[The below presentation was given during the 100th reunion of the Pierpont Family Association on June 24, 2023]
The Saw Mill Plain Schoolhouse was built in 1833 where Chase School now stands (just up the road from the current church). Religious services were begun there in 1878. In 1883, the Mill Plain Chapel was built for $1,750. (One of the key ministers at the time was Rev. John Gaylord Davenport who was also a minister at the Second Congregation Church in Waterbury. He was a direct descendant of Rev. John Davenport who had founded New Haven in 1639 and a great*5 nephew of Abigail Davenport, the first wife of Rev. James Pierpont.)
[Mill Plain Chapel]
Rev. Davenport passed away in 1922. Planning for the first Pierpont Reunion began a year later in late 1923. The first reunion was held in May 1924 in the Mill Plain Chapel – just a short distance down the road from where we are today. There were about 80 in attendance. The minutes record that this was a reunion of the “North Haven branch of Pierponts”! (The North Haven branch were the descendants of Joseph Pierpont (1704-1748). Joseph’s grandson, Ezra was the one who moved from North Haven to Waterbury.) My grandfather was one of the attendees, but my grandmother was not in attendance as she was caring for two young children and was 8 months pregnant with my mother.
The 1925 reunion was held in the same place. Construction of the new Mill Plain Church had started so it was anticipated that the 1926 reunion would be held there.
In 1926, the reunion was held in the yet incomplete new church building. Supper was served in the dining room/gymnasium. The president, Morton Pierpont (owner of the Maple Hill Dairy) suggested that the association purchase the Pierpont Memorial window since members of the Pierpont family had been attending since before the first chapel was built in Mill Plain. Two committees were formed – one being the window committee and a second to investigate the Pierrepont Coat of Arms (more on that later today).
In 1927, the church was still under construction, so the meeting was again held in the gymnasium. It wasn’t until the 1928 meeting that the PFA was thanked for their contribution by the then pastor (Rev. J. O. Todd) and that the PFA had an opportunity to inspect the new window. All voted it a very beautiful church and complimented its designer.
While the 1929 meeting was again held at the Mill Plain church, beginning in 1930, the PFA began meeting in other less formal venues, but still in the Waterbury area. These included Fulton Park (1930), and Maple Hill Dairy (1931, 1932, 1933). In 1934, the first non-Waterbury location was used – the Congregational Church in North Haven. It was about the same time that the focus of the PFA was extended from just being the “North Haven branch” to being the “New England Pierponts”, i.e., going back through the Rev. James Pierpont to his father, John, and uncle, Robert, who were the first of the family to settle in Roxbury, MA.
After meeting at other locations around the state for several years, restrictions on travel due to gasoline unavailability during WWII necessitated a return to having meetings in Waterbury. The 1942 and 1943 meetings were once again held at Mill Plain with the 1943 meeting only having 27 in attendance – the lowest on record at that point. Essentially, only those who could walk to the meeting attended. But this included my grandfather who was elected president of the PFA in 1942 (he served for 3 years) and my mother who was elected secretary in 1943 at the age of just 18.
[Wedding]
My parents were married in the Mill Plain church in September 1946. They were among the last married there as on February 26, 1947, a devastating fire gutted the church. The PFA began a window committee to raise funds for a new window for the restored church. Like the first church which was built by church members, and which took over two years to build, the new edifice would take over a year to be constructed.
The new building was completed sometime in mid-late 1948. But just as my parents’ wedding was one of the last in the old building, so too our family had a part in the new building. I was born in August of 1948 and was dedicated/baptized in the Mill Plain church that November by Rev. Leon Dickinson. I was likely the first baby dedicated in this facility.
[Dedication Certificate]
The 1949 meeting was held in June and the main purpose was the dedication of the “beautiful stained glass memorial window.” Rev. Dickinson expressed his grateful appreciation for the effort, work and contributions which made possible the donation of this beautiful window.” That was also my first PFA meeting (at age 10 months). However, I was not the youngest there as my cousin Dave was also in attendance and he was only 4 months old!
[Pierpont Window]
The PFA has only been back to Waterbury a few times since the 1940s – meeting at Mill Plain in 1953, meeting at Mort Pierpont’s Grove (Maple Hill Diary) in 1960 and 1961, and our last meeting at Mill Plain in 1999 for the 50th anniversary of the rededication of the beautiful window. Let me quote from the minutes of that meeting.
“Then historian Bob Kraft talked about the intertwined
organizational and personal connections between the Pierpont Family Association
and the Mill Plain Union Chapel (1883) and Church, as well as the Old Pine
Grove Cemetery on which the buildings stand. It was pointed out that many
objects in the church (including other windows) were associated with the wider
Pierpont (-Miller, -Garrigus, etc.) family.
It has now been another
quarter-century since our last PFA meeting at Mill Plain Church. This is our
100th reunion and it’s only fitting that we are once again meeting
in the place where we began. The connections between this church and the
greater Pierpont family are numerous and I’ve only touched on the main ones.
Let’s enjoy our day together here – getting reacquainted with each other,
meeting family members new and old, and enjoying the history that this place
represents – including the beautiful Pierpont Family Memorial window!
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