USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > The first centenary of the North church and society, in Salem, Massachusetts > Part 1
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OGY
Gc 974.402 Sa32f 1146763
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01115 3621
GENEALOGY 974.402 SA32F
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/firstcentenaryof1772sale
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Thor Barnard
٠
THE
FIRST CENTENARY
OF THE
NORTH CHURCH AND SOCIETY, IN
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.
COMMEMORATED JULY 19, 1872.
SALEM.
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY. 1873.
PRINTED AT THE SALEM PRESS, F. W. PUTNAM & CO., Proprietors.
Tyson _$2-0
1146763
TO
THE MEMORY
THOMAS BARNARD, D. D. OF
AND HIS ASSOCIATES
IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS CHURCH AND SOCIETY,
THIS VOLUME
IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED.
(iii)
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION,
EXERCISES AT THE CHURCH,
5
MEMORIAL SERMON,
.
.
.
9
EXERCISES AT NORMAL HALL,
63
Address from G. B. Loring,
66
Rhymed Reminiscences, by C. T. Brooks,
. 69
Address by Joseph Allen, of Northborough,
81
Address by E. R. Hoar, of Concord, 83
Address by W. G. Eliot, of St. Louis, Mo., 85
Address by Thomas T. Stone, of Bolton, Mass., 87
Address by C. H. Brigham, of Ann Arbor, Mich., . 89
Address by Wm. Mountford, of Boston, . 91
Address by John W. Chadwick, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 103
Address by George L. Chaney, of Boston, .
106
Address by William O. White, of Keene, N. H., 111
Letter from Charles Lowe, 114
Letter from Henry W. Foote, 116
Letter from James W. Thompson, . 118
Letter from Edwin M. Stone,
119
Letter from S. E. Peabody, 121
Address by R. M. Hodges, of Cambridge,
121
Address by D. B. Hagar,
125
Address by Caleb Foote,
126
Note from O. B. Frothingham,
127
SOME MEMORANDA OF THE CHOIR, BY HENRY K. OLIVER,
·
. 131
(v)
.
1
.
vi
CONTENTS.
THE CHURCH,
. 153
Covenant,
155
Early Members,
157
Officers,
163
Minister's Library,
164
The Sunday School,
165
Extracts from the Records and Notes,
166
MINISTERS, . · . 170
Thomas Barnard,
171
John Emery Abbot,
173
John Brazer,
175
Octavius Brooks Frothingham,
177
Charles Lowe, .
179
Edmund Burke Willson,
181
THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE,
183
THE SECOND MEETING HOUSE,
190
PROPRIETORS AND OCCUPANTS OF PEWS IN THE FIRST HOUSE, 197
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAIT OF REV. T. BARNARD (Frontispiece).
PICKMAN HOUSE. 154
PORTRAIT OF REV. J. E. ABBOT. 173
PORTRAIT OF REV. J. BRAZER. 175
PORTRAIT OF REV. O. B. FROTHINGHAM.
. 177
PORTRAIT OF REV. C. LOWE.
.
179
PORTRAIT OF REV. E. B. WILLSON.
181
FIRST MEETING HOUSE.
183
SECOND MEETING HOUSE.
· 190
(vii)
INTRODUCTION.
ARLY in the month of April, 1872, the Standing Committee of the Proprietors of the North Meeting-house voted that the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the North Church and Society should be commemorated by appropriate public services, and called a general meeting of the worshippers, to be held on the 16th of that month, at the vestry, to take the matter into consideration. At that meeting the action of the Committee was unanimously ratified, and the necessary Committees were chosen to carry the proposed observance into effect.
The first meeting of the Proprietors for organization had been held on the 3d of March, 1772. The first meeting of the mem- bers of the church, and their gathering into church order and fellowship, and the adoption of a covenant, had taken place on the 19th of July, 1772. It was voted that the latter should be the day commemorated.
The writer of the historical discourse herein contained takes this opportunity to express his obligations and his thanks to those who have kindly aided him in his search for the materials em- bodied in it, especially to the President of the Essex Institute, Dr. HENRY WHEATLAND, who opened to his use the valuable stores of the library of that institution, besides directing him to many important sources of information.
He has not thought it necessary to cite often the authority on which his statements rest. In addition to the usual authorities for such facts, viz :- the records of the church, and of the proprietors
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2
INTRODUCTION.
of the North Meeting-house, funeral and other discourses, bio- graphical memoirs, published sermons of the clergymen of whom notices are given, newspapers of the period, the recollections of living witnesses, and current traditions, he has had access to a very helpful collection of miscellaneous papers, mostly in manu- script, containing lists of names, accounts, etc., left by Ichabod Tucker, Esq., nearly all of which are now in possession of the Essex Institute ; while he has often had recourse to Felt's Annals and Curwen's Journal and Letters, with the biographical sketches appended by its editor, GEORGE A. WARD, Esq.
MEMORIAL SERVICES.
E XERCISES AT THE C HURCH.
I.
VOLUNTARY (FROM THE ORGAN). II. 1
SCRIPTURE SENTENCES.
BY REV. CHARLES T. BROOKS, OF NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
ONE generation passeth away, and another generation cometh.
The fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever ?
We are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His won- derful works to the children of men !
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. . . I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. . I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Thy wonders of old. which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them unto their children ; that they might set their hope in God and not forget the work of the Lord, but keep His commandment.
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6
EXERCISES AT THE CHURCH.
O Lord God of our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their heart to Thee ! In Judah is God known. . In Salem is His tabernacle.
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord ! . . . Our feet shall stand within Thy gates, O Jerusalem !
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem ! may my right hand forget her cunning; yea, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jeru- salem above my chief joy !
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes I will now say, Peace be within thee !
III. CENTENNIAL HYMN AND MUSIC.
BY GEORGE PEABODY.
Six verses and the Invocation sung.
God, Almighty and Eternal, From Thy throne, in realms sublime, Hear our earnest supplications, Bless our offerings at this time.
Gathered round our cherished altar, May we now renew the Flame Which our Fathers long since kindled To the glory of Thy name.
Here they bowed in adoration; . Here invoked, and not in vain,
Blessings, which by Thy great mercy, With their children still remain.
Countless blessings still descending Both on us and on our land, May we not forget the Giver, In the bounties of his hand.
God, we thank Thee, that so many Of the wise and good have found Joy and comfort in Thy worship, On this consecrated ground.
Man beheld in Thy Creation, Governed by unerring Laws,
Proof that ofttimes gave assurance Of a self-existent cause.
But the glorious Confirmation In Thy written word we find,- Book of books! - the guide, instructor, Hope, and solace of mankind.
There alone we read the record Of Thy blessed Son on earth, By whose Life and Resurrection Man has gained a nobler birth.
Unrevealed are those deep mysteries That his cross and death attend, But his pure and holy precepts None can fail to comprehend.
Naught by ancient sages spoken Can dispel our doubts and fears, Comfort bring to sin and suffering, Or restrain the mourner's tears.
7
EXERCISES AT THE CHURCH.
May we, urged by their example, Follow in the path they trod, Keeping Christ's plain rule before us, Love to man and faith in God.
Veiled art Thou, our Heavenly Father, And to mortal sight unknown, Yet in every age and nation Thy parental care is shown.
In the days of heathen darkness, Ere Thy chosen Prophet came, Mid the thunders of Mount Sinai, Thy commandments to proclaim,
In the brightness of his Being All Earth's shadows pass away, And the human heart rejoices In the light of endless day.
May that Light spread through the nations Shine wherever man is found,
And Thy Praise in songs of triumph Throughout Heaven and earth resound.
INVOCATION. Gracious God! continue with us, Aid us to deserve Thy love, And through Christ at last admit us To his promised Rest above.
IV.
PRAYER.
BY REV. JONATHAN COLE OF NEWBURYPORT.
v.
HYMN ( FOR THE OCCASION ).
BY REV. CHARLES T. BROOKS.
Sung by the Congregation to the Tune of Duke Street.
O God! whose wisdom, power and love No age can waste, no shadow dim, To Thee, in cloudless light above, We raise the grateful, reverent hymn.
God of our Sires! to Thee, their Guide, Their Guard through life's uncertain way, To Thee in whom their souls abide, Unending thanks their sons shall pay.
Amid the war-cloud's gathering stormn, Our fathers built their altar liere;
They leaned on Thy almighty arm, Beheld Thy face and felt no fear.
To-day in peace their children come To muse upon the years gone by ; To sing their grateful harvest-home, And wave the votive sheaves on high.
The house our fathers built to Thee, 'Mid human works no longer stands,
Their nobler shrine by faith we see - That house in heaven not made with hands.
Thanks for the memory of the Sires, Their lofty zeal, their strenuous life; - Our hearts with hope that memory fires, And nerves our souls for Christian strife.
While ages roll and worlds decay, Grant us, by faitli and hope and love, Bright visions of unchanging day, Fair mansions in the realm above!
8
EXERCISES AT THE CHURCH.
VI.
DISCOURSE.
BY REV. EDMUND B. WILLSON, MINISTER OF THE SOCIETY.
VII.
HYMN (FOR THE OCCASION ).
BY REV. CHARLES T. BROOKS.
Sung by the Congregation to the Tune of Telemann's Chant.
Thou whose word to being woke
Earth and heaven, this beauteous frame,
Father! we to-day invoke
Blessings in Thy hallowed name!
On this ancient Church of Thine, Thou who makest all things new,
O Eternal Beauty, shine! Spirit, shed Thy freshening dew!
May the calm of reverend age Blending with the glow of youth
Mark her for Thy heritage,
God of Wisdom, Grace and Truth!
Tender memories o'er this hour Mingling lights and shadows cast;
Songs of trust and words of power Cheer us from the living past.
Many a sweet and saintly name Breathes a fragrance on the air,
Kindles here devotion's flame, Stirs the soul to praise and prayer.
Perfect gifts, O God, are Thine; May they lift our souls above, Fill us with Thy life Divine, Endless life and boundless love!
VIII. BENEDICTION.
BY REV. JAMES T. HEWES, MINISTER OF THE FIRST CHURCH, IN SALEM.
MEMORIAL SERMON.
WALK ABOUT ZION, AND GO ROUND ABOUT IIER; TELL THE TOWERS THEREOF; MARK YE WELL HER BULWARKS; CONSIDER HER PALACES; THAT YE MAY TELL IT TO THE GENERATION FOLLOWING. FOR THIS GOD IS OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER; HE WILL BE OUR GUIDE EVEN UNTO DEATH. - Ps. xlviii : 12, 13, 14.
WE can understand to-day, in some degree, the emotions with which the psalmist wrote, as he looked upon the sacred places which war had spared, dear and still safe, beautiful as transfigured in the light of religious associations, wherein the altar of a past worship yet stood with its fire unquenched.
Our altar still stands. Its fire is burning yet, after a hundred years. War has passed over its worshippers. Time has dismissed, one by one, its earlier congregations, and brought, one by one, new generations to stand in their places. We think of those who are to follow us, and hope that our children, and their children, may worship where we do now.
There are times when, enamored with the promises and expectations of the future, the past is not unlikely to seem all a dead past, profitless, may be, even as a study for living men who hope to hold and fill the present hour worthily.
Believing progress, however, to be possible only by chart-
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MEMORIAL SERMON.
ing its way along by landmarks that are fixed, and voyaging always from certainties found, to other certainties sought, I am sure that the study of the past can be vindicated equally well, whether at the bar of utility or of ideality. If it were otherwise, there is a debt which the present-which is the future of the past-owes to that past, and which it will pay, if it is an honest present, to its successor.
He, indeed, who turns his back on the past, on the plea that he must live in and work for the future, recognizes in his very aspiration the lineage between the foregoing and the aftergoing ; the continuity of flow that makes the past and future, morning and evening of the same day. There is no dead past, any more than there is lifelessness in those visions and imaginings, which are the ideals wherefrom we construct the future. All the dying we know in the uni- verse is a dying on-into life.
But to-day I scarcely aspire even to make a study of the past. A simple recital of some of the leading events, and just an outlining touch here and there of some of the lead- ing characters belonging to the earliest periods of this church's history, seems to me the fittest, in truth the only possible, memorial that I can offer to-day. To do this, and more, there is not time. To do other than this, and leave this unattempted, would be, I am persuaded, to mis- take the wishes and the just expectations of most of those who have assembled here.
To name one hundred years of human history, especially the last one hundred years, is to start the recollective im- agination on an excursion from which, if let go unchecked, it would scarcely return in a summer's day. What history
11
MEMORIAL SERMON.
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written and unwritten have these years made ! Not to stray from our own shores, the longest day of summer would not suffice to tell how this America has enlarged and changed- from a dozen and one thinly peopled colonies, dependencies of a distant kingdom, lying along the borders of our Eastern Sea, with no apparent tendency to integration, come to be a powerful nation of thirty-seven states, of continental width, with population four times doubled, notwithstanding a war which has no parallel in modern times for its havoc of life, unless the late European war has matched its numbers. How should the hours be enough to relate the story of our two civil wars alone, one of which made of the scattered dozen and one provinces a consolidated republic in the beginning of the century, and the other, at its end, removed by bloodiest surgery, but needful, that seed of death, of which the nation must rid itself or perish !
How should all the summer days be enough to show the steps of that vast unfolding civilization which has bridged the seas, calls pupils from Japan to American schools and colleges, gathers to a June festival singers and musicians by tens of thousands, speaking half a dozen languages, from the old world and the new, and brings the students of every science and art and philosophy, and form of knowledge, and type of religion, into one school of fellow-learners, where each fresh thought, and new discovery, and latest certified fact, becomes the immediate possession of all, giving earnest that the early christian vision may yet come true, and man- kind extend its broader title over all the narrower terms of race and place, making all the nations that dwell on all the face of the earth, to be of one blood and of the family of the Everlasting Father !
12
MEMORIAL SERMON.
A history of a hundred years, though it be but local history and deal with a communion of a few hundred souls only, has the same elements of interest that belong to the larger story of mankind. It touches human life at all points.
With many, such an occasion as this speaks first to senti- ment and feeling. If I ask you to spend the hour with me among facts mostly, and to indulge me with a pretty liberal sprinkling of dates besides, it will not be because I despise sentiment ; but because first in order comes the gathering of the material for it, the narrative ; the reconstruction of this material into a pictured past, fresh with life, not to say the gathering of various wisdom from it, must be left very much to you.
It is not because of the great age of this religious society that we keep this day of memorial. Ours is not an old church, as oldness is accounted in this community. The Mother church of us all, the First Church in Salem, had observed her own one hundredth anniversary more than forty years before this society was formed. We take rank as the fourth in the order of time, of the congregational churches within the present territorial limits of Salem ; the eighth, if all the churches formed from the First Church are taken into the account, disregarding territorial limits. This last number includes a church in what is now Beverly, early known as Bass River; one in Marblehead ; one in Danvers, then known as Salem Village; and one in Peabody, then the "Middle District" of Salem.
Of the religious societies now existing in Salem, of all denominations, this is the sixth in age ; the First, formed in 1629 ; the Friends' Meeting, in 1658; the East, or church
13
MEMORIAL SERMON.
of the Eastern District, as it was then designated, in 1718; St. Peter's (Episcopal), in 1733 ; the Third Congregational 1 in 1735 (which is either the South or the Tabernacle Church, according as a question of identity in dispute between them is decided, a question on which this is not the occasion to pass judgment).
The causes which led to the gathering of this church, and the circumstances attending it, were somewhat peculiar.
The First Church had for its minister, in the year 1770, Rev. Thomas Barnard, a man of about fifty-four years of age, an able preacher and a pastor much beloved by his people. In the spring of that year he was stricken by paralysis, and his work was to pass into other hands. He had a son, Thomas Barnard, junior, educated for his own profession, and who, though but twenty-two years old, had been four years out of college and had completed his pre- paratory professional studies. He was employed to supply his father's pulpit till the next annual meeting of the parish, a term of some five or six months. This he did so accept- ably to a considerable part of the people, that a strong - desire was felt by them to make him a colleague pastor with his father. In this, however, there was not unanimity. So, when the question came up, as it did from time to time in church and parish, between the first of December, 1770, and the middle of the following summer, whether other candi- dates should be heard, or Mr. Barnard the younger should be settled, the vote was very evenly balanced on several occa- sions. Once, in the church, the vote was just equal; at another time, for hearing others, nine; for not hearing more, seven ; and neuter, four (male members only voting). After a time the question took the form of a choice between
14
MEMORIAL SERMON.
Mr. Barnard and Mr. Asa Dunbar, who, meantime, had become deservedly a favorite candidate in the church, and was afterwards settled.
On the 10th of June, 1771, a vote was taken with the result : for Mr. Dunbar, thirteen ; against, eleven. And yet there was delay. The parish was divided, like the church, just about equally. A meeting of the society was held on the 26th of June, at which a property vote was taken, which gave a majority for concurring in the choice of Mr. Dunbar, of "+/1" (four shillings and one penny) .
A property vote is defined in the records as one in which the "votes were accounted according to the several interests of the voters in proportion to their several taxes :" pew, or church taxes it is presumed. By such a vote it was finally decided, Nov. 25, 1771 (£97-13-8} to £81-9-9}) that the proprietors would concur with the church in the choice of Mr. Dunbar .*
No wonder that there should have been reluctance on the part of the majority to push matters to a decision, when decision threatened to be division. The minority was nearly half the people. It embraced many highly esteemed for their intelligence and moral worth ; one who had held the office of Ruling Elder in the church thirty-five years; one of the deacons, nearly twenty years in office and much respected ; three out of five of the Standing Committee of the Propri- etors for the year just preceding; the gentlemen chosen Clerk and Treasurer this same year of 1771; and not a few
* At one time a proposition was made and voted affirmatively, to lay aside both these candidates; and a later attempt to repeal this vote failed. But, of course, at this stage of the contest it made no difference. Each party clung to its favorite with greater determination.
15
MEMORIAL SERMON.
lending the weight of social importance and large wealth to their opposition .*
Meantime, also, a tender regard for the presumed prefer- ence of the sick elder pastor, however scrupulously he might refrain from giving it expression, had its influence, without doubt, to confirm the minority in their choice, and to induce hesitation in the majority.
The controversy could have but one event. The delay wrought no change of purpose or feeling on either side, and when towards the end of the year it became apparent that neither could yield, propositions began to be made and con- sidered for a friendly separation, which was, soon and without serious difficulty, effected. Those who stood by the church, settling Mr. Dunbar, handsomely agreed to buy the pews of those who desired to leave, at such prices "as three or more indifferent men might value them at." And a like amicable arrangement was made with regard to the church property. The departing members asked, with a confiding assurance that their proposal would be met in a generous spirit, that they might be dismissed "with a just and equitable part of the temporalities" of the church. And their confidence was not misplaced. Five-twelfths of all that belonged wholly to the church was divided to them; and they express no discontent with the apportionment.
It is nothing unusual for a church to owe its origin to a dissension among friends and members of the same church. I suppose this perhaps to be the rule, other causes the exceptions, in the history of church "origins."
* I can count the names of nearly thirty pew holders of the First Church in 1771, which appear in the first list of pew purchasers in the new North Church; which number I suppose, did not include the names of all the families which were occupants of pews, and which left the First Church to become worshippers at the North.
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16
MEMORIAL SERMON.
But in this case was no rancorous quarrel running into harsh aspersions, no charge of bad motive, no schismatic bitterness over unstatable differences of doctrine. The genuine regrets of parting friends have left their frequent traces on the pages of the records we have searched. They will not suffer themselves to forget what is due to christian courtesy and an ancient and honorable fellowship. They do not indulge in those criminations, which many times make the church strife so much more reckless and disrepu- table than ordinary worldly contentions.
There was soreness and lamentation ; if possibly a drop of anger on either side, at what was deemed an unyielding obstinacy on the other, it came to no angry utterance and its complaint sounded more like a sorrow. The brethren and sisters asking a dismission from the church, allude to the divisions which have arisen, say they have desired and sought to prevent a separation, "and that we might still con- tinue (as through the goodness of God for many years past we have done) in perfect peace and unity." But as "for diverse reasons we cannot consent to the calling and settling Mr. Dunbar with so small a majority (if any) of the church," there seems "no way left for us but separation." They hope they may still have "occasional communion" with those they are leaving. "And now, brethren," they say, "not doubting of your complying with our reasonable desire, it shall not cease to be our ardent wish and prayer that we may so conduct our parting as shall cast no reflection on our holy religion or on ourselves ; and that, although we may hereafter worship in separate assemblies, our hearts may be united, and, by our christian deportment to each other, we may . . . meet in that blessed assembly whose peace,
-
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MEMORIAL SERMON.
unity and charity will never fail, and where discord will find no place."
Every kind word was reciprocated by the church. Every reasonable expectation was met. True, the brethren of the church expressed almost pathetically their "great concern and uneasiness at so unhappy a breach and separation ;" declared that they had used their utmost endeavors to prevent it ; that they were sensible how much the interest of religion and peace and the tranquillity of the people depend on their being united. They "even now wish that those brethren would consider the matter and not urge a dismis- sion, as we [they] know of no just reasons why any should object to the choice of Mr. Dunbar," whom they consider "admirably qualified for a gospel preacher, and as we [they] think, full as likely to promote the true interest of religion as any other whatever." They conclude : "But if God in his holy providence has so ordered it as that this small church must be divided and split in pieces, and these brethren will separate from us, we herein join with them in the wish (as it shall be in our endeavor) that a spirit of love and Christian fellowship may continue between us notwithstanding our separation."
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