Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-07-09

years later.
Concord Academy and Essex
County Grammar School, was a
very fiourishing institution and add
ed much to the life of the place in
former years. Of late years mer-
camille and mechanical business has
become withdrawn to other locali-
ties, till, at present, there is little
carried on here. In days of yore the
people met at tire Corner" on all |
public days." and full many an
anecdote of the sayings and doings
of so years ago might be recounted,
while tho amusing and interesting
as matters of local history are not
worth place in work like this.
We might tell, however, how a
certain lawyer by the name of Rich
ardson becoming obnoxious to the
people, was rode out of town upon
blacksmith's bellows; as how on
another occasion when the ardent
had flowed pretty freely, old Oliver
Perry" an eccen trio and "royster-
ing" cold bach," washed landlady
Hardy's cap in the swillpail and dried
it on the gridiron~-or how certain
justice had his official dignity
somewhat damaged" by having
the contents of the landlords swill-
pail poured upon his head while the
pail was placed upon it as he was
crowned king of the Swine"
All these, and many others, behold,
are they not written in the legends"
of 'long ago." and we will not re-
count them here.
SABBATH SCHOOL.
During several years it has been
supposed that the first Sabbath
School in Vermont was established
at Greensboro, during the year 1914.
gut it will clearly appear by the sub
joined testimony which is itself re-
liable, and is confirmed by others,
that a school was COZ menced at Con-
cord at least two years earlier. The
writer of the following statements
had complete means of showing her
entire accuracy. She says:
".The first Sabbath School estab-
lished in Concord commenced in the
autumn of 1911 or II. | think it
was in 1911, but | am not positive,
but am certain it was in operation
in the year 1912. 1t was established
on this plan. The Rev. Samuel God
dard, that eminent servant of Christ,
was minister of the Congregational
church in Concord. He gave notice
at the close of meeting on the Sab
bath that he would meet with the
young people one evening that week
for biblical instruction, and requested
us to bring our Bibles, which we
did. He made a prayer. We then
all read some in our Bibles. He then
made an address, stating the object
of the Bible School," as he called
it, and requested us to commit por-
lions of Scripture and Hymns to
memory and recite them to him Sab
bath intermissions, which we accord
ingly did for several months. He
then adopted a different mode and
gave US question, and we looked
up passages of Scripture, to answer
it. We could write down our
answers as we chose. The first ques-
ton he gave out was What is the
character of God?" The second,
What is the character of Chri st?'
The next, What is the character of
man? and so on. | remember per-
fectly we'll that he said those schools
were first started in England, where
there was multitude of very poor,
ragged children, that had no means
of instruction, and some pious people
felt panied and anxious to do some.
thing for their good, and in other
places they had followed their ex.
ample with the best results. Altho'
the church has nearly run down, that
Sabbath School has kept along to the
present time. We had no Sabbath
School books, except the Bible and
hymn books, for some years; though
we had the help of the catechism if
we chose. The school was composed
of scholars from ten to twenty years
Of age. But where are they now?
Mostly dead-but very few remain,
and they are all old people full of
intrmities. | feel the purest pleas.
ure in thinking over those ancient
times, and the faithfulncss of that
servant of Christ, who was never
behind the time in any good work
for the spiritual good of his fellow.
men.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
Many of the early inhabitants hac
emigrated from places where they