USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections, Vol. II > Part 41
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In the autumn of 1812 he was called to supply preaching for the Second Baptist society in Woodstock, Connecticut, and in the spring following was engaged as the pastor of that society, and ordained, August 28, 1813.
He continued this pastorate about three years, giving en- tire satisfaction to his people.
While discharging his pastoral duties in Woodstock, he
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was invited to preach for the Union society in Southbridge, including various denominations that continued worship in the old parish church after the Congregationists withdrew. This was in the spring of 1816, a short time after the town was incorporated.
There were a number of members of other Baptist churches in adjoining towns who had not withdrawn their membership from those connections, and were desirous of uniting in one church here. Mr. Angell accepted this invitation to preach to these united people, and soon after was requested by them, without distinction of any religious denomination, to become their pastor. He accepted this call with the distinct under- standing that he should be settled as a Baptist clergyman ; which condition being agreed to, he began his pastorate, June 1, 1816. He organized a Baptist church here, January 29, 1817, with 26 members.
During the first two years of his services he suffered the affliction of losing his wife and his two children. In 1819 he married Rebecca Thorndike, daughter of Paul Thorndike, of Dunstable, Massachusetts. By this wife he had one child, a son, George T. Angell, Esq., who is now engaged in the profession of the law in Boston, Massachusetts. He continued his ser- vices in great harmony with this church and society to the time of his decease, Sunday, February 18, 1827, aged 42.
His widow, Mrs. Rebecca T. Angell, survived him over 40 years. She died at Townshend, Vermont, June 16, 1868.
REV. ADDISON PARKER.
Rev. Mr. Parker was the successor of Rev. George Angell.
He was born in Cavendish, Vermont, in 1797. His prepa- ration for college was under the care of Rev. Ruel Lathrop and Rev. Abial Fisher, graduating at Middlebury college, Vermont, in 1825.
He was ordained at Southbridge, August 18, 1827, and con- tinued his services here to the satisfaction of this society, until
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December 2, 1832, when, at his request, he was dismissed. He was then invited by the Baptist church in Sturbridge, and became their pastor, and subsequently was pastor of Baptist churches as follows : Methuen, Massachusetts ; Danbury and Stamford, Connecticut ; and at Three Rivers and Agawam, in Massachusetts. He died at the latter place, October 15, 1864, aged sixty-seven.
The following remarks upon the life and character of the Rev. Mr. Parker are found in the sixty-second annual report of the Massachusetts Baptist convention, for the year 1864, pp. 55-57 :
"He was a man of positive faith, distinct and clear in his doctrinal utterances; vivid and conciliatory in his mode of address; a lover of good men and all good objects, and honored of God as an instrument in turning many unto righteousness."
During his pastoral labors he baptized in the aggregate 340 persons, of whom twenty-five were the fruits of his last sum- mer's labors at Agawam.
REV. DAVID C. BOLLES.
Rev. Mr. Bolles succeeded Rev. Addison Parker. He was installed, May 12, 1833, and continued his pastorate until May 1, 1835. His health, never firm, suffering from the climate, he was dismissed, at his own request, and settled in Ohio. He became pastor at different places in that State, to wit, Gran- ville, Athens, and Jackson, where he died, April 20, 1840 ; his widow continued her residence at that place when last heard from.
Rev. David Charles Bolles, born at Ashford, Connecticut, February 2, 1793, married Frances Mather, daughter of Eleazer Mather, of Brooklyn, Connecticut, November 5, 1821. He was edneated for the bar, and was clerk of the courts in Windham county for several years. He then studied theology
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at Newton seminary, was ordained a Baptist minister, and fol- lowed that profession until his decease as above.
" He was a ripe scholar and a genial Christian. During his ministry at Southbridge there was unanimity and much prosperity. Ile was not so much distinguished by the power of his delivery as by his well- digested sermons, urbane deportment, and the spirit of love by which he sought to win men to the Cross."
His father was Judge David Bolles, the son of Rev. David and Susanna Bolles, born in Ashford, Connecticut, September 26, 1765 ; he married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Dow, November 12, 1786. He died in Ashford, May 22, 1830. She died, December 16, 1833. There were eight children, Susan, Elizabeth, David Charles-the subject of this notice- Armin, Lorenzo, Marcia, and Asa, and an infant surviving four days. Rev. David C. and wife had seven children : Julia A., David C., Junior, William M., Francis M., Hannah W., John, and Asa. His ancestry was among the first settlers in Connecticut.
REV. JOSEPH G. BINNEY.
Rev. Mr. Binney succeeded Rev. David C. Bolles in the pastorate of the First Baptist church in this town, and was in- stalled, August 23, 1835. He remained in the discharge of his duties here, greatly to the satisfaction of this society, until August 21, 1837, when, at his request, he was dismissed. His health failing, he sought a milder climate. He removed to Georgia, and was engaged as pastor of a Baptist church in Savannah, and, in 1843, was appointed missionary to Bur- mah, and sailed with his wife for that country in Novem- ber. He returned from Burmah in 1850, on account of the ill-health of Mrs. Binney, and soon after became pastor of a church at Elmira, New York. His health suffering here from the severity of the climate, he removed again to Georgia,
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and became pastor of a church in Augusta, in that State. Leaving there, he for a time filled the office of president of Columbian college, District of Columbia. In the year 1858 he was again engaged for service in Burmah, and left for that station ; when, after several years service, he returned to re- eruit his health in this country. While in Burmah he became the head of a theological school ; and in the year 1866, for the third time, has gone to his post in Burmah, and is now sup- posed to be laboring in the missionary service in that country. Mr. Binney was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 1, 1807. He received a collegiate education at Yale, and pre- pared for the ministry at the Newton Theological institute. His first settlement as pastor was over the Baptist church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Quoting the remarks of a brother minister who subsequently was pastor of the Baptist church in Southbridge :
" He was an ardent lover of this church. He planned wisely for its growth. He organized the discordant elements into a healthy unity, and in his pastorate much good was accomplished.
" His memory is very fragrant among this people, and Southbridge will ever esteem him for his works of faith and labors of love."
Rev. Joseph G. Binney was married in Providence, at the residence of Rev. R. E. Pattison, D. D., in October, 1833, to Miss Juliet Pattison, daughter of Rev. William Pattison and his wife, Sarah, born in West Haven, Vermont, October 15, 1808. She was baptized by Dr. R. E. Pattison, and joined the First Baptist church, Providence, Rhode Island, in the spring of 1831:
"From early childhood she was physically frail, but this impediment was more than compensated by the quickness of her intellect. Though few of her early associates lost as much time from study as she, yet such was her facility of acquisition and her habit of using all left to her, that she rarely found her equal as a scholar. Though her education was fre- quently interrupted, and her teachers, except what she obtained at home, were often unskillful, yet at the age of twenty-one she was a com- petent and successful associate principal in the Charlestown female sem-
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inary, of which Miss Whiting was for so many years the distinguished head. Religion changed the sweetness of her spirit and manners but little. It gave a new character to her motives of life. It was the basis of all that has made her for so many years a valuable assistant to her hus- band in his present missionary work in India."
REV. SEWALL S. CUTTING.
Rev. Mr. Cutting succeeded Rev. J. G. Binney, as the fifth pastor of the First Baptist church in Southbridge.
He was born at Windsor, Vermont, Jannary 13, 1813. His father was Sewall Cutting, merchant, then of that town, after- wards for many years of Westport, New York, where he died, in 1855. His grandfather was Jonas Cutting, of Weathersfield, Vermont, colonel of the 25th United States infantry, in the War of 1812. His remotest American ancestor was Richard Cutting, who emigrated from England in 1634, at the age of eleven years, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. The mother of Sewall S. Cutting was Mary Hunter, daughter of William Hunter (whose father, David Hunter, had emigrated from Sharon, Connecticut, to Fort Edward, New York, where he died about 1763), who settled in Windsor just before the Revolution, and spent a long life in honorable publie service, as judge, counselor, and member of Congress. During the Revolution, then a young man, he was a subaltern officer, and was promoted for good conduct at St. John's, and offered further promotion after the retreat from Quebec, which he declined. His father, David, was the son of Jonathan Hunter, who married Hopestill Hamlin, of Rochester, Massachusetts. Jonathan came to America early in the 18th century.
Sewall S. Cutting married, September 14, 1836, Evelina Charlotte, eldest daughter of Gardner Stow, then of Keese- ville, New York, afterwards of Troy, and attorney-general of the State. He died, June, 1866. The issue of this mar- riage was Gardner Stow Cutting, born at Southbridge, April 18, 1838. He graduated at the university of Rochester,
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1858, and studied law in the office of his grandfather, at Troy.
Mrs. Evelina C. S. Cutting died at Southbridge, June 12, 1839. The second wife of Sewall S. Cutting was Elizabeth, widow of Thomas W. Waterman, and daughter of Hugh H. Brown, printer and publisher, of Providence, Rhode Island. They were married, May 3, 1841. Her father was son of Jeremiah, and grandson of Governor Elisha Brown, a descend- ant of Chad Brown, first pastor of the first Baptist church in Providence. Churchill Hunter Cutting, issue of this marriage, was born at Southbridge, September, 1842, and was bred to the business of a merchant, and is now of the house of Samuel Slater & Sons, in New York.
Sewall S. Cutting was educated at Waterville college and the university of Vermont, graduate of the latter, A. B., 1835, A. M., 1840, and D. D., 1859. He was ordained pastor of the Baptist church, West Boylston, Massachusetts, March 31, 1836, and installed pastor of the First Baptist church in South- bridge, September 25, 1837. Resigning at Southbridge in 1845, he became editor of The New York Recorder, which office he continued until the sale of the paper in 1850, when he took the corresponding secretaryship of the American and Foreign Bible society, remaining in that office till the autumn of 1851, when he resigned to become connected with the edito- rial department of The Watchman and Reflector, Boston. He was principal editor, likewise, of The (quarterly) Christian Review, from 1850 to 1853. In 1853 he resumed his connec- tion with The New York Recorder, as editor, till 1855, when he became professor of rhetoric and history in the university of Rochester, which position he filled about twelve years. Since, he has been retained by the Baptist denomination as an agent in the cause of education in favor of a learned ministry, and for the encouragement of young men of education, to enter upon this profession among the churches of this faith ; he ably fills that office.
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REV. C. P. GROSVENOR.
Mr. Grosvenor accepted the invitation of those members who continued under the name of the First Baptist church in Southbridge, after the major part withdrew and formed the Central Baptist church ; and continued their pastor about two years, when the old church became extinet. He commenced his pastorate with that part of the First church in 1842. After they discontinued their regular Sabbath services, those who remained in the town, many of them, united again with their brethren of the Central church.
REV. TIMOTHY G. FREEMAN.
Mr. Freeman, the successor of Dr. Cutting, was installed, October 15, 1845, and was dismissed, at his request, March 1, 1847. He came to this society and church from the city of Hudson, New York, and after he removed from this town was for a time pastor of a Baptist church in Mississippi.
REV. OAKMAN S. STEARNS, D. D.
Rev. Mr. Stearns was the successor of Rev. Timothy G. Freeman ; he was ordained as pastor of the Central Baptist church, Southbridge, May 19, 1847, and dismissed, at his re- quest, on account of the failure of his health, May 30, 1854, and soon after became the pastor of the Kinney-Street Baptist church, Newark, New Jersey. The climate there not proving favorable, he resigned his pastorate, September 16, 1855. He was called to the pastorate of the Baptist church at Newton Centre, Massachusetts, the same year, and continued to labor with that church, with great harmony and success, until he accepted (by the solicitation of the board of trustees of the Newton Theological institute) the office of professor of Biblical literature and interpretation in the same, when he resigned, June 30, 1869.
He is a native of Bath, Maine ; son of Rev. Silas Stearns,
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pastor for thirty years of the Baptist church in that town ; he was born, October 20, 1817, and was a graduate of Waterville college, Maine, in 1840 ; and of the Newton Theological in- stitute, in 1846.
Dr. Stearns was married to Anna Judson Grafton, daughter of Rev. Benjamin C. Grafton, June 8, 1847; she died at Southbridge, April 1, 1848, aged 21 years. He married his second wife, Hannah Jane Beecher, of Southbridge, Decem- ber 2, 1850, daughter of William and Hannah Ammidown Beecher, of that town.
The children by this marriage are: William Oakman Stearns, born on November 18, 1855 ; Annie Beecher Stearns, born, July 5, 1859; and Charles Kinmouth Stearns, born, January 6, 1864.
He is now, 1872, discharging the duties of his professorship at the Theological institute at Newton.
REV. SHUBAL STILES PARKER.
Rev. Mr. Parker, who was pastor of the Central Baptist church in Southbridge, about twelve years, was born in Rus- sell, Massachusetts, May 7, 1821. His parents moved at an early period of his life to New York city, where he received a good academic education. At sixteen he taught school at Southwick, Massachusetts, one term in the winter. Then en- gaged for three years as a clerk with a hardware firm in New York. At nineteen was converted during a very extensive revival which prevailed among the churches in the upper part of that city, and joined the Sixteenth-Street Baptist church, under the pastoral care of Rev. Alonzo Wheelock. Enter- taining views of duty with reference to the ministry, entered in the antnmn of 1841 the academic department of the Ham- ilton Literary and Theological institute, afterwards Madi- son university, Hamilton, New York, and graduated in 1846. He served as assistant, during the succeeding winter, to the
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Rev. George Benedict, pastor of the Norfolk-Street Baptist church, New York; preaching in the evenings of the Sabbaths. In April, 1847, was ordained pastor of the Baptist church in Burlington, New Jersey ; resigning there, he accepted the invi- tation of the First Baptist church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was installed in April, 1850. Removed in May, 1852, to Paterson, in that State, and took charge of the church in that city, till 1855, three years. Then, by an invi- tation from the Central Baptist church in Southbridge, he ae- cepted, and was installed their pastor in Jume, 1855. Having terminated his connection with the church in Southbridge, in 1867, he was called in February of that year to the pastorate of the Friendship-Street Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, where, in 1869, he was still laboring successfully, and much to the satisfaction of that people.
ANABAPTISTS AND BAPTISTS.
It is claimed by some, that the Baptists of the present day are regular descendants from the ancient Anabaptists.
The learned Hooker defines the Anabaptists as follows :
" The Anabaptist rebaptizeth because in his estimation the baptism of the church is frustrate, for that we give it unto infants which have not faith, whereas, according unto Christ's institution, as they conceive, true baptism should always presuppose actual belief in the receivers, and is otherwise no baptism."
The name Anabaptist, according to Bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, embraced religionists of widely different belief; and that those found in England had their origin in Germany, and made themselves conspicuous there, as well as obnoxious, in many respects, to all rational thinkers, in both religion and morals. But of those in England there were two classes most remarkable :
"The one was, those who only thought that baptism ought not to
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be given but to those who were of an age capable of instruction, and who did earnestly desire it. This opinion they grounded on the silence of the New Testament about the baptism of children; they observed that our Saviour, commanding the apostles to baptize, did join teaching with it; and they said the great decay of Christianity flowed from this way of making children Christians before they understood what they did. These were called gentle or moderate Anabaptists."
Rev. Charles Buck, in his Theological Dictionary, also de- scribes the Anabaptists of Germany, and refers to those who made Munster their central point :
" These had many irregularities, and could not be considered as of any particular class of religionists, but were simply disturbers of the peace and good order of society, and as such they were dispersed by the strong arm of the law."
Of these, as Bishop Burnet remarks, some found their way to England. This was in the time of Martin Luther .* But, as Mr Buck remarks :
" It is but justice to observe also, that the Baptists in England and Holland are to be considered in a different light; they profess an equal aversion to all principles of rebellion on the one hand, and to enthusiasm on the other; and further, that the English and Dutch Baptists do not consider the word Anabaptist as at all applicable to their sect."
The modern Baptists are divided into two classes, styled General and Particular Baptists. The General Baptists pro- fess the doctrines of Arminius, and it is said some are Arians ; but the Particular Baptists, who generally prevail in the United States, are Calvinistic in their faith, very different from those described by Bishop Burnett, to wit, that Martin Luther held,
" That the chief foundation on which he relied was the Scriptures, as the only rule of Christians; whereas, those then styled Anabaptists argued that the mysteries of the Trinity, and Christ's incarnation and sufferings, of the fall of man, and the aids of grace, were, indeed, phil- osophical subtleties, and only pretended to be deduced from Scripture."
* See his work, vol. 11, p. 176.
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Adult baptism is a leading principle with the Baptist de- nomination at the present time ; and in this respect they are like many of the ancient Anabaptists described by Hooker and Bishop Burnet, but, in doetrine, are essentially followers of John Calvin, embracing his theological views, though in a modi- fied sense. They regard the Scriptures as the source of their faith, holding to the primitive ideas of the Reformers-the right of private judgment and freedom of thought, which dis- tinguished the believers in Reform from the supporters of Romanism.
Thus the Baptists, like other Protestant religions seets, are the legitimate result of the Reformation.
In their parochial and church government they are decidedly Congregational, excelling even those styled Congregationalists.
They are essentially lovers of civil and religious liberty, like the progenitors of the inhabitants of the Low Countries, so styled ; now the Netherlands.
To these people England traces the love of liberty and her liberal institutions; and it is these principles that have de- scended to the people of this country, but improved by the wisdom of experience. Religious freedom was a novelty every- where, except in the Low Countries. Governor Bradford, in his history of Plymouth Plantation, referring to their reasons for removing to that country to relieve them from the perse- eutions of their English brethren, observes :
" Yet seeing themselves thus molested, and that there was no hope of their continuance there, by a joint consent, they resolved to go into the Low Countries, where they heard was freedom of religion for all men."*
Joseph Hayden, in his Dictionary of Dates, says of the Baptists, " They have suffered much persecution," and might have added, but have not persecuted in return. "The first
* See Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 10. Also, for love of liberty in the Low Countries, see Tacitus' History of the Germans, Menzel's History of Germany, Thomas Colley Grattan's History of the Netherlands, Motley's Dutch Republic and History of the United Netherlands.
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Baptist church formed in London was in 1608." Their con- fession of faith, published as the result of a convention of Eng- lish Baptist ministers, in 1689, is that which is now generally adopted by the Baptists of the United States, with, perhaps, some modifications. "In 1851, the Baptists had 130 chapels in London, and a total number in England and Wales of 2,789."
Roger Williams established the first Baptist church in this country, and erected an imperishable monument to his name by inserting in the first legal enactments for the government of the colony of Rhode Island, of which he is the acknowledged founder, "that no man shall be molested for his conscience." Yet while Roger Williams is justly entitled to this honor for laying this liberal foundation principle in his colony for its government, equal honor is due to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, the moderate Romanist, for proclaiming, by written law, in the colony of Maryland, like principles of religious liberty .*
While these colonies were an exception in this respect among the English colonies in America, it is a remarkable coincidence, that a Protestant and a Romanist should each proclaim this grand idea, without any concert or knowledge of action by each other.
Mr. Williams, it appears by the best account of him, was of Welsh descent, born in 1599, educated at the university of Oxford, " and as his writings show, his education was liberal, but partaking of the taste of those times. He first studied for the profession of law, but changed to theology ; he received Episcopal orders. It is said he assumed the charge of a parish in England before coming to America, and was highly esteemed as a preacher ; " all this, however, is but rumor.
Roger Williams commenced his manhood in the days of
* See John Leeds Bosman's History of Maryland, edition 1837, vol. II, pp. 354 and 495; also, see notes and illustrations, p. 663.
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bigotry and religious persecution, but possessing inherent ideas of religious liberty, and the right of freedom of con- science, naturally adhered to the Puritan faith ; sympathizing with them as an oppressed people, he readily united with them in establishing the Puritan colony of Massachusetts, but adher- ing to those natural feelings which led him to abandon the church of England, in its intolerance, he was but consistent in opposing like intolerance in his adopted country.
He is not generally claimed as a Baptist clergyman, or as having been the pastor of the first Baptist church in Rhode Island.
It is believed to be a fact that he was, at the time this church was formed, a believer in immersion as baptism, and was baptized in March, 1638-'39, by Ezekiel Holliman; at which time he baptized, in turn, Mr. Holliman and ten others. These first twelve members are named by Benedict, vol. I, p. 473, to wit :
" Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, William Arnold, William Harris, Stukely Wescott, John Green, Richard Waterman, Thomas James, Rob- ert Cole, William Carpenter, Francis Weston, and Thomas Olney."*
As he was a minister, and united in this mode of baptism, and the only minister in the new colony at this time, it is a fair presumption that he at first preached to this people, and in that respect was their first minister. It is, however, known that he soon withdrew from this society, which continued its existence, with the Rev. Chad Brown for its pastor ; and the same is now the First Baptist church in Providence. Its pres- ent meeting-house, erected in 1744-'45, on the east side of North Main street, is known for its spaciousness and elegance by all who are acquainted with that city.t
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