Ecclesiastical History. 77 



UNITED SOCIAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH HINGHAM. 



In the extreme southerly part of the town religious meetings 

 had been held occasionally but not regularly for some years pre- 

 viously to 1890. In the vicinity of Gardner and Whiting Streets 

 there is quite a village. In the spring of 1890, there being no 

 place near enough to that village to enable the inhabitants to 

 attend church, or the children to go to Sunday-school, it occurred 

 to Mrs. Annie Belcher and her sister, Mrs. Sarah Chubbuck, of 

 Gardner Street, that a Sunday-school could be established there. 

 They consulted with the families in the neighborhood, and finding 

 them all in favor of the undertaking, and willing to assist, not 

 only in the formation of a Sunday-school, but also in establish- 

 ing regular Sunday services, a room was engaged in a building 

 erected by Leonard Gardner for a wooden-ware manufactory, 

 situated on Gardner Street, and the first meeting was held and 

 a Sunday-school organized on the first Sunday in May, 1890, 

 Rev. Jacob Baker, of South Weymouth, officiating, and I. Wilbur 

 Lincoln being Superintendent of the Sunday-school. The meet- 

 ings continued with unabated interest during the summer and 

 autumn of 1890, the attendance increased, and during the summer 

 fifteen persons were baptized. Upon the approach of winter the 

 meetings were discontinued, as there was no means of heating 

 the room in Mr. Gardner's building, but the Sunday-school was 

 held in different houses during the winter. The enthusiasm 

 which first prompted and had so successfully carried on the 

 good work during the season continued to increase, and the 

 project was then conceived of erecting a building suitable for 

 the wants of the society. In the autumn of 1890 twenty -two 

 persons formed an incorporated organization under the name of 

 the " United Social Society of South Hingham," with the following 

 officers : — 



J. Fremont Belcher, President. 



Miss Clara J. Gardner, Secretary. 



Mrs. Lloyd Raymond, Treasurer. 



Charles A. Gardner, > 



Mrs. Charles A. Gardner, « ,. 



Mrs. J. Fremont Belcher, > n . .? 

 t Ticr-iu t • i i Committee. 



1. Wilbur Lincoln, 



Mrs. Charles M. Clark, J 



It was decided to proceed at once to the erection of a chapel ; 

 a building committee was chosen ; a lot of land at the junction of 

 Gardner and Derby streets was given to the society by Lewis 

 Gardner, and work upon the building was immediately begun. 

 Owing to the cold winter^ however, it was not completed until 



