USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lincoln > Historical manual of the Church of Christ in Lincoln, Mass > Part 5
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The second Pastor of the church, like his predecessor, was descended from one of the early colonists of Massa- chusetts Bay.
Among the first settlers of Watertown were Isaac and Charles Stearns. Both have many descendants. Among those of the former have been several eminent New Eng- land clergymen. The Lincoln pastor was descended from Charles, while his contemporary and neighbor, Rev. Sam- uel Stearns, of Bedford, was descended from Isaac.
Rev. Charles Stearns, of the fifth generation from the first Charles, was the seventh child and fourth son of Thomas Stearns, and was born in Lunenburg, July 19, 1753. The two eldest of the eleven children of Thomas and Lydia [Mansfield] Stearns, were born in Lynn ; the births of the next seven are recorded in Lunenburg. Leaving Lunenburg, Thomas Stearns went to Fitchburg, but soon removed to Leominster, where he died in 1811, in the ninety-fourth year of his age.
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Charles Stearns entered Harvard College in 1769 and graduated in 1773. Immediately after his graduation he engaged in teaching, at the same time pursuing the study of theology, but at what time, and by what association he was licensed to preach has not been ascertained. He was tutor at Harvard in 1780-81. Mr. Stearns began to preach at Lincoln in October, 1780. On the 15th of Jan- uary, 1781, he received a unanimous call from the church, with which the town concurred on the 5th of February, to settle with them in the gospel ministry. The town voted him two hundred and twenty pounds in hard money, or its equivalent (to which seventy pounds were subsequent- ly added), as a settlement, and eighty pounds and fifteen cords of wood, as a salary. He was ordained November 7, 1781.
"In 1792 several of the leading citizens of Lincoln united in establishing a school of a high order of which Mr. Stearns became the Preceptor. This school was sus- tained about ten years and was very successful." " In 1810 Mr. Stearns received the degree of Doctor of Divin- ity from Harvard College. He was also made Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences."
Dr. Stearns' ministry of nearly forty-five years seems to have been remarkably free from distracting influences.
The church had 96 members at the time of his ordina- tion. He received 155 persons to full communion, 78 owned the covenant and 536 were baptized. Dr. Stearns was a man of vigorous health and much mental activity, which he retained in an unusual degree in old age. He was of medium height and very portly. While he was irascible under provocation, yet with a mind of benevo- lent cast and a cheerful disposition was united a warm social nature and ready sympathy, especially with the youth of his congregation. At times, however, when
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unusually occupied with his studies, he was given to fits of abstraction which rendered him almost oblivious to what was passing about him.
"He preached, for the last time, on the first Sabbath in July, 1826, and a few days after was taken with an acute disease (it is believed to have been bilious colic) which ended his life on the 26th day of that month. Funeral services were held on the 29th, a sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. Ripley, of Concord."
On the monument erected to his memory by the town is the following inscription :
" He was distinguished for his high attainments in va- rious branches of science ; for strength and soundness of mind ; for method and accuracy in reasoning and facility in communicating knowledge. By his piety, benevolence and learning he gained the affection and respect of his beloved people, the esteem and confidence of his numer- ous friends, and the well-deserved honors of literary so- cieties. His life was full of practical goodness, the gen- uine fruit of deep-felt piety, and his death of religious hope and peace. By the habitual exercise of faith, hu- mility, patience and charity, he exhibited Christianity in a strong and prominent light ; and is gone it is believed to enjoy the rewards of a good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ."
Dr. Sprague, in his Annals of the American Pulpit, has classed Dr. Stearns with the Unitarian divines. He is said to have called himself a Moderate Calvinist, and a careful examination of his "Principles of Religion and Morality," a text-book for schools, and private instruction in families, or his sermon, delivered before the Conven- tion of Congregational ministers in Boston in 1815, will show that he is thus classed as accurately as he can be by any single term. In the section in the first named work, entitled " Doctrines peculiar to Christianity," while Dr.
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Stearns does not recognize the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, he does distinctly say ; (1) "That Jesus Christ is, in a sense peculiar to himself, the son of God ; (2) "That he became incarnate, being born of the Virgin Mary ;" (3) "That he made atonement for the sins of men by his sufferings and death. So that by the righteousness and passion of Christ, we have the remission of sins ;" (4) "That for his sake the Holy Ghost is given to be our com- forter and guide, and to work in us the good pleasure of the Father ;" (5) "That he dwelleth forever in heaven as the intercessor of the saints with God ;" (6) "That there will be a general resurrection of the dead ;" (7) "That there will be a day of judgment, in which all men shall be judged according to their works ;" (9) "Eternal future happiness is promised the saints and everlasting destruc- tion threatened to sinners." "The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that he was no imposter; and, he being a true witness, then these doctrines are certainly true."
In the Annals of the American Pulpit, Letters of Rem- iniscence of Dr. Stearns are given by Rev. Nathaniel Whitman of Deerfield, Rev. Joseph Field, D. D. of Wes- ton, Rev. Samuel Sewall, of Burlington, and Rev. John B. Wight, of Wayland. Mr. Whitman gives the follow- ing : A meeting had been appointed at Concord to form a Bible Society for Middlesex County. The notice was insufficient and the attendance consequently small. Dr. Stearns was chosen moderator. The question was " What shall we do ? Shall we now organize or adjourn for a fuller meeting ?' Dr. M. pleaded earnestly for organization, then Dr. R. pleaded as earnestly for adjournment. Thus we were in quite a quandary. The moderator looking blandly around, said Dr. M. I admire your zeal, for it is good to be always zealous in a good cause ; and I also, Dr. R., admire your conservatism, because we should let our mod-
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eration be known to all men, inasmuch as the Lord is at hand.' Then, 'Gentlemen, is it your pleasure that we adjourn ?' and the general response was an emphatic yea." Dr. Stearns was chosen to preach at the adjourned meet- ing. "His sermon was an elaborate and well-adapted dis- cussion of the leading characteristics and infinite value of the Bible ; of the need of its distribution far and wide ; and our obligation to labor systematically in such a cause."
Dr. Stearns married Miss Susanna Cowdry, of Read- ing, the same year of his ordination. They had the fol- lowing children :
1. Susanna, born October 6, 1782, died November 17, 1808, unmarried.
2. Charles, born Feb. 16, 1784 ; for many years con- nected with the Tremont Bank, in Boston. He married, in 1809, Abby Bannister, of Southboro', and (2d) in 18282) 1 Sarah Carter, of Charlestown.
3. Thomas, born August, 1785 ; a physician ; M. D., Harvard University, 1812 ; practiced ten years in Mount Vernon, Me. ; then moved to Sudbury. He married, in 1812, Margaret Loring Heverson, of Cohasset ; (2d), Catherine Prentiss, of Medfield ; (3d), Eloise More, of Sudbury.
4. Julia, born April 6, 1787. She married, Dec. 22, 1808, Charles Wheeler, Esq., of Lincoln.
5. Sarah, born July 5, 1789, died October 8, 1801.
6. Elizabeth Frances, born Feb. 15, 1791; died Nov. 20, 1844, unmarried.
7. William Lawrence, born Oct. 30, 1793, gradua- ted at Harvard College in 1820, studied theology with his father, and was ordained at Stoughton, Nov. 21st, 1827, and was afterwards pastor in Rowe. He married Mary Munroe, of Lincoln, June 5, 1828.
8. Daniel Mansfield, twin brother of the preceding,
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graduated at Brown University in 1822; was installed over a church in Dennis in 1828 ; was dismissed from his charge in 1839, and returned to Lincoln, where he died in 1842. He married, in 1825, Betsey Munroe, of Lin- coln.
9. Rebecca, born November 15, 1794 ; died Jan. 5, 1813.
10. Samuel, born Aug. 24, died Oct. 29, 1796.
11. Edwin, born April 13, died June 26, 1798.
The following works, by Dr. Stearns, were published :
" The Ladies' Philosophy of Love; a Poem in four Cantos." Written in 1774, while a student in college, and published in 1797.
" A Sermon at the Exhibition of Sacred Music in Lin- coln."
" Dramatic Dialogues, for the use of Schools." Pub- lished in 1798.
" A Sermon, preached Nov. 11, 1806, at the Inter- ment of the Hon. Eleazer Brooks."
" A Sermon, delivered at Concord, before the Bible Society, April 26, 1815."
" A Sermon, delivered before the Convention of Con- gregational Ministers in Massachusetts, in Boston, June 1, 1815."
" Principles of Religion and Morality." First edition in 1798, second in 1807.
" A Sermon at the Interment of Mrs. Foster, of Little- ton."
Elijah Demond,
The third pastor of this church, was born in Rutland, Nov. 1, 1790. His father's family did not, like those of his predecessors, belong to the early colonists of the State, his grandfathers being immigrants, the one from Scotland and the other from Ireland, and settlers in Leicester, Mass.
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Mr. Demond graduated at Dartmouth College in 1816, pursued a course of theological study at Andover, gradu- ating in the class of 1820, and was ordained at West New- * bury, March 7, 1821, and was subsequently pastor of the churches in Lincoln, Holliston and Princeton. After the termination of his pastoral work at Princeton, he became an agent of the American Tract Society, and was subse- quently acting pastor of churches in Northbridge, Douglas, Shrewsbury, Falmouth and Chilmark.
Mr. Demond was installed pastor of this church Nov. 7, 1827. It was a very critical time in the history of the church. The older churches, of the cluster with which this was connected, were moving, at first by very slight deflections, from the doctrines and order on which they had been established ; and on the successor of Dr. Stearns, under God, it depended whether this church should drift, with neighboring churches, on the Unitarian wave, or re- main firmly anchored to the faith of the fathers.
The task that devolved on Mr. Demond was a delicate and difficult one.
Dr. Stearns evidently had desired to occupy middle ground between the Calvanistic and Unitarian parties, as the lines of separation were being drawn. Substantially orthodox, he deprecated the discussions and agitations which were disturbing so many parishes, and the impend- ing division between the orthodox and non-orthodox ele- ments.
Differences of belief in regard to important doctrines, he does not seem to have regarded as a bar to ministerial fellowship.
His preaching, in his last years, it is believed was less evangelical than the apostolic models. The result was what may always be expected where pulpit ministrations have not a clear and distinct biblical doctrinal basis ; a
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portion of his hearers came to reject the doctrinal stand- ards of the New England churches, and the truths which are involved in the covenant which the church adopted when it was organized.
Mr. Demond held fully these doctrines, and believed that they should be distinctly set forth. As he became acquainted with this parish he saw that his views of truth would not be acceptable to many of his hearers, and after he accepted the call would gladly have withdrawn his ac- ceptance, so impressed was he with the thought that his preaching would be sure to arouse a deep opposition to his work.
He found, after entering upon his ministry, that many of his hearers were in great need of doctrinal instruction. This need he endeavored to meet, and was the means of leading not a few to settled religious convictions. His re- fusal to exchange pulpits with neighboring Unitarian pas- tors, as he anticipated, gave offence to some of the most influential men of his parish, which led to their withdrawal of connection with it. The evangelical and unevangelical elements became more and more distinct, the affinities of individuals drawing them one way or the other.
The conservative tendencies of the older members of the church, united with the power of sacred associations and family ties, probably retarded the progress of elimi- nation and separation, so that the work which was com- menced early in Mr. Demond's ministry, of individuals leaving the Lincoln Sabbath services, for those in Concord or elsewhere, culminated in 1842 in the formation of the Unitarian church.
Those who were most opposed to the pastor regarded him as rigid and uncharitable, and not a few as distant and austere. Those who agreed with him in doctrinal views regard him as a defender of the faith and delivered to the
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saints and a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. They who have seen him in his serene and mellow old age, with un- dimmed faculties, cannot doubt that, in the trying circum- stances in which he was placed, his measures were judi- cious and in accordance with his views of duty. If his course offended some of his church and more of his parish, it is to be remembered that it was a result which was in- evitable, with such difference of views between the pastor and his disaffected parishioners.
Beside correcting the lax doctrinal tendencies of his congregation which carried so many of the neighboring parishes to Unitarianism, Mr. Demond was obliged to meet the proselyting efforts of several active Christians of his parish who had joined Baptist churches in other places, and who, not content with satisfying their own consciences with regard to this initiatory rite to Christ's church, by be- ing baptized themselves by immersion, were endeavoring to bring members of the church and new converts to a re- nunciation of the ordinance, as administered to believers and their children in this church from the beginning. The pastor, to meet these aggressive movements, took up the subject in the pulpit and in private conversations, and convinced many, who were disturbed or wavering, that the practice of the church is supported by scriptural war- rant. While carrying forward the special work of reaffirm- ing the doctrinal symbols of the church, faithful labor for . the conversion of souls was blessed; thirty-two persons were added to the church during the five years of Mr. De- mond's pastorate. These years, though a period of trial and perplexity, when we consider what was accomplished in them, may be regarded as years of special divine favor.
Mr. Demond was married on the 29th of May, 1821, to Miss Lucy Brown, daughter of Aaron Brown, Esq., of Groton. Mr. Demond is spending the evening of his life
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in Westboro'. Mrs. Demond has been dead several years. A son and two daughters survive her.
Ebenezer Newhall,
The fourth pastor of this church, was born in New Ipswich, N. H., Aug. 5, 1789. His earliest ancestor of the same name in this country came from England and settled in Salem or Lynn. At the age of sixteen years, he entered the store of a merchant in Salem, Mass., where he remained for several years.
The habits of promptness, exactness and careful at- tention to matters in hand acquired there, Mr. Newhall found of much service in his subsequent professional life. His plans for a business career being broken up, by un- toward circumstances, he returned to his birth-place and entered Appleton Academy, and, after two years of pre- paratory study, was admitted to Harvard College in 1814, where he graduated in 1818. He taught in Phillips Acad- emy, Andover, the following year, at the same time pur- suing the studies of the Junior class in the Theological Seminary from which he graduated in the class of 1821. He engaged, under the direction of the Mass. Home Mis- sionary Society, in Missionary labor in Maine for one year. Returning to Massachusetts, Mr. Newhall received calls in a few months to the Congregational churches in Palmer, Holden and Oxford. He accepted the call to the church in Oxford, where he was ordained in Decem- ber, 1823. He remained the pastor of that church nearly nine years.
Mr. Newhall was installed at Lincoln Jan. 16, 1833, , where he remained until April 22, 1847. He was dis- missed to accept a call to the church in Willsboro', New York. After a five years' ministry in that pastorate, he
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became the acting pastor of the church in Chesterfield, N. H., where he remained for two years. He was installed over the church in Litchfield, N. H., in July, 1854, and resigned his charge on the last Sabbath in 1862.
Since leaving Litchfield he has resided in Cambridge.
The ninth year of Mr. Newhall's pastorate, the year 1842, was marked by a deeper and more general interest in religion than any other, perhaps, in the history of the church. Twenty-five persons were added to the church, nineteen of them by profession of faith. Mr. Newhall was a man of very methodical habits in study, and in all things that pertained to his pastoral work; of much equanimity, dignified and courteous in his manners, always enjoying the confidence of the people to whom he ministered, and who sought to fulfil the apostolic injunc- tion to bishops.
Mr. Newhall was married, Sept. 16, 1824, to Miss Sarah Burr Clark, daughter of Stoddard Adams Clark, of the bar of New York.
William Chamberlain Jackson,
The fifth pastor of this church, was born in Eaton, N. H., Feb. 17, 1808. He was the son of Daniel and Abigail [Merrill] Jackson. The Merrill family were among the earliest settlers of Conway. Mr. Jackson's grandfather, James Jackson, was a physician, and is be- lieved to have come to Eaton, where he followed his profes- sion, from Portsmouth. Having spent his childhood with an uncle in Jefferson, he entered Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1831. After teaching one year at West- minster, Mass., he entered Andover Theological Seminary, and graduated in the class of 1835.
He was married to Miss Mary A. Sawyer, of Westmin- ster, Sept. 9, 1835.
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He was ordained at Lancaster, N. H., Oct. 13, 1835, and soon after sailed with Mrs. Jackson from Boston as a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., appointed to the mis- sion in Eastern Turkey.
His stations were Trebizond and Erzroom. After nearly ten years' stay abroad, he returned to this country, chiefly on account of the impaired health of Mrs. Jackson, arriving in Boston Dec. 6, 1845.
Mr. Jackson was installed as pastor of this church on the 15th of April, 1848, and was dismissed from its pas- torate Oct. 12, 1858.
In November of the following year he became the pas- tor of the church in Dunstable, where he remained until October, 1867.
He is at present acting pastor of the church in Brent- wood, N. H.
Mr. Jackson, in his pastorate in Lincoln, and in all his ministerial labor, has been recognized as an able, judi- cious and devout minister of the Gospel. His work for many years has been prosecuted under peculiar difficulties, owing to ill health in his family; yet in addition to his pastoral work, while in Lincoln, he wrote for many months, regularly, for the Congregationalist. He is also favorably known as an author of Sabbath-school question books.
Henry Jackson Richardson,
The sixth and present pastor of this church, was born in Middleton, June 23, 1829, graduated at Amherst Col- lege in 1855, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1859.
He is descended from Samuel Richardson, who was born in England, and with his brothers, Ezekiel and Thomas, came to America, probably in the fleet with Win-
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throp, in 1630. These brothers were citizens of Charles- town for a few years, and were all members of the First Church in that place.
Ezekiel, apparently the eldest, was representative of Charlestown in the General Court of 1635; selectman in 1640 ; and he and his two brothers were three of the seven Commissioners appointed that year, by the church in Charlestown, to effect the settlement of Woburn, which was originally a grant of land, made, in 1640, by the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts, to Charlestown. Samuel and Ezekiel Richardson were members of the first board of Selectmen in Woburn. Of the three Richardsons, Sewall, in his History of Woburn, says : "They were members of the church at its foundation, men highly respected in their day, and much employed in the business of the town. Their descendants, bearing the name of Richardson, long have been, and still are, more numerous than persons of any other name in Woburn, and among them have been found some of the most valued members of the church and citizens of the place."
Solomon Richardson, grandson of Samuel and great- grandfather of the subject of the present sketch, removed from Woburn to that part of Salem Village which subse- quently became a part of Middleton, when the town was incorporated in 1729. His son Stephen and grandson Daniel, grandfather and father of the Lincoln pastor, were residents during life of Middleton.
Mr. Richardson was approbated to preach by the Essex South Association, during his senior year at Andover. He first preached in Lincoln in the autumn of 1859, received a call to the pastorate from the Church and Parish in the following winter, and was ordained as pastor on the 6th of September, 1860, the present church edifice being ded- icated by the same service.
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Mr. Richardson was married to Mrs. Harriet A. [Col- burn ] French, of St. Paul, Minn., daughter of Dea. Wil- liam Colburn, June 26, 1864.
PASTORS.
1. WILLIAM LAWRENCE, born in Groton, May 7, 1723 ; graduated H. U., 1743 ; installed Dec. 7, 1748 ; died April 11, 1780; length of Pastorate, 31 yrs., 4 mos.
2. CHARLES STEARNS, D. D., born in Lunenburg, July 19, 1753 ; graduated H. U., 1773 ; installed Nov. 17, 1781; died July 26, 1826; length of Pastorate, 45 yrs., 8 mos.
3. ELIJAH DEMOND, born in Rutland, Nov. 1, 1790; graduated D. C., 1816 ; installed Nov. 7, 1827; dismissed Oct. 26, 1832 ; length of Pastorate, 4 yrs., 11 mos.
4. EBENEZER NEWHALL, born in New Ipswich, N. H., Aug. 5, 1789 ; graduated H. U., 1818 ; installed June 16, 1835 ; dismissed April 22, 1849; length of Pastorate, 14 yrs., 3 mos.
5. WILLIAM C. JACKSON, born in Eaton (now Madison), N. H., Feb. 17, 1808; graduated D. C., 1831 ; installed April 26, 1848 ; dismissed Oct. 12, 1858 ; length of Pastorate, 10 yrs., 5 mos.
6. HENRY J. RICHARDSON, born in Middleton, June 23, 1829 ; graduated A. C., 1855, and at Andover Theol. Seminary, 1859 ; installed Sept. 6, 1860.
IX.
DEACONS.
Dea. Benjamin Brown,
Was one of the persons named in the act of incorporation in 1747, when the future town of Lincoln became the Second Precinct of Con- cord. He was born Feb. 27, 1681-2, and died March 11, 1753. He was grandson of Captain Abraham Browne, who was one of the first settlers of Watertown, and one of the most respected and influential citizens of the town.
Dea. Brown married Anna Garfield, Feb. 27, 1702-3, and settled in that part of Watertown, which subsequently became a part of Lincoln. He was chosen deacon of the Weston Church, April 20, 1715. When the new Church was formed in Lincoln he was one of the " elders," and was elected standing moderator. His name stands first of the twenty-five men by whom a meeting-house was erected, nearly com- pleted and given to the precinct. He probably was not elected deacon after the ordination of Mr. Lawrence, on account of his advanced age. Dea. Brown enjoyed the highest respect of his fellow-citizens for his civil and Christian virtues.
Dea. Joshua Brooks,
The first deacon of that name in the Lincoln Church, was the son of Noah, of Concord, afterwards of Acton, and grandson of Joshua, of Concord, a tanner, who settled in that part of the town, which afterward became a part of Lincoln, and who married in Watertown, Oct. 17, 1653, Hannah Mason, daughter of Captain Hugh Mason. This Joshua was the eldest son of Captain Thomas and Grace Brooks, of whom Bond says, "Neither the date of his arrival nor the place of his embarkation has been ascertained; but there is reason to suppose that he came from London." He first settled in Watertown, and was one of "the townsmen, then inhabiting," to whom the "Beaver Brook ploughlands " were granted in 1636; was admitted a freeman, Dec. 7, 1636, while residing in Watertown, and subsequently came to Concord, where he was made Captain of the Militia, and received various other appointments of honor and trust. His daughter, Mary, married Capt. Timothy Wheeler. The first deacon of Lincoln was born Oct. 14, 1688, and married Lydia Wheeler, April 24, 1713. His
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