Person:Jeremiah Sias (7)

A Swedenborgian society was formerly one of the religious institutions of the town, having been formed in Ellisburgh, Dec. 25, 1825, by Rev. Holland Weeks, but drawing most of its members from Henderson. Mr. Weeks was the founder of the society and as its minister held regular services in the school house in the village until a short time before his death, July 24, 1843. Among the leading members of the flock were Mr. Weeks, Joseph Dickey, M. J. Lorseman, Edmund Leslie, Jeremiah Sias, Charles Stearns, John B. Blanchard and wife, Alvin and Lydia Wood, Ann H. Adams, Hannah Goodale and HarrietA. Weeks

On the 25th of December, 1825, a society of the New Jerusalem (commonly called Swedenborgian), was formed in Ellisburgh, at Brewster's school house, of thirteen members, in that town and Henderson, but mostly in the latter. Rev. Holland Weeks, formerly a Congregational minister, of Abington, Mass., who came into Henderson to reside in 1821, and who soon began to hold meetings in school houses, was the promulgator of these doctrines in town, and preached gratuitously for many years. The meetings of the new church were kept up regularly by him, till near his death, at the school house in Henderson Village, and are still more or less regularly held, as reading meetings. The greatest number of members has been between thirty and forty; present number seventeen. The Rev. Mr. Weeks died in town July 24, 1843, aged 75 years. The first members of the New Jerusalem in this town were Holland Weeks, Joseph Dickey, Moses J. Morseman, Edward Leslie, Jeremiah Sias, Charles Stearns, Jr., John Burt Blanchard, Lucy Ann Blanchard, Alvin Wood, Lydia Wood, Ann H. Adams, Hannah M. Goodale, and Harriet A. Weeks.