ORANGE CONG. CHURCH 9
One Hundred Years
Rev. Benjamin M. Wright.
IT was Dr. Holmes, I think, who said that a child's education should begin 100 years before he was born. Now if we assume that what is good for an individual is good for an aggregation of individuals, and if we acknowledge the authority of Dr. Holmes' dictum, then the Orange church was born with hereditary tendencies which are ideal. And if to a helpful heredity there be added a stimulating environment what is left to be desired? Surely our church has been fortunate in its parentage and fortunate in its Sisterhood! We are proud of them both and grateful for them both. It was approximately 100 years from the settlement of North Milford to the establishment of the Society and church and during all this time the hardy settlers, sons of the early colonists for the most part, made their way on Sunday to one or the other of the meeting houses in the southern part of the town. In December 1792, however, according to Mr. Scranton in his history of Milford, the inhabitants of Bryan's Farm (North Milford) petitioned the Societies for preaching in the winter. That winter they were granted six Sundays, the next ten and in 1796 the number was increased to 12. When Mr. Pinneo was called to the first Church, in 1796, it was stipulated that he should preach "six Sabbaths during the winter at Bryan's Farms." That the minister of the second church did the same is evident from Mr. Scranton's statement that from 1796 on there was preaching at Bryan's Farms 12 Sundays during the winter; and from his further statement with regard to the first meeting