LOOKING BACKWARD
farmer looking man." It is related that when his father was asked what Erastus was doing, he replied, ''He is preaching the everlasting Gospel to the heathen of North Milford.'' The church was organized March 13, 1805, with a membership of fifty-four, all of whom had been dismissed by letter from the two Milford churches for this purpose.
Right here it must be stated that there was a great distinction in the use of the words. The church was the body of Christian believers, the building in which they met to worship was called the Meeting House. A witness to this fact is the road leading west from the Green, which has always been called ''Meeting-house Lane." At the same time a plot north of the church was set aside for use as a burial ground, or ''God's-acre,'' and the first person to be buried there was Joseph, the young son of Joseph and Eunice Treat, on November 2, 1805.
From the records of the Church or the Ecclesiastical Society can be gained much information of those early days. On December 7, 1807, it was voted that a tax of four cents and five mills be laid upon the Dollar upon the polls and rateable estate of the inhabitants of North Milford Society for the purpose of supporting the Gospel and defraying the necessary charges of said Society, and that Benjamin Fenn be appointed Collector of above tax. Also voted ''that Benjamin Fenn set monuments of stone in the burying-ground, so as to make the lots conspicuous.''
At the annual meeting of the Ecclesiastical Society held December 4, 1809, it was voted to build a suitable building for public worship. Voted ''that the meeting house stand on the corner of Mr. Samuel Treat's lot, which he had donated for the purpose, and about two and a half rods north of the present meeting house."
Also it was voted that for the purpose of building said house, two thousand dollars be raised by subscription. Also, ''that no person who subscribes shall be bound to pay what he subscribes unless the sum of at least two thousand dollars be raised.'' Benjamin Fenn, David Treat,
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