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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 1044
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4484
History of the 2d Second Congregational Church & and Society in Leicester Massachusetts
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY C. VAN D. CHENOWETH, A. M. Author of School History of Worcester, An Undistinguished Citizen, Stories of the Saints, &c.
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 1908
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1851567
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1:
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D Chenoweth, Mrs. Caroline ( Van Dusen) 1846- History of the Second Congregational church and so- ciety in Leicester, Massachusetts ... by C. Van D. Cheno- weth ... Worcester, Mass. Printed for the Society, 1908.
vii, 191-199 p. front., 2 pl., 5 port. 241". Bibliography : p. 11901-192.
JHELP CARD
1. Leicester, Mass. Second Congregational church and society.
A 935 Library of Congress
BX9861.LAS4
8-17701
Copyright A 206962 ra24cl1
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LEICESTER MASSACHUSETTS
My Near the . Pane ! -
I did not attend to sending Circular as promised arance , and have not thought of it till now , my memory is very treacherous. I mu 1
Domy. We shall be gratefeed if you are interested. Worcester 1 and Levenher Were So Nearly aldo- Coated in the early days of the litle Church's Craving cut from the First-" One - the greatly want two"History. to be but with the County Adrances , and read by individuals . Its I think I Said to you, my father's work a to porquement it makes the feel a little
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Shy of urging ito purchase cond Circula. Fm, which perhaps to natural , through Dilly - his records and diaries are cheefly the data from Which it is made up - ao no other nuts . Who has been very brauch in scoping lunch and he must of necessity be foremost in it . Stephen Jakshing borrowed and read all the bolo . Hflatter a year ortwo before his death , and cared so much for them . I have been Very Sorry we couldnot have published in has letentence. It Was the urgency of the Cm Undthe ausseration Strato Started this , but it grace beyond our expectation. If
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Seems to our Commetter , not entirely Inpartial probably ! That Un . Chenoweth was clone the work Excepturally Well . She has a Aberal turns for research , and the is an in defatigable worker .
C I am , with regards to Mr. Parnie, very truly, to. Bruns. Adeline May. Nathaniel Panie, 5mg: Saty evig. Man. 13. 19og.
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PUBLIC BUILDINGS ON LEICESTER COMMON
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
TOWN HALL SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
LEICESTER ACADEMY
Copyright, 1908 BY C. VAN D. CHENOWETH
The Commonwealth Press Oliver B. Wood Worcester, Mass., U. S. A.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER I LIBERAL THOUGHT IN EARLY MASSACHUSETTS CHURCHES.
CHAPTER II
A GLANCE AT LEICESTER HISTORY.
CHAPTER III
DIARY OF THE REV. SAMUEL MAY. PART I.
CHAPTER IV
DIARY OF THE REV. SAMUEL MAY. PART II.
CHAPTER V
FORMATION OF THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN LEICESTER.
CHAPTER VI
SUCCESSION OF MINISTERS. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
CHAPTER VII
THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY. DEDICATION OF THE PARISH HOUSE.
APPENDIX, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX.
A 935.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
FRONTISPIECE, Public Buildings on Leicester Common.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHIURCII.
TOWN HALL.
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. LEICESTER ACADEMY.
SAMUEL MAY, .
Chapter III, Page 40.
EDWARD FLINT,
Chapter III, Page 56.
RESIDENCE OF JOSHUA CLAPP, EsQ.,
Chapter IV, Page 88.
DWIGHT BISCO,
.
Chapter V, Page 100.
HIRAM KNIGHT,
Chapter V, Page 108.
ISAAC SOUTHGATE,
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Chapter V, Page 114.
RESIDENCE OF THE REV. SAMUEL MAY,
Chapter VI, Page 126.
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PREFACE.
It is not to be accounted remarkable that amid the restric- tions and inconveniences of pioneer days, the early records of the First Congregational Church in Leicester, most beau- tiful, perhaps, of the hill towns of Massachusetts, should have been unwritten, mislaid, or destroyed, however discour- aging to the writer who would take an orderly though hasty survey of the history of the Church which for many years was sole representative of religious thought and utterance in Leicester, and parent of the subject of this brief summary,- the Second Congregational Church and Society.
The melancholy loss of seventy-nine years of intimate and valuable history is partially covered by the haphazard con- temporaneous records of churches in neighboring towns, with which most friendly relations were sustained, as well as by fragments of manuscripts already collected and piously pre- served in the Historical Sermon delivered by the Rev. A. H. Coolidge, April 24, 1887, upon the thirtieth anniversary of his installation as Pastor of the First Church in Leicester.
Joseph Tracy wrote in 1841, when collating material for The Great Awakening, "The records of Churches ought to furnish an important class of documents, but generally, so
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PREFACE
far as the author has been able to learn, they are either lost, or were badly kept, and furnish no valuable aid. Such has proved to be the fact in every instance, where the absence of printed documents rendered their aid peculiarly desirable."
Leicester's misfortune would seem to be rather the com- mon lot, for the researches of Mr. Tracy were painstaking and exhaustive beyond the ordinary, in his preparation for his accurate and interesting work.
The average New England Town History casts but little light upon the religious life of the people with whom it deals, and the valuable History of Leicester, Massachusetts, written by the Hon. Emory Washburn, late Governor of this Com- monwealth, notes with regret the paucity of the material of this character his careful researches disclosed.
There is no dearth of published theological literature appertaining to the early religious life and thought of New England, nor is it always dull reading of these out-grown conditions. The old pamphlets of the times are a mine of wealth to him who seeks diligently, as are the priceless jour- nals or diaries of certain of the clergy, who were remarkably skillful in literary productions of this character.
The life of a Church, whether brief or of great age, is dis- tinctive, individual, and of permanent interest; and failure to preserve the prominent features of its existence, whether through the laxity of its successive officers, want of definite precept upon the part of the Theological Schools, or what-
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PREFACE
ever cause may be justly assigned, entails loss to the com- munity in the impoverishment of local history which is irreparable.
This book is merely an expansion of data already wisely called for by the Unitarian Library, American Unitarian Association, Boston, Massachusetts, into a memorial volume designed to preserve annals of more than merely local sig- nificance, and to facilitate the local researches of those who shall come after ; to whom this present is most deeply bound.
A partial list of authorities consulted in its preparation, aside from the Manuscript Church Records, The Minister's Book, and the Diary of the Rev. Samuel May, is appended.
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CHAPTER I.
LIBERAL THOUGHT IN EARLY MASSACHUSETTS CHURCHES.
The earlier churches of Massachusetts were not creedal in constitution, and afforded certain tacit encouragement to individualism in religious thought and belief, while making no provision for the expression thereof.
And while church membership was made a necessary qualification for citizenship, no man being entitled to vote at elections, or hold town offices otherwise, this did not inva- riably imply acceptance of the complete Covenant, nor the swift, or gradual, change of attitude toward spiritual things denominated conversion.
The Christian Covenants by which the earlier Congrega- tional Churches were bound, were not generally illiberal, and the Half-way Covenant thoughtfully provided in the course of time, for the conscientious, genial, and God-fearing citizen, who halted at terms and declarations of belief, acceptable to the more rigid and austere members of the congregation, seems a worthy and beneficent provision. While this was in the nature of a formal recognition of the society or parish as distinguished from the church, with all working for the com- mon good, it offered a certain implied connection with the state as well.
It was finely argued that to " separate all true believers from those who are only nominally, but yet apparently so, and by their outward works and doctrines not proved to be
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otherwise, is to set up two visible kingdoms of Christ in the world, and to take one of these visible kingdoms out of another."
Godly ministers defended the practice of presenting the leaven of the Holy Gospel impartially to all who would incline their ears to hearken. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened," declared the Founder of our faith, with benign inclusiveness.
This would seem at least to be the corollary of infant bap- tism, which accepted point of their complicated theology the earliest churches of Massachusetts, both Pilgrim and later Puritan, brought with them over seas.
Throughout Christian Europe the baptism of a child in infancy constituted him a recognizable member of Christ's church, and was his claim to the enjoyment of all church privileges when he should present himself in due form before a bishop for confirmation, or pass other required examination, if under Presbyterian government.
The recorded baptism of even one of its parents could secure to the hapless New England infant its claim to the sacred rite, a certain guarantee for religious cognizance, and the chance that it might prove in the hands of inscrutable Providence one of the elect, however remote the probability.
The intricacies of Church doctrines, as developed in terms dry and prosaic, were Calvinistic for the greater part, but too heavy a burden rested upon any man of average kindli- ness, who carried the spiritual well-being of an entire community upon his soul, to make him otherwise than chari- table in his practical application of doctrine to given cases.
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A Calvinist in the pulpit, and an Arminian in his daily round of intercourse with his parishioners, would seem, in the light of history, to have been no uncommon ministerial combination.
His unconscious example and influence would of necessity bear fruit after their kind, and while by word of mouth the natural pessimist in religion would be abundantly served from the pulpit on Sunday with food for troubled thought, the more silent but sunny optimist would feel his soul up- lifted, and sustained, by the charitable attitude of his minister upon the highway; or beside the sick bed; or in the casual discussion of non-essentials before the cheerful hearthstone of a broad-minded citizen.
The time came, which but a timid prophet might well have foretold, when certain of the churches declared them- selves unable to cope with both pessimism and optimism within their borders; or Calvinism and Arminianism; or Faith as opposed to Hope and Charity, if one may employ the Christian virtues to elucidate.
Here was a perfectly legitimate outgrowth of existing conditions. The church must expand theoretically as well as practically, if the letter of the law be considered; and many a fair Church of Christ rode safely the rough seas which followed because imbued above all others things with the loving spirit of Him whose name it bore. It was es- teemed no compliment to be designated an Arminian, but not a few of the clergy who would have resented the imputation, and who preached the Calvinistic doctrine of original sin, Regeneration, Justification by Faith, and the eternal joy and eternal damnation of the elect and non-
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elect respectively, humanely instructed their congregations upon the other hand, that the dear and common duties of life well done, even by the impenitent, might aid in regener- ation ; and that their regeneration, or conversion, in the hands of a merciful God, might indeed be a growth so slow and reasonable as to be imperceptible at any given time, how- ever satisfying the ultimate attainment.
In a word, that the Christian who discharges his duties prayerfully, and to the best of his ability, may safely leave the issue with God. This was highly acceptable teaching to the robust New England thinker, who desired (1) to be in- dividually responsible for his words and acts; (2) to live in personal loyalty to Christ; and (3) to search the Scriptures diligently for such light as appertained to him in particular.
John Robinson spoke with rare breadth of view, as well as prophetic insight, when he counselled the departing Pilgrims with their stern faces set toward the hardships of the New World, to still search the Bible diligently for the new truths it would yet unfold. He had himself become broadened and mellowed in thought during his sojourn abroad, through inter- course with kindred minds.
The Church of the Puritan Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth was of the liberal wing of Puritanism, as con- trasted with the more rigid type of Puritans who a few years later peopled the colony of Massachusetts : Separatists the one, and Non-Conformists the other, so-called. These latter had continued longer in the fray in England; they had be- come embittered doubtless by persecution, and lacked the fine tolerance which characterized those who went to Holland, and tarried for a season.
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It has been charged, not without reason, that the Non- Conformist Puritans whose exodus from England came later, brought with them the lust for power.
At any hazard they were painfully conscious of what the lack of power had done for them, though even then within sight of Cromwell's triumphs, and the brief, strong days of the Protectorate.
In any briefest survey of early ecclesiastical conditions in Massachusetts, it should be borne in mind that the mere fact of their departure to America, under existing circum- stances, rendered both the liberal and conservative wings of Puritanism, alike Separatists and Non-Conformists ; and that their Church system in the New World was strictly Congregational in theory from the beginning.
Elder Brewster in Plymouth, John Robinson in Holland, and men of their type, belong upon the immortal roll of wise teachers of Christendom; good even for this present age, if their pardonable rancor toward the stumbling, but in the main, well-intentioned Church of England might be eliminated. Men who believed in large personal freedom in thought and act, in a culivated and ever-present sense of deep moral responsibility, and in a simple form of church government exercised by the men who guaranteed its support. Their opinions are the very essence of the liberal Christianity of to-day ; open communion, the friendly alliance between Re- ligion and Government for their mutual benefit-no unbroken chain of ordination, and fraternal relations with other simi- larly independent churches, for counsel and advice.
As town after town was founded and flourished in Massa- chusetts, their Congregational Churches about which the
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SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
town itself centred, reflected to an astonishing degree the Arminianism or Calvinism by which the men chosen to be their religious teachers were tinctured. Especially was this the case in the long pastorates; and theoretically at least the incumbencies were life-long.
Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, and Dr. Joseph Sumner, of Shrewsbury, are brilliant and apt illustrations in point in Worcester County, and in their long and intimate association with Leicester history; Dr. Bancroft having served the Second Congregational Church of Worcester for fifty-three years, and Dr. Sumner, the Congregational Church of Shrewsbury for sixty-three years. The Rev. Dr. Sumner was a member of the original Board of Trustees of Leicester Academy, at its incorporation in 1784, and President of the Board from 1802 till 1818. The Rev. Dr. Bancroft served upon the Board of Trustees from 1800 until 1831; succeed- ing Dr. Sumner as President of the Board in 1818, and serving as such until his resignation of official connection with the Academy; terms of thirty-four, and thirty-one years respectively, during which these godly men repaired at stated intervals to Leicester, with warm interest at heart in the town, and the welfare of her people.
Dr. Sumner has been described as a very king among men, in his faithfulness to all duties, his generous and im- partial judgment, his boundless charity and tolerance for honest convictions of other men, as well as in his command -. ing personal appearance. The old colonial dress, with flowing wig, three-cornered hat, silver buckles at knee and instep, and the rest, which he wore to the last, must have been singularly well suited to his six feet four inches
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of stature, and the dignified and urbane manner his people admired and loved. The friendship which existed between the Rev. Dr. Sumner, of Shrewsbury, and the Rev. Dr. Bancroft, of Worcester, presents a fascinating sub- ject to look back upon and to ponder over, in even a superficial consideration of the ecclesiastical or educational history of Leicester; Dr. Sumner representing the finest type of the Orthodox Congregational clergyman, of his own or any time; and the scholarly and genial Dr. Bancroft, who ranked historically as the ablest of Unitarian clergy in the annals of Worcester County, while abundantly fit for a much wider ministerial field.
Their united influence as workers in the interests of Leicester Academy extends over sixty-five years. The Charter of Leicester Academy, which bears the bold auto- graph of John Hancock, Governor of this Commonwealth, provides that a majority of the Trustees shall be laymen, and it was a plainly expressed desire of the founders that the institution should be strictly non-sectarian; which fact in itself would go far to explain an atmosphere of more or less liberal thought abroad in Leicester after its foundation, quite irrespective of other influence. There was no very long stretch of years between the sad day in which Dr. Bancroft preached the funeral sermon of his friend Dr. Sum- ner, at his friend's request, and that in which he welcomed the able young Boston clergyman, Rev. Samuel May, Jr., even as a man receives a beloved son. An interesting though indirect association had already been established between them, when Mr. May, as a schoolboy at Round Hill School, Northampton, had for his teacher, Mr. George
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Bancroft, the eminent historian, son of Rev. Dr. Aaron Bancroft.
The Second Congregational Church in Leicester, as plainly appears from the diary of Mr. May, was formed under Dr. Bancroft's care and guidance, the Covenant following closely the trend of that prepared for Dr. Bancroft's own church in Worcester, of which he was the first minister.
The trials attendant upon the early ministry of the vener- able divine, must have yielded singular encouragment and solace to many of the younger clergy, who gathered about him for aid and counsel. "On the 1st of February, 1786," writes Dr. Bancroft, "I received ordination. The Unita- rian controversy, at that period, had not been agitated.
"But the society,-the Second Congregational Society in Worcester-was viewed as Arminian, and as an Arminian I was to be inducted into office.
"So general then was the Calvinism of the county, that it was not deemed prudent to invite but two Churches to assist in this religious ceremony, viz., the Church in Lancaster and that in Lunenberg, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Timothy Harrington and Rev. Zabdiel Adams respectively.
"For several years I stood almost alone. Two or three times within this period, I exchanged with Mr. Harrington, and about once a year with Mr. Adams; and, in a few in- stances-not more than three or four,-I had the benefit of exchanges with a clergyman in Boston, and one in Salem. While struggling with difficulties in my own society, I was pointedly opposed by most of the clergymen around me ; and those who were friendly to me as a citizen kept aloof from
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ministerial intercourse. At this period, Dr. Fiske, of Brookfield, did once exchange with me.
"With pleasure I state this exception. At the expiration of 1 seven years, I received a note from Mr. Avery, of Holden, containing an invitation to meet the association of ministers at his house on a given day, and dine with them. In reply, I stated that no member of this association had extended to me any act of ministerial communion, and therefore they could not wish for my presence at their clerical deliberations ; that, as a private friend, I should with great satisfaction meet him-Mr. Avery-at his own table or at mine; but that he must excuse me for not accepting his invitation to meet with the associated body.
"Subsequently I received a letter in which it was stated, that it was not the custom of the Worcester Association to invite ministers, ordained within their circle, to join them ; but, if I offered myself as a candidate for membership, they would readily admit me. I soon waited on the moderator, and stated to him that I had ever felt a disposition to inter- change ministerial offices with clergymen of the neighbor- hood; and that I desired him, in my name to propose me in the usual form to his association. He did. Opposition was made by some of the members, and the subject was put over to the next meeting.
"At this meeting of the association, Mr. (now Dr.) Austin, proposed himself for the body, and was immediately admitted.
1 Clerical error probably, as Dr. Bancroft's ordination was five years earlier-Feb. 1, 1786. Date of above, Jan. 3, 1791.
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"When the question respecting my admission was agitated, he warmly opposed it; and altercation arose.
"In consequence, the association commissioned one of their members to call on me to communicate the facts in the case, and to suggest the expediency of withdrawing my application. I informed him that I should not complain at a negative vote, but must insist on a decision.
"The vote was tried, and a majority appeared against my admittance.
"On this result, Mr. Sumner, of Shrewsbury, and Mr. Avery, of Holden, arose, and declared that they would not belong to a body which passed so illiberal a vote, as that of my rejection ; that the association might meet where and when they would, but that they would no longer be consid- ered members of it. In consequence of the withdrawal of the above named gentlemen, the association was broken up.
"Two or three years subsequently, uneasiness was ex- pressed at this state of things, and a conference was held by the clergymen in the vicinity. Much discussion ensued.
"It was proposed that a new association should be formed, of which Dr. Austin and myself should be members. The pious doctor declared that he could not, in conscience, and would not join me in a society formed voluntarily by individ- ual ministers ; for, by doing it, he should virtually acknowl- edge me as a regular minister, and allow that I truly preached the Gospel of Christ.
"A new association was formed of which I was a constitu- ent member, and which Dr. Austin never joined."
The Worcester Association of Ministers was in session in Leicester, at the home of the Rev. Samuel May, on Tuesday,
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August 20, 1839, when tidings of the death, upon the pre- ceding evening, of their beloved friend and moderator, the Rev. Dr. Bancroft, were received. A Committee was appointed to reply to the invitation extended to the Asso- ciation to attend his funeral in Worcester, on the following Thursday, August 22, and also to prepare, in their behalf, the following letter to the afflicted family.
" The Worcester Association of Ministers having been informed of the death of Rev. Dr. Bancroft, the senior member and presiding officer of the Association, tender to the family of the deceased their respectful and affectionate sympathies on the sorrowful occasion.
" It has been our privilege to be intimately associated with this good man, some of us for many years; to listen to his wise and paternal counsels, to witness his Christian conversa- tion, to partake of his hospitality, and to enjoy his friendship.
"We feel, therefore, that we can and do in some measure appreciate your loss, and share in your sorrows.
"We mourn with you, that the light which has shone so long with undiminished lustre at the domestic altar and fireside, in the golden candlestick, and throughout the wide field of his usefulness and his fame, is extinguished.
"We mourn that we shall no more be welcomed with that benignant smile and friendly grasp with which we have been greeted, whenever and wherever we have met; that we shall no more be instructed and strengthened and encouraged by his sound judgment, his fatherly counsels, and his valuable life.
"But we feel that you and we have more abundant cause for rejoining than mourning.
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