now calls itself Pittsfield, the simple rectangular meeting-house was raised in the summer, and a Mr. Jesse Sackett, having been rebuked in town meeting in May for neglecting to "clear, close, and clean" an acre and a half for a meeting-house spot, as agreed, was granted an extension of time in which to do it, and he accomplished his work before the beginning of November, sparing only two of the natives of the forest, both of them remarkably symmetrical, and one of them afterwards becoming celebrated as the old elm of Pittsfield. At length the simple box was completed as to floor, sides, and roof; and here again the work paused, while the people were still listening to different men as "candidates." Undoubtedly a settled pastor would have been a great aid and inspiration in the work of church building. Up to this time, and for three years afterwards, there was no church organization; all that had been done previously was the work of the settling-lot proprietors, who thus fulfilled their part of the bargain made with the Province under its grant.
In December, 1763, the town decided to invite Mr. Thomas Allen, of Northampton, a theological student, twenty years old, to preach as a probationer. Of course, a man whose grandfather had been a deacon of Jonathan Edwards, and whose father had been the steadfast friend of that great man during the agitations that had ended in his severance from the church there, must have seen the anomalous condition of things, when he was invited to preach in a place where no church had been organized; and, undoubtedly through his influence, on the 7th of February, 1764, eight men gathered in the house of Deacon Crofoot, and a confession of faith and a covenant having been drawn up, it was signed, and "The Church of Christ in Pittsfield" had come into being. These eight "foundation men," as they are happily styled in the "Proceedings" of the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the church, did not trust to their own unassisted wisdom; they called to their aid the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, of Great Barrington, whom Mrs. Stowe has immortalized in "The Minister's Wooing," Dr. Stephen West, of Stockbridge, a man of great note in his day, and the less eminent Rev. Ebenezer Martin, of Becket. After having signed the covenant, they repaired to the church, arid listened to a sermon from the eminent Mr. Hopkins; and in that day before post-offices and newspapers it was no doubt a real intellectual feast. They voted unanimously on the 5th of March to call Mr. Allen to the pastorate, and he responded in the following letter: —
To The People of Pittsfield:
Dear Brethren, — Your invitation of me to settle among you in the gospel ministry I have received by your committee chosen for that purpose; I apprehend I have duly considered the same. In answer to this, your invitation, I would say, that having sought divine direction, taken the advice of the judicious, and duly consulted my own judgment, I cannot but think it my duty to accept; and, accordingly, do now declare my cordial acceptance of the same.
I take this opportunity to testify my grateful sense of your respect, shown in that good agreement and harmony that subsisted among you in the choice of one less than the least of all saints, to preach among you the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Nothing doubting but that, at your next meeting, you will freely grant forty or fifty cords of wood annually, or as much as you shall think sufficient, and some addition to my settlement, either by grant in work, or whatever, out of generosity, by subscription or whatever way you please, I now stand ready to be introduced to the work whereunto I am called, as soon as a convenient opportunity shall present itself.
These from your affectionate friend,
Thomas Allen.
It will be noticed that Mr. Allen addresses his letter to "The People of Pittsfield," and that he makes it cover both the spiritualities and temporalities of the contemplated relation. That this
erected by the Rev. Thomas Allen in 1768.