Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/201

 THE

��GKANITE MONTHLY.

��A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, LTISTORY AND STATE PR OGRESS.

��VOL. 1.

��NOVEMBER, 1877.

��NO. 7.

��THE FIRST CHURCH IN DOVER, AND ITS PASTOR.

��BY ALONZO H. QUINT, D. DV

��The Year 1667.

If one will take the old Neck road at Pine Hill cemetery in Dover ; go past the Wingate farm on which the Wingates, six generations of them, have lived con- tinuously since the year 1662 ; cross Lit- tle John's creek; follow the road up Huckleberry Hill, and continue a mile or so on the elevated plateau beyond, he will see, on his right, and touching the road at a point where the road begins to descend decidedly, the well marked rem- nants of an earth-work. The work is perfectly traceable ; the only loss being at one corner of the southeastern projec- tion for sentries, which is on the road- side, and where some vandal of a road- surveyor cut away a small portion for the sake of gravel. That earth was once crowned with a strong palisade, and within it stood the second meeting house of "The First Church in Dover." The rains of two hundred and ten years have not been able to wash away the earth- work which the fathers built around their small house of worship. " Forty foot longe, twenty-six foot wide, sixteen foot stud," was that meeting house ; with six windows, two doors, tile covering, and " with glass and nails for it." It was in 1653 that that second edifice was built. On that house they placed a turret in 1665, and in it, from that year, swung the bell they bought in England; before

��which time, from 1648, Richard Fink- ham, by town authority, had summoned the people to church by beat of his drum.

It was in 1667 they built the " fort," as the old records called it, for a defence against the Indians. The ground slopes rapidly on each side of the work. The palisade was one hundred feet square, with " two sconces of sixteen foot square." The timbers were twelve inch- es thick, and the wall eight feet high, with sills and braces. Inside the incios- ure the men stacked their arms on the Lord's day; and inside the two " sconces," which stood on alternate cor- ners, the sentinels watched'. They could see far up and down the road north and

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