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From: "Pauline Manosh" <>
Subject: [VT-L] Pawlet, Vermont Rutland County The First Baptist Church" and Members
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2000 19:29:43 -0500


>From Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer

Pawlet, Vermont Rutland County
pg. 902 Vol. 3

The first Baptist Church was organized on the first Monday in May, 1790, on
the present premises of Allen Whedon, then owned by Edmund Whedon. It was
organized under the auspices of Elder Brown, of the church in Westfield, N.
Y. Its first members were James Bennett, Thomas Hall, Solomon Brown, Joseph
Hascall, John Crouch, Samuel Sisco, Caleb Agard, Nathaniel Harmon, Samuel
Abbott, Alexander Trumbull, Edmund Whedon, Lydia Wilcox, Mary Bennett,
Hannah Hanks, Miriam Hopkins, Sibel Sheldon, Lydia Agard and Elizabeth
Crouch. For the first 10 years, being destitute of a church, its meetings
were held in private houses, and not infrequently in barns. It preachers
were Elders Brown, Skeels, Green, Wait, Cornell, Dodge, Blood and Beall,
each for brief periods. These were among the Pioneer Baptist ministers of
Vermont, and many of them were men of decided talent. In 1800, a church was
built on the premises of Seely Brown, by the West Pawlet meeting-house
company, which was used almost exclusively by the Baptiste for 24 years.
Elder Isaac Beall was called to settle over the church in 1801, and
continued with it till its dissolution in 1831. A parsonage was built in
1802, which appears to have been designed for a Baptist minister
exclusively. The whole number of members belonging to this church was about
200, and it is said to have had 150 at one time. A strict, wholsome and
orderly discipline was maintained, as the records and files of the church
attest. It was the misfortune, perhaps the fault of this church, to be
isolated from sister churches during most of its existence.
The first deacons were Joseph Hascall and Timothy Brewster; after them were
Josiah Toby and Jermiah Arnold. From its membership, Solomon Brown, Timothy
Brewster, Daniel Hascall and Lemon Andrus were licensed to preach.
In 1831 the church dissolved; those of its members who desired it being
furnished with certificates of their good standing.
Polly

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