Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/374

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��NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

��above the house where Nathaniel Mes- ser and his son lived and died.

The old school-house that used to sit there on the top of the hill on a ledge of rock, was on the patent line which originally divided this town from Wendell. By these additions another triangle was added to the town on that side, with its base resting on the old patent line, and bounded west by Wen- dell and north by Springfield.

On the 1 8th of June, 1807, the town of Wilmot was incorporated out of the north-easterly part of New London, a part of New Chester, and all that part of Kearsarge Gore that laid northerly of the summit of Kearsarge Mountain.

The part taken off from New Lon- don was described as follows : " Begin- ning at the south-easterly corner of lot No. 22, and the south-westerly corner of lot No. 21, on the south-easterly line of said New London, thence run- ning westwardly across said New Lon- don on the northerly sides of lots num- bered 22, 35, 54, 70, 78, 90, 112 and 130, over to Springfield line," so taking all the land that lay north-easterly of that line in New London. This part of the town thus set off to Wilmot con- tained about 9000 acres of land.

From 1812 to 1815 the country was engaged in its second war with Eng- land, which was substantially closed by Gen. Andrew Jackson, at New Orleans, on the 8th of Junuary, 181 5.

In 1819 the toleration act, as it was called, was passed by the legislature and became a law, which separated the civil and religious elements in our organiza- tion, so to speak. It took from the towns, in their corporate capacity, the power to raise money for the support of preaching of any kind, or to build meeting-houses, or for other religious purposes, leaving it to religious socie- ties to do this work, each to suit its own views of propriety and duty. But this act did not affect religious matters in New London at all. The town had, in fact, anticipated the law many years. They had raised no money as a town, for preaching, since 1795, as I can find, and they had voted to let each denomi- nation in town occupy the meeting-

��house according to their interest there' in, each sect being thus left free to ad" vance their own views, in their own way and at their own expense. This has been the policy of the law ever since, and was the policy of the town long before the law was passed.

From this time forth we shall find the history of the town and the history of the church entirely separate and distinct. Yet every one knows, whether he be- lieves in the doctrines of a church or not, that wherever a church has been long established, and has been made up of any considerable portion of the people, it has and will have its influence upon the community to such an extent that no history of the town would be complete without a history of its church, or its churches, where there are more than one. Particularly is that true of a country town like New Lon- don, where there has been, from the earliest times, a leading and influential church, which has taken the lead in all great moral questions and reforms.

The church had, in this period of twenty-one years, seen two seasons of revival under the preaching of Elder Seamans. In 1S09 some forty were added to the church, and in 1S18 and 1 819 occurred what was long known as the great reformation, in which be- tween eighty and ninety were added to the church.

But during all these years there was much hard and disagreeable work to be done ; many labors with the brethren were instituted, and many were the let- ters of admonition and expulsion that were issued and recorded on the church records.

In the year 1801 the first Baptist society was formed in town, which was kept up and had its annual meetings down as late as 1846, when its records cease, and the church has gone along so far, as appears, without the aid of the society.

Within this period, too, the ins'titu- tion of Free Masonry had arisen and flourished in this town quite extensively. King Solomon's Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, No. 14, was char- tered and located at New London, in

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