Contemporary with the founding of St. Matthew’s Church was the founding of Freedom Lodge. Its charter dates from the same year—1809. De Witt Clinton was then Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State. At the organization of the lodge, Stephen Benton was made master, Abijah H. Beach senior warden, and Sherman Page, junior warden. For some years meetings were held in the house of Stephen Benton. During that period, the lodge records were lost in a fire which destroyed Mr. Benton’s house. In the time of the anti-Masonic movement, growing out of the Morgan tragedy, the lodge was practically closed. But in 1854, it was reorganized, with A. B. Watson as Master, and R. G. Mead and A. D. Williams as wardens. To a much later date belongs the Chapter.
After St. Matthew’s, the next oldest village Church is the Presbyterian, the influence of which has been an important factor in spiritual and social life. Two Presbyterian missionaries had been here before 1800, and possibly as early as the coming of “Father” Nash. Perhaps it was due to them that so much early Calvinistic strength had been shown in Cooperstown and Sidney. But Elihu Spencer and Gideon Hawley had been more than forty years in advance of them, those men coming as missionaries to the Indians. It is, therefore, true that the earliest religious teachings in the valley came from men of the Presbyterian faith, although on village soil the pioneer,—in so far as depth of impression was concerned, and possibly as a matter of date also—was “Father” Nash, an Episcopalian.
The Presbyterian Church in Unadilla was organized in 1823. Its first members were Uriah Hanford, Rhoda Hanford, Jesse R. Hovey, Mary Hovey, Holley Seeley, Garrett Monfort, Sarah Monfort, John Eells, Sophia Bottom, Daniel Castle, and Philo L. Phelps. For several years services were held in the school-house and in private dwellings. The building of a Church edifice was delayed until 1844, the year in which at Sand Hill the Baptist church was erected.
Since the building of the Episcopal church thirty years had now gone by, in which fact we see the historic importance in early village annals of St. Matthew’s. At Unadilla Centre, as early as 1830, a Methodist Church had been set up, but it was not until a quarter of a century afterward that a Methodist Church building was erected in Unadilla by a society destined to exert marked influence, and to-day existing in a fine state of vigor and usefulness.
The Baptist Church dates from 1847. Judge Page gave the land on which the building stands, valued by him at two hundred dollars. Frederick A. Sands, William J. Hughston and Simeon Bidwell were among the other contributors. Many gifts were in small sums. Scores of persons gave twenty-five and fifty cents. Anything was acceptable. On the original subscription book may still be read items like these: “$3 in boots and shoes”; “$10, one-half in cash, half in hats”; “$5 in boots and shoes”; “$3 in a United States map”; “2 dozen papers of tobacco”; and twenty-five cents in the form of “one bottle of Cholera Morbus Specific.”
Spafford records that in 1824, Unadilla possessed “a handsome toll bridge across the Susquehanna, 250 feet long, with three arches well covered and painted, as ornamental to the village as it is useful.” This bridge had been erected in 1817, the builder being Luther Cowles and one of the workmen Guido L. Bissell. It supplanted an older and inferior structure which had been partly completed as early as 1804, and which stood a few feet further up the stream where remains of one of the piers were still visible a few years ago in clear water. The piers of the new bridge were originally formed of plank boxes filled with stone. These proved inadequate in times of high water and projecting piers of stronger masonry were erected in their place. The bridge continued in use until 1893, when the present structure of iron was erected. It was owned by a company which had the privilege of raising money by issuing bank notes.
The building of another bridge on a new site at Unadilla was probably influenced somewhat by the enterprise which was building up a settlement at Crookerville. It was also inspired by the growing interests of the lower business centre of the village. On June 29, 1822, in the presence of Daniel Cone, Stephen Benton gave the Commissioners of Highways a quitclaim deed to a strip of land running “from the turnpike near Foster’s Tavern[16] on the west side of Sherman Page’s line south.”
This land was granted for a public highway and was to revert back to Stephen Benton or his heirs “in one year after the bridge which is contemplated to be built across the river shall become impassable for teams and loads, unless a new bridge shall be built, and that in good repair for passing with loads and teams.” On the same day a similar deed to land one rod wide adjoining Mr. Benton’s was given to Sherman Page in Daniel Cone’s presence for similar uses and on the same conditions. Benjamin Saunders, W. D. Spencer and Eber Ferris, Commissioners of Highways, laid out this road “agreeable to the request of Gilbert Cone, Albert Benton and John Bissell, trustees for building the free bridge.” This bridge remained free for ten years and then became a toll-bridge. The road was not opened earlier than 1823. A new iron bridge was erected on this site in the summer of 1894.
SECOND BRIDGE ON THE SITE OF WATTLES’S FERRY.