When through Colonel Lee's efforts Christ Church was organized in 1821, he was selected as senior warden and of the seven vestrymen six were employed at the Armory including Adonijah Foot, the Master Armorer, Diah Allin, a foreman who later became senior warden, and one long prominently connected with the Church, Major Goodsell. Though the original Christ Church endured only a few years, Lee's influence and interest continued while he remained at the Armory and until his death there in 1833. The altar in the present church edifice bears the inscription: "In loving memory of Colonel Roswell Lee, who first established Episcopal service in this city."
         In 1838 Henry W. Lee, son of Colonel Roswell Lee, came back to Springfield, as is told in the account of his ministry elsewhere in this work. As a boy and until early manhood he had resided with his father within the Armory grounds and knew well many of its more influential employees, some of whom were chosen as wardens and vestrymen at the reorganization of the parish in November of that year. The two wardens were Diah Allin, then the Master Armorer and Samuel McNary, also an Armorer. To the latter an aisle window in the present church edifice is a memorial. Of the vestrymen also five belonged to the Armory including a brother (William W. Lee) of Bishop Lee who was also Parish Clerk and some years later Treasurer of the Church and finally a warden. The earlier records contain frequent mention of Diah Allin, the senior warden and the Armory's Master Armorer, and of his successor as warden, Major Goodsell, also of the Armory, whom Dr. Slattery in his Seventy Year Anniversary sermon in Christ Church speaks of as "for twenty-seven years a tower of strength to the Church."
         In 1839 when efforts were being taken to secure land and erect a church building, the committee of seven chosen at a Parish meeting was headed by Major Goodsell and among his associates were three others from the Armory. Goodsell was also the largest individual subscriber.

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