Vermont AHGP
Part of the American History and
Genealogy Project
First Meeting-House Society
In August, 1823, a call was issued, signed by Caleb Curtis, Medad Wright and Nathan Bancroft, asking all interested in building a meeting-house in Calais, to meet at the house of Medad Wright on the 18th of that month.
At this meeting, the above society was organized, by-laws adopted, and the following officers elected: Caleb Curtis, moderator; William Dana, clerk, and Joshua Bliss, treasurer. Caleb Curtis, Isaac Davis, Alpheus Bliss, Medad Wright and Joel Robinson, committee to select a plan and agree with Caleb Bliss for land on which to set the house.
On the 30th of the same month, a meeting was held and the committee reported they had agreed upon a building lot and drawn a plan "40 by 42 feet, 40 pews on the lower floor, 5 feet by 6, and 18 above of the same bigness." The report was accepted. It was decided to put up the frame the ensuing fall, but to be 3 years completing the house; also " that payment for pews be made in three equal instalments, payable one-half in neat cattle, the other moiety in grain, the first payment of stock in one year from the first day of October next,, and the grain part in one year from January next, and so annually. "Chose Col. Caleb Curtis, Dea. Joshua Bliss, and Mr. Joel Robinson a committee to superintend the building of the house, and "Capt. Remember Kent, Capt. Isaac Davis and Mr. Joseph Brown, a committee, to examine the work whether it be well done."
Following the record of the above meeting are the names of members of the society, as follows:
| Gaius Allen Vial Allen Abdiel Bliss Alpheus Bliss Joshua Bliss 2nd. Ira Brown Joseph W. E. Bliss Joshua Bliss 3rd. Joshua Bliss 4th Nathan Bancroft Hosea Brown Joseph Brown Charles Clark Moses Clark Caleb Curtis Pliny Curtis William Dana |
Joshua M. Dana Kendall T. Davis Isaac Davis Gload Dugar Loam Hathaway Thomas Hathaway Daniel Harris Abdiel Kent Ezekiel Kent Ira Kent J. V. R. Kent Remember Kent Dwight Marsh Amasa McKnight James Morse Curtis Mower Jabez Mower |
Benjamin Page Ephraim Pray Joel Robinson Linnus Richards Hiram Robinson Isaac Robinson John Robinson Samuel O. Robinson William Robinson Oliver Sheple Shubael Shortt Bradley Webber Welcome Wheelock Mason Wheeler Weston Wheeler Jesse White Medad Wright |
Some of the last names on the list have become owners since the building of the house.
Six religious societies were represented in the ownership of the house and its use was apportioned among them according to the interest owned by each. The first apportionment on record is that for 1828: Baptists, 10 Sabbaths; Universalists, 20; Congregationalists, 9; Christians, 6; Free Will Baptists, 4; Methodists 3, and there is no change on record, of this division of the time, until 1848, when it was Universalists, 32; Congregationalists, 7; Methodists, 5; Baptists, 4; Christians, 4. There is no further record. There was no stove in the house until 1831, though used almost every Sabbath summer and winter.
Source: History of Washington County Vermont, Collated and Published by Abby Maria Hemenway, 1882.
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