REV. EUGENE F. ATWOOD
BLOOMFIELD: Pastor of Congregational Church
Rev. E. F. Atwood is a descendant of Dr. Thomas Atwood, who came from Essex, England, in 1640, to Plymouth, Mass., and settled in Wethersfield, Conn., about 1660. On one line he is a direct descendant from Solomon Stoddard of North Hampton, Mass., and Rev. John Warham, the first pastor of Windsor. He was born in Woodbury March 14, 1847. He is married and has two children, a boy and a girl. He enlisted at fifteen years of age from the district school July 14, 1862, in Company A, Fifteenth Connecticut Volunteers. He has served two years as state chaplain of the G. A. R., was also commander of D. S. Cowles Post, and delegate to the national encampment of the G. A. R. in California.
After the war he began a course, preparatory to entering college, in a private school in Woodbury. In 1868 he entered Madison University (now Colgate), Hamilton, N.Y. In 1870 he removed to Oberlin, Ohio. After two years in the college he entered the Theological Department, and graduated in August, 1875. In December, 1875, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational church at Arcade, N.Y. In the summer of 1877 the society voted to tear down the old church and build a new one at a cost of $6,000, and granted Mr. Atwood a leave of absence for six months. He immediately entered the government employ as assistant superintendent of construction, and with a party he assisted in laying out Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone river. In the fall he returned, and, finding some dissatisfaction arising from his activity in raising the money for the new church, he at once resigned his pastorate to accept a call to Rodman, N.Y. Here a great revival followed his labors, and the church was repaired at a cost of $3,000. The Home Missionary Society extended him a call to the pastorate of the Congregational church at Deadwood, Dakota, and to supervise their new work in the Black Hills. In the fall of 1878 he accepted this call. Here he found full opportunity for the exercise of his natural organizing and financial ability. He assisted in organizing and procuring pastors for nine churches. This association of churches voted to locate a college in that region and appointed Mr. Atwood their financial agent. A college charter was secured, the first granted by the territory of Dakota. A preparatory school was sustained, forty acres of land secured at a value of $8,000, and a building erected at a cost of $3,000 more. A bill was introduced in the territorial legislature to establish a Normal school in connection with this school at Spearfish. The bill was so amended as to include three other Normal schools, locating two in North and two in South Dakota; these are now in successful operation.
The position of county superintendent of schools was offered Mr. Atwood, but his health began to fail under his multiplied labors, and he was obliged to resign his pastorate and to return East. After a few months’ rest he accepted a call to a small country church in Bridgewater in this state, where he remained three years, and then accepted a call to the church in East Canaan. A division in the society as to location of the church arose, and Mr. Atwood resigned. Soon after one party withdrew and formed the Plymouth church of North Canaan.
After supplying a few months in Harwinton, he accepted the call to his present pastorate in Bloomfield in May, 1887. Mr. Atwood has taken much interest in photographing the historic homes of old Connecticut, and is at present the accredited lecturer of the Connecticut Historical Society. He is frequently called to read papers pertaining to the history of Connecticut before learned societies in other states, and is much in demand for memorial and other addresses in locations where he is known.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
Free Connecticut Genealogy Lookups
Connecticut Societies
Connecticut Surname Queries
Connecticut Genealogy Data Resources
|