“White covers of bleached muslin covered the pulpit and reading desk, to which were attached fringes made of the needles of the pine, by Miss Bostwick, afterwards Mrs. Leroy Buck. Mottoes of evergreen on white cloth were put up on the walls, and candelabra, of five candles each, across the ends of the pulpit and desk cushions. Miss Cornelia Boardman brought a large fluid lamp with a glass globe and put it on the communion table. The people reserved their whitest and purest tallow to make dipped candles to hang up in tin back candlesticks under the gallery, while Edgar and Henry Wells made a great star of five points, covered it with evergreens, and suspended it from the ceiling in the middle of the church, containing as many candles as it was the year of the century. This was the only time in the year that the church was lighted up, and the people of the town turned out and filled the church and its galleries to overflowing. The good old Christmas Eve service of the old times, who that was then alive shall ever forget it!
“But the solemnity of the old-time Sunday comes up with all its hallowed associations. The Sunday church bells, with the orderly ringing and tolling of their first bells and last bells; with their solemn tolling for a death—nine for a man, seven for a woman, five for a boy, three for a girl!
“The sleigh bells, too, bass ones and tenor ones, jingling all the week in the winter time, but no sleigh bells on Sunday! I well remember when two young men, in their want of respect for the traditions of Sunday, drove through the village street with sleigh bells on their horse on the Lord’s Day, thereby shocking the sober-minded people of the churches and the town.
“The social gatherings of the people come back to one, as he recalls the old times, also. The annual donation parties given by the parishioners to their parsons, when, it used to be said, ‘The people would bring all kinds of good things to the parsonage, and then remain for a good social time, spread all the good things brought for a feast, and then largely consume them before they departed.’
“Other social gatherings had their attractions for the people, but I recall one which was to occur, but never took place.
“It was on the coldest day of February, 1860, when, in large sleighs, a company of people set out for a dinner party to be given upon the Plains. As they passed down the Main Street, the bell of Saint John’s Church was tolling for a funeral about to be held within it. It was thereupon agreed to stop and attend the services, warm themselves by the fire, and then proceed on their journey.... The clergyman took for the text of his funeral sermon, which in those days was a very dignified discourse, ‘It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for this is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.’ Consternation filled the hearts of all. The women and the children remained in the church by the fire, and the men went to the village cemetery to assist in the burial; after which all returned to their homes. The effect of the sermon had been marvelous, and the living had laid it to heart. The funeral was that of the widow of Dr. Amaziah Wright.
“Rev. Charles G. Acly, who became the rector in 1856, wrought a good work here, and, under him, the church was enlarged in the summer of 1860, by the nave being extended nearly twice its length. A recess chancel was added, and a stained-glass chancel window given, as a memorial of the Hon. Elijah and Mary Anna Boardman—the first stained-glass window in the town. The old mahogany pulpit was made into an altar. There was an altar cloth of red which served for the whole year, a beautiful reading desk and pulpit combined, which stood outside the chancel rail, and, in the center, before the altar, given by Mr. Solomon E. Bostwick, a pedestal with a marble bowl for a font....
“In this church I began my first work in the Church of God by blowing the first organ the church ever owned, and Miss Schroder, now Mrs. George W. Wright, was the organist at that time. We sang the Metrical Psalms and the few hymns then bound up with the Prayer Book. The Te Deum was generally read, but on high occasions we rendered Jackson’s Te Deum. The old Gloria in Excelsis was always sung at the end of the Psalm for the Day in the afternoon, and sometimes Greatore’s Bonum est and Benedicite after the Lesson. On Communion Day, once a month, after sermon, the choir came down in the body of the church, and there was no music. But Easter was distinguished by the choir remaining in the gallery and singing the Sanctus. In that church, I was confirmed and ordained to the holy ministry by Bishop John Williams, and, to that church, I came afterwards to preach my first sermon in my native town. One can hardly imagine my feelings, as I came to stand for the first time before my elders, teachers, kindred, and those to whom I had looked up from childhood. It was a trying moment. I preached a written sermon, for fear I might be embarrassed. When it was all over, and some one in the churchyard, during the noon hour, ventured to call it a good sermon, one of the men spoke up and said, ‘Yes, if he wrote it!’ Surely, ‘A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin.’ Stirred by this remark, which came to my knowledge, I preached without notes that afternoon, and did the same upon every visit to New Milford for many years following....
“The Rev. Mr. Acly was a good man, and a conscientious priest of the Church of God; painstaking in his sermon preparation, a good reader and preacher, while as a pastor he went in and out among his people for twenty years beloved by them. He resigned in 1876, but continued to reside here until his death in 1880, and he was buried in the village cemetery, awaiting the resurrection of the just.
“He was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred S. Clark, who was rector from 1876 to 1879. While his stay was only four years, yet he is remembered with much affection. The Rev. Edward L. Wells, D. D., became the next rector, whose eloquence can never be forgotten, and by him was started the project of building a new stone church for Saint John’s Parish. Plans were drawn and accepted, but, in less than a year, he was removed by death, in 1880.