deacon-seat

"Oh, he can't be so very bad: he can't be dying," said Drusy, seating herself on the deacon-seat at the foot of the sick man's bed and peering anxiously into his pinched and pallid face, which was illuminated by the rays of the great fire.

Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 Various

FitzPatrick sat absolutely imperturbable on the deacon-seat, looking straight in front of him, his legs stretched comfortably aslant, one hand supporting the elbow of the other, which in turn held his short brier pipe.

Blazed Trail Stories and Stories of the Wild Life Stewart Edward White 1909

He saw an unkempt row of hard-faced men along the deacon-seat, reckless in bearing, with the light of the dare-devil in their eyes.

Blazed Trail Stories and Stories of the Wild Life Stewart Edward White 1909

At a given signal the legs all straightened out with tremendous force, and poor Gillsey shot right across the "deacon-seat" and brought up with a thud upon the stove.

Earth's Enigmas A Volume of Stories Charles George Douglas Roberts 1901

No one would notice him, however, till one night when he came in late, and undertook to sleep on the "deacon-seat."

Earth's Enigmas A Volume of Stories Charles George Douglas Roberts 1901

The "deacon-seat" -- why so called I cannot say -- is a raised platform running alongside of the stove, between the chimney and the tier of bunks.

Earth's Enigmas A Volume of Stories Charles George Douglas Roberts 1901

The storms of years had washed the paint from it; it had "hogged" in the roof where the great square chimney projected its nicked bulk from among loosened bricks scattered on the shingles; and from knife-gnawed "deacon-seat" on the porch to window-blind, dangling from one hinge on the broad gable, the old structure was seedy indeed.

The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul Holman Day 1900