ORANGE CONG. CHURCH 13
thing, however, had been gained. A charter was granted and the Society was organized on the first Monday in December 1804. It has held its annual meeting on that day for a hundred years. Regular preaching services began immediately after the organization of the Society, and February 24, Mr. Erastus Scranton, a candidate for the ministry, preached his first sermon and continued to supply the pulpit until July, when he was ordained pastor of the church and society. It is related that Mr. Scranton's father, upon being asked what Erastus was doing, replied that "he was preaching the everlasting gospel to the heathen of North Milford." How much injustice the elder Scranton's witticism did his son's parishioners is already evident. It grows clearer still when we scan the list of original church members. The church was organized March 13, 1805, with a membership of 54, all of whom had been dismissed by letter from the Milford churches for this purpose. They were Robert Treat, Benedict Law and wife, Elias Clark and wife, Matthew Woodruff and wife, Jonathan Rogers, Samuel Treat, John Bryan, Frances Treat, Anna Treat, Rebecca Pardee, Anna Clark, Mary Woodruff, Ketmah Platt, Robert Treat and wife, Joseph Stone and wife, Samuel Stone and wife, Samuel Prudden, Jonah Treat and wife, Asa Platt and wife, Josiah Boardman from the First church, and William Fowler and wife, Benjamin Clark and wife, Content Fowler, Joseph Treat and wife, Margaret Andrew, Samuel Fenn, Isaac Treat and wife, Benjamin Fenn and wife, Peck Fenn and wife, Jonathan Treat and wife, Samuel Fenn and wife, David Treat and wife, Joseph Treat, Amos Mallery and wife from the Second church. In May, John Gunn and wife were received by letter from the First church. Here there are fifty-six men and women, but only sixteen different names, and nearly all notable names in the history of Milford and the colony. Here were descendants of the Rev. Peter Prudden, the friend of Davenport and Eaton, the leader of the band that settled the town, and its first minister, whose death in the prime of life, says Mather, "was felt by the colony as the