CHAPTER XI. 



HOME LIFE, CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS — THE DERRYFIELD SOCIAL LIBRARY 

 — SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 



The home life of the first settlers of Derryfield, so far as the 

 direct testimony can be relied upon, was in marked contrast to 

 that of most New England settlements, and outwardly presented 

 few characteristic Puritan features. All accounts agree in pro- 

 nouncing them generally a rough lot, much more closely resem- 

 bling the frontiermen of our own day than the traditional relig- 

 ious community of that age. The negative evidence as to this 

 point is still stronger, as the record discloses no movement or 

 organized effort to provide for preaching or religious teaching of 

 any sort whatever; public means of grace and an active spread 

 of the gospel were of so little importance as utterly to escape 

 the notice of local historians. If gospel privileges were enjoyed 

 the opportunities were wide apart. There were no settled min- 

 isters, no stated supply, and occasional preaching was as rare as 

 earthquakes. Before Secombe's salmon-sermon in 1739 it is not 

 certainly known that any religious exercise or exhortation what- 

 ever took place within the limits of Derryfield, nor for rather 

 more than a quarter of a century thereafter. 



The religious record — or non-record — would be amusing if it 

 were not distinctly disgraceful. Potter says McDowell probably 

 preached here now and then before 1754, in which year the 

 town voted to build a meeting house, but this was the next year 

 reconsidered. In 1758 the frame was raised and the building 

 boarded and shingled in 1759, though still without underpinning 

 and having but one door, one layer of rough flooring and no 

 pews, and this skeleton of the visible church was then badly in 

 need of repairs. Fifteen years later, though some preaching in- 

 tervened and the Rev. George Gilmore was called, the call was 

 not answered, and the ravages of decay continued to affect both 

 God's house and peo|)le. 



