USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > Brief sketch of the Old Milton Church [Milton, Mass.]; its ministers and meeting houses, 1678-1928 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Gc 974.402 M642cu 1974542
M.L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01114 8902
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE OLD MILTON CHURCH, Mass. ITS MINISTERS AND MEETING HOUSES 1678 - 1928
By HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM APRIL, NINETEEN TWENTY-EIGHT
33
Foreword
TN response to many requests this sketch was written at the time of the cele- bration of the 250th Anniversary of the Church. It does not pretend to be a com- plete history, as so much has already been printed in the History of Milton, and in the valuable monographs of Dr. Teele and John A. Tucker and the many printed sermons of the ministers. But this brief sketch will enable those who are interested to get some idea of the church through these two hundred and fifty years.
APRIL, 1928.
H. W. C.
1974542
M ILTON was originally a part of Dorchester and the early settlers of this town belonged to the Dorchester Church, and though Milton was set off and incorporated as a separate town in 1662 it was many years before they severed connec- tion with the old church and established a church of their own.
In those early days town and church were bound together by the closest ties. The affairs of the church were settled in town meeting and its consent was neces- sary before a minister could be called. The town built and owned the Meeting House, appropriated the money for salary and expenses, taxed the people for it, and expected all the inhabitants to attend services.
This condition continued for many years and was not finally dissolved till 1818 when the Massachusetts Legislature so decreed, and the town relinquished to the church all claim to the Meeting House and prop- erty, though the town meeting was often held in the church with the consent of the church, as it was in Milton till 1835.
This church was formed April 24, 1678, when solemn services were held and the following twelve men sub- scribed to the Covenant.
Anthony Newton Ebenezer Clap
Robert Tucker
Edward Blacke
William Blacke
George Lion
1
Thomas Swift
James Tucker
George Sumner
Ephraim Tucker
Thomas Holman
Mannasseh Tucker
The first settled minister was Rev. Peter Thacher who had graduated at Harvard in 1671 and was for a brief time at Barnstable, but in response to a call from
3
Milton, moved here in September, 1680, to consider the call which he finally accepted in the following spring. He records in his Journal,
1681. May 30. They made an arbor to entertain the messengers of the Churches.
June 1. This day I was ordained ... they dined at my house in the arbor.
June 2. This day the Church and most of the Town dined with me - after dinner we sang Psalm 22.
On Sunday, June 5, he baptized his son Oxenbridge, the first baptism in the church, and on Sunday, June 19, he administered the Lord's Supper, which was the first time it was ever administered in Milton. There were about four score communicants. A graphic picture of these early days. Although the town had been in- corporated nineteen years (i.e. in 1662) there was no church organization till three years before the coming of Mr. Thacher. Several ministers had preached for brief periods, Rev. Joseph Emerson from 1666/7 to 1669, and probably for a short time in 1669 and 1670. Rev. Mr. Wiswall and Rev. Mr. Bouse and Rev. Thomas Mighill from 1671 to 1678, and Rev. Samuel Man from 1678 to 1680, but none of them were settled as ministers.
Rev. Peter Thacher remained as pastor till his death Dec. 17, 1727, at the age of seventy-seven, a period of forty-six years. He was one of the leading divines of his day, and his advice was often sought on matters religious and secular in the colony - he ac- quired a knowledge of the Indian language and was appointed to preach to the Indians at Ponkapoag once a month. He lived at first in the house that had pre- viously been built for the use of the ministers which probably lay between Churchill's Lane and Randolph Avenue, but about 1689 moved into a house he had built for himself on the present Thacher Street near
4
1974542
the brook, his land running well back towards Matta- pan.
He was succeeded in the Ministry by Rev. John Taylor who was ordained Nov. 13, 1728, and was pastor till his death Jan. 26, 1749-50, at the age of forty-six. He built for himself a house on the site of the present Town Hall where his descendants lived till it was destroyed by fire in 1864. He began his ministry in the old church on Centre Street, but the parish soon moved into its third Meeting House on Canton Avenue near the Present First Parish Church.
During his ministry the last of the original twelve founders of the Church, Deacon Manasseh Tucker, died on April 9, 1743. The earlier generation having passed away, the church took occasion on the sixty- fifth anniversary, April 24, 1743, to renew their "Covt with God & one another, which they did accordingly," says Parson Taylor, "when the members of the Ch. Male & Female manifested their consent to their Fathers Covt by standing up while I read It over with a small Variation as the Change of Circumstances required."
The next minister was Rev. Nathaniel Robbins who was ordained Feby. 13, 1751, and continued till his death May 19, 1795, at the age of sixty-nine, his first and only parish. In 1752 he bought land on Canton Avenue at the entrance of the present Russell estate and built the house that is still standing there. His distinguished son, Hon. Edward H. Robbins, pre- sented to the First Parish Church the clock that still adorns the front of the gallery.
The next minister was Rev. Joseph Mckean, ordained Nov. 1, 1797, when only twenty-two years of age, and in 1798 a parsonage was built by the town directly across the road from the Robbins house. After his death this house was purchased from the town by his
5
1
22 sole- p
successor, Dr. Gile, but it was taken down in 1868 and no trace of its site remains. Mr. McKean was of feeble health and stayed but a few years, being obliged to retire in 1804. After a brief time he became Boyl- ston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. He died in 1818.
Mr. McKean gathered up the scattered fragments of the Milton Church Records and rescued them from oblivion. But for him they would have been irrevo- cably lost, and with him commenced the first system- atic entries of the doings of the church.
The next minister was Rev. Samuel Gile, ordained Feby. 18, 1807, a man of stately proportions, courtly manners and dignified presence, who continued as pastor over the old church till 1834 when the two wings of the church separated and he became the first pastor of the newly formed First Evangelical Church, to which he ministered till his sudden death on Sunday, Oct. 16, 1836, when he was stricken after preaching at the morning service.
Questions of doctrinal belief had begun in Milton as early as 1818, and a liberal movement had been in the air for several years through New England, which culminated in Milton in 1834 when Dr. Gile finally severed his relations with the church and a large ma- jority of the parishioners followed him to a new place of worship.
After many fruitless attempts at a division of the ministerial lands and church property, the whole, under a decision of the Supreme Court relating to a similar situation in Dedham, passed into possession of the First Congregational Parish in Milton, which since then has been Unitarian.
Rev. Dr. Teele writes, in his History of Milton, in 1887, "as is natural in such a case more or less ill feeling prevailed and the lines of separation were
6
sharply drawn. This, however, gradually passed away. In 1850 there was scarcely a remnant of this feeling manifest. The pastors of the churches were friends and brothers, and for forty years have labored together in the common field of duty with the utmost harmony and cordiality, each in his own way but never in conflict one with the other." And in this year, 1928, this happy feeling of mutual regard is stronger than ever.
Since then the ministers of the Unitarian Church, the corporate title of which is the First Congregational Parish in Milton, have been Rev. Benjamin Huntoon, who was installed as pastor Oct. 15, 1834, and in 1837 was dismissed at his own request to accept a call to Cincinnati. He later removed to Canton, Mass., where he died in 1864. During his ministry the Meeting House was turned around and thoroughly repaired.
The next minister was Rev. Joseph Angier, who was installed Sept. 13, 1837. After eight years, and much to the regret of his parishioners, he retired in 1845.
He was succeeded by Rev. John Hopkins Morison of the Harvard Class of 1831 who was installed Jan. 18, 1846, and had the long pastorate of forty years till his resignation in 1886; serving alone for the first twenty- five years, and having a younger colleague for most of the rest of the time and in the latter part of his life was made minister emeritus. He died in Boston in 1896 in his ninetieth year.
Rev. Francis Tucker Washburn, who had graduated at Harvard in 1864, became his associate on March 2, 1871, but died of typhoid fever Dec. 29, 1873.
Rev. Frederick Frothingham became his associate Oct. 8, 1876. He had graduated at Harvard in 1849, and on the resignation of Dr. Morison in 1886 he
7
became senior pastor and so continued until his resig- nation in April, 1889. He died in Boston in 1891.
Rev. Roderick Stebbins, who had graduated from Harvard in 1881 and from the Divinity School in 1886, was ordained June 23, 1886, as associate to Mr. Froth- ingham and upon the resignation of the latter he became the pastor of the church. His long pastorate and conscientious and devoted service to his parish lasted till his death Jan. 29, 1928, for the last three or four years of which he was relieved of many of his duties and served as minister emeritus.
The last and present pastor, Rev. Vivian T. Pomeroy, was installed on Sunday, Feb. 28, 1925, having preached for the church for a time before his installation.
The Ministers of the other wing of the old church, the corporate title of which is the First Evangelical Congregational Society, began with Rev. Samuel Gile in 1834 when they left the old church, and he ministered to his parish till his sudden death on Oct. 16, 1836.
He was succeeded by Rev. Samuel W. Cozzens who was installed May 24, 1837, a faithful and earnest pastor for ten years, when he was dismissed at his own request May 2, 1847, to other fields of labor. After him Rev. J. P. Leslie and several other clergymen performed the duties of the office till the Rev. Albert K. Teele was installed as pastor Dec. 18, 1850. On the twenty-fifth anniversary he retired from his labors and became pastor emeritus, and died in Milton March 11, 1901, at the age of eighty. Everyone in Milton is indebted to Dr. Teele for his splendid "His- tory of Milton" and his other historical writings and his many services to the town. Rev. W. C. Reed, Rev. W. W. Parker and other clergymen performed the duties of pastor till Rev. Calvin G. Hill was in- stalled Feb. 8, 1882, and he remained till 1888. He was followed by Rev. Henry S. Huntington from 1888
8
to 1907 when he became minister emeritus till 1920. Next came Rev. Albert D. Smith from 1908 to 1921 when he became emeritus and as such he still continues. After him Rev. Bruce W. Brotherston preached from 1921 to 1923 though not settled as pastor. The present minister Rev. G. Edwin Woodman became pastor in 1926.
THE MEETING HOUSES.
The first house stood upon the "Country Heigh Waye" (Adams St.) opposite or near the end of Churchill's Lane, and was probably built before the incorporation of the town. It was small and crude, and as early as 1670 the town began to discuss the needs of a new house. Robert Vose, an early inhabi- tant, deeded in 1664 "eight acres of land for a meeting house and other ministerial purposes" and the second Meeting House was built on or before 1672 on this land at the corner of the present Centre Street and Vose's Lane. The Town voted £50 for the building, which was small and nearly square with the pulpit on one side and a gallery on the other, and the entrance on the town way (Centre St.). The land and building was sold by the town in 1734.
At town meetings in November, 1721, the people voted to build the third Meeting House and the site selected was the Church land about where the First Parish Church now stands but owing to objections as to the exact location it was several years before the site was decided upon. Finally in 1728 the building was erected on Canton Avenue, a little to the east of the present First Parish Church building and nearer the street. Its size was fifty feet by forty and twenty- eight feet high with a belfry, and it stood sideways to the street with its main entrance on the centre of this southerly or street side with the belfry to the west, and on the north side opposite the entrance stood the
9
high pulpit over which hung the sounding board. There were galleries in this church.
Fourth
Some forty-five years later, in 1773, the church needed repairs and as the population of the town had nearly doubled, much more room was needed and so it was thought wise to build a new church, but as the troublous times of the Revolution were at hand nothing was done for fifteen years.
Oct. 3, 1785, the town voted to build a new Meeting House, and shortly after, the pews were sold at auction and about £1,400 was realized, and the church cost about £1,700 which was then equivalent to about $5,600. The building was raised in the summer of 1787 and dedicated Jan. 1, 1788. This is the Fourth and present House, but it stood side to the street with the belfry to the west and it had galleries. In 1835 the church was turned around to its present position, the galleries taken down, the upper windows closed in and other changes made. An excellent monograph by the late John A. Tucker in 1908 entitled "The First Four Meeting Houses of Milton," gives much detail about them, with plans and elevations of the Third and Fourth, as well as a plan and description of the land holdings where the First Parish Church now stands.
The old building that stood on the church land at the corner of Thacher Street and had been used for various purposes, at one time being the Convalescent Home, was, about 1880 made into the Parish House, and a few years ago moved back to its present position, enlarged and improved.
The First Evangelical Congregational Society, after its separation from the old church in 1834, worshipped for some few years in the stone church at East Milton, till several acres of land to the east of the old church were given by Nathaniel Tucker and, with the aid of parishioners and generous friends, their present house of worship was built.
10
77 02407 -
8
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.