Category: New Hampshire history

The Congregational Church

July 10th, 2023

When Bennington, New Hampshire was just a cluster of raw-wood houses in the 1790s, there was no place to go to church. When the area was called Factory Village, a family could journey to attend the Congregational Church of Hancock, but that was a long trip, impassible in winter or Mud Season. Most families probably held home-based religious activities on Sundays: prayers, scripture readings, hymn singing. In 1833, a group of town worthies banded together for worship as the Union Trinitarian Congregational Society, meeting in private homes for worship.

From then on, there was a push to build a church to serve those who lived on the banks of the Contoocook River. Congregationalism as a church movement, descended from Puritans who thought that each church should run its own affairs, unbeholding to the dictates of people elsewhere. By that time, citizens of what-would-become Bennington were feeling stirrings of independence, so a Congregational church would have been a good fit. Evangelical churches [Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian] were part of the Second Great Awakening of religion in the1800s in the US. This lead to buildings that were not ornate and soaring, like Gothic or Georgian-style churches.

The church building was constructed in the Village Center on the corner of Main Street and Francestown Road in 1839. To pay for it, families would pledge money and sweat-equity to put up the House of God. The style is a simple, gable-end structure. The steeple was the tallest structure in town. A pair of front doors lead into an entry vestibule, thence into the nave. Oddly, the boundary line between the Town of Hancock and the unincorporated Factory Village ran right along the front of the building. When entering the church, one stepped out of Hancock and into Factory Village.

Winter view of the church, most likely from the early 1900s. Note the electric lines and the attached vestry at back.

Church before 1947, with old Vestry as the small building on the left.

The nave is a 58’x50′ rectangle with a high ceiling. There was a balcony in the back where the choir sat. At first, there was no church organ and music was provided by two violins and a viola. Coming to church was often the social event of the week. There were two 90-minute services each Sunday, with an hour break in-between. During that time, the children attended Sunday School, everyone had lunch and a good tongue-wag.

The Parsonage, 1884.

In 1984, a parsonage was built by George Burns. Some of the ministers of the church included: Rev Ebeneezer Coleman; Rev. Albert Manson; Rev. James Holmes; Rev. Josiah Heald; Dr. Thomas Billings; Rev. Reginald Merrifield; Rev. William Clark, Jr; Rev. Marie Tolander; Rev. Fay Gemmell; Rev. Daniel Poling.

In 1853, a subscription was held to buy a bell for the steeple. In 1896, the small vestry building across the street was abandoned in favor of a set of attached rooms at the back of the church: kitchen, ladies’ parlor, wash room, small chapel. In 1899, a reed organ was installed. In 1917, a clock was donated for the steeple. The church interior was changed in the 1970s. With the lowering of the ceiling, the balcony was walled off.

For Decoration Day, c.1900, the ladies of the G.A.R bedecked the church.

Today, the church still holds services, with a revolving slate of ministers. The parsonage was sold off in 1977.

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on July 31. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Summer People

June 19th, 2023

Since ancient times, the wealthy of the cities would flee to the hills of the countryside in the summer for a cooler, leafier life. In New England, one knows of Newport, Rhode Island and the Berkshires of Massachusetts as being the resorts of the rich. Add to that, Bennington, New Hampshire. There were the hotels in the Village Center of course, the Adams Hotel and the Crystal Springs Hotel, but there was also a thriving business of farms that took in Summer People.

A summer sojourn in the country took on a new impetus in the mid-1800s, as popular novels [Heidi, Secret Garden], medical professionals [Florence Nightingale], and social reformers [Fresh Air Fund] touted the healing powers of nature and the importance of fresh air. The growth of railroads made travel to ‘remote’ areas possible.

After the Civil War, farming slumped in northern New England, so a new income stream was devised. Farm wives were accustomed to cooking for large groups: their family, the laborers who helped with farm work — so why not take in summer borders? As people came from the cities in the summer, farms added a wing of rooms to accommodate them. Meals would be served communally three times a day, and transportation to and from the railroad station was provided. What did the Summer People do all day? Read on the veranda, take nature walks, pick berries, write letters, and relax. Among the farms that took in visitors were the Dodge House atop Dodge Hill Road, with panoramic views:

The Dodge House, now owned by the Warren Family, was the largest and oldest farm in town. The extensions to the original late 1700s farmhouse were added in 1878 and 1884.

Colby-Green near-by on Larkin Road:

Built in 1795, the Colby family built the porch in the 1880’s and advertised as a summer resort called Colby-Green.

and Favor Farm on the Francestown Road with views of Crotched Mountain.

Favor Farm, is said to have been built from a kit — the sort that Sears Roebuck would send to you. Later, the Blanchard Family farmed here.

On the shores of Lake George [now called Lake Whittemore], were children’s camps. Tall Pines was founded by three siblings of the Reaveley family from Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1915. The clientele were the daughters of wealthy Bostonians who were sent to bucolic Bennington for an abundance of fresh air. Their summer included the arts, waterfront activities, hiking, theatricals, vegetable gardening, and ‘some form of useful work.’ The foci of athletics and the arts were always backed up by the emphasis of lots of fresh air– as seen in the windowless dining hall. The camp was damaged by both the Depression and the Hurricane of 1938, and attendance waned.

Next door, but culturally miles away, was the camp established by the Roxbury Neighborhood House of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The 120-acre location was bought by philanthropists who deeded it to the social reformers in Roxbury in 1914. They developed a camp where inner city children would stay for two-week sessions, serving 40 campers at a time in multiple encampments. This was a chance for under-privileged children to experience some carefree summer fun aways from the crowded city. Sometimes their mothers came for two or three day vacations. The racial tensions of the 1960s caused the Neighborhood House to change its focus, and the camp closed.

The next installment of the Bennington NH Historical Society Blog will be posted on July 11, 2023. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.