USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Sturbridge > Historical sketch of the First Congregational Church, Sturbridge, Mass. : read at the dedication of the new church, May 11, 1910 > Part 1
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Go 974. 402 St96h 1812847
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01101 3031
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Photograph by Charles W. Eddy.
THE NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Dedicated, May 11, 1910.
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historical Sketch
OF THE
First Congregational Church 1 STURBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
By GEORGE H. HAYNES Read at the Dedication of the New Church May 11, 1910
Worcester The Davis Press 1910
1812847 Historical Sketch of the First Congregational Church in Sturbridge, Massachusetts BY GEORGE H. HAYNES
Read at the Dedication of the New Church, May 11, 1910
The settling of an orthodox minister and the promoting of a land-development scheme !- To-day, no combination of activities could seem much more incongruous. And yet, in the record of a land grant by our Massachusetts General Court is found the first point in the history of this Church of Christ. For it is to be observed that land developing two hundred years ago in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was done with other methods and other objects than those com- monly attributed to companies of shrewd men who secure grants of the public domain yet remaining undeveloped, it may be in Montana or in Alaska.
Three times a group of Medfield men petitioned the General Court for a grant of land in this frontier wilderness. Twice their prayer was rejected. The representatives at Boston apparently doubted the ability of this inhospitable region to support a settlement. But the promoters were importunate. In their third petition-that of September, 1729-they say: "your petitoners Humbly begg Leave To Inform this Honbe Court That Although there Is Indeed much poor Land Contained Therein, yett There is Also A Considrable quantity of Good Land fitt for Settlements And in our Humble Opinion a sufficiency To Enable your petitioners by the Blessing of God, in Concurrence with Diligence And
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Industry, to Support the ordinary Charges of a Township." In granting this petition, the General Court made it one of the essential conditions "that the Proprietors shall Settle an Orthodox Minister And Lay out to him an Home Lott . which Lott Shall Draw the fiftyeth Part of the Province Land [10,000 acres] Now granted."
Though allowed seven years in which to comply with the conditions, the Proprietors gave prompt attention to the obligations thus imposed upon them. At their second meet- ing (July 9, 1730) they accepted a committee's recommenda- tion that the meeting-house should "Stand upon sutable Land att or Near the Meeting of the Roads on the Land wch was Gov' Saltonstalls farm on the West side of Sugar Brook." Their negotiations with the Saltonstall heirs were successful, so that a year later they were ready to vote: "That the propriety will build a Meeting House as soon as Conveintly they Can"; "That the Meeting House Shall be fifty foot in Length & fourty foot in Width And Two & Twenty foot Be- tween the sells & plates"; and to determine that the building should be enclosed within a year and finished within two years. To this object they devoted £540,-nearly all of that sum being the total proceeds of "the Seven Supernum- erous Lotts" not laid out to the original petitioners for the land grant. Having by formal vote determined to "promote preaching att New Medfield so Caled," the Proprietors de- volved upon their "Annual Committee" the duty "to take Care of & provide for preaching att New Medfield by pro- curing a Minister or Ministers and Taking Care for his Enter- tainment," and a charge of 15 shillings was levied upon each original Proprietor, "the Minister's Lott Exempted." Six months later the Committee reported that they had paid Mr. Cowell (apparently the first preacher of the Gospel in this place) "£28 and Eight pound for his Boarding," and thereupon it was decided to raise a levy of 40 shillings upon each Proprietor's right, to "promote preaching att New Medfield for the year Insuing. "
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All these proceedings, it is to be noticed, took place at Medfield, separated by fifty or sixty miles of hard travel from the community which they concerned. In the autumn of 1735 the Proprietors discussed whether they should "Act any thing Refering to the Calling of & settling of a Minister," but decided that they would "waite upon the Inhabitants three Months Longer from this Date." The meeting was then adjourned to the eleventh of the following February, when the Proprietors were to assemble at the meeting-house in New Medfield at nine o'clock in the morning. In order to attend this meeting, probably not a few of the Proprietors made their first laborious journey, in midwinter, to this frontier hamlet; then for the first time they saw the lands which had been allotted them, and the meeting-house for which they had been assessed. That building stood about ten rods south of the place where you are now sitting, approx- imately on the site of the District No. 1 school house. It need cause no surprise that the record of that first gathering of the Proprietors within that sacred edifice reads: "Uoted to adjourn the Meeting on hour and then To Meete att the House of M' Stacy." A meeting-house without fireplace might be suitable for two or three long religious services on a February Sunday, but for a business conference on a week- day the Proprietors sought a more temperate climate. Gathered around a roaring fireplace in a private house, they promptly gave their official approval to "the Uote of the Inhabitants of the Town of New Medfield That the first wednesday of March next be set Apart for prayer & fasting to seek Direction for the making Choice of a Gospell Minister, to settle in sª New Medfield," and voted that the pastors of churches in Medfield (the mother town), Brookfield, Oxford and Dudley be taken into council in "the affaire Referring To the Making Choise of an orthodox Minister."
When the Proprietors next met, two months later, in Medfield, it was reported that the deliberations of the settlers here had resulted in a unanimous vote in favor of calling Mr.
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Caleb Rice. The Proprietors accordingly approved and con- firmed " the joynt Agreement of our Children & others Dwelling upon our Lands att a place Called New Medfield in Calling M' Caleb Rice to settle . . in the work of the Ministry," and voted to grant and settle upon him, his heirs and assigns, "the severall Allottments & Right Laid out & Reserved for a Minister in sª New Medfield," and to pay him £200 "in bills of Creedett for settlement & Incouragement . . . Upon Condition he settle & Continue During his Naturall Life in sª New Medfield an orthodox Minister According to the per- fect faith of the Churches in this Country as by our province Law are Establisht." For the first three years his annual salary was to be £110 and thereafter £120. Mr. Rice's reply was that he considered the offer and proposals "in the Generall To be handsom & generous." He demurred, however, at the agreement's being made conditional upon his settling and continuing "During Naturall Life" in the town, and the Proprietors consented to the omission of the phrase. The financial proposition he was ready to accept, but adds: "Yet not being so thoroughly Acquainted with the Charges & Expenses of Living, if in process of time my Circumstances should Require & Call for More [he was but twenty-four years old and recently married!] I should Depend & Rely upon it that as I Give my selfe to the work of the Ministry; so I should Receive a decent & hansom support." He requested in addition to what had been offered "such a quantity of fire wood Annually as shall be thought a Necessary & Con- veinant Supply." This request seemed reasonable to the Proprietors, and on these terms the contract was closed .*
*The Rev. Joseph S. Clark,-whose Historical Sketch has left all lovers of Stur- bridge his debtors, and whose son, the Rev. Joseph B. Clark, D. D., a native of this town, has just rendered a doubly filial service in preaching the sermon at the dedication of this Church,-estimated that the financial proposition thus made to the first settled minister in this town, reduced from bills of credit of 1736 to the money of 1836 meant this: a settlement of $160; a salary of $96; 50 cords of firewood annually, and a farm of about 500 acres. In considering these money payments, it should be borne in mind that at that time corn cost but ninepence a bushel, and fourteen cents was a day's wage. The land which fell to Mr. Rice was widely distributed. The writer is indebted
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The Proprietors ratified these financial arrangements and the further action of "our Children & others being In- abisants Dwelling in New Medfield so Called" in fixing upon he twenty-ninth of September, 1736, to be "set apart as a Day for Imbodying a Church in sa place." On that day, 164 years ago, this Church was organized. The original Covenant is still extant. It reads as follows:
NEW MEDFIELD CHH. COVENANT. Sepber 29 : 1736 .-
We whose names are hereunto Subscribed apprehending our Selves called of God into the Chh state of the Gospel do first of all confess our Selves unworthy to be so highly fa- voured of the Lord, & admire that free & rich Grace of his which triumphs over so great unworthiness, & then with an humble reliance on the aids of Grace therein promised for them, that in a sense of their inability to do any good thing, do humbly wait on him for all: we now thankfully lay hold on his Covenant, & would Choose the things that please him.
We declare our Serious Belief of the Christian Religion as contained in the Sacred Scriptures, & with Such a view thereof as the Confession of faith in our Churches has exhib- ited; heartily resolving to conform our lives unto the rules of that holy Religion as long as we live in the world.
We give up our Selves unto the Lord Jehovah who is the Father, & the Son, & the Holy Spirit, & a vouch him this day to be our God, our Father, our Saviour, & our Leader & receive him as our Portion forever.
We give up our Selves unto the blessed Jesus, who is the Lord Jehovah, & adhere to him as the head of his people,
to Mr. Levi B. Chase, the best-informed student of Sturbridge history, for the following data as to the probable location of some of these tracts: 1. 100 acres, now mainly occupied by the McKelvey place, Fairview Park and the Eastern part of Mr. William Farquhar's farm; 2. 68 acres, the part of the Fiskdale Mill Co's farm next to the Brimfield line north of the road to Brimfield; 3. 58 acres, included in the farm of the late A. H. Morse in the southern part of Southbridge; 4. About 15 acres, now a part of the Southwick farm on Fisk Hill. Within two years, Mr. Rice sold about 75 acres of his land for £100, and before 1748 he had sold about 150 acres more, for £350, "old tenor." It seems clear that, considering the time and place, the provision made for the first minister in Sturbridge was not niggardly.
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in the Covenant of grace, & rely on him as our Priest & our Prophet & our King, to bring us unto eternal blessedness.
We acknowledge our everlasting & indispensible obli- gations, to glorify our God in all the Duties, of a Godly, & a Sober, & a religious life; & very particularly in the duties of a Chh State, & a body of people associated for an obedi- ence to him, in all the ordinances of the Gospel: And we thereupon depend upon his gracious assistances for our faithfull discharge of the duties thus incumbent on us.
We desire & intend, & (with Dependance on his prom- ised, & powerful grace) we engage to walk together as a Chh of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the faith & order of the Gospel so far as we shall have the same revealed unto us: Conscienciously attending the publick worship of God, the Sacraments of this new Testament, the Discipline of his Kingdom, & all his holy institutions, in communion with one another, & watchfully avoiding sinfull stumbling blocks & contentions, as becomes a people whom the Lord hath bound up together in a bundle of life.
At the same time do we also present our offspring with us unto the Lord, purposing with his help to do our part in the method of a religious Education, that they may be the Lords.
And all this we do flying to the blood of the everlasting Covenant for the pardon of our many errors, & praying that the glorious Lord who is the great Shepherd would prepare & strengthen us for every good work to do his will, working in us that which will be well pleasing to Him; To whom be glory forever & ever Amen.
CALEB RICE
JONATHAN PERRY
HENRY FISK
DANELL THURSTIN
MOSES ALLEN
EBENEZER STEARNS
JONATHAN FOSKET
GEORGE WATKINS
JOSEPH BAKER
JOSEPH CHENEY
JOSEPH MOFFIT
SOLOMON ROOD
JOSEPH ALLEN
DANIEL FISK
EZEKIEL UPHAM
Having complied with the conditions laid down by the General Court and within seven years established here 50 families, each having "an House of Eighteen feet Square at Least," and having "settled an orthodox Minister," the Proprietors now petitioned for incorporation, and their
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prayer was granted, June 24, 1738, the new town being named "Sturbridge."*
With the incorporation of the Town, there began a series of complicated relations between Town, Church, and Pro- prietors, which it would be as hopeless as futile for us to attempt to unravel. An amusing illustration of the tangle is found in the warrant for the very first Sturbridge town- meeting; the article relating to the election of town officers is immediately followed by one which reads thus: "to furnish M" Rices Desk with a Cushing." It is not profitable to speculate on whether the "Cushing" was desired to ease the pastor's hands or his hearers' ears; and to this day the record leaves us in suspense as to whether it was or was not provided. The parson's salary was a regular town appropriation, some- times provided for by assessment, sometimes out of the land tax. Each year the town made provision for cutting and hauling Mr. Rice's firewood, in quantities varying from thirty to fifty cords, sometimes electing a man to do this work, and sometimes devolving it upon the selectmen.t The town chose a person to "take Care of their meeting house." Appro- priations for such purposes had been made for several years before the town came "into measures to provide a School," -a proposition which was "voted in the Negetive" in 1740, and not adopted till two years later. In 1740 the Proprietors voted that the Town of Sturbridge should "have the property
*From this time on, the Proprietors' records are of little interest. Their meetings were rare, sometimes held in Medfield, sometimes at "the Public Meeting House in Sturbridge, " and later in the Baptist meeting-house, from time to time. In the next few years one of their principal concerns was to relieve the necessities of John Comins, who claimed to have suffered losses in building the Proprietors' meeting-house. The benefit of a certain tract of land was granted to him, and after his death was admin- istered for many years for his widow and children.
+The Town Records contain warrants for payments to the minister, and receipts signed by his own hand. e.g.
1741 /2 Februy-26. M' treasurer please to pay to M' Caleb Rice two pounds ten Shillings for getting his own wood from March to June in the year 1740, as our order and advice
ISAAC NEWEL JOSEPH BAKER HENRY FISK } Select-men.
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the use and benifit forever of such roads and other lands given by Saltonstalls hairs to the sª proprietors." This, by the terms of the warrant for their meeting, included that land which had been given by the Saltonstall heirs for "a meeting- house place a burying place and a training feild together with the high ways through the sd farm."; but it did notinclude the meeting-house which the Proprietors had built at their own expense.
In the twenty-three years of this first pastorate, the cost of supporting the preaching the Gospel in Sturbridge was again and again "Largely Debaited" in town-meeting. The chief difficulty lay in the quite rapidly changing value of the currency. In March, 1741-2, the town granted Mr. Rice £20 additional, "In Consideration of Provitions being so deer." Payment was made in " old tenor," which was shrink- ing in purchasing power. The sums were increased until 1747 when it was voted to "make a grant of Eighty pounds old tenor addition To his Sallory for this prasent year and that The Manifactorys of the Land To Be a Rule for us To act By in order To our fulfilling our Contract maid with him for his maintainance as our Minister." Yet only two years later the sum was increased to "foure Hundred and Seventy pounds Eleven Shilings and one peny for M' Rices Sallory for the present year." In 1750-2 came an abrupt change; "the Town maid a Grant of fifty pounds Lawful mony To M' Rice for his Sallory the present year" and a like sum the following year, the parson "finding him self his own fier wood this was by a very Clear vote of the Town." In 1755 there was long debate over the question whether "the Town Will Settel a Cartain Sum of Mony for M' Rices Yearly Sallory and To State it upon Dollors or upon Provition." A com- mittee of nine was chosen to discuss the matter with the par- son, but at the next meeting it was decided "not to State MI Rices Sallory," but to grant "Sixty pounds to be assest upon the poles and Estates in this town for M' Rice Seport the present year his finding his own fierwood." [£21 was that
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year's appropriation for "Schooling the Children."] Yet a twelvemonth had not passed before the subject had to be threshed out again in town-meeting. This time Mr. Rice was summoned, and declared that £55 would satisfy him, he furnishing his own fuel. After further debate, a com- mittee was sent to inquire whether a smaller sum would not content him, and reported that he "Said to them that If the Town would Give him fifty three pounds Six Shillings and Eight pence yearly for his Seport he Should be Intirely Con- tent and Easey." Thereupon the question was put whether the town would agree to pay this sum "unto M" Rice . . . for his Seport or Sallory Etch year he Shall Continue to preach the Gospel to us in this Town, . . and it past in the Afirm- mitive,"-and that fantastic sum, "in Lawfull Mony," con- tinued to be appropriated annually until Mr. Rice's death in 1759 .*
Next to questions as to ministerial charges, the regulating of the pews was the one which gave most difficulty. Three years after the incorporation of the Town, it was voted that persons to whom pews were assigned should "enjoye [note the word !] them with their famelies Setting with them, During their life time" and a widow should "enjoye the Same with her family during her widdowhood," after which it should revert to the town, "to be disposed of as they Shall think fit the town paying the Cost of bulding the Same." A com- mittee of three was then chosen to manage the affair of "lot- ting out the room for the pews," having "a due regard to
*It is little to the credit of Sturbridge that wrangling over money followed this worthy man to his grave. At a special town-meeting, Oct. 15, 1759, the question whether the Town would "Receive the Accompts of the Funeral Charges of our Late Paster Deceasd" "was Largely Debaited upon & after the Particular articles of the Funeral Charge of our Late Paster Decsd ware again Read it was put to uote whether the Town would allow the whole of the Accompts of Said Funeral Charge as then Brought in; it past in the Negetive. " A grant of £8 was made, and it was then voted that Mr. Rice's salary "Should Sease & Terminate at his Death." In considering this apparently niggardly action, it should not be forgotten that Caleb Rice had had the advantage of a fiftieth part of the land originally granted, and that an "addi- tional parcel" had been given him at a later date.
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age, to the first beginning in the town and to their baring Charges in the town, and to their usefullness." Four or five months later, March 1, 1741-2, the committee (Daniel Fisk, Capt. Moses Marcy and Dea. Isaac Newell) appointed for this fearsome task reported in town-meeting that they had "planed Divided and Numbered Said room into Eighteen parts for Eighteen pews, and have agreed to lodge Said plan with, the town Clerk for a gide and rule in building Said pews, . and we . . . did agree that according to the Instruc- tions given us by the town, the following persons ought to have the Several pew Spots and ther liberty of pitching in the following order, viz .- Moses Marcy the first Choice, . "* and so on down to the eighteenth, whose feelings even at this late day must make some appeal to the sympathetic imagi- nation.
In the early days the disposal of the pews of persons who had removed from town was made in town-meeting to specific individuals. Thus, it was voted, May 22, 1758, that "Jonathan Foskit have the pew Spot the north Side of the West Dore upon Shuch Tarms as the other pews in Town are built upon." Later it became customary to sell such pews "at Publick vendue to the highest bidder," withholding them from sale unless they "fetched more than the first cost," which was to be paid to the heirs of the late pew-owner. Meantime the town was paying for the care and ordinary repairs of the meeting-house, and a sizable bill "for the bords and nails for the Ministors pew old tennor" was ordered paid out of the "Town Stock."
But what had the Church been doing during these years? Its records are very meagre, and at the best could give little idea of the most vital activities. They record the election
*Records of Sturbridge, Vol. I, pp. 35-36. It may be of interest to record that this grading of these ancient Sturbridge worthies was in the following order :- 1, Moses Marcy; 2, Henry Fisk; 3, Dea. Isaac Newel; 4, James Deneson; 5, Rowland Tailor; 6, Daniel Fisk; 7, Joseph Baker; 8, Joseph Cheney; 9, David Shumway; 10, David Morse; 11, Moses Allen; 12, Joseph Allen; 13, Joseph Smith; 14, Hensdel Clark; 15, Ezekiel Upham; 16, John Harding; 17, Caleb Harding; 18, Edward Foster.
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of deacons, and indicate the carrying on of the regular re- ligious exercises. At the first business meeting of the Church after its organization, it was voted to "move the matter of furnishing the Communion Table with vessels proper for the administering of the Lord's Supper . . . to the Proprietors of New Medfield to see whether they would contribute" toward that purpose .*
A principal item of business at the annual meetings of the Church-often the only item-was to vote that every member pay to the deacon named three or four shillings apiece to provide for the communion bread and wine for the ensuing year. When Deacon Baker was asked, one year, to report "what the state of the Church property is, " he reported simply in regard to the receipts and expenditures for this one purpose.
Mr. Rice's labors were productive of a gradual increase in the membership of the Church. During his twenty-three years of service, 100 members were added to the original fourteen. But there occurred, nevertheless, a notable se- cession, which figured largely both in church and town debates. Asa result of a period of religious quickening, the "New Lights" or "Separates" came out from many of the conservative churches in the Province. In this vicinity about fifteen were of the new persuasion and ceased attending service at the center meeting-house, having built for themselves a house of worship near what is now Globe Village. This number included two who had held the office of deacon, and their withdrawal was the occasion of anxious meetings of the Church. A com- mittee of three waited upon Deacon Fisk to "discourse with him, & see if he would return to the Chh. & serve still as a Deacon," but they reported that "he could not in conscience join with the Chh." As the secession grew, the Church voted : " the desire of the brethren of the Chh. [is] that those persons who are members of this Chh. & have separated from the
*Apparently these vessels were bought by the pastor, for twenty years later, after his death, the Church voted to pay his widow £1, 3s., out of the Church stock, on this account.
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public Worship of God . .. give reasons in writing." Thirteen persons were notified by the pastor, and at the next meeting of the Church they presented the reasons for their withdrawal. These the Church declared not sufficient or satisfactory, and put upon record "the desire of the Chh. that their eyes might be opened that they might see their error they have run into." (March 24, 1748-9.) [A few years later this group of seceders became the nucleus of a regular Baptist church, with which fraternal relations were soon established.]
The records of our Church contain no indication that these her wayward children were disquieted by anything else than their own consciences and the reproachful admon- itions of the mother Church whom they had forsaken. But "profane history" tells us that the Baptist preacher from Brimfield, who caused this agitation in Sturbridge, was seized by the constable for preaching here, dragged out of town, "and thrust into prison as a stroller and a vagabond," and Deacon Fiske and four other Sturbridge worthies were imprisoned in Worcester gaol. That such pains and penalties fell upon pious men was a consequence of the union of "Church and State" which still prevailed in this Province. Not the the- ological but the financial aspects of this revival made it the theme of several heated town-meetings. These Separates were bearing heavy burdens for maintaining their own re- ligious services, and naturally wished exemption from paying rates for the support of Mr. Rice, whose ministrations they no longer desired. But the letter of the Province law was against them; the minister here at the center meeting-house was clearly the one towards whose settlement and main- tainance "all the inhabitants and ratable estates lying within such town or part of a town, or place limited by law for upholding the public worship of God, shall be obliged to pay in proportion." Hence the town showed no disposition to exempt these men, and upon their refusal to pay, sundry of their goods and chattels were seized. Thus, in 1750 and
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