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 5
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Were there time I would gladly pursue this topic further. I have onfined these hints and sketches to the first decade in the history of
*A printed copy of this Constitution, together with the record of its adoption and the rst meeting of the Board of Managers, may be seen in the package of Reports and Papers hich Mr. S. C. Carter left "to the Treasurer for posterity," and which is now in the inds of the present Superintendent, Mr. W. W. Hunt.
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the College, and these might have been made fuller. I would have liked especially to sketch the lives and characters of some of the prominent men -- such men as Dr. Parsons, Noah Webster, Samuel Fowler Dick- inson, Hezekiah Wright Strong and Rufus Graves, who, while they were leaders in the church and parish, were preeminently the founders of the College. But I have not time to write, nor you to hear, the record of their self-denying, self-sacrificing, patriotic, philanthropic and Christian services. Besides, their biographies have already been written as part and parcel of the history of Amherst College and will doubtless occupy a prominent place in the discourses and addresses of this centennial celebration.
As the college and the town have grown in numbers and resources since the first decade, they have of necessity ceased to hold just the same intimate and familiar relations. But they have never ceased to be mutually friendly, helpful and useful. Not only have the good peo- ple of Amherst furnished a site, a home and a hearty welcome to the faculty and the students of all our educational institutions but they have always been the foremost to contribute in one way and another to the buildings, the funds and the pecuniary necessities of the Acad- emy, of Amherst College and of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege. Witness the generons subscription to the building and the books of the Library of Amherst College which, beginning as such subscriptions usually have, in the First Church and Parish of Amherst. extended to the other parishes of this and several neighboring towns. gave the College not only a new library building but a new epoch ir its general prosperity, and at the same time secured to the ministers of all these parishes the right to draw books from the Library free and forever on the same conditions as the faculty and the students Witness also the liberal contribution to the founding of the Agricul tural College which the town raised by tax, and thus served itsel: while at the same time it subserved the interests of the Commonwealth and the cause of agricultural education. Nor can I refrain in thi; connection from a more particular reference to Amherst Academy the eldest daughter of the church, of which Amherst College was al offshoot, which received its dower partly indeed from the Common wealth of Massachusetts but chiefly from the church and the good people of Amherst-a favorite daughter, of which the mother wa justly proud, for in her prime Amherst Academy occupied the fore most place among the Academies of the state, and in the year when was connected with it as a teacher, sent thirty students to College
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most of them to Amherst. Nor must I forget to speak of the High School, the successor of the Academy, of which also Amherst may well be proud ; nor of the Grammar and Common Schools all of which she cherishes with a mother's self-denying, self-sacrificing love and care, and therein most wisely and truly loves and cares for herself, thus proving that "Self-love and social are the same." May the relations of the Church and the Educational Institutions of Amherst always be mutually pleasant and profitable, and may they never cease to illustrate the saying that benevolence is twice blessed, richly bless- ing the grateful receiver and blessing still more abundantly the cheer- ful giver. Let the church and the town ever be the atmosphere-an atmosphere of life and health and purity and peace, in which our schools and Colleges all live and move and have their being, and let the schools and Colleges ever be the vital element in that atmosphere, like the oxygen in the air we breathe, or like the sunshine which imparts light and life to every person, place and thing that comes within the sphere of its influence.
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REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF THE PARISH, GHURGH BUILDINGS AND FINANCES.
BY W. A. DICKINSON.
I have been asked to say what I can in twenty minutes of Represen- tative Men of the Parish, Church Buildings and Finances.
In the very limited time at my command since the request came to me, and with the scanty and scattered sources of information within reach, I have been able to put together what amounts to hardly more than notes for a proper paper, and these not full, perhaps not always accurate, but such as it is.
The First Church in Amherst was built in the years 1867-8 and is the building in which we now are. Before that we had meeting-houses and went to meeting.
The first meeting-house was built just before 1740 when town and parish were one and the same, and was built by levy upon all the inhabitants within the town or parish territorial limits. The suppor of religion then was by law imperative upon every man, as much as the support of schools. The Meeting House was the Town House.
The town meeting under the same warrant considered and acted upon ecclesiastical and secular matters, raised the salary of the min ister and other expenses incident to the conducting of public worship with its other monies. The leaders in the town were the leaders i the parish.
This first meeting-house stood on the hill known now as Colleg Hill, on the site at present occupied by the College Observatory, the about the centre of the common. The vote to build it was passed i December, 1735, but work seems not to have been commenced upo it till nearly three years after, and the building not to have been fin ished for fifteen years more, though meetings were held in it in 174
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It was to be, and I suppose was, nobody knows to the contrary, 45 feet in length by 35 in breadth, covered with quarter boards of spruce, corresponding to our clapboards, the roof of spruce shingles 21 inches long and without sap ; the framing, which was an affair by itself, cost 19£, and it took 77 shillings' worth of rum and sugar to raise it.
There were but few pews, and these were against the walls under the galleries-for it had galleries. The males were seated together upon one side and the females together npon the other side. No likeness of the structure exists-photography was not then dreamed of, and drawing was an unpractised, if not an unknown art to the then occu- pants of this ground. We know it had no bell. The signal for gath- ering was from a conch. There was no organ, no musical instrument of any kind, no carpets, no heat or light except what came from the sun. The people came through the snow two, three, four, five miles, women riding on pillions behind their husbands or brothers, and sat through a long sermon in the forenoon, another in the afternoon, with no warmth except from the coals in the foot stoves obtained from the ample fire-places of those living near by. Mr. Parsons preached. His salary was 40£ a year-reckoned in the currency of the present about $133-and his wood ; which averaged 100 loads, went sometimes as high as 120. It was raised from time to time till in 1757 it had reached $200, and in 1764 it was raised to $266.66, though if money became scarce he was to receive it in wheat at 3 shillings 7 pence per bushel and rye at 2 shillings 5 pence.
The only other expenses, except some occasional repairs, were for blowing the conch and sweeping the meeting-house, for which for inany years $3 a year was paid.
In the latter part of Mr. Parsons' ministry, or in 1771, the number of inhabitants had increased beyond the comfortable capacity of the meeting-house, and the matter of enlarging or building anew began to be discussed ; and then for the first time cropped out the jealousy of the centre which had gradually taken possession of some of the more ambitious and uneasy of those living further out, in all directions, and which resulted in a determined effort to divide the district-as it was then called-by an east and west line through the centre, building two new houses instead of one, and locating them, one at the north end, one at the south, making the centre the outskirts-and so far as voting went they were the winners ; but to do this they must have authority from the Legislature, and here they failed ; the remonstrants
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from the centre having little difficulty in securing an order staying all proceedings relative to building of any new meeting-house or meeting- houses in the district except upon or near where the old house stood. This was in 1773. The condition of the country was growing excited and absorbing. The war came on and nothing was done till it was over, and till December, 1787. Meanwhile in 1782, on the pretext of opposition to the settlement of the second minister, Dr. Parsons, son of the former minister, 22 members of the church from the north, south and east, more especially from the north and east, had under the lead of Capt. Mattoon, who had been in the war, was then 27 years of age, and brought back with him the temper of revolution, seceded and formed a separate parish, known as the East St. parish. There was a long tail to this and the last of it had hardly disappeared at the end of a century, but this is not the place to talk of it.
In a parish meeting held in December, 1787, it was voted to build a new meeting-house on the hill where the old then stood-that it should be set upon hewn stone-should be 65 feet long and of proportionate breadth-that it should be erected, enclosed and the lower story glazed within twelve months-and the way in which it should be accomplished was elaborately set out and provided for, and a committee of nine appointed to make all preliminary preparations-to make a particular estimate of the value of the several sticks of timber, their particu- ular length and bigness and the number necessary to compose the frame proposed-also an estimate of the boards, shingles, sash, win- dow frames, stuff and slit work-with a particular description of their length, bigness, and quantity, with a descriptive price affixed thereto -also of the nails and glass necessary with a price for the same-and also the number of feet of hewn stone necessary for the underpinning. with a price for the same-" and said committee are directed to divide the Inhabitants of the parish aforesaid as equally as may be into eigh classes, with a descriptive list of each and every one's proportion o all and every article necessary for carrying into effect the aforemen tioned votes. And it shall be the duty of the committee aforesaid t assign to each class and individual of classes their respective propor tion of every article which may be necessary for erecting and finishing the proposed house. The committee aforesaid are further directed t assign to the list aforesaid to each and every one his and their pro portion of all labor supposed to be necessary in framing, that eac class may do their proportion thereof-provided that those men pro posed to be employed in framing by the classes or either of them b
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approved by the master of the frame." And very much more, in detail. The Building Committee was not selected till the May follow- ing and consisted of Simeon Strong, Esq., Capt. Eli Parker, Elijah Dickinson, Daniel Kellogg and Zebina Montague.
June 18th it was voted to take the old house down the next Monday, and a committee of five appointed to superintend it-but to be taken down without cost to the parish-another committee of three to take care of the timber and dispose of the old stuff which could not be used in the new house-and that the spectators be served on raising days at the frame with cake and cheese and liquor at the parish expense-that the meeting-house committee appoint such a number of men as they think proper to wait on the spectators-and that the raisers have a good and decent entertainment made for them at the parish expense.
In September leave was given to individuals by subscription to build a belfry over the porch proposed to be built on the west side of the meeting-house ; and this appears to have been done, for in July, 1791 they voted to finish the internal part of the belfry in a decent manner, with two flights of stairs from the lower floor to the first landing place, and that the present standing committee be a committee to effectuate the above vote ; and 40£ was appropriated for the purpose.
They got into the house to hold a parish meeting in November, but the galleries were not put in till the next summer, and the inside was not finished until 1791, under a contract made with Mr. Samuel Abby Dec. 31st, 1789 ; who in a long and carefully worded paper agreed to finish it in a decent and elegant manner, and within two years ; for which the parish stipulated to give him 20 bushels of rye at three shillings to the bushel, and twelve bushels and a-half of Indian corn at two shillings and five pence by the bushel within one month, and two barrels of pork as pork is barreled for market within one month and to be paid three hundred and sixty pounds, deducting therefrom the price of said grain and pork, the said sum to be paid in the fol- lowing manner, that is to say, one hundred pounds to be paid in cat- tle or grain, cattle to be delivered at the value in money by the fif- teenth day of October next, grain to be delivered at usual price by the first day of February in the year 1791-another hundred pounds to be paid in cattle or grain at the like prices-cattle to be delivered by the fifteenth day of October, 1791, grain to be delivered by the first day of February, 1792; the residue of the three hundred and sixty pounds to be paid within one year after the work shall be com-
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pleted-with interest from the time that the work shall be completed until paid.
In January, 1792 it was voted to raise four pounds to procure a "cushing" for the pulpit, and in December, 1794 to raise four pounds to dress the pulpit in addition to the four pounds that was granted in 1792 for the "cushing."
In December, 1792 it was voted to raise a hundred pounds to buy a bell, and in April, 1793 to pay Mr. Samuel Abby an additional fifty pounds to the first contract for his cost in finishing the meeting- house, and by this time, I believe, they considered it somewhere near done, though they added what they styled a cupola to it as late as 1815 at an expense of $100-and then it was considered one of the finest meeting-houses in the region.
It was entered by doors on three sides, south, east and west. The pulpit was on the north, in the centre of one of the broad sides, about on a level with the gallery ; over it hung the sounding-board. The deacons' seat directly under and in front, where the deacons sat facing the audience. The singers occupied the long gallery opposite ; the boy's the one on the right and the girls that to the left-this from 1801. Tithing-men were appointed to keep them in order, and often, it is said, themselves made as much disturbance as if engaged in quelling a riot.
I do not find the vote in the Amherst records, but in Hadley the town voted that there should be some sticks set up in several places in the meeting-house with some fit persons placed by them, and to use them as occasion shall require to keep the youth from disorder." Tha the sticks were used here is within the memory of some now living.
This was the status at the time the college was established in 1821 Providing seats for the accommodation of faculty and students wrough considerable change, and out of the new conditions in the course of few years more the question of a new place of worship was often up and at a parish meeting held Tuesday, January 8th, 1828, a vote wa passed to build a new house, provided sufficient funds for the purpos could be raised by a previous sale of pews, a committee appointed t take the matter into consideration, and report at an adjourned mee ing. The committee were Elijah Boltwood, Enos Baker, Lucius Bol wood, Horace Kellogg, Elijah Nash, John Lealand and David Dexte and they reported nine days after, Jan. 17, advising to build, and build on land offered by the college, 10 rods square, on the north-ea corner of the farm lately owned by the heirs of the Rev. David Pa
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sons. They also brought in a plan of a building 80x65 feet, with 124 pews on the ground floor, the cost of which they estimated at $6,500 ; and in further pursuance of their instructions they reported a series of regulations to govern the management of the property, among them one that
" The parish shall have no right to allow town meetings to be held in said house."
These had always been held in the old house, and there had been no other place.
Another that
" No person shall sell or lease his or her pew to any black or mulatto-or to any person of infamous character-or shall in any way alter or deface the external appearance thereof."
The report of the committee was adopted without qualification or amendment, plan, regulations and all, and the meeting was adjourned to the next Tuesday, 22nd, for the sale of pews. On coming together at that time they voted to adjourn immediately to Boltwood's Hotel, and then the sale commenced with Col. Smith for auctioneer. This was after a while adjourned to the next Monday, 28th, to meet at the same place, then to Feb. 11th, then 25th, then to March 13th, then 20th, when for some reason which does not appear, the sale was begun anew, with Luke Sweetser auctioneer, and proceeded till at the adjourn- ment pews had been bid off to the amount of $5,427. April 21, with those sold at private sale between times, the footing reached $6,635 ; something more than the estimated cost of the building.
The new house was commenced. Col. Howland was designer and builder, and had it finished in season for the commencement exercises of 1829. It was a substantial structure, is still, and may have ful- filled the hope and purpose of the building committee ; though archi- tecturally it could hardly have been thought an inspiration even then, and the discussions were many among the students as to the age and order which it represented. It was more commonly classed as Tuscan, that being the most elementary described in the books ; but by some to be back of books-ancient Egyptian. This was the claim of Tutor meet . Bolt March of the class of 1845, while one of the French professors in the early days pronounced it the Eighth Astonishment. Originally it had este a large portico in front, supported by giant pillars standing upon a stone platform. Otherwise it was much the same as now. Inside the -es pulpit was a close box reached by a long flight of narrow stairs on Papeither side, though about 1840 this was taken down and a really hand-
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some mahogany affair substituted. The pews all had doors, and every man was buttoned tight in. The high-sided pews for the blacks and mulattoes were located in the further corners of the house, over the gallery stairs.
Stoves seem not to have been introduced till 1833, for in December of '32, according to the records, a committee was appointed to see if means could be provided for heating the meeting-house, and at a meeting held on the 31st of the same month it was voted that
"Consent be and hereby is given to place stoves in the meeting- house provided that they can be purchased and put up by subscrip- tion." And even then they seem to have been set in what we should call the vestibule ; for in 1835 ; two years later ; it was voted to remove the partition wall in the space of the meeting-house for the purpose of enclosing the stoves in the body of the house. As I remember them they stood within this circular wall, the pipes running the whole length of the side aisles directly over the centre, entering the chim- neys at the west end, with tin troughs underneath to catch the creo- sote which dropped from the joints.
The basement was finished off after a fashion, and was used fo town meetings, agricultural fairs, courts, auctions and other enter tainments. Not for all other, however ; for in 1838 it was voted tha the third article in the warrant relative to granting the use of th meeting-house for the purpose of holding lectures on the subject o slavery be dismissed.
The same year individuals were given the privilege of erectin horse-sheds in the rear of the meeting-house, subject to the discretio of the parish committee.
In 1839 the old and first bell which had somehow been injured, wa exchanged for a new and larger one-the one now on the Baptist church
Down to 1862 this bell rang at noon and at 9 in the evening notice for dining and retiring. At this time the evening bell w discontinued-but the noon not for some years more.
In 1839 too came the acquisition of the first musical instrume ever owned by the parish, a double bass viol. With my first recolle tion Josiah Ayres managed it, and the tones he drew from its low chords in his accompaniment to the singing of some of Watts' Fav( ite Hymns, haunt me even now. Such lines as
" That awful day will surely come,"
" That last great day of woe and doom,"
and
" Broad is the road that leads to death," etc.,
f
ter
THIRD MEETING HOUSE. BUILT 1828.
Far
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seemed to me sufficiently depressing in plain print ; sung with the accompaniment, they were appalling-to a boy.
Our next great move was in 1854-5, when the lecture room-as it was called-was built, just west of the meeting-house ; a modest, tidy structure of wood, plain, white, perhaps a little cold, but adapted to its purposes.
In the same period we rose to a small second-hand organ. There was a great deal of doubt about this : there was a suggestion of Rome and Episcopacy in this instrument not brought up by the double bass viol, but some of the young people were very urgent, and it was decided to let it be tried.
Things were running now on rather a high key, but the hunker element held in till 1857, when it was proposed to raise seventy-five dollars to purchase four kerosene chandeliers to light the meeting- house. This was too much, a step too far for those who held religion rather as a matter for the practice of fine economy. They said it portended the theatre : they thought-as some of us believed-it would add to the burden of maintaining public worship ; and threats of signing off were loud if the unsanctity were persisted in : the air was thick ; there was concern on the part of the movers in the project and hesitation, but somehow the breakers were cleared and the chandeliers hung.
In 1861 we had so far recovered from the shock of this innovation that we bought the old Shepard house for a parsonage, paying, or giving a parish note for $2,500 for it; and all was proceeding quietly and peaceably, despite occasional talk of the need of thorough repairs and additions to the meeting-house, or building entirely anew, and ineffectual efforts in parish meetings to bring something in this direction to pass, till about 1864 when the question became more pressing and would not down. The story of the numberless meetings . from that time on for the next two or three years, the different plans and sites proposed, varying views, till the adoption at last of the plan we followed-is full of interest but too long and the facts too recent to be recited here. Under the Lord's guidance, the stimulus of Mr. Jenkins' preaching and personality was the largest factor in the result, and yet the greater proportion of the people did their full part and did it cheerfully. It was accomplished not without effort, not without opposition, not without sacrifice ; but the effort did us all good, and most those who did the most ; for it is not what we hold back but what we give out that enriches us. The entire property cost in round
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numbers $80,000. We entered upon it with parish notes out to the amount of $38,500. To make sure of the extinction of these a few persons contributed together the sum of $10,000 for a sinking fund to be used whenever it should have increased sufficiently for thi P purpose. This fullness of time was reached during the last year, an this church, built by our fathers and their children, is now without debt It stands here for the faith that is in many of us, for the hope an earnest aspiration that is in all ; it is our continuing confession, an unceasing prayer. Would that the fathers who sleep were with u to-day-that row who sat one behind the other on the north aisle.
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