USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Historical sketches of the West Parish church, Andover, Massachusetts, 1906 > Part 2
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Now new heating methods were introduced, a handsome mahogany pulpit replaced that of pine. New seats were provided, both for the pulpit and the platform below, and a new communion table. The singers' gallery was re- modelled, a new carpet was laid, in bright, attractive colors, though one good lady said there was "too much yaller " in it.
The chairman of the committee for improvement was Deacon Peter Smith, who, to his enthusiasm, added sound judgment and good taste.
When the congregation returned to the renovated house, a dedicatory service was held, by which it was consecrated anew "to the worship and service of God, to knowledge, virtue, to human happiness, to the work of man's salva- tion, to our country's good, and to the world's conversion."
November 7, 1843, a parish festival was held at the pastor's house, when numerous gifts were left by the guests for the minister and his family. It was not a "surprise party", for the good ladies had turned the house upside down in preparation, and had provided a bounteous collation. The young men, not feeling their parish pride inflated by their minister's old chaise, had
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provided a sum for the purchase of a new vehicle. A few years before, when his horse died, they had given him a new horse.
A program was printed, whereupon appears a hymn of welcome composed by Mrs. Jackson, another hymn, in response to the pastor's welcome, by Miss Mary P. Faulkner, and a third, the parting hymn by Mrs. Zeba- diah Abbott.
But now we come, in the history of the West Church, to its most painful chapter, recording as it does, the se- cession of some of its most valued members. Perhaps sufficient time has not even elapsed for the story to be told dispassionately, with fairness to both sides in the contention. Heretofore but one side has been presented to the public. The conservative side still waits for justice-waits to be relieved of underserved censure cast upon it when minds were unbalanced by intense excite- ment and unable to see that those who differed from them were conscientious as themselves.
Prefatory to the history of the alienation of the seced- ing brethren, it should be stated that the church had an- nually appointed a committee of discipline. On the records a number of cases are entered, the charges specified, the efforts of the committee to bring the offenders to sentence are detailed, these efforts being supplemented by pastoral pleadings with the offenders, and the results noted. These results were sometimes penitence and public con- fessions, sometimes excommunication, or, in less severe cases, withdrawal of fellowship. The sins for which dis- cipline was applied were in two or three cases, drunken- ness ; in two or three others, disobedience to the seventh Commandment, but in far more cases it was for neglect of public worship and of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In 1845 four persons were brought before the church for the latter offense. The usual action was taken in the usual way. In each case it was found that the ex-
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cuse for their offense was that the church did not pass a vote refusing to slaveholders admission to the communion table, and the accused believed it a sin to sit down with any church where slaveholders might be admitted. But the large majority of the church conscientiously believed such a vote unnecessary and uncharitable. Hence they pursued the usual course withdrawing fellowship from the offenders.
The church meetings in which these cases were dis- cussed were stormy, for the abolition excitement was at a white heat, and who of us in times of public excitement are quick to discern where righteous indignation passes over the limit into unrighteous passion ?
The majority having unanimously passed resolutions condemning slavery, the slave trade and apologists for slavery, felt that they had exhausted all means of concil- iation at their command. The minority called them cowards and time servers. And then, as when Paul and Barnabas quarrelled over Mark because he seemed to one of them an unworthy brother, " the contention became so sharp between them that they parted asunder one from the other ".
April 9, 1846, an application was received from sixteen members requesting dismission that they might be organ- ized into a new church. It was voted " that they are hereby dismissed for this purpose and recommended to the Christian fellowship of those who may unite with them, and when constituted members of a separate church, their particular connection with us will cease".
Sincere, devout men were many of these seceders, fol- lowing what they believed their path of duty. Of Mr. James B. Lovejoy it was said that he spent whole days in prayer for the enslaved. A man of prayer was Mr. John Smith also, who was the head and heart of the new church. Who that ever witnessed it, will ever forget the example he set us of filial devotion every Sunday for years. Another trait of his, as rare as it is beautiful, was
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the childlike humility and frankness with which he would make confession when he had been "overtaken in a fault ".
Years later, when Mr. Smith made his gift to the trus- tees of the Seminary for a library building, a trustee meeting was held at his house to consider certain busi- ness settlements, Mr. Jackson was one of the trustees present, and during the evening Mr. Smith took him aside and said to him, " I wish you to know that all I have given to the Institution, I have given out of regard to yourself ".
In sympathy with Mr. John Smith leaving this church were his brother, James, and his partner, Mr. Dove. Deacon Peter Smith remained, to the end of his long and useful life. For years he was Superintendent of the Sabbath School and always faithful to all church obliga- tions and responsibilities.
During Mr. Jackson's ministry 209 were added to the church on profession of their faith.
In those days ministers' services were gladly obtained for the care of the public schools. There were then the town committee and the district or prudential committees. Mr. Jackson as a member, often the chairman of the town committee, took great interest in the schools, visiting them often and forming a definite knowledge of all the children, everyone of whom he could call by name with- out hesitation. Boys of intellectual gifts he noted, and persuaded their parents to give them a liberal education For one lad, whose parents were very poor, he obtained the means by which he was enabled to complete a col- legiate course.
During Mr. Jackson's ministry, three young men in the parish, Wilson Ingalls, Edward F. Abbott and George Mooar, became preachers of Christ. Also J. Warren Faulkner studied for the ministry but his health failed.
June 3, 1849, Mr. Jackson, at the close of the afternoon service, read the resignation of his pastorate, made imper-
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ative by the state of his health. It came as a surprise to his people, accustomed to his feebleness. When he had read it he gave out the familiar hymn-
" Bless be the tie that binds-"
but the choir well nigh broke down under the pressure of intense feeling. A single voice would carry a line, then falter, while another gaining composure would take up the strain, then, while a closing prayer was offered, sobs of unfeigned grief were heard throughout the church.
His nominal connection with the church was not dis- solved until September 25, 1850, that the church might not lose its share of the fund. He died July 26, 1878, and was laid beside Dr. Justin Edwards, his predecessor.
In July, 1847, there died aged 90 years, Joseph Shattuck, another of the original members of this church, who was a revolutionary veteran, had seen Washington and served in the armies which Washington led. " Hav- ing escaped the corrupting influence of war, careful cautious, prudent and industrious, quiet and retiring, he was respectful of the ordinances of religion and faithful to his Christian profession ".
Two years before we had lost an aged man, an original member, Jonathan Gleason. It has been told of him that owing to unfavorable conditions in early life, he learned to read only at the age of twenty, yet he had acquired what universities do not always confer, the power to thiuk profoundly. Often was he heard to refer to such works as Edwards' History of Redemption. In his long decline and when death drew near, he loved to say, " his hope, his only hope was in Christ ".
Our townsman, Mr. Joseph Smith, relates this incident of Mr. Gleason : "He once lived on the west side of Haggett's Pond. One Sunday in winter after there had been a heavy rain and thaw, sudden freezing had left the roads in such a very icy and smooth condition, so much so that it was impossible for a horse, if smooth shod, to
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DEACON SOLOMON HOLT
DEACON JACOB DASCOMB
DEACON PETER SMITH
DEACON NATHAN MOOAR
travel. Mr. Gleason was a close attendant at church, rain or shine, and was not to be thwarted by the condi- tions of the roads, so he started on foot, giving himself ample time, and with the aid of a long handled pitchfork, he succeeded in reaching the meeting-house. Resuming his pitchfork which he had left at Mr. Phelps' during ser- vice, he travelled home in the same way ".
May we not also speak of one of his daughters, so dear to Mr. Jackson's family to the last, so eminently useful in Sunday School and in the Ladies' Societies. Possessing a native force and nobility of character, a readiness to as- similate all culture, intellectual and social, she was worthy to become the wife of our wealthiest townsman.
And there was Mary P. Faulkner, fair beyond others, enjoying superior educational privileges at eighteen, she seemed a worthy candidate for earth's highest prizes. But the hereditary cloud enveloped her, and one who had loved and hoped to win her affections, departed almost broken-hearted and alone for his mission in Africa.
While Mr. Jackson was at the South in 1833, he re- ceived from this man a most pathetic letter, and a week later was astounded by the intelligence of his sudden death in Baltimore on the day fixed for his sailing.
To many of the elder women here, the names of Mary Faulkner and the Juvenile Missionary Society are insep- erable. For years its secretary, then its president, it became the one absorbing interest of her life. Superin- tendent for many years of the Infant Sunday School, what one life in the West parish can be cited quite equal to hers in the potency and permanence of influence ? How bravely she gave to us the fragments of what might have been a brilliant life ? Oh! why should a “ corner- stone polished after the similitude of a palace" be de- faced and broken, ere it has served its end? God only knows! One of her associates in the Society and the Sunday School was Mary A. Frye, who left us to become a missionary among the Cherokees.
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Miss Sarah L. Holt was the creator of the Juvenile Society, which was at first her Sunday School class gath- ered on Saturday afternoons to hear about missions and to do something to aid them.
How we love to think of them all and of those who were later called to the heavenly home. How in the sleepless night hours we love to rove in spirit over the old church of our childhood, thinking where each one sat, and of the parish comedies and tragedies.
October 29, 1849, a call was extended by church and parish to Mr. Jason Morse, which he declined, having ac- cepted a call to Brimfield.
June 7, 1850, Mr. Charles H. Pierce was invited to settle with this church in the Gospel Ministry. July 3, Mr. Pierce sent a favorable answer.
October 9, 1830, the Council convened for the ordina- tion of Mr. Pierce. Four churches were represented on this council, and Dr. Justin Edwards, Mr. Jackson and William B. Brown of the Free Church, were also present. Mr. Jackson giving the charge to his former flock.
The chief events of this pastorate were the appointment of Nathan Mooar as deacon in the place of Eben Love- joy, resigned, the ordination of Obed Dickinson, under ap- pointment, as a Home Missionary to Oregon. Mr. Dick- inson was a Theological student who had made his home with Mrs. Faulkner during his seminary course, and had taught in our Sunday School.
During the winter of 1850-51, there was much interest, especially among the young people, in personal religion. Extra meetings were held, and a number added to the church.
March 11, 1855, Mr. Pierce felt that he must offer his resignation. A council was called April 11, 1855, and he was dismissed and recommended to the churches as a faithful minister of Christ.
Mrs. Jackson used to say, the women of the West Parish had more public spirit than could be found in any
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other part of this town. One manifestation of this efficiency they gave when they determined that the parish needed a vestry. The schoolhouse had been the only resort for meetings of all sorts, but the schoolhouse was the property of the school district. The ladies met for consultation at Deacon Smith's, and later at Mr. Joseph Chandler's. To entice the brethren to contribute their share, a festival was held in the vacant parsonage, with all the appointments customary at such occasions. Many of you may still have copies of the Vestry Advocate, printed for the occasion. It is needless to say that the funds were raised and the vestry built.
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An Historical Address On the Occasion of the 250th Anniversary of the Omun nf Andober
- By Rev. WILLIAM C. MERRILL
HOSE noble men and women who laid the foundations of this town, by smooth Cochichewick and by the meandering Shawsheen, then Roger's Brook, had in them such stuff as heroes and heroines are made of, and they proved their right to be and to be heard through many a crucial hour in those stern days. They had problems to face, and they met them unflinchingly, and with such light as their day afforded. They counted it no hardship that isolation was their lot; that they were far removed from such few comrades about Boston as had been spared to them ; and though the hungry wolf gnawed at their · portals, while I doubt not, even in their more prosperous days, hunger gnawed at their vitals, they were, withal, a cheerful folk, and gave God grateful thanks for all His mercies.
Near the old North Burying Ground, they laid firm and strong foundations, and on them erected a house of worship to their God. A church was formally organized, October 24, 1645, and Mr. John Woodbridge was ordained its minister ; " the first minister," we read, "that was ordained in this country, and the second in New England." He died in 1695, at the age of 82, and it is written of him that " He was a person of truly Excellent Spirit ; a pious disposition ; spending much of his time in Holy Medita- tion, by which the Foretastes of Heaven were Continually feeding his Devout Soul, and he abounded in all other Devotions of Serious, Heavenly, Experimental Chris-
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tianity." Surely, if this be a trustworthy record, the early ministry of Andover was begun in righteousness. It was with great difficulty that the early settlers in New England, - this little country, - found for themselves sufficient room. They would not be crowded. They spread over Andover, rapidly, and soon the south part demanded separation from the north. This done, they erected their meeting-house " at ye rock on the west side of Roger's Brook," near the site of the present building, and unanimously voted "that Mr. Samuel Phillips shall be our pastor." Their first service was on October 18, 1709.
When the West Church was set off it comprised one hundred and fifty-eight families. Before their formal recognition as a church, they had erected a house of stone, which was dedicated soon after their recognition on the 26th of December, 1826. What son or daughter of West Parish has not been proud of this handsome country church of solid stone, whose walls will stand, we trust, for centuries to come. It is the oldest house, now used as a place of worship, within the precincts of old Andover. How many noble men and women have here bent low the head in prayer and sung God's praises in glad and grate- ful recognition of Him who holds the years in their eternal flow and sends in their due season seed-time and harvest ! How many tender infants have here been dedicated to a covenant-keeping God, who declared of old " the promise is unto you and to your children !" How many sons and daughters of Christian parents have honored that consecration and have stood, in later years, before this altar and vowed allegiance to the Prince of Peace! How many many precious and fragrant memo- ries cluster within these walls, where men blessed of God have made full proof of their ministry and have passed on to bless other fields and brighten other lives ; or have ceased from the sowing and the reaping, to be them- selves gathered into the heavenly garner !
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This has always been an active church. It could not well be otherwise, gathered out of a community such as I have described. For much of the best blood of old Andover passed on to the south and then on and over to this side of Roger's Brook. There was energy in the community, and iron in the blood of that people, who would rise up and build a house of worship, such as this, before ever they could get themselves set free from the other church, to make use of it when it should be finished. Surely, very determined men struck hoe and spade into this West Parish soil ; and when the General Court, at last, cut the cord that bound them to the parent church, they lost no time in witnessing to their spiritual virility. On January 8, 1828, " The West Parish Ladies' Asso- ciation was organized. June 7, 1837, the Ladies' Asso- ciation merged itself into the Seaman's Friend Society, an auxiliary of that noble organization which has done so much for ' them that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in the great waters '."
The first pastor was ordained June 6, 1827, and the Sabbath following a Sunday School was organized, which has had a very interesting and an unbroken history to the present time. Not often is a country Sunday School favored with such leaders and teachers as those men whose patient service blessed this school for so many years. Its first superintendent was Artemas Bullard. Following him is a long array of faithful workers. Prom- inent among the young men from the Andover Theo- logical Seminary, who dropped seed into this fertile soil, are Dr. Atkinson ; the two Blisses, James Means, Francis V. Tenney, Nathaniel Beach, Wayne Gridley, and O. Dickinson, who gathered the first church of Salem, Oregon. Many others rendered worthy service here, I doubt not, whose names I have not been able to discover.
From the beginning, this has been a missionary church, and it has responded right nobly to appeals for help in the Lord's work, both at home and abroad. In 1830,
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when the church was hardly four years old, Miss Sarah L. Holt gathered the young of the congregation about her and organized "The West Parish Juvenile Missionary Society". The early object of its efforts was the educa- tion of Indian children. Miss Holt was assisted in the work by Miss Elizabeth Jackson, the pastor's sister, and especially aided she was by that whole-hearted and zealous lover of missions. Joseph W. Barr, then a student in the Seminary, preparing for work upon missionary ground. His counsel was invaluable, his lahors untiring, and to make the annual sales and exhibitions a success he exercised all his ingenuity. He was about to set sail for his life work when God called him on a longer journey and he went home. But I am informed that for many years Mary P. Faulkner " was the very soul and life of this little society. and it is doubtless due to her, in large measure, that it survived the usual fate of such endeavors and continues on to the present day." A somewhat similar society was organized in the South Church, pre- vious to the existence of this, which had an intermittent life ; but, so far as I have been able to discover, no young people's missionary society in the land has so long continued a history as has this. It is not the least of the honors due to our West Parish Church that this is true. And into this unselfish work Miss Faulkner poured all the ardor and energy of her young soul. My memory reaches back, in some misty fashion, to that time. I see her calm, sweet face dimly, through the years, as she leaned over the high back of a square box-pew in the north gallery, to the left of the high pulpit, and taught to the " Infant Class " the story of Jesus and his love. I have never quite forgotten the light in the eyes and the smile upon the lips; lips, which, it seems to me now, were, even then, a little drawn in the conflict with inner pain. Alas for her, daughter of sorrows! too soon heredity, if this it was, laid a heavy hand upon her; the bright keen intellect was suddenly wrapped around with
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whirlwind and with storm. But she was "Mary", and she had chosen that good part which could never be taken from her. She sleeps in the quiet little graveyard yonder. After life's fitful fever, she sleeps well. Wan- dering in yon little village of the dead, a couple of years ago, I came upon her grave. Beneath her name was the motto of her young life; the guide of her unclouded mind : "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path ". I felt like kneeling to one who had in early life, full lovingly, held that lamp before so many little feet and lighted the path of our young lives. She has, at last, her reward, and reads today the Living Word.
This Juvenile Society, in which Miss Faulkner and others labored so faithfully, was a great educator in those early years of missionary effort. Dr. George Mooar writes me from Oakland: "It did great things for us boys and girls. It not only enabled us to send out no small sum, through the years to other parts ; but it stim- ulated in us broad views of life and of Christian work, and kept ever warm in our hearts the love for Foreign Missions. It reached farther than the hearts and hands of the girls, so that one year the boys were inspired to add to the fruit from the girls' patchwork, the product of a potato patch." Did all this bear fruit in something more than love and gold ? Perhaps so, for in the wife of Mr. Willey, missionary to the Cherokees, and the partner of Mr. Bardwell on "India's coral strand ", I find the names of two West Parish girls, Mary A. Fry and Rachel Furbush. I think that there were others who gave themselves to the Lord in missionary work, whose names have not found record. A little spring was that, opened here some sixty-six years ago ; yet have its streams of in- fluence reached out to water two continents at least, and the end is not by and by.
But there was interest and activity not among women and girls alone, but among the men as well. It required the votes of men to place upon the minutes of the church
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MISS MARY FAULKNER
MISS SUSANNA JACKSON
REV. JAMES G. MERRILL
REV. WM. C. MERRILL
this resolution : July 5, 1833, Voted: That no person shall, hereafter, be admitted to the church, who will not agree to abstain from the use of ardent spirits, except as a medicine, and from all traffic in the same." And this was no idle sentiment of the hour; since I find, in the minutes of church meetings, that more than one person was excommunicated for the violation of this pledge. Not every New England church, in the face of frequent barn-raisings and husking-bees, was ready to go thus on record.
And in these church records I find a note with a yet clearer ring in it than this, inasmuch as the passions that were, later, to be inflamed were to have far-reaching con- sequences ; indeed, were to shake our fair republic to its foundations. On December 31, 1840, this church placed itself on record in pronounced opposition and uncom- promising hostility to human slavery, by a preamble and resolutions of the most spirited nature. The third and fourth resolutions are as follows : -
"3. Resolved : That while we are constrained to ‘re- ceive one another as Christ has received us', and must, therefore, receive and fellowship all members of Christian churches who bear the image of Christ and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, we, nevertheless, can have no fellowship with this unfruitful work of darkness; but must rather reprove it and rebuke those who encourage it and persist in it.
" 4. Resolved : That we view with surprise and regret the painful fact, that, in this day of light, some professed ministers and followers of Christ justify involuntary ser- vitude, as a permanent institution of society and a scrip- tural institution, which we regard as obviously contrary to the principles of natural justice and the fruit of the Gospel, and which is condemned by the opinion and example of nearly the whole civilized world."
These are brave words, and bravely but charitably uttered. "Judge not that ye be not judged " was the
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emphatic utterance and unqualified command of their Lord and Master, and these men recognized him as Lord and Master. With the divided sentiment of that day, it seemed to them that it would be usurping an unwarrant- able prerogative for them to pronounce such judgment as to disfellowship defenders of the "peculiar institution " as some demanded; but they had the unquestionable right to state their conviction as to this " sum of all villanies ", and they did not hesitate to place that con- viction upon record.
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