The Baptist Church at Northville was organized February 9th, 1814, with 7 males and 16 female members, most of whom had previously been connected with a Baptist Church in Roxbury. Its present membership is 46. The Baptist Church at Gaylordsville was formed about 1830 and has always been small. Its present membership is 33. Somewhere about 1830 a Union Church was built at Merryall, which was used chiefly, but not wholly, by the Baptists. No Society was ever formed, and no service has been held in the house for 20 years.
The Rev. Elijah Hebard, from Stratford circuit, seems to have been the first Methodist Episcopal minister who visited New Milford. In 1815 he preached at John Warner’s in Pleasant Valley. Others followed, and in 1825 a Society was formed in Gaylordsville; that Society still exists and has now 66 members. In 1826 the Methodists erected a Church at Northville; and in 1828-9 they erected another on the Plains at a cost of $3,000. It is to be regretted that these organizations at Northville and on the Plains are both extinct and have been so for twenty-five years. The Methodist Church in the Village was erected in 1849 and dedicated by Bishop Janes in May, 1850—the Rev. Wm. M’Allister, then being the Preacher in charge. Its present membership is 130.
The Roman Catholics opened a place for worship in 1860-61, but had no resident priest until 1872. They have now a large congregation, composed almost exclusively of persons of foreign birth.
These are all the Religious Societies that have existed in the town. Out of a population of 3,586 there is to-day a Church membership, exclusive of the Roman Catholics of 807.
In 1871-2, this Church thoroughly canvassed the town, exclusive of New Preston Society, distributing Bibles and Tracts, and carefully reporting the Church attendance and preferences of the people by families. Of the 707 families reported, there were Congregational, 218; Episcopal, 156; Methodists, 88; Roman Catholics, 46; 2d Advent, (colored) 18; Baptists, 15; Jews, 3; Lutherans, 2; Friends, 2; Reformed Dutch, 1; and not attending any Church, 158.
With this general review of the Ecclesiastical history of the town, we turn now to consider more minutely the history of this, the oldest and always largest Church and Society—the oldest but one and the largest in the County.
There was no Ecclesiastical Society until after 1750. Until then, the town was the Society. It was the town that provided for the supply of the pulpit, for the installation of ministers, the erection and care of buildings, and all expenses connected with public worship. The Church held meetings for the election of Deacons, the discipline of members, and the spiritual interests of the people. But the town managed everything that now belongs to the Society. It was the town that invited Mr. Daniel Boardman to labor here, and that settled him as a pastor, making all the arrangements for his installation. The town did the same in the case of Mr. Taylor. So far as the records show, the Church took no separate action in calling its pastors until the invitation to Mr. Griswold, in 1790, when it formally voted, as has been the custom ever since, to concur in the Society’s action. From 1713 to 1750 a large part of the business in Town Meeting was in regard to Ecclesiastical affairs.
The first Meeting House, “40 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 24 feet between “gists,” with suitable proportions,” was built in 1718-19, but not opened for worship until 1720, and then it was in a very unfinished condition. In 1720 it was voted to wall up the gists before Winter and fill in between the lathe and studs with timber and mortar. The floor was not laid until 1723. This building stood on the highway on Town Hill, a few rods North of the present residence of Mrs. J. P. Treadwell. The second house of worship, “64 feet long, 44 feet wide, and 27 fee posts,” nearly twice the size of the first, was erected in 1754, the town applying to the General Assembly for power to sell the old Meeting House, and to tax non-resident land holders for building the new one. This building stood on the Village Green, nearly opposite the present residence of Mr. Solomon E. Bostwick. The present edifice was erected in 1833, and though much larger than the former, for several years persons wishing slips have been unable to obtain them. It would be a good Centennial work to enlarge the building.
The Sabbath Day House was an institution that is unknown to the present generation. In 1745 the town voted “that any farmers, inhabitants, have leave to build a small house to repair to on Sabbath day on the common land, provided the public is not damnified thereby.” This building was located “North of the Meeting House on the side of the hill.” After the erection of the Church on the Green, the Sabbath Day House was built on the spot where now stands the house so long occupied by the Rev. Mr. Acly. It is described to me by a lady still with us (Mrs. Eli Mygatt) who went through it more than 70 years ago, as a long, low building, with four large rooms, regarding which frightful stories were told of the ghosts that inhabited it. In this building, farmers, whose homes were distant, stored loads of wood, and barrels of cider, and here they warmed their bean soup, replenished their foot-stoves and regaled themselves in the hour between services. Until 1870 the services were held morning and afternoon; since 1870, the second service has been held in the evening.
The Chapel was built by individuals, with permission of the Society in 1838-9. The Meeting Houses were not heated until 1823-5, when two box stoves were put into the second Meeting House. In November, 1833, the Society voted to obtain “2 of Dr. Nott’s stoves and one ton of anthracite coal for the Winter.” Furnaces were put in in 1860, when the Church was improved at a cost of $5,225, and land for sheds was bought. The organ was obtained in 1860, at a cost of $1,200.