It was back on
March 27, 1815 that 10 men and women of New Village (then called
West Middle Island) assembled at the home of Jeremiah Wheeler
and organized a Congregational church.
This little
group of early settlers elected Jeremiah Wheeler and Azariah
Hawkins deacons and Isaac Gould clerk. For some time meetings
were held in private homes and on July 12, 1817 Deacon Wheeler
and Nathaniel Smith were appointed to draw up plans for a
meeting house. In February 1818 a subscription list was
circulated to raise the money for this purpose, which read as
follows.
“We, the
undersigned, have agreed to pay the several sums annexed to our
respective names for the purpose of building a good and
convenient House for the worship of God according to the
following plan.”
The first
minister of the New Village church was the Rev. Jacob Corwin of
Middle Island, who was also one of the first ministers of the
Wading River Congregational Church, which had been organized in
1789. He was followed in 1826 by the Rev. Nathaniel Hawkins,
who was pastor until 1843. In 1830 there was special awakening
in the community and 31 members were added to the Church rolls.
About this time the first Sunday School was organized.
The
Presbyterians became more closely connected with the Setauket
Presbyterian Church and gave up their right to the New Village
church, and within a short time the Baptists did likewise,
leaving the church in the sole possession of the Congregational
organization.
The meeting
house was to be erected on a plot of land to be purchased from
Jeremiah Wheeler, a little east of Titus Gould’s. When $1,000
was subscribed the committee was to proceed with the erection of
a suitable church building, which was to be free for all
denominations of Protestant Christians, and the
Congregationalists were to occupy it one half the time, with the
Baptist and Presbyterians each one quarter of the time.
In 1845 the
church was incorporated as the First Congregational Church of
New Village.
In 1858
several members withdrew to organize a Congregational church at
Farmingville, a few miles to the south.
In 1886 a
parsonage was built on a lot donated by the Rev. Otis Holmes,
who was pastor at that time. This was paid for by contributions
from members and friends of the church and was completed without
any debt to the church.
The church
having served its day and generation, has recently been replaced
with a beautiful new building located on a tract of land a short
distance to the north of the old church.