The list of persons of Rogerene descent might be much enlarged, even within the limits of New London. Outside of this city, it might be almost indefinitely extended. But we have here given enough, we think, to show that Mr. McEwen’s words, “a small remnant,” were not well chosen.
It is surprising to note how many of the dwellers on State Street, in New London, have been, and are, of Rogerene descent. Even the agent from Washington employed by the government to select a lot on that street for the new postoffice, and other public uses, was a descendant of John Rogers.
Instead of a “small remnant,” the words of Scripture would be much more appropriate:—
“There shall be a handful of corn in the earth, on the top of the mountain, and the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.”
Here the writer may be indulged in a little pleasantry, and hopes the reader will not regard it as ungermane to the subject.
As we throw our searchlights upon the past, we are pleased to note that the lot on which the First Congregational Church now stands was formerly owned by Stephen Bolles (grandson of John Bolles) and then called Bolles Hill.[26] It was purchased from him in the year 1786, by “The First Church of Christ,” and a meeting-house built thereon; Stephen Bolles contributing one-third of the price of the lot towards its erection. At and after this period, it would seem that the church was more lenient toward the Rogerenes; although they were not permitted to enter into full enjoyment of equal religious liberty until 1818, when the New Constitution spread its broad ægis over all alike, to the consummation of which glorious end, the descendants of the pioneers in the Rogers movement acted such an efficient part.
Thus, the First Congregational Church, leaving the spot where had been enacted so much injustice towards the dissenters, planted itself on Bolles Hill, where the fresh breezes of liberty seemed to give it a higher and a purer life, reminding us of the old saying, “If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain.”
Not to be confounded with Bolles Hill where Joshua Bolles resided, which is a mile and a half from above location.
A fine granite structure now stands upon the old hill. May all its future utterances be worthy of its foundation. Long may it live to make the _amende honorable_, till the brightness of its future glory shall hide the shadows of the past. None will be more ready to publish its praises than the numerous posterity of the persecuted Rogerenes, remembering the motto, “To err is human, to forgive divine.”