USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 21
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Mr. Lynde's last sickness of seven weeks was one of suffering, but one of patient endurance. It was in the midst of repose, bodily and mental, that he fell asleep in Jesus, January 14, 1899.
5. MRS. CAROLINE F. LYNDE.
Of the four Christian sisters belonging to this class two joined the church on public confession of their faith, and one of these was the wife of our brother, Mr. William Lynde. She had been a favorite pupil at the Hartford Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and was well educated. Her style seldom betrayed, as is often the case, the infirmity under which she labored. She was a woman of much
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refinement and of very pleasing features. A severe sick- ness was blessed to her spiritual good. In applying for admission to the church she presented a satisfactory written statement, to the effect that she became so deeply sensible of her guilty impenitence as to see the justice of God in everlasting punishment; that prostrating her- self before the Lord Jesus she cried in spirit, " Here I am, do with me as thou wilt. I beg for mercy. I soon overflowed with joy and happiness. I felt that the Saviour was near, and my eyes were opened to see my need of Him; and how precious did He become to me! He is my daily delight and meditation. I do wish every one in the world to know what a precious Saviour He is." Her membership dates from June, 1854.
After a few years, pulmonary consumption came. In one of my visits during that sickness I placed before her eye this verse from the Bible, "My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever." With a feeble hand she wrote under- neath, "Very beautiful; I, too, found it true." The last inquiry of her devoted husband, in the language of signs was, "Do you know me?" With emaciated fingers she replied, " I know Jesus;" and her eyes closing, her tongue was unloosed in another world, June 25, 1862.
6. MRS. MARY COFFIN LYNDE.
Alton, New Hampshire, was the place, and June 6, 1827, the date of her birth. One of her sisters married Prof. Benjamin Stanton of Union College, and another
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sister married Rev. William W. Griffis. Mrs. Lynde had the advantage of education at the school in Hartford, Connecticut, and became the second wife of Mr. Wil- liam Lynde.
While yet a minor Mrs. Lynde joined the Freewill Baptist Church, of which her father was Elder, but after- wards became convinced that she had made a mistake, and was not, at the time, a truly converted person. Later her condition as a sinner, her utter need of a Saviour, the atoning merits of Jesus Christ, and the offer of free forgiveness for his sake, were apprehended as never before, and in 1864 the Eliot Church received her on confession of faith. She became much devoted to kind, neighborly acts, to attendance upon the Bible Class, and to various religious duties. The prayerful study of God's word was her constant habit. The last sickness was one of great suffering, but of no complaining. April 6, 1891, brought release and translation, as we believe, into the world whence all infirmities are banished, and where it is always springtime.
CHAPTER XXIV.
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
THOSE in some of the aforenamed classes were obvi- ously persons of note. The offices which they held would have made them prominent if personal qualities did not. But there were so many others-some of them not less conspicuous-that a complete enumeration and portraiture would be inconsistent with prescribed limits. The lack of materials easily accessible has had much influence in making a selection of those to whom sketches are de- voted. Comparative importance of names has not been of decisive consideration. Such men as Laban S. Beecher, Moses Day, John A. McGaw, Joseph Ballister, John J. Soren, Otis Packard, Asher Adams, John Gulliver, Robert H. Thayer, Stephen J. Bowles, E. Hubbard Severance, Ebenezer Wheelwright, Henry Davenport, J. O. L. Hillard, Charles F. Bray, Benajah Cross, Samuel W. Hall, Charles Hulbert, Thomas Chamberlain, Nathan Brown, William Brock, Benjamin C. Tinkham, are among those who might well have been included.
I. DR. NATHANIEL SHEPHERD PRENTISS.
WAS born in Cambridge, August 7, 1766, ten years before the Declaration of Independence. His father was one of the seventeen who threw the obnoxious tea into
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Boston Harbor, the evidence of which, as Dr. Prentiss remembered, was the next morning apparent on the old gentleman's boots. The judicious mother did not then gratify the lad's curiosity by telling him that what he had found was tea-leaves. He saw the British soldiers on their march to Lexington and Concord, and saw one of them on their return shot down by a neighbor of the family. His mother took him to the cellar to avoid shots poured into the house by the retreating foreign troops.
The class in Harvard College with which Dr. Pren- tiss graduated was that of 1787 - a class larger, with two exceptions, than any which graduated at that venerable institution till 1797 - a class, no member of which, he once informed me, came under censure. Judge Putnam, Judge Cranch of Washington, D. C., and John Quincy Adams were his classmates. The last named was born in 1767, and his decease occurred six years before that of Dr. Prentiss. " The Old Man Eloquent " declared - " This is the last of earth, I am content," and was gath- ered to his fathers.
Dr. Prentiss commenced the practice of medicine in Marlborough, and his professional life extended through more than half a century; but in 1801 he removed to Roxbury and took charge of the Latin School. That school having been founded in 1645, he was the seven hundred and sixty-second teacher. He continued in charge with acceptance for eight years, and then con- ducted a private school for several years. The visit paid
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him late in life by many of his surviving pupils, and the elegant testimonial of their respect presented on the occa- sion, were alike honorable to them and to him. One of the pupils whom he trained and assisted, and to whom he became strongly attached, was Samuel Newell, then an orphan boy, whom Judge Lowell, grandfather of the late James Russell Lowell, befriended. Newell was the first graduate of Harvard whom the American Board sent out as a missionary. Before embarking for India (1812), he came to take leave of his beloved preceptor, and owing to a misstep, he left a footprint on the freshly- painted floor, which the Doctor would never allow to be obliterated, though, prior to removing from that house, he had the paint renewed more than once.
Dr. Prentiss' services to the town of Roxbury ex- tended through a long period. Various offices were en- trusted to him, such as that of representative to the Gen- eral Court for a series of years, and that of Town Clerk for about thirty years. Having reached four-score when the municipal form of government was adopted, he retired from further public service. In all the positions held by him he was pronounced highly urbane and oblig- ing towards associates; and in his transactions eminently accurate, prompt and faithful.
In religious views and character Dr. Prentiss was a Calvinist, holding with earnestness to the Abrahamic cov- enant and to Orthodox Congregational usages, yet with sympathies broad and warm toward all evangelical
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Christians. In the establishment of the first Baptist Church in Roxbury, which antedated the Eliot Church, he was deeply interested, contributing efficient influence and pecuniary aid, and to the last continuing to rejoice in its growth. His name stands first on the list of those organized into the Eliot Church, over whose inception and growth he watched, and prayed, and wept in exulting gratitude to the King of Zion.
Never did I feel more surprised than when, early in my ministry, he, a white-headed patriarch, used to speak of being comforted and edified by my ministra- tions. In his presence I always felt like a tyro who was enjoying the special privilege of instruction from a wise master. In one instance, during a protracted and severe sickness -from which there was for some time no hope of recovery - as I was sitting by his bedside after con- valescence had commenced, he said, " If it should please God to spare me, and raise me up, and permit me to go to his house, I would give more to hear a good gospel sermon than for ten thousand worlds."
His later years were years of singular serenity, soothed and cheered by the ministrations of devoted daughters. Seldom has any one of equal age retained such freshness of bodily senses and faculties of the mind. The vita vere vitalis was in full vigor. Faith, hope and charity were stronger than ever. His vital union to Him who is the Vine became a point of triumphant assur- ance. His last whispered words, as an affectionate sister
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wiped the tear from his eye, were, pointing upward - "No tears there!" and his last conscious act, after the power of speech had ceased, was to lay one finger across another in token of the cross of Christ, in which he gloried to the last. Dear old man ! Never did a more earnest listener sit in the sanctuary. That hoary head borne erect in commanding dignity, that noble counte- nance which shone as it had been the face of an angel, are still as distinct in memory as they were half a century ago.
2. JOHN HEATH.
The name Heath has been a prominent one in Rox- bury from the earliest times. Isaac Heath came by the " Hopewell " in 1635, took the freeman's oath the next year, and one year later was elected a representative of the town in the legislature. About the same time he was chosen a Ruling Elder of the church, which indicated that he was regarded as a man of decidedly Christian character, as well as of superior prudence and wisdom. That office, in which he continued during life, brought him into intimate relations with John Eliot. He was a man of means and was one of the founders of that Rox- bury school which, at that time, furnished, it was said, more scholars for the college than any other town of the size in New England, and to which he made a handsome bequest. He assisted Eliot in his work among the Indians and appears to have had some knowledge of their lan- guage. For more than four years he gave a home to
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an Indian lad. Elder Heath died January 21, 1660, aged seventy-five.1
In a collateral line was the well-known Gen. William Heath, a prominent citizen and a prominent officer in the struggles of the Revolution. He was born the seventh of March, 1737; lived on the same farm where his an- cestor settled in 1636; and in the year 1814, when he died, had outlived all the other major-generals of the Revolutionary army. He had been a representative in the General Court, and in the Provincial Congress. His " Memoirs of Major-General Heath, containing anecdotes, details of skirmishes, battles, and other military events dur- ing the American war, written by himself," is a book of 388 pages, published 1798.
John Heath was one of the six original members of the Eliot Church who, at the time of its organization, made, for the first time, public profession of the Christian faith. He had previously attended the Old South Church, in Boston. He was a man of extreme diffidence, so much so that he could never take active part in social religious meetings. He did not, however, belong to that class who are silent at devotional meetings but voluble when secu- lar business is on hand. His habits of punctuality and general regularity in attendance upon divine worship and in fulfilling all engagements, were observable. Being for some years treasurer of the ecclesiastical society, he came to my house invariably on quarter-day to pay an install-
I See Lives of Isaac Heath and John Bowles, by J. Wingate Thornton.
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ment of the salary. Having breakfasted himself by lamp- light, he made his appearance at the parsonage before the morning meal there.
In manners and habits Mr. Heath was characterized by simplicity, by unobtrusiveness, and blamelessness. He gave none offence, called forth no criticism, and was much respected. In the sanctuary he was a specially earnest and intelligent listener, and had well defined religious views. The distinguishing truths of evangelical Chris- tianity were meat and drink to him. During the later years of life he lived in Brookline, but continued to wor- ship every Lord's Day at the Eliot Church, always walk- ing from and to his house. On a Sabbath morning, Janu- ary 8, 1850, just as he was about to leave home for public worship, he fell instantly at the door and never became again conscious. During the whole seventy years of life he had not called a physician. Seldom does anyone find his way so suddenly to the temple on high instead of the house of God here below.
3. MELZAR WATERMAN.
Mr. Waterman, one of the original members, and one of the committee which drafted the Articles of Faith and the Covenant, was the Asaph of those days, a devout man who led the service of song in the house of the Lord. This he did for several years with acceptance to all. Halifax, Plymouth County, was his native place, January 9, 1795. An early immigrant ancestor was Robert Water-
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man, from Devonshire, England, first at Salem, then at Plymouth, and afterwards at Marshfield, a man of local prominence in the middle of the seventeenth century. John, a son of Robert (born, 1642; died, 1718), was one of the first deacons of the church in Halifax. The suc- cessive generations were characterized by amiability and good habits.
In early life Mr. Waterman inclined to Universalism, but Bible study and a change of heart corrected that. A special blessing, as is so often the case, attended the influence of a pious mother and sister. Under clear con- viction of sin, looking to Jesus the all-sufficient Saviour, he found needed relief. Faithful inner scrutiny was main- tained. The manuscript record of religious experiences and purposes, definite and decided, as early as 1813, which at a later period was reviewed and renewed, indicates an unusually intelligent experimental acquaintance with divine things. Till the end of his days Mr. Waterman was a serious, cheerful Christian. In the congregation there were few, if any, more earnest hearers of the Word preached. December 29, 1833, he began a record of the texts from which sermons were preached. This continued with regularity till the spring of 1842. An occasional abstract of a sermon is introduced, and a book of about two hundred pages was thus filled.
One incident will indicate local relations between members of different denominations at that period. In 1827 there was formed "The Male Primary Missionary
-
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Society of the Baptist Church in Roxbury." It was originally composed of nearly fifty members, who con- tributed annually not less than one dollar each. Four or more of those men were Congregationalists, who after- wards worshiped at the Eliot Church. The officers were from the Baptist Church, but Mr. Waterman was one of the four collectors.
Most of his children having settled in New Orleans, or elsewhere in Louisiana, he spent his last days with them, and in old age, still bent on usefulness, he gathered a Sunday School, which resulted in the formation of a church. But upon his decease the remains were brought back for interment in the Forest Hills Cemetery, and the funeral was attended January 29, 1868.
4. RICHARD BOND.
The son of pious parents, and born in Conway, Massachusetts, the year that Washington retired from public life (1797). He came to Boston, and for years was one of the leading architects in the city. His removal to Roxbury took place some months before the organization of our church, of which he was an original member, and for thirty years prominent in all its affairs. His con- version occurred during a revival in Boston, when he became deeply impressed with a sense of his sin and folly in toiling at worldly business with only a dark future before him. His views on religious subjects, which received their form from the Assembly's Shorter Cate-
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chism, were unusually clear and decided; his remarks and devotional exercises at social religious meetings were very impressive. He took a class in the Eliot Sunday School when it opened (1834), and not long after suc- ceeded Dr. Alcott as leader of a large Bible Class. Care- ful preparation, unfailing punctuality and fidelity year after year characterized him as a teacher, and indeed throughout various other relations. Mr. Bond was in the habit of contributing, with discrimination, to religious objects. He founded the Turretin prize of one thousand dollars in what is now the Hartford Theological Seminary, and bequeathed a handsome amount to several of our best New England institutions of learning. In August, 1861, Mr. Bond was gathered to his fathers.
5. JOHN NEWTON DENISON.
Mr. Denison joined this church twice, first in 1839 and again in 1847. It was with much regret that in each instance we parted with him and his family. He was the only child of a minister, the Rev. John Denison, of Jericho, Vermont, where he was born June 22, 1811. With the exception of Mr. Isaac D. White, he was, at the time of his decease, the oldest living representative of our brotherhood in its early days. He belonged to the seventh generation from an original settler in Roxbury, a family in which there has been a good deal of longevity. His grandfather, Samuel Denison, reached the age of 94, and the grandfather of Samuel, Col. Robert Denison, of
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Montville, Connecticut, attained the same age; while the grandmother of Colonel Robert came within a year of living a century. She was a queenly woman, and was always called "Lady Ann," the wife of Capt. George Denison. He, after the death of his first wife, Bridget Thompson, went back to England, served under Crom- well in the army of Parliament; was wounded in the famous battle of Marston Moor; was nursed at the house of John Borowdell, by his daughter Ann, whom he mar- ried, and returning to New England, settled finally at Stonington, Connecticut. In military affairs he was second to no one in that colony at that period, unless it be Capt. John Mason. This George was the youngest of three sons of William Denison, who came with his family from Bishop's Stortford, Herefordshire, England. They were fellow-passengers of John Eliot, who had been an usher in the school of the celebrated Thomas Hooker, and who served for a time as tutor to these Denison sons. William Denison, the father, a graduate, like Eliot, of Cambridge University, England, brought with him "a good estate." He became a deacon in the First Church of Roxbury, and died in 1653, the year that Eliot addressed his tract, Tears of Repentance, to Oliver Cromwell.
The house built by William Denison was on what is now Shawmut Avenue, about opposite to the head of Eustis Street. Our Mr. John N. Denison gave himself, for a time in early life, to teaching, and contemplated de-
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voting himself to study. On account, however, of a per- sistent trouble in the head, he was obliged to relinquish both pursuits. Coming to Boston, he went into the dry- goods business; but withdrew (1856) and, with a brother- in-law, Mr. J. W. Brooks, enlisted in railroad affairs, the Burlington and Missouri River road, the Chicago, Bur- lington and Quincy road, and sundry associated corpo- rations.
For a whole generation Mr. Denison was the senior officer of the Central Church, and one of its most liberal benefactors, commanding the deepest respect of all, his liberality exceeded only by his modesty, for his almsdeeds are fully recorded nowhere except where those of Cor- nelius are found.
6. ISAAC DAVIS WHITE.
Of the earlier members of the Eliot Church, Mr. White is the oldest now living and is in his ninety-fifth year. He was born in Boylston, Massachusetts, March 20, 1806, though his father was a native of Roxbury, a prominent man in town affairs, for several years a repre- sentative in the General Court, and, what is more im- portant, possessed a strong religious character. The same was true of the mother of our Mr. White - a daughter of Rev. Joseph Avery, for fifty years pastor of the church in Holden. It was an unusual circumstance that when she died (1860) at the age of eighty-two, her ten children were all living. The only sister of Samuel Adams was a great-grandmother of our Mr. White. Of those ten chil-
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dren referred to -four being still alive - the average age is eighty-three years; while three have lived beyond ninety-two. Sixty-six was the lowest age attained, and among all of them the retention of their faculties has been marked.
Mr. White removed to Enfield, Connecticut, in 1853; and after a ten years' residence there returned to Boston, but settled at length in Brookline (1865). Whatever changes have taken place in personal or in public affairs, he has maintained even and quiet habits of feeling and of outward life, always declining office when proposed to him. The passionate and the petulant very seldom reach ninety years of age. The art of passing lightly over the rough places of life is an enviable one, and one that pro- motes longevity. It was in 1840 that he joined the Eliot Church, and his religious profession has been consist- ently maintained. Two lines of Christian ancestry, run- ning back between two and three hundred years, con- verge in him. The divine pledge holds good, "Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."
7. JOHN BROWN.
Never can I forget the last sickness and some of the closing scenes in a family which came from Scotland. They lived in a small house on the milldam, remote from church, but so long as circumstances permitted, they were punctual and reverent worshipers at the house of God, whatever the walking or the weather. The husband and
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father, John Brown, sank (1846) under the gradual in- vasion of a disease that baffled all resistance; but it was in such patience and cheerfulness as are exhibited only where there is intimate fellowship with heaven. His thoughts wandered chiefly along the river of the water of life and also beyond sea in his native land. He lived over his early life again, and sang over and over hymns taught him by a godly Highland mother. At last he wished to have the Scottish friends - who were kindly attentive through the whole sickness, and some of whom then stood round the bed -join in a favorite paraphrase. It was one which that sainted woman used to sing to him in his childhood. His own feeble voice joined with theirs till the last word and last note. With that he ceased to breathe; but I have no doubt that in another world he kept right on singing, only changing to the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. The one which he had just finished here was this: "Hark, the glad sound ! the Saviour comes, The Saviour promised long ; Let every heart prepare him room, And every voice a song."
The widow and daughter soon went back to Aber- deen, Scotland, where their friends were living.
8. DEACON JAMES CLAP.
Few churches have ever had among their members one more humble, more prayerful, or more conscientiously faithful in all his relations, than James Clap. Nearly the
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whole of his seventy years bore witness to those eminent traits, for his religious life began much earlier than is usual. He was born in Dorchester, and while yet a youth was the first male member received by the Second Church, under the ministry of the first pastor, Dr. John Codman. Owing to changes of residence, he joined suc- cessively the Old South and Pine Street churches, Bos- ton, and the Village Church, Dorchester. Thence he brought usual credentials to the Eliot Church in 1836; but he brought an unusually quiet, consistent, earnest Christian character. He was a peacemaker. It was also his practice, much beyond what is generally the custom, to introduce religious conversation and to speak to im- penitent business men, as well as others, on the subject of personal salvation. Growth in grace in himself and the spiritual good of others seemed to be his sole desire. The year 1829 was one of great financial embarrassment. Failures were frequent. A friend, on entering Mr. Clap's counting-room one morning, announced that a certain business man, who was owing the firm a considerable amount, had gone under. Mr. Clap knew that that in- volved disaster to himself; but instead of any expressions of grief, he remarked calmly: " This is perhaps in answer to my prayer. I have been praying for greater sanctifica- tion, and God may be taking this method to effect the object."
He never resumed business, but became bookkeeper on a moderate salary. His manner of living being ex-
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tremely simple and inexpensive, he was able to contribute to benevolent objects amounts that were very suggestive to those who had larger incomes but who gave much less. To the American Board and the Home Missionary Society, he paid each not less than one hundred and seventy dollars annually ; and when a special appeal was heard, he would present a special thank-offering. Mrs. Clap, a sister of Mrs. Dr. R. S. Storrs of Braintree, was in full sympathy with her husband.
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