USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > North Adams > Addresses and papers presented at the Diamond Jubilee, 1827-1902, May 11-14 (First Congregational Church of North Adams) > Part 8
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Now happily. this church has been richly blessed in the characters of the men who have stood for them before the busy world, who have been to them like Wisdom of old :
"On the top of high places by the way,
Where the paths meet, she standeth ;
Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, At the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud."
Justly enough, we have never been over modest as a people in sounding the praises of our ministers. We have had good men, aye, holy men, for pastors. I remember a man in my childhood whose name to me is Saint Robert. We have also had strong men, scholars, theologians, whose names are known through the world for preachers.
But back in that pastorate of Saint Robert there was also in the church a Saint James soon to be chosen a dea- con, to serve for thirty-one years himself, besides pointing
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1851-DEACON JAMES E. MARSHALL-1860
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the way to four other men. And in my mind those two Scotch saints are indissolubly connected, as giving a char- acter to the "Little Brick " church of the 1850s, such as no other sacred structure can ever hold.
If I associate Dr. Crawford with his visits to the old print works schoolhouse by the bridge on Union street, and recall the loving way in which he used, before leaving, to ask us all to bow our heads while he prayed-something so real, so of God, that some of us little fellows, if we had never prayed since, might stand a chance of heaven for the simple prayers we offered then-if I say I have such asso- ciations with my first pastor, I associate Deacon Hunter with decades of faithful service as a part of the business and social and religious life of this community, which com- pelled from all men their respect.
Then in that same pastorate there was another James, already a deacon, who so impressed himself upon the mind of one boy as a true gentleman that, though I have not seen him for forty-six years, I have always thought of him with the most profound respect. Not a slight thing was it for Deacon James E. Marshall thus to put into the mind of a young lad, to be carried through his whole life, that ideal of a Christian gentleman.
And a third good man, another deacon, who at that beginning of its second quarter century was representing the church honorably in our thriving village, was Samuel Gaylord. He was a man to whom the name of "Deacon" Gaylord attached itself as naturally as the name "Doctor" Munger did in later years to one of our ministers.
Of those chosen earlier, I recollect seeing but two- Henry Chickering, elected in 1850, and Willard Gould, who served from 1832 to 1843. This venerable old servant
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of the Lord, in my earliest years, sat at the head of the pew directly in front of my father's, and was a standing lesson to us youngsters of the devout and reverent way in which we should listen to the words of the minister. Robert M. Bailey was also chosen in 1832, before which time there had been a period of three years when the infant church had but one deacon, Eli Northam. He and Artemas Crit- tenden were elected when the church was organized, in 1827, but the latter was dismissed in 1829 *. Deacon Bailey served until he removed from town in 1839. In that year David Temple and Elisha C. Munn were chosen, serving until their deaths, in 1846 and 1851 respectively. In 1846 were elected Robert W. B. Mclellan and David C. Rogers, brother to Edwin Rogers, of such happy memory to us all.
Passing on now from the deacons elected over forty years ago, the first to be chosen, in 1864, was Dr. George C. Lawrence. He was reluctant to serve, and resigned his office in two years, though continuing active in the church until his death, in 1884.
The year of his resignation two deacons were elected ; Dr. A. F. Davenport, who served until 1888, and Martin C. Jewett. Deacon Jewett! I could no more today speak of him as Mr. Jewett than I could, as a boy, speak of Mr. Hawks, when I meant Dr. Hawks. I have always sus- pected that it was Deacon Jewett's connection with the Hunter family which made us first think of him as a dea- con. But grant that it was; his honorable service-now reaching five and thirty years, the longest term of any- long ago made him a deacon in his own right.
*Daniel P. Merriam had been a deacon elsewhere before becoming one of the charter members of this church, and though there is no record of his elec- tion by this church, he officiated as deacon up to the time of his removal from the town in 1832. At Deacon Merriam's house were held the Wednesday even- ing prayer meetings of the church's earliest years.
1872-DEACON GEORGE PERRY-1902
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It was now four years before another election, when, in 1872, George French and George B. Perry were chosen. Deacon French, who has thus been in office thirty years, has had the longest continuous term of any, save Deacon James Hunter and Deacon Jewett. Deacon Perry, whose entire service lacked only one of thirty years, had his term interrupted for one year by the change which was made in the rules of the church in 1897.
I have not been asked to give my own views as to the diaconate. I will venture to say, however, that my ideal of the deacon's office has always been that it should con- tinue for life. But North Adams people have a way of arranging official affairs which, while breaking away from the traditional, preserves its best and avoids its evil features. You have arranged your diaconate in accord with the official life of a ministerial friend of mine. One year in seven he claims from his parish as a year of rest. Having no family, he can afford it, and his people let him off. So your plan, under which my dear old friend, the next man to be chosen deacon, in 1888, is now having his Sabbatical year, does after all meet my ideal. For it is in reality Deacon George W. Chase this year, just as truly as it was last year, and will be next year.
Deacon McDougall, chosen also in 1888-I cannot at all understand why it isn't the Rev. Dr. McDougall, just as it is the Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon-was the first man of your honored Board to get his year of rest, as Deacon Chase is now the last.
Of the appreciation of the church for Deacon David A. Anderson, proof has been given this very year, in his re-election, after the appointed intermission.
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Deacon James E. Hunter. Of course ! Would any sane person have thought of calling any one else to the diaconate at the first election after James the first had finished his course ?
Deacon Herbert E. Wetherbee! There it is again ! No, - I do not believe that it is anything in that old shop down by the river that does it; for I have known men down there that could not possibly be made deacons of an orthodox church. It must be something in that Scotch blood, which not only fits men in whose veins it flows to be ministers and deacons themselves, but fits even Yankees of centuries back, over whom its owners have come to have an influence. Deacon Chase, it is true, is a grandson of his own grandfather Gould; but I somehow associate him with the Hunter group. Surely five out of eleven in the last forty years is a good number of deacons to be, directly or indirectly, the gift of one family.
Deacon Wetherbee was chosen, as I suppose, to fill the unexpired term of Deacon Perry, the first of the Board to go home to God since 1891. It was my lot to say the last offices over him in his Boston home, before he was borne among you for funeral and burial. And I am glad, and thankful to the Lord and Master Whom we all serve, that I can record my belief that over your entire Board of Deacons, as they in turn shall be called to go, it will be in keeping to say this prayer which we said over him :
"O, Almighty God, who has knit together Thine elect in our communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of Thy Son, Christ our Lord. Grant us grace to follow Thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which Thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love Thee; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."
1840-REV. ROBERT CRAWFORD-1855
Pastorate of Rev. Robert Crawford, D. D .*
REV. LYNDON S. CRAWFORD, D. D.
In an old study table which did service in North Adams from 1840 to 1855, and in Deerfield from 1857 on into the 80's, is found this paper all sewed and ready for a sermon which was left unwritten. Upon this same table there lie, side by side, two little, old, leather-bound, much used, much marked, and well worn Bibles. The one, the study Bible of Dr. E. D. Griffin of Williams college, came to North Adams when his youngest daughter came as a bride in October, 1840.
On the fly-leaf of the other is written, "Robert Crawford, Lanark, Upper Canada, May 9, 1826." and there is also recorded the following :
"When leaving my home in Lanark, Upper Canada, May 9, 1826, on my first coming to the United States, my dear mother gave me this Bible to be my companion.
I traveled hundreds of miles on foot and carried it in my pack (on my back), and I expect to part with it only when I am called to follow my mother to another, and I trust better, world."
· In these two books, which are really one, we recognize the source of that strength of character, that gentleness, beauty and loveliness of Christian disposition which made the public service and the home life of Dr. and Mrs. Craw- ford what they were.
* Pastor of this church from August 20, 1840 to September 28, 1855. Born in Paisley, Scotland, November 24, 1804. Died in Clinton, Conn., October 26, 1896.
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Preparation for life is often quite as suggestive a study as the life work itself.
The wife (and we all know that the influence of the minister's wife is one of the most potent influences in shap- ing the minister's work) the wife, in this case, was reared and trained in the midst of the comforts and refinements of the Boston, Newark and Williamstown homes. The minister, in the more humble cottage of the Paisley weavers in Scotland, and the rougher, but I think we may say equally refined, log-house of the Canadian settlers.
My father's first introduction to North Adams was when he came to teach the four little children of Mr. and Mrs. Clement Harrison. This was in the winter and spring of 1833, when he was a freshman in Williams college. (He lived at the Harrison home and walked over once each day to recite in college.). In his diary he speaks of Mr. Harrison as a substantial farmer and Mrs. Harrison as a notable house- keeper, very sociable, and both as kind as could be. It is interesting to record that the writer of this is being enter- tained at that same hospitable home during these anniver- sary days.
But after college and tutoring days were over at Wil- liams (by the way, my father often used to speak of a fresh- man whom he had the pleasure of teaching at Williams whose "clean, pretty face and well-learned, well-recited lessons always gave him pleasure." That freshman is here today, still hale and fresh, and we are soon to hear Dr. Bal- lard tell of the dedication of this church building) after college and tutoring days were over, after a visit of some months, and final preparations in making the good old mother comfortable with the sisters, in the Canada home, and after his studies in Princeton and New York (though
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he confessed that the best part of his theological instruc- tion had been in his father's house, where those brainy Paisley weavers read and discussed the great political and theological questions of their days), after these years of preparation, he was ordained as pastor of this church, August 20, 1840.
The exercises of that day were as follows : Moderator, Rev. Dr. Shepard of Lenox; scribe, Rev. Stillman Pratt of South Adams; sermon, President Mark Hopkins of Wil- liams college; the text, Col. I: 28; ordaining prayer, Rev. Aretas Loomis of Bennington ; charge to the pastor, Rev. Dr. Shepard of Lenox ; fellowship of the church, Rev. Wm. Bond of Lee; concluding prayer, Rev. Tertius S. Clark of Stockbridge. (Thirty-nine years from that day-August 20, 1879-Dr. Hopkins and the son of Rev. Aretas Loomis, and Deacon James Hunter of this church, went over to Deerfield to assist Dr. Crawford in another ordination, viz., that of his youngest son as a missionary to Turkey.) His first pastoral sermon, preached on the following Sabbath, was from the text Rom. II:13, "I magnify mine office." That evening he preached at a union service in the Metho- dist church. I quote from his diary : "The village of North Adams was not, at that time, in very high repute, either for morals or religion. The Sabbath was disregarded by many, especially of the older inhabitants, and this was a preconcerted effort of us ministers with a view of awaken- ing attention to the subject of Sabbath keeping."
He speaks of Rev. John Alden-pastor of the Baptist church-as follows: "Mr. Alden met me on the street, soon after my coming, and thus accosted me: 'I am glad to welcome you here and make your acquaintance as a fellow laborer in the gospel. And now I want to
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make a proposition to you. You and I differ on the sub- ject of baptismn. You, I suppose, have looked all over your ground, as I have done mine, and it would be vain to expect that either of us could by any argument change the other's views. Now my proposition is this, that we agree to abstain from any argument, public or private, on the subject. You, of course, will preach to your people respect- ing it when you think proper, and I will do so to mine, but we will not discuss the subject with one another.'" He adds, "I gladly assented to this proposition, and we both lived up to it."
Soon after the ordination he left North Adams and went to Newark, N. J., to bring, after a few weeks, "the mistress of the manse." Passing over, in our recital today, the trip and visits in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, we find them, on a Saturday morning, in Troy, just getting in- to the stage for North Adams. "We had " (I quote from his journal) "as fellow passengers in the stage, Mrs. Dr. Hopkins, of Williamstown, and her little son, Harry. Mrs. Hopkins was an old mate and friend of my wife's, and they had opportunity to talk over their old stories .... while I amused myself with the little boy, who was quite a pratt- ler. He is now a doctor of divinity, settled over a prominent Kansas City church, and is active and useful in all that region." Had my father lived to this day, I am sure he would have added another line expressing what we all feel, a deep sense of gratitude to God, who has brought him back to Williams college, where he is to make the power of his consecrated personality felt in touching and shaping the lives of the young men who study at Williams.
This church was not so large in 1840 as it is today, neither was the South Adams church, which had come into
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1864-DEACON GEORGE C. LAWRENCE-1866
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existence only about a year before. When Rev. Mr. Pratt called and my mother asked him about his church, he re- plied : "There are four members when they are all there." And there was a time when Mrs. Patrick (wife of my father's old fellow worker in the Hoosic Falls factory) was the only member present, but she was a host.
The first one to be received into this church after my father's arrival was Miss Anna Maria Paul. She had come home from her study and teaching life to die, as all her friends supposed, and it was upon her sick bed that she was received into church membership. But how many of us are able to rejoice that she did not die, but recovered, to make so many lives happier and better because of her in- fluence.
There was no parsonage in those days, and when in 1844, after some unpleasant experiences in house renting, the Penniman house (then one of the newest and finest in the village) was secured, it proved a delightful home for eleven years. My father's only objection was "that it might excite remarks or jealousy on the part of some," but this objection was over-ruled by the wise and good workers in the church.
My father speaks of the pleasure and profit he derived from attending the ministerial associations, church confer- ences, Sunday School conventions, etc. He speaks especi- ally of a Sunday School convention held in Pittsfield in 1849, to which some 1700 children and adults from Wil- liamstown and North and South Adams went on a special train.
He had prepared for one of the ministers' meetings a paper on "the condition of those who die in infancy." He . little thought that on the following Sabbath he should be
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called upon to repeat this paper, to comfort Deacon and Mrs. McLellan in the death of their youngest child, nor that his own youngest daughter was to be snatched sudden- ly away from him that very evening.
In speaking of his ministerial brethren, he refers to exchanges made with them. It always pleased him to hear his people say, "Well, that man gave us a good sermon," but he was considerably amused when Mr. Quincy Rob- inson met him one Monday morning and said: "That minister ought to have given some boot with his ex- change."
In the preparation of his sermons he had not only his own high ideal of what sermons should be, but he had the inspiration of knowing that the people of this church had not only been used to hearing, but that they could ap- preciate, good sermons ; and from what I know of his work, and from what I have heard the people say, I feel sure that he gave them good sermons. They were certainly sound ; they were sincere; they were earnest, well thought out and well expressed. He spent, perhaps, more time than is usual on the formation of his sentences, so that the style of his writing was peculiarly good.
He confessed that when he first came here and found how much the people loved and admired Dr. Russell, who had immediately preceded him, he was at first inclined to be a little jealous of all the good things that were continu- ally being said. But one day the happy thought came to him, "If this people appreciated Dr. Yeomans' and Dr. Russell's sermons, I will give them good sermons. If they were capable of loving them, they will love me." And . they did. In his diary he afterwards writes, "I loved that people, every one of them." And I think the other minis-
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ters of this church who are here today will bear me out in saying that there was no one more cordial to them, no one more appreciative of their work, than was he, who was ever so ready to commit to them the church and the people of his first love.
It has always been noticed that North Adams people love their ministers and the ministers love them, and the good mother church welcomes them all as a band of broth- ers whenever they come back.
Were there time today, it would be pleasant to read from his journal, of many touching and interesting inci- dents of church and parish life, of talks and visits with individuals and families, of neighborhood meetings in the Notch, the Beaver, and up on Florida mountain. Neither trained nurses nor modern microbes had been discovered in those days, and the pastor was expected to call on diph- theria, scarlet fever and even small pox cases, and to take his turn in watching with the sick, and all this was a part of his work, and these were the open doors whereby he found entrance to the hearts of the people.
In summing up his life work, it does seem to be ex- pressed in those wonderful words of Paul in II Cor. 3:18, (Revised version) "We all with unveiled face, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
His life work, his great purpose, his joy seemed to be to reflect and show forth the character and the glory of Christ Jesus his Lord, and he was certainly transformed into His image.
REV. ADDISON BALLARD 1865-Supply-1866
The Dedication of the Present Church
PITTSFIELD, MASS., JUNE 8, 1902.
To MRS. JENNIE PAUL GOODRICH,
NORTH ADAMS, MASS.
DEAR MRS. GOODRICH :- It is due to your request and to the hint which your better remembrance gave me of what I had myself utterly forgotten, that I was able to re- peat at your Diamond Jubilee some things I said at the dedication, September 6, 1865, of your newly-erected and beautiful house of worship. The substance of what I then said is as follows :
On leaving my home in Williamstown on my way hither I at once came upon the buildings of Williams col- lege. Those I looked upon as standing for the whole great and greatly important work of education. I next came to the busy and thriving woolen mills of Blackinton. Those I took as representing the entire vast and varied manu- facturing interests of the world. Passing these I soon had in view the agricultural fair grounds of northern Berk- shire. These told of the pains taken to better furnish the world's food supply by improved methods of husbandry. The last stage of my journey brought me to this happily- completed building which is now to be reverentially set apart for the worship of God and for Christian fellowship and instruction.
It is by this last that all which we had passed before is crowned and glorified. To have stopped short at any
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point on our way hitherward would have been to leave all our other work in life open to the charge of incomplete- ness ; would have been to neglect putting its capital on the pillar, to fit its keystone to the arch. Without this, agri- culture, manufactures, commerce, finance, art and educa- tion would make of man only a more intelligent, highly cultivated animal-an animal, too, in a physical sense no more abundantly, though more anxiously, provided for than are the lower orders of the animal creation. Granted that it is much to have these bodies of ours well nourished, comfortably clothed and snugly housed, we are yet slow to accept these as the great objects of our life's endeavor, when we consider the fowls of the air; how they soar, and sing as they soar, above all our toil of sowing, reaping and gathering into barns; when we see how the lilies of the field out-dress even the most gloriously-arrayed of kings ; how the fox is securely sheltered in his hole and the oriole in her nest. We did not stop short, however, but bringing up all that is below with us, we have come rejoicingly to this house and to all that higher good for which it stands -communion by prayer, and penitential love and thanks- giving, with the God of all our mercies, and fellowship with one another as His children to whom alike is extended the promise both of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
Sincerely yours, ADDISON BALLARD.
Greetings from Our City
REV. JOHN C. TEBBETTS Rector St. John's Episcopal Church
This community should be very grateful to the mind that originated the thought of this celebration, and to the pastor and his aids, who have put it into execution. For it is given an opportunity to express its appreciation of a religious society which for more than two generations has been an important part of its own very life.
It would be sad to think what the history of North Adams would have been but for this corporate body of Christian believers and workers under the leadership of its faithful and true pastors. The people who have composed it might, indeed, have found a place under other forms of the Christian faith, and thus have given of their strength to the public good, but not exactly in the same way, perhaps not in the same degree, in which they have done it. The garden of Eden would not have been quite the same place it was but for the river that became parted into four heads, and in that manner flowed through and out of it. Nor would this community be what it is but for the spiritual and moral irrigation which these pure waters of the Congregational faith and fellowship have supplied.
I do not know that any community, such as this, can fully understand the value to itself of its half-dozen chief citizens who take a leading part in directing its steps and in fashioning its corporate existence. Much less can it realize the debt it owes to the religious societies which have a liberal hand in fashioning the lives of thousands of its citizens, and in forming its social and civic character. God alone, who is working out his own present and eternal
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purposes for the good of human society, can fully under- stand this.
But that this church, under God, has put this entire community under bonds of gratitude and respect will be freely acknowledged by all. Not to speak of its individual members, past or present, who have received their social and religious training here, and who have been as lights to their generation, this church in its corporate capacity has exercised an influence for the public weal such as none other has done. This every Christian body, which doth not lift up its mind unto vanity, must concede. True to its location, it has been the cathedral, the centre and seat of many a beneficence which has extended far beyond its own metes and bounds. It has taken a foremost place in establishing and maintaining works of charity and of
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