372 tants of these places well accommodated to meet together in their own limits. They were scattered among the hills, and bad roads, little better than Indian trails, were the means of reaching any portion of their parish, and the request was granted at the The church was organized Sept. 24, own parish. THE OLD MILL, MIDDLE HADDAM. It was more convenient to meet together in their own borders than to go where they had hitherto gone, so they united in 1738 in a petition to the General Court for incorporation as a They met in the school houses and dwelling houses. Knowles' Landing, now Middle Haddam, began to be a place of some business not long afterwards, but it did not attain its present size till that generation, and many succeeding ones, had gone to their graves. The people united in a local center, and built a meeting house in 1744, 36x44 feet, in which they worshiped until 1812, several years longer than they would have done had they been united in views as to the site of a second meeting house. Mr. Bowers was followed by Rev. Benjamin Boardman, a native of Westfield, a graduate of Yale, 1758; dean, scholar and tutor in that institution. He was ordained January 5, 1762. During his ministry, families living at Maromas, on the west side of the river, attended worship in Middle Haddam. In January, 1775, the first society in Middletown granted these families leave to pay half of their society tax to the Middle Haddam Society. The heads of families who thus attended worship were Israel Carrier, Francis Drake, John Cone, Simeon and Richard Morgan, Stephen and John Sears, Samuel Simmons and Mr. Swaddle. During this year Mr. Boardman went as chaplain to a military company from this town. They had a camp near Boston. Some difficulty arising between him and the people led to his dismission in 1783. On the 5th of May, 1784, he was installed pastor of the South Church, Hartford, where he died February 12, 1810, at 70 years of age. Other ministers were Revs. David Selden, Charles Bently, Stephen A. Loper, William Case, Philo Judson, James C. Houghton and William S. Wright. This brings the names to a date within the memory to those now living. An Episcopal church was formed in Middle Haddam in 1771 in the eastern part of the parish. The church at the Landing was formed April 25, 1785. Their church edifice was built in 1786-87. It was a mission under the care of Rev. Mr. Jarvis of Middletown, until 1791. In justice to them, it is but fair to say that the contributions made by a few individuals have kept this church alive. Not far from the station at Cobalt, is THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Great Hill, or Cobalt Mountain. The first Governor Winthrop appears to have believed that there were minerals in this locality, and was so confirmed in this belief that he thought of setting up works for improving them, as is evident from a grant made to him not long after the settlement of Middletown, which at that time, included Cromwell, Middlefield, Maromas, Portland and Chatham, extending to the parish of Westchester on the His grant read as follows, to-wit: "The inhabitants of Middletown, for the encouragement of designs of our much east. |