18 A HALF CENTURY. 



wounded in battle, and others were for many years absent from 

 their homes. When the war broke out, other men and women 

 were engaged in fitting out their brothers, fathers, or sons, for 

 the part they were to take as immediate actors in the struggle, 

 or in preparing supplies for camp and hospital, and ordinary 

 Church work was interrupted. 



When Mr. Goodell was installed, there were two hundred 

 and twenty-seven members of the Church. At the close of his- 

 first year of service, there were but two hundred and twenty, 

 and after his first five years as a pastor here, the year 1864 

 opened with the same number of Church members. In three of 

 these years there had been net losses, and in the last year, the 

 darkest year of the American conflict, the greatest loss of any 

 one of these years ; and the report at the end of the year indi- 

 cated a Church membership less by fifteen than the number re- 

 ported nine years before. After the war closed, society grad- 

 ually resumed its normal condition, and an advance in Church 

 work was inaugurated. The foundations of a new and larger 

 Church edifice were laid ; active and efficient efforts were put 

 forth to bring the gospel to the neglected ; larger additions 

 were made to the Church, and the net increase in membership 

 continued from year to year for nine years without interruption. 



During this period over five hundred persons united with the 

 Church, and the net gain over losses by death, dismission, and 

 discipline was three hundred and twenty-two, or one hundred 

 and forty-six per cent. The whole number uniting with the 

 Church during Mr. Goodell's pastorate was five hundred and 

 sixty-one, of whom two hundred and eighty-nine were received 

 on confession of faith, and two hundred and seventy-two by 

 letter. One hundred and sixty-three were dismissed to other 

 churches, sixty-five were removed by death, • and twenty-one by 

 discipline. In less than two years after the settlement of Mr. 

 Goodell, a convenient parsonage was completed and occupied, 

 and later in his ministry the large stone church edifice was 

 erected. 



On the tenth of November, 1872, to the surprise of many 

 and to the great regret of more, Mr. Goodell announced that 



