Reverend Moses Warren and the Founding Years of South Wilbraham

In the years following the American Revolution, South Wilbraham was a small but growing rural parish where farms, scattered workshops, and the steady rhythm of Congregational worship shaped daily life. Into that setting came Reverend Moses Warren, a Harvard-educated minister whose life would become closely connected with the spiritual and educational development of the community for more than four decades.

Moses Warren was born in 1758 in Upton, Massachusetts, the son of Deacon Jonas Warren and Lydia Herrington Warren. He entered Harvard College during a period when the institution was rebuilding after the disruptions of the Revolution, graduating in 1784. Like many young men preparing for the Congregational ministry, he pursued further theological study after college and was licensed to preach in 1785 at Milford, an essential step before ordination.

On September 8, 1788, in Wilbraham, he married Lydia Bliss, born January 19, 1756, in Springfield, the daughter of John Bliss and Abiel Pease Colton. Lydia came from a family whose roots reached back to the earliest English settlement of the Connecticut River Valley. Moses and Lydia established their home in the South Parish and became the parents of four children: Moses (born 1790), Lydia (1792–1875), John Bliss Warren (born 1794), and Aaron Warren (1796–1851). Lydia Warren died on November 6, 1828, at age seventy-two, and was buried in what is now Hampden. Her husband survived her by only a few months.

The South Parish of Wilbraham had been incorporated on June 11, 1782, after residents in the southern part of town sought to form their own congregation. Before a meetinghouse was completed, services were sometimes held outdoors beneath oak trees along the Scantic River in warm weather and in private homes during winter. In 1783, the parish erected its first meetinghouse on a triangular plot of land purchased from William King, the site where the Civil War Monument in present-day Hampden now stands. Captain Paul Langdon had the frame ready for raising in June of that year.

For its first decade, the meetinghouse was little more than a rough structure. It was boarded on the outside, fitted with simple board shutters instead of glass windows, and furnished with slab benches and a plain box pulpit. The framing timbers remained exposed, and swallows reportedly nested in the rafters above the congregation. Not until 1793 were funds raised to finish the interior and glaze the windows. The building’s location in the roadway later became a source of inconvenience. Although efforts were made in 1817, 1822, and 1824 to relocate it, the expense delayed action. Finally, in 1838, after Reverend Warren’s death, it was moved across the street and remodeled near the site of the old Town House.

The Congregational Church that once stood where the old Town House stands today. Carl C. Howlett

Reverend Warren was ordained in September 1788 as the first settled minister of the South Parish. Over the next forty years, he guided the congregation through the early national period, a time marked by religious revivals, educational reform, and gradual social change. His influence extended beyond Sunday sermons. The parsonage on Main Street became a center of learning where he prepared young men for college, instructing them in classical languages and moral philosophy before they entered higher study.

Among those he tutored was Oliver Bliss Morris of South Road, who later served as Judge of Probate for Hampden County from 1829 to 1858. Several of Warren’s students entered the ministry, including the Rev. Enoch Burt, Rev. Noah Saxton, Rev. Warren Isham, Rev. Horace Sessions, Rev. Samuel Bascom, and his own son, Rev. John Bliss Warren. In an era when access to formal academies was limited, such private instruction in a minister’s home played a vital role in preparing future civic and religious leaders.

The house associated with Reverend Warren still stands at 653 Main Street in Hampden. The land formed part of a larger tract William King sold to Zenas Parsons in 1784; the deed referenced a dwelling already on the property, suggesting that part of the structure may predate Warren’s purchase. In 1789, Warren acquired the corner portion from Parsons and Thomas Dwight and resided there throughout his pastorate, from 1789 until his death in 1829.

The home that once belonged to Reverend Moses Warren still stands as a quiet reminder of South Wilbraham’s early days. It is most likely that the smaller section on the left side represents the original structure, with later additions expanding the house over time. Hampden Historical Society

The home that once belonged to Reverend Moses Warren. Carl C. Howlett

Architectural features within the house point to earlier building traditions. In the keeping room, two bake ovens remain, one set at the rear of the hearth and another at the side, an uncommon survival. By the late eighteenth century, rear-set oven construction was becoming less common in new houses, making its presence here notable. Exposed gunstock posts, flared wooden supports typical of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century New England framing, are also visible, suggesting that portions of the structure may incorporate earlier work or materials. Carpenter’s assembly marks, cut into attic timbers in Roman numerals, remain clear evidence of eighteenth-century building practices, guiding the raising of the frame.

On interior pine boards near a fireplace on the second floor, alphabet letters scratched into the wood can still be seen. Such “scribing” was a common way for children to practice penmanship in an age when paper was scarce and fireplaces provided both warmth and light. These markings offer a rare and personal glimpse into the everyday life of the household.

Account books kept by Stephen West indicate that in 1789, he supplied oak and white pine boards, shingles, nails, lime, and bricks for Reverend Warren’s house. The materials suggest enlargement or improvement of the dwelling around the time Warren took possession, likely creating much of the main section visible today. Its scale and architectural character closely resemble the neighboring house that West owned and built in 1792.

Reverend Warren’s health declined in his later years, but he continued in active service until his death on February 19, 1829. He was laid to rest in the Old Hampden Cemetery, beside Lydia, whose partnership had sustained both household and parish life. After his death, the house passed to his son, Aaron, and later to his grandson, John Bliss Warren. In subsequent years, it was owned by Charles H. Barrows, author of The History of Springfield, and by Marcus P. Knowlton, who later served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Hampden Historical Society preserves early deeds associated with the property, including the 1884 transfer signed by Knowlton and his wife.

Reverend Moses Warren’s long pastorate bridged the Revolutionary generation and the dawning of the Jacksonian era. As minister, educator, and community leader, he helped shape the moral and intellectual character of South Wilbraham during its formative years. His legacy endures not only in church records and cemetery stones, but in the house on Main Street and in the lives of the students and families he influenced, quiet but enduring threads in the history of Hampden.