USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Topsfield > An address delivered at Topsfield in Massachusetts, August 28, 1850 : the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town > Part 3
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After a vacant interval of about three years, Mr. John Emerson was placed over the church and congre- gation. Mr. Emerson was a grandson of Joseph Emer- son, the first Minister of Mendon, Mass., and a brother of the Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Malden. The indi- vidual last named, married a daughter of Samuel Moody, the minister of York, so famous for his eccentricities
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and his faith. It may gratify some to be informed, that from this couple has descended, four generations down, the beautiful writer, and the eloquent apostle of trans- cendental philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Rev. John Emerson appears to have been a pious clergyman, of respectable attainments,-whose long ministry of for- ty-six years, flowed on in quiet and harmony. His record of the church throughout this period, is occupied almost entirely with the ordinary details of regular business. I have said that his ministry was peaceful. The re- mark must be received, however, with some abatement. His people were often very remiss in the payment of his salary. This went so far that, on one occasion, he made a formal proposition to the church for a council of dismissal. To this the church unanimously objected. Nor was this all. The gradual depreciation of the cur- rency at length reduced his nominal salary to a mere pittance. The town's, book shows that his reasonable and oft-repeated request for an increase, on this account, was, after numerous refusals, finally granted. Mr. Em- erson's labors here, ended almost with his life, just a year before the commencement of hostilities with Eng- land. The shrewd and prosperous Thomas Emerson was, as you know, his son.
Five years elapsed before another minister was set- tled. Yet dark as these years were, with either the fearful menaces, or the stern realities of war,-borne down, as were the people, by the burden of taxes, and by the severity of the times,-let it not be sup- posed that this matter was neglected. It is, indeed, eminently characteristic of that age, and of its actors,
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that the records of town meetings, held here imme- diately before, and immediately after the all-exciting scenes of Lexington and Charlestown, evince an atten- tion to this important object,-the procuring of a minister,-just as earnest, and, to all appearance, just as unruffled, as though the cloud which had so long overhung the land, had not already begun to dart its fiery bolts, and to pour in streams of blood.
The Rev. Daniel Breck began his ministry in 1779. It appears from the church book that he early at- tempted to introduce some reforms. Church govern- ment and discipline had, as he thought, become lax and inoperative, and he aimed at giving them vita- lity and power. It was only natural that this should give offence, and awaken enmity. The opposition to his ministry from this, or from some other cause, be- came, at length, too strong to resist, and the result was an honorable dismission after nine years of ser- vice. Mr. Breck was a man of fair talents, and a good writer ; but in the pulpit his executive ability was small. He removed to Hartland, in Vermont, where he was re-settled, and died, not many years since, in extreme old age. While in Topsfield, he married the daughter of Elijah Porter, one of the ablest and best of its citizens. His son, Daniel, born here, February 12, 1788, is now a highly respected member of our National Councils from the State of Kentucky.
On the 12th of November, 1789, the Rev. Asahel Huntington was here inducted into the sacred office.
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The ordained and the ordainers of that day, have, with a single exception, long since gone to their re- ward. The Rev. Samuel Nott, of Franklin, Ct.,-Mr. Huntington's friend, and senior by some years,-still survives, an almost centenarian wonder. On Mr. Hun- tington's most useful and acceptable ministry-on that plain good sense,-that unfailing discretion,-that mild benevolence, and that blameless life, which made him so safe a model and so sure a guide,-I certainly need not enlarge, in the presence of those fathers and mo- thers, now white with age, who knew and loved him, -or of their children here, who have learned from them to revere his memory.
I must close here my notices of the pulpit in Tops- field. Not that its occupants of a later period, its interests, or its history, are less important, or less worthy of commemoration ; - but because they are comparatively recent; - a part, if I may so say, of your own consciousness, and far better known to you all, than they can be to me. (8)
The house first erected for public worship in this place, stood not far from the spot where Sylvanus Wildes, Esq., used to live. Such, at least, is the tra- dition. It was, probably, a small and rude structure, designed only for the temporary accommodation of the infant settlement. The second house, which stood in the burying ground, must have been put up be- fore 1676, as we find in the records no mention of its erection. In 1703, the third house was built, on the spot still used for the same purpose. This build-
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ing, after having accommodated the inhabitants for more than half a century, became, at length, so di- lapidated, that it was declared by a Committee of " Search" to be unworthy of repair. Who does not bless that grateful emotion, that almost pious feeling of attachment, which led Deacon George Bixby to preserve from the wreck of this old edifice, one pre- cious memorial ? Transmitted by him to his worthy and equally careful son, it has come down to us un- impaired -and now stands before you, fronting to the south, just as it stood before your ancestors a hun- dred and forty - seven years ago. Behind me is the venerable chair, from which Capen and Emerson so often rose to preach and pray, conjoined with its old companion, after a separation of ninety years. Let the invaluable relics be safely restored, and carefully preserved : nor again make their appearance in public, till in 1950 they shall once more come from their hundred years' retirement, to grace the Third Cen- tennial of Topsfield.
The date of the fourth meeting - house will never be forgotten by those who were wont in childhood to visit the venerable place. The figures 17-59 sepa- rated into two sections by a long hyphen of space, have, indeed, perished with the pillars, whose capi- tals they adorned. But their image was long ago im- pressed upon many a mental tablet, from which it will never be effaced, till the tablets themselves shall be no more. It was on the 4th of July, in the year just named, that the frame of this house was raised. The preparations made by the town, and recorded in
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its book, give some faint idea of what a great raising was in those days. It was, indeed, an event long to be remembered-for the entire population, men, women, and children, with multitudes from the towns adjacent, then came together to perform, or else to behold and rejoice over the mighty work. To lift those huge oak timbers high in air, and there to place and to secure them, was no child's play, but demanded every stalwart arm for miles around. I find, in the town vote, no mention of derricks or pulleys, or cordage. They de- pended, it seems, on their own strong sinews, with, per- haps, some slight assistance from hydraulic power. What amount of it was deemed necessary in the pre- sent instance, may be gathered from the instructions given to the Committee, who were ordered to provide one barrel of rum and twelve barrels of cider.
The large and respectable edifice to which I now allude, was, in many respects, decidedly in advance of its predecessors. It contained, when first opened for use, a number of pews in the body of the house, and a row of them quite around the side. These were all sold to the wealthier members of the congregation. In the third house there were but three or four pews,- put up by special permission, for as many aristocratic families. The remaining room was occupied by long benches. Upon these the people took their seats-not exactly where their
as accident or fancy led-but places had been assigned by a committee, and fixed by the town. This distribution was determined by a rule. With a becoming respect for age, they gave the first and best places to men who were more than
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sixty years old, without regard to property. To all the rest, seats were assigned according to the tax they paid. The men and women occupied opposite sides, and the young were disposed of in the rear. After the erection of the third structure, several attempts were made to seat those who had no pews, according to the old principle; but they were, I believe, all un- successful. A new order of things had, it seems, begun.
To many of us, the image of that old house, where, for eighty years, the Gospel was proclaimed, and its ordinances dispensed, must be ever dear. Venerable edifice ! we see thee still, as when in childhood, we gazed with awe at thy vast form, thy towering spire, thy glittering and ever-restless weathercock. What pictures of the past revive, as thy immense interior once more rises on our mental vision ! There was thy pulpit-revered and awful rostrum, where, raised high in air, stood the holy man ; there, thy sounding-board, projecting, seemingly unsupported, like an impending avalanche; there, too, thy velvet cushion-soft as feath- ers could make it, and sending up, when pounded by a vigorous eloquence, clouds of sacred dust. Shall we ever forget thy lofty and spacious gallery-grand re- ceptacle of all ages and both sexes ? How well do we remember its foremost seat,-venerable with wrin- kled brows and snowy hair. How well recall the denser masses in the rear, where sober middle age, and sprightly youth, were seen, distinct in their ascend- ing ranks, like the vegetable zones of Ætna. There, too, in one of the angles, marked by his staff of office,
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sat the terrific tything-man. In front of the pulpit, rose, like some well-manned battery, the singers' seats. What volleys of sound did we not receive, unshrink- ingly, from that noisy spot! How anxious was the pause,-relieved only by a slight shuffling and by half- stifled hems,-which succeeded the reading of the psalm ! How like a small thunder-clap, burst upon the ear, that preluding note, which brought every voice to the right pitch ! And then, who can recount the mu- sical glories which hung clustering round Thanksgiving- Day,-when the results of a month's preparation broke upon our heads in a perfect storm of sound ? How fearful the strife, when flute and clarionet, and viols, great and small, entered the lists with bass, and coun- ter, and tenor, and treble! And oh ! how our hearts beat,-let me use another's words,-" at the turning of a fugue,-when the bass moved forward first, like the opening fire of artillery,-and the tenor advanced next, like a corps of grenadiers,-and the treble followed with the brilliant execution of infantry,-and the trum- pet counter shot by the whole, with the speed of dart- ing cavalry :- and then, when all mingled in that bat- tle of harmony and melody, and mysteriously fought their way through, with a well-ordered perplexity, that made us wonder how they ever came out exactly to- gether !"
Will the pictured memory ever fade, of those square pews, with their little banisters, so convenient to twirl-so pleasant to peep through; their uncushioned seats, which were hung on hinges, and raised in prayer- time, and which followed up the amen, with a loud,
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rattling, running report, like an old-fashioned militia fire; and the flag-seated chair, that stood in the cen- tre, for mother, or grand-ma'am, or spinster aunt ? There were the long, free seats-there was the Elder's pew, with iron stand for hour-glass and christening basin-and there the Deacons' strait, snug box, where those good men were wont to sit, with their faces to the people and their backs to the minister-"the ob- served of all observers," and examples of the highest edification, when they happened to be dozy.
The first entry bearing on the great subject of edu- cation, which I remember to have noticed in the Re- cords, belongs to the year 1694. I fear it will not give you a very exalted idea of a teacher's dignity at that day. It is as follows: "The town have agreed that good man, Loudwell, schoolmaster, shall live in the Parsonage house, this year ensuing, to keep schol- ars, and sweep the meeting-house."
The laws of the colony requiring the maintenance of schools were strict, and were generally enforced. This town, for a long period, had but a single schoolmaster. He was chosen at the annual meeting, and was usually a citizen of the place. A room in some private dwel- ling was hired for the purpose. The teacher received a small pittance from the treasury, and looked to the pa- rents for the rest. The town did not always comply with the full requisitions of the statute : for, occasionally, it was indicted for neglect, and chose committees to manage its defence in the courts. We have no reason to suppose that the standard of education here, in those
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days, was high. The accommodations were poor-the time appropriated was short-the books in use were few and meagre-and the attainments of the teacher were often very moderate. The best school in the times of our fathers, would probably have made but a sorry figure, could it have been contrasted with what we now regard as only respectable.
Let us not, however, underrate the advantages which were then enjoyed. The difference, in this particular, between those times and ours, is less than would at first appear. Was the period of schooling short ? That very fact impelled to a more earnest diligence. Were none sent to school until the age of childhood was nearly or quite past ? They brought to their tasks, minds more mature, and an avidity for learn- ing which satiety had not yet palled. The men of whom I speak-Topsfield farmers of the 17th and 18th centuries-were certainly not great in book-learning, ac- cording to our notions of the thing. But let not the conceited scholar of these days pretend, on this account, to despise them. He would hardly have done so, had it been his lot to encounter them either in business or in argument. They had learned their lessons, not so much from books and masters, as in the harder school, and amid the stern necessities of life. Incessant con- flict with a cold and stormy clime-with an untamed wilderness -- with a stubborn soil-with the wild beasts and savages-with the French-and finally with the English-had little tendency to make them scholars, or pedants, or sciolists-but it did make them men.
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" Difficulty," says Edmund Burke, " is a severe in- structor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a pa- rental guardian and legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves-as He loves us better too. He that wrestles with us, strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill ; our antagonist is our helper. This amicable contest with difficulty obliges us to an inti- mate acquaintance with our object ; it will not suffer us to be superficial."
From the scanty written remains -- but still more from what we have learned of the doings and achievements of those, whom these places once knew, we can form only a favorable opinion of their mental qualities. Their spelling and syntax might not always conform to rule-at least to our rule -- but they knew what they meant to say, and they said it. Their phraseology was often quaint, but it was not often senseless, or imper- tinent. If they talked but little, we may feel sure that they talked quite as much to the purpose, as the more ambitious and longer-winded speakers of the pre- sent.
Nor should it be forgotten, that if their literary and scientific acquisitions were moderate, few of them were ignorant of the Book of books. All were required to attend on the instructions of the sanctuary. The influ- ence of a metaphysical theology-the constant and earnest consideration and discussion of that theme, which they regarded as infinitely more important than any other-could not fail to make them acute and intel- lectually strong. On the whole, it is no reproach, but
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high praise, to say-as we must say of multitudes then-that the extent of their attainments scarcely ex- ceeded that of the humble cottager, who, we are told,
" Just knew and knew no more-her bible true." (9)
The history of the medical profession in this place is, so far as I have been able to get at it, soon told. I have seen no mention of any physician here, earlier than the second quarter of the last century. At that time, there was living in Topsfield, a Doctor Michael Dwinell, so at least he is repeatedly styled in the Re- cords. I know nothing of him, except that he held several petty offices in the town. Next appears the name of Doct. Joseph Bradstreet, who died at an ad- vanced age in the latter part of the century. His practice, I think, must have been somewhat limited ; for he used occasionally to keep the town school. Richard Dexter seems to have been the first physician of much note. I can state nothing respecting his origin or education. He was somewhat highly connected, for he married the sister of General Israel Putnam, of Re- volutionary fame. He had, I believe, the confidence of the people here, not only as a physician, but as a citizen. In regard to his professional skill, I can only say, that whatever it might be, it was not justly subject to the reproach of being merely " book- learned." His medical library contained just two vol- umes. Dr. Dexter's death occurred in 1783, and in that year Dr. Cleaveland and Dr. Merriam settled in the town. They were both young men-the former being a native of Ipswich, and the latter of Concord, in this State. From that time they divided between
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them the medical practice of the place, and often extended their visits into the neighboring towns. Dr. Merriam died in 1817, at the age of 59, leaving his name and profession to a son, still conspicuous here. To these two men, in the hour of sickness and of danger, the families of Topsfield long entrusted them- selves, and found no reason to withdraw their con- fidence. Many of their former patients still survive. To these I cheerfully commit the memory of their skill, their kindness, and their virtues; and to these, for obvious reasons, I leave their eulogy. (10)
In the list of lawyers resident, Topsfield makes a still humbler show. In the days of my boyhood, and for many a year before, there was but one lawyer here, and he was "the Lawyer." Sylvanus Wildes, who so long held this title, unshared and undisputed, was a lineal descendant of John Wilds, one of the first settlers of the town, and one of the principal men. Mr. Wildes graduated at Cambridge, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. Had he been ambitious of legal eminence, and its attendant emoluments, he would undoubtedly have posted himself in one of the sea-board towns. Instead of that, he returned to his birth-place and his patrimonial acres. No painted, one storied of- fice, with conspicuous sign, proclaimed his place of busi- ness, or drew within its small enclosure crowds of eager and angry litigants. Whoever wished him to write a deed, or to make out a writ, might go and look for him in the corn-field. If his legal business did not make him rich or fat-neither did it harass him by its labors or its responsibilities. Unvexed by clients,
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unopposed by rival lawyers, unchecked by a frowning Bench, and unperplexed by legal quirks and quibbles,- which indeed he heartily despised,-Lawyer Wildes en- joyed the sweets of a perpetual vacation. Who, that knew him, does not still recall his venerable form, his small clothes, his blue ribbed stockings, and his cane,-as he sat conning the Boston Centinel, or de- nouncing, in no measured terms, the wickedness of a Jacobinical government ? Peace be to his memory !
The conclusion, drawn from these facts, would seem to be favorable to the town, so far as relates to the existence and cultivation here of a litigious spirit. Nor is it weakened, when we learn that Mr. Wildes' suc- cessor to the solitary honors of the Topsfield Bar,- though sprung from the loins and brought up at the feet of a New-England "Gamaliel,"-has yet found it convenient to eke out his legal profits by occasional drafts on Hovey's Plain, or by now and then with- drawing the deposits from the peat meadows. (11)
But appearances are often deceptive. I apprehend that a careful study of the history of Topsfield, from the earliest times to the present hour, would fail to confirm this pleasing notion of its peaceful tendencies. The habit of contending much at law, was indeed a common fault among the towns and people of New- England in former days. It is certainly to be regret- ted, if our little hamlet have retained the practice, long after its neighbors had abandoned it as discre- ditable and unprofitable-still more, if its fair repu- tation, as a community, has been made to suffer by
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the contemptible quarrels and malignant pertinacity of any of its members.
Topsfield has, if I mistake not, long enjoyed, among its inland neighbors, a considerable reputation, in the department of vocal music. It has certainly produced a large share of musical talent, and has, I believe, long abounded in good voices,-particularly in those which are adapted to basso parts. As in most small places, where the means of culture are scanty, the sing- ing here has been more remarkable for strength and accuracy, than for delicacy. In their execution, the choir of Topsfield-I speak of it, historically, and as I remember it-seldom failed to show power-but were not always careful to acquire that "temperance," which alone can give it "smoothness."
This allusion to a delightful art, cannot fail to re- vive, in many minds, the name and image of Jacob Kimball. He was the son of a sensible and worthy man, and belonged to a family, more than usually in- telligent. Having graduated at Harvard College, he studied law, and commenced the practice in Amherst, N. H. But, unfortunately, he was convivial, and spright- ly, and a fine singer. These attractions made him popu- lar. He was drawn into the vortex of social amuse- ment, and, alas ! of social indulgence also. Having no appetite for the dry details of law and business, he soon abandoned his profession, and became a school- master and a music-teacher. In the latter capacity he was widely-known, and he also enjoyed some celebrity as a composer. I would willingly prolong a theme, which
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might be made both amusing and instructive. But I must forbear. Those frailties, which sullied, and per- haps shortened a career, that might have been so bright, cannot, even now, be recalled without a sigh. May they never be recalled without profit.
Among the minor changes in matters of custom and taste, which he who travels through a New England book of records cannot fail to notice, is the gradual but entire fading out of those small aristocratic dis- tinctions, which were so carefully cherished in the ear- lier periods of the Commonwealth. Our forefathers exhibited the singular combination of sturdy republi- cans and good loyalists, while their notions of demo- cratic equality seem to have been drawn rather from imperious Rome, than from easy and elegant Athens. But the aristocratic element, previously weakened, could not survive the shock of the Revolution. The glory of Misters, and Captains, and Ensigns, and Corporals, declined, and these once important epithets no longer appear. I need not suggest how many pregnant pages of our unwritten history are involved in this simple and silent alteration.
In the baptismal and obituary registers, we see the evidence of no slight mutation in the province of Taste. Until within a period quite recent, we find no person encumbered by more than a single prænomen, -and this, with scarce an exception, was some good old Scripture name. Here and there, indeed, was one from the same revered source, which to some may sound a little hard. Such were Ammi Ruhamah, and
:
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Zorobabel, Tryphena, and Tryphosa. But if these of- fend our fastidious tastes, we shall find ample amends, while, with delighted eye we read, and with ravished ear repeat, such appellations as the following :- " Ale- thina Philena ;" " Arethusa Elisabeth ;" " Abby Atossa ;" " Ithamar Evander ;" "Wesley De-La-Fletcher ;" " Eliza Anne Adelaide," and " Alonzo Augustine."
Was it not, probably, meant as a sort of mock compensation for the departed prefixes of ante-revolu- tionary times, that our immediate fathers bestowed so many other and higher titles ? My elders and co- evals here may well smile, as they recall the jocular solemnity with which those titles were used by the whole community. Lest mistakes should hereafter arise in regard to a matter so important, I think it proper to inform my younger auditors, and through them, posterity, that King Perkins, Governor Averell, and Colonel Cree, long sustained their high civil and military dignities, without the burden of one official care. In the obituary and marriage record, I have noticed the nuptials of a-" Prince," and the death of a-" Cæsar." Though obscurity shrouds the names and deeds of these chieftains, I am inclined to think that they were of African origin. With "Madam" Dexter died, I believe, the last Topsfield lady who bore that honorable appellation,-and I am not aware that any one has succeeded to the respectable title, so long and so gracefully worn by "Gentleman John." -
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