The following was prepared
by Keith Henney and Joan Simonds as part of the 1979 centenary
anniversary of Eaton's Little White Church.
BEGINNING
For a half century before the
graceful Little White Church of Eaton was built, the community
near the church's location had been practicing the favored religion
of the time.
These people were Freewill
Baptists, a denomination as native to New Hampshire as the white
pine. Founded in New Durham in 1780 by Benjamin Randall, its
tenets were carried by the founder himself on foot and on horse
back deep into his native state and into Vermont and Maine. In
our rocky long-wintered country it found ready acceptance; it
fit the people like a tailor-made suit.
This was a serious religion,
an emotional, evangelical, "experimental" religion;
a convert had to experience God to become a member of one of
its many groups, each of which called itself a church. Baptism
was by immersion and the rules of the faith and practice came
direct from the Bible. Written sermons were taboo; they were
to come straight from the heart of the minister; in few churches
was instrumental music allowed. Especially prohibited was music
made from wooden instruments like the fiddle which might incline
feet to dancing. To remain in good standing its members had to
tread a narrow path and any one of numerous possible infractions
of its rules could (and did) call for a visit from an appointed
committee, or a summons before the group as a whole, to make
an accounting or amends.
The gentle founder, originally
a Congregationalist, had been converted by George Whitefield
but he soon rejected many of his former beliefs such as the damnation
of infants, the total depravity of man, the doctrine of the elect
and the tenet that only an educated man could interpret the Word
of God. To the old hellfire, predestination-minded Calvinists
the Freewillers were completely obnoxious, along with the Quakers.
One of the chief guardians
of the more ancient religion, Timothy Dwight of Yale, felt that
the ignorance of the Freewill Baptist minister was an "evil
of incalculable magnitude", but neither he nor the other
Calvinist theologians in New England were able to do much about
it. College graduates had shown no overwhelming desire for pastorates
in the back woods and most of those who tried it were not successful;
the exceptions were usually boys from the farm.
The time had gone by when such
heretics as the Freewillers could be sent into exile. Dwight
and his ilk could only hope that, once started west, such people
would keep on going until they were out of New England. The Freewillers
did not accommodate them. They settled down in many a New England
town and flourished. By 1880 there were 9202 Freewill Baptists
in New Hampshire, and in August of 1979 there were still Freewillers
practicing their faith in Carroll County.
The local minister, the Elder,
was apt to be a friend down the road. If he walked in the footsteps
of the founder he accepted no pay. Small congregations were scattered
over the countryside, here and there, each served by its own
elder or by an itinerant minister. Local meetings were held in
homes, barns, taverns or schoolhouses, but if weather permitted
and if a noted revivalist appeared, the meeting was held out
of doors with Elder on a stump, a stone wall, or a gravestone
if nothing else presented itself.
A hike of six, ten or even
fifteen miles for some of the attendants was not uncommon. Men
sat or stood apart from the women; a sound precaution, for the
meetings often threatened to get out of hand in response to the
emotionalism of the sermon or the experiences related by the
audience. Fellowship reigned, loneliness vanished, repressions
found outlets, and the gnarled farmers and their wives went home
feeling that they were not living in exile. God at least was
with them.
It was a new thing in the early
days of Eaton for a minister to come to the congregation instead
of making the congregation go to him. It was a hopeful religion;
heaven was open to everyone. Thus it was natural that by 1826,
when the written record of the Little White Church begins, three
separate Freewill churches has been formed in Eaton. In that
year, a group of Eatonites "met this day according to appointment
for the organization of a church at Mr. (Jonathan) Kenison's
barn, opened the meeting by prayer & Supplication to God
for his assistance in the procedure". Here, over on the
Eaton-Brownfield boundary, began what the founders called the
Third Freewill Baptist Church in Eaton. The numbering system
of these early congregations is a bit confusing (there was more
than one "first" church), but the numbering does not
matter. The Eaton church was on its way.
The group which met in the
Kenison barn on September 8, 1826, 104 of them, agreed that the
organization should consist of two sections called "conferences",
collectively to be known as the Eaton and Conway Church, that
one group would meet at the schoolhouse near Silas Ward's (on
Stuart Road), and the other at Mr. Lovett's in Conway (near the
Eaton-Conway line). They agreed "unitedly to stand together
heart and hand to serve the Lord and the Church". The names
of those 104 (men and women listed separately, of course) are
set down in the first book of record and among those names are
ancestors of present Eaton families - Atkinsons, Beans, Bryants,
Brooks, Shackfords, Thurstons.
Other Freewill Baptist groups
were organized in Eaton during the next fifty years or so, usually
in places where people tended to build houses more closely together.
Individual conferences waxed or waned or split apart over differences
which could not be patched up.
For the devout these Freewill
churches filled the social calendar wit sermons, prayer meetings,
baptisms in the lakes and ponds, suppers and Quarterly Meetings
when members over a wide area came together for song and prayer.
Then a great feast was prepared with the women trying to outdo
each other with their chowders, cakes, puddings, cookies; too
tired, probably, to sit through the long sermons.
In the old days when the local
meeting were held in the second floor of Edwin Snow's store (for
many years the Eaton Town Hall) there was no need to be present
at the church meetings. All one had to do was to open the house
windows; the leather-tongued Elders, accustomed to preaching
out of doors, could be heard as far off as the cemetery.
Aside from prayers and singing,
not much gets noted in the records of the weekly meetings. Occasionally,
however, a sheep would stray from the fold. Then the group went
into action. "November 14, 1835 Met in Conference... Voted
to withdraw fellowship from Brs. Flood and Joseph Atkinson in
consequence of 'disorderly walk'". Disorderly was not defined;
it could mean drunkenness, swearing, adultery, back-biting, working
on Sunday, or non-attendance at church, but it was seldom spelled
out. Still, on November 24, 1829, a difficulty was noted between
Sisters Palmer and Hamilton about whipping a boy; another difficulty
between the same sisters about the bars being left down and so
on.
In an October meeting in 1847,
Bros. S. S. Clark and W. Bracket were appointed a committee to
visit Eli Drown to discuss with him "having dancing in his
house and dancing himself". The offending brother later
said that he was not at all sorry for dancing. He was rejected
from the church!
Existing records are pretty
much matter-of-fact statement that people met, sang, prayed or
could not meet because of the weather. Other sources make clear
that the singing was strictly congregational, the Elder reading
the first two lines of a hymn, then the congregation, "all
that could and some that could not", sang the lines. The
Freewillers were serious about their devotions; they were not
once-a-week on Sunday morning affairs; many an hour during the
week was required, and the people had some bad times as well
as the good; they had winter storms and periods of a "low
state of religion".
Through it all the Eaton people
had their religion to hold them together in "good fellowship";
they "stood together heart and hand". They held their
meetings here and there and probably dreamed of a Little White
Church of their own.
BUILDING THE CHURCH
Finally, the matter came to
a head. In 1878, Charles Robertson and his wife, Emma, offered
the local group a patch of land adjoining the cemetery on which
to erect a church. A corporation was formed, a deed to the land
was drawn up, the conditions of which were "such that so
long as the corporation shall maintain a church for religious
purposes on said premises, this deed shall be valid. Otherwise,
it shall be void".
Specifications were put down,
from the underpinning ("good stone, well split two feet
wide of the usual thickness well set on good binders and there
shall be eight suitable stone piers to support the center")
to the belfry ("a strong substantial structure sufficient
to swing a bell of 2000 pounds weight"). The complete specifications
may be found in pages 106-109 of "The Eaton Records",
published in 1972.
Robert, Henry and Charles Robertson
agreed to build the structure and to complete it before June,
1879. They were to get $1200 for the job "to be paid by
the subscription list for the 40 pews at $25.00 each", and
the rest from money in the treasury and from "subscriptions
collected by the Robertsons at their expense". The pews
were to be like those in the church at Conway except without
doors and except the rail and arm to be of oak, ash, maple, black
or yellow birch. Many of the pew holders worked out their obligations
and the carpenters, stone experts and others were named Drew,
Head, Hatch, Paul, Robertson, Russell, Shackford, Snow and Stuart.
Among other bills was the architect O. L. Hurd's fee of $2.00.
The church did not cost much
by our standards, about $2000, and annual subscriptions brought
the debt down to $256.00 by 1891 after which the Robertson family
took over the debt to balance the books finally.
Upkeep for the church - oil
for the lamps, wood for the stove, repairs to the building, the
minister's salary - was provided by contributions and by assessing
the pew holders. The 1880 treasurer's report showed the sum of
$4.00; there was no money in 1882, but on hand was a cord and
a half of wood. January 4, 1895: "Bal. in Treasury... $0.00".
The church was not in the money-making business.
The structure was complete
May 31, 1879, a few days ahead of time and was declared to be
"a good structure, well build and of good proportion and
admired by nearly every looker over".
THE BELL
On January 30, 1904, a bell
was purchased through the efforts of the pastor, J. W. Farrell,
and was places in the belfry followed by a dedicatory service
of which there is no written record. Later notes mentioning the
bell are ambiguous as they mention a "new bell" and
it is now uncertain if this means that an unused (not second-hand)
bell had been bought or if there had been a previous bell.
However, the poem following
was written for the occasion by an itinerant minister and ready
by Mrs. Georgia Hatch. It gives one the feeling that a happy
time was had by all.
OVER THE YEARS
At the annual meeting in January
1880, the pews were assessed at 75¢ each and 18 people paid
by wood, five by oil and six with cash. The following year the
chimney needed repairs and 40 people contributed six, seven or
eight cents toward the job. Forty-six gave an average of $1.50
towards a furnace and twelve gave oil and wood. In 1888, the
church was painted at a coast of $118.07. It must have been done
by and expert with good old-fashioned paint because the next
painting was in 1915.
A big cleanup occurred in 1925
with new roofing ($102.57), window repair, plastering and carpeting.
By 1929, a new furnace was needed. It cost all of $215.00 and
to help pay for it a whist party brought in $25.00.
Beginning in 1921, when Camp
Wonalancet for boys was founded by the late Arthur W. Evans,
and continuing until 1960, a weekly service was held at the church,
the boys singing as they left camp and as they returned. No records
exist to show what songs the boys sang. During the early years,
girls from Waukeela also attended. It is said, without confirmation,
that the founders of the camp for girls was encouraged by the
local people to locate the new camp (for girls) as far as possible
from that of the boys. Later still, Crystal Lake Camp also used
the church for weekly services.
In the winter of 1933, the
Rev. Mr. Moorhouse of the Conway Congregational Church came to
preach. On his first visit the collection of $3.15 from the twenty-five
present was given him. It was decided to give all the collections
under $5.00 to him, with anything over that amount to go into
the church treasury. This could not have amounted to much as
the average weekly collection in 1933 was $2.75.
Long before Eaton's happy experiences
with the Reverends Farrell and Moorhouse, the people had had
other experiences with ministers. In April 1799, Eaton agreed
that its pastor, Elder Mears, might preach part time in the Conway
Church. Within two months, Conway had moved Mr. Mears into the
Conway parsonage and there is nothing in the record to show that
Eaton ever saw him again.
1933 was an active year. A
Sunday School was formed with Mrs. Myron Allard as the Superintendent
and Mrs. Helen Head as treasurer. A penny collection was taken.
At Easter there was a solo by Beulah White (Bailey) and a duet
by Mrs. Hiram Paul and Miss Grace Leavitt (the late Mrs. Herbert
Morrison). Luther Dearborn (a Quaker) was the reader. Fifty-eight
people "were out" and the Sunday School presented "The
Dawn Immortal", starring Junior Dearborn, Richard Paul,
Beatrice DeWitt, Bobby Morrison and Zoe Head. The same year,
in September, a harvest and baked-bean supper held at the Town
Hall for the benefit of the church netted $18.55 by charging
adults 25¢ and children 15¢ each.
In 1935, the ladies of the
church had a table at Town Meetings selling sandwiches, doughnuts
and coffee to help raise money for a quilt they were making and
for electric lights for the church.
THE COMMUNITY CHURCH
The golden years of the Freewill
Baptists seem to have been the period from about 1827 to the
end of the Civil War. Then began the exodus of the people from
their worn-out forms to the cities where there were jobs or to
the West where the soil was deep and fertile.
By the end of the Second World
War, the number of Freewillers in Eaton had dropped to a grand
total of one and this was a lady well into her nineties.
What to do about the church
was debated at much length with several alternative solutions
being possible. Finally, for $1.00 the church was purchased from
the Freewill Society to become the Community Church of Eaton,
to be governed and maintained by an Association in which anyone
could be a member.
Under the articles of agreement
of the Sate of New Hampshire by which the church was incorporated,
the object "is to establish a non-denominational, non-sectarian
religious group for the maintenance of religious worship, preaching
and teaching the gospel and to maintain the truth recorded in
the Bible; establish a place of worship; promote the spiritual,
educational and community interests in the community of Eaton",
a document signed by Grace Morrison, Harry Ellis, Jr., Dorothy
Russell, Cora Bean, John H. Fuller and Charles W. Hurll.
An annual meeting was to be
held on the second Monday in August. At the first such meeting
in 1947, Cora Bean, John Fuller and William Perkins were elected
trustees; Arthur Evans, President; Harry Ellis, Jr., Vice-President;
Grace Morrison, Secretary and Mrs. Joyce Fuller, Treasurer.
Two years before the incorporation
of the Community Church (that is, in 1947), the late Rev. James
Thornton Lodge had retired from the Episcopal ministry and had
moved to Center Barnstead. His daughter, Mrs. John Edge, approached
him with the thought of his conducting a midnight service in
the church on Christmas Eve. For a month before Christmas, the
townspeople were busy. Birch bark candle holders were made, ropes
of pine boughs were woven, postcards were sent to everyone in
town. For this first midnight service, the church was filled.
This observance was maintained
for several years, if a priest could be obtained to conduct Holy
Communion, and then it was suggested that an earlier service
should be held for the children. Libby Edge (Mrs. John) wrote
a pageant based on the Holy Birth which starred and continues
to have as its finest performers, the children of Eaton. It is
held every Christmas Eve and only once in the many succeeding
years has the service been cancelled - this once because of a
blizzard.
During the 1930s, a young boy,
Bill Stevens from Canada, was a member of the camp for boys.
Already he showed great promise as a pianist. After his boyhood
passed, he returned to the camp as a counselor and again he played
the piano in the church. Then, for many years, as a concert pianist
he came back to Eaton each summer to give a full-sized concert.
In planning and handling these popular affairs, the Eaton Center
Sewing Circle, as in many town matters, played an important role.
The concerts were always standing-room-only affairs with many
listeners enjoying the notes that came to them through the open
windows.
A long-to-be-remembered occasion
in the church was the July 1976 Bicentennial observance with
"Charlie" Hurll in his Revolutionary costume that he
made himself, reading the Declaration of Independence.
This typical New England church
of a past generation has been a busy edifice. Many a wedding,
baptism, memorial service or commemorative occasion has taken
place within its doors.
So, for 100 years the Little
White Church of Eaton has been an emblem of people standing "together
heart and hand", an edifice known all over the world from
countless calendars, jigsaw puzzles, placemats, postcards, snapshots
and even from Cinerama. Many a New Yorker, hurrying through Grand
Central Station to catch the old "State of Maine Express"
for the north, had a lump in his throat when he was astonished
to see in full color in the Kodak exhibit, the Little White Church
of Eaton.
Here stands a small New England
church, a friend to all its citizens in times of sorrow and joy
and known beyond the stone walls of our town to many as the "Little
White Church".
Acknowledgements:
"History of the
Freewill Baptist", by Normal Allen Baxter, published by
the American Baptist Historical Society in 1957.
