USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Boylston > Centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Boylston, Massachusetts, August 18, 1886 > Part 5
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must have been poor. They, that are dressed in soft raiment, live in kings' houses. They have no cause to face the privations of a new country, to cut down the forests, clear the land and break the virgin soil that they may sow and reap their bread in the " sweat of the brow," and still live on the coarsest fare, with a log hut for shelter, and toil and labor and wait. Thus our fathers began. They were the great Commoners, the bone and sinew of the people, the practical brains from which has come so much worthy our admiration and gratitude. We are to remem- ber that the town was incorporated near the close of the Revolu- tionary war. They gave freely of their means and men to prose- cute it, and yet, when the currency was so debased that a silver dollar would buy more goods than forty of their currency, and a " Spanish milled dollar was worth seventy-five in the same cur- rency," they shrank not from their duty as citizens and peti- tioned and received their charter for a town. Few of the rising generation, amid the plenty of our homes and the money passing through the hands of all classes, can have any idea of the sim- plicity and poverty of those days. It was an age of " home- spun." The furnishing of their houses and adornment of rooms went not beyond necessities. Instead of the piano there was the music of the spinning wheels ; instead of the melodeon the click of the shuttle and the dull thud of the lay of the hand-loom as it beat up to its place the stout weft These home-spun, home- wove fabrics furnished the ordinary clothing of the family-warm in winter, cool in summer. At night their houses were lighted with tallow-dipped candles. These houses, also very plain, were innocent of paint without and within. The furniture and adorn- ments limited generally to necessities merely. The uncarpeted floor serupulously clean, but well sanded, was the pride of the house-wife of that day. Food was plentiful and luscious if plain. Appetites were undoubtedly good, and the festivities of quiltings, huskings and thanksgivings gave ample seasons for their indul- gence. At such times, if the tables groaned, the boys and girls, young men and maidens, laughed ; and grave seniors smiled benig- nantly as they recalled the past. Books were few but good, and the schools and churches well attended. Out of all this came the noblest product of New England-noble men and women, our
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sires and mothers. As the crude iron is brittle, and wants livre and strength, we put it under tremendous pressure ; so souls un- der these outward pressures grew, and as storm and cloud and sorrow environed them, they reached up for God's light and found comfort and peace in commerce with the skies. We rejoice in their deeds, in their English blood. I do for one. Say what you will of England to-day, yet the stock is good. We are proud of it. It is stalwart, liberty-loving. It bore transplanting to these shores well, and may I not appeal to the history of New Eng- land, and of our towns, to vindicate my conviction ; it has not deteriorated. And let the deeds of your townsmen, in the late war, show you that the patriotic fire of the sires still burns with undiminished brightness in the bosoms of the sons.
The Church and Ministry of Boylston, may its sacred in- fluence and the faithful ministration of those who labor at its altar ever guide this people in ways of truth and holiness.
Responses by Rev. Israel Ainsworth, the present pastor, and by Rev. Henry S. Kimball, of Dayville, Conn., a former act- ing pastor.
RESPONSE OF REV. ISRAEL AINSWORTH.
The seven men who have preceded me in the pastorate of the Boylston church, have not been able to boast of royal blood, as some of the natives of this town, of whom we have just heard, could. But they were royal men nevertheless. Men of God, men who had the educational, moral and religious good of the people at heart. This town owes very much to the church, for it was the religious character of the first settlers which led them to seek for incorporation, first as a precinct, than as a town. During the one hundred and forty-three years of its existence, the church here, under the leadership of its able and faithful ministers, has sought to mould and fashion the lives of the sons and daughters of this place in righteousness, and fit and qualify them. by inspir- ing within them a desire after the highest and best things for usefulness here and blessedness hereafter. We have no reason to be ashamed of my predecessors in the ministry of this
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church. They were not a whit behind their contemporaries who filled the pulpits in the churches of this vicinity. What- ever we may think, at this date, of the political views of the first pastor, we must admit that he was a man of uncommon intellectual ability and an earnest Christian minister. Those who succeeded him were not all of one mind, and indeed, had they been we should not have had the respect for them which we now have Educated men are thinking men, and edu- cated Christian ministers do not think less than other men of culture and refinement. The theological differences which have occurred in the churches of New England have not failed to dis- turb the Boylston church, and though this church has remained true to the Evangelical faith of the fathers, it has received some of the additional light from God's Holy Word for which the fathers prayed. The church and ministry here have not neg- lected to take a deep interest in the educational welfare of the young. The names of Cotton and Sanford will long be remem- bered in this connection, for they sought by precept and exam- ple to emphasize the feeling of those who laid the foundations of this Republic, that the church and the common school were necessary to the continuance of the life of the democratic-repub- lican institutions of this country. A Sunday-school was established hy the church here in 1818, and the principle of total abstinence from the use of ardent spirits was made binding upon its mem- bers as early as 1833. This church has been catholic in its spirit and treatment of Christians of other denominations. Sev- eral attempts have been made to establish other churches in this town, but they have failed, not because of opposition from the First Church, but because all real worshippers of God in Christ have been made to feel at home in the old church ; made to feel that Christianity and not sectarianism was the only essential to true church fellowship. Other towns in this county with a popu- lation no larger than that of Boylston, have several church organizations ; but I believe that this church will stand alone in the future as in the past, if it continues to manifest that spirit of Christian courtesy and love which has characterized it during a considerable period in its past history. It has much to rejoice over at present. Very few churches in agricultural towns have
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more young people among them than we. I see no reason to despond over the future history of this church, if she only keeps herself "unspotted from the world ;" if she only develops in righteousness and true holiness, and labors for the good of those among whom God has placed her, this generation and genera- tions to come shall call her blessed.
REV. HENRY S. KIMBALL,
of Dayville, Conn., said :
I am always glad to meet the people of Boylston and particularly so to greet them on this anniversary occasion.
In this town I had my happiest pastorate. It will be remembered as a bright section of my life. I expect no brighter one during my ministry. But while others refer to the past I wish to speak of the future. I desire to make a plea for these citizens. Those who have remained in the town have sustained its honor so highly that we are proud to return to-day. They have carried forward the educational and religious work remarka- bly well. Now I wish to ask you who have gone forth from this town to assist these worthy residents who remain. They need a chapel ; the basement of the church is not a suitable place in which to hold religious services. Health and life are endangered by attendance there. There is also imperative need of a library building ; they have an excellent collection of books but no room in which to keep them.
I appeal to the sons and daughters of Boylston to give these needed buildings to their native town. Certainly there can be no better investment, no more enduring monument to your memory. While we gather here to-day I seem to see another company. Looking down upon us I behold Sanford, Bigelow, Flagg, Partridge, Bush, Moore, Andrews, and among them stands that beloved man who recently went home, John B. Gough. Let us remember his last words, make our records clean, and meet those who have gone before in that better world.
The toast-master referred to the fact that two of Boylston's pastors, whose united term of service covered a period of more than fifty years, were both prominently connected with the edu-
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cational and social interests of the town as well as the church, and both represented it in the General Court, and offered the following toast :
To the memory of Rev. Ward Cotton, A. M., minister of the town from 1797 to 1825, an honored representative of one of the most illustrious lines of the ministry in New England. His efforts for the spirtual and temporal interests of the town will ever be remembered with respect and veneration.
REV. DANIEL S. WHITNEY,
of Southborough, a former resident of the town, and a son-in-law fo Rev. Mr. Cotton, replied as follows .
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :- To do anything like justice to my theme requires more time than the occasion can furnish. It is meet, however, that something should be said, however inadequate. Mr. Cotton's ministry not only extended over more than one-quarter of the life of the town, but it came in that part of its life when it was needful for both ministers and people to struggle against great hardships. Worthless paper currency, the embargo and Madison's war were to those who encountered them no small hardship. With molasses at $1.80 per gallon, and other things in proportion, it must have been a time to try men's stomachs if not their souls. The ministers' houses, in those days, were the taverns for all traveling minis- ters, and not infrequently others would claim their hospitality who had no right above tramps to be taken care of without charge. Mr. Cotton's hospitality was of the broadest type. Whether with single or double team, whoever came, were supplied with the best that the house and barn afforded. No unfortunate was ever sent away hungry. He eked out his small income by fitting boys for college and teaching others in his own house, and thus greatly improved the standard of education in the town. Books were scarce, and he induced some friends to join him in starting a library which became very serviceable to old and young. Mr. Cotton brought to the town not only the culture of the best insti- tution of learning, but also the manners and graces of his Ply-
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mouth home. The self-denial to which his young bride submitted without a murmur, may be seen from the fact that she was so struck, on her first appearance at church, with the contrast be- tween the costumes of the women of the town and her own rich dress that she never again wore it. At her Plymouth home it was proper, but not among the people to whom she had come to be a helpmeet for the young minister. The gay silks lay quietly in draw ers till her girls were old enough to wear silk. then they took a darker color and were made useful. Mr. Cot- ton's ministry, from its beginning to its ending, was one of emi- nent self-denial and self-forgetfulness. The highest interests of the people who had called him to be their spiritual guide were ever in his thought. He retused to listen for a moment to a com- mittee from a much larger town who came to see if he would answer favorably a call to be their minister. When urged by a sister to seek the new field he made this characteristic reply : " It is a poor soldier that deserts in time of battle," and so he continued on to the end. He was always on excellent terms with the young people, and used his influence to direct their amusements and lead them into reasonable channels. The heats and jars among men he ever strove to mitigate and assuage. He seemed to realize the greatness of the blessing pronounced upon the peacemakers. The majority of the people were strongly at- tached to him. This was clearly seen after he ceased to be their minister by their making him, from year to year, their represent- ative in the Legislature till failing health dismissed him entirely from public service. Mr. Cotton and his wife had born unto them six children-four girls and two boys. The second child. a beautiful, healthy little girl, Mary, went to her heavenly home when but seventeen days old through the carelessness of a nurse. The other five lived to mature years, mutually blessing and being blest. The family circle was first broken by the marriage of Lydia Jackson, the eldest of the girls, to Mr. Josiah Pope, of Sterling. Three years later she passed to her spiritual home leaving an infant daughter to manifest in after years something of the beauty of person and character for which her mother was so remarkable.
Ward Mather, the younger of the boys, learned the machin-
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ist business, married Miss Elizabeth Miller Lamson, of Boylston, settled in Leominster and was long known as Deacon Cotton, Secretary of the Northern Worcester Temperance Society. He died about ten years since, leaving three sons and a daughter. Sally May married Rev. Charles Robinson, of Medfield, where she was called hence five years later, leaving an infant son. A dearly loved and greatly mourned little daughter preceded her to the better country. Hannah Sophia Phillips married Daniel S. Whitney, has resided in Southborough for more than thirty years, is the only one of the family now living on earth ; and is here with two of her grandsons, John Cotton Billings and Carlyle Whitney Billings to enjoy this celebration. John Thomas, the oldest of the children, was never married, but lived with his parents at the old homestead while they lived. He was town clerk for many years and represented the town in the General Court. He was greatly attached to his mother, and when her failing health required all his time and strength, he cheerfully relinquished all public employments and devoted himself entirely to lier comfort till she passed on to other mansions. After his mother's departure he sold the old homestead, bought a small place in Southborough, near his sister's residence, and lived there in good fellowship with his neighbors till his failing health induced him to seek a home with her, where he gradually failed to the end, being in the eighty-fourth year of his age when called away. He left us about two years since, and rests by the side of his parents and sisters in the old cemetery here in Boylston.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : These services have been so much confined to a looking back and dwelling upon the heroic deeds of the fathers, that I cannot forbear to cast one glance to the future. There are great acts of justice, heroic deeds yet to be done before the world comes to the top of its possibilities. Chattel slavery is no more, but the slaves of strong drink still menace our beloved country. Is this great Republic to die, as Starr King declared that Greece died, of delirium tre- mens ? What force can we call to our aid against this terrible foe of the human race ? The good women of the land! We must confer municipal suffrage upon them, and then we can cope with this powerful foe. The sooner we do this act of sim- ple justice the better.
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To the memory of Rev. William H. Sanford, minister of the church in Boylston, from 1832 to 1857. an honored exemplar of the Christian religion; a faithful worker for the moral and educational interests of the town. May his memory ever be cherished by this people.
This was responded to by
MR. GEORGE L. SANFORD,
of Worcester, a son of the late Rev. William H. Sanford.
I thank you for the call to respond to a sentiment which is intended as a tribute of respect to my late honored father. In a double sense I feel it to be an honor to have been selected by you to voice what you have given us in time past abundant reason to know is your genuine respect and affection for the subject of this sentiment. And I feel it an honor to speak for my father on this occasion, such I know to have been his earnest life, his long cherished affection for Boylston and her people. He came among you in his early manhood fresh from his studies, to en- bark here in a career to which he had turned aside from more ambitious worldly life plans at the call of the Master. He was one of the fruits of the great revivals about the period of 1831-2, and the light that shone in upon him then those of you who were in the Christian fold to which he ministered know to have been the guiding star of his life. Others who are older in years among this audience to-day, remember him as the Boylston pastor in this his only pastorate which, when it had been extended to a period longer far than the average of ministerial engagements in these days, he laid down and took no other. The only pastoral memories he ever had held fast to Boylston, to her homes, to the elders like him ripening for the other world; to the men and wo- men, now heads of families, who had received baptism in infancy at his hands. It will always be a treasured memory with us of his household, the occasion of the visit paid to him by the people in honor of his seventy-fifth birthday in 1875. I have never known a more touching proof of genuine affection between pastor and people than this which then reached over a lapse of nearly
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twenty years, to recognize and honor this tie. He never became a stranger here. He was frequently with you. The strong ties he formed here were never replaced while living in our adjacent city. He retained to the last his interest in your homes and your life here. I am glad to remember, on this occasion, my own share of benefit and happiness in my carly home among you. Since my later life has been cast with no rural surroundings, it will always be a satisfaction to me to recall the house embowered in orchards and hung round with vines that was the parsonage, my Boylston home. My father, while he clung to his bookish and classic ties, was, as you will remember, skillful in all the arts of horticulture, and like many of the clergymen in the older day, not so itinerant then as now, led and inspired even farmer neighbors to a better husbandry especially in the house field that plants the fruit tree and waters the vine, and takes pride in the kitchen garden. In all this my father, you will remember, was zealous and what he made of his estate, with its other home fea- tures, was vividly described by Rev. Theodore Cuyler in his widely copied sketch, in the New York Observer, about the year 1856, " The Model Parsonage." I thank you in behalf of our family for your kind remembrance of my father. I must not longer trespass on your time and the place of those who are to follow me.
To the memory of Aaron White, Esq., for forty-nine years a resident of Boylston. for twenty-four years ils town clerk, and for many years a magistrate ; ever zealous for the highest wel- fare of the community ; the father of a family whose record has been an honor to the town.
Response by SAMUEL C. WHITE, EsQ., of New Jersey.
Aaron White, whose life and services in this town are here commemorated, was the eldest son of Aaron and Elizabeth White, and was born in Roxbury, now called Boston Highlands. June 9, 1771. His death occurred in this town on the 7th of April, 1846, two months and two days under seventy-five years of age.
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He was in the fifth line of descendants from John White, who came from England between 1630 and 1640, first settled at Watertown, and a few years later removed to Muddy River. or Boston Farms, as Brookline was formerly called. In this town of Brookline, the father, Aaron White senior, was born, and all his ancestry of the name of White back to the first comer, John White, lived and died.
The education of Aaron White, Jr., was such as the com- mon schools of the town of Roxbury afforded one hundred years ago, but being near the Boston line he had access to the old Boston Public Library, an institution which still exists with its means of disseminating knowledge vastly enlarged.
With the aid of books from this library he had an oppor- tunity for indulging his fondness for reading. and his mind was well stored with English history and English literature. When under twenty-one he was for several years employed in daily attendance on Boston market to dispose of the produce of his father's place, mostly devoted to the cultivation of fruit and vegetables. At twenty-one, 1792, he opened a store in the easterly part of the town of Holden.
About five years afterwards, or in 1797, he closed up his business in Holden and removed to Boylston, purchasing the old store, tavern stand and farm then owned by Col. Jotham Bush, on the Worcester road, opposite the old cemetery. Here the store and farm occupied his attention until the autumn of 1821. when he removed to the place formerly owned by Capt. Jason Abbot.
Having made an addition to the dwelling house and repaired the main building and erected a new store a short distance to the eastward, he continued the business of a country merchant until a few years before his decease in 1846. Much of his time was occupied in the management of town offices, as town clerk, selectman, and for several years a member of the legislature of the State. Before leaving Holden he became engaged to Mary. eldest daughter of Rev. Joseph Avery, minister of that town, and they were married on the first day of January, 1798, and com- menced housekeeping at the place purchased of Col. Bush: They lived to see their family of seven sons and three daughters
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grow up and become settled in life, the youngest daughter remaining at home the comfort and stay of her parents in their declining years. The mother was remarkable for the most per- severing and indefatigable devotion to what she conceived to be her duty to her family, to the church, and to society in general. The faith and hope and Christian confidence never faltered in all her pathway through life. She died May 26, 1860, in the eighty- second year of her age.
To the memory of Dr. John Andrews, forty years the phy- sician of the town ; a useful and influential citizen. We honor and respect his memory.
JOHN D. ANDREWS, EsQ.,
of Boston, a son of Dr. Andrews, responded as follows :
The Andrews Family :- One hundred years ago. who were they, and from whom did they descend ?
One thousand and more years ago Hugh De Sutton, then later Des Sutton became the Baron Dudley ; then later the Baron Dudley became the Gov. Dudley of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
The daughter of Gov. Dudley, Ann, the poetess, married Gov. Simon Bradstreet, (also a governor of Massachusetts. )
The grand-daughter of Simon and Ann, one Lucy, daughter of Simon Bradstreet of Topsfield, Mass., was married to Rob- ert Andrews, of Boylston, Mass., about 1746, and their children were the Andrews family of Boylston, one hundred years ago :- their names were Robert. Samuel, Daniel, Elizabeth, John, Lucy, Asa and Jotham, each of whom had families.
The children of John were Mary Parker, Willard, Lucy Bradstreet, John, Robert and Thomas Denny.
The children of Asa were Elizabeth Ann, John Dudley, Edward, Theodore and Charlotte.
The children of Daniel were Mary, Sarah, Asaph, Edmund. Eunice and Daniel.
The children of Samuel were Lucy Ann, Elizabeth, Judith, Samuel and Mary Morse.
The children of Robert were Jotham, Robert, Dolly, Asa, Dudley, Dennis and Jolın.
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John the youngest son of Robert lives in the remembrance of most of you, going in and out of your houses as the only doctor in this town for nearly half of these hundred years, doing faithfully and well the laborious duties of his pro- fession, and cheerfully bearing his share of the burdens of town and parish ; a good representative of a family who have contri- buted much, first and last to the general good and welfare of the town they loved, aud where so many of them have lived and died, and whose record, if not brilliant, is yet without a stain, and whose memory as honest, sober and law-abiding citizens, the inhabitants of the good old town may well cherish, and the rising generation emulate.
Our aged fellow citizens who have witnessed the history and growth of the town throughout nearly the whole of the first century of its existence ; venerable men and women, may your last days be your best, and may you long be spared to enjoy the respect and esteem of your townsmen.
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