USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Brookfield > An address on the early history of old Brookfield, Mass., delivered at West Brookfield, Mass., his native town, by the Rev. L. T. Chamberlain at the invitation, and under the auspices, of the West Brookfield branch of the Quaboag historical society. And remarks by his brother, the Hon. D. H. Chamberlain, of New York, at the after-dinner exercises > Part 2
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the first Brookfield settlement, and George Phillips, the first minister under the second settlement, were succeeded by other faithful men, including the later and revered names of Phelps, Foot, Fiske, Snell and Stone, -the honor of the illustrious line being still upheld by those who now are pastors within the an- cient bounds.
Nor did the Brookfield citizens overlook the inter. ests of sound learning. During the first settlement, in- struction was given to children gathered in private houses. As early as 1713, sixty acres of land were set apart to provide a general income for school purposes. Subsequently, other plots of land were similarly se- questered, until the total was upwards of two hundred acres. These lands were leased by the selectmen to the highest bidder, and the rental applied to the pay- ment of teachers' wages. By 1726, a public school had been permanently established, and by 1746, a grammar school was added. In 1748, it was voted that when as many as fifteen or twenty children could be conveniently and regularly gathered in any part of the town, they should be provided with a teacher at pub- lic expense. And this was in full keeping with the action of the Massachusetts General Court which, in 1636, less than sixteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims, voted four hundred pounds towards a col- lege, the added gift of John Harvard causing Har- vard College to be established in Cambridge in 1638.
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Throughout New England, it was the pride of the new communities to make provision for public educa- tion. Along with the meeting-house went the school. house, for it was well understood that only on the basis of popular intelligence and virtue, could the public well-being safely rest.
Did time allow, it would be both interesting and profitable to enter the field of biography, and call to mind the individual heroes and heroines of early years. But to other occasions like this, that inspiring theme must be referred.
I may, however, mention two men whose relation to the Brookfield settlement is, of itself, sufficient to make the place memorable and its history renowned. It is, indeed, somewhat notable that here faithful Mas- sasoit exercised his latest dominion, and that here he died, full of years, in 1662. It is something, also, that. here King Philip, son of Massasoit, appeared, on more than one occasion, as the leader of the hostile tribes. It may pass for what it is worth, that the usurping Governor, Edmund Andros, who claimed authority under King James II. visited this town on the 15th of October, 1688, on his way from New York to Boston. But of truly serious and worthy moment is it that, within our Brookfield labored, for a time, John Eliot, the great apostle to the Indians. In 1649, he wrote from Roxbury, "There is another aged Sachem at Quobagud (Quaboag), three score miles westward, and
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he doth greatly desire that I would come thither and teach them, and live there." He adds, " There also I found sundry hungry after instruction." In 1655, Mr. Eliot purchased from the aborigines a tract of a thous- and acres adjoining Brookfield, for the establishment of a settlement for Christian Indians,-the General Court, nine years later, extending the tract to four thousand acres. The project, however, failed by rea- son of the breaking out of King Philip s destructive war, and the continuance of French-Indian attacks. Marvelous were the character and deeds of John Eliot ! Graduate of Cambridge, England, he reached this country in 1631, at the age of twenty-seven. Soon settling as pastor of the church in Roxbury, he de- voted himself, in addition to his pastorate, to the Christianizing of the Indians. You know the record : mastering the Indian language and reducing it to writing ; translating into that language the holy Scrip- tures and other useful books ; entrusting himself fear- lessly to the Indians ; imperiled by cold and hunger, by pestilence and flood ; serving as peace-maker, counselor, teacher ; gathering hundreds of nativesinto Christian churches ; and leaving a memory which, to this day, is a benediction to the world. He closed his Indian Grammar with these memorable words : "We must not sit still and look for miracles. Up and be doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything."
" Aye, call it holy ground.
" This soil whereon ho trod.
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Here, too, from the rock which bears his name, George Whitefield, October 16th, 1740, at the age of twenty-six, preached to the people who gathered from far and near. What memories rise as that simple fact is named !- his birth in old Gloucester, England, in 1714 ; his early fondness for elocution and the reading of plays ; his residence at Pembroke College, Oxford ; his conversion under the influence of the Wesleys ; his devotion to the preaching of the Gospel to the people ; his repeated visits to this country, both north and south; his death in Newbury, in this State, in 1770 ;- a life, in all, of only six and fifty years ! They say that his eloquence, judged by its effects, was matchless. When he was only twenty-two the desire, in great London, to hear him speak, was so intense, that an assembly would gather at the appointed place be- fore daylight, that thus they might be within sight and sound. In the open air, in England, Scotland, and America alike, audiences which were numbered by the ten thousand. Scholars, courtiers, soldiers, men of affairs, swayed by his discourse as forests by resistless winds. Crowds of rough miners, colliers, turned to such contrition of soul, as he pleaded with them, that their flooding tears literally washed white channels down their blackened cheeks. Week after week, month after month, year after year, it was his wont, when not actually journeying, to preach, in suc- cessive discourses, not less than five hours each day.
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His course was like the shining of the sun across tumultuous waves. His early entrance into rest, was with such abundance of sheaves as has been gathered by few reapers since the world began.
But I must close.
It comes then, Mr. President and Fellow-citizens, to this, that by reason of an intelligent and reverent re- gard for our historic associations, we are not only to meet well our obligations toward the past, but also to strengthen ourselves for the discharge of duty in the days before us. Throughout the bounds of a settle- ment so ancient, so memorable, so worthy, as that of old Brookfield : in each of the towns which are now com- prised within those venerable limits ; there ought to be. henceforth, a fresh civic pride, and an ennobled re- liginosdevotion. We are the heirs of the generations and the ages Do suns rise and set in splendor, the Starsreveal their glory, the lordly seasons roll, that thus we may receive the inspirations of beauty and grand- eur? Bit of beneficent import still vaster, still higher, is that succession of courageous hearts and heroic deeds by which our heritage, both local and national, has bien so peculiarly enriched. Fam accustomed to think that no other people have such patriotic incen- tives as belong to us. For, what other land was ever planted with such goodly seed ? What other nation has been permitted so to expand and gather strength ? What other demonstration of the possibilities of pop-
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ular government, has ever centered in itself so large a share of the interest, the hope, of the civilized world ?
I speak in a spirit which is far from boastful. Too long have I lived, too widely have I read the records of kingdoms and peoples, not to know that where much has been given, much will be required. Too well have I been instructed in the elements of sacred verity, not to realize that in the midst of even the mightiest hu- man achievements, there presides One whose authority is eternally supreme, and whose law is forever just. There is a Kingdom of God in the earth. By princi- ples of truth and equity, God governs the world. We may cherish the presumptions of place and power ; we may plume ourselves on our vast possessions, our measureless resources ; we may look confidently to our defences by land and sea ; but if we put ourselves in conflict with the Righteous King, we shall be crushed like an egg-shell against the granite rock. We shall forfeit our regal inheritance ; we shall lose our coveted honor ; and, sooner or later, others more worthy will be raised up to take our place. 1988963
Let, therefore, the thoughts, the emotions, the re- solves, of this hour be consecrated to the interests of the public weal. Let us ourselves be noble, that we may do nobly for others. Let us cherish whatever makes for the beauty, the peace, the happiness, the rightful power, of township, and commonwealth, and nation, alike. Let us see to it that our public-school
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system is defended against assault, our means of high- er education amplified. our institutions of religion up- held and strengthened. Let us reckon the success of political parties, of infinitely less consequence than the triumph of sound political and economic princi- ples. Let us count the home sacred, and recognize that Society's interests are our interests as well. Let us re- flect that while patriotism is a duty, even patriotism is to be subordinated to that nobler good -will which takes in the whole family of man.
So shall our relations to past and present and future be honorable, and the promise to the faithful be richly fulfilled. Through unnumbered years, these hills shall be clothed with fruitfulness, and these valleys be filled with plenty. Through countless generations, strength and grace shall be the enduement of man, grace and strength the heritage of woman.
GOD, EVEN OUR OWN GOD, SHALL BLESS US. OUR OFFICERS SHALL BE PEACE, OUR EXACTORS RIGHT- IOUSNESS. THEY SHALL CALL OUR WALLS SALVA- TION, AND OUR GATES FRAISE !
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NOTE .- "Old" Brookfield included the territory now occupied by the four Brookfields, New Braintree and Warren ; and it is worthy of special record that the original settlement of the town, and the centre of the town's most important colonial events, were within what is now the township of West Brookfield. Here were Foster's Hill, the larger part of Coy's Hill, Wickaboag Pond, and " The Plain." Here were "Indian Rock," "Warding Rock," and " Whitefield's Rock." Here the first houses were erected, the first corn planted, and the first Fort built. Here the first school house, and the first two meet- ing houses were located. Here the famous siege was sustained. Here Whitefield preached.
Deserved and grateful reference is hereby made to TEMPLE'S HISTORY OF NORTH BROOKFIELD, by the publishing of which North Brookfield made all the other Quaboag towns her special debtors.
REMARKS OF HON. D. H. CHAMBERLAIN .*
FELLOW-CITIZENS, AND FELLOW-TOWNSMEN, OF WEST BROOKFIELD, and you of other Brookfields or other towns who are joining with us on this occasion- for I am informed that this company contains others than natives or residents of this town :
It is a great pleasure to me to meet you to-day. I might, perhaps, have hoped that I should not be called on to speak, seeing that my kin has already taken so large a part in your observance of the day ; but I am not at all reluctant to add, if I can, to your enjoyment of this occasion. First of all, let me take the opportunity to express my sense of the honor done me by the invi- tation of your committee to deliver the address to-day, a duty which my brother has performed so much bet- ter than I could have hoped to do it.
If this occasion does not commemorate any special historical event of Brookfield's annals, it is, neverthe- less, a day devoted to the history of Brookfield. We are engaged in an effort to quicken and stir up a larger interest in our local history, in that series of events which, however calm and commonplace in their ordi- nary current, still illustrate the making and growth
* These remarks were made at the after-dinner meeting of the Quaboag Historical Society June 5, 1895, in the Congregational church at West Brookfield, following remarks by Hon. E. B. Lynde and Dr. A. G. Blodgett, of West Brookfield.
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and method of one of the most characteristic evolu- tions and results of New England and American life,- the average New England town, the original unit of our political and municipal life, the first and, in some respects, the finest fruit of the Pilgrim and Puritan civic spirit which planted Massachusetts and New England, and gave the nation so much of its past and present power, and is destined, I fervently hope and believe, to continue to uphold and guide our future progress and greatness.
This is more than a work of mere historical interest. I venture to call it a duty-the duty of keeping fresh in our minds, of handing on from generation to gener- ation, the knowledge of the events, the course and se- quence of events, which make the history of our town. I have called this a duty. Why ? Because history is human experience, and it is as true now as when Pat- rick Henry thundered it in the opening days of our Revolution-" The lamp of experience is the only lamp by which to guide our steps in the future." No man can be wise in the present or prescient of the future, who is not deeply versed in the past. Our most bril- liant and philosophical American historian has writ- ten : " The Present and the Future are clay in the hands of the Past." It is a great and memorable truth.
But history is more than mere human experience. It is the record of the dealings and designs of a lower
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that is above man and above nations, above all things earthly or human, the Power that has created all things-in whose sight a thousand years are but as yes- terday when it is past and as a watch in the night. Whoever has regarded history with, I will not say a Christian, but with even a philosophic, eye-from He- rodotus or Thucydides to Bancroft or Motley-has not failed to find in it not merely the stories of battles and sieges, of the rising and falling of nations, the triumphs and defeats of races, the coming and going of dynas- ties ; but through it all, through every change, every catastrophe, every event, the plain hand of a Provi- dence which is working out its designs, in which men are but agents more or less conscious of the ends they are serving.
Such is history-all history-the panorama of man's marches and counter-marches in the long campaign of human experience, and the visible tracings of the lines of what the ancients called Destiny, but we call Providence.
I cannot help being reminded of all this as I stand here to-day. This whole fair prospect of civilization- these hills, these plains, these valleys-as we now see them, if they suggest no very heroic memories, do tell us the story of two and three quarter centuries of con- tinuous and not inglorious history, since Brookfield first became a halting-place in the long " trail " from Bos- ton to the Connecticut River.
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But I own to another deeper and fonder interest. Here rest the ashes of my kindred. Here, alas ! already rest the remains of half my own family ! I can there- fore say of Brookfield as Goldsmith wrote of a fancied home :
" Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee."
It is, as I have said, two and three quarters centur- ies since Brookfield had a name on the map of New England. It is two centuries and a quarter since the close of the first great event and trial in her civilized history-King Philip's War. With the end of that struggle the Indian of New England ceased to be a fac- tor of importance in her history. As the Indians dis- appeared from New England after 1675. so they have disappeared now from the nation, until only a few broken and melancholy remnants lag superfluous on the stage, on the extreme Western fringes of our coun- try. Well that it is so!
" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay !"
It was the decree of Providence. No fact is plainer, no result has been more inevitable or auspicious. It is easy to sentimentalize over the Indian. It is casy also to show that he has been wronged. Our fathers wronged him ; we have wronged him. But it was be- yond mortal power to stay his doom or reverse his fate. His presence here was incompatible with what I believe to be God's purposes. The Indian could not
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submit to the yoke of civilization, and civilization rode over him remorselessly. I have great respect for all those who now seek to save him from further wrongs and to give him another and fairer chance to join the march of civilization. Your venerable ex-United States Senator, Mr. Dawes, deserves honor and praise ; but I should as soon expect to see the sun in these heavens to day stayed or turned back, as to see the In- dians of to-day saved from the extinction which began here in 1675 and has not stopped for more than two centuries.
From the close of King Philip's War to the peace of Paris in 1763, were the heroic years in the history of Brookfield. The courage of Brookfield men was shown, the blood of Brookfield men was shed, on nearly all the fields which marked the long military duel be- tween France and England for the control of the con- tinent-at the siege of Louisburg, on the expeditions against Crown Point and Niagara, on the march to the relief of Fort DuQuesne, with Wolfe at the death-strug- gle with Montcalm on the Heights of Abraham. The annals of Brookfield in these years, I confess, thrill my heart and exalt my pride.
Then there is an honorable record in the War of In- dependence, and here on this plain before us, July 4, 1784,-one hundred and eleven years ago-took place the first celebration in the Brookfields, or in this vicin- ity, of the Independence of these United States.
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But there was to be another struggle. another crisis, compared with which all that had gone before, in my judgment, sinks almost to insignificance-the war of the Union-the struggle to preserve what more than two centuries had given us. In this struggle West Brook- field, and I am proud to add, all the Brookfields, did their duty. Here, as everywhere in the North, we saw the careless boy changed to a hero in the twinkling of an eye : the peace-loving farmer become a knight- errant of liberty; the timid, shrinking, home-loving youth suddenly transformed to the gallant soldier charging under the iron hail at Gettysburg, rallying at the ill fated mine of Petersburg, or following the vic- torious plume of Sheridan at Five Forks. How little we knew the mettle that was in these West Brookfield boys! We fancied, the world fancied, the South believed, that patriotism had died out, that Ephraim was joined to his idols, that Webster's great voice had ceased to echo, " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable !'
Such an awakening has rarely been seen. 7 : What heart here to day does not rejoice to remember that West Brookfield was not a laggard in that momentous hour and in those bloody days !
Yes, your young, generous heroes went forth, but many of them did not return. They rest in other soil, far from their homes. And yet, fellow-citizens, no monument, no public memorial of granite or bronze,
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perpetuates their names or testifies our gratitude to the noblest men our town ever bore ! It is a sad and inexcusable neglect. I speak of it with freedom and with a touch of indignation, because the Selectmen of this town have held for more than twenty years my written, legal obligation to contribute a sum equal to fully one.twentieth of the entire cost of a noble and fitting monument to the memory of all from this town who fell in the war for the Union. Until that memorial adorns your village, I can never think as well as I wish to, of the public spirit of West Brookfield.
But I am detaining you too long. It was Charles Sumner who exclaimed in one of those addresses which fired my young heart as almost no other man's words have ever done,-" The duties of life are more than life itself." Do not imagine that the days of heroism are over ; that " renown and grace are dead !" Momen- tous duties press upon us to-day-duties to ourselves, to our country, to posterity and the world. Foes armed with weapons as deadly as were ever met on battle-fields of war are now arrayed against the peace and honor of Massachusetts and the United States. I mean those who would debase our currency, dishonor our public faith, and bring disaster on us, on our child- ren, and our children's children, by the free coinage of silver. I offer no apology for referring to this para- mount duty here to-day. It overshadows all other present issues ; and I should despise myself if, on any
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fair occasion, I failed to give plain utterance to my in- tense disapproval of this proposition.
But remember that, afterall, it is not laws, but men, that have made New England. It is men, not laws, that will keep her and advance her fame. " Laws," said Demosthenes, " are only tidemarks on the shore." The tides themselves are the hearts of the people. The couplet is a philosophic one :-
" How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!"
But, fellow-citizens, 1 condense into a word all that I would have you remember of what I have said,- Build a Soldiers' monument and vote for Sound Money.
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