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II !PARSON READ’S PORTABLE PULPITOn* of ■ Namhwr of Curlnn* Antiquities In• Connecticut Knmentend.At an auction of the old Augustus F. Bead homestead in the country town ofLisbon, Conn., the other day, a queer old-time, open-and-shut pulpit was offered for sale, but no one needed apulpit, so the family decided to keep it in the family... ^The Head homestead, which is a milewest of Jewett City, eight miles north of Norwich, has been in the Readfamily for more than 160 years, and there are lots of queer things on the premises. The pulpit is the queerest one. It belonged to the pioneer Read, the Rev. Amos, who was the tirstBaptist clergyman in Eastern Con* neticut, and ne had it made expressly for him in portable shape, so he could trot it about the country on horsebackon his extensive spiritual trips. Towns were big in square miles in those days, and Baptist clergymen extremely scarce, and often ElderRead haJ to travel forty or fifty milesto preach to a little Baptist hamlet 01administer baptism to a rugged oldfarmer who wanted thorough work inohis case and no dainty ‘’dipping” process. The opon-and shut pulpit was almost as handy a thing to take alone on a journey as is a modern steamer trunk. The pulpit opens and shuts with hinges like a chest. Its lid is very much larger than the body part. Shut, it is a box of portable size; opened, the lid stands straight in front of the preacher, a pulpit standard, oa which he lavs his Bible and hvmn book,m ■ v —wwhile he discourses, mounted on theother part of t he box. The part on which he stands is several inches thickand similar to the raised platform that is an adjunct to the modern pulpit.The Rev. Amos Read, when he setforth to preach in distant parts, just strapped his pulpit, balanced it on his horse's back, and so journeyed across country, carrying church and Gospel along with him. In his travels, if hechanced upon a dusty and peregrinating sinner, he merely halted andiIhitched his steed to a tree, set up his pulpit Ebenezer” by the roadside, and, mounting it, called the sinner torepentance then and there, with tho blue vault of the sky for the ceiling of his temple aud the caroling son^ birds for a choir. It didn’t cost itinerantsinners a cent for pews in Parson Read’s peregrinating church, and the choir didn’t quarrel about the hymns or charge anything for climbing the musical scale. Mr. Read didn’t preach a great deal bv the roadside, however,4ifor every farmer was pious in those times, aud delighted to let the elder have his best room for a neighborhood meeting. There was still another use to which tho pulpit was fitted. After preaching from it for three or four solid hours, the Rev. Mr. Read spread it wide open, fastened the joints taut, and then had a very convenient aud satisfactory communion table. The Reail family will now preserve the relic as an heirloom. It will be useful 8lt;1!to hang bric-a-brac or tidies against.Still another curiosity treasured bya| rthe family is the old sign that used to i XIsiswing in the wind in front of the Read House when it was a tavern in 1768.The sign is more ancient than the a famous Geu. Israel Putnam sign, whichhun«s at the tavern that “Old Put” kept in Windham County. Inscribed on the Read sign are “1768” and “Enter-tainmeut for Man and Horse.” In the fsdays of the Rev. Amos Read Lisbon cc was a part of Norwich, and in the te Read Hotel, it is said, troops were re- te cruited for the French and Indian Hiwars.S(
Newspaper Details
Paradise Messenger
Paradise, Texas, US
Sat, Aug 02, 1890
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Elizabeth B.
TX, USA 01 Feb 2022
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