5^ 



HISTORY OF COUASSET. 



One sometimes hears it said that our forefathers were 

 more faithful to the church than we of an irreverent age ; 

 but these more than six churches for a population of 

 twenty-four hundred have some things to say in refutation 

 of that charge. So far as money can measure devotion 

 the present expenditure of more than seven thousand dol- 

 lars a year for our churches refutes that charge, for it is 

 more than ten times what was paid a century and a half 

 ago, while our population is not three times greater than 

 it was then. Moreover, while the cost of manual labor 

 has multiplied only three times, the salary of a minister 

 has multiplied four times. 



The attendance upon meetings for public worship shows 

 a similar gain. The whole number of worshipers in the 

 town who gathered in their church each Sabbath in the 

 year 1747 when it was built upon the Common failed to 

 fill it by a large lack. A number of extra pews have been 

 put in since then ; indeed, the church was built much too 

 large, for the people looked for an increase in population, 

 and it was to be used also for town meetings and for ex- 

 ceptionally large gatherings. 



There is every reason to believe that less than two hun- 

 dred people constituted a large congregation in those 

 days. That would be crediting them with about twice the 

 present day attendance in that same meeting-house; but 

 when we count the whole church attendance upon the 

 main Sabbath service in our town to-day, we find that it 

 amounts to eight hundred.* The population is only three 

 times what it was a hundred and fifty years ago, while 

 church attendance is four times what it then was. More- 

 over, this gain is still further to be estimated, for we have 

 nowadays several additional services, such as Sunday- 

 schools, young people's meetings, prayer-meetings, wom- 

 en's meetings, and others, in all of the six churches, 



* This is by actual count £or sfvural Sundays in the spring of 1898 before tlie 

 summer residents had come. 



