USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > The Methodist Episcopal churches of Norwich, Conn. > Part 3
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meated the community as a silent but potent leaven .*
The name of the Church Society, as appears in the minutes, was first called " Norwich ;" in 1834, "Norwich North," which appellation it has very generally retained. In local conversation, it is often called "Bean Hill," from its locality."*
The characteristics of the sermons and clergy have been highly varied. Some were argumenta- tive, as Nichols and Jocelyn ; others doctrinal, like Branch ; some eloquent in language, as McLane and Coate ; others simple in diction, like Dane ; a part highly urbane-Marsh and Stewart ; others, disciplinarian, as Vannest ; many young, like Ruter, Norris, B. Sabin and McKee; a portion impassioned in utterance, as Ostrander and Blake. Rev. Lewis Bates was a good preacher, especially given to illustration. So great was his propensity to this, that some of the older ministers thought he merited a public caution from the Bishop. Accord- ingly, when his name was called in the examination of character, he was told by the Bishop that he ought to be very careful not to lower the dignity of the sacred office of the ministry by introducing any common- place story, tending to degrade the Holy Scriptures, or the pulpit. Brother Bates stood calmly and heard the Bishop through, when he admitted the pro- . priety of the Bishop's admonition, and said it re- minded him of a " circumstance," which he began
* For Preachers and Accessions, see Appendices A and C.
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' to relate, when the gravity of the Conference was entirely unsettled by a general laugh, Bishop and all.
A few early references to Norwich were made in the journals of the pioneers. Rev. Jesse Lee preached at the Landing in a private house to a large company, on or about Sept. 15, .1794. Concerning the occasion, he says, "Glory be to God, glory be to God forever. My soul was lost in wonder, love, and praise. The people seemed, by their looks, as if they were willing to receive the truth, and turn to God."
Bishop Asbury preached in the "Old Acade- my," Monday, eight o'clock, A. M., July 20, 1795, having come hither from New London Conference on the same day. IIe also attended a " Quarterly Meeting," held in the same place, Sept. 17, of the next year. IIe spoke from 1 Pet. iv. 14:
" If yo be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified."
The Sabbath following was a great day for Zion, and the Love Feast, commencing at eight o'clock in the morning, was especially memorable. The Bishop records : "It was a sweet, refreshing time ; several talked very feelingly, among whom were some aged people; many praised God for the instrumentality of the Methodists in their salvation. * * Two or three aged women spoke as on the bor-
ders of Eternity, and within sight of glory." He 2*
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preached at the close of the Love Feast upon Rom." viii. 6-8, on which he says, " Serious impressions appeared to be made on the minds of some of the audience." Asbury and Lee visited Norwich, July 23, 1798, and after they had both given ex- hortations, there was "a speaking and living time . among the brethren and sisters."
During the pastorship of Rev. Caleb D. Rogers and Leonard Griffing, the church planned the erec- tion of a sanctuary, which was dedicated in the summer of 1831, by an able sermon from Rev. Fitch Reed, of the New York Conference.
Prominent in the movement was Erastus Went- worth, Esq., father of Dr. Wentworth, who was, and still continues to be, a liberal communicant of the Congregationalists. At a meeting of Messrs. Joshua Maples, Aaron Armstrong, Joseph T. Man- ning and others, prominent members of a subse- quent date, he was invited to join their Conference in this matter, and, with Mr. Griffing, was ap- pointed to circulate a subscription. The two first named headed it each with one hundred dollars, and the requisite sum of a thousand dollars was indemni- fied. It is highly gratifying, as it is due, to say that the respective denominations of the city, generally, contributed toward the new church. He was also appointed first on the Building Committee, and watched with a highly commendable interest the young enterprise. He was requested to sell the slips at the close of the dedicatory service, and re-
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plied, " I will do any thing but preach the dedication sermon." He appears to have been a signal help in the choral services of that occasion, on which he played the bass viol. A revival soon followed, when his honored son became a subject of divine grace, and richly rewarded his religious catholicity. The Church has ever been blessed with devoted men and women, who, loving its doctrines and dis- cipline, have sought and enjoyed the life and power of Godliness. They have been celebrated at times for their singing, and some of the earliest members sang impressively in the spirit, to wit, Rev. Amaziah Fullmore, Mr. David Gillson, and Mrs. Capt. Richard Lamb; and, combined with spiritu- ality, formed no common attraction in the early means of grace. Among its laity, at the present time, Mr. Erin Gifford, a class-leader, sustains an enviable character. He joined the M. E. Church in 1829, and has ever sustained a high reputation for moral integrity, conscientiousness, sincerity, fidelity, and a perennial piety. Mr. George Case, for Christian benevolence and beneficence, has few compeers in any church of the land, and, with all the members of his estimable family, is a religious power which may God long conserve to the cause that honors him as it is honored by him. Messrs. William T. Case and Thomas M. Frazier contribute liberally to the interests of the Society, and with others, whose names are in the Book of Life, merit much more than our limits will allow.
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.This church has given to the Methodist ministry some of its best and illustrious members.
Rev. John Whear was born in Cornwall, Eng- land, Dec. 7, 1835. Of pious parentage, he was early the subject of religious influences, and at the age of thirteen gave his heart to God. He was intended for mercantile pursuits, but, convinced that he ought to preach, he studied theology, first under Rev. H. W. Holland, and afterward under Rev. James Emory. In 1851, he became an ex- horter, and afterward local preacher among the Wesleyan Methodists of his native country. Pre- ferring tle M. E. Church of America, as a field of labor, he emigrated, and landed at New York,
March 12, 1857. During the winter of that year he assisted Rev. George W. Brewster, of the Main Street Church of this city. The ensuing spring he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Scott, and ap- pointed to Norwich North, where he labored with acceptability. The following year he was stationed at Lebanon, but a chronic disease disabled him from the work he so dearly loved. Though unfitted for duty in the active ministry, he resides at the home of his father-in-law, Mr. Erin Gifford, where faithful and loving hands bestow merited kindness and attention. Ile is a marked instance of a mys- terious Providence, Whose plans " are a great deep," and " Whose thoughts are not as our thoughts."
Bro. Whear was a minister of much promise, deeply devoted to his work, and possessed of ardent
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piety. His joy will ever be in knowing that they SERVE God who WAIT cheerfully upon Him, accord- ing to His wisdom. In his uniformly patient cheer- fulness under protracted suffering, he has furnished a bright illustration of the gospel he preached.
Rev. Edward Hyde, of blessed memory, the son of Capt. James Hyde, was born March 31, 1786. When eight years of age, he suffered a severe attack of the scarlatina anginosa, from which he barely recovered to find his vocal powers permanently impaired. At seventeen, he obtained divine remission and commenced his ministerial life Feb., 1809, and in March entered the Ashburnham Circuit. At the next Conference, which was held in Monmouth, Me., he joined the itinerancy, and was appointed successively to the following circuits and stations : 1809, Poplin . and Salem, N. HI. ; 1810, Readfield, Me .; 1811, Scituate; 1812, Mar- tha's Vineyard; 1813, Tolland; 1814, Somerset, Bristol, and Rhode Island ; 1815, Warwick ; 1816, Pomfret ; 1817, Ashburnham ; 1818, '19, New Lon- don ; 1820, '21, Wellfleet; 1822, '23, '24, '25, Presiding Elder over Boston District ; 1826, '27, '28, '29, Presiding Elder over New London District ; 1830, Presiding Elder over Boston District. In 1831 he was stationed on Wilbraham Circuit, and was made steward of the Wesleyan Academy, where he remained until his death, March 16, 1832. It is impossible to do justice in few words to this servant of God and the Church. He was beloved in every
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relation of life, and whether as son, consort, brother, friend or minister, he won great affection and re- spect. Deeply devoted to his vocation, meek in his carriage among his friends, dignified in man- ners, and highly successful in his ministry, the name of Rev. Edward Hyde is as "ointment poured forth." His last days were peculiarly triumphant, as he often broke out in joyful ecstasy over the good- ness of God, in the atonement and his nearing, many-mansioned Home. Ilis dying utterances were: " The chariot is come"-" Don't you see them ?"-" Glory to God ! Hallelujah !! "
His only surviving child is the wife of Rev. C. K. True, D. D., now of Boston, a woman whose virtues, among a highly interesting family, evince the character of paternal inheritance.
Dr. Fisk, who delivered his funeral sermon, says of him : " He was a man of one work-he labored solely for God and for the Church. From this he could not be diverted, either by the hope of worldly gain or worldly applause ; nor yet, what must have been to him a still greater sacrifice, by a desire of social relaxation and domestic enjoyment .* * From the time he commenced his labors until his last sickness, he never lost an appointment in conse- quence of ill -health, and he rarely complained of fatigue." He rests :
" Asleep in Jesus ! blessed sleep,
From which none ever wake to weep."
Rev. Erastus Wentworth is of Puritan descent.
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William Wentworth followed the " Pilgrims" to New England in 1628, and, with others, laid the foundations of New Hampshire, where he died at advanced age, in 1697. He had nine sons, progeni- tors of Benning and John, royal governors of New Hampshire, as well as of all the name in America. The late Mrs. Sigourney was descended from his son Paul; "Long John," member of Congress for Illinois, from his son Ezekiel ; Dr. Wentworth from his son John. James, born 1721, great grandson of William and great-grandfather of the subject of our present sketch, settled in Norwich the middle of the last century, where were born Lemuel, his grand- father, in 1752, and Erastus, his father, in 1788. He was born in Stonington, at the house of his mater- nal grandfather, August 8, 1813, and removed to Norwich the following year, where all his early years were spent. Those years were the last of the olden time, the last of knee-breeches and cocked hats, sloops, stage coaches, spinning-wheels, small fortunes ; pride in economy, religious observance of Thanksgiving, and stated lessons in the Assembly of Divines' Catechism.
Nature, men, books, society, these are the great sources of first ideas, these lie at the foundation of fortune, character, and life. Norwich scenery is proverbially picturesque, rarely beautiful, never sublime. Nature wears a rugged aspect in grani- tic regions and primitive formations. The soil is hard, strikingly like the grimmer features of Puri-
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tan character. Morals, religion, school and family government, fifty years ago, were Scotch in precision and sternness. The schoolmaster was an absolute, often cruel tyrant, the father of a family an unap- proachable autocrat, the " minister " held in reve- rence, bordering on dread. Youth stood in whole- some fear of the rod, the "tithing man," the sheriff, constable, and " squire."
Books were few, carpets scarce, pianos rare, cooking stoves and a thousand modern conveniences and luxuries unknown. Boys, inclined to read, had to " borrow " books; a favorite volume circulated from house to house till it was thumbed into illegi- bleness. In those times, if the whole Bean Hill neighborhood had been laid under contribution, it would hardly have furnished books enough to form a modern private library. Robinson Crusoe, Arabian Nights, fairy tales, and the feeble romances of the last century preceded Sunday-school literature and the circulating library. New publications did not then find instant way to the center-tables of wealth and fashion. Magazines were occasional, dailies, monthlies, and quarterlies unknown.
The curriculum of the common school was read- ing, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, and grammar. Murray's English Grammar was put into the hands of Erastus while yet in the " woman's ยท school." His daily progress could be marked by the dog-eared and worn-out leaves. This cruel custom of compelling children to study grammar, a
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branch fit only for adult years, and mature minds, is still absurdly adhered to in all our schools. Pri- vate schools furnished lessons in Algebra, Geometry, Latin and Greek, composition and declamation. The natural sciences were unknown.
Religious instruction consisted in a Saturday re- cital of the Assembly's Catechism, from which it was much easier to learn the picture couplets :
" In Adam's fall, We sinned all,"
than the answers to the dry questions, " What is man's chief end !" Added to this were public ser- vices at the " meeting-house " on Sunday, with short sermons from Dr. Strong, and a thinly attended week-evening lecture or conference at the "Court House."
Erastus's first religious impressions, like those of Luther, were caused by a startling providence. In 1823, a schoolmate dropped dead at his feet, which set him to thinking and praying. The same year the old academy at Bean Hill, hitherto furnished only in loose planks, laid on piles of blocks, was permanent- ly and conveniently seated, and supplied with pulpit and altar. A "revival " followed, and a dozen boys from ten to fourteen years old fell into the current, and kept up juvenile prayer meetings from house to house for a number of weeks. Infant piety was not much encouraged in those days, except by a few good old ladies ; the affair was looked coldly
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upon by the major part, and one by one the boys " backslid." Erastus counted himself a " backslider," and, out of a sense of shame, went as little as possible to Methodist meetings for the next six years. He be- longed " down town," went there to Sunday-school, sang in the choir, loved the organ, and only at- tended at the " old school-house" on warm after- noons, or excessively cold Sundays, or to hear a new preacher or enjoy the lively singing of a quarterly meeting.
Ile was converted in 1831, at eighteen, joined the Methodist Society at Bean Hill in September or October of that year. The winter following, as well as the two preceding, was spent in teaching. In the spring of 1832, Rev. Peter Sabin wanted to give him an exhorter's license, which he declined, saying, " I must go to school first and get some education." "Education," replied his minister, " you have more education than most of our preach- ers now. Jacob Abbott preached six years, and ac- complished a wonderful work, and then went to glory. If he had gone to college, all this would have been lost to the Church and the world." This was a poser, but young Wentworth reflected, " I am no Jacob Abbott," and in May, 1832, entered Caze- novia Seminary, and in 1834 Wesleyan Univer- sity, where he graduated in 1837, and followed the way Providence pointed out, which was for nearly twenty years teaching in Methodist Institutions.
This was a severe field of labor. The more open
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and active labors of pioneer itinerants were full of startling incident, as romantic often as romance itself. The history of the pioneer teachers of Methodism, their labors, sacrifices, and privations, has never been written. Everybody knows how our academies and colleges struggled into existence, but few know the sacrifices and toils of the men who made them. Pro- fessor Wentworth's first field, Gouverneur Seminary, was a hard one. The old academy burned down, and was only rebuilt by immense labor and sacrifice. The inhabitants of the region were poor, with but little money at command, and their farms large- ly mortgaged to mercenary dealers. Tuition rates were cheap, and mostly paid in produce. As an instance of the straits to which the faculty were often driven, it is related that on one occasion, at the close of the term, four of the teachers sat down to divide among them its cash proceeds, thirty dollars, in the ratio of the greatest necessity, and this too when the Institution was indebted to them for frightful arrearages of salary.
Poultney, his second field, entered in 1841, was better, pecuniarily-the teachers were paid, but the farm and buildings were thatched with mortgages to satisfy current claims, and finally sold at fearful sacrifice. In 1846, by advice of a physician, he sought a milder climate for a consumptive compan- ion. The trustees of McKendree College, Southern Illinois, had just advertised for men who were will- ing to undertake its professorships at ordinary
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Methodist preachers' salaries, raised by the voluntary contributions of the people of the Illinois Conference. Their appeal met with a host of responses, and four were selected out of scores that offered. Professor Wentworth, of Poultney, was elected President of the Institution. A former President of the College advised him to " take out a good library," and devote the time spent in the West to study ; the advice was good, but impracticable. The work of teaching, preaching, lecturing, traveling, begging, and editing, left little leisure for books. The Illinois Confer- ence, preachers and people, responded nobly to the efforts of the faculty, and a good work was done by many generous hearts and willing hands.
In 1850, President Wentworth was called to the Professorship of Natural Science in Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. The same year, Alleghany College conferred upon him, unsolicited, the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In the West, with less than four hundred dollars a year, he had saved money ; here, with a salary of a thousand, he found himself in debt five hundred dollars at the end of the year. With the exception of a single season of severe af- fliction in the loss of his wife and infant son, the years spent in Carlisle were years of social comfort and steady mental improvement. Sundays and vacations, in common with the other clerical mem- bers of the faculty, he made frequent excursions to Harrisburgh, Philadelphia, Trenton, Baltimore, and Washington, and all the adjacent regions, lecturing,
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preaching, and representing the interests of educa- tion and religion.
In 1854, some of his friends proposed that he go to our Chinese Mission. The proposition grew out of a conversation with Rev. George Loomis, sea- men's ex-chaplain at Canton, in which Dr. Went- worth expressed a willingness to serve the Seamen's Friend Society, as chaplain, for five years, if his services were desired. " Why not go to our own mission in Foochou, if willing to go abroad at all ?" suggested President Loomis. " Willing, but too old," replied Professor Wentworth; "none but young men can acquire a strange language, particu- larly one so difficult as the Chinese." The mis- sionary secretary made the same objection. It is valid, but was overruled in this instance, and in January, 1855, he left the pulpit in New York for China, via the Cape of Good Hope, touching at the southern extremity of India in the passage. The voyage was accomplished by June. It is impossi- ble in this brief sketch to go into the details of mis- sionary work for the next six years. It consisted in the study of the hardest language in the world, preaching in the colloquial dialect of the Fokean province, distributing tracts and Testaments, trans- lating into Chinese, overseeing native helpers, itine- rating through the country, building houses and churches, and, in some few instances, communicat- ing a knowledge of English to missionary Chinese youths. The ill health of his wife compelled his
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return to America, after an absence of seven years, that, though flavored with a due modicum of the unpleasantnesses and disagreeables that are as spices and pickles to existence, were among the most pleasant and profitable of his life. In 1862 he took pastoral charge of the North Second Street Church, Troy, N. Y., and in 1865, of the State Street, in the same city, where he is now devoting himself to the itinerant work as a member of the Troy Annual Conference.
Dr. Wentworth is no ordinary man. Physically he is neither large nor small. He would be select- ed in a company as a person commanding respect and influence from his carriage and utterance, which is winning in a high degree. Ile is exceedingly genial in his disposition, and is said to be sure to render, in conversation, the " choleric amiable, and the dyspeptic self-forgetful."
In the pastoral relation, he is the companion of his people, and beloved by the old and young: IIe deals closely and faithfully with the conscience, and, in private appeals to those with whom he is famil- iar, is deeply impressive. In affliction he is tender and consoling, and the people expect and find relief from his presence and words in their severest trials. -
As a preacher, he' is systematic, original, pow- erful, and often overwhelming. He is very much at home in a revival, and at camp-meeting, where his pulpit talent is rarely surpassed. As an orator
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and lecturer, for similar reasons, he is highly popu- lar.
ITis literary attainments are of an uncommon order. His reading is extensive and varied, and the important scholastic positions filled by him tes- tify his ability to instruct and govern the young.
His piety is of an earnest and joyful character. True, he has drank the cup of missions in China, but he does not deem himself entitled to rest. Duty seems to be privilege, and his views of the " cross- es " of piety and religion are worthy to live in the millennium.
Rev. Simon Huntington was born at Norwich, August 18, 1801, and was converted in 1820. He was an active and exemplary Christian, and, impressed with the duty of preaching, after a tui- tion of two years under Dr. Wilbur Fisk, at Wilbra- ham, Mass., he removed to Canada West, in 1829, the remainder of which conference year and the follow- ing, were spent upon the Yonge Street Circuit. Rev. John Carroll speaks of his first acquaintance with him : "I was preaching in the pulpit of the old chapel in Belleville, on a Sunday morning in June, 1829, when I was a little disconcerted by the ap- pearance of what I then thought a handsome, youthful stranger, in the garb of a preacher, who paid great attention to the sermon. After it was ended, I remarked that if there was a preacher in the congregation, I would be very glad if he would come forward and close the meeting. The stranger
-
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came into the pulpit at once, and offered one of the most beautifully appropriate and scriptural prayers I thought I had ever heard." He joined the Can- ada Conference in 1832, in full connection, and married Miss Sarah Smith, sister of Rev. William Smith, in the conference year of 1833. His appoint- ments were : 1829, Yonge Street Circuit ; 1830, Westminster Circuit; 1831, Mississippi Circuit ; 1832, Bonchire Mission ; 1833, '34, Augusta Circuit ; 1835, '36, Murray Circuit; 1837, New Market Cir- cuit ; 1838, '39, Toronto Circuit ; 1840, '41, Whitby Circuit ; 1842, '43, Kemptville Circuit ; 1844, '45, Rideau Circuit ; 1846, '47, Cornwall Circuit ; 1848, Prescott Circuit ; 1849, Augusta Circuit ; 1850, '51, Farmersville Circuit ; 1852, '53, Glanford ; 1854, '55, Grimsby ; 1856, Walsingham, at which place he, deceased, August 25, 1856, soon after the session of the Conference. Rev. George Goodson says : " His illness was of short duration. He did not complain till Tuesday, the 19th, and nothing serious was apprehended until Sunday afternoon, about three o'clock, when Mrs. Huntington found his inind delirious. But even then there was no thought of death being near. He died the next Monday morning at four o'clock. It was sudden and un- expected to those in the room with him. Ilis dis- ease was inflammation of the lungs.
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