In 1769, Reuben Stone built the house at 22 Broad Street in Guilford, near the home of his brother, Caleb Stone. Reuben Stone (1726-1804) was a supporter of the Revolutionary War who procured supplies for the soldiers. In 1842, the Greek Revival entryway was added and the house was altered from one-and-a-half stories with a steeper roof to two-stories. The house was later owned by Leverett C. Stone (1819-1892) and other Stone descendants.
On Worthington Ridge in Berlin are two similar houses, built around 1845. Both houses are described by Catharine Melinda North in her History of Berlin (1916):
The two houses standing next south of the new academy were built by Elishama Brandegee, the father of Dr. Elishama Brandegee. The one nearest the academy, long the home of Dr. Brandegee and his family, was designed for the teacher and was occupied by Ariel Parish. The other, now the parsonage of the Second Congregational Church, strange to relate, was built to be used as a parsonage by the Rev. James McDonald, who was settled here 1835-1837.
The Second Congregational Church, now the Berlin Congregational Church, began as the Worthington Ecclesiastical Society. The former parsonage is at 850 Worthington Ridge.
Happy Easter! The origins of the Ledyard Congregational Church are described in the History of the town of Ledyard, 1650-1900 (1901) by Rev. John Avery:
The town of Ledyard was set off from Groton and incorporated in 1836. Previous to this the territory which it covers was for many years known as the Second or North Parish in Groton. The Ecclesiastical Society in this North Parish was organized in 1725, with six or seven members, and at once took measures to find, by actual measurement, the exact centre of the parish as the proper place for a meeting-house. That centre was found to be “in the north-east corner of Stephen Morgan’s goat pasture.” Upon the spot thus designated the erection of a meeting-house was begun in 1727. The present church edifice stands partly on the same ground, but a little further back from the highway. The Congregational Church was organized in 1729. The early history of the Church for about 80 years, is veiled in obscurity. During the last 39 of these 80 years the Church had no settled pastor, and at sometime in this period became extinct; and its records, if it ever had any, have been lost.
The situation was rectified beginning in 1808, when the church began raising funds to repair its meeting-house. In 1811 the Ecclesiastical Society again had a settled minister, Rev. Timothy Tuttle, who served as pastor for fifty-three years. It was during his pastorate that the old meeting-house was taken down and the current church building was constructed in 1843.
Middle Haddam in East Hampton was a shipbuilding center in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and Samuel B. Butler made pulleys and other hardware for the shipbuilding industry. He built a Greek Revival house at 30 Knowles Road in 1838. It was purchased by Captain Edward M. Simpson in 1855. He was a steamboat pilot on the Connecticut River and was captain of the famous steamboat City of Hartford. His daughter later had a house nearby.
The Greek Revival house at 572 Main Street in Plymouth is home to the Plymouth Historical Society. Their website states that it was built in the mid-nineteenth century. Another article gives the date as 1853. It was built by A.C. Shelton, of the Shelton and Tuttle Carriage Company, for his niece. The property was later known as the Burr Farm and then belonged to the Alley family.
According to his obituary in The Bankers’ Magazine, and Statistical Register, Vol. 38, No. 11 (May, 1884):
Francis D. Perry President of the Southport (Conn.) National Bank, died after a short illness in that town on April 16th, in his seventy-fifth year. He had been for over thirty years an officer of this bank, and of its predecessor, the Southport Bank. He was also for some years Secretary and Treasurer of the Southport Savings Bank, and to these institutions devoted his energies with fidelity, perseverance, and marked ability. Mr. Perry was a man who won, by his high personal character, universal respect and regard. Thoroughly conscientious, decided in his opinions, but courteous, considerate and liberal, he exemplified the best type of the faithful official and the Christian gentleman. The boards of directors of the two banks, at a special union meeting, passed unanimously a series of resolutions expressive of their high regard and appreciation of the deceased.
Perry’s Greek Revival house, at 678 Pequot Avenue in Southport, is similar in design, with a five columned front portico, to his brother Henry Perry’s house at 45 Westway Road in Southport. They may have been designed or built by the same person. Perry was a member of Trinity Parish and after his widow died in 1893 the house was left to the parish as a rectory.
The Bolton United Methodist Church is located at 1041 Boston Turnpike in the Quarryville section of Bolton. The church’s history is described in A Historical Sketch of Bolton, Connecticut (1920), by Samuel Morgan Alvord:
The Methodist Church began its work at an early date in Bolton with the first camp meeting ever held in a New England town. The noted itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow was the leader and great crowds were attracted to his meetings which were held May 30 to June 3, 1805, near the Andover town line directly east of the South District School house. Rev. Mr. [George] Colton [of the Bolton Congregational Church] was deeply offended at this encroachment upon his rights. Camp meetings were held later near camp meeting spring on the South Manchester road.
The first Methodist Church was built at Ouarryville in 1834 near the present edifice. This building was sold to the Universalists in 1851 and moved some distance west and a new church was built the following year. Joseph Ireson was the first pastor in 1823.
A brief history of the “M.E. Church, Quarryville, Connecticut,” by Edgar A. Brownell appears in the Souvenir History of the New England Southern Conference in Three Volumes (1897). As Brownell describes:
Methodist meetings were first held in 1823, at the house of Isaac Keeney, and in pleasant weather were held under the shade of trees in the vicinity of what is known as Quarryville, sometimes under a large elm tree, near the late Isaac Keeney’s residence.
The first meeting-house was built in 1834, and stood near the site of the present one. and was sold to the Universalist Societv in 1851-2, and removed about eighty rods west. The present meeting-house was built in 1852, and cost between $3,000 and $4,000, and has never been without a minister and a fair congregation.
Some years since the Rev. James S. Thomas, then stationed here, thought the society needed a church bell and a barn. He procured the same, and then set at work to pay for them. During his pastorate here special services were held and a great revival took place, “and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved,” many of whom are at present members in the church.
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