The Sabbath in Puritan New England

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m. BY DBUM AND HORN AND SHELL. At about nine o'clock on the Sabbath morning the Puritan colonists assembled for the first public service of the holy day ; they were gathered together by various warning sounds. The Haverhill settlers listened for the ringing toot of Abraham Tyler's horn. The Montague and South Hadley people were notified that the hour of assembling had arrived by the loud blowing of a conch-shell. John Lane, a resident of the latter town, was engaged in 1750 to " blow the Cunk " on the Sabbath as " a sign for meeting." In Stockbridge a strong-lunged " praying" Indian blew the enormous shell, which was safely preserved until modern times, and which, when relieved from Sunday use, was for many years sounded as a week-day signal in the hay-field. Even a conch-shell was enough of an expense to the poor colonial churches. The Montague people in 1759 paid £1 10s. for their " conk," and also on the purchase year gave Joseph Root 20 shillings for blowing the new shell. In 1785 the Whately church voted that " we will not improve anybody to blow the conch," and so the church-attendants straggled to Whately meeting each at his own time and pleasure. In East Hadley the inhabitant who " blew the kunk " (as phonetic East Hadleyites spelt it) and swept out the meeting-house was paid annually the munificent sum of three dollars for his services. Conch-blowing was not so difficult and consequently not so highly-paid an accomplishment as drum-beating. A verse of a simple old-fashioned hymn tells thus of the gathering of the Puritan saints: — " New England's Sabbath day Is heaven-like still and pure, When Israel walks the way Up to the temple's door. The time we tell When there to come By beat of drum Or sounding shell." The drum, as highly suitable for such a mili...