USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections: containing I. The Reformation in France; the rise, progress and destruction of the Huguenot Church. Vol II > Part 16
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The vote for disposing of shares as aforesaid was repealed, December 17, 1838, when it was determined to circulate a subscription paper for raising funds for the purpose of erecting this building for the society, and for fulfilling the contract with the town for the payment of $650 for the old meeting- house.
March 5, 1839, the society voted to hire Rev. Ansin Bug- bee as their teacher for the ensuing year, and to raise $500 by subscription.
At an adjourned meeting, held the 27th of April, 1839, it was voted to hold their meetings at the north meeting-house for the present.
May 2, 1839, it was agreed to build a new house forty-five feet by sixty, and to set the south-west corner where the south-west corner of the old meeting-house now stands; and that the building committee proceed to erect the same by the day.
On the 24th of December, 1839, the society voted to insure their new building, which shows that it had been erected that year.
At this meeting the building committee made report that the entire expense of taking down the old house and erecting the new was $4,115.21, the same being signed by said com- mittee : Simeon Lamb, John Davis, Lewis Comins, Aaron Lamb.
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On the 3d of March, 1840, the society voted to raise the sum of $700, for preaching and arrears, by subscription, and that the Rev. Ansin Bugbee be hired the ensuing year.
On the 25th of April the society voted to furnish a library for the Sunday school, and that cases to hold the same be placed on each side of the pulpit.
Rev. Ansin Bugbee was engaged to preach in 1841, for $600, and it appears that $700 was voted for the year 1842.
At a meeting of the society, held on October 8, 1842, Mr. Julius E. Tucker offered the following preamble and resolu- tion, which were accepted :
PREAMBLE.
" As the connection which has existed for four years and a half be- tween Rev. Ansin Bugbee and the Union Society in Charlton is now sup- posed to be dissolved, it appears to me to be proper that our friends generally should know with what kind of spirit the tie has been severed."
Then the following resolution was offered:
" Resolred, That inasmuch as we highly appreciate the pastoral ser- vices of Brother Bugbee during the period we have sat under his minis- try, it is with regret we find ourselves called upon to dissolve a connec- tion that has, on our own part so happily, and we trust so profitably, existed ; but as he has availed himself of a privilege which he had in the contract, of leaving, by giving the society three months' notice; and in view of the advantage that may accrue to our beloved brother and pastor, and to the people of his future charge, we cheerfully submit to it, and may the blessing of God rest upon him and his family in all coming time."
Notwithstanding the passing of the above preamble and reso- lution, Rev. Ansin Bugbee was engaged for the year beginning April 1, 1843, to preach for the society, for the sum of $500.
It further appears that Mr. Bugbee was continued as the pastor of this society up to the year 1850, and that during that year he preached six months.
On the 4th day of March, 1851, it was voted that the first union society in Charlton take the name of "The First Universalist Society in Charlton."
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CHARLTON.
The Rev. M. C. Haws succeeded Mr. Bugbee in the minis- try, and preached three fourths of the time for the years 1851 and 1852.
For the year 1853 the society chose Rev. Lyman Maynard as their teacher. Rev. Mr. Rugg supplied part of the year 1853.
May 27, 1854, it was voted that the Rev. J. H. Willis be their teacher the ensuing year. Mr. Willis supplied preach- ing for the society for the years 1854 and 1855 at $500 per year.
There was no pastor for the year 1856. Rev. Mr. Hicks and Rev. Mr. Proctor, of Billerica, supplied part of the time. For the year 1857 Rev. Z. Baker supplied occasionally.
At the society meeting, held on March 2, 1858, it was voted unanimously to engage Rev. Lucius Holmes for the ensuing vear; salary, $600.
It appears that Rev. Lucius Holmes continued as pastor five years, closing his services in the spring of 1863. The Rev. Clarence Fowler supplied preaching part of the year 1863.
The records of the society for the years 1864, 1865, and 1866, are deficient in giving the names of any parties (if preaching was had in these years), that supplied preaching for them, leaving it to be inferred that but little interest was taken by the members generally in that respect during this period.
Mr. Nehemiah B. Stone, a member of this society, who de- ceased in the year 1866, bequeathed by his will the sum of five thousand dollars as a fund for its benefit, the income of which was to be used in the support of preaching for the first Universalist society of Charlton.
The society, at a meeting held on November 26, 1866, chose as trustees for this fund Levi Hammond, Franklin M. Farnum, and Emory S. Southwick ; Edward Smiley attesting the same as clerk pro tem.
13A
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The records show that the Rev. Edward Smiley was unani- mously elected as the teacher for the society, for the year 1867, and it is believed still continues his labors to the mutual satisfaction of himself and people.
Franklin M. Farnum having deceased in 1869, a society meeting was held on September 7 of said year, to choose a trus- tee for the Stone fund in place of Mr. Farnum, deceased, at which time David F. Gibbs was elected to said office.
UNITARIAN SOCIETY, CHARLTON.
Meetings commenced to be held by this denomination of religion in Charlton about the years 1823 or 1824.
A Rev. Mr. Robinson preached this doctrine here in 1824-'25 ; in 1826 several candidates supplied preaching for those professing a belief in this faith ; among whom were the same Rev. Mr. Robinson, Rev. Mr. Brimblecome, a Mr. Wiswell, and part of the years 1826-27, Rev. Samuel Presbury, from Taunton.
But after Rev. Mr. Presbury, in the year 1827, Rev. Ed- ward Turner was installed as the pastor of a church and society organized here at this time.
Some of the members of the ecclesiastical council who were present on this occasion were the venerable Dr. Baneroft, and Rev. Dr. Hill, of Worcester ; Dr. Allen, of Northborough ; Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster ; Rev. Dr. Thompson, of Barre ; and others, whose names have not been ascertained.
Preliminary to the services of installation a church was organized, composed of the pastor elect and several laymen, as many as eight or ten, all of whom were middle-aged or elderly men. Some of whom were Major John Spurr, his brother Colonel Samuel D. Spurr, Dr. Dan. Lamb, Mr. John Davis, Salem Laflin, and David Lathe. As they never had been baptized, they came forward and stood before the pul- pit, and received that ordinance at the hands of Dr. Bancroft,
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the pastor elect being one of the number. One of the coun- cil, Rev. Dr. Allen, remarks at a recent period :
"It was indeed an imposing spectacle, and was witnessed by a large assembly with deep emotion. Dr. Bancroft administered the rite with great dignity and much solemnity: the whole service was beautiful and appropriate, and it left an impression on my mind that time has not effaced or obscured."
These remarks, giving the foregoing impressions and recol- lections, were embraced in a letter to Rev. Edward Smiley, October 9, 1870, after the lapse of a period of forty years, when pastor, people, and council had all, but in few instances, passed away.
There have been found no records of this society, and what has been obtained is the result of inquiry from various sources, it being from the recollection of the children of Rev. Mr. Turner, and that of elderly persons who were familiar with the facts and circumstances as they occurred.
Mr. Turner's installation at Charlton, before referred to, was on the 18th of June, 1827; and his services closed in May, 1831, quite abruptly. It is reported that his support depended somehow upon a fund that had been secured by sub- scription, and these subscribers, several of them, became dissat- isfied ; and through this dissatisfaction a vote of dismissal was passed, continuing his salary to November following, giving him liberty to continue his preaching to the society or not, as he might choose, after May 1 to November 1, 1831. This abrupt dismissal was to him unexpected, and caused him much grief.
He remarks in a letter to a friend :
"The proceedings of a majority of the society wound my feelings. I may have deserved this, but certainly not at their hands."
The dismission of Mr. Turner was the dissolution and close of the Unitarian society in Charlton. This effect was pro- duced by different causes; some influential members had
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removed from the town, and some others deceased, while many who joined in establishing this society were in their religious faith Universalists, and, after a few years, joined with those who, during the existence of this society, had maintained preaching of that order at the north side, and thus united, organized the Universalist society now existing; the history of which is related in another place.
The general appearance and character of Rev. Edward Turner is briefly given in a part of the biographical sketch by Dr. E. G. Brooks, published in the Universalist Quarterly, in the April and July numbers of 1871, as follows :
"As I recall him, this comes to me as the thought certain, first of all. to occur to any one meeting him. He had a face of apostolie sweetness and benignity, and his whole air and presence were in harmony with it. He was fully six feet in stature, spare, light-complexioned, with hair thin and gray ever after I knew him, and giving indientions of a lack of physical stamina. In the pulpit he presented a fine figure, erect and dignified, compromised possibly by a little loll. But in walking he had a kind of roll, with a slight stoop, and just a suggestion of weakness at the knees, which, while detracting a little from the dignity of his bear- ing. took from him what would otherwise have been the firmness and elasticity of his tread. Were I, indeed, required to give the best possible idea of his general appearance, physically, I should say that, while it had in it nothing in the slightest degree awkward or ungainly, it re- minded one of a tall lad who has grown too rapidly. and whose gait and movements reveal the absence of the needed muscular development. This was the consequence of a severe illness about 1809 or 1811.
" Previous to this he is said to have been erect, robust, firm of step, weighing between 200 and 300 pounds. But recovering, he left his chamber another man, and ever after had the appearance described.
" This change in him physically seems to have been the outward ex- pression of a corresponding change in him in other particulars. Before this sickness, like his friend Ballou, he had been exclusively an extem- poraneous preacher, and is said to have been one of the rousing sort. live, vehement, electric. But from this period his whole manner changed. and his ordinary preaching became moderate and more subdued.
" Mr. Turner can be properly estimated only as he is thought of as a large-minded and able man. He had immense latent power, and some- times, where occasion required, rose into impassioned and commanding eloquence. In his mental totality, Mr. Turner was fully the equal of Mr. Ballou."
BIOGRAPHICAL.
CHAPTER III.
EDWARD TURNER.
THERE was no preacher of the Gospel whose name and character was more generally known and respected in all of the towns in Worcester South Congressional District. during the period from 1800 to 1830, than that of Edward Turner.
Quoting again from Dr. Brooks in his sketch of Mr. Turner, published in The Universalist Quarterly, for April, 1871, he remarks as follows:
" The name of Edward Turner is one of the most conspicuous in our early history. The late Dr. Ballon once spoke of him as 'for a long period one of the most distinguished ornaments of our ministry.'
" He was not only the associate and friend, but considered in his wholeness, the acknowledged peer of Hosea Ballou. Very unlike, but drawn together by those subtle and inexplicable attractions which so often bind persons of the most opposite qualities into the closest intimacy, these two men were for years (in a high sense) the par nobile fratrum- the David and Jonathan of our forming church : one in council. one in much of their labor, and one in the hearts of the people. But (as all Universalists will think ), in an unfortunate day for Mr. Turner, he saw it to be his duty, as he believed, to separate himself from the church which he had so efficiently helped to found and build ; and leaving us- to pass into an obscurity in his new relations which his ability and pre- vious eminence should have made impossible-he has gradually faded out of our denominational memory."
Again he remarks :
" His separation from us was the result of differences which have gone
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into our history, written and traditional, on the representations of those not in sympathy with him. On this account, so far as any impression of him does remain, it is, doubtless. for the most part unfavorable-an im- pression that he was quite another than the gentle. noble, unselfish. nnambitious man he really was.
" Mr. Turner, it is probably not too much to say, was the foremost man in our early church. in respect to scholarly and literary attainments."
Dr. Brooks designates Messrs. Jones, Ballou, Kneeland, and Turner, as (in 1811) the most active and influential of the Universalist ministry ; and speaking of his association, in successive years, with Messrs. Ballou, Jones, Dean, and Wood, on a committee to prepare a history of Universalism, Dr. Whittemore says :
"That Mr. Turner was better qualified undoubtedly than either of his associates for the work proposed.
" He had decided literary tastes. He was a large reader-a love of books being one of his passions even to the end. He was a thinker. too, holding his opinions as the results of his own mental processes, with a constant and consistent reference to all the fundamental principles of the Gospel, which made him, doubtless, not only the best read, but the most systematie and comprehensive theologian among our primitive neophytes."
Edward Turner was born in Medfield, Massachusetts, July 28, 1776. His father was Seth Turner, a quiet, honest, benev- olent man, a farmer, very fond of books.
Edward was sent to a school conducted by the celebrated Hannah Adams and her sister, where he was taught his letters ; and in later years he frequently spoke of the Adams family as kindly neighbors, the use of whose books was freely granted to his father and himself.
In 1786 his father removed to Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Here the taste of the father for books, no doubt, helped to form that of his son. In his seventeenth year he entered the academy at Leicester. How long he was a student there has not been ascertained.
Also, when or how he became a Universalist.
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He was educated under "orthodox " influence, but the towns in this section of Worcester county were those where Universalism was first preached, as the historical account of the society at Oxford will show. He favored the doctrine of Universalism as early as his sixteenth or seventeenth year.
He was married in his nineteenth year, 1794, to Miss Amy Pike, of Sturbridge. He did not begin to preach until 1798, when, at twenty-two years of age, he preached his first sermon at Bennington, Vermont.
In the records of the Universalist convention for A. D., 1800, it is stated that he received a letter of license to preach as a minister of that denomination.
The record also says that, on the first day of the session, September 17, " Brother E. Turner preached an excellent discourse from Psalms, LXXII, 16." It is recorded further that, on the afternoon of the same day, the convention voted that the well-beloved Hosea Ballon. Zephaniah Lathe, and Caleb Rich, ministers of the Gospel of peace, do attend to the ordi- nation of the approved brother, Edward Turner, at such time and place as the society, council, and candidate may appoint. He was also associated with Hosea Ballon and Ebenezer Paine to examine the credentials of applicants for ordination, and to ordain, if so requested, during the recess of the convention. And still further, at the same session, he was made one of a com- mittee, Messrs. Ballon and Paine being his associates, instructed to repair to New Marlborough, Massachusetts, and faithfully to examine the complaints of the society in that place against a brother in the ministry, and if he is found faulty, to deal with him in the spirit and power of discipline, to exhort, reprove, or rebuke, and if need be, to deny him the fellowship of this convention. As Mr. Brooks remarks :
"All this indicates that not only was he already an excellent preacher, well established in the confidence of his brethren, but that, though so young, his character and maturity of judgment were deemed sufficient
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to warrant them in intrusting him with the gravest duties. Let it be summarily added, that from this time till 1824 his name appears in the records nearly every year, and that he was seldom without some im- portant appointment, telling of his high appreciation by this denomi- nation."
Mr. Turner continued to make Sturbridge his place of resi- dence until 1808. His first wife died May 8, 1807, leaving him with four children, whose names were Mary (Mrs. Weld), born May 20, 1795 ; Experience, born August 3, 1798, mar- ried Mr. C. Rice, died March 17, 1835; Cassandana, born July 21, 1800; and died at Salem, September 6, 1813; Edward, born October 7, 1805, died at Burrillville, Rhode Island, November, 1835.
In 1808 he married his second wife, Miss Lucy Davis, of Charlton, and by her had four children, whose names were Amy, born at Charlton, January 20, 1809, married Benjamin Brown, of West Roxbury, Massachusetts ; Martha Davis, born January 17, 1811, married Captain Charles Brewer, of Jamaica Plain ; Lucy Ann, born October 17, 1816, at Charlton, died at that place in October, 1829 ; Charles Henry, born at Charlestown, October, 1818, and died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 22, 1833.
In the early part of his ministerial labors the Universalists had but few settled ministers, but there were many unorgan- ized persons of this faith in Massachusetts, in many towns, who frequently assembled together for hearing preaching of this order, and for the supply of these assemblies Mr. Turner itinerated about eleven years. Some of the places where he preached during this period were Sturbridge (his place of resi- dence), Charlton, Oxford, Brookfield, Dudley, the Poll Parish (then known as Honest Town, but incorporated as the town of Southbridge in 1816), Bennington, Vermont ; Milford, Salen, Gloucester, and Boston; in this latter place he was occasion- ally invited by the founder of this denomination, the Rev. John Murray, to supply his pulpit during his declining years.
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As Mr. Turner was regarded by Mr. Murray as a rising man, and one of the first in talents of this order at this time, he contemplated having him as his successor for the pastor of the first Universalist church and society in Boston.
The call of the Salem church, and perhaps some other cir- cumstances, intervened to defeat the design of Mr. Murray, and Mr. Turner became the pastor of the Salem church in 1809, where he was installed June 22 of that year. Here Mr. Turnerremained until on June in 1814, when he accepted a call to Charlestown, Massachusetts. During his residence here a controversy arose as to future punishments ; this ques- tion was waged with great spirit, and not without considerable ill-feeling between the two sections of this denomination. Up to this time the doctrine of future punishment was universally held by this order. The parties selected to discuss this ques- tion were Mr. Turner and Hosea Ballon, the first sustaining the usual belief of all parties in the denomination, and the latter the new idea of immediate bliss after death. It is reported that Mr. Ballon had said, that he could not say that he was fully satisfied that the Bible taught no punishment in the future world, until he obtained this satisfaction during the progress of this discussion.
The letters containing this discussion were published in the paper called The Gospel Visitant. The result led Mr. Ballou at onee to commit himself against future punishment.
In this decision he found some of the younger ministers very earnest supporters, particularly Rev. Thomas Whitte- more, which finally carried the larger part of this denomina- tion into the full embrace of this new departure.
Mr. Turner's faith in the doctrine which he and the minis- ters generally had maintained, who preached universal salva- tion, was not shaken, and thus he continued preaching that punishment must necessarily, as was tanght by the Scriptures, follow the unrepentant, but that in due time all would be
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restored to a state of happiness. He, and those who sustained the former doctrine of the denomination, regarded this new departure as contrary to Scripture, and attended with mischiey- ons consequences to society ; that the good name of Univers- alism was being compromised, and that just occasion was being given to suspect its moral influence ; that these new teachings were, in effect, bad.
On the side of Mr. Turner there were many of the older ministers, Rev. Paul Dean, Charles Hudson, Barzillai Streeter, Jacob Wood, and Levi Briggs.
Several of his parishioners in this society sympathized with Mr. Ballou, and embraced the new doctrine, and these con- verts to the new faith soon began to move for his dismission from the Charlestown society, and for several years created a disagreeable division among his people, which resulted in his preaching his closing sermon, October 6, 1823.
He continued at Charlestown to preach to fully half of the members of that society, who withdrew and held their meetings in the town-hall, until March, 1824, when he accepted an invitation to settle over a Universalist society at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He continued there till 1828, when, after much deliberation, he accepted an invitation to become pastor of the Unitarian society in Charlton.
This act, on the part of the Universalists, was by many regarded as a wrong step, as in fact he had not withdrawn his connection from their association before accepting this invita- tion ; and, furthermore, there was then a society of Universal- ists in that town.
Accordingly, the southern association soon after passed a vote of censure or disapprobation for his connecting himself with the Unitarians ; this act Mr. Turner regarded as meddle- some and contrary to right and proper usage. In a letter to Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, Mr. Turner writes as follows :
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"Asking to be dismissed is an act merely formal. I intended, and still intend, to take up my connection with your order at the meeting of the convention. This I should have had to do even if I had applied to the southern association. I have purposely avoided increasing the num- ber and consequent trouble of such formal transactions."
The following is the resolution passed by the association :
Voted unanimously : "That notwithstanding we individually disap- prove the conduct of Rev. Edward Turner in placing himself at the head of a society in Charlton, which is in opposition to a Universalist society in that place, and in connection with a body which disclaims all fellow- ship with the order of Universalist Christians, this association submits the consideration of the subject to the general convention."
Rev. Mr. Cobb, in reply to Mr. Turner, who complained of this action, wrote as follows :
"The case, as it stood before us, may be thus stated: A Universalist minister, in full connection with the Universalist order of Christians, had consented to take the lead of a party in Charlton against the inter- est of a society in the same place which was in our fellowship, and the interest of which he was of course under solemn obligation to aid. We did not consider you as having separated yourself from our connection. We do not contend that you ever put yourself under obligation to aid the interests of the Universalist order as long as you live; but we con- tend that, when one comes into the fellowship of our convention, he comes under a particular obligation to aid our common cause; and that this obligation continues as long as he continues in our connection. And if you judge you have a right to exert your influence, either for or against our order, as you choose, before you take up your connection with us, we judge that we have a right to express to the world our approbation or disapprobation of the course you take. I know that the association recognizes the principle you contend for-that one has a right to with- draw from our connection without being censured for it; and the con- sideration of your case was put off from the first to the second day, with the hope that, before the close of the session, we should receive from you some communication, which would relieve us from the disagreeable necessity of maintaining the credit and discipline of our order by a vote of disapprobation."
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