USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections: containing I. The Reformation in France; the rise, progress and destruction of the Huguenot Church. Vol I > Part 31
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Mr. White was an active, working minister, and introduced
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plans of work in the cause of religion for the members of the church, to increase their devotion to the cause generally. A plan of labor and increased effort was brought forward in the spring of 1864, mainly as follows :
First. to hold monthly meetings, at which church members alone were expected to be present; the appointment of a com mittee of four, either male or female, to converse first with the younger church members ; second, with those interested in religion ; third, more general duties in the way of exhortation and admonition, and to report what influences were operating against religion ; fourth, to report the number of non-church- going people in the parish, the number of Sabbath School scholars, and those in the parish not attending that school; and to report also all hopeful conversions.
Reports were also expected from the pastor, the officers of the church, and from the superintendent of the Sabbath-School.
The great object was to increase the interest in favor of religion and the church with all classes, to enlist the sym- pathies and active influence of the church and society in favor of the Sabbath-School, and to direct the attention of all the members of the church and society, as far as possible, to the general advancement of the cause of Christ in this behalf.
This was Rev. Mr. White's effort up to the time he closed his services with this people.
Rev. Thaddeus H. Brown was his successor. The ordina- tion took place, April 11, 1866. Services as follows : Intro- ductory prayer and reading of Scriptures by Rev. J. H. Lyon, Woodstock ; sermon, by Rev. Professor Smith, Andover, Massachusetts; right hand of fellowship, by Rev. H. F. Hyde, of West Woodstock ; charge to pastor and people, by Rev. E. H. Pratt, of East Woodstock ; ordaining prayer, by Rev. S. C. Kendall, of Webster, Massachusetts ; benediction, by the pastor.
The pastorate of Rev. Mr. Brown was closed by his death,
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October 19, 1868. During his ministry there were added to this church ten by profession, and five by letter.
Rev. J. W. Kingsbury succeeded to the pastorate here, November 24, 1869, at which time he received installation as follows : Introductory exercise, by Rev. G. J. Tillotson, of Putnam; sermon, by Rev. J. Taylor, D. D., of West Killingly ; installation prayer, by Rev. N. Beach, of Woodstock ; charge to pastor, by Rev. H. F. Hyde, of Pomfret; right hand of fellowship, by Rev. W. H. Kingsbury, brother of the pastor, of West Woodstock; address to the people, by Rev. D. Breed, of Abington.
Rev. Mr. Kingsbury continues to labor satisfactorily with this people when last heard from.
Infant baptisms have been recorded as follows :
In 1832,
19
In 1855,
3
“ 1833,
7
“ 1857,
-
" 1837,
12
" 1859,
-
-
-
5
“ 1839,
3
“ 1860,
2
" 1840,
13
" 1863,
3
" 1842,
9
“ 1864.
1
“ 1845,
4
“ 1868,
1
" 1846,
5
" 1869,
2
" 1854,
2
98
-
-
-
-
-
-
It is presumed that there are omissions of record of the baptisms of some years.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
CHAPTER IV.
M ANY distinguished men of various professions in life this town has the honor of claiming as their birthplace, or as having descended from its founders, among whom are the following : General William Eaton, born on the 23d of February, 1764, was the son of a respectable farmer, in the middle rank of life, teaching school winters ; he died, Novem- ber 23, 1804. He was one of a large family, possessing great vigor, physically and mentally. At the age of sixteen rau away from home, and enlisted in the Revolutionary war ; and continued in service, except a short time when sick, to the close, in 1783.
In the years 1784-'85 he entered upon and pursued a course of studies preparatory to entering college, and became relig- iously inclined. Being at Franklin, Massachusetts, in charge of Rev. Mr. Nott, he was received into the church under his pastorate,
During this time his proficiency was such, that he was ac- cepted as a student in Dartmouth college. He graduated in 1790, and received the degree of B. A.
Soon after leaving college he made the acquaintance of the youthful widow of General Timothy Danielson, and married her the 21st of August, 1792, he having received in March previous a captain's commission in the United States army, and was settled with his wife for a time at Windsor, Ver- mont.
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In 1793 he received orders to join the Western army under General Anthony Wayne, and commanded the left column of this force, arriving at Cincinnati in May following. About this time he established his family at Brimfield, Massachusetts, where he continued his future home.
In 1795 he was ordered to Savannah, Georgia, and arrived there the 26th of December following. Here he built Fort Pickering, for a protection against the Indians and Spaniards.
He returned to his family at Brimfield in 1797, and at the close of this year received the appointment of American con- sul at Tunis. After about a year of preparation, and shaping his personal affairs to leave the country, he sailed from New York in the United States brig Sophia, the 22d of December, and arrived at his post the 9th of February, 1799.
He now began that career which gives the chief renown to his active life. For several years he was engaged in the dif- ficult and arduous negotiations with the Dey of Tunis, to pro- tect the American commerce in the Mediterranean sea from the piratical cruisers of that province.
To the boldness and prompt action of Eaton in this behalf the commerce of these waters is greatly indebted.
The most exciting and chivalrous part of General Eaton's services in connection with the Barbary powers, was the part he took in the war against Tripoli .*
* This short war with Tripoli and that against France, occasioned by the depredations of the cruisers sent out by the French Directory, in 1798-'99, brought into note many of the most honored names that adorn the annals of the American navy. The most conspicuous in this service may be named: Commodore Richard Dale, born, November 6, 1756, in Norfolk county, Virginia, and died at Philadelphia, February 26, 1826; Commo- dorc Edward Preble, born at Falmouth, now Portland, Mainc, August 15, 1761, and died there, August 25, 1807; Commodore Truxton, born at Jamaica, Long Island, February 17, 1755, and died in Philadelphia in August, 1822; Commodore William Bainbridge, born at Princeton, New Jerscy, May 7, 1774; died at Philadelphia, July 28, 1832; Commodore Isaac Hull, born at Derby, Connecticut, in 1775; dicd in Philadelphia, February 13, 1843; Com- modore Stephen Decatur, born on the South Shore of Maryland, January 7, 1779; he was of French descent; killed in a ducl at Bladensburg, Maryland, by a shot from Commodore Barron, on the 22d of March, 1822; Commodore Charles Stewart, born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1778; was alive in 1859; Commodore Thomas MacDonough, born at Newcastle, Delaware, in December, 1783; died at sea, November 18, 1815; Commodore Charles Morris,
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Eaton conceived the idea of uniting with Hamet Caramelli, the rightful Bey of Tripoli, who had been deposed by his brother, then in authority, and by a military force restore him to the head of that power. After much opposition, having visited the United States in 1803, for that object, and received encouragement favorable to his design, he returned in 1804, as agent of the navy for the Barbary States.
Hamet, after serious reverses in his attempts to regain his rights, had retired to Egypt, where Eaton followed him and sought him out, some hundred miles in the interior of that country.
In the spring of 1805 he assisted Hamet in securing a force of 500 men, and marched this little army across the Lybian desert, attacked Derne, the capital of one of the richest provinces of Tripoli, on the 27th of April, and, with the assist- ance of the American fleet in those waters, captured that city. He also soon after met the forces of the dey sent from Tri- poli, on the 11th of June, and, after a severe battle, gained a victory, and drove their remaining forces back into the mountains.
Eaton now commenced preparations to march on Tripoli to reinstate Hamet, but through a peace and treaty arranged by the United States minister, Tobias Lear, with the bashaw, these plans and arrangements for the aid of Hamet were abandoned, greatly to the disappointment and loss of faith with that person, and much to the disgust of General Eaton.
This treaty, by many at the time, was believed to be pre- mature and unwise, as $60,000 was paid the bey for the release of the American prisoners and freedom from piratical cruisers,
born in Woodstock, Connecticut, in the year 1784, died in Washington, District of Colum- bia, January 27, 1856; Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry, born at Newport, Rhode Island, in August, 1785; died aboard his ship, the John Adams, near the island of Trinidad, West Indies, of yellow-fever, August 23, 1819; Captain James Lawrence, born at Burling- ton, New Jersey, October 1, 1781, and lost his life by a wound in the naval battle between the Chesapeake and Shannon, off Boston, the 1st of June, 1813.
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from this government, that had heretofore preyed upon the American commerce in that sea, and leaving Hamet, if possi- ble, in worse condition than before, which sum it was be- lieved, might have been saved by an active, but brief prosecu- tion of that war.
But, to the honor of Eaton, he made provision for the es- cape of Hamet to Syracuse, and tried to induce him to retire to the United States ; but this he declined.
On the 6th of August, Eaton, having closed his duties as the agent of the navy in that department, returned home in 1805, entering Hampton Roads in Virginia, and soon after traveled to Washington, where he was received by the Presi- dent and the people with much distinction, for the judgment, courage, and great perseverance he had displayed in behalf of the government in this difficult and dangerous service.
In December following he visited his family at Brimfield, having been greatly complimented in the principal cities on the way by public receptions.
He was honorably mentioned by the President in his mes- sage on the opening of the following Congress ; but the fore- going offices under the General Government closed, to a great extent, his public life. He was honored by the town of Brim- field by a seat in the State Legislature, in 1807, and died at his house with his family, the 1st of June, 1811.
COMMODORE CHARLES MORRIS.
The commodore was born at Woodstock in 1784. He en- tered the navy as midshipman, July, 1799, and served during the war with Tripoli, from 1801 to 1805, with distinction, in the squadron of Commodore Edward Preble. He participated in that hazardous exploit, under command of Decatur, that destroyed the frigate Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli, on the night of the 15th of February, 1804.
In January, 1807, he was promoted to a lieutenant, and in
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the war of 1812 served as first lieutenant of the frigate Con- stitution, and distinguished himself during the chase of that vessel for three days and nights by a British squadron in July, 1812; and by his gallantry in the action between the Constitu- tion and the Guerriere, August 19, following, when he re- ceived a severe wound.
He was then appointed to the command of the ship John Adams, of twenty-eight guns, and made an important cruise upon the coasts of the United States and Ireland, greatly haz- arding and destroying British commerce.
In August, 1814, he was followed into the Penobscot river by a British fleet, and while at Hampton, in endeavoring to protect his ship by his crew and militia, finding his efforts hopeless, he destroyed her, and directed his crew to separate into small parties, and travel through the country, 200 miles, to Portland, every man reporting himself in due time.
After the peace with England he continued in active em- ployment, either afloat or on land, except two and a half years, in a professional career, to the end of his life ; was twenty- one years at sea, commanding four squadrons, eleven years commanding at navy-yards, eight years head officer of bu- reaus. He died at Washington, District of Columbia, on the 27th of January, 1856.
JEDEDIAH MORSE, D. D.
Dr. Morse was the son of Deacon Jedediah Morse, of whom mention has been made, in connection with the histori- cal sketch of the first church of Woodstock.
He was born in this town the 23d of August, 1761; gradu- ated at Yale college in 1783 ; licensed to preach in 1785, by the New Haven association of Congregational ministers. He was for a time tutor at Yale, and in 1786 was ordained a min- ister of the Gospel. In 1789 was installed as pastor of the first Congregational church in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
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He received the honorary degree of D. D. from the Edinburgh university in 1794; and was an active member of the Massa- chusetts Historical society, and other literary and scientific bodies at that time.
Dr. Morse is known as the father of American geography. He prepared, while in New Haven, in 1784, for the use of schools for young ladies, an 18mo geography, the first work of the kind published in America. This was followed by large works in the form of systems of geography and gazetteers, giving full description of the country from materials gathered by traveling and correspondence.
Dr. Jeremy Belknap, the historian of New Hampshire ; Thomas Hutchins, the geographer-general of the United States ; Ebenezer Hazzard, the postmaster-general, and others, had contemplated the same task, but ascertaining the progress of the doctor in this research, yielded their pretensions in his favor, and furnished him with many materials for this work gathered by them.
For a period of thirty years he continued, almost alone, the work in this department of science.
Reprints of his larger geographical works were republished in Great Britain; and translations of them were made in the French, at Paris, and in German, at Hamburg. He labored actively in writing and preaching against the innovation of Unitarianism, and engaged himself in favor of the enlarge- ment, in 1804, of the Massachusetts general association of Congregational ministers, based on the Westminster as- sembly's catechism.
In 1805 he opposed, though unsuccessfully, the election of the Rev. Henry Ware, D. D., to the Hollis professorship of divinity in Harvard college.
The same year he established a monthly religious journal, called the Panoplist, which was continued five years. He was prominent in the establishment of the Andover Theo-
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logical seminary, the preventing a rival institution at New- bury, projected by the Hopkinsians, and in effecting a union of these parties on a common Calvinistic basis, the Westmin- ster assembly's catechism.
The articles of this union, which were signed in his study at Charlestown, November 30, 1807, constitute substantially the theological basis of that institution at Andover at the pres- ent time. Dr. Samuel Spring and Dr. Eliphalet Parsons were united with Dr. Morse in framing these articles of agree- ment.
He joined in the organization of the Park street church in 1808, conforming to the standard of theology at Andover, when all the other Congregational churches in Boston, except the Old South, had more or less departed from that standard of faith. His anxiety and labors were exceedingly great at this period in opposing any departure from the old Puritan character of Congregationalism. This action brought down upon him, as one of the chief leaders of this faith, all that party of the Congregationalists who were tinctured with what was styled " Liberalism," or those who had actually embraced the doctrine of Unitarianism.
Dr. Morse suffered in his health by these active mental labors, and found it necessary to be relieved from the pastoral cares of a church ; thus he requested to be discharged from those duties by the church and society at Charlestown, over which he had so long and faithfully presided ; this request was granted in 1820.
He now removed to New Haven, where he continued to reside till the time of his decease, June 9, 1826.
In 1820 he was commissioned by the United States gov- ernment to visit the North-Western Indians ; on his return, the account of his doings covered, when printed, 400 pages, 8vo, and was published in 1822. He published "Annals of the Revolution," a book of sermons, and a general history
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of New England. These publications are in addition to his geographical works.
The sons of Dr. Jedediah Morse, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 1791, and Sidney Edwards Morse, born at Charlestown, on the 7th of February, 1794, and both recently deceased, have abun- dantly sustained the same vigorous, intellectual powers so strongly exhibited by their father and grandfather ; the former as the inventor of the electric telegraph, and the latter as an American journalist, in connection with his younger brother, Richard C. Morse, establishing and ably sustaining for many years the New York Observer.
This gives evidence of the tenacity of intellectual powers, continued in the same family, controlled by strong moral and religious sensibility. It is difficult to estimate the value of the persistent characteristics of such men by example and precept in diffusing knowledge and correct principles. There is scarcely a blemish upon the character of either, belonging to the three generations of this family. This has probably arisen from the firm and consistent character of the elder, Deacon Jedediah Morse, who, through a long life, sustained the most entire confidence of his townsmen.
PROFESSOR SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE.
Professor Morse, son of Rev. Jedediah Morse, D. D., was born as given above ; graduated at Yale college, Connecticut, in 1810 ; and went to England with Washington Allston in 1811 to study painting under him and Benjamin West. In 1813 he received the gold medal of the Adelphi Society of Arts at the hands of the Duke of Norfolk, for an original model of a " Dying Hercules," his first attempt at sculpture. He returned to the United States in 1815, and in 1824-'25, with other artists of New York, organized a drawing associa-
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tion, which after two years' struggle against various obstacles, resulted in the establishment in 1826 of the present National Academy of Design. Mr. Morse was chosen its first presi- dent, and was continued in that office for sixteen years. In 1829 he visited Europe a second time, to complete his studies in art, residing for more than three years in the principal cities of the continent. During his absence abroad he had been elected to the professorship of the literature of the arts of design in the university of the city of New York; and in 1835 delivered a course of lectures before that institution on the affinity of those arts.
While a student in Yale college Mr. Morse had paid special attention to chemistry, under the instruction of Professor Silli- man, and to natural philosophy under that of Professor Day ; and these departments of science, from being subordinate as a recreation, at length became a dominant pursuit with him. In 1826-'27 Professor J. Freeman Dana had been colleague lecturer in the city of New York with Mr. Morse at the Athe- neum ; the former lecturing upon electro-magnetism, and the latter upon the fine arts. They were intimate friends, and in their conversation the subject of electro-magnetism was made familiar to the mind of Morse. The electro-magnet, on Stur- geon's principle (the first ever shown in the United States), was exhibited and explained in Dana's lectures, and, at a later date, by gift of Professor Torrey, came into Morse's possession. Dana even then suggested, by his spiral volute coil, the electro- magnet of the present day. This was the magnet in use when Morse returned to Europe, and it is now used in every Morse telegraph throughout both hemispheres.
He embarked in the autumn of 1832, at Havre, on board the packet-ship Sully; and, in a casual conversation with some of the passengers on the then present discovery in France of the means of obtaining the electric spark from the magnet, show- ing the identity or relation of electricity and magnetism,
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Morse's mind conceived, not merely the idea of an electric telegraph, but of an electro-magnet and chemical recording telegraph, substantially and essentially as it now exists. The testimony to the paternity of the idea in Morse's mind, and to his acts and drawings on board the ship, is ample. His own testimony is corroborated by all the passengers (with a single exception), who testified with him before the courts, and was considered conclusive by the judges; and the date, 1832, is therefore fixed by this evidence as the date of Morse's concep- tion, and realization also, so far as drawings could embody the conception of the telegraph system, which now bears his name. But though thus conceived and devised as early as 1832, in the latter part of which year, on reaching home, he made a portion of the apparatus, yet circumstances prevented the com- plete construction of the first recording apparatus in New York city until the year 1835 ; and then it was a rude single appa- ratus-sufficient, indeed, to embody the invention, and enable him to communicate from one extremity of two distant points of a circuit of half a mile, but not back again from the other extremity. The first instrument was shown in successful operation to many persons in 1835 and 1836. For the pur- pose of communicating from as well as to a distant point, a duplicate of his instruments was needed, and it was not till July, 1837, that he was able to have one constructed to con- plete his whole plan. Hence, early in September, 1837, having his whole plan thus arranged, he exhibited to hundreds the operation of his system at the university of New York.
It may be interesting to notice here the following character of Mr. Morse, as given by the janitor of the New York uni- versity to a party seeking rooms there about this time. In looking at rooms to be rented, he passed into one that had the appearance of an artist's studio, but every object in it bore the appearance of unthrift and neglect. The statuettes, busts, and models of various kinds were covered with dust and cobwebs ;
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dusty canvases were faced to the wall, and stumps of brushes and scraps of paper littered the floor. The only signs of in- dustry consisted of a few masterly crayon drawings and little luscious studies of color pinned to the wall :
" You will have an artist for your neighbor, " said the janitor, " though he is not much here of late ; he seems to be getting rather shiftless; he is wasting his time over some silly invention-a machine by which he expects to send messages from one place to another. He is a very good painter, and might do well if he would only stick to his business ; but, Lord !" he added, with a sneer of contempt, "the idea of telling by a little streak of lightning what a body is saying at the other end of it! His friends think he is crazy on the subject, and are trying to dissuade him from it; but he persists in it until he is almost ruined."
This shiftless man was then the president of the National Academy of Design (whose foolish waste of time so excited the commiseration of the janitor), since world-wide known as the inventor of the electric telegraph ; but a little while after this his fame was such that these unbelievers, who thought him insane, were forced to believe that there was, at least, " method in his madness."
From the greater publicity of the exhibition of his electric apparatus last above referred to, the date of Morse's invention has by some been given as of the autumn of 1837; whereas, the single instrument was operated successfully in 1835, and the general conception of the idea was made known in 1832.
Mr. Morse first applied to Congress at the session of 1837-'38, asking of that body for aid to construct an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore, to show the practicability and utility of his invention. Although its operation before a com- mittee of that body excited much interest, yet there was so much doubt as to its usefulness, if it even proved all the in- ventor claimed for it, that there was a strong apprehension, if a favorable report was presented, that a majority of Congress would not vote the sum necessary for its test. Thus this Con- gress adjourned without any favorable result for Mr. Morse's
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efforts. He now visited both England and France, hoping to enlist attention in its favor ; but no exclusive privilege could there be gained, or any remuneration for his invention. He returned home down-spirited, but not withont faith in ultimate success. Four years more of struggle passed, with much persistent effort before Congress; the session of 1842-'43 had nearly closed, and he had retired late on the evening of its last day to his lodgings, despairing of any favorable action in his behalf, expecting to leave for home the next day ; but, on the morning of March 4, 1843, he was checred and surprised by the report that the desired aid by Congress had been ob- tained at the midnight hour of the expiring session, placing $30,000 at his disposal for an experimental line, to be run as proposed, from Washington to Baltimore. The work was completed in 1844, and fairly demonstrated to the world both the practicability and utility of his system of electro-magnetic telegraph.
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