USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Historical sketches of the West Parish church, Andover, Massachusetts, 1906 > Part 1
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turiral Sketches
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MEMORIAL HALL LIBRARY Andover, Massachusetts 475-6960
3 1330 00133 3826
HISTORICAL · SKETCHES
... of the ...
WEST PARISH CHURCH
ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS
1906
285.8 Wes
Contents
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FOREWORD
7 Rev. J. Edgar Park
LIST OF PASTORS AND DEACONS . IO
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THE WEST CHURCH, ANDOVER
£4
Miss Susanna E. Jackson
AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS ON THE OCCASION OF
THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TOWN
OF ANDOVER
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Rev. William C. Merrill
THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. JAMES H. MERRILL
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Rev. James G. Merrill
A REMINISCENCE OF TEN HAPPY YEARS IN THE
WEST PARISH
.
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Rev. Frederick W. Greene
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Hpremord
By Rev. J. EDGAR PARK
HE Diamond Anniversary of the West Parish Church in Andover, was observed on Thursday, December fifth, nineteen hundred and one. The afternoon session was devoted to historical addresses. The Church desired to preserve these in a permanent form and issues this volume in response to the desire of very many throughout the country to whom every remembrance of the church is dear.
Three former pastors occupy important charges elsewhere : Rev. F. W. Greene, in Middletown, Conn .; Rev. R. A. MacFadden, in Danvers, Mass., and Rev. G. A. Andrews, in Holliston, Mass. A number of the sons of the church and parish have themselves become ministers of the gospel : Rev. J. G. Merrill, President of Fisk University, is a son of our former pastor ; Rev. W. C. Merrill, formerly of Lynn, now of Santa Barbara, California, was also born in our parish and joined our church under Rev. J. H. Merrill's ministry ; Rev. George Mooar, D.D., for years Professor in Pacific Theological Seminary, California, was reared under the ministry of Dr. Jackson and was for a time an inmate of his household.
The West Parish Church was erected in 1826, the vestry in 1856. The parsonage was built by Rev. S. C. Jackson as a residence, and was sold by him to Rev. C. H. Pierce. After Mr. Pierce's time it be- came the property of the parish.
The Parish was established in 1827. Edward Buck in his " Massachusetts Ecclesiastical Law" says : "The West Parish in Andover was probably the very last purely ecclesiastical parish in the Common- wealth ".
In 1692, " those men in ye West Side of Shawshin River " were granted " ye liberty of a burying place by ye wayside, near ye head of ye place called Rowell's Folly, provided they fence it handsomely against swine and other creatures within a year from that date". Not till 1751 does this land appear to have been accepted. The earliest graves in our cemetery are about 1790 to 1795. Many of the trees on the parish grounds were planted by people once well known and loved, the large elm on the corner of the parsonage grounds next to the church, was planted by Miss Mary P. Faulkner.
A cross-section of the church's activity at the time of publication may serve to show that age has not im- paired its vigor. There are 206 members, 27 joined by confession or letter last year. There are two Sunday Schools and three Christian Endeavor So- cieties in the parish each Sunday, and a prayer meet- ing is held during the week. The Seamen's Friend Society has a social each winter month. The Juve- nile Missionary Society meets twice a month, and in connection with it the Boy's West Centre Club spends every Saturday afternoon in the workshop and gymnasium at the parsonage, and the Girls' Sun- shine Club holds weekly meetings. The Literary Circle studied consistently "Tennyson's Idylls ", and last winter read through the chief plays of Shakespeare at its fortnightly meetings. The
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Ladies' Mission Circle too was admitted last summer as an auxiliary of the Women's Board of Foreign Mis- sions and met twice a month to study Japan. A Church Calendar, a gift from a member of the church, is published every week. The choir practices regularly on Saturday evenings and has been under paid leadership for about a year. Socials have been held in the outlying districts and the musical, social and sunshine departments of the Christian Endeavor Society each add to the fullness of the church's use- fulness in the parish.
Yet one by one the old homes are passing into the hands of foreigners of other faiths or other tongues, and the prayer of the church today is that it may be enabled to see how it can in these altered conditions continue to do the best work for the kingdom of God.
DECEMBER 12, 1906.
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Pastors and Dearona
PASTORS
REV. SAMUEL C. JACKSON, D.D. Ordained and Installed June 6, 1827. Dismissed September 25, 1850.
REV. CHARLES H. PIERCE. Ordained and Installed October 8, 1850. Dismissed April 11, 1855.
REV. JAMES H. MERRILL Installed April 30, 1856. Dismissed December 1, 1879.
REV. AUSTIN H. BURR.
Installed April 29, 1880. Dismissed January 21, 1885.
REV. FREDERICK W. GREENE. Ordained and Installed September 3, 1885. Dismissed January 11, 1895.
REV. ROBERT T. MACFADDEN. Ordained and Installed June 12, 1896. Dismissed May 11, 1898.
REV. GEORGE ARTHUR ANDREWS. Ordained and Installed June 14, 1899. Dismissed February 25, 1904.
REV. J. EDGAR PARK. Installed September 29, 1904.
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REV. S. C. JACKSON
REV. CHARLES H. PIERCE
REV. J. H. MERRILL
REV A. H. BURK
REV. J. EDGAR PARK
DEACON N. GILBERT ABBOTT DEACON PETER D. SMITH DEACON SAM'L H. BOUTWELL DEACON EDWARD F. ABBOTT
DEACONS
ZEBADIAH ABBOTT.
December 30, 1826 - October 5, 1832.
SOLOMON HOLT.
December 30, 1826- April 15, 1829.
EBENEZER LOVEJOY.
December 30, 1826 - October 23, 1850.
SOLOMON HOLT.
September 3, 1830 - April 3, 1833.
PETER SMITH.
October 5, 1832 - July 6, 1880.
JACOB DASCOMB.
October 5, 1832 - September 3, 1874.
NATHAN MOOAR.
October 31, 1850 - October 14, 1887.
N. GILBERT ABBOTT.
September 3, 1874 -
PETER D. SMITH. March 4, 1881 -
E. FRANCIS HOLT.
January 3, 1883 - January 3, 1894.
SAMUEL H. BOUTWELL. December 28, 1887.
EDWARD F. ABBOTT. January 3, 1894,
I3
The West Church, Andober By Miss SUSANNA E. JACKSON
HEN this meeting-house was built, now the oldest church edifice in Andover, the town embraced what is now North Andover, and also South Lawrence. In this extensive township there were but two meeting- houses and the chapel of the Theological Seminary.
For more than fifty years the people living west of the Shawsheen had endeavored to divide the South parish and to have a second church. The parish was too large for one minister. The church was too small to accom- modate all who wished to worship there. "This raised the price of seats, and thus excluded some, and afforded excuse for others to neglect" attendance. The great distance from their homes was a reason for the negligence of others.
At first, in 1771, the proposition was made to erect a larger building. But persons living five or six miles distant were unwilling to be taxed for a new house on the old grounds, and insisted on either a more central loca- tion or a division of the parish.
Later efforts for a division were all unsuccessful, until, finally, " February 6, 1826, the South Church voted to build a house for worship on the westerly side of the Shawsheen River," " to choose a committee to decide its location," and another " to draft a plan for a meeting- house." These committees acted promptly, and every- thing seemed to promise speedy achievement, when some sudden gust of opposition arose, for March 20, 1826, it was " voted, so far to reconsider all former votes on the subject of building, as to postpone indefinitely further measures relative to building."
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Evidently, the people on "the westerly side of the Shawsheen " made up their minds, at this point, to take matters into their own hands. Capt. Solomon Holt drew up and circulated a subscription paper. Receiving suf- ficient encouragment, the estimated cost was divided into shares, which were all paid within a year and a half, Capt. Holt giving the land for the meeting-house and horsesheds.
The cornerstone was laid June 15, 1826, with appro- priate ceremonies, Dr. Justin Edwards, the pastor, deliv- ering the address. At our seventy-fifth anniversary we have with us three persons who were present at this ceremony, Mrs. Mary Ingalls Abbott, Mrs. Mary A. Cal- lahan, and Mr. Andrew Frye.
Local granite furnished the material for the house, which was soon completed at an expense a little exceed- ing $5500. As at first constructed it contained ninety- eight pews, had side galleries, and could seat over six hundred people. Instead of its present spire, the belfry was a square tower. Three doors in front gave entrance. There were windows on each side of the pulpit and but two aisles. It faced the only street then leading directly to the south parish. The street on which the parsonage stands was not in existence.
When the meeting-house was finished, application was made to the Legislature for a legal division of territory between the old parish and the new, and establishing the limits of the new portion. In 1827 an Act of Incorpora- tion was obtained. The territory thus conceded under the name of the West Parish of Andover embraced the six school districts - Bailey, Osgood, Abbott, Chandler (now Centre), Frye, and Poor. The Poor District, near South Lawrence, contained but nine families, and was commonly called "Moose County ". In this territory were one hundred and fifty-eight families, eight hundred and seventy inhabitants.
The terms of the parish boundary are thus stated :
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" Beginning near the Tewksbury line it runs near Mr. Aaron Frost's; thence northerly to the Hop-Kiln near Lieut. Peter French's ;* thence northeasterly to a white oak tree standing on land of David Baker, f near the road leading from Holt's bridge, # so-called, to Capt. Solomon Holt's ; thence northeastwardly to the corner § of the road leading from E. L. Herrick's to the paper mill; thence by said road to the bridge crossing the Shawsheen River at paper mill ; || thence by said river to the North Parish bounds."
In the separation of the parishes there arose some important and deliberate questions, chief of which was the apportioning of the fund for ministerial support. All questions were amicably settled. The fund was to be divided annually, three-eights to the West Church, five- eights to the South. In case the West Church should be without a settled pastor, its share during the vacancy was to be added to the principal.
The minister's salary was fixed at $600 a year. As this sum was found to be insufficient, $200 were afterward added, to be raised by subscription. Individual sub- scriptions were often paid in wood, peat, hay, and other farm produce.
November 28, 1826, the meeting-house being nearly ready for use, a petition was presented to the South Church, by Isaac Mooar, Paul Hunt, and others, for dis- mission from that church "in order that they might be formed into a separate church to be called the West Church of Andover."
The request having been granted on the day of its presentation, a committee was chosen to call a council to organize the new church. This committee consisted
* Now Mr. George Pillsbury's.
t Tree is still standing, near Mr. Geo. Baker's.
# The bridge near Railroad Bridge.
§ The corner on which Peter D. Smith's house now stands. Herrick house gone.
|| Now Marland Village mills.
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of Capt. Solomon Holt, Zebadiah Abbott, and Ebenezer Lovejoy. The churches invited to sit in council were the Congregational churches in Wilmington, Bedford, Tewks- bury, Reading, and the South Church, Andover.
December 5, 1826, the council convened in the South Church and organized the new church, and finally re- ceived it into the fellowship of the churches. The public services consisted of prayer by Rev. Jared Reed of Read- ing ; sermon by Rev. Samuel Stearns of Bedford ; reading of the confession of faith and covenant by Rev. Jacob Coggin of Tewksbury ; right hand of fellowship by Rev. Justin Edwards ; concluding prayer by Rev. Freegrace Reynolds of Wilmington. " It was an occasion of deep and solemn interest, and many wept as they bade adieu to the place where they and their fathers had worshipped." "The new church was founded upon a faith strictly evangelical, its founders believing this to be 'the faith once delivered to the saints '."
The original members numbered fifty-six, most of them former members of the South Church.
December 26, 1826, the meeting-house was dedicated, Rev. Justin Edwards preaching the sermon.
December 30, 1826, Zebadiah Abbott, Capt. Solomon Holt, and Ebenezer Lovejoy were elected deacons.
December 31, 1826, the first Sabbath services were held in the West Church.
March 19, 1827, the parish society was formed.
March 30, 1827, the church voted to invite Mr. Samuel C. Jackson to become its pastor. Mr. Jackson was grad- uated from the Seminary the preceding September, and was but twenty-five years old, although, before he entered the Theological Seminary, he had spent two years in the study of the law. Following the advice of Prof. Porter, he accepted the call, and was ordained June 26, 1827.
The ordination services were as follows : Mr. Reynolds, of Wilmington, read the proceedings of the council ; Prof. Moses Stuart preached the sermon from the text,
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" Show thyself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Dr. Justin Edwards made the introductory prayer. Rev. Wm. Jackson, of Dorset, Vt., father of the candidate, gave the charge, which is said to have been "solemn beyond description, affecting the assembly to tears." Rev. John Maliby, brother-in-law of the candidate, gave the right hand of fellowship. Rev. Jonathan French, of North Hampton, N. H., son of a former pastor of the South Church, ad- dressed the people. Rev. Jacob Eastman, of Methuen, made the concluding prayer.
One of the choir who sang that day is still with us, Mrs. Mary A. Callahan.
The first wedding, conducted by the pastor, occurred the following day, the parties being Timothy Bailey and Sally Poor. The first baptisms took place the next Sun- day, June 10, of two infants, Martha Trow and Abram Stickney Barnard. The first funeral was that of Miss Hannah Holt, August 20.
The first sermon by the young pastor was from the text "Preach the Word "; the second, from its correlative, " Take heed how ye hear ".
Sunday morning, June 24, 1827, Mr. Asa Bullard deliv- ered an address on Sunday Schools, and at noon a school was organized of more than one hundred scholars and twenty-eight teachers, Mr. Bullard consenting to be its superintendent. For many years the superintendents were students from the Seminary, and some of them be- came foreign missionaries. Isaac Bliss and his brother Edwin, both of whom went to Turkey, and Mr. Whitney who went to the Micronesian Islands, and Messrs. Grout and Walker to Africa.
Religious interest began to be specially manifested in the congregation. July 17, 1827, at the first inquiry meeting, held in the pastor's study, nineteen persons were present, and the attendance steadily increased.
November 4, thirty-six persons were admitted to the
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church on profession of their faith. At the close of the year, the church membership had increased to ninety-five.
The first female prayermeeting was held, July 20, 1827, at Mr. Simeon Flint's, beyond Haggett's Pond.
On the last Sabbath of 1827, Mr. Jackson preached a sermon on "The Blessings of the Year". The favor with which this sermon was received suggested the prac- tice of preaching on the first Sunday of the year a review of its predecessor, in which he gave a brief biography of every person who had died in the parish during that year. These sermons now constitute a parish chronicle. There was always a full house on New Year's Sunday. Even five years after his dismission, in the absence of a pastor, Mr. Jackson was requested to give another New Year memorial sermon.
In those days, there were held, besides the Sunday School, three services every Lord's Day. The morning service began at the same time as at present. It was followed by the Sunday School, which was held in the meeting-house. During the summer the infant class went to the old red schoolhouse near by; in winter it occupied the gallery on the left side of the pulpit. There was a large class of men in the singer's gallery, the teacher being a theological student. One of these teachers was Geo. Atkinson, afterward the first Home Missionary Superintendent of Oregon, a great and good man. There were several classes for women, also usually taught by students .* After Sunday School there was a brief inter- mission, when women and children partook of a lunch brought from home. The men who did not attend the Bible class, held a court for gossip in the horsesheds, where the sermon, politics, and local affairs received attention.
At half past one, earlier in winter, the bell called all to afternoon service. This, too, had a sermon. In the
* It used to be our boast that we got the best in the Seminary.
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evening, a third service was held in the schoolhouse. The first in the month was the "Concert of Prayer for Missions "; the second was the Sunday School concert ; the third, the Anti-slavery concert ; the fourth was a prayermeeting.
Fifty years ago there was no organ in the church, but the voices of the choir were led by two flutes, two violins, a violincello, and a base viol.
In those days, sixty or seventy years ago, the common between the church and the schoolhouse was "the train- ing field ". Here, on " muster days". the militia used to parade. Military titles were then thicker in the parish than they have been even since the Civil War, when so many of our boys enlisted.
April 30, 1830, the good Deacon Holt was called to his Heavenly Home. In his funeral sermon, the pastor, de- tailing Deacon Holt's efforts in providing this church, says, " Had he withheld his aid and refused the heavy burden of responsibility, probably this church would never have worshipped God in the present sanctuary. If they had existed at all as a separate parish, it would have been under circumstances far different and less pros- perous." " A distinguishing trait of his character was his uprightness. His religion was quiet and unobtrusive, but it was uniform." His last illness was long and painful, but his enjoyment of God and truth was glorious. His son, Solomon, who succeeded him in the deaconate, was a man of like spirit.
A year later, July 5, 1881, died another of the earliest friends and supporters of the West Church, Joseph Faulkner, a descendant from one of the earliest settlers of the town, and born in a house still standing in Frye Village. In his last days his mental powers were dark- ened, and in darkness his soul passed to everlasting day. We recall the history of his family as the saddest in the parish annals. Yet, who can forget Lydia, the faithful Sunday School teacher, or Mary, the beautiful, saintly
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,
woman, leader of the infant class, and of the Juvenile Missionary Society. It was through Mr. Faulkner's in- fluence that the Smiths, John and Peter, became residents of Andover, men identified with our business prosperity and other educational and religious institutions.
April 17, 1832, that the religious life of the church might be reviewed, it was voted to hold a "four days' meeting ", and that it begin June 19. Dr. Lyman Beecher and other distinguished preachers assisted in this "protracted meeting ". As a result many were brought into the church, but the pastor's health broke down under the extra demands ; hence, October 5, 1832, it was " voted to allow the pastor absence for the winter." At this meeting the number of deacons was increased to four, Deacon Abbott having resigned. Mr. Peter Smith was chosen in his place, and Mr. Jacob Dascomb was the added deacon.
Sent by his physicians to the South, Mr. Jackson arrived there just as South Carolina was making her first effort to secede from the Union.
Both the Third Presbyterian Church in Charleston and the Seminary Church in Columbia urgently called him to become their pastor, but in May, 1833, he returned to these, his best beloved people.
Mr. Asa D. Smith, then a student in the Seminary, afterwards president of Dartmouth College, had done much pastoral work in the parish during Mr. Jackson's absence. As an expression of the joy of the church at their pastor's return, Mr. Smith composed a hymn, which was sung, the congregation rising to greet Mr. Jackson as he walked up the aisle on the first Sunday after he came home. The opening lines were : -
" Sheperd of the living God, Welcome to thy flock again."
In 1835, the Charleston church renewed its call with importunate entreaty for its acceptance. Various reasons inclined him to accept it, chiefly that he had still much
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bronchial trouble which the southern climate relieved. And he went south, leaving home May 11, 1835, expect- ing to enter a pastorate there.
But slavery became even more repellant upon a second view. June 30, he writes in his diary a full account of a sale of slaves just witnessed, and thus states the effect upon him : " My feelings of pity, indignation, and horror were indescribable. I wished I could put my feelings into every bosom there. . . And I thought, can I live where such things are done - live in the midst of such abomination - see church members of my own church attending the sale, and not be permitted to say a word or lift a finger to remove the horrid sin !"
So, early in July, he made farewell calls upon the Charleston people, and came back, to remain with this parish till, with nervous system shattered by prolonged and exhausting church troubles, he was forced to resign in 1849.
Mr. Jackson's anti-slavery sentiments have been dwelt upon because the statement has been repeatedly and publicly made that sixty years ago all the ministers in Andover and all the professors in the Seminary were " pro-slavery ".
The first serious commotion in the church and parish arose from temperance reform. Dr. Justin Edwards had resigned his pastorate to devote himself to this work.
At the annual Thanksgiving, 1839, Mr. Jackson, follow- ing his custom of discoursing on Fast and Thanksgiving days upon themes of public interest, vindicated the license law passed by the Legislature at its last session. Upholding the need of such a law, he states that there were then in the parish thirty intemperate persons - not moderate drinkers, but well known as hopeless drunkards, or one in twenty-seven of the entire population; in the town, one hundred and eighty; in the state, twenty-six thousand. And this was when we had no foreign born population, except the God-fearing Scotch.
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The sermon was not acceptable to all, but eleven lead- ing parishioners requested its publication. Among these eleven names are those of John and Peter Smith, Geo. Boutwell, the deacons, and Wm. Hilton, the Frye Village storekeeper.
Later, the children were enrolled in a Cold Water Army, with banners and badges, white for the boys and blue for the girls. A notable picnic was held one 4th of July, in Den Rock woods, with songs and recitations by the children and speeches by their elders.
The church passed a resolution requiring those uniting with the church to " abstain from ardent spirits, except as used as medicine, and from all traffic in the same."
In 1838, there was much religious interest, and large attendance at inquiry meetings, and this continued through 1839-40, when fifty-one were added to the church.
In 1841, Ebenezer Lovejoy, the last of the original deacons, was gathered to his fathers, at the extreme age of ninety-eight years. He left one hundred and forty-four living descendants, of whom seventy-three were of the fourth generation and fourteen of the fifth. He was a lover of his Bible and of devotional and spiritual books, yet a man of original, independent thought, deeply inter- ested in church and parish welfare.
In 1842, March 14, died Moses Bailey, also aged ninety-eight. He left one hundred and forty living de- scendants, seven children, forty-eight grandchildren, seventy-three great-grandchildren, and twelve of the next generation. In the following month died Samuel Flint, aged ninety, his wife, aged eighty-five, having died eight days previous. The next year, two sisters died, Mrs. Ames, aged ninety-four, and Mrs. Chloe Poor, aged ninety-one.
The number of persons in this parish who lived ninety and more years is quite remarkable.
In 1843, the younger members of the parish, dissatisfied with the interior of the meeting-house, essayed its reno-
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vation. There had been no carpet on the floor, no cushions, but home-made ones, on the seats. The house had been heated by two large cast-iron stoves in the rear, with stove pipes running over the two aisles, nearly the length of the house, about the height of the galleries, then ascending up through the ceiling. As the floors were cold, our foremothers used to bring their footstoves, small, square tin boxes, with a door on one side, and an iron receptacle for hot coals inside. These boxes had light wooden frames and handles. By noon the supply of hot coals needed restoring. The pulpit required many steps for ascent. It was of pine, painted a light color, and of circular shape, covered by a cushion adorned with deep fringe. At the top of the stairs were doors. The pews also had doors.
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