THE SOUTH CHURCH. 149 



East Windsor. The successor of Mr. Jones, Dr. Coggswell, the fourth 

 pastor of tlie church, became a professor in this institution. The anti- 

 slavery question was discussed with much warmth. Different views 

 were held, differing as to methods more than principles. Other moral 

 questions were prominent. Local questions also probably had an in- 

 fluence, and a portion of the church petitioned for separation. The 

 matter was referred to the Hartford South Consociation, and this body, 

 after mature deliberation, decided that a division of the church was 

 wise, and proceeded to organize one hundred and twenty members 

 into a new church, to be called the South Church in New Britain. 



This was July 5, 1842. The church was all ready for work. The 

 Ecclesiastical Society had been organized under the laws of the state 

 nearly tw^o months before. A new meetinghouse had been finished 

 and dedicated. The Ladies' Benevolent Society had been organized 

 and engaged in active w^ork several months. Four days after the 

 church was organized and at its first business meeting, the clerk of the 

 church and ofiicers of the Sunday-school were appointed, and a few 

 days later two deacons. 



In October Rev. Samuel Rockwell began to preach here, and Decem- 

 ber 5th, five months after the church was organized, he accepted a call 

 to settle, and was installed pastor, Jan. 4, 1848. He was at the time 

 fifty years of age, on his father's side a direct descendant of Deacon 

 William Rockwell of the Congregational church, originally organized 

 at Plymouth, Eng., and on his mother's side, the eighth generation in 

 descent of Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. So 

 that this church of the Puritans had a pastor of Pilgrim descent, who 

 wisely guided it in the first years of its history. The house of wor- 

 ship where he oflflciated was a plain wooden structure. The little 

 basement room, where prayer and conference meetings were held, was 

 sometimes dark and dingy, but was brightened with triumphant 

 faith and Christian hope. 



A church prayer meeting was held every Friday afternoon, and a 

 conference meeting every Friday evening, and both were well at- 

 tended. The monthly concert of prayer for Foreign Missions, estab- 

 lished soon after the organization of the church, was held regu- 

 ularly every month, with almost constant interest and full attendance. 

 The pastor was able to visit all the families with considerable regu- 

 larity ; but in addition, members of the church, two by two, were ac- 

 customed at the request of the pastor, or by appointment, not infre- 

 quently to go tiirough the whole parish visiting each family and ex- 

 tending the welcome hand and loving heart of Christian fellowship to 

 each member of the church. The only strictly church societies for 

 the first fifteen years were the Ladies' Benevolent Society and the 

 Maternal Association, but at the weekly church meeting held in the 



