DCC History
Established in 1789, the Dunbarton Congregational Church is a historic 1836 meetinghouse situated on a picturesque village green on the outside; on the inside, a dynamic, innovative, and growing congregation full of caring and faithful people!
Church History
In colonial Dunbarton, public worship was held in a variety of settings. Townspeople met in the open, in homes and in the one story, thirty-foot square meeting house erected on the town common in 1766. Itinerant preachers were hired when money was voted for preaching at town meeting.
The town called Walter Harris to be its first settled minister in January, 1789, and in May it voted to build a bigger meeting house. Our church was gathered on June 18, 1789 when ten men signed the covenant. The minister’s salary was paid by a tax on residents, but in 1796 some protested. Eventually, residents holding certificates of membership in other denominations were exempted. In 1819 the Toleration Act separated church and state.
The Rev. Harris preached here for forty years. His respected presence had a remarkable influence on the whole town. The Congregational Society was formed in 1830, as the forty-year pastorate of came to a close. The Rev., John Putnam began a thirty-year pastorate in that year.
The Vestry was built in 1832 on the east side of the Common and moved in 1873 to its present location. In addition to providing a place for weekday meetings, Church school and Youth fellowship, it has housed a singing school, high school, Treasure House, dance school and pre-school.
The control of the Meeting House became a subject of disagreement among several denominations in the 1830s. The Congregational Society’s solution was to erect our present church building in 1836 with money raised from the sale of sixty-four pews. Their owners were assessed for repairs and upkeep, and pew deeds were a valuable inheritance.
Music was provided in our church with the formation of a choir in 1842. Later music was furnished by an orchestra and then an organ. The pipe organ we now enjoy was purchased from the Baptist Church in Poultney, Vermont and installed and dedicated in 1987. Our present bell, cast by the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York, was installed in 1898.
Two parsonages have been built by the church, in 1883 and in 1947-48. Two additional homes in town have been used as parsonages. Our church has been redecorated three times, in 1884, 1940 and 1964.
In 1903 the Congregational Society was incorporated into the First Congregational church of Dunbarton. By-laws were adopted and were most recently revised in 2019.
In 1961 our church joined the United Church of Christ, a 1948 union of the Congregational Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
In 1983 our church’s Christmas pageant was blessed with a new tradition. If a baby is born within a couple months of Christmas, we ask that family to play the holy family in the pageant.
The Church School planted the flowering crab tree in 1983, dedicating it “The Giving Tree.” In 1989, the gift of a maple honored a church member who gave much of herself. Both trees symbolize the spirit our church strives to achieve.
History of Dunbarton Congregational Church by Mary Stone
