USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > West Brookfield > Historical discourse delivered at West Brookfield, Mass., on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church in Brookfield, October 16, 1867 > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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GC 974.402 B79D
An Historical Discourse
DELIVERED AI
WEST BROOKFIELD, MASS.,
ON OCCASION OF THE
One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary
--------
OF THE
FIRST CHURCH IN BROOKFIELD,
OCTOBER 16, 1867.
BY SAMUEL DUNHAM, PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.
.: WITH A POEM AND APPENDIX.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS .: SAMUEL BOWLES & COMPANY. PRINTERS. 186S.
EphraimWard,
C
Pastor of the Church from 1771 to 1818
An Historical Discourse
DELIVERED AT
WEST BROOKFIELD, MASS ..
ON OCCASION OF THE
One hundred and fiftieth Anniversary OF THE
FIRST CHURCH IN BROOKFIELD,
OCTOBER 16, 1867.
BY SAMUEL DUNHAM, PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.
WITH A POEM AND APPENDIX.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. : SAMUEL BOWLES & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1867.
EL BOWLESE
ES& CO. "S
SAVUEL
110
1151669
Prefatory Note.
IN the preparation of the following Discourse, the records of Town, Parish, and Church, have been thoroughly explored, and every other available source of information consulted, whether manuscript or printed, monumental or traditionary. Many important biographical and other items have also been obtained by means of a somewhat ex- tensive correspondence.
With the facts, carefully sifted and compared, spread out before him, the author has diligently aimed at impartiality of judgment, accuracy of statement, and exactness in statistics and dates. And it is confidently believed that what he has thus patiently sought, has, to a good degree, been attained. S. D.
WEST BROOKFIELD, November 5, 1867.
Discourse.
Deuteronomy xxxii. 7.
"REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD, CONSIDER THE YEARS OF MANY GENERA TIONS ; ASK THY FATHER, AND HE WILL SHEW THEE ; THY ELDERS, AND THEY WILL TELL THIEE."
JUST one hundred and fifty years have passed away since the First Church in Brookfield was founded. We are met here within this house of God to-day to commemorate that event. From the widely diverging paths into which our varied preferences and pursuits have led us, we are gathered once more around the venerable Mother to pay that tribute of re- spect which is due to her hoary age. And it seems quite in keeping with the object of our assembling, as being well fit- ted to foster and deepen our reverence, and strengthen the bond of our filial attachment, that we should together recount some of the more important incidents of her long and honorable ca- reer. May it not, likewise, fully accord with our own cher- ished and sacred regard for the past, and prove a source of fresh inspiration and incitement for the future, to " remem- ber the days of old," and " consider the years of many gen- erations ; "- thankfully tracing, meanwhile, the finger of God in our history.
Scarcely had the wild Indian ceased to hunt the game of the surrounding forests, and to catch the fish of these neigh- boring ponds and brooks,-scarcely had the echo of his sav- age yell died away among these hills, when a Church of Christ
was here constituted. anl the glad note of the Gospel was sounded forth from the lips of the living preacher. It was at that time the goly church in all this region of country includ- ing a cireuit of many miles on either hand.
Of the seventy-three Congregational Churches now in Worcester County, not Be had then been formed, save the First Church (the Old South) in what is now the City of Worcester, and that was organized only the previous year in 1714. This Church,-a little hardy, brave band of men, fear- les of danger, true to Puritan principles, and loyal to Christ. stood absolutely isolated and alone, surrounded only by a broad and desolate waste intisted with wild beasts and savages.
The maintenance of the ordinances of religion in the midst of this wilderness, remote from the centres of population, and exposed to the barbarity and cruelty of the sons of the forest. was but in harmony with the devout and heroic spirit and conduct of the Pilgrim Fathers, and early settlers of this Colony, who, for the sake of enjoying their liberty, and of walking according to the faith and order of the Gospel, aban- dorpel the land of their uftivity for the rock-bound shores and rugged soil of New England.
From the first settlement of old Quabong" in 1000, there is reason to believe that God had been publicly worshiped here. with the exception of about a dozen years, from 1055, when the entire town was burned, and the inhabitants dispersed by the Indians, to about the year IST, when the scattered set- there becan again to return.
The fifteen your previous to the dispersion were years of p.a. and evident pe ponty ; so that the " several inhabit- nt of Ip wiele to whom the first grant of land here was
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made, had grown to a little community of twenty families. who had been enabled to build for themselves a sanctuary in which they might hold public worship on the Sabbath.
Indeed this original grant of the General Court in May 20th, 1660, was made only upon condition that there should be twenty families resident here within three years, and that. within the same time, there should be settled " an able minis- ter," such as the Court should approve ; " and that they make due provision in some way or other for the future ; either by setting apart of lands, or what else shall be thought meet for the continuanee of the ministry amongst them."
From an Historical Address# by Henry A. Sykes, A. M .. of Suffield, Connecticut, it appears that Mr. John Younglove, the first minister of that town, "had preached at Quaboag (Brookfield, Massachusetts, ) for some time previous to Philip's war," and that after the destruction of this settlement by the Indians in 1675, " he went to Hadley and taught the town or grammar school, till he was invited to Suffield," where he com- menced his labors sometime during the year 1679, or early in 1680, and where "he continued until his decease June 3, 1690." Of Mr. Younglove as a minister, " little is known : he was no doubt an educated man, though it is not known that he was a graduate of any college, his name not being among those of the graduates of Harvard, then the only col- lege in America."
There is also an obscure tradition, though no certain evi- denee, of the existence of an organized church at this carly period. We are left much in the dark respeeting that portion of our history ; for, doubtless, the flames that were kindled
* Proceedings on the occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the decease of the Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, at Sufield. Conn., 1959, p. 49.
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by the treachery of King Philip's Indians, and which de- stroyed the town, consumed likewise its most ancient records.
From a petition of the inhabitants of Brookfield to the Honored General Court, assembled at Boston, in November 1695. it appears that for a time previous to that date, they were destitute of the stated ministrations of the Gospel. In that petition . they show " That it is an intolerable burden to continue, as we have done, without the preaching of the word." They further say that they " are not able at present to main- tain the worship of God :" that they " are but twelve fami- lies "-so slow was the resettlement of the town after the war that drove the first settlers from their chosen home-and that they " are not of estate sufficient to give suitable encourage- ment to a minister," though, be it said to their credit, they were " willing to de to the outside of [ their ] ability."
In answer to their petition it was " ordered that there be twenty pounds paid out of the public Treasury of this Prov- ince, towards the support of' an orthodox minister for one year to commence from the time of the settlement of such minister amongst them."
According to Mr. Foot's Historical Discourse, tradition re- lates that Mr. Thomas James, a native of England, minister of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and afterwards a missionary at East Hampton, Long Island, preached the first sermon in this town. " Previously to 1718, a Mr. Smith had been em- ployed here as a minister." In 1715 the records show that Mr. Daniel Elmer, a graduate of Yale College in 1713, in a class of three, had, for a time, been carrying on the work of the ministry, supported in part by the General Court. But in that year he relinquished his labors here, and was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Cheney.
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PASTORS, PASTORATES, AND CONNECTED HISTORY.
But it was not till the third Wednesday in October (the 16th, day ) 1717, that this church was formally organized, and Mr. Cheney solemnly ordained its first pastor. The terms of his settlement had been agreed upon about a year and a half before :
"Att a meeting of the Inhabitants of Brookfield, on April ye 5th, 1716; Voted yt Thomas Barnes be moderator for sd day. Voted that Edward Walker, Senr., Joseph Banister, and Elisha Rice, doe further Discourse Mr. Cheney as to his proposals in order to a settlement in sa Place to carry on ye work of the Ministry."
Mr. Cheney's proposals in his own handwriting were soon obtained, while the people were yet assembled, and " were read in town meeting," in the words following :
" Gentlemen, as to ye Dementions of ye House and Barn you propose to Build for me in case I should settle amongst you, it is my mind and desire with Respect to my House, yt ye length may be 42 foott, the wedbt 20 foott ; as to ye stud fourteen foott stud ; and as to ye barn, that it may be 30 foott long, and 20 foott wide, we a lentow [leanto] on one side.
This from your servant, THOMAS CHENEY. As to yo Glass, Nails and Iron, I will provide and procure myself so far as is necessary to sª House and Barn.
THOMAS CHENEY."
Having considered the above proposals,-
" The Inhabitants Voted firstly, To Give Mr. Cheney for his salery, fifty-two pounds yearly for three years, and to Rise forty shillings a year untill it comes to seventy pounds, and there to stay.
Secondly, Voted yt Mr. Cheney Have all the Land yt the Committee Proposed to give Him.
Thirdly, Voted To Build him a House and Barn, according to ye De- mentions yt he has given; Mr. Cheney providing Glass, Naills, and Iron.
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Fondly Bedden Bredaup and fener od fit onsow Eight acres if Enla tour me up the Hill ; completo la planted out with er- Hoogtijover. efter And Told Bude up on the plain this year.
I'monly, betad to get Me Chetas twenty five word of wood yearly his
Smile Healthr Mr. Cloud ; doch ne a one day's work youly. the six get His Howard Burner le Lait in four years ; always Provided Me. Coney La model Maister.
THOMAS BARNES. Moderator."
The love was a Aprobat or wel by the Committee for Brook- all. May g lich, 1716, Proche I Mr. Chaty le their settled minister
SAMUEL P'ALLETIME. Committee THIS POSITION.
Brook field.
As to the amount of land which the Committee proposed to give Me. Cheney, and which was voted by the town at the above meeting, we find the following record : -
die Committee taking into dofejlett ne eight made to the first settled mmer " [ther ta tis mimo shoes. od Lo settled ] " made De-
For Me Yan les' Landet . Camino del this day cung to Mr. TOlong to wet hero pho. I. the Wind atores of between Will en tel Your let's have all the 20 200 of medlow belonging for sel foss in to wie ght pone chat . we want to him -
Tas proplet Me Chugog Dura cell minister in - phee.
In addition to these several grant- the Committee, in the ultium of the same year tostoler 12. 17 Bir took the follow - in. wtim :-
=
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mer) who left the Ministry there so as he had but one-half part of s1 sum payd to him, there Remayns ten pounds of st sum or donation ; the Committee Judge it meete this last part be payd to Mr. Thomas Cheney the present minister, as part of his sallery, and have given order to Luke Hitchcock Esq. to get the Money for him."
Provision having thus been made for Mr. Cheney's support, in the following summer (July 16, 1717,) the call was made out, and arrangements made for the ordination :-
" Att a meeting of the Inhabitants of Brookfield by order of the Com- mittee for sa place Bareing date June ye 28th, 1717.
Voted, That the Reverend Mr. Thomas Cheney shall be ordained minister for the Town.
Voted, The third Wednesday in October next is apointed and sett apartt for Mr. Cheney's ordination.
Voted, That Mr. Tilly Merick and Joseph Banister aQuaint Mr. Cheney with the Town's mind, and as to the day aGreed upon for his ordination, and now made Return yt Mr. Cheney consents thereto.
Voted, That Tilly Merick, Joseph Banister, Thomas Barnes and Thomas Parsons Doe take care that sutable Provition be made for such Elders and Messengers as may be called to assist in our ordination.
Voted That ye Town Celebrate and Sett apart a Day of fasting and Prayer to Implore God's presents we us in this solemn and weighty mat- ter, which day is left to Mr. Cheney to appoint.
Full and clear votes.
THOMAS GILBERT, Moderator." Test.
This action on the part of the town received the hearty sanc- tion of the Committee, and won from them expressions of satis- faction " in the unanimity " of the people " in so Gooda work." with the hope that they might " have further ocation to Rejoice in their Good settlement."
The ordination took place as arranged, the Sermon being preached just one hundred and fifty years ago to-day by Rev. Solomon Stoddard# of Northampton, on " The duty of GOS-
* Solomon Stoddard was born in Boston ; was graduated at Harvard College in 1662, in a class of six ; was ordained pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts September 11, 1672 ; and died February 11, 1729, aged eighty. six. He was grandfather of his colleague and successor. Jonathan Edwards.
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PEL MINISTERS to preserve a PEOPLE from COR- RUPTION." It was printed.
Mr. Cheney was born at Roxbury " (Massachusetts in 1090. and was graduated at Harvard College in 1711. He is des- cribed as an acceptable preacher, and as sustaining the charac- ter of a good man, and a faithful minister. He lived in har- mony with this people for a period of more than thirty years. and died December 11. 175. agad ST.
But he had lived to see the " Great Awakening" of 1740. and to reap some of the glorious fruits of that stupendous work of Grace. It is a fast which had no equivocal bearing upon the carly spiritual life and enlargement of the church that in the autumn of 1790 ( October 16.) Whitefield on his way from Leicester to Northampton to see Mr. Edwards. halted here for a night, and, before he 1 ft. preached with stir- ring efect to the inhabitants of this town. It was his second visit to America, and his first preaching tour through New England. And although he was then a young man of less then twenty-six years, and had spent but a few months upon our shores, his tame had spread as it by magic all over the bad. Just at that time he was the man about whom more was said and written, good and bad, than about any other min in the country.
It is not strange that the people of this quiet place had a Quin ity to see so Great a prodigy, and to listen to his fir- fond dupence. They sought to give him a hearing in the ir little long of worship. But Mr. Cheney shared the common pooh live of the minister of that day, and, fearing the results " bunu nul and irregular a presedinte, would not at first
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suffer the meeting-house to be opened. At length, however, so great beeame the press of the people, he was constrained to yield. But by this time the assembly had become so nu- merous as to exceed the eapaeity of the house, and, hence, they withdrew to an open field near at hand, and there with a rock * for his pulpit, and the eanopy of heaven for his sound- ing-board, the youthful preacher poured forth that simple, fer- vid eloquenee of his which fell so sweetly upon the ear, and so mysteriously moved and melted the heart.
As the result of that sermon, by the blessing of God, some sinners were awakened, and there followed a revival in whose labors Mr. Cheney bore an active and efficient part, and the church received a large aecession to its membership.
Thus carly in our history was the fostering eare of a kind Providenee made signally manifest, and the first pastor of this aneient church graciously permitted, in the closing years of his life, to see the flock of God materially strengthened, and the borders of this Zion pereeptibly enlarged.
The last subjeet of this revival died in 1819, aged one hun- dred years and seven months. ¡
About the time of Mr. Cheney's death, a considerable num- ber of the members of this church were, according to Mr. Foot, dismissed to constitute the church in Western $ ( Warren ).
The people were not long satisfied to be without a settled minister ; for, among the loose leaves of the old Town Rec- ords, we find, under date October 25, 1748, this vote-" That
#The rock on which Mr. Whitefield is supposed to have stood during his sermon is on Foster's Hill, in a field north-west of the late residence of Air. Baxter Barnes.
t Mercy Banister, widow of Thomas Banister.
# Mr. Foot's Historical Discourse on Brookfield, p. 16.
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Thur day comforteen night be set apart for fasting and prayer. to Ciod for his Directions with Respect to the setting a Gospel Minister amongst us in this place."
The following month. November 25, the town " voted to eneur with the vote of the church in their choice of Mr. Elisha Harding to be their minister." The terms of his set- tlement a- fixed December 22, were as follows:
" Bit / The de La chen an laraneed to Mr. Elish Harling for I'm on nagement to seele in the Girl ministry in sed town the si
Handling for his yearly solory carl - pp ort darin = the time of his confin. "a" in the ministry Grusel de som of for hundred pounds all my wiemy, accounting the same thing to be paid in Indian corn
goods in proportion to the prices of the camppolitics as they shall politie of full and be comme de longa or sell in wil town ; pro. sold le relate to the town all right to the ministry lands, or, in are No incluye to have to imposition there be love the liberty the roof.
On the 13th day of September, 1719, Mr. Harding was solemnly constituted second pastor. The sermon, entitled " A Monitor for Gospel Ministers." was preached by Rev. Nathan Backnant of Melway, from Col. !: 17, which was published. Mr. Harding was era laated at Harvard College in 1715. H. w. fin dall go with our honored or izon lede- dish Foster, who was graduated the previous year. He is at ingular pesbits and solid leuning: " as "one, who fem
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child had known the Holy Scriptures, and made them much the matter of his study." " His public ministrations were serious and adapted to edify and benefit his hcarers."
In 1750, March 29,-so rapid had been the growth of the town, - a second parish was incorporated, now known as North Brookfield ; * and within its bounds a church was organized May 28, 1752, which took the distinctive name of the "Sec- ond Church of Christ in Brookfield," more recently called the "First Church in North Brookfield," of which Rev. Mr. Cushing is the present pastor.
The following year (1753) the people fell into a most un- fortunate dispute about the location of a new meeting-house which they proposed to erect. The contention waxed so warm and impetuous at length, as to result in a second sundering of the parish, and the incorporation of the third or South Parish November 8, 1754. A church, with thirty-nine members, was there formed April 15, 1756, known at present as the "Evangelical Congregational Church of Brookfield,"# of which Rev. Mr. Coit is the present pastor. In consequence of the commotion and troubles incident to this last division of the parish, Mr. Harding, at his own request, was dismissed May 8, 1755, having sustained the pastoral office not quite six years.
Two years and a half elapsed, and the third pastor, Mr. Joseph Parsons, was settled. He was a son of Rev. Joseph Parsons of Bradford, Massachusetts, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1752. Among those who were in college at the same time with him, we find, in the class immediately preceding, the name of Eli Forbes, afterwards Dr. Forbes,
* North Brookfield was incorporated a town in 1812.
* When the first parish was set off a separate township in 1815, it recived the name of West Brookfield, and the third parish retained the original name of Brookfield.
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the first pastor of the church in the North Parish, and in the second class that followed him. the name of Nathan Fiske. afterward. Dr. Fiske, the first pastor of the church in the South Parish. These three college mates labored here many years side by side as pastors of the three churches of Brook- fiel.l.
Mr. Parsons was ordained November 28. 1757. The gentle- men assisting in his ordination were Rev. Messes .Joseph Par- sons of Bradford, David White of Hardwick, Joshua Eaton of Spencer, John Tucker of Newbury, and Isaac Jones of Western ( Warren ). By the terms of the agreement between him and the parish, he was to receive one hundred and eight pounds lawful silver money as settlement, one half to be paid in one year, and the other half in two years, and a salary of fifty pounds lawful silver money the first and second years. fifty-five pounds the third, and sixty pounds the fourth year until the righth year, when it was to be increased by six pounds. thirteen shillings and four pence, for the remainder of his ministry. Also, from the first, there was to be given him thirty cords of good wood brought to his door annually, to com- monce when he should begin housekeeping and to continue during his ministry. All this on condition that he should re- leave to the precinct all right and claim to the revenues of the ministry lands.
These so called ministry land, this having been alienated from their original intention, were in the following year. De- comber 21, 155, by a committee appointed and empowered for the purpose, divi led among the three precinct or parishes of the town ; and, as a find di-position of the portion belong- ing to the first pari h, it was told, and the interest of the morey wi ing from the sab appropriated towards the support of the minister.
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In this same year, it must be noted, there sprung up with- in the church a serious evil, in the introduction of what was termed the half-way Covenant ; an evil which, at that period, and in subsequent years, gained considerable curreney among the churches of this Commonwealth, as also in other parts of New England. By the civil constitution of Massachusetts in those days, none but church members had a right to vote, or to hold civil offices. As early as 1630 it was ordained " that none but church members should be admitted to the freedom of the body politic." *
The early framers of the Government, in their laudable zeal to establish a Commonwealth upon a solid Christian basis, were led into the error of so mingling the affairs of Church and State as, in the event, to secure, with the blessing of a religious state, a more than counterbalancing evil-a political and secular church. From the first, the government of Mas- sachusetts adopted a religious test of citizenship. Henee, as a natural consequence, so strong and universal was the desire to share the privilege of suffrage, and such was the eagerness of men then as now to enjoy the honors of civil office, that a mighty pressure was brought to bear upon the churches to induce them to receive as members such as had not the proper qualifications for church membership, that is, persons who were wholly ignorant of experimental religion, and who laid no claim to a Christian character. Thus powerfully appealed to, this church, among others, was betrayed into the folly of resorting to the expedient of a form of covenant, by " owning or assenting to which any person, not of an immoral character. who had been baptized in infancy, might be recognized as a
* Barber's Historical Collections of Massachusetts p. 19.
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member, with the privilege of availing himself of the ordinance of Baptism for his children, though not required to partake of' the Lord's Super. This pernicious practice, which prevailed in this church nearly sixty years, during which time about one hundred persons " Owned the Covenant." and were ad- mitted to membership, wrought no little mischief, as we shall have occasion to see at a point farther on in our history.
In 170- the health of Mr. Parsons had so far declined that he was obliged to suspend preaching : and ere long he was compelled by reason of bodily weakness to abandon his minis- terial labors altogether. He lived in feebleness some three years, until January 17. 1571. when he died in the fourteenth year of his ministry, and the thirty-eighth year of his age. Ili- dust sleeps beneath the God of the Old Burying Ground, over which, since the day of his burial, there have swept the rude blasts of a hundred winters. The spot is marked by a snita- ble stone, erected. in accordance with a vote of the parish. soon after his decease. Also in the new Cemetery we find another stone sacred to his memory, erected. likewise, by vote of the parish. Upon it we read, " He was an example of patience and resignation, and died strong in faith and full of hope. . The memory of the just is blessed."
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