USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Williamstown > Centennial discourse, delivered in Williamstown, Mass., November 19, 1865 > 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.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
F 74 . W82 N7 Copy 2
CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED IN
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.,
NOVEMBER 19, 1865,
BY
MASON NOBLE.
NORTH ADAMS, MASS: JAMES T. ROBINSON & CO., PRINTERS. 1865.
٠
CENTENNIAL
DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED IN
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.,
NOVEMBER 19, 1865,
BY
MASON NOBLE.
NORTHI ADAMS, MASS : JAMES T. ROBINSON & CO., PRINTERS. 1865.
F74 W 82 Ny Copy2
STATEMENT.
The Report of the Committee appointed to make arrangements for the cele- bration of the " Centennial" herewith published, is perhaps the best introduction to the Address which could be given.
The programme laid down in the report was substantially carried out.
The Rev. Dr. Hopkins presided in the morning, and was assisted in the services by two former Pastors of the Church,-Rev. Addison Ballard and Rev. Joseph Alden, D. D.
In the afternoon, Rev. Mr. Seymour, Pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, presided, and was assisted by Prof. Albert Hopkins and Rev. Calvin Durfee.
The " Conference Meeting" in the evening, was continued for two hours. In the absence of Rev. Lucius E. Smith, of the Baptist Church, Rev. Mason Noble was requested to conduct the services. Addresses were made by the Rev. Dr. Alden, Rev. Mr. Durtec, Rev. Mr. Ballard, Rev. John S.Whitman, Rev. Dr. Hopkins, S. Southworth, Esq., and Hon. Joseph White. These addresses were intermingled with prayers and singing of a very fervent and animated character, and the im- pression made upon the great congregation was so deep and pleasant that all seemed to regret that the time for adjournment had arrived.
In the early part of the meeting a mimber of letters were read, from foriner residents of Williamstown, regretting their necessary absence, and expressing their deep sympathy with the meeting.
It was also voted unanimously to request a copy of the " Centennial Address " for publication, and a committee of three-Henry L. Sabin, M. D., Keyes Dan- forth, Esq., and S. Southworth, Esq .- were appointed for that purpose.
On motion of Prof. Perry, it was also resolved that the same committee request the Hon. Joseph White to furnish the facts of his address for publication ; and also to prepare any other proceedings of this meeting for publication, which they might select for such a purpose.
In accordance with this resolution, the letters from some of our absent friends, and the remarks of Hon. Joseph White, will be found in the Appendix.
1
REPORT OF COMMITTEE.
The Committee appointed at a meeting held in the Lecture Room, July 26, 1865, to make arrangements for the celebration of the settlement of our Town, and the ordination of the first Pastor, have the honor to announce
That they immediately entered into a correspondence with the Rev. Mason Noble, Chaplain of the U. S. Naval Academy, requesting him to deliver a Centen- nial Address in this Town at some time during the present antumn, and that Mr. Noble consented to deliver such an Address at such time as the Committee might designate.
In the examination of the ancient records of the Town, it was ascertained that though the call to Mr. Whitman Welch to the work of the ministry in this Town was given on the 24th of July, 175, yet it was not till October 224, of the same year,-exactly one hundred years this day *-- that Richard Stratton, Josiah Hosford and William Hosford were appointed a committee "to prepare for the ordina- tion." Owing to the loss of the early Church Records by fire, the exact date of the ordination cannot be known. But from a call for a Town Meeting dated De- cember 30, 1765, to make arrangements to pay the expenses incurred by the Com- mittee in the ordination, there is no doubt that the ordination did take place on some day between the 22d of October and the 30th of December, and most probably in the month of November.
The committee have therefore determined to celebrate the centennial in that month, and do hereby designate the 19th of November, which is the third Sabbath of that month as the time for the celebration. As the period of an entire century is to be reviewed on this occasion it is understood that the Address will occupy the attention of the people at both the morning and afternoon exercises of that day.
The Faculty and students of the College, the 2d Congregational church, the Pastor and congregation of the Methodist Episcopal church, the members of the Baptist church and the former Pastors of this church who are still living will be invited to be present and participate in the celebration. The President of the college, assisted by our last Pastor, Rev. Addison Ballard, will be requested to preside and conduct the devotional services in the morning, and the Pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, assisted by other clergymen to do the same in the afternoon.
In the evening at 7 o'clock there will be a " Conference Meeting" after the man- ner of the " olden time." The Rev. Lucius E. Smith, of Groton, Mass., assisted by Prof. Albert Hopkins, will be requested to preside at this meeting, and the time will be spent in prayer and singing, and in volunteer addresses of not over ten minutes from citizens and strangers.
All which is respectfully submitted.
HENRY L. SABIN, KEYES DANFORTH, JAMES SMEDLEY,
Committee.
Williamstown, October 224, 1865.
* This report was read from the pulpit in the Ist Congregational church on Sabbath Day, Oct. 22, 185.
Bearee unknown
DISCOURSE.
AND ITE BARE THEM AND CARRIED THEM ALL THE DAYS OF OLD .- Isaiah 03 : 9. .
As I stand before you to-day I feel very deeply that we are all one family, and that I may claim the privilege and the honor of a son and a brother. I was born in this household. I was baptized at this altar. I was trained in your district school, and educated at the college. At seventeen years of age, in company with many others, and with some of you who are now present, I pub- licly confessed Christ in this house and sat down for the first time at the table of the Lord. Just after I had passed my majority I was licensed to preach by the Berkshire Association, and the year following was ordained in this Pulpit and sent forth as an Evangelist to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. And now after thirty-four years of absence, nearly twenty of which I have been a Pastor in the city of Washington and in New York, and twelve a Chaplain in our Navy-after having sailed more miles upon the seas than would encircle the earth, and touched with my feet the four quarters of the globe, and looked in upon the homes of most of the great races of the human family-I come back again with real pleasure to my own first and dearest home. These grand old mountains stand before me in the same sublime repose with which they awed and yet attracted my childhood. The pleasant pastures on the hills, and the meadows down by the river, and the clear bright brooks that find their way along the vallies are the same as I left them. And though when I look around for the companions of my youth I find that most of them have gone, and that the majority of them have in- deed joined our older fathers and mothers in the sleep of the
6
grave; and though the memories of the past become thus in some respects as sad as they are sacred, yet I am glad to know that so many have, through the love and grace of God, passed away to a better home. They are not dead. They are living still. And here too instead of the fathers are the children and the children's children; and in all these old homes are the same young joys and bright hopes that made life so pleasant in the past. Amid all the changes there is more that remains un- changed. God and truth and duty and social life and human na- ture and man's Great Saviour are the same. And though we come together to remember the past I cannot but remember that the past was so much like the present, while the present is like the past.
A few days after receiving the invitation to address you on #his occasion I was walking on the cliff's at Newport, looking out upon the sea, and thinking of you and the past. It was a quiet summer day and the great waters lay before me in all their glory. They came rolling on in resistless power, now rising and swelling into majestic billows which sweeping over the distant rocks left them shining in their white spray, and then hurrying on toward the shore they lifted up their crests of foam in long lines of beauty and breaking into countless gems scattered all their treas- ures upon the sands. But though they reached the shore they did not find a resting place. They seemed tied by invisible bands to all that they had left behind them; and yielding to their power they returned to the sea only to be swept back again with the rising tide. Though the depth and strength of the waters were ever changing with the hours, yet the great waves continued the same. And it was this idea of immutability in the midst of ceaseless change, of immortal youth and vigor enthroned upon the billows as they roll on through the ages, that chiefly occupied my thoughts. The waters were as clear and pure as when first poured forth from the hands of their Creator. Their movements were as full of majesty and power. Their white"foam flashed as brightly in the sun, and their voice was as solemn and sublime. The whole scene before me did not differ from that on which the Red Naragansett looked as he stood there three centuries before leaning upon his strong bow and gazing upon the wonders of the deep. It was the same as that which led the author of the oldest Book more than four thousand
years ago to exclaim, " Who shut up the sea ? and set bars and doors, and said hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."
I love to think of the stability of the universe, and of the un- changing youth and freshness of nature around us. And as we come up to these heights to-day and look ont upon the great ocean of the past, I love to remember that our race has ever been substantially the same in all the changes through which they have passed.
I am aware that there are those who look upon the past of our race as full of darkness. To them the shadows are ever deepening as they go backward, till as they approach the origin of man they find him in the degradation of a savage and scarcely elevated above the beasts that perish. From this low point they tell us that man has been slowly working his way up to his pres- ent position, his powers having been gradually developed, while his progress in the future is secured only by the same stern laws that have controlled him in the ages that are gone.
Now while there are some facts which may seem to counte- nance such a theory, there are many more which accord with the Bible in its declaration that man was made in the image of God, that his character at first was perfect, and that the race com- menced their career on earth in the full development of all their powers. The golden age was not a pleasant fable. The fall of man from his original uprightness was not a sudden plunge into the depths of savage ignorance and ferocity. On the contrary, nothing is more certain than the revelation of a gracious Deliv- erer to man at the very commencement of his sins and sorrows; and as soon as the race began to spread themselves over the earth, they are ever accompanied by the most signal manifestation of the loving kindness of their Creator. The nearer we come in our investigations to the primitive ages and the more exact our knowledge, the more evidence do we find that in Asia on the Tigris and the Euphrates, and in Africa on the Nile, there were races of men equal and in some respects superior to ourselves. In the Palaces of Ninevah and Babylon as revealed to our eyes by Layard and others, and in the Temples of Luxor and Carnac, and in the pyamids and tombs of Egypt are specimens of art, of taste, of skill and power which proclaim that the races that con- structed them were as mighty as our slanders of their barbarism are baseless.
1
8
Barbarism has indeed swept over many tribes and nations. But it ever came as a judgment of God. It was in accordance with both natural and moral law. Men gradually sank down into the debasements which have so long characterised some of the nations of the East ; while the tribes scattered in the more inac- cessible parts of the earth, and exposed to the powerful influ- ences of climate and of war, and of false government have reached at times a terrible depth of savage degradation. Still, barbarism has ever been exceptional and limited; not normal or universal. Man's higher nature has ever been asserting itself. The great waves as they have rolled on from age to age have been bound to all the past and to a redeeming God; and though at times shrouded in thick darkness and lashed by the fury of the storm, have yet returned to their place, lifting themselves up to- ward the sky and spreading out in solemn beauty under the light.
It is with such reverence for the past in general, and with an assured confidence in the comparative wisdom and goodness of our own immediate ancestors in particular, that I enter into the pleasant memories and unite in the congratulations of this day.
A century has passed since our fathers first stood among these hills and began to build their homes in the forests that then thickly shaded these vallies. We gather here to-day to look back over these years, and to revive in some measure the scenes that have been witnessed.
The principal subject which invites our attention is the history and character of the fathers of our town.
We are not afraid to ask the question who and what were they ? For they were the children of the Pilgrim Fathers. In some of them was the blood of those who landed on the rock at Ply- mouth more than a century before; and the rest were the de- scendants of those who followed the first Pilgrims in exile from the father land.
During the century preceding the settlement of Berkshire the coast of New England had been studded with their towns and adorned with their school houses and churches. The forests had gradually fallen before them, and villages had sprung up in the interior as far as the valley of the Connecticut. But here the tide of emigration westward was arrested for many years. The tribes of Indians were too formidable and their union with the
9
hostile French too close to permit our Fathers to place them- selves beyond the rough hills that separated them from the Hoo- sic and the Housatonic. As late as 1735 there was but one house between Westfield in Hampden Co. and Shetfield in this county. In Sheffield was the first settlement in Berkshire, and it consisted chiefly of emigrants from Westfield. And it is an interesting fact to me personally that a Mr. Noble from Westfield, is record- ed in the history of Sheffield as " the first white man who resided in the town. Ile spent the first winter there with no other hu- man being than the Indians. In the spring he went back to Westfield and in June returned with his daughter." This we suppose was in 1725. The settlements on the Housatonic ex- tended gradually northward, reaching Great Barrington which was then a part of Sheffield in 1730; Stockbridge between 1735 and 1740; Lenox in 1750; PittsGeld in 1732; and Williamstown in 1753.
The Legislative provision by which the first settlers of this town became proprietors of the soil was enacted April 6, 1750. By this law a committee was appointed to lay out 63 house lots of ten or twelve acres each in the township of West Hoosic. They were then to admit sixty settlers,-each settler to be en- titled to one sixty-third part of the township on condition of paying six pounds, thirteen shillings and six pence within two years, building a house 18 feet long, by 15 wide and seven stud, fencing five acres and bringing it to grass or fit for ploughing, and actually by themselves or heirs residing five years in seven from the time of their being admitted. Each house lot was then permitted to draw one sixty-third part of the township. Three of the sixty-third parts of the township were by the law reserved -one for the first settled minister; one for the ministry, i. e., his salary ; and one for the school " as near the centre of the town as may be with convenience." And all this had another indispen- sable condition-" that they do settle a learned orthodox minis- ter in' said town within the term of five years of their being ad- mitted."
The first meeting of the "Proprietors" of Williamstown was held December 5, 1753, by virtue of a warrant of Wm. Wil- liams, Esq., of Pittsfield, issued in pursuance of a vote of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, September 7, 1753.
Two years previous Nehemiah Smedley and William and
C
10
Josiah Hosford and some other young men had come here to prepare a settlement for themselves and their families. Being however interrupted in their plans by the increasing hostility of the Indians, they returned to Connecticut, and then enlisting in a company raised to protect the frontiers they came again with others to this place and garrisoned a fort which stood a few rods northwest of this house, and also a block house near the West College. The few inhabitants were exposed to frequent incur- sions from the Indians; and in July, 1756, Capt. Chapin and two persons by the name of Chidestree are said to have been killed, while several persons were carried off into captivity.
Connected with these defences of the town at that time we cannot forget Fort Massachusetts, situated three miles and a half east of this church not far from the north bank of the IToosic. This fort was built in 1741 or in 1742, and was the scene of many a bloody strife in those early days. Capt., afterwards Col. Ephraim Williams was stationed there as commander in 1748, and it was in such circumstances that he made the acquaintance of our struggling fathers and formed those attachments to the people and the town that in a few years through his noble legacy changed the name of West Hoosie into Williamstown, and wreathed his own brow with the pure and ever increasing glories of Williams College.
For a period of four years from 1756 to 1760 I find no record of the fortunes of the small number who were here battling with the terrors of a wilderness through which the savages roamed every year on their war path. Their number however gradually - increased, and though exposed to so many trials their chief anxie- ties seem to be connected with their spiritual interests. In this connection and as illustrating the real character of the men, I will read to you some extracts from the early records of the town.
The second meeting of the Proprietors was called by the Pro- prietor's clerk, Isaac Wyman, and dated Fort Massachusetts, April 5th, 1751. The place of meeting was to be in West Hoosic at the dwelling house of Capt. Allen Curtis; and among other items of business they were " to see if the Proprietors will have the gospel preached in this town this summer or some part of it; and if so to choose a committee to bring in some orthodox min- ister to preach the gospel."
" Oct. 1, 1760, Voted to hire preaching for six months begin-
-
11
ning the 1st of May next, and to raise twelve shillings on each right to defray the expense."
" Nov. 20, 1760, A meeting was called to see if the town would choose a committee to hire a good orthodox Preacher, and to see if the Proprietors would raise more money to defray the charges which are likely to arise."
.
"Dec. 16, 1760, The town voted to choose Thomas Train and Gideon Warren a committee to hire a good orthodox Preacher for the Proprietors, and to raise a tax of eight shillings on each Proprietor's right, to defray the necessary charge."
" Sept. 24, 1761, Voted that Gideon Warren's account of two pounds and five shillings, and Thomas Train's account of twelve shillings be accepted for going after a minister." At the same meeting " Josiah Hosford and Samuel Kellogg were appointed a committee to hire a good orthodox Preacher."
The next year the town voted at a meeting held March 29, 1762, not to raise money to hire preaching. But
" March 10, 1768, It was voted to have preaching for the fu- ture, and that Thomas Dunton, Asa Johnson and Samuel Kellogg be a committee to provide a minister. Also to raise twelve shil- lings on each Proprietor's right to defray the expense of preach- ing. They also chose a committee consisting of Jonathan Meach- am and Samuel Kellogg to reason with the Treasurer." There seems to have been some confl'et in authority between the set - tlers and the original Proprietors, and this probably explains the vote of the previous year refusing to raise money for preaching.
" Nov. 16, 1763, Voted to give Mr. Warner a call to preach on probation, and chose Nehemiah Smedley, Benjamin Simonds and Derrick Webb a commitee to treat with Mr. Warren or provide another minister if need be."
" March 28, 1761, Voted to raise nine shillings on cach Propri- etor's right for preaching."
"Sept. 7, 1764, Voted to choose Jonathan Meacham and Samuel Kellogg a committee to provide a minister for the Pro- prietors."
" Dec. 3, 1764, Voted not to hire Mr. Strickland on probation."
" March 26, 1765, Voted to raise nine shillings of money on each Proprietor's right to support the gospel."
These votes so often repeated do in fact constitute one great
-
12
item of business till in July, 1765, " Mr. Whitman Welch was called to the work of the ministry in this town." .
While the call to Mr. Welch was thus given in July, his ordi- nation did not take place till late in the following autumn. The exact date is unknown owing to the loss by fire of the early re- cords of the church. But in the records of the town we find that on October 22d, " Richard Stratton and Josiah and William Hosford were appointed a committee to prepare for the ordina- tion." In the month of December a town meeting was called to defray the expenses incurred at the ordination. So that the or- dination itself must have taken place between these two dates and probably in the month of November. On this account it was thought best to appoint this time for the celebration of the centennial.
It would be very pleasant if we could lift the veil from the scenes of this eventful day in the history of our town. There are some facts which may aid us a little in this respect. The Congregational Church in Lanesborough was formed in March the preceding year by Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Great Barrington, and the Rev. Stephen West of Stockbridge. The Rev. Daniel Collins was ordained in Lanesborough three weeks later, the 17th of April, 1764, and the Rev. Thomas Allen was ordained in Pontoo- suc (now Pitttsfield,) the day following. These four men, so closely and sacredly united, and constituting a majority of the Pastors in this region were doubtless the principal actors in this scene. There were here at the time only the primitive log houses. There was no church edifice, and the school house where the infant church had been in the habit of meeting for public worship stood where the Mansion House now stands. There doubtless these minis- ters of God, went in their large three cornered hats, and their small clothes and silver shoe buckles and bands and gown, and laid their hands so reverently upon the head of the young Pas- tor, and invoked that presence and blessing of the Lord which have continued here for the century that is gone.
We learn from the town records that the " settlement" of the Pastor was " eighty pounds, to be paid one half the first year, and the other half the year following." ITis " salary" was to be forty pounds, and to be " increased three pounds annually till it should amount to seventy pounds. He was also to " have the use of the ministry house lot." The house in which he did in fact
13
live, was the one afterwards occupied for so many years by the Harrison family, and is now owned and occupied by Mr. Daniel Stevens. The oll pine tree which was then planted still stands in the front door-yard,-though it is no longer a symbol as in those times of the minister's home.
Mr. Welch was a graduate of-Yale College in 1762. IIe is said to have been a man of intelligence, and very social in his habits. He was an animated Preacher and attentive to the du- ties of his office. In the first year of the American Revolution, and after a Pastorate of nearly 12 years, he became a chaplain in a regiment to which a company belonged commanded by Lient. Zebediah Sabin of this town. That winter he marched with the American Army to Canada, where both he and Lieut., then Cap- tain Sabin, and many others of our townsmen, laid down their lives in the service of their country.
Baptised as we all have been in the blood of this second, and still more glorious war of independence, which has just' closed so triumphantly, it is not unpleasant to remember to-day that the first Pastor of the beloved church of our fathers and the grand- father of Dr. Henry L. Sabin, now the oldest living Deacon, so perfectly identified themselves with that heroic struggle,-the Pastor going forth by the side of his Lieutenant and other mem- bers of his own flock, to defend the liberties of the land. A few years later, at the time of the Battle of Bennington, it is said that every man in this town, except a cripple on crutches, shouldered his gun and rushed to the field of conflict,-while the cripple went from house to house in the settlement encouraging the women who could hear distinctly the booming of the guns during the anxious hours.
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.