The Newtown bee., 1909-10-22
Bridgewater.
AN INTERESTING LETTER.


 A copy of the St Jonnsbury, Vt
 Republican has been received ir Bridgewater, giving an account o1 the Centennial celebration of the or ganization of the CongregationaI church in St Johnsbury Center The incident is interesting to Bridge water people from the fact that it is celebrated within a month of the date of Bridgewater's Congregations church Centennial, and because its pastor, Rev James Kellogg Kilbourn was born in the parsonage in Bridge water, while his father, Rev James Kilbourn, was pastor of the church. Rev J. K. Kilbourn was for several years a missionary under the Ameri- can Board in Mexico, and has since served as pastor of churches in Wis consin, and at Barnet and St Johns- bury Center, Vt. He has always kept an interest in the church and people of Bridgewater.
 South Johnsbury Center, Vt.
 August 5, 1909.
 To the Congregational church of Bridgewater, Conn: Please accept hearty greetings on this centennial occasion from a native of your vil- lage and son of a former pastor. When but one-third of the period which you are celebrating had pass ed, my father, Rev James Kilbourn, took up his abode among you as pas tor of the church, and it was during his settlement in Bridgewater that I first had to do with earthly affairs. During all these 64 years Bridge water has had a peculiar attraction for me. My earliest recollections are located there. The parsonage, the barn, the garden, the chestnut tree, long since gone, in the field across the highway, the road to the church, having in the parsonage lot-tnese are among the dim remembrances of my first five years, and many family names come to mind from long ago. Of them all perhaps MT and Mrs Lorenzo Sanford and Mrs Anna Car ter Merwin, now of Cincinnati, O., are the only representative of the of that day that I de- finitely remember. There was the Wooster family in the old house on the New Milford roau upon the edge of the ravine, and clearer than other forms of that household that of Mary Wooster, afterwards Mrs Harmon Treat, for she was often in our fam fly. There were Lyman Smith and family, that of Henry Sanford, Sr., the Miners, the Treats, and Deacon Beach. l remember going with my parents to the deacon's house. The little water course through the door yard of Stephen Treat was a delight ,o my wondering childnood, and very plain is the front pew on the east ward side of the pulpit where my mother sat on Sundays with her rest ess boy. All these, and other mem- ,ries, flock back over the space of 60 7ears as thing of your coming of season at the close of 100 years of church life. Among the rivial yet lasting impressions left on ny child's mird is one of a ride with | ny parents along. the road in the outhwest part of the parish where i he highway lay near the bank of the River. Men were fishing or shad and my father stopped to 'uy fish. This fishing industry has, | suppose, long since ceased with the of dams further down the tream. And far back in my exper- ence rises up the haruly compre- tended funeral service for little 'rother, whose remains lie within | he church yard near by, just 60 l ears ago on a summer day. I can ay that my father genuinely loved | his church and heartily gave to this community his labors during the even years of his first pastorate. To ! he came from his studies n Yale Divinity school. Here he ras ordained to the ministry and | his, his first ministerial charge,