HISTORY OF CANAAN 232

Soon afterwards good old David Dustin joined them; then “Esq.” Arvin applied and was admitted into that sacred circle. Arvin kept store at the north end of the Street then and sold rum, and he was often drunk upon his own liquor, which seriously scandalized the class and the brethren. It was common for them all to drink Arvin’s rum, but he was drunk oftener and worse than the others.

    There was a man named Warren Bannister who came here in 1810 as the Methodist minister. He had some duties to perform in regard to Arvin, disagreeable duties to him, because he was neither brave nor shrewd. Arvin’s conduct annoyed them all, but being a prominent man, Bannister feared to apply the discipline. He prayed over his dilemma and then with desperate courage seized its horns and excommunicated, the whole class together, serving the innocent and guilty alike. It occurred this was the quickest way to get the sinner out! Then he reorganized the class; Arvin and his friends were enraged, and much ill-feeling cropped out in the community. Bannister invited Mr. Dustin to rejoin the class. He replied, “No! he had been turned out once without cause, and he would stay out, lest he might be treated worse next time.” Mr. Dustin lived and died a Methodist, but never again joined the class. There was Elder John Broadhead, for many years a presiding elder and resident here in the early part of the century. He lived in a house that once stood on the ground that was covered by the house resided in by Mr. Walker, afterwards burned, on South Road. He owned the land down as far as the corner, where afterwards the first Methodist church was built in 1826.

    The elder was a Democrat of the sternest, most unyielding kind. Even at that time, it was doubtful whether religion or politics had the strongest hold on his conscience. It appears that most of the Methodist clergy of the early days were Democrats, a fact which at this day seems singular, since Jefferson, the father of the Democratic party was an avowed infidel and a great admirer of Voltaire. Democracy in those days was not the thing of shreds and patches which is today honored with that name. It meant then a system of government founded upon the direct will of the people and opposed the principle of Federalism as tending to consolidate the powers of the government in few