CHURCH
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CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH |
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Congregational Church Records
Newspaper Clippings
Deacon Lewis Hawley in 1836 came from Lewiston, Niagara County, New York with wife Charlotte and 10 children, 8 boys with Deacon Alpheus Saunders.
Deacon Saunders Recollections. I came in March 1836. Built a log shanty on my land west and adjoining Charlie Lincoln two miles south of Union City. Returned to State of New York in June of the same year for my family. In Fall of 1837 the Congregational Church was formed with 17 members by a Methodist brother in the loft of what the old folks will remember as the sub-Treasury; he worked in the saw mill during the week and preached for us on the Sabbath. I think he was not a ____ Methodist only his surroundings were of that order. His pulpit was a work bench and the desk a nail keg placed on the pulpit. The audience varied from 15 to 25. A year after organization Rev. William Gurney came every alternate Sabbath preaching for us one week and the next at Coldwater. His 1st text was Peter’s words to the centurian. "Now wherefore have ye sent for me?" I accompanied Mr. Gurney in a pastoral visit to each of the 7 log shanties between Union City and Deacon Hawley’s, 6 miles south of Union City now owned by Mr. Case. Mr. Gurney appointed a meeting for the same evening at Deacon Hawley’s and we asked everyone to it. A man whose wife and two of her friends had been praying for his conversion....I used to hitch two yoke of oxen to a sled or wagon to take 10 to 15 persons at a load to those meeting over a road whose roughness when frozen and depth of mud when thawed would now-a-days almost exceed belief....from page 66 and 67
David D. Blakeman of Imperial, California age 83. Justus Benedict Buell of Sherbourne Chenango County, New York married my sister Emeline Blakeman and moved to Union City 1836. ( David D. Blakeman had brother Horace A. Blakeman, five sister amd three brothers. He was 6 years old in 1839) Horatio N. and Horace A. Blakeman soon followed to Union City. Buells, Hammonds, Lincoln, Parsons, Collins, Youngs from Smyrna and Sherburne, Chenango County, New York.
Submitted by:
Helen Handley, April 2006
helen.handley@earthlink.net