USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > West Brookfield > Historical discourse delivered at West Brookfield, Mass., on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church in Brookfield, October 16, 1867 > Part 6
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Harrison Otis Howland, son of Southworth and Esther ( Allen ) Howland, was born January 25. 1513. He prepared for college at Leicester Academy : was graduated at Amherst College in 1841. and at the Union Theological Seminary, New York city in 1541. He was ordained in Ashland, New York, in 1549, and has since been pastor of churches in Warner and Chester. New Hampshire, and in Girard, Eric County, Pennsylvania, where he now resides, though not as settled pastor.
William Ware Howland, half-brother of the preceding. was born February 25, 1>17. His mother was Mary Ware. daughter of Dr. Samuel Ware, who, for more than fifteen years, was pastor of the First Church in Ware. He was graduated at Amherst College in Ii. and at Union Sem- inary, New York, in 1-15. In the autumn of the same year he was ordained at South Hadley, and sailed from Boston as a missionary to Ceylon under the auspices of the A. B. C. F. M. From that time to the present-a period of twenty-two years -he has been stationed at Batticotta. In the meantime he has once visited this country. Letters from him frequently appear in the columns of the " Mission- ary Herald." Two of his sons. William and Sammel, are nos members of the Sophomore class in Amherst College. Elwin Gilbert, son of Harvey and Phydema Gilbert, was
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born February 11, 1824; studied at Chester, Farmington and Austinburgh, Ohio, and completed his studies with Ho- ratio Foote at Quincy, Illinois, in the summer of 1850: and in the autumn following was ordained at Payson, Illinois. He had been recommended as a minister the previous year. and from that time until the fall of 1852 preached at Con- cord, Morgan County, Illinois. In 1857 and 1858 he preached at Hampden, Ohio; in 1859 at Geneva in the same State, where he died May 13, 1860, at the age of thirty-six. During the last fifteen years of his life he was a great suf- ferer from a complication of diseases, terminating in softening of the brain. In a lucid interval, on his birthday in Febru- ary 1860, he said, "Christ is precious. I am not sorry I have preached Christ; but when my work is all done, I want to go home."
Joshua M. Chamberlain, son of Eli and Achsah Chamber- lain, was born in 1825; was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1855, and at Andover Theological Seminary at 1855. Early in the following year he went to Dubuque, Iowa, and for a time supplied a pulpit in that city. In 1860 he became pastor of the Congregational Church in Des Moines. Iowa. from which relation he was, at his own request, dismissed in 1866. Since that time he has been agent for the American Missionary Association in the same State, and is, at present. engaged in collecting funds for Iowa College.
Edward Payson Thwing, sou of Deacon Thomas and Grace (Barnes) Thwing, although not born until a few years after his father removed from this place. yet seems so thoroughly identified with us as to claim Here a notice. He was born August 25, 1830 at Ware Village. In his seventh year he was a member of the primary department of West
Brookfield Academy, then under the charge of Mrs. C. P. F. Wheelock, afterward Mrs. Jesse Bliss. In November. 1857. he removed with his father's family to Boston, his father having entered upon his missionary labors in that city the previous January. It was at about this time, when he was seven years of age, that he gave his heart to Christ. Having studied at the Eliot Grammar School, and the High School of Boston, and two years at Monson Academy, he entered Harvard University, where he was graduated in 1855, and the summer of that year he spent in foreign travel. Hle was graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1:55: having been licensed to preach by the Middlesex South As- sociation in December 1ST : was ordained pastor of the St. Lawrence Street Church, Portland, Maine. September 22. Isis. whence, after four and a half year's labor, he was re- leased to accept a call to Quincy. (Massachusetts. ) where he was installed November 19. 1562, and where he elosed his pastoral connection on account of impaired health, July i. 1507. He has published " Bible Sketches," (15.4.) a small volume written while he was in college: " Leaves from a Tourist's Journal," a serial on foreign travel, in ten numbers. published in the Waverly Magazine, Boston; sermons- " Death of the First Born:" " Royal Request :" " A Voice from the Battlefield:" " Public Worship." and three other discourses which appeared in the Home Monthly, Boston, of which Mr. Thwing was editor for upwards of a year. Also a biographical Sketch of Mrs. Grace W. Thing. (15. ) and the " History of Beechwood Church." ( 1ST.)
Leander T. Chamberlain, son of Eli and Achan Cham- bellain, was born in 1537, and was graduated at Yale College in 1-05, with the highest honors of this class. After gradu-
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ation he was, for three years, in the employ of the United States government, as paymaster in the navy, at Callao, South America, since which time he has been pursuing his theological studies at New Haven and Andover, and is now a member of the Seminary in the latter place.
SABBATHI SCHOOL.
The Sabbath School dates its origin as early as 1817, when, through the agency of a few individuals, prominent among whom was Mr. Thomas Thwing," classes were formed for the study of the Bible, in the interval of divine worship. At first these little groups met in private houses, and for a time, also, in a shop then standing near the house now occupied by Mrs. Otis Rawson. Subsequently they came together in the Old Center School-house. It was not till 1819 that the school assembled in this house, when classes were formed in the different pews, (which. at that time, were little square pens with seats on all sides. ) and the affairs of the school began to be conducted in a more systematic way.
The exercises then consisted chiefly in the recitation of verses of Scripture, beginning with the first chapter of John. As an incentive to effort, the pupils were to try who would repeat the greatest number of verses. At the close of that season, a general meeting was held. and a sermon was preached by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Phelps, from the text in Deuteronomy 6 : 7-" And thou shalt teach them d'liged'y to thy children." The records of the school were also read : the
# Since deacon of the East Congregational Church, Ware and for more than thirty years City Missionary in Boston. He died May 5, 1.07. aged seventy-five.
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number of verses which each scholar had committed was announced publicly, and the names of individuals who had committed the largest number were honorably mentioned.
The first item that appears upon our church records in relation to the Sabbath School, and showing a more complete organization, is dated May 4. 121, when it was void- " That Captain J. Smith. Deacon J. Ross, J. Hinshaw. Thomas Bond, Esq .. Solomon Gilbert, Thomas Thwing, and Deacon A. White, be a Committee to take the oversight of the Sabbath School for the ensuing season." It was not till a yet later date that the first superintendent. Deacon Josiah Cary, was chosen.
For a number of years the school was continued only through the summer. In its earliest years. it encountered no little opposition. The whole system of Sabbath School instruction was then it its embryo. It was almost wholly a a new enterprise in this country, and this was the first school in this part of Massachusetts. A strong prejudice existed against it, and it commenced, as Doctor Phelps says, " with a load of odinm upon it. The first that had been heard of the Sunday-School, was as a sort of literary . song -how' for the children of the poor, and for those only who lived in the large cities. Some efforts of the kind had been attempt- ed in Boston. But it was not considered as adapted to the country villages at all." Several of the good Christian pro- ple of this place " were very much opposed to it, as a desecra- tion of the Sabbath : " and it was not till after two or three reasons of snecessful operation " had shown to the people what the practical working of the thing was that some even of the church would It their children attend." It has long Finde come to be a popular institution, looked upon as an
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almost indispensable auxiliary to the instructions of the fam- ily and the pulpit, and, in some sense, is regarded as the lupe of the Church.
The Sunday School Concert, held on the second Sabbath evening of each month, is of comparatively recent origin, and is an exceedingly interesting feature of the school. During the present year the school has received a considerable acces- sion to its numbers ; and among them a class of the recent converts, composed of men most of whom are past middle life. so that the school now consists of three hundred and eleven members. And whereas at first the school had no books of any sort, other than the Bible, it now has not only the more modern appliances of question books, and singing-books, but also a choice library of five hundred and fifty volumes, a large portion of which are new.
MISSIONARIES AND MISSIONARY SPIRIT.
This church, during the last half century, has not been wanting in the Missionary spirit. It was among the very earliest in the country, and the first in this part of Massa- chusetts, to introduce the Monthly Missionary Concert, fifty- one years ago. This meeting was formerly held on the first Monday evening of each month ; but for years past, has occurred, as at present, regularly on the first Sabbath evening of the month ; and generally secures a large attendance.
In the year 1824, the Auxiliary Foreign Missionary So- ciety of the Brookfield Association was formed in this place: Its annual meetings alternate among the several towns em- braced within this Association, and occur on the third Tues- day after the first Monday in October of each year. Our yearly contributions to the American Board are made through
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this Auxiliary Society ; and, from the time of its organization to the present year, our contributions for that object have amounted to six thousand and eighty-four dollars and nine- teen cents.
In another place under the head of " Ministers from the Church and Parish," we speak of Rev. Messrs. Nichols and Spear, members of this church, as having labored on Home Missionary ground : and of Rev. William W. Howland as now successfully engaged in the Foreign field in Ceylon, where for the last twenty-two years. he has preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of that Island. But, besides these ordained Missionaries. this church has made yet other contributions of its members to that great work,-" the healing of the nations."
Daniel Chamberlain, son of Deacon Daniel and Lydia Chamberlain, removed to this town from Westborough in 1806 : united with this church by profession in 1814; and was closely identified in 1-19 with the first mission to the Sandwich Islands. Opukahaia ( Obookiah) of the " Mission School" at Cornwall, Connecticut, had died the previous year; but he had not lived in vain. Though not himself permitted to return and preach the Gospel to his own coun- trynien, there had been awakened in the minds of others in this country an interest and sympathy which gave birth to the great enterprise of converting those Islands to God.
" In the summer of 1-19, Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurs- ton, students in the Theological Seminary at Andover, offered themselves to the American Board for this service. They were ordained at Goshen, Connectiont. September 19. Others offered themselves as assistant missionaries ; a mission church was organized in the vestry of Park Street Church,
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Boston, October 15. The public instructions of the Pruden- tial Committee were given by the Secretary, Rev. Dr. Wor- cester, the same evening, and on the 23d of the same month, (October 1819,)-forty-eight years ago-the company sailed from Boston in the brig Thaddeus, Captain Blanchard,"* and reached the Islands early in the following April. In this company there were as members of the mission seventeen persons, among whom, besides the ordained missionaries Bingham and Thurston, with their wives, there were three natives of the Islands, also a physician, a mechanic, a cate- chist, a printer, and a farmer. It was in this last capacity that Mr. Chamberlain went, accompanied by his wife and four children. After an absence of about five years he re - turned to this place, and soon after removed to Westborough where he died in February 1860,-the same year in which the American Board completed the first half century of its existence. He is remembered as a very ingenious man, a devoted Christian, and a most valuable member of society.
Miss Adaline White, daughter of Deacon Alfred and Sa- rah (Gilbert) White, was born September 25, 1809; united with this church March 4, 1827 ; sailed July 4, 1534 for Singapore, Siam, where she was married to Rev. Ira Tracy, January 15, 1835. On account of the feeble health of her husband, they returned to this country in August 1541. Four years later they removed to Streetsboro, Ohio, where she died March 3, 1851. Her only surviving child, Alfred Edwards Tracy, was born in West Brookfield, July 2, 1545. and is now in the Junior Class at Amherst College.
Miss Sarah G. White, daughter of Deacon Alfred and
# Newcomb's Cyclopedia of Missions, p. 649.
Sarah ( Gilbert ) White, was born September 14. 1813: united with this church May 3, 1535: was married to Rev. Asa B. Smith, March 15, 153 ; and that same day set out on a mis- sion to the Oregon Indians, going as far as New York by stage. From Fort Independence they started May 1. in company with the missionaries Messrs. Eells. Walker and Gray, and their wives. and on the last day of September reached Fort Vancouver, beyond the Rocky Mountains, then in Western Oregon, but now embraced within the limits of Washington Territory. They made this long tedious journey on horse- back, escorted by Indian fur traders. Much of the time they were surrounded by hostile Indians, and were compelled to endure great hardships. Having spent a few years in mis- sionary labor among the Indians of Oregon, they went thence to the Sandwich Islands Mission : where they labored some two or three years, and then, by reason of Mr. Smith's fail- ing health, they returned by way of China, reaching home in 1846. They brought with them three children, daughters of Mr. Locke of the Sandwich Islands Mission, the two eld- est of whom were adopted by Mr. Smith, and the youngest by an uncle. The eldest is now married to Rev. Elijah Harmon. About two years after their return. Mrs. Smith removed with her husband to Buckland, Massachusetts, where she died May 27, 155.
The name of Key. Samuel Ware Bonney appears also upon our Catalogue as having united with the church May 7. 1537. and as having been dismissed soon after to Danbury, Con- netient. There is, however, some reason to question whether Leser belegred to this church. HE widowed mother re- sild here for a few years, and was a member of this church about two years and a half, from July, 1915, to December.
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1847. But there seems to be no certain evidence that her son was ever connected with us. A word respecting liim, however, may not be out of place. He was a son of Rev. William and Mrs. Sarah (Ware) Bonney ; was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1815; in 1832 he was in the eu- ployment of the Messrs. Merriam, publishers, at Springfield, (Massachusetts.) .In 1837 he was engaged in teaching at Poughkeepsie, New York. He afterwards studied at the New York University, and at Lane Seminary, Ohio; re- ceived an appointment as missionary of the American Board, and in 1846 began his labors at Canton, China. where he continued to labor with great devotion and self-denial, and with marked success, until his death, which occurred July 27, 1864. At a meeting of the Canton Missionary Confer- ence, held on the third of the succeeding month, the follow- ing among other resolutions, was adopted :-
" That while we mourn our loss, it is felt that the life and death of our brother gave abundant cause for thankfulness to our Lord and Saviour, for the grace given him, in the fulfillment of his ministry, and in his dying testimony."
PATRIOTISM.
I should seem to depreciate the value of our free institu- tions and republican government as connected with the prog- ress of Christ's Kingdom in our land and world, and to be strangely unmindful of the noble part which the Christian Church has performed in the preservation of those inestimable blessings, particularly in the recent mighty civil conflict of the nation, did I not in closing, at least barely mention the well know and tried patriotism of this church and people, as an important additional element of their wide and beneficent influence.
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In May 1776, two months previous to the Declaration of Independence. the inhabitants of this town pledged their almost unanimous support to the Continental Congress if they should see fit to declare the colonies independent of Great Britain : and during the entire war of the Revolution. they did not fail to redeem their pledge. And the man who through that whole period, was foremost in the deliberations and acts of the town, as in loyalty to his country, was the Hon. Jedediah Foster, a deacon in this church. But espe- cially during these late years of peril, disaster and bloodshed. there has been no backward response to the urgent calls of the country, either on the part of our church or community. whether in men or money. whether in clothing for the desti- tute, or food for the hungry, or in timely ministrations to the sick, the wounded and the dying. Our hand. moreover, is even now wide open to welcome the long oppressed to the rights and privileges of citizens, and, at the same time. gen- eronsly to dispense to the needy among them of our kindly Christian charities.
Whether in time of war or of peace, we are solemnly bound to be true to the instincts of patriotism and philan- thropy, and to the higher promptings of our religious faith.
Such is an imperfect review of our long and not uneventful history. From this summary of the events of a century and a half, we find that whatever try be the sources of regret as we revert to the past on this Anniversary Day, they are far outnumbered and outweighed by the many occasions for joy and devoutest thanksgiving to find.
This ancient Church has had its severe, though brief. trial seasons, it's short-lived days of darkness and sterility : but it has also had its long and happy period of prosperity and
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abundant fruitfulness. Like the veteran soldier, not without wounds and sears has it fought its battles and won its victo- ries. But these visible marks of violence only make the more clearly manifest that merciful and marvelous interposition by which the Church has been preserved. To one baptism of suffering, God has sent a score of the joyful baptisms of the Holy Ghost; so that the hearts of hundreds have here been made to leap for joy, and their tongues loosed in the praise of redeeming grace.
A precious, sacred trust is this, and exalted, blessed privi- leges these, which our pious fathers have so carefully per- petuated and handed down to us. But in proportion to the greatness and sacredness of the blessings we have inherited from the past, so great and solemn is our obligation to cherish those blessings in our own day, and to deliver them over in all their fulness to coming generations.
In view of our numerous past and present mercies, OUR RESPONSIBILITY INDEED IS GREAT. From the heights of these one hundred and fifty years of Gospel privilege the eyes of five generations of godly men look down upon us. And upon their lips to-day is the question, well-nigh solemn as the eternity to which they are now mostly gone, " Will you transmit unimpaired to posterity this noble heritage. which, through much hard toil, and many tears and prayers, we have committed to you ?"
Yea, rather, from the bosom of eternity itself, there seems to fall upon our ear at this memorable hour, in accents of heavenly carnestness, the united voiee of the hundreds whose feet have reverently trod these earthly courts, but who now walk the golden streets, saying, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." " Earnestly con-
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tend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." " Love this dear old Church of Christ unto the end. Stand by her in the time of her trial. Seek her purity, her peace. her prosperity, her continual growth. Pray that she may keep her garments unsullied, her name without reproach, not in the present merely, but down through the years and cen- turies to come, until at last the Bridegroom shall . present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.'"
Poem.
MEMORIALS OF BROOKFIELD.
BY REV. FRANCIS HORTON, OF BARRINGTON, R. I.
ANALYSIS. - INVOCATION AND GRATULATION - SCENERY AND ASSOCIATIONS - SCENERY STILL, AND CULTIVATION, AND CHILDREN - THE VILLAGE, WITH ITS WALKS, ITS SANCTUARY AND SABBATHS - MORAL AND INDUSTRIAL HABITS OF SOCIETY - FAVORABLE AND BEAUTIFUL SURROUNDINGS - FORMER RESIDENTS AND LOCAL ATTACHMENTS - HISTORIC REFLECTIONS, EDUCATION, ETC. - RELIGIOUS USAGES - EXCELLENCE OF DOMESTIC CHARACTER AND TRAINING - WORTHY ANCESTORS AND MINISTERS -SUCCESS OF THE PRESENT PASTOR - HISTORIC INCIDENTS, REVIVALS, AND THEIR INFLUENCE, ESPECIALLY THE LAST - AFFLI. TIONS, VARIOUS AND PERSONAL - FRATERNAL GREETINGS - ANTICIPATIONS, AND PRAYER FOR POSTERITY.
GOD of eternity, whose power Preserves us, and our fathers blest, Be with us at this hallowed hour, And let us in Thy presence rest. Here would we come with praise and prayer. Thy gracious goodness to confess, Whose favor children's children share, In trust Thou wilt our offspring bless. As pilgrims to a holy shrine, We gather joyously to greet Each other, as in olden time, Thrice happy thus once more to meet.
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A festival is this of years
A jubilee of grateful kind, Where mingling- of smiles and tears Refresh the heaven-aspiring mind. No vain regrets or gloons we bring. No sal remembrance of strife. But rather one glad offering To Him who is our spirit's life. His may we be, a blessed band Of brotherhood by heavenly birth. All journeying to the better land Whose paradise is not of earth.
Still cherish we this favored scene Of toils, and friendships, griefs, and joys, Though brighter visions intervene. Of bliss that hath no dark alloys. Fond memories of the past we trace, 'Mil plains, and hills, and sculptured stones, And trees that with their grandeur grace These sarred sites, and dear old homes You river, gentle as of yore. Glides peacefully towards the sea, Repeating toully over and our Sweet strains of Nature's minstrelsy. Nor less the bible that flit alove. Or skim the surfer of that stream,
In warbling tones of truth and love. tiladden the meblow fish and green. You like lot in its bounty lies A- when our fibers dwelt around- A walter minor of the ki How alt, has tran fall, how profil!
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Look thither, at the twilight hour, The sunset or the moonlight scene. And feel the pacifying power Alluring to the world unseen. There gaze upon the vault of night, Whence stars look down on shadows here. Discoursing of those realms of light That canopy our dusky sphere. What wondrous influences blend, To bless the soul on heaven intent ; And pilgrims on the earth befriend With sweet provisions for content.
Each hillside sloping towards the plain, Has sightly homesteads nestling there, With garden spots, and fields of grain, And ripened fruits, all fresh and fair ; And chubby children issuing thence, In quest of berries or of flowers, Blest samples of fair innocence, Enjoy the glad autumnal hours. Goodness ! what glories flood the fields, Where lawns, and groves, and orchards lie, And every acre somehow yields Its affluence 'neath the sunny sky ! Whose is the heart that does not rise In gratitude to God above, Whose favor and whose grace supplies Such proofs of His paternal love ?
Then look again-the village green Smiles cheerfully the church around, While numerous shops and dwellings seen,
Say thrift, and skill, and taste abound. The shaded walks across the plain, Broad avenues beside, well trud, Are traveled not alone for gain- All leading to the house of God. Thither assemblies oft convene,
For praise, and preaching, and for prayer. Where generations past have been, In search of heavenly guidance there. Glad voices greet the day of rest ; Hearts weary with their worldly care. Of sorrow-stricken and distressed, To Zion's altars here repair. The Comforter. the Paraelete, Whose other is to heal the soul, Thus meets men at the mercy-seat, Willing and waiting to make whole. O what a balm the Sabbath brings. To spirits seeking fresh supplies Of holy influence at those springs, Whose sauce is found in Paradise !
The work day world is tranquil here- Of riot and of ranting void : Nor child nor matron need for fear With violence to be annoyed ; Save such excess as sin and crime May bring to any pot of earth. Where laser passions in their time. Incontinently spring to Lith What industries are well supplied : What halvt storing of health ; Not nursing indolente, or pride.
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