New Britain herald., 1924-10-13

or the ,tonDl, Committee, Nizn Col. Worthlngton. Col. Partridge and Mir. | Taylor" appointed by the general as- sembly and made provision for a committee, "Mr. Jedldlah Norton and selah Heart ESu, to appear be- l fore the Hon'ble. general assembly fop an establishment Of the report of their committee" This was done. the report made and accepted on the goth day of October, 1772. On March 3lst next-that is 177S-ac- ton was taken as follows for build ing this Meeting House.
 March 31. 177S Voted that this society will build a proper and suit able Meeting House as soon as conveniently may be upon spot where a stake is set for that pur- pose betwiXt two large stones a little west of the dwelling house Of Daniel Cowlcs, Jr."
 Voted at the same meeting that "Sclah Heart Esq. Mai. Roger Nor ton, AsNhcl Cowles, Matthew Cole and Oliver Heart were chosen to be, a committee especially in behalf of this society 10 take ye care and over sight and with full power to furnish and procure proppcr and necessary materials and ingredients for the erecting and building Sd. Meeting House at the cost of this society at the place afores'd, and to erect set up and build sd Meeting House at afore'sd, convenient time and pro- ceed so far in finishing the same for the use of this society that the same may be comfortable for the purpose of pubik worship"
 ' At an adjourned meeting held De- cember g, 177S. a tax of upon the pound was laid to be paid in cash or wheat, rye, Indian corn or f1aXsced at cash price to be paid the following May and tax of twelve pence was also laid to be paid in October 1774.' Separate ! ratemakers and collectors were chosen for each assessment and Mir stephen Cole was chosen special . treasurer. In those days there was | no wiring to dealer for the timber and lumber for such a building. It is probable that during the winter of 1773 and "A men and teams went into the woods and cut the trees for not only the heavy oak frame but for the roof purlins and boards. Some of the latter, 20 or more inches wide, are also of oak and sawn instead of hewn as are the heavier members of the frame, while the hewn timbers were prob ably drawn as logs to this place and then squared so beautifully that some of them would seem to the casual observer to be the product of a saw mill, the logs for the joists, roof and floor boards might well have been taken to Miller Bronson's Mill.
 One would suppose that the church would gather for raising the frame. Whether they did not be- cause of the great size of the mem 1 bers framed to span the auditorium AZ feet in width, know not, but { there was no raising such as we read about in the annals of the colony 1 for on 'ye 1st day of June A. D. i1774" it was voted that the Meet ing House now in building in this society shall be raised by particular men that shall be hired for the par ticular service" During the sum- mer and autumn it was built, and ready for use early in December. Let us try to picture 1t to ourselves as 1t then stood. At first it was not painted outside, and without its belfry and with no blinds must have seemed bare and forbidding. The interior plan has been preserved and shows that it could seat $50 persons on the ground floor. The dif / that has been preserved does not show it, but the pulpit with sound ing board over it was on the north side with entrances on all the other sides and with aisies running around so that each square pew could be en- tered from the aisle. The pews were. I should estimate, about 5x6 feet, although they varied some in size and were capable of holding eight persons. The description of the interior, taken from my fathers notes. by MT. Hazen for his address at the 200th anniversary of the r church were written in the latter part of his life. My father was born in 1924 and the original pews taken out in 1887. These notes say: "The
 color Of the Meeting House was 8
 dull yellow The Meeting House
 was entered on three sides and had
 galleries on two sides and one end
 The pulpit was on one side and wal
 great improvement on the later
 plan of making long narrow
 church and putting the minister or
 one end and the audience at SC
 great a distance. Instead of slip: for seats we had the large square
 pews and you could turn your back 2 on the minister or the singers who sat in the gallery in front of thf ? parson. Large doors of the house
 entered directly into the audien.c room. At that time there were two l old box stoves in the house. The
 pulpit was the old fashioned pan elIed box with doors and larg' { sounding board overhead. Ii looke' - more like a dome or top of Turk . ish mosque, but flat on tte bottom
 which extended over the head c = the minister alEut 10 feet above, - Before occupying it the socict,
 had a very delicate task to perform