“In the third year of the reign of His Majesty King George III (1763), Timothy Lull, his wife, and four children, entered the limits of what is now known as Hartland, Vermont.”

 Thus begins the story of Hartland, and the Universalist Society, in the centennial (1802-1902) history of our religious society.  Within twenty-five years there were one thousand residents in the town, and the “orthodox” folk had already built a meetinghouse.  However, by 1794, when the radical Universalists met for their first New England Convention in Oxford, Massachusetts, Hartland along with Barnard, Bethel, Bridgewater and Woodstock had been identified  as hotbeds of religious radicalism.  The message of salvation for all as opposed to the Calvinist gospel of heaven only for the elect, had taken root in central Vermont.

 Some of the Hartland residents, such as Timothy Lull (Lull Brook is across the road from the  present meetinghouse), had been exposed to liberal sentiments in religion before moving here, and so they covenanted together in 1802 and called Hosea Ballou as their first minister.  He served from 1803 - 1809.  While circuit riding among the five towns mentioned above, he wrote his Treatise on Atonement (1805), in which was blended for the first time the essential teachings of Universalism, and another group of radicals, the Unitarians.

 The Unitarians were considered heretical because they rejected the notions of the Trinity and original sin.  Whereas the Universalists represented a more rural and manual-labor class, most Unitarians lived in urban areas and were usually propertied or of the commercial class.

 The Universalists originally shared the Union Meeting House, built at Hartland Three Corners in 1778, with the orthodox Congregationalists. In 1822 they decided to build their own meetinghouse at Hartland Four Corners, on land that now belongs to one of the members, Connie Tessier.

 After a series of occasional preachers between 1810 and 1821, the second settled minister was Robert Bartlett (1822-1830) from Bath, New Hampshire.  He served simultaneously in the Vermont state legislature, reflecting  the long tradition of active social involvement that has characterized both the Universalist and the Unitarian clergy.

 The year 1822 also marked the first of several name changes for this religious society.  Originally called the Catholic Benevolent Society, the group substituted the synonym universalist for catholic, in part to avoid confusion with Roman Catholics.  The word “benevolent” was dropped from the name in 1840.

 Following several short-term ministries, the Rev. Oliver G. Woodbury was called in 1852, and served for the most contentious decade in the church’s history.  Mr. Woodbury felt strongly that a new meetinghouse was in order.  The congregation split over this issue, and in 1854 the present meetinghouse was built, using some of the old timbers (still visible in the fellowship hall) from the original building.  The society never regained its numbers or influence since that unfortunate, conflicted division.

 At mid-century the Universalist movement was the sixth largest denomination in the United States.  But after the Civil War, this church as well as the denomination saw a period of decline that lasted well into the twentieth century.  The major reason for this was the fact that the mainline Protestants by and large abolished the stance of salvation for the elect, and embraced many of the positions first set forth by the Universalists.

 The lack of a sharply-defined doctrinal difference with the majority of Protestants helped to create an identity crisis locally and nationally for Universalists.  By the beginning of the twentieth century, there was virtual theological agreement between the Congregationalists who attended the “Brick” church at Three Corners and the Universalists of the white-clapboard church at Four Corners.  Therefore, the two groups formed an alliance called a “yoke” (as in a team of oxen), whereby both groups maintained their separate corporations but shared one minister.  This arrangement lasted from the late 1920’s to the late 1950’s.  During that time, the Brick Church was used by both groups from the fall through the spring, because it had both electricity and plumbing, and the Universalist church was used in the summer.

 In the post-World War II era, the ecumenical movement motivated many denominations to examine consolidation.  In the spirit of cooperation and to make best use of resources, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America began talks that led to a formal merger in 1961.  In 1959 the Congregational Brick Church decided to join the United Church of Christ, which was a union of four liberal Protestant denominations, and the Universalist Society cast its lot with the newly formed Unitarian Universalist Association.

 In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the First Universalist Society, as it was now known, had a series of yoked ministries with other area Unitarian groups, such as Windsor, and with other Universalist groups  such as Woodstock.  The 1980’s saw the Hartland society of religious liberals strike out on their own. Under the leadership of Dan Budd, Jeff Symynkywicz, Patience Stoddard, Maury Landry and, since September 1999, Beverly Boke, this “religious society of free thinkers” has survived, grown, and is now blossoming with a renewed sense of mission to the Upper Valley.  Along with our sister communities of faith in Woodstock (North Universalist Chapel Society) and Norwich (Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley), we witness to tolerance, freedom of conscience, reason, community-building, and the ongoing quest for meaning and social justice.

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