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"Portrait of Rev. Nathan Perkins"
Joseph Steward, artist
ca. 1800
Last week you read his words; this week say Hello to Nathan Perkins, pastor of First Church from 1772–1838.
Perkins was 23 when he became the third pastor of the church. Born in Norwich, CT, educated at Princeton (a classmate of James Madison), and ordained in West Hartford, he had a keen interest in education and evangelism.
At age 84, Perkins remarked that he had "trained up for the holy ministry thirty-five young men, [and] fitted 100 for college." He was an early advocate of Sunday School, and he established a lending library for the CT Congregational Churches' Hartford North Association. Perkins was also instrumental in the founding of the Theological Institute of Connecticut, the present-day Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.
In 1789, the North Association began sending missionaries to unsettled areas north and west of Connecticut. Perkins was appointed to the frontier of Vermont, where he spent six weeks traveling through backwoods roads—preaching to the unchurched, baptizing new believers, and recording his experiences in a journal. Scholars now consider this journal among the earliest travel guides. Perkins’s descendants later titled it "A Narrative of a Tour Through the State of Vermont from April 27 to June 12, 1789" and published it in 1920.
Perkins, however, would likely have been appalled to see his memoir in print. For even as he described the towns he encountered and the souls he met, he also complained relentlessly about the food, manners, and households of early Vermonters.
Words cannot describe ye hardships I undergo...Got lost twice in ye woods already—heard ye horrible howling of ye wolves. Far absent—in ye wilderness—among all strangers—all alone—among log-huts—people nasty—poor—low-lived—indelicate—and miserable cooks.
Perkins survived his Vermont excursion and came home to West Hartford. He ultimately served 66 years at First Church.
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