-67-
The
meeting house had no kitchen or
special room for socials, but picnics and festivals were held
out of
doors or at the home of members.
There was a group of Methodists living in
and near
the area called Pleasant Vale in 1792, and a circuit was
formed in
1813, to include the group.
The meeting house was open for any one to
preach in
and it was variously occupied by Quakers, Mormon Apostles,
Methodists,
Second Adventists and in one case it was said a man spoke in
an unknown
tongue. However, the Methodist clergy were the only group with
a
regular circuit in the area, so they became the predominant
users of
the chapel.
Over the course of time the frequency of
Methodist
meetings was increased to weekly, and they occupied the
building on a
regular basis.
Sharpe notes that a vote was once taken to
turn the
old building over to the Methodist Episcopal presiding elder
for the
district, "but the vote was said to be invalid, and the record
of the
vote being afterward burned, the building was still a
neighborhood
affair."
However, when the Housatonic Power Company,
now the
Conn. Light and Power Company, proposed to build a dam across
the river
to generate electricity, the question of ownership of the
community
chapel became important.
The company negotiated with the
congregation and
received an option on the land and building, provided the
company would
provide a similar piece of land and provide a new church to
replace the
one to be flooded.
In order to legalize its title to grant
this option
to the River Company, the congregation was incorporated as the
Stevenson Union Church Association in 1897. The ordained elder
of the
Methodist Episcopal Society was made an ex-officio member of
the
Association.
At the same time, the river company offered
to
exchange with the Riverside Cemetery Association, land near
the new
church site. Furthermore, it would guarantee, provide for, and
pay for
the removal of all the bodies, including those in the pauper's
corner,
with all their monuments to the new location of the cemetery,
to be
located next to the property of the Union Church Association.
A special law of Connecticut, approved in
February,
1897, authorized the removal of all persons and headstones to
the new
lot. In May, 1899 the agreement was signed for the removal,
when the
dam was to be constructed. The final agreement was signed in
1918.
