Tag Archives: Green’s Farms Congregational Church

Pic Of The Day #126

Posted on August 21, 2017 | 1 comment

New York City? Nope: power-washing the Green’s Farms Congregational Church steeple. (Photo/David Squires)

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Uncovering 300 Years Of Church History

Posted on April 14, 2017 | 14 comments

In 2011, Green’s Farms Congregational Church celebrated its 300th anniversary.

The other day, operations director Claire England sent me a copy of a souvenir brochure, produced for that occasion.

I’m amazed I didn’t see it earlier. It’s filled with astonishing stories, intriguing sidelights, and tons of fun facts.

I’m sorry it’s taken me 6 years to get around to reporting on this. But after 3 centuries, that’s not so bad.

Here are a few things I learned:

† In colonial days, communities were led by their churches. The term “1st selectman” — for our town’s leader — dates back to the days when the secular leader of the church was “selected first.” Even after Westport was incorporated in 1835, Green’s Farms Congregational members served as 1st selectmen. In 1997, Diane Goss Farrell — a Green’s Farms congregant — was elected 1st Selectwoman.

† Before services were announced by a drum or bell, early settlers were called to worship by the beating of 2 thin strips of board, from a high hill.

So, the brochure asked, was Clapboard Hill named for the excellent quality of building wood that was harvested there, or for its great location that allowed worshipers to hear the clapping of the boards?

An early map of Green’s Farms. Turkey Hill and Clapboard Hill are in the center. The 1st church site (now marked by Machamux boulder) is just below that. The 2nd site is marked “Colonial Church” (center left). “Third and Fourth” Churches are also noted at the top. Green’s Farms’ founding Bankside Farmers properties can be seen along Long Island Sound. Click on or hover over to enlarge.

† In 1742, Reverend Daniel Chapman — who had served as minister since the church’s founding 31 years earlier — was dismissed. The reason: He “hath led for several years an Eregular [sic] life …in being sundry times overtaken in drinking to excess.”

150 years later, then-Reverend Benjamin Relyea noted: “In those times, when it was an act of discourtesy in making pastoral calls to refuse to partake of something from the array of decanters which always stood upon the sideboard, the only wonder is that any minister ever went home sober.”

†After the British burned the 2nd Green’s Farms Church (located near the current commuter parking lot, at the corner of what’s now the Sherwood Island Connector and Greens Farms Road), services were held in private homes for 10 years.

Meanwhile, the new American government compensated our local church for its losses during the war with land in the Ohio wilderness, known as the “Western Reserve.” The church later sold its Ohio lands, to raise money for the new meeting house (on Hillandale Road, site of the current building).

Lucy Rowe’s headstone.

† The original Bankside Farmers — founders of Green’s Farms parish — owned slaves. A century later, many freed slaves lived in Green’s Farms as respected residents. When slavery was finally abolished in Connecticut in 1848, the “last of the slaves” — Charles Rowe — was church sexton. He lived on Hyde Lane, near where Long Lots School is now. He and his wife Lucy are buried in the Green’s Farms Upper Cemetery (adjacent to the current church.)

The church’s original burial ground still stands, on the corner of Green’s Farms Road and the Sherwood Island Connector. The oldest gravestone belongs to Andros Couch, who died in 1730 at 57. Also buried there are the church’s 1st 3 ministers, who served for a total of 110 years; several sea captains, including Franklin Sherwood, and Dr. Ebenezer Jesup — a surgeon in George Washington’s army — along with his 3 wives.

† In 1911, the church celebrated its 200th anniversary by commissioning a bas-relief plaque honoring past ministers. The artist was Gutzon Borglum — the same man who carved Mt. Rushmore. He seldom did small commissions — but friends in the congregation asked him for this one.

† On November 25, 1950, the 100-year-old steeple crashed down during a hurricane. The weight of the bell carried it through the roof of the meeting house, into the Sunday School.

At the time, declining membership had already created doubts about the church’s future. Services attracted as few as 27 people, with the collection seldom reaching $5.

Insurance covered part of the steeple damage, and a subscription campaign raised the rest. Many non-members — calling the steeple a “landmark” and a “beacon” for sailors — contributed. That drive helped save the church. By 1957, membership had grown so large that 2 Sunday services were needed.

Part of the 1951 fundraising appeal.

There is much more of interest in the Green’s Farms Church’s 300-year historical brochure.

Here’s to its next 294 years!

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Posted in History, Looking back, People, Places, religion

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Digging Into Westport’s 300-Year-Old Mystery

Posted on August 26, 2016 | 18 comments

The other day, amateur historian Bob Weingarten published a story in Greens Farms Living magazine.

Read the previous sentence carefully.

The publication calls itself Greens Farms. Not Green’s Farms. Or Greensfarms.

Punctuation matters. And the punctuation of Westport’s oldest section of town was the subject of Weingarten’s piece.

I’m interested. From time to time, I’ve referred to that neighborhood in several ways. I never knew the answer — and never knew how to find out.

Weingarten quotes author Woody Klein, who called John Green “the largest landholder” among the 5 Bankside Farmers who in the late 1600s settled around what is now Beachside Avenue (the “banks” of Long Island Sound).

This is where the Bankside Farmers first worked the land. It looks a bit different today.

This is where the Bankside Farmers first worked the land. It looks a bit different today.

The area was called Green’s Farms. But in 1732 it was changed to Greens Farms because, Klein says, Fairfield — the town of which it was part — did not want “any individual landholder to become too independent.”

The plural form, Weingarten writes, could mean either that Green had more than one farm, or that it was “adopted from the multiple farms of the Bankside Farmers.” So Greens Farms it was.

Except in property deeds, which referred to “the Parish of Greensfarms.”

However, in 1842 — when the parish was incorporated into the 7-year-old town of Westport — the spelling became Green’s Farms.

The church of the same name adopted the apostrophe. Today it sometimes uses one, sometimes not. Sometimes on the same web page.

Green's Farms Congregational Church

The church — with or without an apostrophe.

Confusion continued, though. For decades thereafter, official documents and maps referred to both Green’s Farms and Greens Farms.

Weingarten also mentions two streets: Green’s Farms Road and Greens Farms Hollow.

The state Department of Transporation has used both spellings — and a 3rd: Green Farms, for the Metro-North station.

Weingarten cites one more example. The post office near the train station uses the apostrophe spelling on one sign, the non-apostrophe on another.

This is definitely not one of the options.

This is definitely not one of the options.

Weingarten favors Green’s Farms. So do I.

But “06880” is a democracy. So — even though the zip code is 06838 — we’ll put it to a vote. Click the poll below — and add “Comments too.”

All you have to lose is an apostrophe.

Click here for “06880+”: The easy way to publicize upcoming events, sell items, find or advertise your service, ask questions, etc. It’s the “06880” community bulletin board!

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Posted in History, People, Places, religion, Transportation

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“Mr. Bob” Custer: A Sexton At The Heart Of A Church

Posted on June 24, 2015 | 7 comments

Bob Custer has done just about everything at Green’s Farms Congregational Church. He’s helped out at weddings and funerals. He oversees renovations and repairs. He gives tours for elementary students (in colonial costume), and keeps the nursery school going. Every Sunday, he rings the bell.

In fact, the only thing Custer has not done is preach a sermon. If he did, he’d deliver a wonderful one.

One of Bob Custer's many duties at Green's Farms Congregational Church is ringing the bell.

One of Bob Custer’s many duties at Green’s Farms Congregational Church is ringing the bell.

Custer’s official title is sexton. He’s been at the historic church on Hillandale Road since 1991. He’s “semi-retiring” on July 1. Even so, he’ll probably do more in one day than all “06880” readers do together in a year.

Here’s a brief glimpse into the rest of Custer’s life. A Norwalk native and graduate of Wright Tech (as a draftsman), he was part of the 1968 Vietnam Tet offensive as a squad leader with the 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”).

Ever since, he’s been active in veterans affairs. Custer is now an officer with Westport’s VFW.

He’s an avid fisherman, and a former Little League and Pop Warner coach. “If I see someone doing something, I try it,” he says. “I love a challenge. I want to learn something new every day.”

Custer was working construction when he heard that Green’s Farms Church needed a sexton. He started in 1991, and has been there ever since. Kids he once saw being baptized are now returning, to baptize their own children.

In his quarter century at the church, Custer has made many friends. Everyone loves him — but especially the children. They call him “Mr. Bob.”

“They think I live here,” Custer says.

Actually, he might as well. “This is my second home,” he notes.

Bob Custer (seen reflected at right) shows off a pitcher given to the church by Martha Washington. It honors Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, who served from 1762 to 1821.

Bob Custer (seen reflected at right) shows off a pitcher given to the church by Martha Washington. It honors Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, who served from 1762 to 1821.

History is another of Custer’s passions. “People travel thousands of miles to see historical sites,” he says. “But they almost never look in their own back yard.”

Custer does. An avid reader of history books and church archives — and a garrulous man who strikes up conversations with people looking for ancestors in the church cemetery — he is a wealth of information. He loved dressing up and describing early Westport history to 3rd graders when they stopped in during the Jennings Trail tours.

Children were enthralled as he described the importance of the “meetinghouse” to the life of the town, and amazed to learn folks sat in church for hours on end — without heat or electricity.

Today of course, Green’s Farms Congregational Church has heat and electricity. Overseeing both is just part of Bob Custer’s job — one he does every day with respect, joy and pride.

Bob Custer points out some famous names -- Jennings, Sherwood, Wakeman, Rippe, Adams -- on a "Wall of Honor." Those on the list are cited for their Sunday school attendance from 1909 to 1916.

Bob Custer points out famous names — Jennings, Sherwood, Wakeman, Rippe, Adams — on a “Roll of Honor.” They’re cited for their Sunday school attendance from 1909 to 1916.

 

 

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How Great They Art! Gospel Music Is Here

Posted on January 11, 2014 | 2 comments

Westport might seem an unlikely place for a gospel choir concert, but there’s good news.

As in, the  Good News Gospel Choir.

Based in Weston — a place even less gospelly than Westport — the group has performed often here, since their founding in 1982. They’ll do so again tomorrow (Sunday, January 12, 4 p.m.) at Green’s Farms Congregational Church.

Good News will also appear (ecumenically) on Martin Luther King weekend. They’ll be at Temple Israel on Friday evening (January 17), and St. Luke’s on Sunday the 19th.

That’s good news for the choir’s many local fans, who don’t have much to shout about on most Sundays.

Chris Coogan

Chris Coogan

GNGC was founded by Chris Coogan, a Weston native and jazz pianist. He went to Amherst College to study jazz, but fell in love with gospel. The group performs his arrangements of traditional gospel standards, as well as Coogan’s original, jazz-influenced compositions.

Good News is “a family,” says longtime choir member Marcy Juran of Westport.

“Music touches us all in a way that is profound, that transcends but also connects us as a community. As a group we support each other, through our music and through life events.”

After each rehearsal, members share significant events in their lives.

Choir members bring their children to rehearsals. The youngsters often sing with the group too, sometimes moving into solo roles.

Good News Gospel Choir tenors.

Good News Gospel Choir tenors.

Notable Good News alum include Justin Paul — recently nominated for a Tony Award, at age 28 — plus his brother Tyler and mother Rhonda. Sally Eidman and Mia Gentile — both making their way on Broadway — are former choir members too.

Tomorrow’s concert is a benefit for a former member of both Good News and BASIC, a Norwalk gospel group that will also perform. The singer suffers from a catastrophic illness, and health insurance does not cover enormous hospital bills.

Out of that bad news, comes Good News indeed.

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Chris And Diane: A Very Special Love Story

Posted on October 7, 2013 | 29 comments

Chris Murray and Diane McCoy met in 1966. It was the 1st day of Staples High School. They were in the same homeroom. Both last names began with “M,” so they were assigned seats near each other.

Desperate for a way to get the attention of such a cute girl, Chris asked if he could borrow her pencil.

They dated all through Staples. Diane was a cheerleader — “the ‘It Girl,'” Chris recalls. He was a soccer player and golfer.

Diane McCoy and Chris Murray's senior portraits from Staples High.

Diane McCoy and Chris Murray’s senior portraits from Staples High.

After graduation, she went to Colorado. He went to Florida. They drifted apart.

Chris chose Rollins College for its golf program — he thought he’d be a pro. But as a freshman he walked into the theater, and was hooked. He’d had no idea Rollins had a great theater program too.

He ended up acting off-Broadway. He met a Greek actress. They married, and moved to Europe. He became a director, writer and producer. They parted ways many years ago. Chris raised their 2 sons.

About 12 years ago — after 18 years abroad — Chris moved back to the US. He became a financial advisor and insurance strategies manager. He lived in Tarrytown, and did community theater.

A couple of years ago, he met someone who thought Chris would be a great fit for his boutique financial firm. Coincidentally, it was headquartered in Westport.

The 1969 Staples yearbook.

The 1969 Staples yearbook.

Chris was excited to work in his old home town. One day, on a whim, he wondered if Diane was still around. He Googled her name, and found a number. The voice on the answering machine was generic. He left a message, beginning with “I don’t know if you remember me….”

For 3 weeks, there was no reply. Chris Googled her once more. This time he found a different number — in Westport. Again, he left a message.

Two days later, she called back. “Of course I remember you!” Diane said. “I was your high school sweetheart!”

They got together for coffee. Coffee turned into a drink. A drink turned into 6 hours. They had 43 years to catch up on.

Chris had brought a scrapbook from Staples. Inside was a photo of the cheerleaders. Underneath — 4 decades ago — he had written: “Diane McCoy, my 1st true love.”

She brought a photo of Chris, with his red Austin Healey Sprite.

“We connected,” Chris says. “It just flowed.”

They discovered both were divorced. They also discovered that Diane’s brother Steve lived in Litchfield. That’s where Chris’s brother and sister lived too. In fact, Steve’s kids and Chris’s nephews and nieces had grown up together, and were friends. Steve had been their soccer coach.

Diane and Chris today.

Diane and Chris today.

Last Thanksgiving, Chris was alone with Diane’s mother. “Mrs. McCoy…” he began.

“Call me Phyllis,” she said.

Though he’s 62 years old, he found that hard to do. Since high school, she’d been “Mrs. McCoy” to him.

“Phyllis,” he asked, “is it okay if I ask Diane to marry me?”

“Chris Murray, you’re the only boy I ever thought was right for her,” she replied.

Last December 1, Chris moved into Diane’s Westport home.

On December 11 — her birthday — they drove to Compo Beach. It was the first place they’d ever kissed.

At sunset, by the cannons, he gave her a box. It contained a sapphire bracelet that once belonged to Chris’s mother, plus a “mushy letter.”

On the jetty he handed her a second box. This held a gold watch fob, and another mushy letter. At the bottom he’d written, “Will you marry me?”

She said “Yes!” It was cold, so they ran back to the car. Looking out, they saw a blond boy — Chris had been blond, once — and his girlfriend flying a 2-handled kite. They took a photo of it, silhouetted against the sky.

Chris and Diane at Compo Beach.

Chris and Diane at Compo Beach.

That night the couple had dinner at Tavern on Main, by the cozy fire. Afterwards, walking past Christmas lights on Main Street, they held hands. Snow flurries fell. “The years melted away,” Chris says.

At the end of January, Chris finally got a ring. He went back to Compo, to give it to Diane. A Jeep pulled into the adjacent parking space. Out came the same blond guy they’d seen before. He flew the same kite. “That’s crazy!” says Chris.

The reunited couple will marry this Saturday (October 12) at Green’s Farms Congregational — Diane’s family’s church. Chris has already joined the choir there.

And that led to one more heartwarming, we-know-our-love-was-meant-to-be story.

At rehearsal, Chris pulled out a folder of music. Written inside was the name “Bob McCoy.” Diane’s father died 12 years ago, but now he had one more connection with his daughter, and her at-long-last-husband-to-be.

“Diane and I are crazy about each other,” Chris says. “She was my 1st girlfriend, and the girl I was always in love with. I got so lucky. The angels are looking down on us.”

Chris and Diane today.

Chris and Diane on the eve of their marriage.

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Posted in Looking back, People, religion, Totally random

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Ring Them Bells

Posted on June 12, 2011 | 2 comments

This is a big day for 2 local churches.

Green’s Farms Congregational celebrates 300 years as both a religious and town institution.

The church actually helped propel the growth of Westport — its founding on June 12, 1711 resulted from Green’s Farms residents’ desire for a church closer than Fairfield Congregational, a far ride on a horse.

Church was not just for the faithful.  Attendance in the colony was mandatory; absentees were fined.

For 300 years — even after churchgoing became voluntary — Green’s Farms Church has thrived.  It’s weathered 2 fires (one set by the British), a 1950 storm that sent the steeple crashing through the building, and the countless changes that transformed Green’s Farms from an agricultural parish to an upscale neighborhood.


According to the wonderfully named Diane Parrish — co-chair of the anniversary committee — for 3 centuries, parishioners have never missed a Sunday meeting.

Today, special music commissioned for the tricentenary will be performed during the 10 a.m. service.

Also this morning — following their 10 a.m. liturgy — members of Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church will celebrate their own milestone:  the ribbon-cutting of an important new addition to the handsome building on the corner of Myrtle Avenue and (of course) Church Lane.

Though compared to Green’s Farms Congregational, Christ & Holy Trinity is a newcomer — it was founded “only” in 1831 — it too plays an important role in both the spiritual lives of its members, and the civic life of our town.

A centerpiece of the Christ & Holy Trinity addition is a state-of-the-art Great Hall.  Featuring vaulted ceilings, wooden beams and an old plank floor, its Gothic architecture and masonry tower matches the stonework of the main church (built in 1863).

The new and old Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.

Over time — thanks to the welcoming spirit of the church, and its location in the heart of downtown — it will become another great venue for meetings of all kinds.

Two churches.  One looks backward this weekend; the other forward.

And all Westporters offer heartfelt congratulations to both.

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Posted in Downtown, Looking back, Places, religion

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More Signs Of The Times

Posted on June 29, 2010 | 22 comments

Sunday’s “06880” story about unenforceable, hypocritical or just plain odd street signs struck a chord with John Suggs.

He responded, noting a sign on the Sherwood Island Connector his 7-year-old son Joshua spotted on the last day of school:

“Considering the thousands of times I’ve driven past that sign without noticing the misspelling,” John said, “I want to acknowledge not only my eagle-eye son Josh, but all the wonderful teachers at Greens Farms Elementary School, especially Mrs. Mary Ellen Barry, who have seen to it that our 1st graders know the correct spelling of their school, their neighborhood and the street sign.   Maybe we should send the sign makers back to Mrs. Barry for a makeup lesson?”

Well done, Joshua. And you were probably just being polite not to mention the lack of a space between “Green” and “Farms.”

But wait — there’s more!

Shouldn’t it be “Green’s Farms”? — with an apostrophe — I asked John.

Quickly, he replied:

I just did some quick fact checking on the history of the correct spelling, and discovered a few things.

The elementary school website spells it both ways on different pages of their official web site (click here, then click on “Directions to GFS”).

Wikipedia states:  “Green’s Farms Metro-North Railroad station is one of two New Haven Line stations serving the residents of Westport, Connecticut. The station is located in the Greens Farms area of Westport in the southeastern part of town, and the technically-incorrect apstrophe in the station name dates to New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad ownership of the line. No other entity spells “Greens Farms” with an apostrophe.”

(“06880” notes that Wikipedia itself spells “apostrophe” incorrectly, and hyphenates “technically-incorrect” even though we have always learned that words ending in “ly” should not be hyphenated.)

The neighborhood association, John says, uses the apostrophe — contrary to Wikipedia’s assertion that “no other entity” does.

So does Green’s Farms Congregational Church.

Greens Farms Academy — which, as an expensive private school, should probably know such things — ignores the apostrophe.

John concludes:

Basically it is anyone’s guess as to which version is the “correct” usage now, as opposed to the original usage which appears to have been with the apostrophe.   I, personally, have always spelled it Greens Farms myself — and I am one of the representatives of the GF area on the RTM (District 5)!

So most likely there is a whole other blog surrounding the  “apostrophe versus no apostrophe” debate!

Consider it done.

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Posted in Children, Education, Places

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