USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Goshen > History of the town of Goshen, Connecticut, with genealogies and biographies based upon the records of Deacon Lewis Mills Norton, 1897 > Part 24
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HISTORY OF GOSHEN.
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From the time of his installation until February, 1813, there was no abatement of his bodily vigor and no indication of re- turning disease. At that time he became slightly indisposed, and, after a few days, was seized with a fever which prevailed with great violence in different parts of the country. On the Sth of April, when he seemed to have recovered from the at- tack, the disease returned upon him with increased virulence, and in eleven days reached a fatal termination. In the exer- cise of the most humble, submissive, and yet triumphant spirit, he closed his earthly career on the 19th of April, 1813, in the fifty-first year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Strong of Norwich, and was published.
Mr. Hooker had three children who lived to adult years, one son and two daughters. The son is the Rev. Edward W. Hooker, D.D., late a professor in the Theological Seminary at East Windsor. One of the daughters was married to the Rev. Dr. Cornelius, and the other to the Rev. Dr. Peck, foreign secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union.
Mr. Hooker published a sermon on the Divine Sovereignty in a volume entitled " Sermons Collected, 1797 "; a sermon at the ordination of James Beach, 1805: the Connecticut Elec- tion Sermon, 1805; a sermon at the ordination of John Keep, 1805; together with various articles in the Connecticut Evan- gelical Magazine, etc.
MR. HOOKER AS A TEACHER OF THEOLOGY.
In the proceedings of the North and South Consociations of Litchfield County a paper was read from which we extract the following: " The last man ordained by the original Con- sociation, September 7, 1791, was the Rev. Asahel Hooker, pastor of the church in Goshen. . The theological school of Bellamy was past and gone; Dr. Backus of Somers, in his turn, gave instruction in this department of education; some other Connecticut ministers trained a few young men.
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Dr. Emmons of Massachusetts was doing something in this business; but at the death of Dr. Charles Backus, in 1805, the clergy of Connecticut felt urgently the want of a divinity school of its own. Dr. Dwight had a number of pupils. But he was too much engrossed with the great business of the col- lege to extend his operations sufficiently to meet the demand. The standing of Mr. Hooker among his brethren is marked by the fact that all eyes were turned toward him. He shrunk, with characteristic modesty, from the proposition. But as- sured by public sentiment he opened a school, and many young men flocked to him. This private school of the prophets went successfully on, until the year 1810, when a pectoral complaint constrained Mr. Hooker to relinquish it, and to take a dismis- sion from his pastoral charge. Great benefit to the churches and the country was the result of this short course of theologi- cal instruction. It helped fill up a gap which. without it, would have yawned between the demise of the old masters in divinity and the establishment of our theological seminaries. A goodly number of ministers who have served God and their generation with eminent success were Mr. Hooker's pupils. Some are dead, some yet alive, some are present."
The room used for a study was in the northeast corner of the house occupied, 1896, by Mrs. Clarinda Lucas. Among his students we name the following, some of whom have won names as faithful Christian servants which will never be for- cotten: James W. Robbins, John Keep. John Hyde, Josiah W. Canning, Lyman Strong, Mills Day, Timothy P. Gillett, James Beach, Moses Gillett, Asahel Gavlord. Bennett Tyler, Experience Porter. Frederick Marsh, John Woodbridge, He- man Humphrey, Thomas Punderson, Joshua Huntington, William Bonney, Caleb Pitkin, Joshua L. Williams, Allen McLean, Horatio Waldo, Joseph Edwards, Henry P. Strong, Luther Hart, James W. Tucker, Joseph L. Mills, Gordon Hall, Abel McEwen, and Noah Porter.
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Of these James Beach was a native of Winchester, Conn .; was graduated from Williams College in 1801; studied theology with Mr. Hooker; was ordained pastor of the first church in Winsted, January 1, 1805, at a salary of $350; he resigned his pastorate in 1843 and died June 10, 1850, the day after the completion of his seventieth year. It was said of Mr. Beach: "His great weight of character and rare influence seemed to result very much from a happy combination of deep piety, cultivated and vigorous intellect, sterling sense, uniform judiciousness, joined to his marked sobriety, his brotherly kindness, his dignified manners, his steady manifestation of strong love to God and God's truth, as he saw them on the sacred page in lines of light and glory."
John Hyde was a native of Franklin, graduated from Yale, mar- ried a daughter of Rev. Dr. Samuel Nott. Was settled in Hamden, Preston, and North Wilbraham, Mass. He died at Franklin, much respected and beloved, August 14, 1848, aged 72.
Thomas Punderson was a native of New Haven, a graduate of Yale, 1804, pastor Pittsfield, Mass., the ordination sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Moses Stuart, then of New Haven. Later, was pastor Huntington, Conn. Died in 1848.
A sketch of Luther Hart will be found on another page.
Joshua Huntington was born at Norwich, Conn., graduated Yale in 1804. From the commencement of his ministry he was un- commonly popular, and the same day received calls to the First Church in Middletown, and to become associate pastor with the Rev. Dr. Eckley of the Old South Church in Boston. This latter call he accepted and was ordained May 18, 1808. Dr. Eckley lived less than three years after this; when Mr. Huntington became sole pastor until his death, September 11, 1819.
Gordon Hall graduated Williams in 1806, was born in Tolland, Mass., April 8, 1781. He was an intimate friend of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and interested with him in the work of foreign missions. He was licensed to preach in 1809, and supplied for nearly two years at Woodbury, but would not become a pastor until it was settled that there was no opening for him in the foreign mission field. He was ordained at Salem, Mass., February 6, 1812, and sailed for Cal- cutta the 18th. He reached Calcutta, in company with his col- leagues, Messrs. Nott and Rice. August 8, 1812, and there continued to labor until March 20, 1826, when he died very suddenly and in the exercise of a triumphant faith. He was filled with a longing for the salvation of the world.
President Heman Humphrey writes of Mr. Hooker: " Mr. Hooker was uncommonly skillful, as well as successful, as a theologi- cal teacher; and I am not aware that any of his students have ever
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dishonored their teacher or their profession. He had a list of questions, as was common at that day, embracing all the essential points in a theological course, on which we were required to write. In preparing these dissertations we were expected prayerfully to study the Scriptures, and to avail ourselves of such other helps as were within our reach. We read our theses before him at stated hours, and he proved himself a good critic and an able teacher. It was not his fault, but the fault of his pupils, if they did not enjoy as good advantages under his instruction as were then attainable.
" But, after all, living in his family, observing how he went out and came in, how he walked before his flock, - 'leading them into the green pastures,' enjoying his daily conversation, sitting under his ministry, and getting insensibly, as it were, initiated into the duties of the pastoral office, by the light of his example, were among the most important benefits enjoyed at his school.
" To sum up Mr. Hooker's character and qualifications in a few words, he was a good man, of excellent talents and high professional acquirements; a devoted pastor; an edifying and a searching preacher; a wise counsellor; an earnest defender of 'the faith once delivered to the saints '; an Elisha among the young prophets; a revered and beloved teacher, who will ever live in the grateful remembrance of his pupils, as long as any of them shall survive him, as many still do."
Joseph Harvey, son of Deacon Ithamar and Electra (Fow- ler), son of Captain Ithamar and Ann (Cone), son of Thomas and Deborah (Hungerford) Harvey, was born at East Had- dam, Conn., March 1, 1787; his father a deacon and his mother the daughter of the Rev. Joseph Fowler, pastor of the First Congregational Church. He entered Yale College in 1804, where he took high rank in scholarship,* and being employed during a part of his college course as amanuensis for President Dwight he had the benefit of close intimacy with that eminent man. During his second college year he became a Christian at a time when but few of the students professed to be believers in the Christian religion, infidelity being very popular. After
* Among his classmates were: The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Hewitt of Bridgeport: Dr. Jonathan Knight, an eminent physician and pro- fessor in the Yale Medical School; James A. Hillhouse of New Haven, the poet; the Rev. Matthew R. Dutton, who was settled in the minis- try at Colebrook, Conn., and was afterwards for a short time professor of mathematics at Yale; the Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll of New Haven, member of Congress and Minister to Russia.
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his graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Porter of Washington, Conn., afterwards Professor at Andover. He was licensed to preach by the Litchfield County Association, June, 1809, and soon after was called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Goshen, where he was ordained and installed pastor October 24, 1810. He married Catherine D. Selden, daughter of Colonel Richard E. Selden of Had- lyme, soon after his installation.
He was pastor in this town for fifteen years. It was dur- ing a period of excitement and controversy in the religious world, and especially in this state, and in this discussion he was a leader and took lively interest. It was also during this period that the work of foreign missions was inaugurated in this country, and to this he devoted his powers. With the Rev. Samuel J. (commonly known as " Father ") Mills, he let no opportunity pass of arousing or deepening the interest of the churches in this county in the work of sending the Gospel to the heathen, and at one time he had arranged to accompany the Rev. Gordon Hall as a missionary to the Indians in the territories. This plan was thwarted by the decision of Mr. Hall to go to India. He was one of the founders of the Litch- field County Foreign Missionary Society, and his zeal for this cause never flagged during his life. Several of his sermons relating to foreign missions were printed and had large circula- tion; one on the occasion of the inauguration of the first princi- pal of the " Foreign Mission School," at Cornwall, entitled " The Banner of Christ Set Up," and the writer has now be- fore him " A sermon preached at Litchfield, before the Foreign Mission Society of Litchfield County, February 15, 1815," on " The Prophetic Supremacy of the Kingdom of Christ," the words of which are still instinct with life.
Two Sandwich Island youths, Henry Obookiah and Wil- liam Tennooe, were brought by interesting providences to his house and placed under his care and instruction for more than a year, and within the daily influence of Mrs. Harvey's lovely
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presence and gentle spirit. And it is fitting, in this connec- tion, to refer to her as a woman of rare merit and discretion, who won hearts wherever she was known, whose counsels savored of heavenly wisdom, whose piety was the very spirit of gentleness and humility, whose presence was a benediction and the story of whose life makes a glowing page in the " book of remembrance " on high.
During the year Obookiah was hopefully converted, and Mr. Harvey sent him to Father Mills for counsel, and he re- ceived him into the church in Torringford.
It was largely through the influence of Mr. Harvey that the Foreign Mission School was established at Cornwall, for the instruction of young men who came from foreign lands and their preparation as missionaries. Mr. Harvey was ap- pointed Principal, but the church were unwilling to release him, and so presented their claims to the Consociation that that body declined to dismiss him.
He was also a teacher of others than the Sandwich Islanders, and took into his family students preparing for col- lege and graduates who were students of theology. Among these pupils may be named Professor William Thompson, and the Revs. James Ely, H. L. Vaill, Abraham and Theron Bald- win, and Samuel Church, afterward Professor of Mathematics at West Point. He also urged the establishment of an academy.
In 1820 there commenced a most gracious revival in his parish, which lasted about a year. During that time his labors were constant, as it was not in the days of calling in an evange- list to help the weary pastor. For one year he preached as many sermons as there were days, visiting in all parts of the town, and, at its close, he was not only completely exhausted, but his constitution was broken down. From this excessive labor he never recovered. He continued his work until 1825, when he received an invitation to become the secretary of the American Education Society, and, hoping that the change of
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work would lead to the restoration of his health, he accepted, and the church reluctantly consented to the dissolution of the pastoral relation, which took place in October of that year. The work of a secretary proving different from what he had anticipated, he resigned the office after having filled the posi- tion for a year.
He was called to the church at Westchester, Conn., and in- stalled as its pastor January 17, 1827. Here he remained for nine years, his labors rewarded by revivals, and he was long spoken of as " a great scholar, a sound theologian, and a wise pastor." He edited " The Evangelical Magazine " in 1834-5, and in the latter year received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Amherst College. It was at this time that the discus- sion between the Old and New Theology was engaging the attention and employing the pens of so many of the ministers in this state, and Dr. Harvey, regarding the issues as vital, entered into it with zeal and interest. He was one of the founders of the Theological Institute at East Windsor Hill, which stood for the Old Theology.
In 1836 he removed from Westchester to South Windsor, acting as pastor of the church for one year, and for three years editing The Watchman, a weekly paper published in Hart- ford.
In the latter part of 1838 he commenced to preach in Thompsonville, then a small village. As the result of his labors, a church was formed, which became Presbyterian, the first of that denomination in the state. He was installed its pastor July 10, 1839, and continued in that relation for nearly eighteen years. His successor said of his work: "It is not too much to say that no pulpit in this state was better supplied than was this by Dr. Harvey. His Christian character was above reproach; he was honest and sincere in all his words and deeds; he was a scholar and a student, loved his books and his pen, yet, when drawn out, no man was more affable or en-
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tertaining in company." The burdens brought by three score and ten years of life caused him to yield his pastorate, April 28, 1857.
In the spring of 1858 he removed to Harvey (named for him), in the upper peninsula of Michigan, where he con- tinned to preach and teach for fourteen years, his labors highly prized and greatly blessed. It was a missionary field, and the pecuniary compensation was inadequate to his support, but it seems the most beautiful and Christlike of any work of his life. We see him who had been a leader in the church, ac- knowledged the peer of the most able, bearing the marks of the burdens of four score years, and in the midst of surroundings primitive and humble, teaching little children, and "still try- ing," as he expressed it, " to do a little for the dear Saviour, who gave His life for me, and Whom I hope soon to see in His glory, in company with many departed friends." He con- tinued to preach until two weeks before his death, and, after an illness of eight days, he gently passed away. His remains were buried in the cemetery at Marquette, beside his beloved wife, in a spot of his own choosing, on the shores of the Great Lake. The church in Thompsonville erected a tablet to his memory upon the wall of the house of worship at the left of the pulpit. Thus ended a life made noble by ability, fidelity, and usefulness, sixty-four years having been devoted to the preach- ing of the Gospel of Christ.
Dr. Harvey was a man of fine personal appearance, and, until his system had been greatly weakened by age and over- work, possessed a voice rich and persuasive, and these endow- ments added to his power in the presentation of truth.
Seven children were born into his home, three of whom died in infancy or early youth, and but two are now living; Catherine, unmarried, who resides at Harvey, Mich., and Charles T. Harvey, an eminent civil engineer, residing in the city of New York. He was married to Miss Sarah L. Van
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Eps of Utica, N. Y., June 10, 1858. They have four children living.
Mr. Francis H. Case of Canton, Conn., a graduate of Yale, was engaged to supply the pulpit when Mr. Harvey removed, which he did with such acceptance that on the 12th of Decem- ber, 1825, he was called to the pastorate. He accepted the call, and was ordained and installed February 1, 1826. Dr. Lyman Beecher preached the sermon on that occasion. His ministry was a fruitful one, as he received fifty-nine members into the church during his short pastorate. Of that number, not one is a member of the church to-day.
This relation was a pleasant one to pastor and people, but the health of the pastor failing so entirely that he felt a con- tinuance of his labors would result in utter prostration, on August 27, 1828, he asked to be dismissed, and, the request having been granted, the relation was terminated the 30th of September following.
The church soon made an effort to secure the services of the Rev. Laurens P. Hickock, then of Kent, but the effort was not successful.
The Rev. Grant Powers was born in Hollis, New Hamp- shire, fifth in descent from his Pilgrim ancestors, who came to Salem in 1654. His family was of a godly and sturdy race among the pioneers of the western world.
His grandfather, Captain Peter Powers, was the first settler in the town of Hollis, and, at the knee of his aged grand- mother, little Grant imbibed the ardent love of the history and legends of New England that was one of the passions of his life.
Until twenty-one years of age his life was passed upon his father's farm, so that his academic and professional course be- gan later than that of his contemporaries. He was fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and was graduated from Dartmouth College, in 1810.
21
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He had devoted all the time to be spared from the regular college studies, and from the various labors necessary to sus- tain him there to the study of medicine and surgery. He was an especially enthusiastic student of the latter branch of the profession under Prof. Nathan Smith, who gave him all pos- sible advantages in the pursuit of his chosen profession, and employed him as assistant in the operations in which he was engaged. Mr. Powers was rarely qualified for this career, and he retained a deep interest in all that concerned it through- out his whole life.
But, as his early religious convictions deepened into earnest piety, he felt an irresistible call to devote himself to the work of the ministry. The sacrifice of his tastes and of his training caused himself much pain and his master profound disgust, but the inner call was too strong to be disregarded for personal preferences, and he entered upon a course of theological study with Dr. Asa Burton of Thetford, Vt. While pursuing his theological studies, he established the first Bible class in this country - probably the first of the kind in any country. It was an entirely new feature in the education of the time. He was an ardent lover of Biblical history and literature, and he had the gift of rendering it a fascinating study. Later on, when he was established in his pastoral charge in Haverhill, N. H., he developed the system of his Bible class to larger pro- portions. It was not of the much later Sunday-school type, nor was it conducted on Sunday. It was a minute and de- lightful searching of the Scriptures, as history, with all the charm that he so well knew how to throw round it, and all the illustrations drawn from his professional studies and the kind- ling of his poetic imagination.
He was licensed to preach in 1812.
Meanwhile, his liberal education had been obtained at the expense of such labor and sacrifices as were common among the students of that day, and the magnificent constitution with which he entered upon his course of study had suffered
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rude shocks in consequence of the change from active outdoor life to sedentary confinement - for the laws of health and exercise were little understood and ruthlessly violated, when study and exercise and sometimes manual labor were pursued conjointly without regard to the necessities of the mortal frame.
With health weakened by the new regimen, Mr. Powers contracted a severe cold, which settled upon his lungs, and finally advanced to what was decided to be confirmed con- sumption. Hoping to receive some relief from change of air and from travel, he accepted an invitation to preach at Cayuga, N. Y., to which place he proceeded by easy stages, on horse- back, and where he continued to minister for a year. His labors in Cayuga were greatly blessed, but his health steadily declined, and, by the advice of his physicians, he returned to end his days in New England. In June, 1814, upon a little excursion with a friend, he passed through Haverhill, N. H., and there, unexpectedly, met a college friend, who invited him to supply the destitute pulpit in Haverhill on the following Sabbath, to which request he assented, and on Monday morning he was waited on by the officers of the church who begged him to remain and supply their pulpit. Mr. Powers, supposing himself very near the end of his life, had made up his mind to labor precisely as if he were in health, so long as he should live, and he began his stated work in Haverhill under those conditions. He preached early and late, visited the parish, cared for the sick, and, after repeated invitations from the people to become their pastor, he acceded to their wishes, on the ground that he might as well die their pastor as their supply, if the difference would gratify the people to whom he had become deeply attached. He was ordained January 4, 1815. When one reads his diary of that time, and understands what the record means in pastoral and pulpit effort, and then follows the description of the truly ferocious medical treatment
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to which he was meanwhile subjected, it seems nothing less than a miracle that even his wonderful constitution could conquer in that fight. Conquer, however, it did.
The feeble little church was visited by repeated seasons of spiritual blessing, and, notwithstanding that his labors were incessant, his health gradually returned, and, although all his life he had to guard against a certain delicacy of lungs, he at- tained vigorous health.
On September 22, 1817, he married Eliza Howard, daugh- ter of Thomas Hopkins, Esq., of Thetford, Vt., and a descend- ant of Thomas Hooker. Miss Hopkins reached the age of fif- teen on the day of her marriage. She was a woman of un- usual gifts of mind and person, and she sustained the dignity to which she was so prematurely called. The relation between Mr. Powers and his parish in Haverhill was close and tender, but the parish was far from rich, and as years went on it be- came evident that duty to his increasing family required that he should seek another field of labor, for he would not consent to lay any heavier burden upon the people who had already done their utmost towards sustaining their pastor.
With the keenest pain on both sides the relation was dis- solved in April, 1829, and Mr. Powers was settled in Goshen in August of the same year. And there, for eleven happy years, he went in and out among the people of that noble parish, loving and beloved, enjoying to the utmost the place, the people, and his work; and there, after two years of great suffering, he died, of angina pectoris, April 10, 1841. And there he lies, awaiting the resurrection; and his monument, so beautifully tended, shows that his memory is still cherished among the traditions of the fathers.
In person, Mr. Powers was of robust frame and of great muscular power. His carriage was erect, his step elastic. His manner was genial and winning. He had a singular gift of obtaining the affectionate confidence of all with whom he came in contact.
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