Notes on Two Hundred Years (and More)
by Douglas H. Parkhurst

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury (UUCD) will celebrate its 203rd anniversary later in 2025. A variety of accounts have been written about UUCD over the past two centuries. These include historical narratives; 19th and 20th century articles and essays that now can be considered historical pieces; and an autobiography that includes a reminiscence of the congregation in the mid-19th century. It should be noted UUCD has been known by perhaps six different names since it was organized in 1822. Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury was adopted in 2003.

The Congregation’s most comprehensive history to date was prepared for UUCD’s 175th anniversary in 1997. This is Reverdy Whitlock’s 132 page The Story of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Northern Fairfield County, 1822-1995 (UUSNFC). The author was a New Haven bookseller and historian. This book, available in both hard and soft-cover, begins with chapters summarizing Universalist and Unitarian denominational history. It then surveys the first 147 years of the congregation in Danbury, including the 1964 organization of the Unitarian Fellowship of Ridgefield, and merger of this group with the Danbury UUs in 1966. The narrative concludes with UUSNFC’s 1970 move to an old farm property in West Redding and a detailed picture of life and people at “the Barn” through the mid-1990s. The book is illustrated and contains a list of clergy, from Thomas Farrington King to Daniel Simer O’Connell, who have served the congregation. Society member James Ramey provided the inspiration for The Story of the Unitarian Universalist Society…. Herrick Jackson, long-time friend and supporter of the West Redding UUs, arranged for the services of author Reverdy Whitlock, and secured funding for the research, writing, and publication of the book.

Going back to early days, a description of the Danbury Universalist Society appears in the 1835 Annual Report of the General Convention of Universalists. It was prepared by R.O. Williams, likely Rev. Rufus Orland Williams, who at the time labored in Connecticut. He reviewed Universalist activity in towns in each of the eight counties in the state and wrote this about Danbury:

“Here is a flourishing society, consisting of twenty-nine members, and a church [organization] connected with the society. The brethren here have recently erected a large and beautiful house of worship. They have now no settled clergyman, but usually they have employed one half the time. The brethren are steadfast, persevering, and increasing in numbers, and meetings are generally well attended.”

George H. Deere came to Danbury in 1849, an aspiring clergyman of twenty-one, and was ordained that October. He ministered to the local Universalists for two years. Rev. Deere went on to a long and successful career in ministry that included a pioneering Universalist pastorate in Riverside, California, beginning in 1881. Near the end of his life, George Deere penned his Autobiography in which he devoted three chapters to his time in Danbury. Here are two brief excerpts:

“My parish work was mostly with the young people and the children, who drew close to me and brought their elders. The Sunday school, of which I was made superintendent, I worked with the best results, adopting and adapting Bro. G.L. Demarest’s methods…of general drills in memorizing Scripture, and the Rhode Island Universalist catechism.” [See note below.]

“My parish calls were on business. However informal, after I had studied the family, I carried in my mind some message, some information, suggestion, or request….I was on my feet out of doors most of the time, carrying my work along in my head as I went about among the people at Bethel, Wildcat, Grassy Plain, Mirey Brook, Plumtree, Sleepy Hollow [perhaps Sugar Hollow], the Boggs Mill Plain, or into the solitude of Thomas Mountain, Tamarack Woods, or the woods and cemetery north of town.” [See note below.]

Copies of some nineteenth century records of the Southern Association of Universalists of Connecticut (Fairfield, New Haven, and Middlesex counties) are in the archives of UUCD. These contain brief assessments of local Universalist groups within the Southern Association, including the Danbury society:

“1866 – No stated preaching for a year, but occasional services and lay meetings in the intervals. More money has been raised, and with greater ease than ever before, but not enough for a pastor’s support….”

The situation improved a few years later:

“1871 – We are united and strong in the faith. Have added 14 members to the church during the year. Our average attendance at S.S. [Sunday School] is 45….Are strengthening in working power and zeal. Rev. D.M. Hodge is pastor.”

The Danbury Universalists had their share of ups and downs:
“1887 – Reported by Bro. Dibble and Rev. W.J. Crosley. While the parish is small there is good hope that the new pastor [Crosley] may be able to do good work and help to build up the society somewhat. Not strong numerically, nor financially, but strong in the faith. Good missionary field.”

The substantial History of Fairfield County, Connecticut, was compiled under the supervision of D. Hamilton Hurd and published in 1881. The town of Danbury merits eight chapters in this work, totaling close to ninety pages. The chapter on Danbury’s Ecclestiastical History includes a section on what is called First Universalist Church. The source is given as the columns of the Danbury Republican, editor F.W. Bartram. Universalist activity in Danbury before 1822 is described and the twelve organizers of the local society are named. The narrative continues:

“After 1807 occasional services were held in the town by various intinerant ministers, among others the Rev. Solomon Glover, of Newtown. At this time the social ostracism, amounting in some cases to actual persecution…fell to the lot of the American Universalists. Their testimony was not taken in court; they were pronounced little better than atheists; were charged with being haters of religion and teachers of immoral doctrines. One of the twelve men who organized the society in 1822 attended the meetings for some time in secret, ‘going across the swamp to the court-house, in order not to be seen,’ as he often afterwards confessed….Those were the days when good, pious, Christian souls, not doubting that Universalists were infidels and were doing the work of Satan, prayed that the Lord would ‘uncover the bottomless pit and shake the Universalist minister over it until he repented of his errors.’ “

This history goes on to provide a comprehensive list of names and dates for clergy who served the Danbury society during its first half-century, the names of First Universalist’s lay leaders at the time of writing, and something of the progress of the congregation.
[Note – G.L. Demarest was a prominent nineteenth century Universalist minister, author, editor, and denominational official.]

[Note – The town of Bethel was set off from Danbury in 1855, a few years after Rev. Deere’s departure. The places mentioned are areas and districts in Danbury and Bethel.]

To be continued in March 2025…