USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Dudley > An anniversary discourse, delivered at Dudley, Massachusetts, March 20, 1853. With topographical and historical notices of the town > Part 3
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NOTE C .- PAGE 11.
Uniformly two discourses on the Sabbath, and sometimes three, have been delivered, in this house, by me, or some ap- proved substitute. On two or three Sabbaths, indeed, I have been unwell, and employed some one to read select discourses. With these exceptions, and the failure of a preacher, (whom I had engaged,) to reach the place, on account of a severe storm, not a single Lord's day, during ten years, has failed to bring the preached gospel to the ears of all who chose to come hither and hear. During the whole of this period, likewise, public lectures preparatory to the appointed communion service, once in two months, and sermons on the days appointed for annual Thanks- giving and Fasting, have been preached without a single failure.
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Discourses, at most of the funerals which I have been called to attend, and sermons in great numbers at appointed meetings in the several school districts in town, have been preached by me -- some written and some extemporaneous, as the circumstances of the occasion and the place seemed to require. A monthly church meeting and a weekly prayer meeting on each Sabbath and Wednesday evening, with very few exceptions, I have con- stantly attended. To these means of instruction and religious improvement, I may add, occasional family meetings, for the purpose of familiar lectures and expositions of Scripture, have been often held, in connection with pastoral visits and preaching from house to house, " in season and out of season."
One method of religious instruction, which I attempted to use, entirely failed of success-that of giving stated, catechetical lec- tures to the children of the church. This I was induced to try, because I had found it so pleasant, efficient and successful in my former pastorate, where I furnished every child of suitable age in the parish with a copy of the Assembly's Catechism, or of a more simple manual, with lessons selected from the Scriptures, and met them once a month for recitation and familiar instruc- tion. But the circumstances, there, were entirely different from what they are here. There, most of the inhabitants were of one denomination, and I could collect all the children of the sev- eral school districts, and most of their parents, in their respec- tive school houses, as often as the appointment was made. But here scattered, as the families belonging to the Congregational Society are, and intermingled as they are with those families, which have no religions sympathy with us, I could not collect a sufficient number of children with their parents, to give interest and efficiency to the exercise. Besides, at that period Sabbath schools had not been introduced into the country, and pious parents more sensibly felt the need of catechetical and pastoral instruction for their children. Perhaps, therefore, I ought not to have expected, under existing circumstances, to succeed. I name the subject, however, because, in other circumstances, I believe judicious pastors may still meet with success, in catechis- ing and lecturing the children of their parishes, and find this method of instruction for the young peculiarly profitable and delightful.
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NOTE D .- PAGE 21.
Accordingly, the following communication was made through the Standing Committee of the parish :-
To the Congregational Church and Society in Dudley.
BRETHREN AND FRIENDS, -In accordance with an announce- ment in my recent anniversary discourse, I now submit to your serious and deliberate consideration, whether it is best, for you and for me, that my present relation to you, as pastor and teacher, should longer continue. I know it cannot continue very long, and it has occurred to me that it might be well for you soon to take some measures to provide for me a colleague or successor. Without dictating, therefore, or even advising, I have thought that I ought to remove all embarrassment from your acting on the subject, as soon as yon judge it to be wise and prudent. Ac- cordingly, I leave the subject wholly, under God, in your hands and at your disposal, by assuring you that I am willing you should act upon it now, or when you think best, and that I shall be ready to retire from the office of pastor and responsible teacher of the church and society as soon as you find a successor, and to take a formal dismission, on the day of his ordination, under the sanction of the same ecclesiastical council, which or- dains him. Or, if it should be thought best that I should retain, at least in form, the relation of joint pastor with the man whom you shall choose for your future pastor, I shall cheerfully relin- quish all legal claim to salary, as soon as his salary begins.
Having made this communication with confidence and frank- ness, and hoping that you may be wisely directed in whatever course you pursue, I subscribe, as your pastor and friend,
JOSHUA BATES.
Dudley, March 24, 1853.
N. B. This communication was very kindly received, and a committee of seven was appointed to confer with me on the sub- ject. A conference was accordingly held, and as my health was apparently improving, it was agreed between us, that all further
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consideration of the subject should be deferred till the next spring, unless some interposition of Divine Providence should previously call for immediate action.
NOTE E .- PAGE 28.
This advice I might have enforced by other considerations- by motives of the purest benevolence and the highest conser- vatism. For a proselyte, drawn over from one name or party to another, by persecution, or bribery, or flattery, or even by undue persuasion and appeals to passion and prejudice, is none the better for the change. Nor will such a convert bring any per- manent strength to the cause which he professes to espouse. Indeed, unless a man's heart is changed, when he is induced to change his name and his profession, even though he should em- brace the truth in speculation, he is so far from being made better, that he is only hardened in sin and confirmed in iniquity by the hypocritical transaction. Should he hold on to his pro- fession, it will only be holding the truth in unrighteousness. But generally such converts will not hold out ; they will prove unstable as water, and soon fall away from the faith and obe- dience of the gospel. Those, therefore, who go about to make proselytes to their party in religion, subject themselves to the condemnation pronounced by our Saviour against the hypocrit- ical Scribes and Pharisees of old : " Wo unto yon Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, you make him two-fold more the child of hell, than yourselves."
NOTE F .- PAGE 29.
This exhortation is applicable to the members of churches in most of the towns of New England. For in every part even of this highly-favored portion of Christendom, there are many per- sons who do not attend the stated services of the sanctuary. In some places, it is thought, more than one half of the scattered
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population deprive themselves of the benefits of public worship and the appointed means of grace. Now, if the gospel is ever to be preached to them, the pastors of the churches in these towns must go forth as missionaries among them, and preach the gospel, as they find opportunity, in school houses and private dwellings. But of what avail will preaching be without prayer ; fervent, united prayer ? To be successful in these labors of love, the preacher must be attended by the members of his church, and strengthened and encouraged by their counsels and prayers. The time has come, it seems to me, when every pas- tor of a church in New England, in these United States, indeed, in all Protestant countries, must become a missionary to the heathen around him, and every church must act with its pastor as a missionary church. Let ministers and Christians awake to the serious consideration of this momentous subject, and resolve to unite their efforts in this, their appropriate work.
NOTE G .- PAGE 29. -
In this connection I might have alluded to another cause of discouragement and its proper remedy. It is certainly a dis- couraging fact, that this town is so situated with reference to the places of public worship in the adjoining towns, that several of our good inhabitants, who sympathise with the Congregational church here, and originally acted and worshiped with it, have been induced to change their church relation, and now go out of town to attend public worship. In most of these cases, differ- ence of distance and convenience of travel are alleged as the cause, and in some of them with much plausibility and apparent reasonableness. Still, the advantage of the change is very ques -. tionable, when viewed in connection with the many unhappy consequences. For wherever Christians leave a church and society in their own town, and go elsewhere to attend public worship, many evils invariably follow. They thus weaken the hands and discourage the hearts of their Christian brethren whom they leave, especially if they are few in number ; and at the same time they add very little moral power to the community
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whither they go, where they are comparatively unknown, and where they are often viewed with a jealous eye. They generally lose entirely their proper standing in society, and deprive them- selves of the power of acting efficiently in all the social and civil relations of life. Above all, they leave their irreligious neighbors whom they cannot carry out of town with them, to neglect public worship everywhere, and lose all the benefits of religious insti- tutions.
Now, wherever such a state of things exists, and it exists in many places besides Dudley, the proper remedy is to be found in a united effort to bring back all, who can be persuaded to return, by kind treatment and sound reasoning. For too often, I am persuaded, they are kept aloof by neglect or some repellent influence. And from whatever cause they were originally in- duced to leave their native sheepfold, they will generally return, when they are cordially invited; and when they have fully learned, by experience and observation, the disastrous effects of their scattering abroad ; when they perceive that they can do comparatively but little good away from home, where they have but few social relations and civil associations ; and especially, when they see that they are losing all influence over their irre- ligious neighbors, and leaving them, for want of an example in a right direction, to neglect all religious worship and instruction, and thus to sink rapidly into a state of absolute heathenism. No, it cannot be that " good men and true," when they see all this, and when they are kindly invited, will refuse to return, even with some personal sacrifice to their proper place, and unite with their true brethren-their brethren according to the flesh-their incorporate associates, to whom they are bound by all the bonds of social life and civil institutions, in striving to " build the house of the Lord" and promote the salvation of their fellow-men. Yes, . except in extreme cases, they will return, rejoicing with one of old, that they " dwell among their own people," and resolving henceforth to worship AMONG THEIR OWN PEOPLE, where they are known ; where they may have influence ; where they can do good, and be happy in doing it ; where they were born ; where they have always lived ; where they expect to die, and be buried with their fathers; and where alone their deaths can be precious, and their memorials blessed !
T
TOPOGRAPIIICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTICES
OF THE
TOWN OF DUDLEY, MASS.
DUDLEY, in the County of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a frontier town, bordering on the State of Comecticut. In its present form, and according to its present dimensions, it is bounded on the north by Charlton and Oxford, on the east by Webster, on the south by Thompson and Wood- stock, and on the west by Southbridge. It is a small township, not much exceeding five miles in length from east to west, and its average breadth is about three and a half miles. Its super- ficial contents, therefore, are about seventeen square miles, or a little less than eleven thousand acres. When first incorporated, in the year 1732, its area was much larger, including a small part of what now falls within the limits of Southbridge, and a considerable portion of what now constitutes the township of Webster. The former of these townships, embracing the eastern part of Sturbridge and a contiguous portion of Dudley and Charlton, was incorporated in 1816. The latter, including what had been the eastern portion of Dudley, with the south gore of Oxford, so called, and a part of the township of Oxford itself, received its honored name and corporate powers in the year · 1832, just a century from the time of the incorporation of Dudley. And thus was Dudley reduced to its present contracted dimensions.
The centre of this town, in a direct line, is about fifty-five miles from Boston ; but, measured according to the route usually
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traveled, the distance is sixty miles. Its estimated latitude is 41º 56' N., and its longitude 71º 54' W. The surface of the land is somewhat uneven, but the soil is good and not difficult of cultiva- tion, producing naturally the best of timber, principally oak and walnut. The hills, or rather ranges of high lands, running north and south, and nearly parallel with the two principal rivers by which it is watered, are moist, productive and highly favorable to the growing of all kinds of grain, grass and fruit suited to the climate. Indeed, it may be doubted whether a tract of land can be found in New England better adapted to- the various purposes of agriculture than that embracing the whole extent of " Dudley Hill," with its slopes and the parallel valleys and ranges of high lands on either side, especially on the west.
The rivers, ponds and rivulets with which Dudley abounds, furnish hydraulic power sufficient for extended manufac- turing establishments. The French River received its name from a company of thirty families of Huguenots, who were driven from France by the repeal of the edict of Nantz, and permitted by the proprietors of Oxford, to settle near its banks, where they remained till they were dispersed by the Indians. This river, a steady and never-failing stream, taking its rise in Leicester and passing through Oxford, forms the eastern boun- dary of Dudley, separating it from Webster and furnishing convenient mill-seats for both towns. The Quinnebaug, one of the most beautiful and productive rivers in New England, runs through the whole breadth of the western part of the town, and furnishes at least two well-marked sites for manufacturing establishments. This river rises on the high lands between Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. Flowing from Marshapaug Pond, in the town of Union, Connecticut, it enters the State of Massachusetts, in Holland, and runs through that town and the southern part of Brimfield, where it receives the waters of two tributary streams from the west and the north. Thence it passes through the towns of Sturbridge, Southbridge and Dudley ; and returning to its native State, it unites with . the French River in Thompson. And, after pursuing a winding course of seventy or eighty miles, and having given employment and support to thousands, it ultimately, under the time-honored name of " the Thames," which it assumes at Norwich, falls
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into Long Island Sound, near New London. Besides the water power furnished to Dudley by these rivers, it possesses the ad- vantage of four or five ponds of considerable extent, with natural or artificial outlets, and convenient locations for mill-seats.
HEALTH AND LONGEVITY.
Notwithstanding these numerous collections of water, the inhabitants of the town are peculiarly free from those diseases which often infest regions surrounded by stagnant waters and extensive swamps. There are, indeed, no such waters or swamps here. The undulating surface of the land and the general charac- ter of the soil give purity to the water and salubrity to the air, as the former runs through the valleys, and the latter moves over the hills ; and thus bring health and longevity to the inhabitants, and render Dudley a desirable place of residence to those who " wish to live long on the earth." An unusual proportion of the inhabitants live to old age. Of the two hundred and seventeen deaths which have taken place in the town during the ten years of my residence here, sixty-three were of persons over fifty years of age ; twenty-seven over seventy ; eighteen over eighty ; and eight between the ages of ninety and a hundred years ; and there are still living among us an unusual number of persons who have overleaped, or rather have been carried by, the ordinary bounds of human life-" threescore years and ten."
ORIGINAL NAME.
The original name of the town of Dudley, or rather of the tract of country lying between Oxford and Woodstock, and extending from the Quinnebang River to the great pond now in Webster, and generally called Slater's Pond was, as it is written in some ancient deeds, Shawgunagunkawa, or as in others, Chabanakongkomun, or as printed in Gookin's Ilistory of the Indians, Chobonokonomum. This name, with its varied orthog- raphy, which was probably pronounced in the broad guttural and flat nasal tones of the Aborigines of the country, seems to have been first given to the pond itself, sometimes even now attempted to be called by the same name, or by the compound and more euphonious name, as printed on Keach's map, Chargoggagogg- Manchoggagogg. As Indian names, as well as those of most
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barbarous and uncivilized nations, generally have a significant meaning, and are originally applied to persons and things for specific purposes, I did hope when I began this note, to be able to discover the meaning and appropriateness of the charming name of our own town. But having for this purpose consulted all the vocabularies of Indian words within my reach ; read " Gookin's account of the Christian Indians," and looked over Eliot's Grammar of the Indian language, with the learned notes and comments of Du Ponceau, Gallatin and Pickering, I am obliged to give up the inquiry without success.
PRESENT NAME.
The present name of the town was probably given to it, in the Act of Incorporation, in memory of Thomas Dudley, one of the earliest Governors and most highly respected magistrates of Massachusetts ; or of his son, Joseph Dudley, who was also a Governor and Judge in his time; or rather, perhaps, in honor of two of his sons, Paul Dudley, for a time Chief Justice of the province, and Col. William Dudley, his brother, both of Rox- bury, where they, and their father and grandfather lived and died. These two gentlemen, in connection with a Col. Fitch, seem to have held by purchase from the original proprietors and by special grant of the General Court, nearly the whole tract of land em- braced in the Act of Incorporation, except the Indian reservation. This reservation, containing about four hundred acres, and some- times denominated in the town records " Pegin's Farin," [proba- bly it should have been written Pegan's, the supposed name of the tribe to which the Dudley Indians belonged, or it may have been the name of the head of a principal family only;] embraced a considerable portion of the south part of " Dudley Hill," the northern boundary line beginning near Newell's Brook, running to the top of the hill, north of the present common, and extend- ing eastward as far as the ridge of Davis's Hill. There is, however, some uncertainty about the bounds of this reserved tract. But whatever may have been its location and extent, it was subsequently sold or exchanged, under the sanction of the government, for a small tract of land near the great pond, which is still occupied by a few degraded descendants of the original proprietors of these fruitful hills and valleys.
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CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF THE INDIANS.
Of the condition and character of the Aborigines of this region, before the settlement of white men among them, little can now be known. The fullest and most reliable account of them is given by Daniel Gookin, who seems to have been carly appointed by the government to superintend the interests, and assist in managing the concerns of " the praying_Indians," as those converted by the instrumentality of Eliot and others were usually called. In his " History of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians of New England," I find, however, but few allusions to the little tribe or branch of the tribe which dwelt in this region. It appears, indeed, that the labors of Eliot had directly or indirectly reached them before the time of Philip's war, and exposed them to the resentment and incursions of the Indians who took part in that war. Under date of July 2, 1675, Gookin says : " At this time the praying Indians at Marlborough were increased about forty men, besides women and children ; which came to pass by the advice of several Christian Indians, that came to them from Hassanamesset, Ma- gunkoag, Manchage, and Chobonokonomum, who (when the troubles increased) left their places and came into Marlborough, under the English wing, and there built a fort." There is no evidence, however, that any of the Dudley Indians apostatized and joined Philip, as several of their Nipmetor Nipmuck neigh- bors did, either through fear or affection ;- some from Weni- messet, [New Braintree,] some from Packachooge, [Worcester and Auburn,] and some even from Hassanamesset, or Hassana- misco, [Grafton, ] where Eliot had preached, gathered a church, and placed over it as pastor, Joseph Tuekapanawillin. But our predecessors in the occupancy of this region, and who are said by Whitney, in his history of Worcester county, (I know not by what authority,) to be of the Pegan tribe, seem to have remained firm in their attachment to the cause which they had espoused, and probably most of them returned to their former place of resi- dence immediately after King Philip's overthrow, and the cessa- tion of hostilities. I have read Gookin's history carefully, with a view of learning what I could from him, concerning the Pegan tribe, or the branch of it which was found here, when the first
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English settlement was made among them. But I have found nothing further worthy of particular notice. The Rev. J. II. Francis, however, in a manuscript sermon which I have seen, has a quotation from Gookin, (he does not state from what work,) of some importance, which I will here transcribe. After some remarks concerning Munchuge or Manchage, [Oxford, ] he says : " About five miles distant from this place is Chabanakongkomun. It hath its denomination from a very great pond, five or six miles long, that borders on the south of it. This village is fifty-five miles south of Boston ; there is in it nine families .* The people are of a sober deportment, and are better instructed in the wor- ship of God than any of the new praying towns. Their teacher's name is Joseph, who is one of the church of Hassanamesset, a sober, pious and ingenious person, and speaks the English well, and is well read in the Scriptures." From the same manuscript I transcribe the following statement : " In a letter of the cele- brated Indian Missionary, Eliot, contained in the historical col- lections, under date of 1634, Chabanakongkomum is mentioned, as one of the places where the Indians met to worship God and sanctify the Sabbath."
Thus it would seem that the Indians, who had their principal place of habitation within the original limits of this town, early embraced the Christian religion ; and from these slight historical notices of them, as well as from various traditional statements made by the aged inhabitants of the town, and especially from the fact stated in the town records, that they subsequently united with their white brethren in building a house for public worship, and attending on the sacred services of the sanctuary, we have good reason for believing that some of them, at least, did come to the knowledge and obedience of the truth, as it is in Jesus. . But where are their descendants ? Gone-melted away-as have their brethren, " according to the flesh," through the whole of New England ;- as, indeed, the Indians in all parts of the Amer- ican continent are wasting away and disappearing before the swelling and sweeping tide of emigration from the old world ; and, as some philosophers and speculative naturalists affirm con-
* Tradition makes the number, at the time of the English settlement here, much larger.
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cerning all the inhabitants of the earth, except the Caucasians ; that they are all disappearing, and are destined entirely to dis- appear, before this enterprising and migratory race.
SETTLEMENT BY THE ENGLISH.
At what precise period the first white inhabitants commenced their settlement within the limits of Dudley, I have no means of determining. Whitney, in his account of Woodstock, as orig- inally a part of Worcester county, says : " In the year 1686 many of the inhabitants of Roxbury pitched upon a tract of land to settle upon, which was bounded on the south by Wood- ward and Saffery's line ; " that is, the line then recently run by the Commissioners between Connecticut and Massachusetts. Now, as the grant to the Dudleys lay north of Woodstock and that part of Killingly which now constitutes Thompson, it is probable that the settlement was made soon after, in the south part of Dudley, by these persons, or other emigrants from Rox- bury. It is known, indeed, that families by the name of Newell and Edmunds from Roxbury, and others by the name of Healy from Newton, were some of the first who took up their abode among the Indians of this region. It has been conjectured that the settlement on lands now in Dudley must have been com- menced as early as 1720, and yet it is admitted that no deeds, conveying a right to these lands from the original grantees, are found of an earlier date than 1725. Nor do I find in the town records any mention of births or deaths before this period, thoughi these records run back seven years before the time of the incor- poration of the township. The first recorded birth is that of Obadiah, son of Joseph and Mehitable Sabin, January 14, 1725, ... and the second, that of Mehitable, daughter of Joseph and Me- hitable Putney, two days later. But these children, it is said, were probably born before their parents removed to this region ; because there is a tradition well sustained and generally believed,. that Abigail, daughter of: James Corbin, was the first white person born within the limits of this town, and that Joseph, son of Joshua Healy, was the first male child born here.
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