HISTORY OF ORANGE
when required, and sweep the Academy when necessary; and to be under the inspection of the Society's committee." The position of sexton was auctioned off, and this year it was bid off by William T. Grant for $ 19.50 for the year's work.
The Ecclesiastical Society hired the use of the lower room in the Academy for $5.00 a year. They met here for smaller meetings and for the singing school, which they continued for years, appropriating $50.00 annually to pay a singing instructor. That the people of that day were conservative is borne out in an article that appeared in the New Haven Journal-Courier February 10, 1848.
FAIR IN ORANGE
''The ladies of the Congregational Church in Orange hold a fair at the house of D. B. Stone, Esq., this and tomorrow afternoon and evening, commencing at two o'clock. The object is a worthy one and we trust our citizens will call on the ladies with their contributions. It is a most awful whiggish place, but the women are pretty, and compound capital cake."
Those early Sabbaths were kept holy. At sunset on Saturday night all work and play ended, and the Sabbath was one long day of peace and rest. The hours must have seemed terribly long to the children, but most parents insisted on strict obedience. One of the town's most distinguished women, Miss Emily Prudden, told the story of one Sunday when all homes were closed by a raging snow storm. The snow was above the fences, and some one was sent to bring the sheep to a place of safety. As the sheep came tumbling over the fence, they looked like snow banks, jumping up and down. Glad of something to break the quiet, the children shouted for joy as they watched the sheep. But they were reprimanded by their father: ''Hush, hush, I should think it was Training Day." And he made the children sit in chairs in the back of the room, to help them keep quiet on Sunday.
One of the Church's most revered Deacons was Calvin Beach, who served in that capacity for many years. He
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