The New Church Begins Sunday Services
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, March 2026 – Carol Ganz. At the February meeting it was agreed to hire Samuel Seabury, a young man of the Groton community who had recently graduated from Harvard and had [...]
Getting down to Business
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, February 2026 – Carol Ganz. We saw last month that the only business enacted at the first meeting of North Groton Ecclesiastical Society was the election of committee men. Minutes [...]
First Meeting of the North Groton Society
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, January 2026 – Carol Ganz. Here We Are – 300 years! January 3, 1725, or is it 1726? How about 1725/26? This month marks the 300th anniversary of the first meeting [...]
Groton’s Woes, Winter Responsibilities
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, December 2025 – Carol Ganz. Again this month we turn to Joshua Hempstead of New London to learn what was happening in the region. Some of this directly bears on the [...]
Making Preparations for Winter and a Church Society
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, November 2025 – Carol Ganz. We have no records to tell us what the residents of North Groton were doing in November (or December) of 1725, but it seems likely [...]
Three Hundred Years! North Groton Ecclesiastical Society is Founded
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, October 2025 – Carol Ganz. Three Hundred Years! We’re finally there! It’s been three hundred years since the Connecticut colonial General Assembly, at its October 1725 session, granted the northern part [...]
Waiting for an Answer from the General Assembly
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, September 2025 – Carol Ganz. It’s September 1725. The residents of the northern part of Groton are busy beginning the harvest, getting in wood for the winter, and wondering if their [...]
A Wave of New Churches
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, July/August 2025 – Carol Ganz. When the residents of northern Groton began to agitate for a society of their own in 1724, so quickly after the formation of their town, Groton, [...]
The General Assembly’s Committee Does its Research
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, June 2025 – Carol Ganz. In May, 1725, the General Assembly chose to consider the petition of the northern residents of Groton, in spite of the objections of the town. To [...]
300 Years Ago – Taking Action
From the Historian's Desk, May 2025 - Carol Ganz. May 1725 – 300 years ago – Taking Action The residents of the northern part of Groton were getting frustrated. The town and church in Groton [...]
Backstory to our Ecclesiastical Society – Dissatisfaction with Groton
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, April 2025 – Carol Ganz. Last month we learned about the formation of the very long (north to south) Town of Groton in 1705. It wasn’t long before those in the [...]
Backstory to our Ecclesiastical Society – NL to Groton
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, March 2025 – Carol Ganz. Getting to Know our History, New London to Groton I thought I’d provide some of the backstory to the establishment of our ecclesiastical society in October [...]
Maintaining a MeetingHouse
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, March 2007 – Carol Ganz. How have you been faring with this strange winter, so mild and then so cold – and who knows what March will bring? At least we [...]
A brief History of the Bill Parsonage
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, September 2004 – Carol Ganz. Since the subject is receiving a good deal of attention, I thought it a good time to remind everyone how we happen to have this [...]
Women in the Early Churh at North Groton pt 2
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, May 2004 – Carol Ganz. Last month I told you some of what we know about women in the early church at Ledyard. As many of you know, after Rev. [...]
Women in the Early Church at North Groton pt 1
FROM THE HISTORIAN’S DESK, April 2004 – Carol Ganz. For the March meeting of Women’s Fellowship, I told a few stories of women in the history of our church. I’d like to share these [...]
Cy Anderson Fellowship Hall and Crawford Wing
For more than a century the current meetinghouse stood on its own, with only some outbuildings nearby. Occasionally a tent was erected to accommodate a large gathering for chowder served from the small kitchen in [...]
Origins of the United Church of Christ
Our denomination, the United Church of Christ (UCC), was formed in 1957 by the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Each of those two demonimations had merged earlier, being [...]
Origins of Ledyard & Our Church
The town of Ledyard was named and incorporated in 1836, but as an identified community its history goes back to a 1725 act of the legislature and the origins of our very own Ledyard Congregational [...]
What is an Ecclesiastical Society?
In 1725 the official church denomination of the Connecticut colony (the “established” church, i.e, the only allowable denomination) was an organization later known Congregational. It was not until the new state constitution of 1818 that Connecticut finally eliminated [...]
The First Meeting House
First Meeting House (artist's conception) 1727-1842 The first mention of a meeting house in the Ecclesiastical Society is in the record of a meeting held December 21, 1727: "It is further voted that [...]
Second (Current) Meeting House
During a period of general religious revival, in the first half of the 19th century, a new meeting house was built. It's an interesting story! In a formal vote on April 15, 1843, members determined [...]
The Church Bell
Would you like to hear a little story? One hot August day I met Neal Ganz to ring the church bell as part of a nationwide commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s renowned “I have [...]
Past Pastors
Ledyard Congregational Church is blessed to have such a long congregational history. The table below lists our pastors and the years they have served us. The rows in boldface indicate "settled", aka., long-term, pastors. The [...]
The Bill Parsonage
The Ledyard Congregational Church parsonage is a pre-1750 house on several acres of former farmland. In 1875, the local farmer Henry Bill deeded his home and farm to the Ecclesiastical Society for the use of [...]
Who Built the Outdoor Chapel?
The Outdoor Chapel was built by a large group of LCC members, Ledyard community folks, and members of our sister church in Mexico. The project was led by Alicia Ganz, a senior Girl Scout and [...]