USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Amherst > Historical review. One hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church of Christ in Amherst, Massachusetts. November 7, 1889 > Part 4
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Evidently, these men put faith in that word of Scripture "Child.rer are a heritage from the Lord," and were more likely than some of their descendants to secure the blessing promised to the man who has his "quiver full of them."
That this fecundity was not limited to the Parsons stock, however appears from an entry in the church records of Northampton ; which is of interest also as showing what the clerk of that day deemed worthy of record. It relates to Mrs. Elizabeth Parsons Allen, mothe of Major Jonathan Allen, who died in 1800. She was, we are told "Eminently pious, and assisted at the birth of three thousand child ren."
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The boughs of this tree were not only many but goodly. From the Parsons lineage have come ministers, missionaries, jurists, soldiers and men of affairs in various walks of life, who have borne themselves hon- orably in their several stations.
But we must not linger. Frederick Maurice reminds us that "our relation to father and mother is the primary fact of our existence, so that we can contemplate no facts apart from that." Leaving, then, the remoter ancestry, let us inquire for the parents of your first pastor. These were David Parsons and Sarah Stebbins.
Of the latter, little is known to us, save that she survived her hus- band nearly sixteen years, dying June 17, 1759, aged seventy-three years.
Of the husband and father we have more knowledge. The fourth son and fifth child of Judge Joseph Parsons, Jr. and Elizabeth Strong, he was born at Northampton Feb. 1, 1680-was graduated at Harvard College in 1705, taking a degree from Yale the same year-was set- tled over the Congregational Church in Malden, Mass., in 1709, going thence, in 1721, to Leicester in the same state, where he died in October, 1743, aged 63.
At Malden he succeeded the brilliant, but eccentric, Michael Wig- glesworth.
Respecting the circumstances of his call, the historian of Middlesex Co. tells us that "it was not until after nine ministers had been con- sidered as candidates for the pulpit, that the town and the church d st were able to come to a loving agreement in the choice of Mr. David - the it to SOME Parsons." From another source we learn that Mr. Parsons preached, part of the day, on the first Sunday of Mr. Tufts' preaching (one whom the court, in default of prompt decision by the church, had pren selected as a "suitable person qualified for the work of the ministry in Malden"). It would seem that, in those days, the churches were not Len content with one candidate a Sunday, but must have two-a suggest- e of ve item for committees seeking a pastor, and having an "embarrass- has nent of riches" in the way of possible candidates.
On the next day, the church met and voted to call Mr. Parsons and, n the Wednesday following the town concurred by fifty-three affirni- tive votes-far the greater part of the voters in the town. Inade- uate support was the occasion, as with many a minister since, of his theraving in 1721, when he accepted the repeated and most urgent invi- told ation of the church lately formed in Leicester, whither some of his arishioners had removed and were among the leading citizens.
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This fact, together with the heartiness of the call, gave promise of a successful and prolonged ministry-a promise, however, which was not fulfilled. The question of finances, so often a root of bitterness between pastor and people, again came up. Mr. Parsons knew his rights and "knowing dared maintain." That they were his rights appears by successive decisions in his favor by ecclesiastical, legal and civil tribunals. Whether he was wise in insisting upon them, in the way and to the extent he did, we, at this distance of time and with our imperfect knowledge of the facts, are not qualified to judge. That candid and painstaking investigator, the late Rev. A. P. Marvin, writes : "The impression left by the narrative of Judge Washburn is unfavorable to the minister, but not a fact appears impeaching his character. His claim against the town was sustained by the Court of Sessions, and the town finally acknowledged it. The fact appears to be that he sought his right in a harsh and provoking way. It was folly to suppose that he could usefully minister to a people whom he had sued for the arrears of his salary, and he paid a severe penalty for his unwisdom."
The formal tie was dissolved in 1735, though doubtless the true bond of union, so far as many of the flock were concerned, had been earlier severed. Still, the minister and his family made their home in Leicester and the stone, which was over the graves of the wedded pair, is now deposited in the church building.
The eldest of their five children, and the only one of whom we have knowledge, was born at Malden, March 24, 1712, and bore his father's name. He was graduated from Harvard in 1729 and, three years later, took the Master's degree, the theme of his thesis on that occa- sion being "Whether all the Sacred writings are contained in the books of the Old and New Testament ;"-which he answered in the affirmative. Although he began to preach at East Hadley (now Amherst) in November, 1735, he was not ordained until four years later, viz. Nov. 7, 1739, the date of the organization of the church having meantime twice declined an invitation to the pastorate. Per haps this prolonged courtship prevented speedy divorce and secured that permanent union which was only dissolved by his death, occuring Jan. 1, 1781, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the forty-second of his pastorate.
His portrait has been lovingly drawn for us by the hand of a friend of fifty years, Rev. Robert Breck of Springfield, in the sermon preache at his funeral. We see him, thus, "a man of strong intellectua
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powers, with a penetrating eye," giving token of that shrewd and judicial mind which made his counsel valued ; retaining his classical learning beyond most men of his age, but with "divinity" as his favorite study ; a doctrinal preacher, reverent in manner, devout in temper and fervent in prayer. "With what solemnity," exclaims his friend, " were the morning and evening devotions offered up ! I never observed anything that surpassed it."
Nor was he unmindful of the spiritual interests of his own house- hold, while caring for the larger household of faith. "There were stated seasons daily," we are told, " wherein every one of the family was allowed, and the younger ones enjoined, to retire and pay their secret devotions to the Deity." It is said of him, also, that he was a friend to all good men, never professing friendship but where he felt it nor recalling it when bestowed.
Living in days when party feeling ran high, and sharing the opinion of the leading inhabitants of the town as to the hoplessness of the American cause, he did not, as a local historian puts it, "escape the notice of the warm friends of the revolutionary movement." In the warrant for the town meeting, January 6, 1777, the following articles appear : " To know the minds of the people of this town, whether they esteem the conduct of the Rev. Mr. David Parsons friendly with regard towards the common cause," and, "To have the minds of the people, whether they will improve the Rev. Mr. Parsons as their minister for the future."
Apparently they decided to "improve " him by a little of the ' excellent oil " of reproof. For we read, further, that the town voted that the conduct of Mr. Parsons was offensive, and chose five nen, two of them deacons of the church, to inform him of the fact. It was well for the comfort of the five, perhaps, that Mr. Parsons had lot his father's temperament, or the interview might have been less igreeable. As it was, the relations of the pastor and people seem to lave sufferred no violent strain and, four years later, death found im still at his post.
We may accept as true the words inscribed over his grave: "A han of God and faithful servant of Jesus Christ."
There follows the record of the death of Eunice W., consort of the lev. David Parsons, who died Sept. 20, 1796, in the 94th year of er age. The sentiment appended may be taken, perhaps, as sug- esting her relation to her spouse, as well as that of Christ to both : Let me interpret for him-me his advocate and propitiation. All
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his works in me, good or not good, ingraft. My merit these shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay."
After the death of the father, the people called for the son, who was graduated from Harvard in 1771, studied theology with his father, was licensed to preach about 1775, and did preach with such acceptance, in Roxbury, Mass. and several towns of Conn., as to receive two or three calls. He had, however, made up his mind, owing, as is suggested by some writer, to the unsettled state of the country and his infirm health, to engage in mercantile business in his native town. But he was per- suaded to supply the Amherst pulpit for a time, and, in the autumn of 1782, his health meanwhile having improved, he consented to set- tle as pastor, and was ordained in October of that year, resigning his charge in 1819.
As we were indebted to a clerical friend for the portrait of the father, so we turn to another, Rev. Samuel Osgood of Spring- field, for a description of the son. Dr. Parsons, he tells us, " had the advantage of an uncommonly fine person, of about medium height and rather inclined to corpulency, his features regular, eyes raven black, and his whole face beaming with intelligence and good nature. He possessed social qualities of a high order. His great flu- ency of utterance, his fine flow of social feeling, his extensive knowl- edge of men and things, and his inexhaustible fund of anecdote. seemed to mark him as a leader in almost any conversation that might be introduced. His preaching was sensible and instructive and gave you the impression that there was a great deal of reserved power. He read his sermons closely and had little or no action in the pulpit, though he was far from being tame or dull in his delivery He had not only the keenest sense of the ridiculous, but he indulgec himself in this way without much restraint." Dr. Osgood adds however, " I believe his passion for drollery never came out in the least degree in the pulpit."
The reference to Dr. Parsons' wit is prominent in all allusions to him. Thus, in an unpublished manuscript of the late Rev. Emerson Davis, of Westfield, occurs the statement: " Dr. Parsons was an ex ceedingly jovial man when among his friends, full of wit and good humor. He was sensible of his fault, but seemed not to be able t discern between drollery and seriousness. When lamenting his in firmity and confessing his fault, he would often use a witticism o; laughable expression to convey his idea." Very possibly Mr. Davi had in mind the anecdote, which has appeared in print, of Dr. Par
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sons' reply to the remonstrance of a kinsman, expostulating with him upon his too free indulgence in wit, "I know it all, Bro. Howard, and it has been my burden through life, but I suppose after all that grace does not cure squint eyes."
Dr. Parsons was an active promoter of the educational interests of the community, giving the site for the Academy and providing a bell at his own cost, serving as the first president of the Trustees of the College founded shortly before his death, and showing his loyalty to it by a substantial gift as well. For many years he had students in his family, some of whom bore testimony to the attractiveness of his home and to the charm lent to it by its head.
That Dr. Parsons had more than a local reputation is shown by facts like these. In 1788, when still a young man and only six years in the pastorate, he was chosen to preach the election sermon before Gov. Han- cock and the Legislature of that year. In 1795, at the suggestion of President Dwight, he was appointed Professor of Theology at Yale, but declined the honor, chiefly, we are told, because of his warm attachment to his people. In 1800, he received the degree of D. D. from Brown University.
In 1819, as has been stated, he retired from the pastorate and, less than four years later, on the eighteenth of May, 1823, died at Wethersfield. Conn., as one of his danghters did three years be- fore, while on a visit to his wife's kindred. His age was seventy-four years. In announcing his death, one of the religious journals of the time states : "Dr. Parsons was a clergyman of learning and talents, distinguished as an eloquent and evangelical preacher, much admired for the urbanity of his manners, and greatly esteemed and respected, by the people under his ministerial charge, as a faithful and affec- tionate pastor."
On the twenty-fourth of November, 1785, he had been married to th Harriet, daughter of Ezekiel and Prudence Stoddard Williams of Wethersfield, and grand-daughter of Col. John Stoddard, said to have been one of the greatest men of his day. Mrs. Parsons survived her husband many years, dying here, where most of her life had been pent, on the 5th day of June, 1850, aged 84.
Of her it is enough to say that she fulfilled, in minutest detail, the et picture drawn by the inspired pencil in Proverbs, of the virtuous invoman, whose children rise up and call her blessed, and whose hus- band praises her.
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Until the last decade, there has been no time since the settlement of the town that some of the Parsons family have not been among the landed proprietors, sometimes to a large extent. To-day, no one of them, I believe, owns a foot of your soil, except in yonder cemetery. But they will continue to cherish, as a priceless legacy, the memory of those Godly men who, for more than four score years, stood as watchmen upon the walls of Zion here. To you, descendants and successors of those to whom they ministered and for whom they prayed, we leave the custody of their honored dust.
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EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF AMHERST.
BY PROF. WILLIAM S. TYLER, D. D., LL. D.
I am asked to contribute a paper on " The Relation of the Churches to the Educational Institutions of Amherst." As the historian of Amherst College I ought to know something of the origin and history of these Institutions. And I have no hesitation in saying that the officers and members of this Church and congregation were the found- ers of Amherst Academy and Amherst College, and inasmuch as the Agricultural College was the daughter of Amherst College, this Church is the mother of them all.
It is no new thing for the Church to found and foster institutions of learning. There is a natural and mutual affinity between sound learning and true religion. God has put high honor upon learning in his Word. No small part of the Bible was written by learned men. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Paul not only sat at the feet of Gamaliel in the chief school of Jewish learning of his age, but he shows his acquaintance with Greek literature by his quotations from the Greek poets. No sooner were the miraculous gifts which signalized the first establishment of Christianity withdrawn than the Churches began to found colleges and theological schools at Jerusalem, at Alexandria, and the other principal cities, for the spec- ial purpose of raising up a pious and learned ministry who should be able not only to preach the truth but also to defend it from the assaults of its enemies.
In the Middle Ages, "The Dark Ages" commonly so-called, what light there was shone from the monasteries, which were founded by
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the church under the lead of such enlightened and pious princes as Charlemagne and Alfred, which kept the light both of learning and religion from being utterly extinguished, and which grew at length into the universities. As Universities appeared in Italy, in France, in England, they were established and fostered by the Church and chiefly for the better education of the clergy. Oxford and Cambridge were founded, and in the course of time enriched with princely endow- ments for this express purpose. Harvard College was founded by our Puritan Fathers, because, in the language of the founders them- selves, they "dreaded to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when the present ministers were dead," or, as Cotton Mather expressed it sixty years later, because "our fathers saw that without a college to train an able and learned ministry, the Church in New England must soon have come to nothing." Yale College was founded by the Congregational Ministers of Connecticut chiefly for the purpose of educating ministers for the Colony. Princeton was established by the Synod of New York for the purpose of supplying the church with learned and able ministers. All the New England colleges, and most of those which are now so thickly sown over the great West, owe their origin to Christian men and Christian motives.
Amherst College was born of the revivals and the spirit of missions that distinguished the first half of the present century, and the good people of Amherst were its godfathers and godmothers. Nay, they were its fathers and mothers. For it was, in the strictest sense, a Congregational enterprise. Amherst College was founded, not by & Presbyterian Synod, not by an Association of ministers, not by a Council of churches, but by a single local church. Other churches helped, helped freely and generously. Other ministers gave their advice and influence. But the ministers and members of this church took the lead. They bore the burden, they did the work. They gave the money to begin the work. They poured it out like water wher money was scarce-when ten dollars was worth as much as a hundred is now-when it was more difficult to get ten dollars for a college thai it is to get a thousand now. None of them were rich. Some of then literally made themselves poor by their liberal giving. They gav beyond their means. They did more than they were able to do. Ther were no millionaires in those days. Among all the early benefactor of Amherst College there was not a man who would be called ricl now. There were very few who were considered rich then. Brethren we testify to you of the grace of God which was bestowed upon th
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members of this church in that day, how the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality : for to their power, I bear record, and beyond their power they first gave their own selves to the Lord and then gave their property to the founding of the College. The $50.000 Charity Fund which is the corner-stone, not to say the very foundation of the College, was largely contributed and wholly raised by them. In the first place they sub- scribed with their own hands nearly $10,000 of the first $35,000, and when the whole subscription was in danger of being rendered null and void by failure to raise the remaining $15,000, nine of them made them- selves responsible by a guarantee bond for that additional sum, relying on a further subscription to reimburse them, running the risk of a failure to raise it, and in the end actually paying no inconsiderable part of it out of their own pockets. Rev. David Parsons, the second pastor of the church, headed this guarantee bond of $15,000, after having already subscribed $600 of the first $35,000. The second signer of the bond was Samuel Fowler Dickinson, a deacon and leading member of the church, who had already subscribed $600 to the Fund. The third Leir signer was Josiah White (the father of Mrs. Edward Hitchcock), whose previous subscription to the Fund was $150. The fourth was Elijah Boltwood who had subscribed $200 of the first $35,000 and wod afterwards actually paid out of his own pocket $500 of the remaining her $15,000. Deacon Leland (a name familiar to the older of the present members of the church first subscribed $150, then became one of the signers of the $15,000 Bond and then gave his individual bond for the unconditional payment of $1,000 of that $15,000. John Eastman (father of the Secretary of the American Tract Society, and of two excellent ministers of the gospel, and grandfather of the Misses East- man of Dana Hall and of others who live among us) was not one of she signers of the $15,000 Bond, but he subscribed $400 to the Fund, when und then actually paid $1,000 more towards indemnifying the signers. fred Elijah Dickinson gave the land for the site of the College buildings und the original campus, estimated at $600. Dr. Rufus Cowles gave ands in Maine valued at $3,000. Such were some of the leading lonors to the foundation on which the College was originally built. And these are only examples and illustrations of the manner and pirit in which the rank and file of this church and congregation, rich ren Imost without exception, contributed money according to their means and beyond their ability, for the founding of the College. And Dea- thon Graves, better known as Col. Graves, was the indefatigable, d e
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unquenchable, insatiable, irresistible agent, in raising almost the entire sum.
But the most remarkable manifestation of the interest, nay, enthu- siasm, which the good people of Amherst felt in the enterprise was in the erection of the first dormitory, the old South College, which they, turning out in mass meeting as it were, bringing in the materials, and many of them camping on the ground, put up with their own hands from corner-stone to roof-tree in ninety days. The scene, as described by Noah Webster and other eye witnesses, seems more like romance than reality-more like a chapter from the miraculous history of the Israelites in the Old Testament, such, for example, as the building of the Tabernacle or the Temple, than an event in our Nineteenth Cen- tury. For, not only did the people have a mind to work, but they too, like the Israelites of old, felt that they were building the Lord's house. At the laying of the corner-stone, Rev. Dr. Parsons, the retired pastor and President of the Board of Trustees, performed the ceremony ; Noah Webster, then vice-president and on the resignation of Dr. Parsons which immediately followed elected president of the Board, gave the address ; and Rev. Daniel A. Clark, the then pastor of the church preached a sermon suited to the occasion ; and in reading the sermon and the address no thought strikes us so forcibly as the philanthropic, Chris; tian and missionary spirit of the founders. The very title of the sermoi struck the keynote of the charitable enterprise, and history herself looking back after the lapse of almost seventy years, can hardly describe the result more exactly than in these words of faith and hope and almost prophetic vision which Rev. Mr. Clark uttered at the laying of the corner-stone :- " In vision I see it among the first insti tutions of our land, the younger sister and the best friend of our the ological seminaries, the centre of our educational societies, the solac of poverty, the joy of the destitute, and the hope and the salvation o millions."
Morning and evening prayers were at first attended in the old vil lage " Meeting-house," which then occupied the site of the Observa tory and Octagonal Cabinet, and was considered one of the best churc. edifices in Hampshire County. In the same memorable sanctuary sitting for the most part in the broad galleries, the Faculty and stud ents worshipped on the Sabbath with the people of the parish, an often admired and rejoiced, but oftener feared and trembled unde the powerful preaching of the pastor. Joseph Estabrook, the firs Professor of Greek and Latin in the College, was the first Superir
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tendent of the first Sabbath School in Amherst, and Noah Webster, who had so much to do in the founding of the College, wrote the Constitution* and was the Chairman of the Board of Managers. Professor Estabrook was succeeded by Pindar Field, a member of the first senior class. Dur- ing the first ten or fifteen years tutors in college were most frequently superintendents of the Village Sabbath School and many of the teach- ers were college students. Tutors Burt, Clark, Perkins, Tyler and Bur- gess were all superintendents before 1835. Reuben Tinker of the class of 1827, one of the early missionary graduates, was superintend- ent during his Senior year. Henry Ward Beecher, then a senior in College, was the inspiring teacher of a large class of young men, when I was superintendent ; and Thatcher Thayer, widely known among his numerous pupils as "Dominie Thayer" of Newport, was his succes- sor. Edwards A. Beach of the class of '24 was for a year or two eader of the choir and teacher of music in the Village Church, and he told me that he " boarded round" among the good people for a part of his pay. The relations between the students and the families of the village in those early days were in the highest degree confiden- ial and affectionate. There was none of the traditional hostility between the town and the gown. On the contrary the best families not only invited students to their receptions but boarded them, if ndigent, gratuitously-if not needy, at nominal prices. And the etters which the writer received from the alumni of those halcyon lays when he was writing the history of the College, (although they lad already reached their three score and ten) read very much like ove letters. Some of them had actually mnade love and found wives mong the young ladies of the church fifty years before, and more ecent graduates have not been slow to follow their example. College tudents who were teachers In the Village Sabbath School have been greatly useful in promoting revivals in the Village Church. The great evival in 1831, which was equally powerful in the college and the illage, originated in the Sabbath School Concert, and owed its origin pparently to the power and pathos with which Moody Harrington of he class of '31 pressed home upon the crowded assembly the question : ' Why do we sit still?"
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