Raise the Roof-1st Cong Church NM

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1.Note above that you can either be on "story" or on "updates".AFTER YOU READ STEPS 2 AND 3 BELOW, Click on "updates." When you want to come back to these instructions, click on story again.
2. Once you click on "updates", you will see a video you can play OR you may scroll down past the video to where it say "read a previous update."
3.You will then be able to view all 3 video updates. If you want a treat, click on the men's choral group and listen to them as you watch the exterior drone video. Interior has its own music.

INTRODUCTION

We are the members of the 1st Congregational Church of New Milford Ct.  We are an active group of very young families, middle age folks as well as retired people. We're proud of our 300+ year association with the town and our involvement in the religious life of the town as well as the town's civic organizations. Indeed, in the very early years, our church was highly involved with the formation of our nation.

ABOUT THIS CAMPAIGN 

This is a "temporal campaign."  that focuses on the beautiful Greek Revivalist Architectural structure that serves as our current meeting place. We can not escape the fact that our beautiful church needs some tender love and care. We have always managed in the past and we will manage now, but we could sure use some help.

WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO?

Our church has been the  dominant fixture of New Milford's main street since 1833.  Due to an extremely heavy snow load several years ago the roof of the church has actually pushed the massive walls outward. There is temporary interior steel structure in place to support the roof, but this is not a condition that can continue indefinitely.  We must "Raise the Roof," and insert a massive structural beam, in the ceiling above that temporary structure, that will span the entire meeting room and rest on re- straightened walls.  



We seek help from the public in recognition of the commitment and concern this church has given the community the nation, for over three hundred years.  Our early ministers and parishioners were among the staunchest supporters of the American Revolution, helped push for a strong Bill of Rights and authored the famous "Connecticut Compromise" that allowed passage of this nation's Constitution in 1789. That type of comittment and community leadership has continued to this day.

In recent years, we have organized construction and overseen operation of three affordable housing complexes for senior citizens, provided our Community Jewish Family with a place to worship while their temple was being constructed and annually provided many scholarships to college bound young people regardless of whether they are members of our church or not.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

The cost of this project will approach half of a million dollars. It is important to state we seek "assistance."   Members of the church have committed to extra giving over the next three to five years that should fund over half the project, while we continue with our community and outreach programs.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Click on the donation button and please give us a hand. The First Congregational Church is 501c3. Your gifts are tax deductible.

WE THANK YOU

If you can help, we'd greatly appreciate it. If you can join us, you're welcome anytime.  If you want to read some very interesting history, jump in. Then... stay tuned.

VIDEOS

Please check the videos posted.They show the joy we feel in just one portion of one worship service where a choir members rendition of "Hallelujah" was sung.
You will also find a video of the inside of our church and a separate video of the outside of the church. These were made possible through the efforets of a member's grandson. He brought his drone because he wanted to help.

The need for the permananent steel beam and  restrengthening of the walls has been described.  You can see the huge "temporary" steel structure that was put in place after the snow load of a few years ago.  You can also see the size of the church and why shoring it up is such a massive undertaking for us. We hope, through this campaign, to remove that interior steel and return to the beautiful open sanctuary that has stood for 184 years.  With your continued support that will be possible. 

Think of it. This structure was completed in 1833.  That is 3 years before the Alamo fell.  The church and its meeting house had already been a part of the community for over 117 years at that time.


FIRST HISTORY INSTALLMENT
Let us know in your comments if you would like us to continue with the history.

In the book “Two Centuries of New Milford, Connecticut 1707-1907”, which was prepared as “an account of the bi-centennial celebration of the founding of the town held June 15, 16, 17, and 18 1907, with a number of historical articles and reminiscences,” the town is described as an “unbroken wilderness, save for the Indian settlement across the river on Fort Hill, where the smoke, curling from many wigwams, marked the homes of over two hundred warriors with their families. An irregular cart path, winding in and out among stumps of newly cut trees, formed the Main Street. A narrow road led from the north end of this street to the river, then followed the river bank a mile north to the rapids, the general crossing place.  The first bridge over the Housatonic wasn’t built until 1737.”

John Noble’s house, although the very first year he lived here had been in the Ft. Hill area had moved across the river by that time.  The high area up behind Aspetuck Hill and in the area of Park Lane West, had been thought to be where the town would eventually develop, but apparently the protection of the mountains during the harsh winters drove the settlement down into the valley

Why did they come?  During its first 50 years, New Milford was considered a frontier town. In 1715 There was a “line of guards” established that ran from roughly Woodbury, through New Milford, to the New York line.  This, in the 1907 history, is called a “train band” service, and it was quite severe.  Every male citizen who could walk had to participate.

“These militia-men had to provide their arms and equipment at their own expense, and, if any business required their absence from the town, they were obliged to provide a substitute and to pay, themselves, for his services. The arms which each soldier furnished consisted of a musket or rifle, a bullet pouch containing twenty bullets, a powder horn containing twenty charges of powder, and such an amount of cloth or buckskin as would make sufficient wadding for this number of charges.”

Until as late as 1755, New Milford was allowed to “duck” any call for men to bear arms. Why? Because the town was doing enough by being on the very frontier of civilization in the Northwest of the settled area. A final strong and maintained militia line between savagery and civilization.

Finally in 1716 Mr. Boardman was settled, or moved in officially. Originally scheduled for October, the date was postponed to the 21st of November in the house of John Read, which had served as a meeting house and town hall during the earliest years of the church

_________

Mr. Sherman, the only patriot to sign the address to the King and the Articles of Association in 1774, the Declaration of Independence in 1766, the Articles of Confederation in 1778, and the U.S. Constitution in 1787, also served our church well. During the building of the second meeting house, which was to stand on the Green just about opposite the present position of St. John’s Church, Mr. Sherman served as Treasurer of the building committee. During the ministry of Mr. Taylor, Sherman served the church as deacon and clerk of the newly formed Ecclesiastical Society. The building was completed in 1754.

We know from history that only about a third of the people in the colonies supported the movement for separation from England. Another third of the people were neutral and the final third felt that they were, and always would be, Englishmen. How did the strict conservatives who had rejected the Half Way Covenant feel about their more liberal oriented former co-members or the Episcopalians? Surely there were hard feelings, feelings that caused many who worshipped together many times in the past to now doubt the loyalty and patriotism of many of their former fellow worshippers. We think of New England as the birthplace of the nation, but let us not forget that three way division. It existed throughout the colonies. New Milford was no exception.

There is little doubt on which side of the fence the minister of the First Congregational Church would walk. Taylor had served as Chaplain in 1759 to a regimental unit of Connecticut troops at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in the French and Indian Wars, and in 1779 he donated his salary back to the church. It is hard to tell if Sherman had the influence on Taylor or vice versa, but both men served their country admirably during this time. There is little doubt when Roger Sherman’s close ties with men such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin and Robert Livingston are considered, the minister of the church to which Mr. Sherman devoted so much of his time must have at least been influenced by these people. At the same time, as he turned back his salary, the county treasurer of Litchfield received a contribution of ninety-four pounds and sixteen shillings from the New Milford Ecclesiastical Society for the relief of suffering in New Haven, Norwalk and Fairfield ‘"from distress caused by war".

An interesting side note concerns the lovely daughter of Reverend Taylor. It seems she had caught the eye of a Major Jones of Virginia, who was the quartermaster for the army encamped, 5000 strong on the Second Hill area near what is now the Bridgewater Mobil Station. Major Jones was smitten with the lovely Tamar Taylor and she with him. Nevertheless, while Rev.Taylor may have been willing to give his life for his country, his daughter’s hand was a little harder to win.  Rev and Mrs. Taylor had no intention of seeing their little baby head off to the other side of the world (Virginia). Major Jones was considered a “very fine man, who won golden opinions from everyone.” He just lived too far away.

The major continued to pine for Tamar and wrote a friend in the area after Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown many years later to say she was on his mind every day. He came back after the war to be with his love, but she had found true love closer to home. Mom and dad were pleased. The major rode off alone.