Excerpt from A History of the Four Meeting-Houses of the First Congregational Society in Pennycook, Subsequently Rumford, Now Concord, N. H., 1726-1888: Preceded by an Introduction Relative to the Four Periods and Four Types of Meeting-House Architecture in New Hampshire, From Its Settlement in 1623 to the Present Time The second period began when the settlers of a township, increased in numbers, had attained to such means as warranted the building of a convenient framed meeting-house of sufficient size to accommodate its whole population. This was longer than the first and reached onward to about the close of the first quarter of the present century. To this period, more than to any other, belonged the old-time ordi nations and installations celebrated by our fathers. All the people of a town then attended meeting at one place. The meeting-house was, in whole or in part, the property of the town. The minister was the town minister, and ministerial settlements were for long periods, not unfrequently for life.ale The induction of a new pastor to his office was, consequently, an occasion of rare occurrence and very great interest. In earliest days the exercises were religious only, solemn, impres sive and in harmony with the occasion. At length, however, they took on a dual character. Of the large numbers present, one part gave attention to the sacred services of the occasion, while the other devoted itself to amusements of a character far from sacred, con sisting mainly of idle converse, drinking at temporary bars, petty gambling and horse racing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.