314 1755, when the second French war was going on, he was pastor in East Hampton. He went as chaplain again to act in the expedition against Crown Point, and the members of the Hartford South Association, to which this church belonged, agreed to supply his pulpit from October REV. THOMAS G. BROWN. in that year, to February, 1756. He died of small pox, March 24, 1778, aged 62 years. Other ministers of this church have been Revs. Lemuel Parsons, Joel West, Timothy Stone, Samuel J. Curtis, Rufus Smith, William Russel, Luman H. Pease, Henry A. Russel, George W.Andrews, Joel S. Ives, Edward P. Root, C. W. Collier, and the present incumbent, Rev. William Slade. In November, 1898, this church celebrated the SesquiCentennial anniversary of its organization. The Methodist back to 1817 when Kee, one of the 316 villages. The parish priest and curate of St. Mary's Church, Portland, attend to the various duties required in this church, which is a mission in connection with St. Mary's Church. A fine new church edifice was completed and dedicated in 1898. It was built on one of the finest spots in the village. The fine proportions of its outside, and inside, attest at once the good judgment of Rev. T. R. Sweeney as a builder, in addition to his faithfulness as a celebrant, in the services at its altar, and the various duties which he is called to perform, in his ministrations to this people. We learn that in the near future this church will have a priest regularly stationed, and its relation discontinued as a mission of the Portland Church. Candor compels me to say that this people are setting the brethren of the other churches of the place a good example in the neatness with which the church, both outside and inside, is kept; and the proverbial reverence for the altar of God's house ever shown by the devotees of this faith are worthy of emulation by everybody. The Lutherans of Swedish descent the native-born citizens good examples in the neat appearance of their church and its surroundings. The last church which we mention as having an existence in East Hampton was one familiarly known to the people as the "Comeouters." It was made up of some very good brethren and sisters who withdrew from the Methodist body in 1848. They conducted their worship quite after Disciples' Church,"or the manner of the " Its membership was United Brethren. small and by the removals by death, it soon became extinct. They depended on each other usually for carrying on the Sunday or other service, only occasionally having some itinerant brother to minister to them. The last one of these was Brother Peter Felty, a German who hailed from New Jersey, a very ardent temperance advocate. An old resident of the place informs me that in his last appearance in the role of exhorter that he commenced his address as follows: "Brethren and sisters I am a Deemocrat, but if I was going to "wote" I think I should "wote the Whig ticket." He evidently did not want any politics in his temperance or religion, East Hampton, which, with an almost "broken back" is doing duty as a smithshop, while a new one, not far from its former site, finely situated, quite complete in its appointments, serves the present generation of scholars. In the old one the writer strove with a good measure of success nearly forty years ago, to lead out, and lead up, to better qualifications for the duties of life, many who are now the business men of East Hampton, and it is with a slight twinge of the nerves that cn and by this, would expurgate both from its baneful effects. Of the schools in this town want of space prevents me from mentioning at length. It is believed that they are in good hands and that the rising generation are being well trained to become worthy successors of the present business force of the town, as the latter are of their immediate predecessors. Pictures of the school buildings accompanying will remind many readers of the halcyon days of youth. One especially of the old Center School house in the occasional greeting of one of these old pupils who tells of his grandchildren going to school, I find that teacher and pupils of yore are growing old. The construction of the Hebron and Middle Haddam, and the Colchester and Chatham turnpikes about 1808-10, were of advantage to Chatham in that era of its progress. A mail route over the latter road was established from Middletown to New London, having way offices at Middle Haddam, East Hampton, and Westchester P. O., which, by the way, was established in 1817, within the bounds of Chatham, at Comstock's Bridge. Hon. Franklin G. Comstock, being the first postmaster for that office, and on remov 318 DR. FRANCIS D. EDGERTON. ing to the village of East Hampton in 1818 he was postmaster as well as Judge of Probate for many years, and Associate Judge of the Superior Court until his removal to Hartford at a later date. His digest of the Probate Laws is as complete as any which has been published. The postman rode this route once a week each way, carrying, so I am informed by an old resident, a good sized pair of "saddle bags" to hold small packages for those who had errands to send by him at the towns at either end of his route, or at "way stations." This seems quite primitive, compared with the railroad, freight, mail, express, telegraph and telephone facilities of to-day. But this answered the purpose in that stage of the noiseless prcgress which this country has made during the passing century. At the May session of the General Assembly, 1791, a resolution was passed authorizing the towns of Chatham and Colchester to erect a bridge, which these towns jointly maintain, over Salmon River, which runs for a very short distance through the southeastern part of Chatham, and is known as Comstock's Bridge, which Daniels, who is still living at their home. HIRAM BARTON. |