sons and inducements which has led us to form and organize the small Par
 ish of which we are members, neither
 do we consider it necessary to repre- fent to you our attachments to the
 Mother Parish as having been brought up and nourished in her bosom, nor
 our attachments to the Episcopal church at large whereOn she may be found being one and the same Church. These facts are all known to. you 1 and the sacrifices and exhortiOns which have been made by your Peti- tioners to retain a remnant of the | of the Church in this part of the Town must have witness to the puri- ty of our motives.
 , But, Brethren, if we have erred in the course we have pursued, we have consolation to know that it was only carrying into effect what our Fathers had in view>in this part of the Lords
 Vineyard more than forty years ago. The small Parish of which your Pe- tioners are members is composed of about fifty families who were formerly Episcopalians and number at the pre-. sent time about fifty COmmunicantS of which number not more than fifteen to twenty persons were in the habit o1 attending church in the mother par
 ish in fair weather and in unfavOrable weather some of your Petitioners have > witnessed not more than two or three in attendance, owing not perhaps SC much to the want of Zeal as for the means of Conveyance which are out o1 reach of many of your Petitioners That since St James, parish has been 3 services of Clergyman it has not been uncommon for between two ano three hundred persons to be in attend J ance. Your Petitioners would further represent that they belong las is well known to you) to the laboring class o1 . community and are all with (few ex ceptions) in moderate circumstances and they have exerted themselves tc build small Church without the aic
 or assistance of any other denomina
 tion or but very trifing assistance from
 our own brethren in other Parishes 3 and That several members of your Pc
 titioners are now liable and called up
 on to contribute to the expense of sup
 porting public worship in said Trinity !, Parish in consequence of having sub
 scribed to the permanent fund, il
 Trinity Parish when they are exertint
 themselves and straining every nerve
 to maintain their own existence.
 Your Petitioners would therefor
 humbly pray that part of the avail
 able fund belonging to said Trinit.
 Parish subscribed within the limits o
 St James, Parish and paid in or nov
 may be relinquished by said Trinit,
 Parish and transferred over for tn
 benefit of said St James, parish to b. |. and remain a permanent fund for th n support of the Gospel ministry accord 3. ing to the practice and usages of th' d Protestant Episcopal church in tn K United States.
 Trusting therefore in full confidenc - in the Justice and equity of our az al plication and the Christian liberalit m lS of our. Brethren of the Mother Parisl ly, being but one of the same Churc ra United under one Great head. w ly therefore have thought proper to pre
 fer our humbly Petition to you tha
 might be induced to grant our reason
 able request or in some other manne
 grant Relief as your Petitioners i - duty bound will ever pray.
 Dated, Newtown, April B, 1886.
 ABNER A. NETTLEToN, Wardens an
 CALVIN HYDE, Committee al LINES FROM AN OLD DIARY.
 KEPT BY JENNET CIJRTIS TN 1775