USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Princeton > Celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Princeton, Mass., October 20th, 1859 : including the address of Hon. Charles Theodore Russell, the poem of Prof. Erastus Everett, and other exercises of the occasion > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
Littlejohn died at Deerfield, New York. The date of his death is all that remains to be learned. This bad man lived on the place now owned by Ephraim Osgood. I have other letters, one from the Town Clerk of Deerfield, and one from Rev. Samuel Everett, of Iowa City, whose wife is a niece of the lost child, both tending to confirm the statements of Mrs. B .. The interest of the subject is my only apology for having been thus minute. I have only to add that the mother was brought to the verge of insanity by the loss of her little girl, and for a long time after her disap- pearance, she always went out at night- fall and called, Lu-cy ! but the echo from the aged forests was the only answer.
(7) page 46. " Or hoarse Niagara in thunder roars."
The word Niagara, signifies in the Iroquois language, the thunder of the waters.
(8) page 47.
"Concord's illustrious son the ransom paid On that high rock where we in childhood played."
Mrs. Rowlandson was taken prisoner at the burning of Lancester, Feb. 10th, 1765, and after wandering about with her savage masters for several months, probably till November, she was redeemed by Captain Hoar of Concord. Tradition has fixed the place of her redemption on the high rock known as the Rowlandson Rock, situated in Everettville, Princeton, Mass. On this rock I have spent many a happy hour. Hon. Edward Everett, (Mount Vernon Papers, Nov. 19th, 1859,) says : " The captivity of Mrs. Rowlandson is not to be read without tears, after a lapse of nearly two centuries."
57
(9) page 47.
"The Tuscan thus filled Europe with his fame, And this vast continent received his name." .
In Irving's life and voyages of Columbus, Putnam's Edition, 1849, Vol. III, page 343, I find the following :
" Note to the Revised Edition, 1848 .- Humboldt, in his EXAMEN CRITIQUE, published in Paris, in 1837, says: ' I have been so happy as to discover, very recently, the name and the literary relations of the mysterious personage, who (in 1507), was the first to propose the name of America, to designate the new continent, and who concealed himself under the Grecianized name, Hylasomylas.', He then, by a long and ingenious investigation, shows that the real name of this personage was Martin Waldseemuller, of Fryburg, an eminent cosmographer, patronized by Riene, Duke of Loraine, who, no doubt, put in his hands the letter received by him from Amerigo Vespucci. The geographical works of Waldseemuller, under the assumed name of Hylasomylas, had a wide circulation, went through repeated editions, and propagated the use of the name America throughout the world. There is no reason to suppose that this application of the name was in any wise suggested by Amerigo Vespucci. It appears to have been entirely gratuitous on the part of Waldseemuller."
It is peculiarly gratifying to be able to settle this question by an appeal to the Historian, whose death has recently cast a gloom over Sunnyside, but whose writings his countrymen will not willingly let die.
(10) page 48. "Such thine, O! Harrington, which we oft have seen."
The late Captain Harrington of Princeton is here referred to. He was very proud of his horse which was, indeed, one of the noblest specimens of that noble animal. Persons who used to attend the musters at Lancaster thirty-five years ago will recognize the picture.
(11) page 49. "Our fathers planted here 'mid ice and snow A fruitful vine which hath not ceased to grow."
Ps. LXXX, 10-11 .- The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the rivers.
(12) page 49. " His neck with thunder clothed, and eye of fire."
JOB XXXIX, 19 .- Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ?
(13) page 49.
"I used to hear my aged kinsmen say Balls fell like hailstones that eventful day."
The kinsmen here referred to are my maternal uncle, Abijah Wood, late of Westminster, who was at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and my grand- father, the late Joshua Everett, who held a Lieutenant's commission during the Revolution, and made a campaign in the Jerseys.
8
58
(14) page 51. " Who taught the stork to wing her annual flight."
JER. VIII, 7 .- Yca, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming.
(15) page 51. "Nor yet for this incensed the heavenly wrath."
For a long time after the invention of the lightning rod, by Dr. Franklin, its introduction was opposed on the ground that it was presumption to avert, in this manner, the judgments of God.
(16) page 52. "To fix exactly noon, eleven and four."
Noon was the hour of dinner. At eleven and four our ancesters were in the habit of taking the semi-diurnal dram. This was before the organ- ization of Temperance Societies and a little New England was thought necessary for frequent infirmities.
(17) page 52.
"Laughed at his faults, or deeds of mischief done,
Brandished his sword and showed how fields were won.
Pleased with his men, the good man learned to glow,
Forgot their blunders and their mischief too ;
Careless their merits or their faults to scan, He all forgave ere penitence began.
Thus to relieve the soldier was his pride,
And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side."
Imitated from Goldsmith :
Wept e'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
Shouldcred his crutch and showed how fields were won.
Pleased with his guests, the good man learned to glow,
And quite forgot their vices in their woe ;
Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Thus to relicve the wretched was his pridc.
And c'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side.
(18) page 53. "He kept the papers too, nor kept too long."
One of the tricks of " the party," is to keep back papers which contain news of defeats elsewhere, on the eve of an election, so that the voters may not be influenced by the news.
(19) page 53. "The Doctor now prescribes for female ills."
Doctor Brooks succeeded Colonel Gill as postmaster, but a few months before the reading of this poem.
59
(20) page 53. "Ah! yes, the very same, 'tis Love's young dream." ------- genitoris imagine capta."- Virgil.
(21) page 53.
"And thrice seven preachers Princeton calls her own."
It is thought that Princeton may challenge comparison with any other town of the same population, for the number of Ministers of the Gospel that have been born within its limits. With a population of less than one thousand four hundred, it has given birth to twenty-one clergymen. Their names, arranged pretty nearly with reference to seniority, are as follows :
Rev. Sylvanus Haynes, Abel Woods,
Rev. Oliver Allen, D. D., Elisha Perry,
Leonard Woods, D. D.,
Ebenezer Mirick,
Thomas Mason,
Moses Gill,
William Mason,
Charles Brooks,
Ezra Newton,
John Keyes,
.6
William P Smith,
Humphrey Moore, D. D.
W. W. Parker,
Joshua Eveleth,
66 Joel Gleason.
Ephraim Eveleth,
William Phillips,
Samuel Everett,
William Allen,
Rev. Oliver Allen, D. D , late Missionary to Bombay, " Princeton calls her own," as his parents moved from Barre, where he was born, to Prin- ceton, when he was only five years old, and he resided here constantly afterwards.
1
60
The Morning Session closed with the singing of an orig- inal Hymn, written by Rev. William T. Briggs, Pastor of the Church in which the services were held, in the tune of Old Hundred.
HYMN.
Here, where our fathers stood, we stand,
. The confluence of a mighty stream ; And voices from the far off land, Blend with the day, the hour, the theme.
A century past ! A century hence !
To-day the nuptial knot we tie ;
We link them in the noblest sense,
With thoughts and deeds which cannot die.
By all the memories of this hour- By yonder graves where sleep our sires, By these grand hills whose summits tower High o'er this altar's kindling fires ;-
By all the gleanings of the past ; By sacred earth, and skies o'erhead ; Here let us vow-while life shall last, To emulate the pious dead.
And when we sleep beneath the sod, Where fathers and where mothers lie- Come thou blest Savior-mighty God ! And bear us all to realms ou high.
Benediction, by Rev. John Goodwin.
61 .
THE DINNER.
The Procession, escorted by the Band, reached the tent, where an abundant dinner had been prepared by Capt. Fletcher, of Leominster, at about two o'clock. .
When the large company, numbering more than a thou- sand persons, had taken their seats, the President of the day said :
Ladies and Gentlemen :- Our fathers, we trust, acknowl- edged God in all their ways. As we are about to partake of the fruits of His bounty, the Divine Blessing will be asked by Rev. Dr. Allen.
Prayer was accordingly offered by Dr. Allen.
In consequence of the state of the weather, which was blustering and cold, it was judged prudent to return, after the close of the dinner, to the Church, that the sentiments and addresses which were anticipated, might be given there.
AFTERNOON SERVICES IN THE CHURCH.
When the company had again taken their places in the Church, which was well filled, the President rose, and having called the assembly to order, said :
Ladies and Gentlemen :- Assembled as we have been to-day, to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the Town of Princeton, it becomes my pleasant duty, on this occasion, to extend to you a welcome.
62
Had we met here, ladies and gentlemen, to partake of the repast, which now is among the things that are missing, and must be remembered with those that are gone by ; had we assembled to interchange social congratulations, the day, the occasion would have been worthy of such a gathering. But we meet to-day, ladies and gentlemen, for a higher and more noble purpose. We come here, I trust, first of all, with our hearts full of gratitude to the Author of all good, and who governs the destinies of nations as well as of individuals, for His great mercy and goodness to our fathers in their time of toil and labor. They established the institutions which we to-day so richly enjoy. We come here to commemorate the deeds and the acts of our fathers.
But, ladies and gentlemen, I will not detain you a moment. The speaking for this day and occasion, has been assigned to other and abler minds. Permit me then, sons and daughters of Princeton; those who have been absent but have now returned; adopted sons and daughters ; strangers who have honored us with your presence on this occasion ; male and female, young and old, rich and poor ; one and all, we bid you a hearty, cordial welcome.
We will now attend to the intellectual feast of the day. The first sentiment will be announced by our Toast-Master, Joshua T. Everett.
No. 1. The Day we Celebrate-The close of the first century of our municipal existence. It greets us as freemen ; still in the possession and full enjoyment of all those precious rights of man, intended to be secured to us by the founders of the free republican government of the old Bay State. It stirs anew our sympathies for the oppressed. It inspires us with deep thankfulness for the past, high hopes for the future, and fresh resolves to be ever vigilant in the cause of impartial liberty ; and affords the checring augury that the rounding of another such a period of time will find thesc hills and valleys radiant with the fires of freedom ; teeming with an intelligent and virtuous people, peaceful as a gentle Autumn day, and free as the whistling winds that play round our own Wachusett.
The Band played "Hail Columbia," in response to the patriotic sentiment.
63
No. 2. The Sons of Princeton-Our town has reared men of eminence for their genius, their learning, their wisdom, and their wit ; but we are able to add to-day one distinguished name MOORE to the number.
THE PRESIDENT-Will our venerable friend Moore supply what Moore seems to be needed on this occasion ?
REV. HUMPHREY MOORE, D. D., of Milford, New Hamp- shire, now eighty one years of age, responded to the call, as follows :
Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen :- I thought this was a farming town, and that there were teamsters here, who were used to teaming with oxen. When I was a boy, teamsters put the steers and young oxen forward and the old ones behind. (Laughter.) But you have seemed to reverse the order of custom, if not the order of nature ; you have brought up the old ox here to stand in front, not in the rear. But as you hold to improvement and advancement, and to the reversion of nature and custom, I will say a few words.
I understand from the sentiment read by the Toast- Master, that the sons of Princeton are to be addressed. But where are the daughters? I find them not in the sentiment expressed. But I suppose the sentiment will allow us to infer that the sons embrace the daughters. (Laughter.) We will take them both together, then. (Renewed laughter.) Fellow townsmen and women, I am a son, an old son-I will not say an old boy-of Princeton. I am nineteen years and one day younger than Princeton. I have not any distinct recollection of what transpired during those nineteen years, inasmuch as I was not on the soil of Princeton. But, in 1778, between the 18th and 19th of October, one dark night, it is stated by the records of the town, that one by the name of Moore, came into this place. (Laughter.) I don't recollect the fact. (Renewed merriment.) I do not recollect the circumstances, but I believe tradition, and I believe the record. And now,
64
here I stand to make some remarks, which I could wish might prove appropriate.
In referring to my early life, I will say that five young men, before me, from this town, passed through college. They all became Clergymen, men of talents, men of char- acter, and, I believe, men of usefulness in their respective places. Next after them, one Moore came forward for the purpose of preparing for College. He had but little means for the purpose. The first time he ever saw the inside of a school-house, he was between nine and ten years of age. If I speak of my personal history to the extent of an inch in length, half an inch in width, and no depth at all, will you indulge me ? (Go on, go on !)
I attended the District school two months and a half per year, till I was fifteen years of age. With the addition of five months instruction, I was a member of Harvard College. My father died when I was twelve years old. He left me one hundred pounds-not of silver, not of bank bills, but in the currency of the State. When I was fifteen, with what little perquisites I had, I was worth the immense sum of twenty-five dollars, and with that sum I fitted for College. (Applause.) I would say this to boys, if they are here, but for the parents who have boys, that they may apply the remark to the boys.
I graduated at Harvard College some time before I was twenty-one. The first year after 1 left College, I passed six months teaching school, and five months in a Theolog- ical course ; and one month before my year was out, I stood where preachers stand. I did this by labor-intense labor. My mind was fixed on my object, and I went forward with all my might. In 1802, I bolted over the line which separates Massachusetts from New Hampshire, and there I settled in the ministry, and was there a quarter of a century, with a salary of four hundred dollars a year ; and it was but a short time, even then, before the people suspected that I was growing fat, and that I should get too fat if I kept in that course. But, my friends in
65
Princeton, I lived it through ; I am alive yet, and I am here ready to testify to the necessity for, and success of mental labor.
I will say one word respecting Princeton. I think it a place of remarkable stability. The mountains stand as they did; the hills stand as they did; the streams of water run in their former course. There is no change in them. Yes, and Princeton is remarkable for its integrity. The farms are of the same extent and the same shape as they were when I was born. Scarcely a house is put up between a house for eighty years, except in some cases, in the middle of the town. And I can testify in behalf of the town-and when in my own region I have been disposed to compliment the town in which I originated, and myself with the same stroke-that Princeton is the Prince of towns for raising oxen, men, and stone wall. (Applause.)
No. 3. The Town of Princeton-Receiving its name from an eminent minister of the Gospel, and an earnest advocate of civil and religious liberty, we are assured that her people will in future, as they have in times past, honor his name and character, by their zeal and efforts to extend the blessings of Christianity and liberty to all the human race.
REV. DR. ALLEN, for many years a minister in India, responded.
Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: What we have heard to-day concerning the individual whose name is here mentioned, an eminent minister of the Gospel, appears to render it unnecessary that I should say much concerning him beyond this, that he was one of the most distinguished ministers of the day. He was one of the largest proprietors of this town, and was father-in-law of the most eminent citizen of the town-Governor Gill. We have his likeness here, hanging before us, and we had, this forenoon, a bound volume of his sermons in his own hand- writing, and I understood that there was a printed volume also. So that we see he was an author before the public.
He was one, every way, of nature's noblemen, and com-
9
66
bined a rare assemblage of qualities, as a patriot, a public man, and a minister of the Gospel.
So, Princeton has a noble name ; and I may say further, that the first generation of people, as we have heard to-day, were noble men, zealous, yea, jealous for their rights, not only for their rights as citizens, but zealous and jealous for their religious rights also.
My memory, although it does not go back so far as that of our venerable friend who has just addressed you, extends back more than half a century, and very distinctly do I recollect things that I saw and heard at that time, and among them many sermons from Dr. Murdock, the minister at that time. I can remember among texts, the division of his subject, and his argument and illustrations very well. Some sermons that he preached in connection with foreign missions, made a deep impression on my mind. I remem- ber them more distinctly than anything I heard from him. He preached a series of sermons on the same subject, in connection with the first enterprise in this country for foreign missions. To carry out that enterprise, a subscrip- tion was taken up, and people were astonished at the amount received. This shows how strong a feeling there was among the people. One man said he did not think there was so much money in town, and another did not believe there was so much left in town.
This spirit was kept in lively exercise for years, and I grew up under these impressions. And so it is not strange that, after having finished my college and professional course, I felt it my duty to engage in that cause ; and thirty-two years ago last Spring, I preached my farewell sermon in the church then on the hill yonder, and took leave of all my friends, as I supposed, for life. In a few days afterwards I embarked for a foreign mission. At that time, such an enterprise was quite a different thing from what it is now, so little was then known of the heathen world. We found India, the country to which we went, very different from what we had anticipated, about as
67
different as to costumes and customs as it was possible for people to be, and yet belong to the human family. But I had gone, as I believed, for a good purpose, and I at once adopted that country as my own, and such continued to be my views and feelings for more than a quarter of a century. India is a magnificent country ; with the highest mountains in the world; rivers and plains, scarcely equalled by any in the world, in a higher state of cultiva- tion than is generally supposed ; a country full of people, containing a population six times as large as all the United States, and it was probably as populous two thousand years ago as it is now. And what is remarkable is, that that country, for so many years, had continued almost without change in its customs and manners, and in its social and religious institutions.
In the providence of God, my health became so much impaired, that after using all the means I could in that country, I was informed that if I would preserve myself for anything more in life, or live any longer, I must leave that climate. I returned gradually, through Egypt, the western part of Asia, and the eastern and western parts of Europe, going slowly here and there, for the improvement of my health, so that I saw much of those parts of the world and people, who were Heathen, Mahomedan, and believers in different corrupt forms of Christianity.
On returning to this country, I renewed my acquaint- ances with the people here, and I found them, as I had reason to expect, to be worthy of their parents. During my long absence, those whom I had known in their old age were all gone; those who were then in middle age were, perhaps, half living, but greatly changed; and another generation had grown up, who were not when I went away. But I found the people so well informed in respect to all the circle of benevolent efforts, that any person who did not know their parents, and what a strong hold the cause of benevolence had taken here, would have been greatly surprised. Such, I doubt not, is the character of
68
the people now, and such, I trust, it will continue to be for future generations.
Not many years ago, I met a gentlemen, rather an intel- ligent and well-educated man, who said to me that he had become quite discouraged, that our great benevolent enterprises were proving a failure. Here, said he, the Anti-Slavery cause is likely to prove a failure ; then the Temperance cause and other causes were referred to in the same spirit. I told him I had not those desponding views concerning them; that I did not think the creation of the heavens and the earth, which God had pronounced " good," again and again, and of which He had been and is still the governor, had proved to be a failure. I did not think Christianity, which was ushered into the world with the shouts of "glory to God in the highest ; on earth peace, and good-will toward men," had proved to be a failure. I did not think it ever would fail ; that so far from failing, it would prove the great power to raise men from oppression and sin; that it had done a vast deal of good for the world, and would do much more. I did not think the efforts for liberty which our fathers made, had proved a failure, but that God had great and glorious purposes to accomplish yet by our nation. I am glad to say this gentleman did not belong to Princeton, and I hope none here ever will take such a view of Christianity, or of the state of the world, or of the government of our country, as he did ; but that you will all pray as fervently, and strive as earnestly as though all were depending upon you, and yet trust in God as implicitly for his blessing, as if nothing depended on you. Only go on in this spirit, pressing forward and looking upward, and all will be well with you, with your posterity, and with the world. (Applause.)
No. 4. And I will bring thy seed from the east ; with spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon; with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, with the powders of the merchant.
Mr. Everett stated, that it was supposed that this senti-
69
ment would be responded to by DR. MYRON O. ALLEN, of Wenham, a son of the gentlemen who had just spoken, born in India. He was not able to be present, but had sent a letter full of noble sentiments. He would read it.
WENHAM, OCT. 15th, 1859. J. T. EVERETT, EsQ. :
It is with deep regret that I find myself obliged to decline your kind invitation to attend the Centennial Celebration of the incorporation of Princeton. I cannot indeed claim it as my birth-place ; but as the residence of my ancestors, and the home of my early years, I shall always feel a deep and filial interest in the good old town. Its grand old hills, swept by the storms of centuries, have impressed their forms upon my mind with all the vividness of reality. Wachusett, Sugar Loaf, the lesser Wachusett, the old Meeting-House Hill,-I can see them yet, as vividly as if gazing from their bald and cloud-capped summits.
Nor are the natural features of the place its only attractions. Those rugged hills have reared a race of men of clear heads and warm hearts, as well as of stalwart forms. Their kindness to me, a stranger and an orphan. will not soon be forgotten.
The township is the foundation stone of all our free institutions. These independent municipal corporations were, from their origin, republics in miniature. Their meeting-scenes, as they often were, of earnest conten - tion and even wrangling- were schools of republicanism. In them were trained the men who made laws, and erected the superstructure of our State and national institutions. Whoever would trace the history of "Liberty in America," must'study the history of the towns ; he will find them, in miniature, the history of the nation.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.