Chap, a 



RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 



185 



BAPTIST CHUUCHES. 



Fir^ST CHURCHES AND MINISTERS. 



Baptist Cliiircli, Biancloii. 



Section IV. 

 Baptist Churches in Vermont, 



EY REV. C. A. THOMAS.* 



In the early settlement of Vermont, few 

 of the inhabitants were Baptists, and these 

 few generally poor. In 1761, Mr. Sam- 

 uel Robinson, with a large number of 

 separatists or new liglits, commenced a 

 settlement in the town of Bennington. 

 Amono- these separatists, were some who 

 imbibed the sentiments of the Baptists ; 

 but as Bennington was for many years a 

 little government by itself,exercising civil 

 and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over its in- 

 habitants, the Baptists generally repaired 

 to places adjacent, and many of them set- 

 tled in the towns of Fownal and Shafts- 

 bury. In these places, they formed tliem- 

 selves into religious communities, upon 

 the principles of civil and religious free- 

 dom. The foregoing circumstances, re- 



* Kindly furnislied in behalf of the Baptist Con- 

 vention of Vermont, to wliicli body application was 

 made for the same. 



specting the Baptists in Bennington and 

 its vicinity in the south-west corner of the 

 state, were similar to those which existed 

 in Brattleboro' and vicinity, in the south- 

 east corner. The settlers of Brattleboro' 

 were emigrants from Massachusetts, and 

 they readily adopted the measures of their 

 native state in support of religion, so that 

 Brattleboro' became a place uninviting to 

 Baptists. But the towns of Guilford and 

 Dummerston, the one lying at the south, 

 and the other at the north of Brattleboro', 

 were resorted to by them, as places where 

 they could enjoy their religious liberty. 

 Thus while Brattleboro' and Bennington 

 were unwelcome to Baptists, they repair- 

 ed to tov/ns adjacent, where they settled, 

 and organized churches. 



The first Baptist church, in Vermont, 

 was constituted, in Shaftsbury, in 1768. 

 Another church was constituted in the 

 same town, in 1780 ; another, in 1781 ; 

 and a fourth in 1788. A Baptist church 

 was constituted in Pownal, in 1773; and 

 another, in tiie same town, in 1790. In 

 Guilford a Baptist church was organized, 

 in 1770; another, in 1772; another, in 

 1783 ; and a fourth, in 1791 ; and a church 

 in Duinmerston, in 1783. 



In 1790, there were thirty-five Baptist 

 churches in Vermont, with 1600 com- 

 municants. These, however, were most- 

 , confined to the four southern counties. 

 i'lie denomination increased very rapidly, 

 in the state, until about 1795, when the 

 sale of the military lands, in the state of 

 New York, attracted the attention of tho 

 inliabitants of Vermont, and drew off mul- 

 titudes to those new settlements. Since 

 that time, there has been a constant emi- 

 gration to the western sections of the 

 country ; and the Baptist denomination 

 has contributed largely towards swelling 

 this tide of emigration ; so that some of 

 the churches, which were once large and 

 prosperous, are now small and feeble, if 

 not extinct. For the last tv/enty years, 

 however, there has been a gradual in- 

 crease of the Baptists in Vermont, es- 

 pecially in the north part of the state; so 

 that there are now, in 1841, about one 

 hundred and forty churches, upwards of 

 one hundred ordained ministers, twenty 

 of whom may be superannuated, and up- 

 wards of eleven thousand communicants. 

 Among the first Baptist ministers that 

 visited tliis state were Elisha Ransom, 

 Joseph Cornell, Thomas Skeel, Elisha 

 Rich, Hezekiah Eastman, Wm. Bentley, 

 John Heberd, John Peak, Caleb Blood, 

 Whitman Jacobs, Isaiah Stone, Ephraim 

 Sawyer, Elnathan Phelps, Rosv.'ell Smith, 

 Timothy Grow, James Parker, Henry and 

 Calvin Chamberlin, Jedediah Heberd, 



Ft. II. 



24 



