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 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
Then, too, I recall the fact that I found in Amherst a well organized hurch and parish ; a people interested in their church life and work ; church and society thoroughly alive, with a commendable pride in heir place of worship, and having the different departments well hanned and equipped for the work which a church and parish ought do in a community. It was in this respect that I felt that I owed much to the pastors who had gone before me, and sometimes thought
12
ber
ari:
ich he
bes
ties , b Ire
EARN
90
within myself that they had done so much and so well for the church, that there was little for me to do in the way of organization, or the adoption of methods. I think the First church in Amherst could as well dispense with a pastor altogether as any church with which I am acquainted. It runs of itself.
And last, but not least, as a matter of interest to me, I remember Amherst as the place where I was treated a great deal better than I to deserved. I shall never cease to remember with gratitude the kind- ness of the Amherst church to me and mine in many ways, how lenient they were towards my faults and failings, and how appreciative above that which they deserved, they were, of my pulpit ministra- tions.
I know you will call to mind on Thursday, as I do now, the forms and faces of those who were with us when I was your minister, but who are now gone to their reward : Dea. Sweetser, whose kindly and
M Verf affable ways I shall never forget ; Dea. Nash, with his sterling good sense and unaffected piety ; and others whose memory is fragrant ir the history of the church. There were two men, however, whose ticks memory will ever be especially dear to me,-fathers in Israel whom hedeer both respected and loved-Dr. Magill and Dr. Hickok. They have least passed away since I left the pastorate of the church. Dr. Magil' owl came to Newport at my installation and spoke so kindly and generoush to the people concerning my character and gifts that the aim to fill ou the outlines of the promises which he made for me, has been a seriou and unfulfilled task to this day. His kindly and appreciative treat ment of me during my pastorate will be among the pleasant memorie of my life. And no man could be a warmer, truer friend than Dr
Hickok. It pained me, oftentimes, to think that the great thinker philosopher, and preacher, was compelled to listen to my ineffectua theologizing, but he never let me know, by word or sign, that i troubled him. He was a constant encouragement and inspiration b. his unwavering kindness, and ever renewed manifestation of interes and regard.
Permit me in closing to congratulate you on what I believe will b a most delightful occasion. Allow me to look back with you into th past, recalling what God has done for you from the earliest days c your history, onward to the present time, how many men and women have been trained for the better life in these long years, and what yo have been permitted to do for the community where God has place you. Permit me, also, to look with you into the future, with the fu
The lis Fir en th tieth united thout hen In stor,
lo loth nd He b
exp dat 1 for his Kad
91
expectancy and hope that now, firmly established on so good a foun- dation, there yet remain greater and better things for you.
I shall never cease to be interested in all your doings, and to wish for you the highest welfare and success. As there is a period of your history which is especially sacred and dear to me, and which can never fade out of my memory, and for that reason mainly, all that pertains to you will ever be of the deepest interest to me.
You have had sunshine and shadow, joy and sorrow, intertwined all along your pathway, as all God's people do, but God has been using both, and overruling both, for your spiritual growth as to yourselves, and for your moral power us to your influence in the community where He has planted you. And so He will continue to do for you and for His people everywhere.
May God bless you : may the Holy Spirit guide you and make you perfect to do the Divine will ; and may Christ, the Head of the church, who holds in His right hand the seven stars which are ministers of is churches, and who walks in the midst of the seven golden candle- sticks which are the churches themselves, bless and keep and perfectly edeem you ; - that "you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all leasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the nowledge of God."
Yours in the gospel of Christ,
FORREST F. EMERSON.
ADDRESS
BY REV. E. P. BLODGETT. Greenwich, Mass.
There is no local church which has so large a place in my heart, as his First church in Amherst, unless it be the church of which I have een the pastor more than forty-six years and whose one hundred and ftieth anniversary, 1749-1899, will occur ten years from this date. united with this church fifty-eight years ago, and continuously ithout interruption, have been a member of it, until six years ago, hen I removed my relation to the church of which I had been so long astor, the reason of which abiding here and of my subsequent
od
Dr ker.
ut
er 1
92
removal, I need not here detail. For six years, therefore, I have been S without a pastor. Previously, ten of the pastors of this church had stood in the ecclesiastical relation of pastor to me. I am one of the a very few surviving who unite the present with the past, reaching bach nearly seventy years. I have no records except what are written S c hi h upon the tablet of memory. The old meeting-house on the hill, th religious home of the church for so many years, from the top of th old steeple to its foundation stones I remember well. In all it comeliness, or rather uncomeliness, I have a distinct recollection of it I remember its square pews with the seats turned up on hinges durin SEES the long prayer. In one of them sat Noah Webster and his famil during his residence in Amherst, while engaged in the great work c m fi A his life. The old high pulpit perched far above the heads of th hearers, with the deacons' seat in front below, and the sounding boar especially, suspended from the ceiling over the head of the minister are in vivid remembrance, and it was one of the trials of my earl boyhood, lest that sounding board might fall and crush the messenge of God in the very act of delivering his message. I remember tl choir opposite the pulpit in the side gallery, with Moses Dickinson : its leader, with no musical instrument attached to it except the ol fashioned pitch pipe whose toot I can now almost hear. I rememb the large square pews or pens in the galleries, which were such convenient refuge for the naughty boys who afforded abundal material for the tithing man, one of whom I especially recall in tl person of Col. Howland, and I remember too, when about six yea old, going from the old meeting-house to the ceremony of laying tl corner stone of the first building of Amherst college, in which t First church in Amherst took such a vital interest in its early strugg for existence, and once more I remember vividly the forenoon of t. very day when the old steeple fell a crash to the earth, and the buildil was taken down to give place to a future home of the church in wh is now College hall, and in after years to the astronomical observato in the old locality.
My remembrance of Dr. Parsons is somewhat dim, and yet wi great vividness I recollect the day it was announced in Amherst, th he was dead in Wethersfield, whither he had gone to visit relative But Daniel A. Clark rises up before me in all the impressiveness his remarkable personality. He was an eminent preacher of gre gifts as a sermonizer, graphic in style, with pith and point as all w have his sermons in print will bear witness.
Royal Washburn,
col fr wl ha Ch sh de I fro So wor frui dea min dise saga care and judg mig a fer of e mean They They
93
successor, was a name to be revered and loved ; royal not in namne merely, but in nature ; royal in his manhood, royal in his ministry and in all his influence as a servant of God. A saintly, Christly man, with a character as simple and unostentatious as the plain, marble slab erected to his memory, and as beautiful as the epitaph upon it,- " Saved by grace." I was one of the last group admitted to the church under his ministry and, I think, the last person baptized by him before he entered upon that eventful journey to Georgia, for his health and returning in the spring not much improved he lingered some months in the chamber of the, then, parsonage, but since occupied for many years by Mrs. Davis. One incident, during those months of decline, shows the man. Amherst college had received from the state its charter in full, after a long struggle and opposition. As a demonstration of joy it was illuminated from the top of the tower 'downward at every available window in south, middle and north colleges. A grand sight. Mr. Washburn was asked to be taken from his bed that he might witness it. He was carried to the window where he might have a full view. "Beautiful " he exclaims. "But I have a grander sight still, 'I see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ'." And we do not wonder that at his funeral Prof. Fiske should take as his text, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."
But I must not linger. I have known all the ministers of this church from Dr. Parsons, or Daniel A. Clark at least, to the present pastor. Some of them have gone up higher. Some of them still in active work for the Master. One in his green old age still bringing forth fruit, whose voice you had hoped to hear to-day. And then those deacons, too, Dea. Leland, the music of whose voice still lingers in mine ear. Dea. Gaylord of whom it was said, if a difficult case of discipline occurred in the church, such was his wisdom and christian sagacity combined with tenderness, it was committed especially to his care. Dea. David Mack and Dea. Zachariah Hawley, whose large and well-proportioned bodies were equaled or exceeded by their sound judgment, solid practical sense and consecrated piety. A long list I might go over, I might call the roll, good men and godly women not a few, whose very presence in the streets of Amherst, was a vindication of everything good and pure and Christly and a rebuke of everything mean and false and wicked. They believed because God had spoken. They had positive convictions and the courage of their convictions. They believed in, and held to the covenant, and that the covenant-
ch
0
it
94
keeping God held them. They have passed away, one after another, to the great congregation of the just; one of them within a few months, in the person of Samuel C. Carter. And may all the present membership be so loyal to their discipleship, that the church shall more and more continue to have an uplifting power in this community and in its missionary zeal be a benediction unto the ends of the earth.
di pr Pa pas
LEITNERS.
MR
Given below are a few of many letters from persons who received the invitation of the Church to the celebration.
First Church Parsonage, Hartford, Conn., Oct. 19, 1889.
MY DEAR MR. DICKERMAN :-
I have your kind letter of invitation to the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the First church of Christ in Amherst. I should most gladly be present on the occasion, not only because of the general interest I feel in historical anniversaries of this kind, but in especial because of the peculiar relationship which you have yourself suggested between the Amherst church and the First church of Hartford, through the medium of the Hadley church formed by the seceding members of the church of which I have the honor to be pastor. I have had occasion elsewhere quite carefully to examine the controversy which led to the secession spoken of, and to express the opinion that " spite of many irregularities and, doubtless, a good deal of ill temper on both sides, the general weight of right and justice was with the defeated and emigrating minority."
Loyal, therefore, as I am, and have reason to be, to the old church from whom this minority went away, and highly as I esteem the character of the fathers who remained and the sons who have suc- ceeded to them, I can but have a prepossession of interest in the band which planted themselves in Hadley and their successors who laid the foundations in Amherst.
sia you ch ou
invi one Aml imp relu T cove were men. I kn Mathe dign man mark sivel
cient owing Amhe preser ng to the p
95
Recognizing in some sense the grandmotherly relationin an eccle- siastical way of the church of which I am pastor, to that to which you bear the like relation, let me extend in the name of the First church of Hartford, our kind congratulations on your prosperity, and our hopes for the happy and useful celebration of your anniversary.
These congratulations I would cheerfully and gladly bear in person, did not a previous engagement absolutely forbid. I trust that the presence with you of an honored member of our church, John C. Parsons, Esq., a representative of two of your early and revered pastors, will more than supply any deficiency on my part.
Yours very truly,
GEO. LEON WALKER.
Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 4, 1889.
MR. WILLIAM W. HUNT,
My Dear Sir :-
When I wrote you some days ago, I fully intended to accept the invitation of the committee, to be present at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First church of Christ, of Amherst, on the 7th inst. But my engagements are such, it will be impossible for me to leave Cleveland, in time to be with you, and I reluctantly send my regrets.
To me the anniversary has a peculiar interest. For nearly a period covering three generations, my grandfather and great-grandfather were pastors of this church. They were pious, influential, devoted men, and did their work well and bravely in the world. In early life I knew a distinguished lawyer of Connecticut, who knew my grand- father intimately, and he spoke of him in the highest terms for purity, dignity and genuine Christian character. His picture represents a man of unusual nobility of force and person, with a head of strongly marked intellectual power. That these two men should have succes- sively filled the pulpit of this church for so many years, in the midst of so intelligent and educated a people as those of Amherst, is a suffi- cient endorsement of their fitness for their calling. I believe it was owing to the influence of my grandfather, that the academy at Amherst was founded, which afterwards became the nucleus of the present College. Trusting the anniversary will prove most interest- ing to all who attend it, I can only regret that the larger part of all the puritans, men and women, who upheld the banner of the cross in
Lis
ed
in
d
LES.
the
the
96
this church, " have fallen asleep," and their memory alone remains, a precious legacy to their descendants.
With the highest respect, I am very sincerely yours,
R. C. PARSONS. .
Knoxville, Tenn., Sept. 30, 1889.
REV. G. S. DICKERMAN,
Dear Sir :
Your letter of the 24th inst. calls up both sad and pleasant remin- iscences, and I wish it were possible for me to be with you on the 7th Nov., proximo. But that seems now impossible. I am sorry to say that we never had any portrait or other likeness of my father and I have no recollection of him, as I was but two years and nine months old when he died. Prof. Tyler can give you much valuable information regarding him and can probably furnish you a copy of Prof. Fiske's funeral discourse. I have some of his sermons, as also of Dr. David Parsons, and will send you one or two of each, if my brother, John H., does not anticipate me. I have been so long remote from the place of my nativity that I am somewhat like the " lost tribes," but should you fail to receive from those nearer what you need, I shall consider it a privilege to send you the little I have.
Yours very sincerely, W. P. WASHBURN.
239 W. 54 St., New York. Oct. 19, 1889.
Mr. Kingsbury sends his congratulations and kind regards to the First Church of Christ in Amherst, and thanks it heartily for the invitation to be present at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its organization.
Feeble health makes it impossible for him to attend the exercises which he knows will be so full of interest. He is often touched and gratified by word which comes to hint from time to time, showing him that his son's pastorate, though so short, is still held in affectionate remembrance, and his work while in Amherst not forgotten.
With best wishes for the continued success of the church, in which Miss Kingsbury joins, and adds her regrets to those of her father tha she is unable to be present on Nov. 7,
Sincerely yours,
(). R. KINGSBURY, (per H. L. K).
u stan
ma E son itati rit o es an e fre Clark t, R Re pit wit
ese be
R V Wit
u to ose nom
th
D ing
le bur
0
97
Seneca Falls, N. Y., Oct. 22, 1889.
COMMITTEE OF INVITATION FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, AMHERST, MASS. Dear Brethren :-
I greatly regret that I cannot have the pleasure and privilege of being present at the coming anniversary of your church's organization.
I have reason for special interest in this event. My grandfather, Rev. Josiah Bent, having died fifty years ago, while pastor of your church, and this summer his widow, after a half century of suffering, nd triumphant witnessing to the sustaining power of the faith, passed o her reward and rest. All these years she retained her membership with you, and all these years, may I say, she was an active member n the truest sense.
During a part of my college course I had the privilege of worship- ing in this, the church of my parents and grandparents, and now oin with the many who pray for an especial blessing upon church nd people.
Very sincerely yours, EDWIN H. DICKINSON.
Ottura, Kansas. Oct. 21, 1889.
IR WM. W. HUNT :
With deep emotion I acknowledge the cordial invitation to be resent at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First church be celebrated November seventh. Most gladly would I be with ou to meet the dear friends of the Church of Christ and many others hose familiar faces and friendly greetings are fresh in my mind as I n now writing. The dearest friend, aside from my own family, was rs. Lucius Boltwood. A true and loving sister has been called to e mansion on high. She has written me once in two weeks since er son was taken from her. But I only intended to reply to the kind vitation to myself and children. Circumstances, I fear, will not
mit of any of us being present. In imagination I see the familiar ces and hear the pleasant voices of beloved pastors and people. I ve fresh in mind the pastors Rev. David Parsons, D.D., Rev. Daniel Clark, Rev. Royal Washburn, Rev. Matthew T. Adams, Rev. Josiah nt, Rev. Aaron M. Colton, Rev. Mr. Hubbell, Rev. J. L. Jenkins d Rev. Mr. Kingsbury. I remember Rev. David Parsons in the lpit with powdered wig, the sounding-board over head and the deaf un standing up at his side, leaning on the pulpit, looking anxiously
13
the the TT of bises. and g him poate which r that
's id the ut sal
I
h
98
to hear all he said. But to Mr. Colton and Mr. Jenkins I seem to feel bound more closely, for through sorrow and great affliction they were more with us. Rev. Mr. Dwight I have in fond remembrance. I loved pastors and people. Many I have been with in joy and in sorrow.
" Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love."
If Mrs. Boltwood were living how gladly would she open her beau- tiful home and welcome ministers and people ! How much Mr. Carter, Deacon Clark, Mr. Zebina Montague, Deacon Sweetser, and too many to mention, would have enjoyed the meeting! You know not how much I have longed to take by the hand my old friends in Amherst. Many thanks to the Committee for remembering me and my family in our Kansas home.
Yours with kind remembrance,
ELECTA S. BOLTWOOD.
Vacaville, Cal., Oct. 13, 1889.
DEAR FRIEND :
Yours of the seventh inst., covering the invitation card to the Church's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, came to hand to-day I had noticed with interest the allusions in the Record to this event so full of interest to all who love the old First church, and while i will be impossible for us to be with you in person we shall certainly be with you in spirit, and in thoughts on that day. I recall in child hood the earnest preaching of Mr. Colton, in boyhood the scholarly cogent sermons of Mr. Dwight under whose ministry I was led t see and confess my need of Christ as my Saviour ;- in young manhoo I was welcomed to membership in the church by Mr. Hubbell, wh gave his earliest and most faithful labors to the church as its pasto: During his ministry my children (now - living) were baptised, thu securing a place in that household of faith. And of what Mr. Jenkir did for us as individual Christians, and for the church in its materi: prosperity, you and I know too well here to recount. Let the reco lection of those memorable days and months when the new churc was being built,-of the noble men who labored and gave for it, ¿ such men only could, yes, let the magnificent edifice itself testify, : it shall in the ages to come. And then followed the brief but beautif work of the Sainted Kingsbury, whom God sent here to gather o
C h re
99,
children into the fold, before God took him ; and then how were we held and swayed by the masterful sermons of Emerson, and while we were but just coming under the pastorate of Mr. Dickerman our connection with the church was severed but our interest in the church has not and never can be severed. Please give kindest regards to all friends.
Yours as of old, GEO. W. ALLEN.
HYMN. Tune " Pleyel's Hymn." Composed by Dr. V. W. Leach.
Hail Jehovah! God our King! Loud hosannas let us raise And to Thee glad tributes bring On this day of joy and praise,
Tender mem'ries strike the chord,
Present blessings swell the song,
Coming ages praise the Lord And the chorus thus prolong.
Generations gone to rest Toiled and prayed and passed away, We in them so richly blessed Magnify their lives to-day.
Guide us Lord, and lead us still In the way Thy feet have trod, May we live to do Thy will, Pressing on to Heaven and God.
nt.
1
F.
0
r.
OLD DOCUMENTS
Shown at the Anniversary.
ONE OF THE FIRST DEEDS.
[The homestead of Dr. Nathaniel Smith passed to his daughter Rebecca who married Jonathan Smith, and thence to their daughter Jerusha who married Col. Elijah Dickinson. The land given by Col. Dickinson for the college was a part of this estate.]
To all People to whom these Presents shall Come Greeting, Know ye that I Ichabod Smith of Hadley In the County of Hampshire In the Province of the masechuset Bay In New England have of my own free will and In con- sideration of the Paternal Love and affection which I have and Doe bare unto my Dutifull and Loving Son nathaniell Smitlı of Hadley affore said and as Seventy Pounds Portion out of my Estate : Have Given Granted Bargened & Bequethed fully and abselutely given and Pased over unto him my said son nathaniell Smith his Heirs Exed; adminds & assigns as a Good Estate of Inheretence In fee simple : a sartain Parsell of Land Lying in the Second Devesion of out Land within the Bounds of the township of Hadley affore- said : viz. one half of that Lot Laid out & Recorded to me the said Ichabod Smithı : the south side of said Lot and In bredth nineteen Rods containing twenty Eight acres and one half of an acre : and is Bounded north on part of the same Lot given to my son aron and south on the Lot that was mr Gorge Stillmons : East and west on a high way or street : and also two peesis out of that Lot which was Laid out to m' Gorge Stillmon viz. twelve acres or the north side of said Lot In bredth Eight Rods and Bounded south on part of the same Lot given to my son aron and north on Land given to him my said son nath" as above said : East and west on a high way or street: and twenty nine acres and a half on the south side of Said Lot In bredth nineteer Rods and a half : Bounded north on post of the same Lot (given to my sor aron) : and south on a high way : and East and west on a high way or street be the said Land more or less : To have to hold Posses and Injoy to himself his Heirs Exed; adminds & assigns for Ever: with all the Rights Profits Benefits appartenances and Preveledis thereto belonging : and I the saic Icabod Smith for my self & Heirs &c. Doe Covenant and agree with my Sor nathel affore said his Heirs : &c. that I have full & Lawfull power to Give & Grant the same as affore said : and that the same is free & Clere from all for mer Gifts, Grants Sales Judgments Executions and Incumbrancis, and tha for Ever here after I will stand to defend him my said son nathel and hi:
H
try
10 ter fol For Vot
*In Preci
S
a
101
Heirs &c. In the quiet & peasable Possession of the above graned premises against the Lawfull Demands of all Persons whatsoever: In witness of all which I set to my hand & seal this 12 Day of Deer 1730, In the third year of gorge ye Second King &c.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.