Royalton
Ebenezer Dewey won two pews for his family, numbers 2 and 32, for which he paid 97 pounds. Numbers 42 and 43, near the back of the church, commanded just 15 pounds each.
A ledger detailing these sales was one of several artifacts on display Sunday at an open house at the First Congregational Church of Royalton, held to mark its 240th anniversary.
While the church still invites donations, its focus has shifted to reviving community interest; last winter, in the face of declining membership and the resignation of its pastor, it shut its doors. Now, they’re back open.
Carole Dermody, who has served as the church’s historian since the 1990s, described Sunday’s event as an opportunity to raise the group’s profile. “It’s going to take some time, but I’m very optimistic that this will happen,” she said.
Newly appointed pastor Judi L. Livesey feels right at home in the Route 14 church. Many Vermont towns have the “same kind of history,” she said: “old churches with diminishing congregations and wonderful, hard-working parishioners.”
Per the Association of Religious Data Archives, Vermont churches suffered a net loss of more than 46,000 members, or 19 percent, between 1980 and 2010. At 24 percent, the drop in Windsor County, of which Royalton is a part, was even more pronounced.
Alison Gravel attended the open house having visited the church just once before: for that morning’s service. “Heathen woman comes to church for the first time is the story,” she joked.
Gravel generally attends church in Tunbridge, but her friend Paulie Hastings, who serves as a deacon at the Royalton church, encouraged her to check it out.
“The trouble with the church I normally attend is they don’t have a minister yet,” she said. “I think it’s hard getting ministers, because it doesn’t pay well.”
For Hastings, the highlights of her 10-year tenure as a deacon include the annual Christmas party, for which the congregation assembles a four-foot-long stocking that “lights up the little kids’ faces.”
Hastings has also formed tight bonds with her fellow congregants: she lamented having lost a young friend to cancer recently, and that her 98-year-old mother-in-law is no longer able to attend services.
Marge Caron, another regular, attended the church as a child, then converted to Catholicism upon marrying her husband. After 50 years away, she felt the white clapboard building beckoning.
“I kept thinking of my little church,” she said.
Now, she serves alongside Hastings as a deacon.
Sunday’s open house was an occasion to reminisce, eat Halloween cookies, and peruse copies of centuries-old records unearthed by Dermody.
Those documents feature cameos from Frederick H. Billings, namesake of the farm and national historical park, and Jacob Safford, who names a street in downtown South Royalton.
Another display, featuring black-and-white and sepia-toned portraits, was accompanied by the question: “Do you know these people?”
“I came across these photos, but none of them are labeled,” said Dermody, who found them in a locked compartment beneath a pew. “I assume they have to be previous pastors, but I don’t have a clue.”
Some attendees Sunday tried out the church’s two organs: an 1882 George H. Ryder pipe organ, and its predecessor, an 1870s Mason & Hamlin reed organ.
At one point, melodies radiated from both instruments, situated in opposite corners of the church; combined, they created a warm, concordant hum that took one’s mind off the rain pattering outside.
Gabe Brison-Trezise can be reached at g.brisontrezise@gmail.com.