USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > An address, delivered at Northampton, Mass. : on the evening of October 29, 1854, in commemoration of the close of the second century since the settlement of the town > Part 2
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THE FIRST PILLARS OF THE CHURCH.
Of the seven pillars of the church,-on which, with Mr. Mather, the minister, the church was constituted June 18, 1661,-it would be interesting to have a particular account ; but of most of them very little is known, as of David Wilton, Henry Cunliffe, Thomas Root, and Thomas Hanchet. Mr. Hanchet was a deacon in 1668, and re- moved to Westfield. Mr. Root had lived many years in Hartford. William Clark was of Dorchester in 1636, and as late as 1657, after which year he removed to Northampton, and was the ancestor of a great multitude of descendants. Four of his sons, men of eminence, lived half a century ago on Elm Street; and five deacons in the church were his descendants, two of whom are among the living.
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Henry Woodward, one of the pillars, came from Much Worton, Lancashire, England, with Richard Mather of Dorchester, and was killed by lightning at the upper corn mill, April 7, 1683. His de- scendants are numerous, especially in Connecticut; one of whom was the late lamented Dr. Samuel B. Woodward of this town. Another was the late Henry Woodward, missionary to Ceylon, who died in the east,-son of Professor Woodward of Dartmouth College.
The remaining and principal pillar of the church was Elder John Strong. He was the son of Richard Strong of Taunton, England, or of that neighborhood, and was born in 1607. About the age of 23 he set sail from Plymouth, March 30, 1630, in the ship Mary and Jolin, in company with the ministers Warham and Maverick. He arrived in two months, May 30th, and settled at Dorchester. His wife died soon after his arrival, or before. His second wife was Abigail, the daughter of Thomas Ford of Dorchester. He lived in Hingham in 1635, and thence removed to Taunton, where he was made a freeman of Plymouth colony Dec. 4, 1638. He next removed to Windsor; and thence to Northampton in 1659, five years after the settlement began. He was one of the first members of the church in 1661, and received ordination as an Elder-not as a minister-in 1663. After a residence here of forty years he died in 1699, the father of sixteen children, all but John, the eldest, by his last wife. His descendants of course were very numerous, including most or all bearing the name of Strong in this part of the State, as well as others of the names of Clap, Parsons, Barnard, Clark, and Dudley .- The late Governor Caleb Strong was of the 5th generation from the Elder. The names of his ancestors are these ; John Strong and Abigail Ford; next Ebenezer Strong and Hannah Clap; then Jonathan Strong and Mehitable Stebbins; then Caleb Strong and Phebe Lyman, the pa- rents of the governor. By this enumeration we may perceive the affinity of families of well known names.
MEETING HOUSES.
The first meeting house was contracted to be built by five of the settlers to be done by the middle of April 1655, twenty-six feet long and eighteen feet wide, of " sawen timber," that is of squared logs, with one door and two windows, having a thatched roof, like the first dwelling houses. The expense was 14 pounds to be paid in work or
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corn. The place was this meeting house hill, then covered with trees.
The second meeting house, forty-two feet square, was built after six or eight years, the first becoming a school house in 1663.
The third meeting house, built in 1737, stood also on this hill, a few feet in front of this house, in which we are now assembled. Few of you ever saw it, but my memory, as one of the ancients, runneth back to its existence; and I have occasion to remember it, for, unfur- nished as it was with furnace or stove, I preached two sermons in it, on a winter's day in 1806, just hard on now to forty-nine years ago.
The present meeting house, the fourth, was dedicated in 1812; and this we all acknowledge as a beautiful temple, a proof of the taste and skill of the distinguished architect, Capt. Isaac Damon, who still wor- ships in the house, so long since by him constructed.
The third meeting house had a bell, which was moved across tim- bers laid from its belfry over to the cupola of the present house with- out being taken down to the ground. The summons to attend wor- ship in the second meeting house was not by a bell, certainly not in 1677, 1678, and 1679, for in those years Jedidiah Strong was paid 18 shillings a year for " blowing the trumpet," the manner of sum- mons used by ancient Israel. This, according to my taste, was much better, than "the beating of a drum," which was the method of call, adopted in Springfield,-though the drum may seem not inappropri- ate to the time in the Connecticut Valley, when good men, through fear of an Indian attack, carried their guns with them to the house of God on the Sabbath.
THE FIVE FIRST MINISTERS.
It may here be convenient to give in one brief connected view an account of the five first ministers, being all the ministers of the old church, who are deceased.
The first minister of Northampton was the worthy son of a distin- guished father,-ELEAZER MATHER, the son of Richard Mather of Dorchester, where he was born May 13, 1637. Having graduated in 1656, he came to Northampton to preach in 1658, four years after the first settlement. When the church was gathered three years af- terwards, June 18, 1661, he was ordained the pastor. He and seven others were constituted the pillars of the church, entering into a mu-
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tual covenant : and these afterwards admitted other members. Such was the custom of early times in New England. Thus New Haven had seven pillars in 1639, of which Mr. Davenport was one : and Milford Church was constituted at New Haven at the same time in the same manner ; and thus it was with respect to Guilford church in 1643. Mr. Mather lived after his ordination only eight years : he died July 24, 1669, at the early age of thirty-two. His wife, Esther, was the daughter of John Warham, the first minister of Windsor : she afterwards married his successor at Northampton, Solomon Stod- dard ; and his daughter, Eunice, also married an eminent minister, John Williams of Deerfield, and was killed by the Indians. Cotton Mather, in his History of New England, says of Mr. Mather-" As he was a very zealous preacher, and accordingly saw many seals of his ministry, so he was a very pious walker ; and as he drew near towards the end of his days, he grew so remarkably ripe for heaven in an holy, watchful, fruitful disposition, that many observing persons did prog- nosticate his being not far from his end."-After his death there was published from his manuscripts in 1671 a serious exhortation to the succeeding and present generation, being the substance of his last sermons.
The second minister of Northampton was SOLOMON STODDARD, born in Boston in 1643, and graduated at Cambridge in 1662. After preaching at Barbadoes nearly two years, he was ordained at North- ampton Sept. 11, 1672, having in August been admitted to full com- munion in the church; and was able to preach nearly fifty-five years before he had a colleague. He died Feb. 11, 1729, aged eighty- five. Few ministers were so eminent in their day as Mr. Stoddard. He was a learned man and published many sermons and treatises. In his book, entitled the doctrine of instituted churches, he main- tained, that the Lord's table should be accessible to all persons not im- moral in their lives ; that the power of receiving and censuring mem- bers is vested exclusively in the elders of the church; and that synods have power to excommunicate and deliver from church censures. His
doctrine concerning the Lord's supper was the cause of great contro- versy in New England; and in his notions of church government, it would seem, he was more favorable to presbyterianism, than to the congregationalism of the Cambridge Platform. As a preacher lie was very successful : he used to speak of having had five harvests, in which revivals the inquiry, ' What must I do to be saved ?' was the general inquiry of the town .- He married the widow of his predeces-
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sor. His son, Col. John Stoddard, was a man of distinction in public life. Of his many descendants now living here and elsewhere it may not be proper, that any thing now should be said. If the impress of his love of divine truth and of his Christian character remains among them, the praise is due to the God of their father.
President EDWARDS was the third minister of Northampton. Set- tled as a colleague with Mr. Stoddard for two years, he became sole pastor in 1729. His ministry here was only a little more than twen- ty.three years, as he was dismissed in 1750. He afterwards lived a few years at Stockbridge and a few weeks at Princeton as the Presi- dent of Nassau Hall, and died March 22, 1758, aged only fifty-four years.
There seem to have been two causes of his dismission,-first, his rejection of the doctrine of Mr. Stoddard and of the church concern- ing admissions to the Lord's supper, and secondly some of his move- ments as to matters of discipline, to which the church had not been accustomed, and which they regarded as rigid and severe. It may be, that his people were in the wrong, and that their treatment of him is worthy of indignant reprehension ; yet some allowance may be made for the force of prejudice, for the strength of old customs and habits of thought, for family pride, and for the reverence felt for the venerable name of Mr. Stoddard, whose principles had been opposed by his successor. Yet, it must be confessed, their treatment of the minister,-in whom once they gloried and for whom they were ready, as it were, ' to pluck out their eyes' in their love to him, through whom the gospel came with power to their hearts,-is a melancholy proof, that perfection does not belong to individual Christians nor to bodies of Christians in this world, and should be a salutary check and reproof of the pride, which may be apt to spring up in the sons of Nonotuck.
As to Mr. Edwards' philosophical opinions or his metaphysical the- ory, some orthodox theologians have judged concerning it, that it can- not be reconciled with human accountableness and the justice of God, and therefore cannot be true, inasmuch as it takes from man a self-determining power, or the power of volition, and subjects him in the movements of his will to an iron necessity from the action of some constraining efficient cause. But whether or not his theory is true, it was never introduced in his preaching at Northampton ; it has nothing to do with the success of his plain preaching ; indeed his very learned book on the Freedom of the Will was not written until after he left the town.
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The philosophy of this world has nothing to do with the triumphs of the gospel, which demands repentance of sin, faith in the Son of God, the atoning sacrifice for sin,-a pure, new-created heart through the renovating spirit and power of God, sought by prayer. It is a joyful consideration, that the humble, the poor of this world have the gospel preached unto them. It is insolent pride, it is stubborn de- pravity, which work the perdition of the soul.
To the labors of Mr. Edwards it pleased God to give still more wonderful success, than to those of Mr. Stoddard ; especially in the year 1735, when almost all the people of the town were under deep religions impressions. Although a man of learning and of great acuteness, and celebrated for his metaphysical writings; yet his preaching was plain and scriptural, solemn and pungent, very intelligi- ble to his hearers, and coming home to their consiences and hearts.
His descendants, it is well known, have been ranked among the most distinguished men and ministers of New England.
The fourth minister of Northampton was JOHN HOOKER, a descend- ant of the celebrated Thomas Hooker of Hartford. A native of Farmington, a graduate of Yale in 1751, he was settled in 1754. Af- ter a ministry of about twenty-three years he died Feb. 6, 1777, aged forty-eight, deeply regretted by his people. He was an able minister, of uncommon suavity of temper and the most engaging manners. Two published sermons furnish honorable testimony of his piety and talents,-one of them at the ordination of T. Allen, Pittsfield.
It is remarkable, that both Mr. Hooker and Mr. Edwards died of a disease, which is now by the medical art disarmed of its terrors : they were the victims of the small pox. Why they were thus cut down in the midst of life and usefulness is a mystery of providence, which we are not competent to fathom.
The fifth minister of Northampton was SOLOMON WILLIAMS. He was born July 25, 1752 ; graduated at Yale College in 1770 ; was or- dained June 4, 1778 ; and died Nov. 9, 1834, aged eighty-two, having been in the ministry fifty-six years.
He was of a family distinguished in the annals of New England and which furnished for this country a large number of ministers. Robert Williams, his ancestor, was of Welsh descent and came from Norwich, England, to Roxbury in 1638; whose son, Captain Isaac Williams, lived in Newton, the father of the eminent William Wil- liams, the minister of Hatfield, whose wife was Christian, the daugh- ter of Mr. Stoddard, and the sister of President Edwards' mother.
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William Williams of Hatfield had three sons, who were ministers, -namely, Wm. Williams of Weston, Elisha Williams, President of Yale College, and Dr. Solomon Williams of Lebanon. The latter was the grandfather of Mr. Williams of Northampton, whose father was Dr. Eliphalet Williams of East Hartford, who died in 1803. It is remarkable in the providence of God, that these four ministers,- the great grandfather, the grandfather, the father, and the son, our late minister, should each have preached a half-century sermon from the time of his settlement.
From Deacon Samuel Williams of Roxbury, the son of Robert Williams, descended another race of ministers :- John Williams of Deerfield was his son; and he had three sons, who were ministers,- Eleazer Williams of Mansfield, Dr. Stephen Williams of Longmeadow, and Warham Williams of Waltham.
Few servants of God are permitted to remain in the ministry so long as Mr. Williams, although not so long as Mr. Stoddard .- That he had in early life a good reputation for learning is evident from the fact, that he was several years one of the tutors of Yale College, associated with Dr. Dwight and Dr. Buckminster, also tutors.
In his old age he had several colleagues and assistants in the min- istry ; but during the time of his being the sole pastor more than nine hundred members were received into the church. That he was a faith- ful preacher of the gospel will not be doubted. He was plain, and sim- ple, and made no oratorical display; in his preaching scriptural, per- spicuous, direct ; in his prayers comprehensive, short, and appropri- ate. He was remarkable for his punctuality in all the appointed and usual services of the minister. As the teacher of one of the largest parishes in New England he had the happiness to see the people of Northampton all united and undivided for nearly fifty years.
At last, after his long toils in the service of God, came his days of sickness, and his friends had an opportunity to see how a Christian can die. Humility was a prominent trait, which he manifested : he cherished no feeling of self-righteousness ; he uttered no word of self- praise ; he expected nothing by way of merit, but every thing from the divine mercy in Jesus Christ, his Lord. Some of his utterances were the following :- " O, what a poor, unworthy creature I am! The lowest place among the sons and daughters of God becomes me. Oh ! if any will have cause to glorify God, I shall !"
In his great distresses he said in patient resignation-"I haven't got home yet. I want to get home, and not stay in this world of
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sin ; but not till God chooses : I want to be in heaven, but not till God calls me; that is the best time."-Of the constant pious temper of his mind these his words give good evidence-" For more than forty years, whether at home or abroad, riding or walking, my mind has been in a devotional frame, praying for myself, my family, my per- ple, the church of God, or the world."
However great his humility and self-abasement, yet he had Christ- ian peace : his words were-" a hundred times a day I say, that God is my father, Jesus Christ my Savior, the Holy Spirit my sanctifier ; re- ligion is to be my unceasing employment, while I live, and I shall dwell with Christ and be employed in his service forever and ever." Among the last of his intelligible expressions were the words, " all is well !" He published " a historical sketch of Northampton," a sermon, 1815. 1
SALE OF LAND TO HADLEY SETTLERS.
The planters of this town were interested in the settlement of a neighboring town, to be interposed between them and the great north- ern wilderness. They therefore sold, Oct. 17, 1658, to the proposed settlers of Hadley the meadow at Capawonke at Hatfield of eight hun- dred or nine hundred acres on condition of payment of 10 pounds in wheat and peas, and of a settlement on both sides of the river by May 1659, and not deserting the plantation for seven years. The settle- ment, being the second plantation of Nonotuck or Nalwottoge, was thus made and was called Newtown, and was incorporated Hadley in 1661, named from a town in Suffolk, England : Hatfield was set off from it in 1670, named from a town in Hertfordshire, England. The committee for laying out Hadley in 1659 were Pynchon, Holyoke, and Chapin, with the addition of Wm. Holton and Richard Lyman.
CEMETERIES, SCHOOLS, MINISTRY.
The dead of Nonotuck were buried near the church on meeting- house hill for six or seven years until 1661, when the present ceme- tery was selected. The road to Windsor was laid out in 1664-which was the way to market. Paying their province taxes in wheat, it was carried in carts or waggons to Hartford, and thence by water to Bos- ton at the expense of one-third of the cargo.
As to the payments for Schools, in 1663 a schoolmaster was to re-
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ceive 6 pounds and the charges for tuition. In 1670 one hundred acres were appropriated for schools. In 1687 the grammar school- master had a salary of 20 pounds and tuition fees : in 1725 his salary was 45 pounds. And from that time a grammar school, with little interruption, has been sustained down to the present time.
In the year 1821 it was stated, that many years before that period one hundred of the youth of Northampton had been liberally educated. How many, in the last forty or fifty years, are to be added to this number I have had no time to ascertain; nor how many natives of this town have been ministers. Surely this town has done much for education and learning.
Of the liberality of the early settlers for the maintenance of religious institutions there is very ample evidence in the records of the town. Mr. Mather had a salary of 80 pounds, and lands were given him, for- ty acres, and a house which cost 100 pounds. In 1663, in the ninth year of the town, it was voted to raise 115 pounds for the new meet- ing house, and 120 pounds for preaching one year-a very large sum considering the value of money and the number and ability of the settlers. To Mr. Stoddard, besides his salary, 100 pounds was given for a house, four acres for a house lot, and also lands of the value of 100 pounds.
Mr. Edwards received for a settlement 380 pounds, and some lands, with a salary of 100 pounds.
RELATION TO INDIANS.
The people through their justice and kindness to the Indians seem to have lived more than twenty years in perfect peace with them, even allowing them to build a fort within the town in 1664 on certain con- ditions of their good conduct, as in observing the sabbath-giving up their powowing-abstaining from liquor and cider-and respecting the property of the settlers. But of the conversion of any of these - Indians to the Christian faith there is no account.
In consequence of the Indian war a guard was kept continually in 1675, which in the next year consisted of fifty soldiers. The meeting house was fortified in 1677. In 1690 a fortification was carried quite around the village. In the war of 1746 watch houses were built and dwelling houses fortified or palisaded, or at least one in every little neighborhood.
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EMPLOYMENTS, TOWN OFFICERS.
Among the early settlers there was no lawyer nor physician, there being little occasion for either, when men do not quarrel with each other nor with the laws of industry and temperance; but they had a carpenter and mason, though perhaps the latter was only wanted to put up a stone chimney ;- a tanner and shoe-maker, for they must wear shoes ;- a weaver, in whose art many became expert, as every family must be clothed ;- a blacksmith, and cooper, and mill-wright, for they were to rise above the rudeness of grinding their corn by -hand-stones. If some were mechanics, yet all were farmers. Two men had additional grants of land on condition, " that they supply the town's need of smithery, and coopery ware." A venerable dea- con was both a blacksmith and a farmer, and also a retailer of wines, -concerning whom is the report, that marrying the widow of Mr. Chauncey, the minister of Hatfield, the sermons of President Chaun- cey of Cambridge were thus brought to Northampton and did good ser- vice in " lining the patty pans," in which the good woman made pies for sale as accompaniments to her husband's wines. But, if these ac- counts are true, these luxuries must have sprung up many years after the first settlement.
Town officers were of course created according to the exigences of the times,-among which we find a recorder, a measurer of land, a supervisor of roads, -a constable acting in various capacities, as titli- ing man and collector, carrying a black staff,-a sealer of weights and measures,-a fence-viewer,-a meadow bailiff, whose duties related to cattle and swine,-a town treasurer, and an overseer of the poor, which could not have been in those days very laborious employments ; -a clerk of the writs, to issue warrants and take bonds ;- a cow-herd, or herdsman, paid in wheat by each cow-owner ;- a shepherd, whose care however would have been very inadequate to the protection of the sheep without a bounty of ten shillings for each wolf's head, paid in wheat. Capt. Aaron Cook must have been expert not only with his gun but with traps and pits, for in three years he killed twenty- seven wolves : the heads being brought to a select man, he cut off the ears " according to law."
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UNSMOOTH COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.
I believe the people here have always been characterized by intelli- gence and good sense. The witchcraft delusion, though known in Springfield, Hadley, and Salem, did not make a lodgment in Northı- ampton. No old women in this town have ever been accused or imprisoned for witchcraft, nor thrown into a pond for the same, to see whether they would sink or swim : if they drowned, to be proclaimed innocent,-if they swam, to be hung. Yet, it must be confessed, the witcheries of the Northampton young women have been felt by stran- gers and foreigners, as well as by citizens, in every age.
An ancient proof of this is found on the records of the court at Springfield. Samuel Allen of Northampton, my earliest ancestor here, brought an action against John Bliss of Springfield for stealing away the affections of his betrothed wife, Hannah Woodford, laying the damages at 50 pounds ! The true account of the matter is, that a young woman bewitched two men at the same time ! For some reason the suit was withdrawn and prosecuted successfully in a more private court-room, to the great joy of the prosecutor, but doubt- less much to the grief and sadness of Mr. Bliss.
COLONIES IN THREE TOWNS.
Northampton, as the parent of the three beautiful towns of East- hampton, Southampton, and Westhampton, has no reason to blush for her children,-all of whom take pleasure in doing honor to their com- mon parent. What is memorable in Easthampton may be included in its early settlement, begun at Nashawannuck in 1665 ;- in the Indian massacre of nineteen persons,-men, women, and children,-at Pask- homuck, May 13, 1704-when one woman was taken to the top of Pomeroy's mountain and was tomahawked and scalped, but survived and lived to the age of eighty,-and in subsequent deaths by Indian attacks ;- in its incorporation as a district in 1785 and as a town in 1809 ;- in the organization of the church in 1785, and the settlement of the first minister* in August 1789, a venerable servant of God, now living at the age of ninety-one,-and in the founding of a large and flourishing academy by the liberality of that minister's son at his sole expense, bestowing an equal amount upon Amherst College, in
*Payson Williston, D. D.
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all more than a hundred thousand dollars,-an almost unequalled ben- efaction to literature and charity.
In respect to Southampton, one might speak of the first meeting of the proprietors in 1730; of its settlement in 1732 and its formation into the Second Precinct in 1741 ;- of the constitution of the church and the ordination of the first minister June 8, 1743,-Jonathan Judd, who died July 28, 1803, aged eighty-three,-succeeded by Vinsen Gould from 1801 to 1832, and by Morris E. White from 1832 to 1852, and by the present minister, Stephen C. Strong ;- of the change of the precinct into a district in 1753 ;- of the sufferings from the Indians in 1747 and 1748 ;- of the brave and patriotic spirit of the people in the French and revolutionary wars ;- of the remarkable success of the preached gospel attended by divine power at different periods, in one instance eighty persons being added to the church in one year ;- of the many ministers, about forty in number, natives of this retired town, who have been sent out over our country, one of whom was the very learned and scholarly Professor Bela B. Edwards of Andover, whose literary labors are in some respects of incomparable value and held in the highest estimation, and another is the present venerable pastor* of the church on the other side of the river at East Nonotuck,- a church still older than ours, although the town of Hadley was later in its settlement.
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