It was surely wintery weather when, on January 14, 1883, members of the Randolph community left their homes and farms along the Moose and Israel Rivers and on the hills above to meet at the home of George Wood and his family. Meeting in the valley, twenty-eight residents voted to organize a religious society. They named it the “Union Congregational Society of Gorham Hill and Randolph.” They gave their signatures to sign their vision of a spiritual meeting place on Randolph Hill into a reality. The record of this event can be found in a precious little book of history, a hand-written document entitled Record Book of the Union Congregational Society of Gorham Hill and Randolph, N.H. 1883.
After the Civil War, there’d been a great deal of encouragement for the gathering of a church in Randolph. Neighboring congregations supported the founding of a Randolph church, as Randolph residents had long worshiped in homestead living rooms, parlors, and in the local schoolhouse, aided by ministers from the Gorham Congregational church.
Luckily, after the signing of the document at the Wood farm, a gift of land was provided in order to create a worship space that the town of Randolph could claim as its own. The record shows that Deacon Ethel Scates “brought to Mr. Benedict a deed of a tract of land on the top of Gorham Hill, an ideal spot for the site of the church.”
The church building was completely in the early summer of 1884, and the very first use of the church was on July 21, when an Ecclesiastical Council, with representatives from Congregational Churches in Bethlehem, Berlin, Lancaster and Gorham met to welcome the Union Congregational Church and Society of Gorham Hill and Randolph to the fellowship of the Congregational Churches. The following week, on July 25, the church keys were delivered and accepted and the church edifice was dedicated. Arthur Benedict performed a sermon, a number of congratulatory addresses were spoken, and Miss Nellie Scates performed a poem written by Miss Delia Trowbridge.
Even before the dedication of the church, there is a wealth of religious history in Durand, the name for the valley and hills to which the first settlers arrived. The pioneering families were of Scottish and English descent and were poor but enterprising. They settled in farms and though doubtlessly struggled with the short growing season, built small industries and produced potash, starch, salts, and wood products. There is evidence that from the mid to late 1700s Durand neighbors gathered for worship in their homes with occasional visits from itinerant ministers who preached, taught and baptized. Around 1805, a Free Will Baptist Church was organized under the direction of the Lisbon Quarterly Meeting. The church, which existed for more than thirty years, was Durand and Randolph’s first church.
In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, scattered records show that the tiny congregation in Randolph had intermittent vitality. In 1816, two men known as the Morse brothers arrived in Randolph and brought both spiritual gifts and a call to ministry. James Scates maintained a Sunday School in the red schoolhouse on the hill. Reverend Ebenezar Evans faithfully offered a ministry in which he “supplied the pulpit, married the young couples, visited the sick, buried the dead, [and] comforted the mourning.” Clearly, it was the momentum of the Morse, Evans, and Scates ministries, the committed help of the Gorham pastors, and the sustained piety of families that led to the birth of the Union Church.
In the almost 200 years since the construction and dedication of the Randolph Church, it has thrived and provided the town with a rich religious and congregational history. In the 1880s and 90s, roads were improved across the White Mountains, train travel expanded, and sturdier carriages and automobiles were appearing everywhere. Significant numbers arrived in the mountains for summer vacations, hiking and exploration, and — in such places as Randolph — for extended stays in inns and cottages. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Union Church stood visibly strong in its perch at the top of Gorham Hill, though there were continual issues with membership and ministerial leadership. To meet an obvious need, three worship leaders and preachers from the summer community led the church over the next thirty or more years. They were Edward Hinks, George Foot Moore, and William Hatch, each a distinguished theologian and historian. They were the first among a long list of family names associated with the support of the Randolph Church. The successors of these Randolph Church supporters can still be seen in congregations and across the town of Randolph: among these family names are Cutter, Scott, Minifie, Cross, Pease, Edgerly, Ayer, Lowe, Wood, Boothman, Alexander, and Horton. These families have enhanced and nurtured both the building and the congregation across its many functional years.
In 1960, the church was newly incorporated and officially named the Randolph Church. The purpose of the church was agreed to be “to bind together followers of Jesus Christ for the worship of God and service of His Kingdom.”