USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 19
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We have already seen that the town had instructed its committee to hire Mr. Parsons's son to preach for a limited time. A special meeting called to
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take action in church matters was held September 13, 1781, and voted to hire Mr. David Parsons for three months longer. Another meeting to con- sider church affairs was held December 17, when the committee was given " a Discretionary power in procuring a preacher " and " Directed as Soon as may be to procure a Candidate." January 7, 1782, the town voted Mr. Parsons " five dollars per Sabbath for thirty-nine Sabbaths," which probably repre- sents the length of time he had supplied the pulpit. In April following there was another special town meeting to take action on church matters, and money was appropriated " to Pay Mr. Ely for his services," and Mr. David Parsons was invited to preach two months " on probation for settlement." Evidently Mr. Parsons was anxious to succeed his father, for that there was a decided opposition to his candidacy can hardly be doubted in view of the subsequent facts. June 17, 1782, the town "Voted, to Concur with the Church in their vote to give Mr. David Parsons an invitation to settle in the Ministry of the Gospel in this town." " Voted, to Grant him three hundred pounds for a settlement, to be paid in the following manner. to wit, one hun- dred pounds within one year after his settlement, and one hundred pounds within two years after his settlement, and one hundred pounds within three years after his settlement ; also to grant him ninety pounds as a salary for the first year after his Settlement, and ninety-five pounds for the second, and one hundred pounds for each year afterwards during his Ministry here." Mr. Parsons was asked to supply the pulpit during his consideration of this offer. Possibly he was not wholly satisfied with the terms offered, for a later meet- ing (July 15) voted "To provide twenty five cords of firewood for Mr. Par- sons the first year, and to add five cords annually until it shall amount to forty cords, which shall be annually provided for him afterward." On the 12th of August, 1782, the citizens met in town meeting, when the following letter was read to them :-
"Gentlemen : Inasmuch as you have passed sundry Votes respecting my encouragement and support in case I should settle with you in the work of the Gospel Ministry, and as it is always expedient that the meaning of the parties in Transactions of this Nature should be well explained and clearly understood to prevent any Dispute or misunderstanding between them after- wards, I beg Leave to express to you my sense of the meaning of your Pro- posals as I understand them which is as follows, (viz.) The several sums which you offer me in Settlement and Salary I understand to be in Silver money, Spanish Milled Dollars at six shillings or other Silver or Gold equiva- lent ; And as for the Payment of my Settlement I understand that you will procure me Real Estate to the value, in case any such can be procured, to my acceptance ; otherwise that you will pay me the money according to your first vote ; And as to the Article of Wood, I understand that the most I am ever to expect is forty Cords of fire wood of good quality in a year, unless the town shall voluntarily make addition on being satisfied that forty Cords is not sufficient for my reasonable use. Give me Leave further to add that I must understand it to be your intent, that no advantage shall ever be taken of any Paper Currency Depreciated, or of due act of Government that may be passed to avoid the fair, honest and equitable intent of the Contract. If this be your
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meaning, as I have expressed my sense of it, and if nothing more than I know of shall appear to prevent, you may expect an Answer in the Affirma- tive to the Church's Call. Your affectionate friend and servant,
" David Parsons."
The town accepted the "foregoing" as "the true intent and meaning" of their votes, and empowered the town treasurer to give security for the payment of the promised settlement. They also voted to pay the expenses of Mr. Parsons's or- dination and chose a committee "with a Discretionary Power to make the usual and Decent Preparations for the ordination " Probably most ministers of the present day would have hesitated even longer than did Mr. Parsons in accept- ing a call to which there was such a bitter opposition ; but Mr. Parsons clearly knew of all the animosity felt towards himself, and as in the words of his let- ter " nothing more than I know of" did " appear," he accepted the call and was ordained as second pastor of the church, October 2, 1782. The brief diary of one who attended the ordination tells us that "Rev. Breck preached ; Hopkins gave charge ; Dana prayed first ; Hubbard, of Northfield, prayed to ordain ; Newton prayed last ; Backus gave right hand." The min- isters thus designated were Rev. Robert Breck, of Springfield ; Rev. Samuel Hopkins, of Hadley ; Rev. John Hubbard, of Northfield; Rev. Roger New- ton, of Greenfield ; and Rev. Simon Backus, of Granby. How long they deliberated, or whether they consulted the opponents of Mr. Parsons, is not apparent.
At the installation it was already evident that it would be impossible to reconcile those who were opposed to Mr. Parsons, to his ministry. The oppo- sition to him was chiefly political in the sense that he had, like his father, failed to sympathize with the spirit which prompted and carried through the Revolutionary war. The majority of the town, as we have already seen, heartily approved that war ; but they had endured throughout almost its en- tire duration a pastor who was strongly opposed to it. Now it was proposed to settle another "Tory" minister, and those who can remember the feelings called forth by the war of 1861-65 will not wonder that the patriotic majority could hardly endure the thought of settling one who sympathized with their enemies in the stern struggle. Coupled with this fact were charges against the christian character of the new pastor, which, whether true or false, tended to prevent a full degree of confidence in him. Evidently Mr. Parsons de- sired the call and wanted to live in Amherst, and many a minister has since sympathized with him in this respect ; but perhaps he would not have ac- cepted his call nor the council have advised his settlement had it not been for the feeling that Amherst was large enough to support two churches, and that it was better that those so completely estranged from one another should be separated ecclesiastically rather than that the old strife as to the location of new meeting-houses and the dividing of the parish should be renewed. It is difficult to see on what other basis Mr. Parsons accepted his call or the coun- cil consented to his settlement. Tradition declares that the opponents of
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Mr. Parsons were so nearly a majority of the town that when the question between the two parties was decided in town meeting, the vote was taken by the two parties passing out of the meeting house and forming in two lines in front of the house, and it was not certain that Mr. Parsons's friends had the larger number in line until almost the last man had taken his place, so nearly were the people evenly divided. At the head of Mr. Parsons's oppo- nents was General Ebenezer Mattoon, who had rendered faithful service in the army during the war, and at this time was one of the influential men of the town, a graduate of Dartmouth college in 1776. He was one of the most ardent "Whigs" and represented Amherst in the state convention at Concord the year of his graduation; was the Amherst delegate to the con- vention of 1779 which forined the state constitution, and was afterwards representative, senator, presidential elector, and member of congress. At the house of this man there met, September 30, 1782, two days before Mr. Par- sons's settlement, an ecclesiastical council "to advise the agrieved party." It was made up of the pastors of Southampton, Williamsburg, Whately, Hat- field, Northampton and Westhampton churches, with a lay delegate from each church except Willianisburg. This council "began to hear " on the evening of September 30th. They continued to "hear and consult " through- out October Ist. The next day they attended Mr. Parsons's installation, and consulted until midnight ; October 3d they came to some unknown result and dissolved. It is probable that this council advised the formation of a new church, for October 15th twenty-two of Mr. Parsons's opponents bound themselves together to form a new church. Another council, composed of clergy and delegates from the churches of Southampton, Montague, Whately, Hatfield and Westhampton met at Amherst Octo- ber 28 and 29, adjourned until November 11, and came to a de- cision November 12. In this decision the council approved an offer now unknown made to Mr. Parsons and his church by his opponents, but consider the proposals made by the church and pastor "unequal and insuffi- cient," and they therefore advised General Mattoon and his associates to proceed with the organization of a new church unless the old church would agree within four weeks to a mutual council. This the old church appears to have declined to do, although the town in special meeting " voted, To Con- cur with the Church in their Vote to invite an Ecclesiastical Council to look into the affairs of the Church and give their advice respecting the Brethren who stile themselves the aggrieved, and have withdrawn themselves from the Communion of the Church." This council was doubtless an exparte council on behalf of the old church, as the former one had been on behalf of the new. In the following year (1783) the legislature formally incorporated " the second church and parish in Amherst," and from that time the reunion of the two churches became impossible, in spite of many efforts made in this direction both during Mr. Parsons's ministry and after his dismissal. It should be said that the old church long claimed that the organization of the new church was
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irregular and therefore void of effect ; that Dr. Parsons refused to recognize their minister as a brother pastor ; and that the old church even went so far as to attempt to " discipline " the members of the second church as being disorderly and unmindful of their covenant obligations to the First church. And it was not until May 21, 1810, twenty-eight years after the trouble began, that the First church formally removed the ecclesiastical censures they had voted upon the members of the Second church. Even at this late day, after the centennial of the Second church has been celebrated, the Amherst visitor may still hear the story of the bitter feelings "the warm contentions and unfriendly dispositions, which were lasting," of which Mr. Judd speaks in his History of Hadley. These have indeed been now long dead and buried ; but their bitterness causes the recital of their curious incidents. It is said that the people of North Amherst, most of whom attended the new church, desired that a new road should be laid out which should enable them to at- tend their church without being obliged to go through the center of the town. This was bitterly opposed in town meeting by the First church people, but was finally voted. When the road was laid out it was the present Triangle street running from the National bank to Henry D. Fearing's residence. The First church people refused to unite in the work of making it, and made it a point of honor never to set foot upon the street. At a muster the command of a company devolved upon an ardent supporter of the Second church, who undertook to march his command through this street, only to find that re- ligious prejudice was more powerful than military obedience, while the de- lighted landlord of the tavern, who was watching the maneuver, offered free liquor to those who fell out of the ranks rather than obey the command to march through the hated street.
The incorporation of the Second Parish marked the end of the town's support of the gospel ordinances, and the history of both these organizations belongs henceforth not to the town as such, but to their respective bodies. It is probable that for some time after the formation of the Second church it was the larger and the stronger body.
The First Congregational church edifice is located on the south side of Main street. This is a stone structure and the fourth building the society has erected. The corner stone was laid September 21, 1867, and the build- ing was completed and dedicated September 23, 1868. The second building was erected in 1788, third in 1828. The society now has 450 members, with Rev. G. S. Dickerman, pastor.
The Second Congregational church has a fine building located on the north side of Main street. It was built in 1839. The society's first church build- ing, erected in 1790, stood in the center of old East street. The society now has 200 members, with Rev. Francis J. Fairbanks, pastor.
The North Congregational Church of Amherst was organized November 15, 1826, and is an enduring monument to the memory of Oliver Dickinson, through whose generosty, zeal and faith the church property was secured, the
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people brought to believe in their own power to sustain a church, and a stream of good influences put in motion. " Landlord Oliver," as his neighbors called the tavern keeper in North Amherst in the early days of the present century, was a man of some property in those days of comparative poverty, and being childless was able to bestow his property where he set his heart; and never was man's heart more firmly " sot " on anything than was his on the church in North Amherst. When he was told by objectors that the little village of farmers could not maintain preaching, even if a church was formed, he replied by drawing up a paper pledging the subscribers to give towards a fund which he desired to have sufficiently large to enable the income to pay the modest salary required for the parson in those days. This paper he headed with a cash subscription of eight hundred dollars, and when he had gathered all the cash subscriptions he could, he headed another paper giving land with the gift of a farm belonging to him, whose value he estimated at a thousand dollars. In this way he gathered the fund which the church still holds, and of which the income only has been used. This fund is not large enough to make the church an entirely free church, but it annually paid one-half of the salary of the first pastor, and at present yields about one-sixth part of the money required to support the church. Its management is entrusted to the care of a board of seven trustees, legally incorporated, who are chosen by the parish and hold office for life. They may be held personally responsible for any loss in the property entrusted to them, and thanks to their wise management the fund remains intact sixty years after its collection.
When Oliver Dickinson was told that the gathering of this fund had ex- hausted the ability of the people, and that it would be impossible to build a meeting-house, he responded by becoming personally liable for every obliga- tion for both material and labor requisite to the building of a convenient house of worship. He personally superintended the entire work, and so closely did he inspect every contribution of the people to the erection of the house that it was said that he "not only examined every shingle and clap- board put upon the house, but also every nail that was to hold them in place, in order to be sure that none but the best were used." His determination was "that from sill to rafter not one crooked or defective timber should enter into the composition of the house of the Lord," and many are the tales told of his contests with " such as would defraud the Lord by bringing to his ser- vice inferior material." When he had built the house of worship, Mr. Dick- inson sold the pews and in this way obtained a partial remuneration for his expenditures. The house was of wood and still remains in use by the church, though it has been several times extensively repaired and its interior aspect greatly changed. Its present value is about eight thousand dollars.
The parish was not organized until after the completion of the meeting- house, and all the pew deeds given by Oliver Dickinson described him as " being sole owner and proprietor of a meeting house lately erected." This exclusive right enabled him to attach to the property two conditions, which
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seemed to him and to his associates proper enough, but will hardly meet the approval of later generations. His desire for " the best " in the house of the Lord extended even to the people who should sit in the pews, and his " im- perative dictation " secured the attachment of the following condition to every pew deed : "that if the said grantee, his heirs or assigns, or any per- son or persons claiming under them, or either of them, shall let the said pew, or any part thereof to any negro or mulatto, or in any way admit any negro or mulatto to the possession or the occupancy of the same, then the said pew or pews, or such share thereof so let or occupied shall in every such case be forfeited and become the property of the other proprietors of said meeting- house."
The second condition attached to the meeting-house by Oliver Dickinson, was one that expressed his extreme dislike of the Unitarian movement then just in the very flush of its early success. He formally deeded the pulpit of the meeting-house to the first pastor of the church and his successor " for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar," upon the express condition that these ministers should themselves believe, and in their preaching should in- culcate the " principles of the gospel as contained in the Westminster Assem- bly's shorter catechism, and if he (the first pastor), or they (his succestors), shall depart from said standard of faith in their preaching' or belief," the deed was to be forfeited. When he deeded his rights in the meeting house to the parish, a similar condition was attached to the conveyance. One of like import was inserted in the rules regulating the control of the church fund, and the communion service was similarly conditioned, being "loaned " to the church while such condition should be observed. Unnec- essary and arbitrary as this last condition may seem to-day, there was a good and sufficient reason for it at that time, inasmuch as there was a large and influential number of persons connected with the parish who were avowedly Unitarians in their sympathies, and had property been given simply to the parish, it would have at once become a bone of contention between the Orthodox and Unitarian brethren. Being placed by this condition out of the reach of such contest, the parish was, from the first, heartily harmonious, and that even the Unitarians felt no grievance was shown by the fact that they gave generously to the new society's treasury, and at the first parish meeting, three of the officers chosen to manage the society's business, were Uuitarians.
It was not until several years had elapsed that the parish was able to change this proviso in the pew deeds, but when the property passed out of the hands of its former "sole owner," and became the property of the in- corporated society, the pew owners surrendered their deeds to the parish and received in return other deeds in which this condition was omitted, and even the once " sole owner and proprietor " was persuaded just before his death, in 1843, to consent to this action of the society. The Sunday before this sketch was written, the pulpit of the same meeting-house was occupied by a
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negro who preached with heartiest acceptance and approbation of a large con- gregation. So greatly do the times change.
When the fund for the support of preaching was thus collected, and the meeting house ready for service, the church was fornially organized and reor- ganized by an ecclesiastical council, November 15, 1826. It consisted of forty- seven members dismissed from the neighboring churches for this purpose. The house was formally dedicated the same day and the next Sunday.
Rev. William W. Hunt began his ministry. He was a young man, a native of the neighboring town of Belchertown. He endeared himself greatly to the people, and after "supplying the pulpit " during the winter, he was form- ally ordained as first pastor of the church the following March. He was a vigorous man, although in feeble health all his time of service here, and the success of the church for the past sixty years is largely due to him for the wise and sure laying of substantial foundations of success. In his ministry of nearly eleven years, he received into church membership one hundred and eleven persons. Mr. Hunt was one of the first and foremost in the early band of abolitionists, and his zeal in this cause brought upon him the only criticisms and ill-will whose memory lives in the traditions of the parish. He died October 5, 1837, and was buried amidst those whom he had loved and served so faithfully.
Rev. George Cooke was his successor, being ordained as second pastor Janu- ary 15, 1839, and continued in office until failing health necessitated his dis- missal, May 20, 1852. Mr. Cooke was a thorough scholar and a faithful pas- tor. One hundred and five persons joined the church during his ministry, and his interest in the young, his influence in the town which he served as a committee on school management, and the general love and confidence which he won from all who knew him, were all of great advantage to the church which still cherishes most warmly a love for its second pastor, although thirty- four years have elapsed since his dismissal. Mr. Cooke became president of the University of East Tennessee, after leaving North Amherst, and now re- sides with his only child at Winchester, Mass.
The successors of pastors Hunt and Cooke have not continued in office as long as these early workers in the church, but the church has never lacked for both able and successful ministers. The names of subsequent pastors are, Rev. George E. Fisher (1852-1857), in whose ministry occurred the greatest revival of the church's history, ninety persons being added to the church in a single year ; Rev. John W. Underhill (1859-1862), whose work was cut short by his early death ; Rev. Daniel H. Rogan (1865-1866), now pastor of a Unitarian church in Athol, Mass .; Rev. William D. Herrick (1867-1874), whose ministry witnessed another powerful revival, bringing over fifty into the church; Rev. George F. Humphrey (1875-1875), whose troubled pastorate lasted but a single year. The present pastor of the church is Rev. George H. Johnson, a native of Worcester, Mass., and a graduate of Harvard col- lege. This is his first pastorate, and he is now in his eighth year of service,
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having commenced his labors here in September, 1878. He has received eighty three persons into the church, his ministry having been blessed with a revival of religious interest in the winter of 1884-1885. Mr. Johnson has taken great interest in the local history of North Amherst, and his researches have recovered to knowledge many little but interesting items concerning the early history of the church and village, which were fast passing into oblivion by the death of one after another of those who had attained to advanced age.
The South Congregational church, located at South Amherst, was organized October 24, 1824, and re-organized in 1858. The society was organized with forty-eight members and now has one hundred and fifty-five. Their church building, a wooden structure, was erected in 1825, re-modeled in 1843, and quite extensively repaired at other times, so that it is now valued at about $5,000.00, and will accommodate about 250 persons. The society's pastors have been as follows : Revs. H. B. Chapin, 1825-29; Aaron Gates, 1832- 37 ; Gideon Dana, 1838-40 ; Dana Goodsell, 1841-46; James L. Merrick, 1849 -- 64; Walter Barton, 1864-66 ; George Lyman, 1869-73, F. B. Pullan, 1875 ; Charles S. Walker, 1876, the present pastor.
The Baptist church, located on Pleasant street, was organized as a branch of the New Salem and Prescott church, November 8, 1827, removed its con- nection from the church in New Salem and Prescott to the church in North- ampton in October, 1830, and was re-organized as the " First Baptist Church of Christ in Amherst," August 3, 1832. It then had forty members, and the first pastor was Rev. Mason Bell. The church building was erected soon after the organization and is still in use, though it has been extensively repaired and remodeled several times. The society is now in a flourishing condition, with Rev. Jonathan Childs, pastor.
The Grace Episcopal church, located on Maple street, was organized by Bishop Huntington, September 12, 1864, with thirty-seven members. The first rector was Rev. S. P. Parker, D.D., who was installed January 11, 1864. Services were held in the hall of the old academy until March 2, 1866, when they moved into the basement of their new church, which was consecrated on September Ist of the same year. This is a handsome stone edifice capable of seating four hundred and eighty persons. It cost, including grounds, etc., $40,000.00, about its present value. The society now has one hundred mem- bers, with Rev. Samuel Snelling, rector.
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