USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Templeton > Historical discourse in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the formation of the First Congregational Church in Templeton, Massachusetts : with an appendix, embracing a survey of the municipal affairs of the town > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
-
السنة الى
14
vast water-power of our State; thirdly, by cherishing public free schools; and, fourthly, by steadily up- holding the institutions of public worship, and of Christianity in all its applications.
Depend upon it, that while the earliest settlers of this township made such exertions and sacrifices (amid all the difficulties of first bringing the forest under cultivation) for the sake of means of travel and transport, for mills, schools, and the church, they were directly and powerfully co-operating with just those instrumentalities and principles which have made in our Commonwealth, out of a little one, such a great people. Thus the fathers were working for the future, rather than for their own times. With enlightened views, heroic purposes, and steadfast faith, they were acting in harmony with the eternal laws and plans of the Almighty's moral providence ; and therefore mighty success followed their labors.
In proceeding now to trace the succession of things here in the century past, with especial refer- ence to our church history and religious institutions, let us first fix clearly in the mind a few of the im- portant dates and events. Though the township was granted some twenty years earlier, it is now just a hundred years ago that families enough had settled here, under the regulations of the proprietors, to begin religious institutions, having just builded a meeting-house; Phillipston and Templeton being then together.
The first meeting-house stood upwards of fifty
15
years, and until this house in which we are now assembled was built, which was in 1811. On the 10th of December, 1755, the First Church of Christ was embodied, and a minister was ordained, - the Rev. DANIEL POND. His ministry, however, lasted only three or four years, and produced, consequently, but little impression upon the town. Very soon after, another minister was settled, - the Rev. EBENE- ZER SPARHAWK, who came here in the year 1761, while there were not more, probably, than about fifty or sixty families in the whole township (the west or Phillipston part included, as well as the Templeton): that was also before the place was incorporated with town-privileges. Mr. Sparhawk continued in the ministry here as long as he lived ; that is, to Nov. 25, 1805, when it wanted only fifteen days of completing the first half-century of the church. Fifteen months after Mr. Sparhawk's death, the Rev. CHARLES WELLINGTON was ordained, and continues - God be thanked ! - pastor and minister to this day. So that our whole ecclesiastical history, from the beginning, naturally divides itself into two great periods, each of just half a century. The first com- prises the fifty years succeeding the formation of the church, - almost the whole of which was covered by Rev. Mr. Sparhawk's ministry ; the second period comprises the fifty years since Mr. Sparhawk's death, - almost the whole of which also is covered by the ministry of his immediate successor, Rev. Dr. Wel- lington. Let it be further observed, that Templeton, having been incorporated as a town a year or two
16
after Mr. Sparhawk's ordination here, the territory at first belonging to Templeton, which is now in Phil- lipston, was set off as a distinct precinct or parish in 1774; and that territory, with some addition from Athol, was at length incorporated as a town in the year 1786, originally bearing the name of Gerry, but since changed to Phillipston. A church was gathered there in 1785 ; twenty-five of the members of which at first belonged to this church, and were dismissed for the purpose of forming that new church. Not far from the same period, also, - that is, when about half of the time of Mr. Sparhawk's ministry had passed, - there was a Baptist church-organization established in Templeton, to which about twenty of the members of the First Church withdrew. The parallel between the two half-century periods con- tinued ; for, when about half of the time of the present senior pastor's ministry had expired, namely, in the year 1832, and just fifty years after the forma- tion of that Baptist church, there was also another division, by the organization in this town of " the Trinitarian Church," to which about twenty-five members withdrew from the First Church.
With these prominent facts and dates distinctly in mind, you will now be prepared to take a cursory and comprehensive glance through the whole period of our ecclesiastical history.
Looking back, then, a hundred years, we find those resolute men who were the pioneers here com- pleting their preparations to worship God in freedom, according to their own consciences. We see them
17
relying on the great Protestant principle, that the Scriptures are to every man, who sincerely strives to walk by their light, a sufficient rule of faith and practice. They wanted no bishop nor presbytery to rule over them. They were competent, as freemen in Christ, to gather themselves into a church, and to appoint and ordain one to be their minister in the things of the gospel. In the year 1755, so early as the 8th of January, they signed their names, to- gether with their pastor elect, - to the number of twelve men in all, - to a church covenant ; profess- ing their determination, as disciples of the Lord Jesus, to walk together, as a church of Christ, in mutual charity, and obedience to gospel rules and the use of Christian privileges. Though this was done in the early part of the year, the organization of the church was not considered as completed till the concurrence and fellowship of the Christian brethren of the neighborhood had been manifested. The council convened for this purpose, and for the ordination of the pastor elect, did not assemble till the 10th of December following. It is not impro- bable that this delay was caused by the interruptions produced that year by French and Indian hostili- ties. War was formally declared by England against France in 1756; but, for many months previous, military operations had been carried on by the respec- tive Colonies of the two nations on this side of the Atlantic. In 1755 occurred Braddock's celebrated defeat. In the same year, hostile Indians, under the guidance of Canadian-French officers, menaced
3
-. . .
D
اسما من المدر فلح
18
for the last time the frontier settlements of Massa- chusetts. They ravaged and burned towns in New Hampshire, on the Connecticut River. The inhabi- tants of Winchendon (then called Ipswich-Canada) asked the General Court for aid and protection ; stat- ing that Indians were about, so that they could not cultivate their fields, and were dependent on Lunen- burg, Lancaster, and Groton, for food. In the month of August, 1755, a scouting party of soldiers dis- covered traces of hostile Indians in Winchendon. A fort was built, probably during the summer of 1755, in this township, for safety in case of an Indian attack .* While the homes and families of our first settlers were in such danger, it is not surprising that they postponed for a few months the completion of their church affairs and the ordination of the pastor. The dangers having at length ceased, an ecclesiastical council was assembled on the 10th of December, 1755, who, according to the certificate of the mode- rator recorded in the proprietors' records, "did gather a church, set apart and ordain the Rev. Daniel Pond the first minister of that plantation." ; And thus, in conformity to their own liberties and conscientious
* The proprietors, at their meeting in October, 1755, voted " to make a reasonable allowance " to the persons who built the fort. I have not been able to ascertain its location. Probably it consisted of simple ramparts of logs and earth, within which any settlers might retire upon an alarm; and was thought defensible against a savage enemy, armed only with muskets.
Mr. Pond was entitled, by the terms of his settlement, to have the original lot or right of land reserved, in the grant by the Legislature, for the first minister, - equal to a hundred and twenty-third part of the whole township; also fifty-five pounds of lawful money as " a settlement; " and a salary, for the first three years, of fifty-five pounds a year, and subsequently of fifty-two pounds a year.
19
judgment, and with the sympathy and fellowship of other churches, was organized this, the First Congre- gational Church of Christ in the town. The church assumed at its formation no sectarian or party name : it never has from that day to this. On the basis of Protestant Christianity, and of the simple, free, and scriptural usages and forms of the Congregational order and discipline, it stands, and has ever stood, calling no man master; because one is its Master, even Christ, and the members are all brethren.
Those twelve men, who, on that eventful day, acknowledged their signatures and the consent of their hearts to that church-organization, must have felt that they were then, indeed, laying " the founda- tions of many generations." I have before me the original paper, subscribed in the handwriting of each of the twelve. Precious relic ! May it be safely preserved many centuries more !
The names of these twelve original founders are Daniel Pond, Joshua Hyde, Josiah Wheat, David Clark, Charles Baker, David Goddard, Jacob Byam, Phineas Byam, Zaccheus Barrett, Elias Wilder, Thomas Drury, John Chamberlin.
This original church-covenant conformed in its phraseology to the usual theology of the times. It was not drawn up, however, by Mr. Pond, or by any of the members, here; for it was the same as the one adopted, several years before, at the forma- tion of the First Church in Athol, and which con- tinued to be used there so lately as to the end of the venerable Mr. Esterbrook's life. Probably,
20
in both cases, it was copied from some form in use elsewhere. Afterwards, Rev. Mr. Sparhawk sub- stituted another form, - shorter, but of the same practical import, and less particular in its doctrinal expressions.
That was a great day for the inhabitants of Narra- ganset No. 6, a hundred years ago, which witnessed the first consecration of their public religious institu- tions. Friends, relatives, and strangers came in on horseback, from many miles, in large numbers. The meeting-house, then just erected, was crowded with people from far and near. A generous hospitality was afforded to all comers. The entertainment for the council, and the many guests from abroad, was made by Mr. Jason Whitney. The proprietors' ancient records contain the items of the provisions furnished on the occasion, and paid for out of their treasury, with the prices for the same: they were ample and generous. It is worthy of note, that there was no tea or coffee; but there was a barrel of cider, and liquors, according to the fashion of the times, in moderate quantities. Large kettles were scarce: one or two of brass were transported, at considerable expense, from other towns. Some provender for the horses, and other stores, had been brought from abroad. Among the items of food were fifty pounds of veal, at two cents and a quarter per pound; thirty-seven pounds and a half of pork, at four cents and a half; twenty-five pounds of beef, at two cents and three-quarters ; "two geese and four hens," which cost together less than did six pounds
21
of sugar. The price paid out of the treasury for horse-keeping was at the rate of nine cents a day each. To the inhabitants, it was a day of festivity and cheerful anticipations : they were manifesting their settled conviction, that the things of religion must be recognized as indispensable to the prosperity of the infant settlement, and their desire that gospel- institutions should strengthen and grow with the growth and strength of the town. They had called in the ministers and people of the neighboring towns for counsel, sympathy, and aid; and there, under the impressive circumstances and amid the primeval forest, did they invoke the blessing of God on those consecrations for which the day had been set apart ..
But Mr. Pond's ministry, as already stated, was very short. In the course of three or four years, difficulties had arisen. A mutual council was called in to give its advice. They investigated and delibe- rated for two days. It was considered no light thing for minister and people to be separated. But the council, on the whole, gave their judgment in favor of his dismission. With this advice, both the mini- ster and the proprietors complied. He ceased to preach here in August, 1759.
Mr. Pond, according to the best information I have been able to obtain, was born May 13, 1724, probably in Wrentham, Mass. He was graduated at Harvard University, Cambridge, in 1745, in the class with Gov. James Bowdoin. He did not continue in the ministry, but went to West Medway, then a part of Wrentham, and was a teacher, receiving students
22
into his house. After Rev. Mr. Sparhawk's settle- ment here, Mr. Pond was dismissed from membership in this church, and recommended to the church in that place, to which he was received as a member, June, 1764. He seems to have enjoyed confidence and respect from the citizens there. He was very strongly opposed to what were called the Hopkinsian views in theology; and, upon the settlement of a minister in West Medway who advocated those views, he withdrew from that church to another, and, by the action he took, became the leader in a dissension in that town, which lasted many years. It is said that he finally removed to Otter Creek, and died there.
At the same meeting of proprietors at which the action of the council, in favor of dismissing Mr. Pond, was ratified, they chose Mr. Jonas Wilder, Rev. Aaron Whitney (of Petersham), and Mr. Daniel Knowlton, a committee to provide preaching in the township, with a view to another settlement. The first minister who came (September, 1759) was Mr. Josiah Brown,* who preached only three or four Sun- days. He was followed by Mr. Francis Gardner, who seems to have been quite acceptable to the people ; for he preached here at different times the greater part of a year. There were four or five other candi- dates before Mr. Sparhawk came; but Mr. Gardner supplied more Sundays than all the others.
* Perhaps Josiah Brown, graduate of Harvard College in 1735, who was never ordained.
23
Mr. Gardner was son of Rev. John Gardner, of Stowe; and born Feb. 17, 1736; graduated at Har- vard College in 1755; and was ordained at Leo- minster, Dec. 22, 1762. He died June 4, 1814. His brother, Henry, was the first Treasurer of Massa- chusetts after the commencement of the Revolution, and was grandfather of the present Governor of the Commonwealth.
Mr. Gardner not proving to be the one who was to become the spiritual guide of the little flock here, their attention was turned to others. Mr. Thomas Rice preached the next largest number of Sundays. He was from Sutton, about twenty-five years old, and had been out of college three or four years. He was never ordained, but became a physician ; and at length filled the office of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and other public posts, in Maine. Next came Mr. Lemuel Hedge, just from college; born in Hard- wick; and finally settled as the minister of Warwick (then called Roxbury-Canada), Dec. 3, 1760, where he died Oct. 17, 1777. He was father of Professor Hedge, of Harvard University. There was also a " Rev. Mr. Jones, of Woburn," who preached a short time, perhaps only a single sabbath ; * and a Mr. Whitney, for two sabbaths.t
Another of the young preachers employed was Stephen Shattuck, jun .; a classmate with Mr. Spar- hawk at Harvard College. He was born in Littleton,
* Probably Rev. Cornelius Jones (H. C. 1752), the first minister in Rowe, Mass. Probably Rev. P. Whitney (H. C. 1759), afterwards minister of Shirley.
TX
Whe
N
24
of which town his father was the first minister; and was brother of Dr. Benjamin Shattuck, the first phy- sician of this town. Mr. Shattuck was never ordained. He kept school occasionally. His death took place in Littleton, in 1799.
The last candidate, before Mr. Sparhawk, was Mr. Thomas Fessenden, of Cambridge, then only twenty- two years old. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1758, at the age of nineteen ; and was ordained at Walpole, N.H., Jan. 7, 1767, where he died in 1813.
In 1760 and 1761, the proprictors appointed on their committees, to supply the pulpit, Jonas Wilder, Charles Baker, Ebenezer Wright, and Zaccheus Barrett. By them, Mr. Ebenczer Sparhawk was in- troduced here ; preaching in this place, for the first time, Nov. 29, 1760. The tradition remains, that, on the first journey hither, - coming on Saturday from Rutland, probably by way of Barre, on horse- back, guided only by marked trees, - Mr. Sparhawk lost his way ; and night coming on, and no habitations discernible, he was obliged to fasten his horse to a tree, and, as the weather was quite cold, was con- strained, for safety, to walk in a circle about the tree all night. When morning came, the spot proved to be but a short distance from the house of Deacon Wilder, on the farm now owned by Col. George W. Sawyer. Mr. Sparhawk preached here through the greater part of the year 1761. One reason why the settlements of those days were more permanent than modern ones was, that candidates and parishes
25
took time enough to become acquainted, and ascer- tain whether there was a mutual adaptation, before it was ventured to propose or accept a call.
Mr. Sparhawk received his call to settle here in July, accepted it in October, and was ordained Nov. 18, 1761. Many of the present congregation asso- ciate his manly form and dignified yet courteous bearing with the most hallowed of their early recol- lections. His memory is reverenced by all as that of a truly honest, pious, faithful minister of God. His settlement here in the freshness of youth, at the age of only twenty-three, remaining as he did till his death at almost threescore and ten, was a most happy thing for the town; for it was his mini- stry and influence, as already said, that gave cha- racter, in a great measure, to the first half-century of our church history. Nor has that influence ceased with his life : it has been felt for good to this day.
Mr. Sparhawk was born in that part of Cambridge which is now Brighton, June 15, 1738, of pious and respectable parents. He was instructed in the lan- guages and fitted for college chiefly by Mr. Jonathan Winchester, of Brookline, who was afterwards minister of Ashburnham. He entered Harvard College, at Cam- bridge, at the age of fourteen years; and was gradu- ated at eighteen, in the year 1756, the next year after the graduation of John Adams, second President of the United States. After leaving college, Mr. Sparhawk taught school in Lexington, Rutland, Shrewsbury, and Worcester. While teaching, he pursued his studies for the ministry; in part under the direction of the
4
£
دا وح الأصول
now
26
Rev. Mr. Buckminster, of Rutland, the grandfather of the celebrated and beloved Joseph Stevens Buck- minster, who was pastor of the Brattle-street Church in Boston. Mr. Sparhawk preached his first sermon at Charlestown, Jan. 20, 1760; and preached here upwards of thirty Sundays, in 1761, before his ordi- nation. The council assembled for his settlement consisted of the representatives of seven churches, and was composed of six pastors and ten delegates. They met at the house of Mr. Zaccheus Barrett, where Mr. Sparhawk then boarded, - the house now occupied by the Dolbear family, Mr. Barrett's desendants, and which is said to have been the first framed house ever erected within the present bounds of the town. The public services of the ordination were conducted as follows: Introductory prayer by Rev. Mr. Davis, of Holden ; charge by Rev. Mr. Hill, of Shutesbury ; prayer "after the charge " by Rev. Mr. Maccarty, of Worcester; right hand of fellow- ship by Rev. Aaron Whitney, of Petersham. The sermon was preached by Rev. Joseph Buckminster, of Rutland, and was afterwards printed. I have been so fortunate as to obtain, in a distant town, a copy of that sermon, which is now before me. It is entire, with the exception of a single missing leaf; and, from the context, the connection of the absent passage is sufficiently evident. The text is 2 Thess. iii. 1; and the general theme of the dis- course is the office of ministers of the gospel, and their need of their people's sympathy and prayers. It is an able, sensible, and practical discourse.
27
There is not a word in it which we should not now cordially accept .*
Mr. Sparhawk was settled upon an annual salary of £66. 13s. 4d., which was equal to $222.22; with the amount of two years' salary additional, paid as "a settlement." This "settlement" money he invested in land. . It was probably nearly or quite sufficient for the purchase of his farm of eighty acres, without buildings. It was stipulated that he should have leave to be absent three Sundays a year. This salary of two hundred and twenty-two dollars continued the same throughout his life. Small as such a support now seems, it was then considered by all a generous sum. It was probably, at the time of his ordination, more valuable - relatively to the prices of things, and the requisitions of a minister's living - than any of the salaries now paid by any of the religious societies in this town; and so continued for a great many years, with the exception of a portion of the troubled times of the Revolutionary War. At that time, the rate of wages for able-bodied men, doing long days' work and boarding themselves, was less than fifty cents a day. Thirty years later, the wages of carpenters and painters in this town were only four shillings a day, boarding themselves. Female help was less than fifty cents a week. The work of a pair of oxen was, for a long time, twenty-five cents a day. On the other hand, some articles, especially of foreign produce, were higher than
* See APPENDIX D.
28
now. The increase of expenses of living began to be materially felt chiefly within the ten or fifteen years before the close of his ministry; and the salary finally became quite inadequate. There seems to have been a want of justice on the part of the people, in the last ten years, in not consenting to increase it. A small addition for his firewood was voted for three years, from 1794 to 1797; but even this was not continued afterward. On the whole, it is probable, that, at the termination of the first half-century, the necessary expenses of living had about doubled, in the aggregate, from what they were at the beginning .*
About two years after his ordination, Mr. Spar- hawk married Miss Abigail Stearns, daughter of Rev. David and Mrs. Ruth Stearns, of Lunenburg. She was about his own age. Her mother, on being afterward left a widow, married the Rev. Aaron Whitney, of Petersham. Mr. Sparhawk, having bought his farm, built, in 1764, the house which he inhabited more than forty years, till his death, and in which my colleague, who purchased it of his heirs, has resided for a still longer time. There were four sons born of Mr. Sparhawk's first mar- riage, one of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Ruth Sparhawk, his " valuable and beloved consort," as he called her, died of a fever, April 21, 1772. He was married again, to Miss Naomi Hill, daughter of Rev. Abraham and Naomi Hill, of Shutesbury.
* See APPENDIX E.
£
29
She was born Aug. 17, 1749, and survived her husband twenty-three years; dying in this town at the age of almost eighty, having enjoyed esteem and respect from the people. Of the second marriage, there were four sons and four daughters. Of Mr. Sparhawk's twelve children, only one died young. One son and three daughters still survive.
During forty-four years did Rev. Mr. Sparhawk faithfully and vigorously discharge his duties as mini- ster of this people. At times, he had trials to bear in the duties of his office, and opposition to con- front : but his dignity of character, his prudence, his firmness, perseverance, and conscientiousness, carried him through it all; and he enjoyed, in the last twenty years of his ministry, the respect and confidence of some who had before, sometimes not on good grounds, strongly opposed him. The last quarter-part of his ministry seems to have been passed in almost unbroken harmony with his people, with the exception of a very few persons, who also were inclined to signify their discontent with his successor.
The survey of our church history would be quite incomplete, were we not to include some account of the divisions and differences above referred to, which arose near the commencement of the Revolutionary War. I have devoted much time to the investigation of their causes and results, by means of the records of the parish as well as the church, and other sources of information. The conclusion, to my mind, is irresistible, that Rev. Mr. Sparhawk was thoroughly
BLI
30
conscientious in the action he took; though in one or two important points he rested upon views, as to the rights of the churches, which were then held, indeed, by many ministers, but which are now discarded by all, and which, it seems probable, he himself later in life abandoned. The opposition to his cause was, in part, factious. There were those who found fault, without candor or reason, or sense of common justice. There were others, who, in a better spirit, considered themselves bound to resist his course as derogatory to the liberties of the churches, and inconsistent with our Congregational principles. At the same time, it is evident, from a careful study of the documents, that, except in the matters in which Mr. Sparhawk was acting upon the convictions referred to, his ministry met with no valid reproach. The frivolous character of the complaints brought forward in any other direction, even when the authors were in the height of con- troversy, show conclusively that his character and work were such as might endure even the scrutiny of enemies.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.