Prior to that the people from what is now Somers traveled to the Enfield Congregational Church, which was no easy trip on horseback or in an ox cart. Sunday services lasted most of the day, with a two hour sermon in the morning a short break for lunch and an hour long sermon in the afternoon. It seems as though the Enfield folk did not welcome people from “East Enfield” (as Somers was known then) with open arms and considered them to be the mountain folk. The Enfield church did allow for the Somers people to get in out of the weather inside the nearby school house, as long as they cleaned up after themselves.

A committee of men from East Enfield met together and began to discuss the need for a separate church and parish. 1727 Samuel Allis was called. First Meeting House was located on the corner of Springfield and Stebbins Road, where the North Cemetery sits. The cemetery was originally next to the first and second meeting houses. Samuel Allis, Freegrace Leavitt and Charles E. Backus are all buried in the cemetery.

The congregation’s third meeting house, still in use, was built in 1840. A new road had replaced Four Bridges, Stebbins and Mountain Roads as the best way through Somers and to Stafford or Enfield, and the center of town had shifted. Our present location was chosen as the best site for the new Meeting House. When funds were being secured for the building the Town of Somers agreed to contribute to the cost, with the stipulation that the Foundation Room could be used for Town meetings and other gatherings, which it was until the town hall was built in 1940’s. The members of the building committee had apparently set their sites high, because they ordered a tower bell forged by Paul Revere and Sons, Inc. in Boston, but when it arrived in Springfield the church could not afford the freight cost and the Somers bell now sits securely in the steeple of our sister church in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

Three times in the past 168 years the need for space has led the congregation to increase the size of the building. In 1949 Pilgrim Hall was moved from across the street and attached to the existing Meeting House, on a foundation that allowed room for the kitchen underneath. This was part of a major renovation to the Meeting House when the traditional two aisles were replaced by once center aisle in the sanctuary. In 1960 the church added a parish hall, the Bugbee Center, a separate building for church school, office space and a library. Through the 1990’s the congregation experienced another significant growth in numbers and an addition was built which joined the Meeting House and the Bugbee Center together as one facility.

Somers Congregational Church has been home to numerous pastors through the years, each of whom has contributed to the spiritual life of the community in his own way according to the gifts he had for ministry. Samuel Allis, as founding pastor, of course played a significant role in establishing the church here in Somers. His Ordination by an Ecclesiastical Council that included representatives from as far away and Northampton, Hatfield and Hadley, Massachusetts made it possible for Somers to become a town, according to the laws of the colony at that time.

We can only begin to imagine the challenges faced by the Rev. Freegrace Leavitt who, as the second pastor, continued to nurture the people of Somers through the pre-Revolution years. Mr. Leavitt faced a challenge from another pastor whose preaching proved to be so unorthodox that he was barred from preaching in the church by civil and ecclesiastic authorities as well.

Dr. Charles E. Backus, a graduate of Yale College, became third pastor of the church in 17XX. In the course of his ministry Dr. Backus established a school for training young men to be preachers of the Gospel and pastors to the people that was the first such school in America. More than fifty young men we trained in Somers and scattered through New England and along the east coast taking what they had learned far and wide.

For more Information of the History of the Town of Somers, you can contact the Historical Society.