Whately — The Second Congregational Church
Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.
The Second Congregational Church was organized, by a council, Nov. 10, 1842, and was composed of members who had withdrawn from the First Church. The original number was 17, and 105 were reported in 1848. The church was very prosperous for a number of years, but removals and dismissions impaired its strength to such an extent that on the 28th of January, 1864, it was disbanded, most of the remaining members uniting with the old church, which had already absorbed a great deal of its strength.
The church had two pastors. The first, the Rev. Jonathan S. Judd, was ordained Oct. 12, 1843, and, after a very successful pastorate, was dismissed Oct. 23, 1835. He was a native of Westhampton, and descended from the Rev. Jonathan Judd's family. He graduated at Williams College in 1839, and at East Windsor in 1842. From Whately he went to Middlebury, Conn., where he died, May 11, 1864.
The Rev. Charles Lord, the second pastor, was installed March 20, 1856, and dismissed Jan. 14, 1860. He graduated at Amherst in 1838 and at Andover in 1842, and before coming to Whately had served as a missionary.
The meeting-house was erected in the summer of 1843, and enlarged in 1867 by the First Church, which has used it as a place of worship since that period. It is attractive in its appearance, and is supplied with a thousand-dollar pipe-organ.
The Congregational ministers who were natives of Whately have been the following: Rev. Alvan Sanderson was born Dec. 13, 1780; graduated at Williams College in 1802; was licensed to preach in 1804, and ordained an evangelist in 1807. He became pastor of the church in Ashfield in 1808; founded Sanderson Academy, and died there in 1817.
Rev. Perez Chapin was born in Whately, April 29, 1783, but removed before 1797. He graduated at Middlebury, Vt., in 1808, and. was licensed to preach in 1810; was ordained pastor at Pownal, Me., March 20, 1811, and died there in that capacity in 1839.
Rev. Pomeroy Belden was born in Whately in 1811; graduated at Amherst in 1833, and at Andover in 1836; was ordained an evangelist at Warwick in 1837, and died while the pastor of the East Amherst Church, March, 1849.
Rev. Lucius W. Chapman was born in Whately, Jan. 7, 1820; studied at Shelburne Falls Academy; was licensed a Baptist minister in Pennsylvania in 1842, but became a Presbyterian in 1849.
Rev. Rufus Porter Wells, a grandson of the Rev. Rufus Wells, was born in Whately in 1818; graduated at Amherst in 1842; studied at Union Theological Seminary, N. Y.; was ordained pastor of the Jonesborough (East Tennessee) Presbyterian Church in 1850; suffered much persecution in the Rebellion, and was forced to flee for his life, finally settling in the North.
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