Page 46 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 54 Late Spring 2025

formation of a new parish, named was so connected to the church at this This was designed to deny New Light
Cheshire after Brooks’ father’s birth- time, a controversy that arose within churches the services of an ordained
place. A Congregational church was the religious life of the colonies spilled minister.
gathered, which reduced in Walling- over into one affecting all of Walling-
ford by thirty-five families. (However, ford. Beginning in 1739, a wave of re- The internal chaos this Great Awak-
it wouldn’t be until 1780 that Cheshire ligious revivals swept in. “Experienced ening provoked within the Congre-
was incorporated as a town by action religion” which replaced the former gational church went on for several
of the State Legislature). calmer, more rationalized approach more years, and its most consequen-
to spirituality came to life in these re- tial long-term affect was to introduce
In 1724, the thirty to forty families vivals. Men who were so emotionally division into the established, formerly
living in the North Farms area (not to affected felt that they “possessed a fairly well-united, church. The conver-
be confused with Wallingford’s North cleansed spirit” and were “personally sion of so many respectable members
Farms area of today) petitioned for redeemed.” So much so that, caught to New Light thinking opened the
and were granted permission to form up in the zeal of their convictions, door for the dissenters to gain re-
a new parish in their area. By 1727, they became intolerant of those who spectability. The revivals also afforded
they had raised a meetinghouse (now did not have a similar experience. A other denominations opportunities to
the corner of Ann Street and Dryden schism therefore developed within establish themselves in the colonies.
Drive), and the parish was designated the congregations, and had one of
Meriden the following year. (Meriden its leaders a man from Northampton, This period where establishment prac-
would become a separate town in Massachusetts named Jonathan Ed- tices were challenged and replaced,
1806). wards, whose family had resided on where leaders were questioned and
Tamarac Swamp Road in Wallingford. disobeyed, and where new leaders
The pace of change picked up speed emerged created a general under-
soon after. In 1731, a petition was filed The deep divisions were created by current throughout the colonies that
with the town by some residents who the irreconcilable differences held by it was, within limits, legitimate to
sought the use the meeting house either “Old Lights,” who represented question authority. The old Puritan
as a place to meet and learn how to idea of order and stability had been
sing. That created a controversy, but challenged for the first time, and the
the group was allowed to do so. Then Connecticut colony entered a period
this group asked to be able to sing in of transition.
the Sabbath services the songs that
they had learned, something unheard Wallingford was not immune from
of in a place where any such music this period of questioning, but the
was restricted to the five ‘tunes’ that strength of Reverend Whittlesey and
everyone knew. This created a fur- his strong management ability en-
ther controversy, so a town meeting abled him to control the members of
was convened. No decision could be his church. He did comment, however,
reached, and it took a second meeting that he was concerned that he had “
to resolve this weighty matter, where … observed the symptoms of a la-
it was decided “that, this Society De- the order and orthodoxy of the past, tent spirit of strife among his people
sire and agree to Sing in ye public as- and the “New Lights” who bought into … which he expected would discover
sembly on ye Saboth in ye new and the ideals of the revival. When the itself and run high after his decease.”
half in ye old way for six Saboths; and New Lights tried to bring out reform (Davis, History of Wallingford, 1870).
after that wholly in ye new way.” (Da- within the church, they often failed,
vis, Charles, History of Wallingford, and thus they left and began to es- When Rev. Whittlesey passed in 1752
1870). tablish Separatist Churches, believing after thirty-five years as minister, the
that they could no longer worship in people were so divided in their opin-
Then in 1735, sixty years after the offi- a church with such “graceless” and ions that, despite having considered
cial establishment of a Congregational “unregenerated” members. The Old nearly twenty candidates, it took six
Church took place in Wallingford, the Lights, on the other hand, attempted years before a successor was called.
religious monopoly was broken. Ten to curb the “emotional excesses” that And even that required outside advice,
families left the church to become they deemed dangerous to the social which first came from a group of min-
Baptists. Soon after that, the Church order. isters, who recommended they ask a
of England was established, drawing a Mr. Holyoke, President of Cambridge
few more families away. Yet this meet- Inevitably, the General Assembly of College, for assistance. They did so,
ing house remained the center of the Connecticut was drawn in to the con- and the advice that came down from
community, used for all town meet- flict. In 1741, it called upon the Gen- President Holyoke and Mr. Appleton,
ings as well as for church services. eral Association of ministers to solve minister of Cambridge, recommend-
Prayers opened these town meetings, the problem, which was a failure. So, ed Mr. James Dana, a Harvard gradu-
and the minister, regarded still as the in May of 1742, the General Assem- ate (class of 1753), then twenty-three
man of consequence in the town, of- bly, siding with the Old Lights, passed years old.
ten addressed those gathered. a series of acts so severe that even
ordained ministers were forbidden He accepted Wallingford’s invitation
So, because the entire community to preach outside their own church. to visit and preach as a candidate, af-

46 WALLINGFORD MAGAZINE - LATE SPRING 2025