{"id":2805,"date":"2014-10-14T23:07:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T03:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=2805"},"modified":"2020-10-17T11:38:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-17T15:38:04","slug":"the-congregational-church-in-easthampton-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/the-congregational-church-in-easthampton-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The Congregational Church in Easthampton History"},"content":{"rendered":"

This presentation was given at the Easthampton Congregational Church on October 11, 2014, part of the Easthampton CityArts+<\/a><\/strong> monthly Art Walk.\u00a0 The text and graphics have been slightly modified for this blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Payson Church, now the Easthampton Congregational Church, on Main Street, with Williston’s Old Campus in the background. (Easthampton Congregational Church Archives [henceforth ECC]) (Click images to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Reverend Jonathan Edwards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time of New England\u2019s Great Awakening, when Jonathan Edwards was pastor in Northampton, Easthampton did not exist.\u00a0 There were a few landholders in the village of Pascommuck, out on what is now East Street.\u00a0 Late in life Edwards would recall that around 1730 \u201cthere began to appear a remarkable religious concern at a little village belonging to the congregation, called Pascommuck . . . at this place a number of persons seemed to be savingly wrought upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note Edwards\u2019 phrase, \u201clittle village belonging to the congregation.\u201d\u00a0 In colonial Massachusetts, church and town were interdependent.\u00a0 One could not exist without the other.\u00a0 In 1781 Easthampton residents, citing the growing size of their village, petitioned for severance from Northampton.\u00a0 Attending services in Northampton cannot have been convenient \u2013 it was a ride or walk of five or more miles, over roads that barely deserved the name.<\/p>\n

Anticipating the success of their request, they began construction of a meeting house on the town common, now the rotary.\u00a0 However, Southampton, only recently independent and perhaps fearing the dilution of their own small congregation, blocked the petition.\u00a0 It was not until June of 1785 that the Northampton church agreed to the formation of an Easthampton parish, thus allowing the town of Easthampton to be incorporated.\u00a0 The following November, 46 adults were dismissed from the Northampton church to form the first congregation in Easthampton.\u00a0 15 Southampton families followed, and the congregation was formally organized on November 17.<\/p>\n

\"ECC<\/a>
(ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You\u2019re looking at what I consider a fairly astounding document.\u00a0 From the archives of this congregation, it is the minutes of the very first meeting to organize the parish.\u00a0 The names here are those of the first families in the village \u2013 Clapp, Janes, Hannum, Wright, and more.\u00a0 Many of these are common names in town today.<\/p>\n

Having agreed to form a congregation, the next business was a declaration of faith.\u00a0 In the Congregational tradition, each parish was responsible for deciding exactly what it believed.\u00a0 Even in ultraorthodox 18th century Massachusetts, this was so.\u00a0 It remains so today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The meeting house was duly completed.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to read from a memoir from the church archives.\u00a0 Unfortunately we don\u2019t know who the author was, but he mentions that he was born in Easthampton in 1856.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing that this was written for the church\u2019s 125th anniversary in 1910.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one now alive ever saw [the meeting house], but this is a description told to me by two old ladies.\u00a0 It was a frame building facing South, with neither steeple, bell, or heat.\u00a0 The church service began when the minister arrived, called together by the blowing of a conch shell or the beating of a drum.\u00a0 The pulpit was high, reached by circular stairs and over the minister was a huge hollow sounding board, while below was the deacon\u2019s seat.\u00a0 The pews were square with seats on three sides and with doors which banged and had buttons to keep them shut and the drafts out.\u00a0 The women brought foot stoves with coals inside, while the men wore tippets and mittens and sometimes their hats.\u00a0 They were rugged New Englanders.\u00a0 The boys sat in one gallery, the girls in another, and the choir faced the minister.\u00a0 A tything man was in attendance to keep the boys straight.\u00a0 The hour glass told the minister the time.\u00a0 Lengthy sermons were expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Rev. Payson Williston (1763-1856) (Courtesy Emily Williston Memorial Library and Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Initially the Rev. Aaron Walworth was hired to preach, then a Mr. Hold.\u00a0 Neither was willing to agree to remain as the permanent \u201csettled\u201d minister.\u00a0 But in 1789 Payson Williston accepted a call to the pulpit.\u00a0 Payson, a native of West Haven, CT, was 26 years old, a veteran of the American Revolution.\u00a0 He came from a large family of clergy, including not only his father, but several uncles and cousins.\u00a0 Almost all of them, Payson included, were products of Yale University, which had, in the decades prior to the Revolution, become an intellectual center of Congregationalism.\u00a0 Payson Williston may have been one of the last of the great Calvinists: fundamental in his approach to Scripture, one for whom Heaven and Hell were physical realities.\u00a0 His approach to worship emphasized Puritan simplicity.\u00a0 This would eventually bring him into conflict with members of his own family.\u00a0 But if there was ever a man in a position to shape the thinking of his congregation, it was Payson Williston, who served for 44 years, and lived, with all his physical and mental faculties intact, for many years after his retirement.\u00a0 He made it to 92, an almost legendary age in those days.<\/p>\n

Since I live for and with old paper, I\u2019m going to dwell on that first church register for a moment more.\u00a0 It really is a gold mine of Easthampton history. Fundamentally, the congregation was the town and vice-versa, so many of the early records are here.\u00a0 These are marriages, performed no doubt by Payson Williston himself \u2013 I think the handwriting is his.<\/p>\n

\"(Easthampton<\/a>
(ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And more sobering, here are deaths.\u00a0 The number of children is appalling.\u00a0 At a time when antibiotics were unknown, when medicine was practiced by barbers, it must have been an act of tremendous faith just to bring a child into the world.\u00a0 The odds were against them.<\/p>\n

\"(Easthampton<\/a>
(ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like many in the Great Awakening, Payson was also an active evangelist.\u00a0 In 1805 he took leave of absence to perform missionary work in upstate New York.\u00a0 Late in life he would note that he was especially proud of the five revivals he had conducted in Easthampton, in the course of which dozens of individuals had publicly acknowledged Jesus as their Savior.\u00a0 He had a reputation as a good speaker \u2013 not the liveliest or most inspiring, to be sure, but one who spoke with clarity and sincerity.\u00a0 When the congregation was expected to hear sermons of an hour or more every Sunday, that was important.\u00a0 Among the archives of this church, the public library, and Williston Northampton, hundreds of his manuscript sermons survive.\u00a0 This one, according to the note at the top, was preached in 1793, repeated in Southampton in 1795, and again here in town in 1810.\u00a0 Judging by Payson\u2019s tiny handwriting, his eyesight must have been extraordinary to the end of his life.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of Payson Williston’s sermons. Throughout his life he wrote them in tiny handwriting on folded 7″ x 6″ sheets of paper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Payson was considered the most learned man in town, respected and revered long after he had retired from 44 years in the Easthampton pulpit.\u00a0 Rarely has it been suggested that he had a sense of humor.\u00a0 But in 1839, six years into that retirement, he returned to the pulpit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Easthampton.\u00a0 After speaking at length about his own and the town\u2019s history, he turned his attention to his former flock and said, \u201cMany sermons you have heard from men who have come to you as messengers from God; and, in the course of my long ministry, I have delivered to some of you hundreds and hundreds of them \u2013 and apparently, without any permanently good effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Samuel<\/a>
Samuel Williston in the 1840s (Emily Williston Memorial Library and Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The meeting house, which also served for meetings of secular kinds, including town government, stood on the common.\u00a0 The common, only a postage-stamp sized piece of which remains, actually encompassed all of upper Main St., from behind the present-day Memorial Hall to the traffic light.\u00a0 As the name suggests, it was \u201ccommon land,\u201d where villagers could meet, conduct business, graze livestock, etc.\u00a0 But Easthampton desired a \u201creal\u201d church.\u00a0 Payson Williston\u2019s successor, William Bement, would see it built in 1836.<\/p>\n

And it is here that we meet the second of the Willistons, Payson\u2019s eldest son Samuel.\u00a0 This is not the place for an extended biography of Samuel Williston.\u00a0 Suffice to note that Samuel had intended to follow in his father\u2019s footsteps to Yale and into the family profession of preaching.\u00a0 But young Sam\u2019s education was drastically curtailed when his eyesight failed him at age 18.\u00a0 He set about learning the retail dry goods trade, first in New York, then back in Easthampton and Northampton.\u00a0 It turned out that he had a head for business.<\/p>\n

\"Emily<\/a>
Emily Graves Williston (1798-1889) in middle age.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He eventually met the third Williston in today\u2019s narrative, Emily Graves, the daughter of the minister in Williamsburg.\u00a0 They were married in 1822 \u2013 and moved in with Sam\u2019s parents.\u00a0 Emily, who shared Samuel\u2019s business acumen, developed a method for making a fancy cloth-covered button.\u00a0 The two of them set up a cottage button manufacture ultimately involving nearly a thousand households up and down the valley.\u00a0 They were immediately, and spectacularly successful.\u00a0 Samuel invested the proceeds in other industries, notably cotton thread and elastic webbing, but also banking, railroads, and much more.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The graves of the four daughters of Emily and Samuel Williston, in the Main Street Cemetery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time Payson Williston retired in 1833, Samuel was one of the wealthiest men in New England.\u00a0 His success was tempered, though, by the loss of four infant children.\u00a0 Literally fearing that the Lord was somehow displeased, he and Emily vowed to use their material successes to do the Lord\u2019s work, acting as, to borrow the title of Frank Conant\u2019s excellent biography of the Willistons, \u201cGod\u2019s Stewards.\u201d\u00a0 They were tremendous contributors to educational causes, including Mount Holyoke, which they helped found, and Amherst, which Sam rescued from bankruptcy.\u00a0 Williston support went to missions, and local church efforts.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The First Church in 1844. It is possible that one of the buildings in front of it is the old Meeting House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thus, in 1836, when the time came to build a real church, Samuel Williston put up much of the money.\u00a0 The First Church rose on the Town Common east of the old meeting house, on a site now occupied by the Easthampton Savings Bank.\u00a0 (For more information concerning the preceding image, please see “The Old Neigborhood, 1844.”<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

\"Williston<\/a>
Williston Seminary in 1845. First Church is left of center, then English Hall and the original Seminary Building, or “Old White Sem.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1841, Samuel acted on a longtime ambition and founded what was then called Williston Seminary.\u00a0 The first buildings were on the Common, south of the First Church.\u00a0 Seminary students used the Church as their house of worship, occupying the gallery pews.\u00a0 And, perhaps as a sign of things to come, Samuel paid to have the church picked up off its foundations and moved back 50 feet, so that the facade lined up nicely with the Seminary buildings.<\/p>\n

Prior to 1834, by law it had been the responsibility of each town to support its Congregational Parish.\u00a0 But Massachusetts disestablished religion in that year (only 25 years after the First Amendment), thereby not only opening the Commonwealth to religious freedom, but requiring that churches become self-supporting.\u00a0 (Yes, \u201cdisestablished.\u201d\u00a0 Remember back in the 6th grade, learning to spell what we all thought was the longest word in the English language?\u00a0 Samuel Williston was an antidisestablishmentarianist.)\u00a0 In most cases, including Easthampton, a Society was formed, which took responsibility for raising funds, paying the bills, and hiring the minister.\u00a0 Samuel Williston, since 1841 a deacon of the church, was a member of the Society, along with his business partner and prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Horatio Knight.\u00a0 Whatever their motives, there was no question where the money was coming from.\u00a0 Sam also funded the construction of the town hall, the first public school, founded two banks . . . and on and on.\u00a0 He who paid the piper expected to call the tune.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Seminary in 1856, flanked by the First and Payson Churches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With industrialization, Easthampton was growing rapidly, and the First Church was already too small.\u00a0 As early as 1849, Samuel was jotting down notes about the potential dimensions of a new building.\u00a0 In 1851, the congregation met to discuss the possibility of a second structure.\u00a0 It was a controversial idea.\u00a0 The First Church, after all, was a mere 15 years old.\u00a0 Opinions differed as to whether the congregation should divide, or a new church be built that would accommodate everyone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Rev. Rollin Stone, who shepherded much of his flock a few hundred yards down Main Street to the new church. (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gradually it became evident that no agreement was to be reached.\u00a0\u00a0 In 1852 the Payson Church Parish, named to honor the first pastor, was formed, and construction begun on a new building.\u00a0 A large number of First Church families left to join the new parish, including the 3rd minister, Rollin Stone, and the principal benefactor, Samuel Williston.\u00a0 90-year-old Payson Williston, despite the honor accorded him in the naming, chose to remain with his old congregation.\u00a0 One can imagine him sadly shaking his head and muttering, \u201cvanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the real divisions appear to have been over doctrine and forms of worship.\u00a0 All kinds of -isms: transcendentalism, romanticism, and most of all, materialism had softened the Puritan outlook of the younger generations.\u00a0 While some, like Samuel, would retain their Calvinist views concerning obligations to the Lord and fellow man, most, including even Samuel, had little patience with the hellfire-and-cold-water discomforts of Jonathan Edwards\u2019 day.\u00a0 Many of the older families in town stayed behind at the First Church, while newer and wealthier members went to the Payson Church.\u00a0 To his credit, the new First Church minister, Aaron Colton, worked hard to heal some very deep wounds.<\/p>\n

\"Payson<\/a>
Payson Church in 1856 with its original spire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For those who believed that the Lord sent signs and portents, the first few years were a trial.\u00a0 The Payson Church, finished for a little more than a year, burned in January 1854.\u00a0 There was no insurance.\u00a0 Samuel Williston agreed to pay for reconstruction, which was about three-quarters complete the following August when the building burned again.\u00a0 Once more Sam picked up the tab.\u00a0 (If you\u2019ve ever wondered why the bricks are painted white, it\u2019s because they were reused after the fires.)\u00a0 The third, and present house was completed in 1855, but not before the congregation had met to pray over the question of whether or not the Lord really wanted them to proceed.\u00a0 Payson Williston, perhaps as a gesture toward reconciliation, donated the pulpit Bible, while Sam, whose purse was smarting from having paid for three churches to get one, became better acquainted with the newfangled insurance industry.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The new steeple of 1862, 40 feet shorter than the preceding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was fortunate, for his trial by fire was not yet over.\u00a0 The Seminary building burned to the ground one afternoon in 1857.\u00a0 (I sometimes like to think that God\u2019s plan for Sam Williston included attempts to keep him humble.)\u00a0 (See The Great Seminary Fire<\/a><\/strong> and Abner Austin, Fireman<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

And \u2013 you may interpret this as a final sign, or pure coincidence \u2013 in 1862, by which time one assumes the congregation was starting to feel a bit more secure, a huge gust of wind, possibly a microburst, blew the Payson Church spire over onto the roof and into the sanctuary.\u00a0 According to one description, the lower part of the tower crashed into the church, while the tip missed the building and impaled into the ground.\u00a0 The rebuilt steeple is a full 40 feet less ambitious than the original.\u00a0 Happily, it has stayed put for 152 years.<\/p>\n

\"Union<\/a>
Union Chapel, near the “factory village.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, Easthampton was changing.\u00a0 No longer just a farm village, it was becoming a manufacturing center.\u00a0 A new population was streaming into town to work in the mills \u2013 from Ireland, Poland, Germany, later Quebec.\u00a0 They needed housing, stores, banks, schools, parks \u2013 Samuel Williston and his associates, almost all of whom were prominent members of the Congregational Church, saw to it that they were built.\u00a0 They also needed churches.\u00a0 A kind of satellite worker\u2019s chapel was provided.\u00a0 What was called the Union Chapel was constructed in a neighborhood of workers\u2019 residences, near the present day Maple Street School on, yes, Chapel Street.\u00a0 Eventually it was purchased by a new congregation of Lutherans.\u00a0 Sam Williston also donated land for Easthampton\u2019s first Catholic parish and Saint Brigid\u2019s Cemetery.\u00a0 This may have come with some personal struggle, considering that he came from a background that was often openly anti-Catholic.\u00a0 But the needs of his workers seem to have been paramount.<\/p>\n

\"(Easthampton<\/a>
(ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Payson Church prospered.\u00a0 It supplanted the First Church as the designated house of worship for Williston Seminary students.\u00a0 This was not always a happy arrangement.\u00a0 Despite the \u201cSeminary\u201d name, Williston was a nondenominational school, accepting students of all faiths, but requiring an enforced Protestantism that was sometimes actively resisted.\u00a0 This could manifest itself in strange ways.\u00a0 Before reconstruction of the sanctuary in 1862 the organ and choir were in the rear gallery, and there was occasional confusion among the congregation whether people should turn and face the rear during hymns.\u00a0 On one occasion Seminary students, occupying the side galleries, turned and sang facing the wall.\u00a0 The formal association appears to have lasted until the 1920s.\u00a0 It had been customary for Williston students to attend as a group, led by the headmaster.\u00a0 But during Communion services those students who wished to were allowed to leave.\u00a0 One Sunday the Rev. John Findlay rebuked the departing boys from the pulpit, insisting that they remain.\u00a0 They did, but that was the last time that students were required to attend.<\/p>\n

\"First<\/a>
First Church, moved to the north end of the Town Common.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rest of my narrative is brief.\u00a0 In 1866 Samuel, exercising his occasional tendency toward behaving like the Emperor of Easthampton, moved the First Church a second time, to its final site at the end of the Common, left of the new High School, now called Memorial Hall, so that he could build a new building at the Seminary.\u00a0 Short of funds, and still reeling from the schism, there was probably little the old parish could do about it.\u00a0 Through the rest of the 19th century the Payson Congregation prospered, while the First Church\u2019s numbers dwindled.\u00a0 Efforts at conservation during World War I led to joint services between the two congregations, which laid the groundwork for reconciliation and reunification in 1918.\u00a0 The emergence of the unified Easthampton Congregational Church in that year brought an end to the First Church\u2019s life as a house of worship.\u00a0 It was used for a few years as an entertainment and movie hall before succumbing, mercifully, to fire in 1929.\u00a0 As for the present church, the last century has seen great changes and strides forward, about which others present are far more competent than I to speak.<\/p>\n

Here are few looks at how the interior has changed.\u00a0 Keep in mind that prior to 1862, the organ was in the rear gallery.\u00a0 There are no pictures.\u00a0 During reconstruction following the collapse of the tower, it was moved to the front, where it remains today.<\/p>\n

\"1899:<\/a>
1899: the wild decoration reflects the taste of the day. The lilies and palms are Easter decorations. (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"1899<\/a>
1899 again, from the gallery, with the platform arranged for a normal Sunday. (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From Christmas 1910, showing considerable redecoration, including the removal of the painted design from the organ pipes. (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"By<\/a>
By the 1920s, we see a return to a simplicity perhaps reflecting the austere traditions of an earlier age. (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The interior of the nave today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Organist<\/a>
Organist Frederick Clark, who also served on the Williston faculty for many years. (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Music was always an important tradition in this building.\u00a0 Samuel Williston donated pipe organs to both churches.\u00a0 There has always been a strong choral music tradition \u2013 in fact, in the 19th and early 20th centuries the church employed two organists and choir directors, George Kingsley and Frederick Clark, who had national reputations as composers and compilers of hymnals.\u00a0 And many here today fondly recall the legendary Natalie Strong, who introduced hundreds of children to choral singing and played the organ with special panache — and in her stocking feet.\u00a0 Her own family roots went back to the early days of this town and parish.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/a>
Sarah Elizabeth Chapin (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We should\u00a0 also mention the role that the women of the church took in the community and the world.\u00a0 There were a number of especially strong women \u2013 besides Emily Williston, Lucretia Ferry and Sarah Elizabeth Chapin were genuine leaders in the town.\u00a0 They founded several missionary and service organizations, including the Helping Hand Society, which remains active to this day.\u00a0 Sarah Chapin was hired by Sam Williston to run the ladies\u2019 department at the Seminary, then became Principal of the new public High School when it opened in 1864, and went on to a long and distinguished career in the Easthampton Schools.<\/p>\n

The Fellowship Hall, shown below on July 4, 1910 with the Congregational Church Cadets, was a gift of Emily Graves Williston, who was a philanthropist in her own right.\u00a0 Besides the Hall, she donated a Communion service which I understand is still in use, was a major donor to Mount Holyoke College, and was active in many missions and church activities.\u00a0 In 1881 she built the Easthampton Public Library, which had been founded by Payson Williston and which today bears her name.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Fellowship Hall (ECC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Some<\/a>
Some of the Communion vessels donated by Emily Williston in 1852.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More to the point, Emily Graves Williston was \u2013 I quote her grandson, also named Samuel Williston \u2013 \u201cthe embodiment of gracious dignity . . . a wise woman . . . and not afraid to smile.\u201d\u00a0 She appears to have been the humanizing factor in a family dominated by Payson and Samuel, two of the most stubborn, stiff-necked old Yankees imaginable.\u00a0 Toward the end of her life, Emily left these words with the Reverend James Morris Whiton, and I will leave them with you: \u201cI thank God for the opportunity to do my part in a time of colossal change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This presentation was given at the Easthampton Congregational Church on October 11, 2014, part of the Easthampton CityArts+ monthly Art Walk.\u00a0 The text and graphics have been slightly modified for this blog. At the time of New England\u2019s Great Awakening, when Jonathan Edwards was pastor in Northampton, Easthampton did not exist.\u00a0 There were a few … Continue reading The Congregational Church in Easthampton History<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,125,138,397,25],"tags":[26,345,50,272,346,136,5],"class_list":["post-2805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-and-building-history","category-easthampton-history-2","category-founders","category-local-history","category-williston-seminary","tag-easthampton","tag-easthampton-congregational-church","tag-emily-williston","tag-first-congregational-church","tag-payson-church","tag-payson-williston","tag-samuel-williston"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2805"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4972,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions\/4972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}