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 6
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At the head, Luke Sweetser, for a generation exercising the larges influence in the affairs of both church and parish ; a successful bus ness man, of bright and active mind, genial manner, a generous hos conscientious, believing religion a chief concern, hesitating before mi duty as he saw it, conservative to a degree that commanded th confidence of those who saw safety only in the old ways, yet to intelligent not to be open to suggestions for improvement, and whe convinced, ready and helpful in carrying them into execution ; nost the first or among the first to feel the importance of a more fittin Bu house of worship, but second to none when he came to it, in the tim energy and devotion he gave to making the undertaking a success.
Edward Dickinson, proud of being of Amherst soil, of the sixt generation born within sound of the old meeting-house bell, all earnes God-fearing men, doing their part in their day toward the evolutio of the Amherst we live in ; in the front from earliest manhood, prom with tongue, pen, time, money, for anything promising its advanc ment, leading every forward movement, moral or material, in paris and town ; holding many positions of trust and responsibility, nev doubted, the soul of integrity and honor, fearless for the right, shirkil no duty, and dying at his post as representative of his district in t. Massachusetts Legislature where, in his seventy-second year, he hi gone to help in shaping the legislation proposed affecting the interes of the Central railroad.
L. M. Hills, who had but lately joined us, and joined with the distin purpose of lending his strong hand to the carrying out the plans th in contemplation ; his coming, indeed, being the element whi determined the shape they took, and counted upon to make the certain ; a sturdy man to look upon and of sturdy qualities, squa and honest in all his dealings, resolute, self-reliant, of ample mea of his own creation ; without these three men this church could n
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have been built ; with either of them indifferent it could not. Their combined strength, influence and following only made it possible.
Next in the row, perhaps next in importance, William Cutler, epresentative of one of the old and prominent families, the then eading merchant in the village, naturally slow and cautious, more apt o see objections than advantages-the course of events never quite to is mind-finding much to condemn, little to approve outside Daniel Webster and the old Whig party, but who went into the new church nterprise with a spirit that seemed almost like a revolution of himself, nd carried many with him from the back seats, where the greatest onfidence was felt in him, whom no one else could have moved.
Then Sidney Adams, a life-long neighbor and friend of Mr. Cutler's, ist his opposite in make-up, amiable, seeing only the sunny side, seless in a tempest, but using a good oar in smooth water, always interested in the line of the best, and winning others to it by his leasant, affable words and ways, and who gave his whole heart to tis, as he thought and as it proved, the last great work in which he as to have a part.
But the membership of this parish has included strong and earnest en all through, and the names most prominent in the beginning, hen town and parish were the same, are in good part those most .miliar to us now. The Bakers, Boltwoods, Clarks, Churches, owles, Dickinsons, Eastmans, Hawleys, Kelloggs, Montagues, niths, Strongs. With these were the Chaunceys, Colemans, Fields, grams, Nashes, Porters, Warners, who, so far as I know, are represented among us now.
John Ingram headed the first petition of the people residing in what now Amherst, to the General Court, to be made a separate precinct ; e main object being to provide in the legal way for calling and pporting a minister of their own. This was not successful, but a cond petition, headed by Zachariah Field, only six months later, was anted and the precinct boundaries fixed as the petition asked.
The first meeting of the precinct was held at the house of Zachariah eld October 8, 1735, when Samuel Hawley was chosen moderator, bn Nash clerk, Ebenezer Dickinson, Aaron Smith and John Nash jessors, and John Ingram, Samuel Boltwood and Samuel Hawley nmittee to call precinct meetings.
At this first meeting they voted to hire a minister half a year and to Id a meeting-house ; chose John Ingram, Jr., Jonathan Cowls 1 Dr. Nathaniel Smith to hire a minister, and Samuel Boltwood,
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Ebenezer Dickinson, John Cowls, Pelatiah Smith and John Ingram Jr., to build the meeting-house.
The precinct was made a district-an advance-in 1754-Josia. Chauncey being the agent appointed by the precinct to appear befor the General Court and urge the same.
The first meeting of the district was held at the meeting-house Marc 19 of that year, when Deacon Ebenezer Dickinson was moderator Josiah Chauncey clerk, and Joseph Eastman treasurer ; Deacon Eber ezer Dickinson, Jonathan Dickinson, John Dickinson, Dr. Nathani Smith and Moses Dickinson, selectmen ; Ebenezer Dickinson, Jonatha Dickinson and Moses Dickinson, assessors ; Gideon Dickinson Daniel Dickinson, Nathaniel Dickinson, Ebenezer Mattoon and Jaco Warner, surveyors.
The parish, as a parish, was organized not till 1783, under a care for a meeting for that purpose issued by Nathaniel Dickinson, whe no he was chosen moderator and his son Nathaniel clerk. At th meeting the general committee chosen were Capt. Eli Porter, D Eleazer Smith, Martin Kellogg, Lt. Joel Billings and Thomas Hasting
I give the names of the men holding the offices under the sever organizations because in those days the people were willing and gl: to choose their best men to serve them and the best men were willing al esteemed it honorable to serve. It is impossible within the lin of tl assigned me to speak a separate word of all the really marked me A few of the more constantly active and conspicuous were :
Ebenezer Dickinson, grandson of the first Nathaniel who came fre England in 1630, landed at Boston, settled in Wethersfield, was one who the five sent forward by the fifty-nine who met in Hartford April, 1659, and engaged to transplant themselves, if God permit, the plantation purchased on the east side of the river of Connectic beside Northampton, to lay out for them fifty-nine home lots ; first Deacon here, as his grandfather had been there, one of committee of three whose names appear upon the call to the first M Parsons to settle here ; a man of serious nature, confident, dire withont doubts, with a natural aptitude for affairs, active, and alwa present in everything pertaining to the welfare of the church community.
John Nash, of the same date, general style, and sterling qualiti: assocaited with Mr. Dickinson as Deacon, on the committee to call first minister, carrying always a full share of the duties and resp sibilities of the time-few and simple to be sure, compared with th
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of the present-both were of the pure puritan type, of the kind for foundation men.
In the same line Elisha Smith, Lt. John Field, Solomon Boltwood. Josiah Chauncey, who was in almost from the start, and one of the most independent. talented and facile of the early settlers, a believer in this world as well as the next ; son of Rev. Israel, second minister of Hadley ; great-grandson of Rev. Charles, president of Harvard College ; and his grandfather was offered the presidency of Yale, but declined. He was Capt. of militia under the Crown, was the first justice of the peace in Amherst when that office meant something, in 1758, and had the distinction of being the first man chosen from Amherst to the General Court, in 1760, and again in 1762, when Hadley, South Hadley, Amherst and Granby together chose but one representative, and the first man chosen to represent the whole district not a resident of the old village of Hadley.
The precedent was over-ridden a second time in the election of Simeon Strong to the same office in 1767 and 1769-he had been commissioned as justice of the peace in 1768-he was a graduate of Yale in 1756, the first professional lawyer in the town, and as such consulted and employed in all matters involving legal knowledge and action ; rose to eminence, and at the time of his death in 1804 was associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. IIe built and lived in the house at present occupied by Mrs. Emerson, on Amity street.
Seth Coleman, whose name appears upon about every page of the parish records from 1785 to near the time of his death in 1816, and who was clerk and treasurer of the parish continuously from 1785 to 1808, was a graduate of Yale in 1765, a carefully educated physician, a man of scholarly and refined tastes, with more spirituality than most of those about him, whose interests and energies outside his profession seem to have centered largely in matters pertaining to the church, where his influence was always elevating. He lived in the old- fashioned, yellow house, built by his father, Nathaniel Coleman, on the lot just north of Dr. Bigelow's present residence, on North street, then eight or ten feet above the present level, a beautiful, natural mound, which escaped the march of improvement till sometime after 1840.
Eli Parker, born in 1746, living till 1829, was in at the first and among the foremost, having a part in everything which was going on about him. He was a military man, too, and he, with Reuben Dickinson, were the two active captains from Amherst in the Conti- nental army.
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Moses Dickinson, born in 1718, who lived to be eighty-five, equally prominent in affairs of church and state, at the head of almost all the important committees, including that of the standing committee of correspondence with the Boston committee just before and early in the war ; delegate from Amherst to the various conventions of the time, and representative to the General Court ; second to none in the best qualities of citizenship. His son, Elijah, not the equal of his father but with many of his qualities, and a man of importance ; was a colonel in the State Militia. He built the house where John White now lives, just south of the college, owned that farm, and gave from it the land where all the earlier college buildings were erected.
Ebenezer Boltwood, graduate of Harvard in the class of 1752, merchant, a man of quiet tastes but public spirit.
Daniel Cooley, an educated man also, delegate to the first convention that met in Boston in 1788 to consider the proposed United States Constitution, representative to the General Court, and serving the town in various other capacities.
Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., who perhaps was the most virile and popular Amherst man of his generation to Amherst men, unless the honors may have been even between him and Ebenezer Mattoon, who greatly resembled him in many ways ; the one a graduate of Harvard in '71, educated as a lawyer ; the other a graduate of Dartmouth in '76, both high-spirited, bold, defiant, of the precise mould and mettle for revolution, and entering into it with a zeal to delight the heart of old John Adams ; holding every manner of office, never out of it, Dickinson holding to the civil line, Mattoon being also quite a figure in the military ;- the traditions of these men, their peculiar indepen- dence and freedom from the restraints of conventionalism under provocation, are fuller than of any of their contemporaries.
Zebina Montague-and Luke his cousin ; in business together, their store standing directly across the present Main Street in front of the Montague place, where Luke lived ; Zebina in the house built by him- self, just around the corner, aud destroyed by fire in the blizzard of March, 1888, where the new Town Hall stands ; Luke rather an indoor man ; Zebina giving his time to the public : a captain, colonel and general in the militia, and representing the town ten years, nine con- secutively, in the Legislature.
Enos Baker, father of Alfred, Osmyn, George and Enos.
William Boltwood, father of Lucius.
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Dr. Robert Cutler, the leading local physician of his time, greatly esteemed and beloved.
Noah Webster, whose fame is coextensive with the English lang- uage-was a resident of Amherst but ten years, 1812 to 1822, but in those years no man was a larger part of it than he. Notwithstanding the drain upon his time and strength by his literary and philological studies, he neglected no duties of citizenship; was alive to every public interest, always in parish meeting, always in town meeting, moderator frequently of both ; represented the town three years in the Legislature ; wrote addresses for a variety of occasions, as he was called upon ; setting an example which might be followed to advantage by our literary and professional men of the present day. He was a general favorite with all classes.
Samuel Fowler Dickinson ; familiarly called Esq. Fowler ; who stood in the forefront in the Amherst of his generation ; a fine scholar ; a lawyer of distinction and wide practice ; a man of rare public spirit, the highest moral purpose, unflagging zeal ; the leader in every local enterprise ; holding many offices of trust, a dozen years and more a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, in both houses ; of the most earnest and active religious faith and life, a deacon at twenty and for forty years thereafter, one of the leading founders of the college, sacrificing for it his property, time and professional opportunities, in the idea of getting the Gospel sooner to the ends of the earth.
H. Wright Strong, son of Judge Simeon Strong ; lawyer by profes- sion, but without disposition to confine himself to the drudgery of practice ; liking a more open field, with freer play and greater variety ; attracted to the new, and larger ; sanguine, energetic, tireless in push- ing whatsoever he had enlisted in ; his home a centre of graceful and refined hospitality ; ranked by Prof. Tyler in his history as standing with Mr. Dickinson as one of the "three working founders" of the college. In the latter part of his life, postmaster under both Jackson and Van Buren.
Dr. Rufus Cowles, graduate of Dartmouth in 1792 ; large land- owner, a sort of natural baron ; bluff, hearty, generous ; full of force and of the unrestrained individuality so prevalent in his time ; at the front and with the best in everything affecting the prosperity of Amherst; owned and lived in the house on North Street at present occupied by L. D. Cowles-he is remembered traditionally by his hos- ility to the introduction of stoves into the meeting-house, on the ground of their vitiating the air, and his peculiar way of exhibiting it.
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David Parsons, son of Dr. Parsons, full of the Parsons quaintness and oddity, startling at times in the bluntness of his expressions.
Calvin Merrill, who built the house on the east side of the common known now as the old Merrill house ; and John Eastman, men less demonstrative, taking less room, but no less efficient ; not captains, but most faithful lieutenants.
Joseph Church, Jr., too, working close by their side.
Dr. Isaac G. Cutler, inheriting the talent and practice of his father.
These reach through the old regime, the four-score years of the Parsons', and bring us to comparatively modern times, or about the time of the establishment of the college. Some of them into the new period ; one of them, the elder Dr. Cutler, is kept fresh by the anec dote told of him, that selected for his great courtesy, suave manners and his years to carry to Dr. Clark, successor to Dr. Parsons, some complaints made of him, among others the length of his sermons when Dr. Clark answered that he was commanded to preach th Gospel, he replied, that he understood that fact, but that they didn' want it all at once.
Among those who have stood for the most in later years, the name of John Leland, Lucius Boltwood, Simeon Clark and David Mac should be added to the previous roll.
Deacon Leland, as we always called him, for he was deacon her 30 years, moved here from Peru in Berkshire County, where hi father was minister, in 1820, and at once identified himself wit everything here : was an intelligent, liberal, public-spirited citizen prompt to help in whatever promised to advance the interests of towi education or religion ; he was one of the early friends and benefactor of the college, was its first treasurer, was among the most helpful i securing the first railroad into Amherst, and served some years f Amherst in both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature.
Lucius Boltwood, grandson of Solomon Boltwood, one of the fir settlers ; was a lawyer, of considerable property ; another of the ear friends of the college ; secretary of the Board of Trustrees for mar years, Commissioner of the Charitable Fund also ; familiar with ever page of its history, and rendering it much and valuable service ; of great deal of manner, overflowing with good humor, rememberir everything he ever heard, and with slight prompting from Mrs. Boltwod everything that ever occurred ; of sincere convictions and the coura; of them : one of the original abolitionists and I think the first cand date of the old Liberty party for Governor ; a staunch parishione liking all improvements, and ready to do his part in them.
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Simeon Clark, with two generations behind him of the same name, long time deacon, was one of the modest men, of more than ordinary intelligence, whose candor, good judgment and practical christianity, with his faithfulness to every duty, ma le his opinions always sought and respected even by those mentally his superiors. He was one of the permanent factors in all church and parish affairs, and in those of the town as well.
General Mack was a man to command attention anywhere, tall, erect, of powerful build, with a fine head finely set. clear, exact, just, a believer in law and penalty for its breach : strong as a lion, pure as a saint, simple as a child, a Puritan of the Puritans : I remember my first sight of him-I was four years okl-1 thought I had seen God. He was moral and spiritual tonic to any community he entered.
There are others in number whom it would be a pleasure to recall lid time permit. Characters used to be more plenty than they are 10W.
There was Kies Eastman, worthily bearing one of the best old fan- ly names ; living upon his farm a mile to the north : a director in the old. Amherst Bank.
Alfred Baker, founder of the Hampshire Agricultural Society.
Tim Henderson, Chester Kellogg-clouds fled before their cheer. Judge John Dickinson, with his kingly haughty head.
The portly form of Cotton Smithi.
Billings Green, pure minded, sweet hearted.
Good Deacon Gaylord.
S. C. Carter, alert, bright, a sunny face and pleasant word for veryone ; always full of statistics, ready and helpful everywhere ; a outh in heart at eighty.
Sam Nash, direct descendant of Dea. JJohn Nash, brightest minded f all the generations of Nash ; brought up a farmer : making himself n editor ; something of a politician of the better sort ; respected for is talent, his enterprise and his aims ; founded the Hampshire and 'ranklin Express, from which, in a narrower field, the Amherst Record. The Hawleys, over there, Hezekiah, Zachariah and Levi.
The Cowles's, Silas and David and Daniel and Elijah, all good and que menl.
Long-time Deputy Sheriff Palmer, honest as the day, and in the uties of his office the best posted deputy of the county.
Dr. Gridley, that strange, queer, eccentric, fascinating man ; doc- mert r, politician ; hated, admired; distrusted, believed to carry life in his
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hand ; apparently not knowing day from night, that Sunday came the same day every time, his own house from another's ; who wouldn't, go straight if he could go across ; regular only in being irregular ; a most picturesque character.
But I must stop somewhere-and it might as well be here ..
The change and progress from the first rude wooden meeting-house on the hill to the fair proportions of this stone church on the slope, fairly measure the growth and progress in wealth, taste, possibly cul- ture, in the town and in the country all through, in the same time.
Has manhood gained-is that more vigorous, purer, loftier now than formerly? Is it up to the best that has been? Granting that the highest standard and type exist-we cannot fail to perceive that we are counting fewer and fewer in numbers of the kind of men that save cities. The tendency to centralization-increasing constantly in the last fifty years-drains the country of its most enterprising sons, and is reducing it to much the same condition in this respect as the draft: for the civil war reduced the South.
Those independent, strong characters-men of mark-who used to be scattered over our hills-ministers, lawyers, doctors-are not to b found there now. They are at the front-in the cities-in the strug gle for wealth and power and fame-a struggle as fierce and desper ate as the struggle of battle.
This is inevitable in the nature of things for the present-it ma not always be so. While it is, the town or parish of this size tha holds its own is the exception, and must be surrounded by mos favoring circumstances. We should not have done this here, if indee we have-if it had rested with the men alone.
But the women count in our modern census. They have appeare above the surface in the last generation, and become a power, nowher more than in parish affairs, where they have found a congenial fiel for their activities and displayed them to good advantage. We i longer go home and tell them what we have done at parish meeting they tell us what they have done at the sewing society. They aj hardly longer the power behind the throne ; they are a good part ( the throne itself.
It is not quite easy for a masculine man to admit all this ; but if I will live in the country, he might as well-and thank God for salv ore that tion even so.
These 1 49 ho They een cle And owr All of ollege se, ho! Tam inde per .- H.
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MATERIAL PROGRESS OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS IN AMHERST.
BY HENRY F. HILLS.
One hundred and fifty years ago (1739) there were only 29 house- folders or settlers here, as follows :
Joseph Clary, John Ingram, Sr.,
Samuel Hawley, Jr., Ebenezer Dickinson,
Ebenezer Kellogg,
. >Joseph Wells,
John Ingram, Jr.,
Jonathan Atherton,
John Cowles,
Samuel Boltwood,
Zachariah Field,
John Nash,
Samuel Boltwood,
Aaron Smith,
Samuel Hawley, Sr.,
Nathaniel Smith,
Joseph Hawley,
Richard Chauncey,
Charles Chauncey,
John Perry,
Stephen Smith,
Nathaniel Church,
Nathaniel Smith,
Ebenezer Williams,
William Murray,
John Morton,
Nathan Moody, Pelatiah Smith.
Moses Smith,
These 29 householders had 35 ratable polls and were in possession f 49 horses, 39 oxen, 52 cows and a few swine.
They altogether had 350 acres of improved land, or land that had een cleared of the original forest, and there were six non-resident nd owners whose lands under cultivation aggregated 43 acres.
All of the improved land in town, in the year 1739, amounted to no ore than 400 acres, or a tract just about the size of the Agricultural ollege farm. Ebenezer Kellogg was the largest landholder at that me, holding 48 acres.
I am indebted to Mr. C. O. Parmenter for valuable assistance in the preparation of this per .- H. F. H.
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Now, instead of 350, there are more than 16,000 acres of improved tain land, and 1,329 persons are assessed, upon a real and personal valu- ation of $3,238,000. it's
Our farmers boast of more than 1,400 of the finest dairy cows, and every week several tons of the choicest butter are made by two suc- cessful creameries.
In 1783 there were five taverns and eight other places for the sale of intoxicating drink in Amherst-with not more than 700 inhabitants. Besides these, there was a distillery in the ravine (back of President Seelye's residence) where 3,000 barrels of cider were made into brandy yearly. Surely we have made progress in the matter of temperance ons
The first recorded vote to build school-houses was in 1761, but none were built until 1764, owing to quarrels as to location.
The year 1765 marks the establishment of the first public school il town, and the appropriation was about $100. In that year Josial Pierce, a Harvard graduate, opened a school on the 27th of October and taught six months in the year " between the MIDDLE school-houses,' the expression probably meaning that he divided his time between school-houses in East and West Streets. It must be remembered tha he taught boys only, girls not being allowed to attend school at tha time, nor for years after.
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