USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 24
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Among his literary labors are, Life of Dr. John Lord ; Choir Boy of York Cathedral; Masterpieces of Michael Angelo and Milton; also articles in the Century Maga- zine and Andover Review. He has been a contributor to the Congregationalist and the Watchman.
9. REV. FRANCIS BROWN PERKINS.
Mr. Perkins was born in Boston, August 7, 1832. Upon joining the church in 1854, one feature of his tes- timony was substantially this : Ascribing the great spiritual change in his case to the Holy Spirit, evinced by simple reliance on Christ as Mediator and King, by a glad ac- ceptance of God's sovereignty, and by new tastes and aims. He graduated at our Latin School, at Williams College, and in 1858 at the Andover Theological Semi- nary. His first installation as pastor was in Montague, Massachusetts. After service as a chaplain of the Tenth Massachusetts Volunteers (1863-1864), and also as agent of the Christian Commission, he became pastor of the Mather Church, now Central Church, Jamaica Plain, and remained six years in that connection (1864-1870), which was followed by an agency, of four years, in behalf of the New England Branch of the American Tract Society. A pastorate of five years in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and pastorates in California - brief on account of poor health - have been held.
Besides contributing to papers and magazines, Mr. Perkins has delivered a course of lectures on foreign
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missions to students of the Theological Seminary at Oakland, California. His ideal of the Christian ministry - its spirit, method, sphere, limitations, expansions, and achievements - is found in Paul's condensed statement, " Separated unto the Gospel of God."
IO. REV. EDWARD ANDERSON.
Second son of Dr. Rufus Anderson, and born in Boston, November 19, 1833, was ordained October 13, 1858. Mr. Anderson has served as pastor or pulpit sup- ply in not less than fifteen different places, as follows :
St. Joseph, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Michigan City, Indiana; East Cleveland and Ashtabula, Ohio; Jamestown, New York; Olney and Quincy, Illinois ; Cleveland, Toledo, and Columbus, Ohio; Norwalk and Danielsonville, Connecticut; and again in Illinois; also in Quincy, Massachusetts. In several instances the period was brief. In 1862, Mr. Anderson was an officer in the Union Army.
II. REV. ABBOTT ELIOT KITTREDGE, D. D.
Dr. A. E. Kittredge was born in Roxbury, July 20, 1834. After studying at the Roxbury Latin School, Williams College, and Andover Theological Seminary, Dr. Kittredge was pastor of the Winthrop Church, Charlestown (1859-1863); spent fifteen months in Europe and the East; preached for six months in San Francisco; was in charge of the Presbyterian Church, East 55th
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Street, New York (1865-1870); and of the Third Presby- terian Church, Chicago (1870-1886); has been pastor of the Madison Avenue Reformed Church, New York, since 1886.
Dr. Kittredge states that his grandmother prayed him into the ministry; and that, hard as its duties are, he accounts every one of them a privilege. Writing on my eighty-sixth birthday, Dr. Kittredge says: "I want, my dear pastor, to express to you how much I am indebted to your faithful interest in me, and to your preaching of the Word. I remember perfectly when you came to Rox- bury, remember your ordination, and I can recall many of your sermons, though sometimes I confess I used to get my head in mother's lap, and sleep through the ser- vice. I can recall the days when you stayed at our house, and our happiness in listening to your words as we learned to know and love you. In fact, next to my father and mother, you have done more for my spiritual character, more in shaping my life, than any one else, and I wish to assure you of my gratitude, and of my love for you, and my earnest prayers, that in the autumn of your earthly life there may be always an increasing joy and peace, as you walk leaning on the Beloved."
12. JAMES WINCHEL GRUSH.
Of those born in Roxbury who have entered the ministry, Mr. Grush was one; and between 1831, the year of his nativity, and the fatal paralysis of 1896, there were
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sixty-five years. During that period he exhibited, to an unusual degree, amiability, modesty, and fidelity in various relations. But at seventeen he became deeply convinced of heart-sinfulness, and the need of regeneration by the Holy Spirit; desires for pardoning grace and for holiness were awakened, and after a time he made public profes- sion of faith in Christ. Preparatory studies were pursued at the East Windsor Hill Academy, Connecticut, and he graduated from Williams College, 1858. For pecuniary reasons he engaged in teaching at two different times, first as principal of the academy in Spencertown, New York, and afterwards as principal of a similar institution in Canton of the same state (1861 to 1864). Having in the meantime spent two years at the Theological Institute of Connecticut, he was ordained at North Potsdam, New York, 1864, afterwards becoming pastor at Hopkinton (1866 to 1872); then successively at Chateau, Cambria, and Perry Centre, New York. Failure of health in 1893 obliged him to give up ministerial labors. He was regis- trar, for eight years each, of the Ontario and Wyoming Associations. Large delegations from his former parishes came to his funeral, and their presence testified with emphasis to his worth.1
Mr. Grush carried through life a warm attachment for the Eliot Church, and in 1892 took special pains to be present at the Jubilee. After referring on that occa- sion to the fourteen individuals who had become ministers
I Hartford Seminary Record. Vol. VII. No. 4. 1897.
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of the Word, he closed by saying: "Such are some of the trees that have grown from seed planted by the teachings of this fruitful pastorate. Who can tell what a power for good such an institution as Olivet College has been, and may continue to be, sending forth year by year young men and women to be ministers and teachers, physicians and missionaries, each of whom shall become in turn a center of influence to be multiplied indefinitely ? Who can compute the influence of a professorship in a theological seminary, or of a single pulpit, in building up the cause of Christ in the world? Yet this power in all these varied directions has been exerted by this church, in this pastorate, through these standard-bearers in their respective fields. And when all these influences shall have been exerted to their utmost limit, and when the harvest shall come and all the sheaves shall be gathered into the garner, then will we all be glad indeed to have our beloved pastor of fifty years tell us what is his 'joy and crown.' But then we shall unite in singing in more perfect harmony than is possible here, 'Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.'"
I 3. REV. ISAAC CURTIS MESERVE, D.D.
The Meserves came from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, where the name is spelled Messervy. Roxbury was Mr. Meserve's birthplace, March 27, 1847. After en-
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joying the advantages of our public schools, and having joined the Eliot Church (1866), he graduated at the Hart- ford Theological Seminary (1869). He was soon called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Port- land, Connecticut, and two years later to the same relation to the State Street Church, Brooklyn, New York. Instal- lation as pastor of the Davenport Church, New Haven, Connecticut, took place in 1874, where he remained for twenty-three years and over. During that time there was an accession of a thousand and fifty members, a majority of them on confession of faith.
Dr. Meserve is now in charge of the Craven Hill Congregational Church, London, connected with which are important members in public life, two of them members of Parliament. It is a gratifying recollection that Mr. Meserve, accompanied by his father and a brother, called at my house to take counsel in regard to his preparing for the Christian ministry. He is probably now the only son of New England who holds a pastorate in Old England.
14. REV. ALFRED HENRY HALL.
Like a good many others, Mr. Hall's bright and use- ful career was arrested at meridian. Many were the friends who remarked at once, How mysterious! He was a son of Deacon Samuel W. Hall, and was born in Boston March 7, 1845. Our Roxbury Latin School gave him preparation for college, and he graduated at Harvard with
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the class of 1867. From early childhood he had been in the habit of formally repeating prayers; but during college life and in connection with the earnest appeal of a fellow- student, there came a religious crisis, and religious exer- cises took on a new character. After graduation from college, two years were spent as tutor of a young man traveling in Europe. A visit to Egypt and Palestine having been made, he studied at Andover, graduating from the Theological Seminary in 1873. Then came a pastorate of four years with the First Congregational Church, Meriden, Connecticut, followed by a similar ser- vice with the Centre Church of that city, from 1880 to his decease, 1891. He was an earnest, energetic, cheer- ful, high-minded man. He contributed articles to religious periodicals, such as the Sunday School Times and the Bibliotheca Sacra, as well as to secular journals. He de- livered lectures before the Meriden Scientific Association.
There was an obvious fitness in Mr. Hall's being one of the delegates to the International Congregational Council in London (1891); and his sermons during the visit to Plymouth, England, were recognized as impres- sive. Ancestral element as well as local memories con- tributed inspiration. On his mother's side Mr. Hall came of Massachusetts Plymouth stock, she being a lineal de- scendant from John Alden. Her paternal grandfather, Abraham Knowlton, was an officer in the Revolutionary War and suffered losses by the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexington. It is noteworthy that both lines of Mr.
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Hall's ancestry have, through successive generations, fur- nished deacons, Sunday School superintendents, and active workers in Congregational churches.
15. REV. GEORGE ROSS HEWITT.
He is one of a considerable number who have been welcome accessions from Scotland. Glasgow was the place of his nativity, November 4, 1851, though it was not till 1869 that he came to Boston. Here he found not only an adopted country, but adoption into the household of faith. As is not unfrequently the case, new spiritual life brought with it seemingly new intellectual life, a waking up of the mental faculties, which was scarcely less marked than the changed direction of their activity. Works of fiction gave place to religious reading, and above all to the Bible. Some of the books read had quotations and foot-notes in foreign tongues, which served to tantalize and at the same time to awaken a strong desire for a knowledge of Latin, Greek, and French. It was sug- gested to him that at Phillips Academy, Andover, he would find the desired instruction, and perhaps he might be called to the Christian ministry. Three years were accordingly spent there, and the full college course taken at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1883. The usual curriculum at the Hartford Theological Seminary served to check and correct an obliquity touching lib- eralism, so called, to which, perhaps, all are liable at Harvard.
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Mr. Hewitt's first installed pastorate was in North Bennington, Vermont; next one of about five years, in connection with the First Church, West Springfield ; and in 1894 he came to the Calvinistic Congregational Church in Fitchburg. He now supplies the pulpit of the Eliot Church, Lowell, Massachusetts. "With my whole heart," says Mr. Hewitt, "I thank God that I am where I am, and it is all by his grace that I am what I am." He has not ceased being thankful that, contrary to his purpose at the outset of preparation for the ministry, in- stead of a short course on account of his age, he was advised and followed the advice to take the more usual and completer course of study, which he would recom- mend to all under similar circumstances.
It may be added that it was the writer's practice when visiting our Sunday School, to remind teachers that the school should be not only a nursery for church mem- bership, but also for the Christian ministry, both in home and foreign service. There was occasional remembrance of this subject in public prayer. It is also well to aid, by loans without interest, or in other ways, young men of promise, who seem to be called of God to prepare for the sacred office. Less than a year ago I received a let- ter from Dr. Edwards A. Park, in which he gives the following incident. Referring to the Rev. William Green- ough of Newton, Massachusetts, Dr. Park says: " Pro- fessor Shedd was the son of a man resident in Newton, and Mr. Greenough interested himself in sending the
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boy to college, and he defrayed part of his expenses at college. The boy was named William Greenough Thayer Shedd. Professor Stowe was the son of a farmer in Natick, near Newton. Mr. Greenough interested him- self in Stowe's obtaining an education with the hope of his becoming a minister. The three Andover professors were conversing together when Shedd made the remark, ' But for Father Greenough I should not have been a minister.' I said, 'But for Father Greenough I should not have been a minister.' Professor Stowe said, 'How is that? It was Father Greenough who made me a minister.' "
CHAPTER XXVII.
MINISTERIAL COLLEAGUES.
I. MRS. HANNAH C. BOWLES WOLFF.
ELDEST daughter of Stephen J. Bowles, and born in Machias, Maine, 1827. Her family Bible, as well as other sources of information, traces her lineage to Sarah Eliot -a granddaughter of John Eliot, the Apostle so called, -who married John Bowles of Roxbury. Mrs. Wolff's education was pursued here; and like a good many other young women, she studied Latin as well as modern lan- guages and history with Mr. Charles K. Dillaway. Atten- tion was also given to painting in oils. She joined the Eliot Church in 1850, and the same year married the Rev. Philip Wolff, a Genevese clergyman, who came to this country to labor among the French people. After a year's residence in New Orleans her doctor insisted that she could not live in that climate, and the family removed to Montreal, where Mr. Wolff was for a time pastor of a church and had a missionary agency among French Canadians. In 1868 the family went to Europe and re- mained two years. Upon their return one of the two sons entered Amherst College, and the mother died in Amherst, June 17, 1871. She was a woman of marked excellence of character, and was much beloved by those who knew her. That son, Dr. Henry A. Wolff, has been
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a practicing physician at Kimberley and elsewhere in South Africa. The other son is a professor in Cambridge Uni- versity.
The Wolff family lived in the Palatinate and Alsace. Mr. Philip Wolff's father was an aid and military secre- tary to Napoleon in the earlier period of his campaigns, but withdrew and settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where he married; and with Malan, d'Aubigné, and other Prot- estants, was devoted to the interests of the Église Libre.
2. MRS. SARAH P. GULLIVER PRATT.
Mrs. Pratt is a descendant of Anthony Gulliver, who emigrated to New England and settled at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1645. A noteworthy incident is found in the annals of this ancestry. Her paternal grandfather, who was actively engaged throughout the Revolutionary War, was one of the " Minutemen " in the battle at Lex- ington, and her maternal grandmother, then a little girl, was occupied all that day in carrying food and coffee to - the " Minutemen," Gershom Gulliver one of them. Some years afterwards she married Henry Putnam, a nephew of General Israel Putnam. Readiness to serve others and to serve their country has characterized descendants from that union of families which were thus represented on the memorable nineteenth of April, 1775. Happily such service has in later years been, for the most part, in the line of peaceful ministries. Her father, Mr. John Gulli- ver, a Boston merchant, was well known as a man of great kindliness and benevolence.
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Mrs. Pratt's birth and education were in Boston. The family having removed to Philadelphia, the only daughter, Sarah Putnam, there married Rev. Dr. Lewellyn Pratt, who, after graduating from Williams College (1852), taught the deaf in Philadelphia and Washington. He became a professor in the Gallaudet College at the last named city ; then a professor in Knox College, Illinois, after which he was installed pastor of the Congregational Church at North Adams, Massachusetts. The five years in that position were followed by successive services as professor of rhetoric in Williams College, professor of practical theology at the Hartford Theological Seminary, and pastor of the Broadway Church, Norwich, Connecticut, from 1888 onward. In all these relations Dr. Pratt has had an " Help meet for him," and the same may be said of other ministers whose names here follow.
3. MRS. SUSAN M. HUNTINGTON PERKINS.
Mrs. Perkins, who came of a long line of honored Christian ancestry, including John Eliot on the mother's side, and Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, on the father's side, was born in New York City, June 22, 1835. When the family removed to Boston (1850) she attended the private school of Rev. Solomon Adams for a time, and afterwards, for three or four years, that of Mrs. Prof. B. B. Edwards in Andover, who always spoke of her with the greatest interest. She was baptized in infancy under the name of Susan Mansfield, thus reminding of
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her maternal grandmother, wife of the Rev. Mr. Hunting- ton, pastor of the Old South Church, whose memoir was written by Dr. Wisner. In traits and excellence of char- acter Mrs. Perkins resembled that grandparent. From early childhood she exhibited rare amiability, unselfishness, and conscientiousness. The parents had no occasion to reprove her for known indulgence in wrongdoing, and they regarded her as a Christian from the days of infancy. A more lovely young woman never joined the Eliot Church, nor perhaps any other church.
In 1859 she became the wife of Rev. Francis B. Perkins, who held pastorates successively in Montague, Jamaica Plain, Grantville, and Stockbridge, Massachusetts; also at different places in California. As might be ex- pected, she was discreet, faithful, and earnest, deeply interested in the Woman's Board of Missions, as well as other benevolent objects, and led her four children not only to reverence, but to love the Lord's Day. Final sickness came in May, 1878, and she could say most sincerely :
" I know not the way I am going,
But well do I know my guide."
4. MRS. ELIZABETH G. STRONG.
The only daughter of Rev. David M. Mitchell, and was born in Waldoboro, Maine. At ten years of age she became hopefully a Christian, and later joined the High Street Church in Portland, then in charge of Dr.
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John Chickering. The family removed to Roxbury in 1852, and became members of the Eliot Church. The pastor and committee were impressed by the bright and cheerful tone of Miss Mitchell's piety, evidently colored by the very pleasing qualities of native character. Among noteworthy statements made at the time were such as these: "Increasingly deeper conviction of sin;" " Enjoy- ment of self-denial in the service of Christ."
As the wife of Dr. E. E. Strong she had great enjoy- ment and usefulness during his six years' pastorate from 1859 onward, at South Natick; and after that the twelve years' pastorate in Waltham. Then came Dr. Strong's valued service -now for a score of years-in connection with the American Board. Mrs. Strong had been made a life member of the Woman's Board of Missions soon after its organization, and in 1880 was elected to its Ex- ecutive Board, of which she is a vice-president. As one of the designated correspondents, she has come into familiar personal relations with about two-score ladies in foreign lands.
5. MRS. SARAH ELIZABETH BOARDMAN.
Sarah Elizabeth Greene, a daughter of the Rev. David Greene, was eleven years of age when the family, owing to the state of Mr. Greene's health, left Roxbury (1849), which was her native place. The destruction of their house by fire at Westborough, three years later, occasioned their removal to Windsor, Vermont, where
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her first church connection was formed (1853). In 1861 she became the wife of Rev. Samuel W. Boardman, at that time Professor of Rhetoric and Metaphysics in Mid- dlebury College. The next year he was called to the pastorate of the Second Presbyterian Church, Auburn, New York, a relation which continued for sixteen years. Other similar relations were formed elsewhere, but after serving six years as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Stanhope, New Jersey, Dr. Boardman resigned (1889) to become President of Maryville College, Tennessee, a position still held.
Mrs. Boardman speaks of an abiding affection for the Eliot Church and its pastor; and among other things, mentions a certificate of having learned the Assembly's Shorter Catechism before leaving Roxbury.
6. MRS. HANNAH T. FENN.
A daughter of Mr. John A. McGaw, who was promi- nent among the early members of our church, and a grandson of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. On the mother's side, Mrs. Fenn is a descendant of Major Goffe, for whom Goffstown, New Hampshire, was named. She was born in Boston; at- tended Dr. Bumstead's private school in Roxbury, and afterwards (1848) the Spingler Institute in New York. In 1862 came her marriage to Dr. William H. Fenn, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, a graduate of Yale College and Andover Theological Seminary, whose first pastorate
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was one of eight years with the Franklin Street Church, Manchester, New Hampshire, followed by his service in Portland, Maine, as pastor of the High Street Church, from 1866 to the present time. His immediate predeces- sor, Dr. Chickering, was in the same connection for thirty years, while Dr. Fenn has already remained there for a third of a century -pastor and people an ensample all too rare at this day.
Since fifteen years of age, Mrs. Fenn has taught in Sunday Schools, the first being a German Mission School in New York. Dr. John Hall of New York, finding her still with a class in Portland, said, "I am glad, Mrs. Fenn, to see you in your proper place, where you belong." In childhood, at the Eliot Church she heard a good deal about foreign missions; and sitting beside her father at church, was not a little interested to see him sign slips for subscription to that cause when they were passed around. For a quarter of a century Mrs. Fenn has been the valued President of the Maine Branch of the Woman's Board, and is also President of the Board of Managers of the Portland Orphan Asylum, and holds official positions in other connections.
7. MRS. MARY ANDERSON STREET.
Daughter of Rev. Dr. Rufus Anderson, Roxbury being the native place (1838); educated at the Roxbury High School and the Young Ladies' School of Miss Hannah Lyman, Montreal, Canada; and united with the
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Eliot Church in 1858. Though religiously trained, there had been no real love of religious duties till there came a great change, attributed to the Spirit and grace of God. Novels then lost their charm, the Bible became a new book, and service rendered to the Master became a joy.
As the wife of Rev. George E. Street she has had acquaintance with pastoral life, first in Wiscasset, Maine (1864-1871), and then in Exeter, New Hampshire, from 1871 onward. Service in the same connection for nearly thirty years is one of comparatively rare occurrence at the close of this nineteenth century. Mrs. Street holds the pen of a ready writer. Among published productions, and before marriage, she wrote, after accompanying her parents on their official visit to the Pacific, Scenes in the Hawaiian Islands and California. Recently appeared, The Street Genealogy, a work of over five hundred pages, with several illustrations, being a history of Rev. Nicholas Street -one of the founders of Taunton, Massachusetts, and of New Haven, Connecticut -and his descendants, as well as others bearing the same name.
8. MRS. JANE PERKINS CHILDS.
Mrs. Childs is of the old New England stock, a descendant from Quartermaster Perkins, who came with his father and brother to Boston in 1629. They were fellow-passengers with Roger Williams. From that day to the present the head of each family in direct descent has been a church member. Her parents were Benjamin
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