As  he  was  a  man  of  earnest  piety,  joined  to  other  gifts  of  no
mean  order,  he  was  enabled  to  give  quite  an  impetus  to  the  new
sect  in  town.
Rev.  Amos  Kidder,  appointed  in  1843,  was  the  next  preacher.
The  additions  at  first  were  slow  and  prospects  not  very  encour-
aging.     Meetings  were  held  in  schoolhouses  and  in  private  resi-


136  HISTORY   OF   CORNISH.
dences.  The  old  brick  schoolhouse  on  the  Flat  was  used  several
seasons  as  a  house  of  worship.  Here  the  first  and  second  meetings
of  the  quarterly  conference  were  held,  July  1  and  September  21,
1843.     Jared  Perkins  was  the  presiding  elder.
During  a  space  of  six  years,  from  April  24,  1844,  to  July  10,
1850,  no  record  of  the  church  is  found.
The  "Evangelical  Congregational  Church  and  Society"  had
built  their  neat  and  commodious  meeting  house,  but  they  had  been
frowned  out  of  existence  as  a  church,  thus  leaving  their  meeting
house  and  parsonage  without  an  occupant.  It  was  in  some
respects  a  blessing  to  the  Methodist  Society  to  have  the  privilege
of  occupying  the  meeting  house  and  pay  rent  therefor.
Another  fortunate  thing  for  the  Methodists  was  this:  Many  of
the  members  of  the  former  church  that  were  anxious  to  affiliate
with  some  earnest  religious  body,  united  themselves  with  the
new  order  and  became  a  very  important  factor  with  them.
