USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > Century of town life; a history of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1775-1887 > Part 19
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To the close of his pastorate, and nearly also of the seventeenth century, the number of admissions to the church was 649, and of bap- tisms 1675. It is thought that the earliest baptism of an adult was in 1673. The only marriages recorded by the ministers before the Revo- lution were from 1687 to 1697, by Mr. Morton.
From this time to the end of the Colonial Period the history of the church must be briefly sketched. The Rev. Simon Bradstreet, or- dained in 1698, was minister for forty-three years, during eight of which he was assisted by the Rev. Joseph Stevens, who was ordained in 1713, and whose death at the age of thirty-nine was caused by his heroie labors among the sick. In 1724 the Rev. Hull Abbot was ordained, beginning a pastorate of fifty years. Associated with him nearly thirty-five years was the Rev. Thomas Prentice, installed in 1739. He died, aged eighty, in 1782, after a pastorate of forty-three years. All these four were natives of New England, and were gradu- ates of Harvard College, - good and true men, faithful and successful in their work.
The number of admissions from 1698 to 1775 was about 954; of baptisms, 4,381. The Record from 1632 gives over 7,600 names, that must have belonged to nearly 7,000 persons. Among the mem- bers of the church esteemed here, and too many to be mentioned now, we should, at least, recall some names. General Robert Sedgwick, admitted at the end of 1636, was, in 1652, made the highest military officer in the colony. In the last two years of his life he served Oliver Cromwell. Thomas Graves, from the same ruler, received the title of
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
Admiral.1 Francis Willoughby, an enterprising citizen, was "almost constantly " in public office. All these three were merchants. Five generations of the Russell family in turn supplied the church and town with men who were among the most distinguished in them both. In 1640 Richard came from Hereford. James, his oldest son, was born here in that year. His son Daniel lived till 1763. The fourth was James, the son of Daniel, born here in 1715. The last was Thomas, second son of James, born 1740. All bore well the title Honorable ; all were business men or merchants; all were benefactors of this church. The clock upon the gallery bears the name of Thomas Rus- sell, who gave it. One sacramental tankard bears initials, probably of Richard, who died in 1676.
In 1686 Judge Samuel Penhallow, the author of the "History of the Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians," joined the church, and was a member nearly thirty years. In 1703 died Cap- tain Richard Sprague, descended from the early settlers of that name. He gave money for the ministers, the school, the poor, and for sacra- mental plate (two tankards of which now remain), and, chiefly, the old parsonage, with house and land. In 1705 the Rev. Timothy Cutler, afterwards President of Yale College, and for more than forty years the rector of Christ Church in Boston, became a member. The Rev. Joseph Lord was brought up here. He, Feb. 2, 1696, is said to have officiated at the first communion in Carolina, near Charleston. The Rev. Stephen Badger, missionary to the Natick Indians, also was a member.
The great subjects of the times appear to have been treated in this pulpit, as at earlier dates. Thomas Prentice preached on the Reduc- tion of Cape Breton, and Hull Abbot on the Scotch Rebellion, both in 1745. IIere the Rev. George Whitefield preached to crowded congrega- tions, and the great revival of 1741 ensued, when there were sixty-six admissions to the church, - the largest number in any year. The chair and Bible that he used are still preserved.
The place of worship of the church, although close to this spot from the beginning, was not permanent till 1639. Then a meeting-house
1 This church and society not only had distinguished representatives in the great Civil War or the public service in England over two centuries ago, but also in the great Civil War in the United States. Among those who have been members of this church or congregation were Admiral Foote, Admiral Green, Admiral String- ham, and Admiral Taylor. Commodore John B. Montgomery was many years a member of this church, and the family of Captain Hudson of the Exploring Expe- dition was also represented.
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HISTORY TO 1775.
was built upon the hill-slope toward the Square. With various changes it existed seventy-seven years, and was then replaced by a framed build- ing with a steeple, that was burned upon the 17th of June, 1775. So far as now appears, it was a wooden structure, in the general style of the old meeting-houses in this region. In the claims for losses it was valued at £3,000. (See pp. 115, 174.)
The material things remaining from the times before the Revolu- tion, and associated with the church, are small and few, but their value is thus made the greater.
The original Church Record from 1632, kept by Elder Green, and after him by the successive ministers to 1768, is carefully preserved. Its contents have been printed, three quarters in the Historic-Genea- logical Register, and all in a large quarto volume, copies of which have been placed in various libraries. Every name and statement in the Records will be found there. Several pieces of communion-service also still remain. The tomb in which the ministers were buried stands in the old graveyard of the town, and has been marked anew. (Sec p. 78.) Some of their discourses have been printed, but copies have been seldom seen here in this century. Some manuscripts of sermons are preserved. Nineteen, preached by the Rev. Thomas Shepard (2d), in 1668 and 1669, are owned by the American Antiquarian Society.
The spring of 1775 brought its peculiar trials to the town and church. A great alarm was caused in April, when the royal troops returned from Lexington, and many of the people left their homes. The father of good Deacon Miller was then killed. Removals, both of families and property, continued, so that by the middle of the month of June about two hundred persons only were left in the town cast of the neck. Upon the 17th of June a large part of the members of the church and congregation lost their houses and much other property in the great conflagration.1 The patriotic Deacon Miller, with his gun, went up to Bunker Hill and did good service. The Records of the church state that more than three hundred and eighty buildings were destroyed, and that two thousand persons were "reduced from affluence and medioc- rity to the most aggrivated exile." The endurance of the people was severely tried, but, in the words of a rare poem of the time, -
"Not Charlestown's flame that spiring high arose ; Nor all the smoke that aided to oppose ; Could shake the firmness of COLUMBIA's Band, To yield submissive the adjacent land."
1 This is very fully described on pages 8-14 and 114-174.
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DESTRUCTION AND REBUILDING.
After the town was burned, and after hostile troops had left it, some of those who had been living here returned. The place was dreary. Grass, indeed, was growing green on Bunker's and Breed's Hills; but all around the Town Hill and the Square, and streets near by, were ruins of their homes. The dwellings of the dead upon the Burial Hill alone seemed to have been spared.
When first the town was built the forests grew around in wildness, yet in peace and beauty ; but when the rebuilding was begun, the re- cent havoc of a cruel war, and dismal evidence of trying loss, everywhere confronted the builders. A memorial informs us that in 1777 "the returning inhabitants in their distressed situations " at once provided a place of worship. They "found no other or better than an old block- house left by the British troops upon Town Hill." This building was used for the town and school-house, and the meeting-house, for half a dozen years. The Record states that "the first administration of the Lord's Supper in Charlestown. since the destruction by the cruelest British Enemy, was Nov. 8, 1778, with great solemnity, and fulness of members beyond expectation." The venerable Thomas Prentice con- dueted the services. The scene was one, indeed, of the most solemn and most touching ever witnessed in this old historic town.
In this block-house, Sept. 4, 1780, the townspeople first voted for magistrates under the new State Constitution. There were forty-eight votes. On Oct. 27, 1782. the town voted to convey to the First Parish in it the Town-House Hill, for the purpose of erecting thereon a meeting-house, within five years.
In the next year, 1783, the meeting-house required was built upon the present site. It was 72 feet long and 52 feet wide, a wooden structure, with a steeple 162 feet high, designed by Charles Bulfinch. The front lot on the Square, the former site, appears to have become private property at about this time. The bell was presented by Cham- pion, Diekason, and Burgis, merchants of London. It has since been broken and recast, - once by Paul Revere, - was claimed by the town for town uses, delivered to it by the parish, and finally became private property by purchase. It now hangs in the tower, where the parish has the use of it while the parish does not change its past religious faith.
No minister was settled here until the 10th of January, 1787. The Rev. Joshua Paine, Jr., who had been unanimously called, was minister about a year, when he died at the age of twenty-five. His piety and social virtues were esteemed. " His remains," a record states, " were decently and respectfully entombed at the expense of the parish, March
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THE TOWN IN 1775.
Ist, 1788." He was the last minister who died in office in this church, and was buried by it.
In November, 1788, the Rev. Jedidiah Morse was unanimously called to the pastorate, and on April 30, 1789, he was installed. His min- istry of thirty years extended through a period marked by the change of thought and modes, both in religious and political affairs, that took place under our new institutions. He not only was the pastor of this church, but was also prominent in various public matters, and in the early literature of the nation. Five years before he came he published at New Haven his "Geography made Easy," said to be the first ge- ography published in this country. In 1789 his larger work, "The American Geography," appeared at Elizabethtown. Each of these works passed several editions, and began a series of like publications, that his sons continued. Altogether several hundred thousand copies were issued by this family in sixty years. The various other works by Dr. Morse were numerous. His Gazetteer is an important, and per- haps unrivalled, "picture of what this country was " immediately after the Revolution. The maps and the Reports on Indians that he pub- lished, cannot be dispensed with in the illustrations of the early na- tional history and art. Some of his works received the honor of reprint in British cities, some of translation, and some were thought worth stealing.
In 1802 Dr. Morse, assisted by members of this parish, issued nine- teen religious tracts, "of which 32,600 copies were circulated." IIis son states that "there can be little doubt that, in 1802, the pastor and people of the First Parish in Charlestown had done more in circulating religious tracts among the poor and destitute in the United States than any other people in New England."
To one man alone belongs a greater honor. He was, in his time, a chief supporter of this church, and of him it is stated : " Richard Devens, Esq., of Charlestown, had no equal in America in this benevolence. For him [were] printed more than 100.000 tracts for gratuitous distri- bution." He died in 1807, aged eighty-six, full of years and honors.
On the day Dr. Morse was installed there were 135 church-members, -43 men and 92 women, - of whom 40 were widows. On June 1, 1800, the total number was 143. Until this year the First Church had been substantially the one church of the town. In 1800 the First Baptist Church was organized, and May 12, 1801, its meeting-house was opened. Dr. Morse made an address, and Oliver Holden wrote the music for an anthem. In 1800 the town had 2,751 inhabitants and 319 houses. Both of these numbers gradually increased.
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
In 1803 the growth of the population of the town made necessary an enlargement of the meeting-house, and 15 feet were added on each side. There were then 162 pews, of which 92 were held by the pa- rishioners. In 1806, June 10, the number of church-members had increased to 235, of whom 171 were women. There were 40 widows, as in 1789. Within a few years the navy-yard and prison were es- tablished, and the general business of the town increased. In 1810 the Universalist Society built its meeting-house, and gathered there some both of the older and the later inhabitants, and some who were not parishioners or members of this church. In 1815 Dr. Morse, with his son Sidney E., and N. Willis, established the " Boston Recorder," said to be the first religious newspaper ever published in this country.1
The effects of the last war with England were severe in this vicinity. In 1815 the town, that then contained about five thousand people, was recovering from them. There were here a dozen or more professional men, seven or eight school-teachers, and an artist, James Frothingham. The community was active and intelligent. Differing beliefs in politics and in religion had grown with the institutions of the young republic, and these last were showing their effect upon the various divisions of the people. The benevolent operations, and what might be called the Charlestown literature of the period, show that good work was done by every class. There was strong feeling then on several subjects, that affected even families, and there was change by death and by removal. Some old names came to be borne by but few persons, or to be upon opposing sides. A notable division had for years been growing up among the Congregationalists in this region, and, 1815-17, it extended to this town, and here resulted in the formation of the Second Congre- gational Society, that, in 1837, was called the Harvard Church. A majority -a very large one in the church -remained in the First Church and Parish. The latter lost a valuable minority. Among those who remained members of the First Church at this period were Jeremialı Evarts, -one of the most distinguished philanthropists at that time in the country, and father of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, -and
1 So says the Rev. John Todd, D.D., a member of the First Church (in Sprague's Life of Dr. M., p. 313). "The Christian History," published weekly "for T. Prince, junr.,"- No. 1., Saturday, March 5, 1743, and some time continued, - is clainied as the first religious newspaper in the world, which naturally includes this country (see Arch. Amer., Am. Antiq. Soc., V. 107). Competing for the distinction is "The Herald of Gospel Liberty," published at Portsmouth, N. H., every other Thursday evening, by Elias Smith, - No. 1, Sept. 1, 1808. No. 44 (Friday, April 27, 1810), was issued at Portland, Me. Smith's name is dropped after Vol. I., and Vol. III. No. 75 is dated Friday, July 5, 1811, at Philadelphia, Penn.
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HISTORY, 1819-1870.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse, artist and inventor, the only native of the town, it is thought, who received national honors at his death ; his foreign decorations also were remarkable.
In 1819 Dr. Morse resigned the pastorate, and was succeeded by the Rev. Warren Fay, who was installed on Feb. 23, 1820. In that year the Methodist Religious Society in Charlestown was incorporated.
Another large division of the Congregationalists came in 1832, when, December 27, thirty-four 1 persons - about double the number of church-members who originally joined the Second Church - were dis- missed from the First Church, and formed the Third, or Winthrop Church. The First Church has supplied members to perhaps every other religious organization in the town, and to several churches in other places ; but this appears to be the largest body that has gone from it to any one of them. At the end of 1835, however, the number of its communicants was 271, of whom 79 were admitted by Dr. Morse.
On April 22, 1840, the Rev. Wm. Ives Budington was ordained pastor, eight months after Dr. Fay had left. This year, 1840, was the annus mirabilis of the ministry in Charlestown, for then came here three ministers, cach to be pre-eminent in his denomination, - Dr. Ellis, Dr. Chapin, Dr. Budington. Dr. Budington, as he told the speaker near the close of his life, came here with all his young enthu- siasm to devote himself to this old church. Within three years he, in nine lectures, told its history, that was printed, and that is among the earlier productions in its class. His work bears testing, and has liter- ary character that was soon acknowledged. A few years later, after he returned from his first tour in Europe, he conceived the project of remodelling the meeting-house.
The wooden edifice of 1783 became decayed, and was replaced by a brick building, dedicated 1834, -the one in which we meet.2 The style was then thought classic. The interior was square and plain. The ceiling, low and nearly flat, was whitewashed, and the walls were yellow. Mr. Alexander R. Esty supplied designs, and the existing form and aspect were given to this building. The interior was the first in town to show some of the more established lines of Christian art, ecclesiastical in character. The plain hall of the meeting-house, known for two centuries, became the nave known for a thousand years. In 1868 Miss Charlotte Harris, then of Boston, gave sixteen bells, now in the tower of this meeting-house, and called the Harris Chime. She wrote : " My ancestors, Harris and Devens, were for a great number
1 January 7, 1833. one more was added.
2 The meeting-houses are more fully described on pages 50 to 59.
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
of years inhabitants of Charlestown, and worshipped in the church of the First Parish." On this account, as also from interest in this soci- ety and its pastor, Rev. J. B. Miles, she gave the chime, then one of the largest in the country. In 1870 the present coloring of the inte- rior was applied, with some of its significance in early art, and its expression of religious teaching. Over all the congregation, in the nave, - the Latin naris, that great ship of the church in which we all are carried through the storms of life to the celestial haven, - was spread deep blue, the emblem of the peace of heaven. Upon the wall, before the people, is the gray, expressive of humility. And from the language in which the apostles wrote are taken letters joined as they once were upon the tombs of the first martyrs, and here written in bright gold, the emblem of celestial glory, to tell the name, above all other names, before which every knee shall bow, - the Christos, Alpha and Omega of the church's faith.
The pastorate of Dr. Budington closed July 24, 1854, and Rev. James B. Miles succeeded him on Jan. 2, 1855. In 1856 the number of church-members living was 297. The faithful services of Mr. Miles were closed Sept. 30, 1871, when he went to a work, wide as the world, that placed his name in honorable prominence among those who have labored for the spread of peace and of good-will. His sudden death occurred Nov. 13, 1875. Dr. Budington died Nov. 29, 1879, at Brooklyn, where he had been pastor of the large church on Clinton Avenue for more than twenty years. Charitable towards all, learned, eloquent, chivalrous, and courteous, devoted to the highest require- ments of his sacred office, he lived and died a true Christian gentleman and teacher. Thus, within a few years, both these long-endeared and valued pastors of this ancient church have, in their turn, been numbered with the many faithful and lamented ministers whom they so worthily succeeded. And at these latest deaths of pastors and of friends we look back on the past, and view the present of the four-hilled town. For we who live here now may well think of the deep significance that changing times at length have given to the four hills that stand on the diminished territory we still call by its old name.
On this hill many of the Fathers of New England did their portion of the labor in the founding of our institutions ; on a second stands a monument that testifies their strong devotion to sound learning ; on a third there is a lofty spire bearing the name of the great bishop of Geneva, famed for "all-embracing charity ;" upon the fourth is that grand obelisk which tells the meaning of the Revolution.
We are all here to live, - cach with individual belief and sense of
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TOWN HILL, CHARLESTOWN.
duty, all in peace and quietness. And here we daily see the four hills of the town with their impressive lessons, -of the open Bible, of sound learning, Christian charity, and civil freedom. May they never teach less to the people here, and always may there be around them benedictions on the "Church of God in Charlestown."
Church history, important as it is, is not all that is associated with the Town Hill, Charlestown. The writer gave a brief but comprehen- sive sketch of more than the preceding subject might require, in a long article entitled "An American Shrine," that first appeared in the New England Historic-Genealogical Register (Vol. XXIV., July, 1870), a part of which may properly be added here.
As early as 1629, when the shore of the "Bay of Massachusetts " was an almost unbroken wilderness, the strongest settlement yet made upon it was around this hill; and on its summit was built, under di- rection of Mr. Graves, a defensive work called the "Hill Fort, with pallisadoes and flankers,"- during more than forty years the chief structure there, and necessary for the protection of the settlers. Again. in 1675-76, during Philip's War, the most trying in which Colonial Massachusetts engaged, and when hostilities were committed by Indi- ans within a few miles distance, this fort appears to have been again put in defensive order. On the hill, for several years, was the first burial-place of the town, where many of the earliest settlers were in- terred, until about 1640, when the still existing Old Burial Ground, about an eighth of a mile distant, was used. (Sce p. 74.) In 1635 Robert Hawkins built a mill upon the hill, and hence it was for a long time called Windmill Hill. In 1648 the earliest (?) schoolhouse of the town " was ordered to be built [here] and paid for by a 'general rate.'" Since that date a public school has been maintained almost uninterruptedly near the summit, to provide education for the practice of civil government, the local seat of which has been, from the very beginning of civilization on the Bay, almost continuously at the base. The time when school or court or town-house were removed was when the town became the first great material sacrifice for American Inde- pendence. And as the town grew first around this hill, so also it arose there from its ruin to new life.
Beneath the Charlestown Oak, that grew upon the easterly slope, was held the first worship of the church, and all the places for that worship since have been upon the summit, or seventy yards from it, upon one of the sides, or, when in the Great House, only about one hundred yards from it.
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AN AMERICAN SHRINE.
No other hill throughout New England, except the hallowed Burial Hill at Plymouth, has a longer or more suggestive history, and none has one more varied. These two hills have also a peculiar historic resemblance. Each bore the first permanent and important civilized settlement on its respective bay. On both was a fortification, neces- sary for defence against Indians, during many years after the begin- ning of colonization upon and around them. On both were buried some of the earliest settlers in the region. At the base of both the Puritan faith was long maintained in churches founded by members of its earliest arrived representatives. . . .
Certainly, if in America there are few spots that have become in- vested with long, continuous, varied, and interesting historical associ- ations, we may be permitted to feel that this hill is one of the spots thus ennobled. In "the forest primeval" of oaks that grew on it, the first Christian settlers made homes. On its summit they built a defence against savage tribes close around them. On its slopes they assembled in prayer and thanksgiving and fasting, and there they showed that strength of material resources should be joined with devotion of soul, and in the New World establish a nation for Christ. And in its stern drift, when their griefs and their labors were ended, were laid their mortal remains to await the upbuilding on earth of the city not made with human hands. True, indeed, "were they in their time, and .. . God them defended." And those who in later time enter upon the precious inheritance their endeavors secured, and who can see and enjoy the blessings it brings, may well guard and honor this ground that bears consecration by them and by virtues of many generations ; for its history is not alone of one local body, of one small town, or of one great sect, but a history rendering this low mound of earth a me- morial spot of a mighty nation.
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