USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Ashburnham > History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts : from the grant of Dorchester Canada to the present time 1734-1886 with a genealogical register of Ashburnham families > Part 22
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 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
1
300
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
This fund consisted of certain money and credits derived from the sale of the ministerial lands and the residne of the sale of the news in the second meeting-house. This action of the society explains in a measure a vote of the town on the first day of November " to choose a committee of four to join with the selectmen to meet with the committee of the Con- gregational Society or First Parish to regulate the ministerial funds and the pew notes if they belong to said society and
give them up to said society. Chose George R. Cushing, Dr. Abraham Lowe, Oliver Samson & Capt. John Willard. Voted to choose two more men to add to the committee and chose Joseph Jewett and Ivers Jewett." The seleetmen for the time being were Silas Willard, Hezekiah Corey and John Adams. Jr.
This was an able committee and it represented both sides of the pending question. Mr. Cushing, Dr. Lowe, Joseph and Ivers Jewett were active members of the Congregational society, while Silas Willard, John Willard, Mr. Samson and Mr. Corey were equally prominent in the Methodist society. John Adams, Jr., held the balance of power in case the deliberations of the committee were influenced by selfish motives or denominational proclivities. It was undoubtedly at the suggestion of members of the Congregational society · that the Jewetts were added to the committee in order to secure a stronger representation in its conneils. The result of their deliberations was laid before the town at a meeting assembled April 4, 1825, in the following report :
The committee chosen at the town meeting on the first day of November last for the purpose of making a division of the minis- terial fund and property belonging to the first parish met at Jewett & Woods' store, and beg leave to report viz : chose I. Jewett clerk.
2ª On motion voted that all votes passed by said committee be laid before the town at their next annual March meeting.
301
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
3ª Voted that the First Parish in said town of Ashburnham shall draw the interest of the Pew Notes.
4th Voted that the said First Parish shall draw the interest of one half of the ministerial and school funds.
5th Voted that the clerk and chairman sign the above report.
SILAS WILLARD, Chairman of the Committee. 1. JEWETT, Clerk.
To the school fund the parish laid no claim and it is prob- able through careless methods in the conduct of town busi- ness it had been united so long with the ministerial fund that the identity of each was lost. Since the two funds were derived from the sale of equal parcels of land, neither would greatly exceed the other in value. It appears to have been the intention of the committee to reserve the interest of the school fund for the town and to bestow the interest of the ministerial fund on the parish. To these recommendations the town was not favorably inclined and refused to adopt any of the votes suggested by the committee. In the mean tinis the following petition had been presented to the select- men and a town meeting had been called to consider the same questions in another form.
To the Gentlemen, Selectmen of the town of Ashburnham :
We the undersigned inhabitants of the said town request you to insert an article in your next March meeting warrant " To see if the town will give up to the Congregational Society or First Parish in said town the ministerial fund belonging to said parish it being for what the ministerial land was sold for, Also the notes that are in the Treasury which were given for pews sold in the meeting- house belonging to said Society or Parish with the interest on the aforesaid notes for one year last past."
302
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
ASHBURNHAM, Feb. 12, 1825.
JOSEPH JEWETT ABRAHAM T. LOWE DAVID CUSHING D. CUSHING OLIVER GREEN JONAS NUTTING
. GRANT HOUSTON JOHN CALDWELL
An article was duly inserted in the warrant and a decision was finally reached :
Voted to give the ministerial fund and the pew notes to the First Parisb in said town of Ashburnham agreeable to the request of Joseph JJewett and others and the selectmen are required to give orders accordingly.
In pursuance of this liberal course on the part of the town the funds were transferred to the custody and possession of the Congregational society. For ten years the decision was accepted as final and so far as evidence is found it was generally regarded as just and proper. From what motive the question was opened and the controversy renewed would be difficult to determine. In a warrant for the annual meet- ing in 1835 the heralds declare that the armistice is ended and the contestants who have rested on their arms for a decade are again summoned to renewed hostilities.
To see if the town will reconsider the vote that was passed in 1825 ; the town then voting that the pew notes and other property in fund, originally belonging to the town, into the hands of the clerk or treasurer of the First Parish and also to choose a com- mittee to examine into all those funds and to see what part thereof rightfully belongs to the first parish and have the other put right.
303
ECCLESIASTICAL IHISTORY.
On the first clause, the town took no action but chose a committee of five to make the specified examination. This committee consisted of George R. Cushing, Charles Hast- ings, Jr., Dr. Nathaniel Pierce, Silas Willard and Ebenezer Frost. Mr. Cushing was the only earnest friend of the parish and he refused to join with the others in the follow- ing report :
Your committee, chosen at the March meeting to investigate the state of the funds arising from the sale of school and ministry lands and other property &c, have attended to that duty and ask leave to report. Your committee find by the Proprietors Book of Records that the tract of land now called Ashburnham was granted to sixty soldiers or individuals or their heirs who served in the Canada Expedition as a bounty for their services by the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and said Court in their grant reserved lots of land viz: one to the first settled Minister, one for the Ministry, one for the school ; and the sixty Proprietors of the Township six miles square then called Dor- chester Canada, gave one lot in each division (as it appears they made four divisions) it being four lots in all for the Minister, four for the Ministry and four for the school with Equivalents. Also the Proprietors granted one lot of ten acres where the meeting- house stands, provided the town build and keep a house thereon for Public Worship. The lots granted to the first settled minister seem to have been disposed of by the Rev. Mr. Winchester. Your committee find by the records that the town voted and chose agents to sell the public lands and we find by the records that some of the Ministry and School lots were sold and the interest applied in buying the Rev. Mr. Cushing's fire wood, and the said funds have ever since, except a small part, been retained in the hands of agents or persons then belonging to the first parish but bave since alienated themselves from the old meeting-house Elsewhere for public worship and they have seized upon the school fund or a part thereof contrary to any vote of said town and carried it away with them. Therefore your committee, after due consideration.
304
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
resolves that the town pass a vote to return the funds that was given to said town for the use of the ministry to the hands of the town treasurer, there to remain a fund according to the appropria- tion. Resolved as we find by records and a parchment plan of said town, that the common land that has been sold and deeded for ministry land the amount of such should be returned to the treasury for its proper use. Resolved that as the town sold Pews in the old meeting-house on conditions that the amount they sold for should be funded and the interest of said fund be appropriated to repair the meeting-house, that the principal with the interest be returned to the treasury to be kept for that purpose. Resolved that those members or agents that have alienated from the old meeting-house elsewhere for public worship deliver to the hands of the town treasurer the amount of monies that acerned from the sale of school lands with the interest that it may be applied agreeable to the appropriation. Resolved that the town pass a vote and agree with some person residing near said meeting-house to take and keep the key of said house so that the Baptists may occupy the same for Religious Worship agreeable to a vote of said town.
Should the agents or members, belonging formerly to the first parish or old meeting-house, but have since alienated themselves with monies or property belonging thereto, refuse to comply with these terms,
Resolved that the town pass a vote authorizing the committee or agents to prosecute forthwith to final judgment.
CHARLES HASTINGS, JR., SILAS WILLARD, NATHANIEL PIERCE, EBENEZER FROST,
Committee
of
said Town.
May 4, 1835.
The report was accepted but none of the recommendations were adopted. The town clerk found employment in its entry upon the records but no other result ensued. How- ever, the general issue, which was crushed beneath the
305
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
weight of this ponderous report, was referred to Charles Stearns, Asahel Corey and Kilburn Harwood, with instruc- tions to meet a like committee of the Congregational society "with the view to ascertain more fully the rights of the town and parish in said funds."
An carly report from this committee was also accepted but no trace of its recommendations has been found. At the succeeding meeting the town "voted to accept of the ministerial fund," but through a failure of the society to · pass a responsive vote to give it up, the vote at once ex- pressed the willingness and the inability of the town to secure it. Through the last stage of the controversy the society had the advantage of possession and during the pro- longed demonstrations of the town they continued to fortify their position with a dignified silence. At other times the subject was debated in town meeting, but the remaining votes of the town were only repetitions of those that have been noticed. If any one desires to learn more of this dispute between the worthies of the town and the officers of the parish he may fan the embers of the controversy found in another chapter in connection with an account of the removal of the second meeting-house to its present location.
In 1832 the Methodist society completed its first house of worship in the village. Actuated we trust more from a spirit of emulation than of rivalry, the First Parish began to consider the expedieney of removing its house from the old common to the centre of the village, and to rebuild the interior after a more modern plan. No sooner was the project proposed than a decided opposition was developed. The owners of the pews in the old house demanded pay- ment for their property interest, and the town asserting an undefined control of the house frowned upon the society in the pretence of any right to remove it or to exercise
20
5
306
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
any control over it beyond its accustomed use where it stood. And the fact that the town had no clear idea of its own authority in the premises, left it free to assert any pro- tension and to oppose the society at every point. Foresce- ing the difficulties that would attend any other course of proceeding, the society carly and wisely decided to build a new house and subsequently to surrender the old house and the pending demands of the pew owners to the town.
In September, 1832, the society postponed but did not abandon the enterprise, and while the intentions of the parish were beginning to ripen into an early execution a voluntary association of its members proposed to build the house on their own responsibility. It only remained for the society as an organization to grant the gentlemen leave to proceed and to select a location for the new meeting-house. In February, 1833, the following propositions were adopted :
. Voted that certain individuals who are disposed may build a new meeting-house agreeable to their proposition which is that the expense of building be divided into twenty shares and after the house is completed to sell or let the pews as they have oppor- tunity.
. Voted to choose a committee of five to select a suitable location for said meeting-house and chose
GEORGE G. PARKER. SAMUEL WARD, JOHN CALDWELL, HOSEA GREEN, JOHN C. GLAZIER,
Committec.
Voted to adjourn for one week from this day at one o'clock in the afternoon.
Feb. 11, met according to adjournment, the committee presented their report which was read.
Voted that the meeting-house may be built on either of the two
W
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
307
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
lots - Sawyer's or the one George R. Cushing proposes. The Sawyer lot was selected.
Other locations were considered by the committee but were not embraced in their report. One of these was on the opposite side of Main street ; another a short distance south of the Powder House ; another at the junction of the road from North Ashburnham and Main street ; and another
where the barn of Nathaniel Pierce now stands. The amount paid Mr. Sawyer for the lot was two hundred and twenty-five dollars. The addition to the lot on the north was presented in 1869 by Colonel Charles Barrett. The names of the persons who assumed the responsibility and proceeded to build the meeting-house do not appear in the records. The twenty shares were taken as follows : Thomas Hobart, two shares; Reuben Townsend, Charles Barrett, Ebenezer Flint, George G. Parker, Dr. William H. Cutler, Joseph Jewett, Harvey M. Bancroft, Philip R. Merriam, Philip R. Merriam, Jr., Harvey Brooks, Elijah Brooks, Samuel Woods, Samuel S. Stevens, Joel Brooks, Horatio J. Holbrook, Hosea Green, Levi Rice, Edmund Sawyer, one share each.
Under the direction of this efficient organization the present meeting-house was begun in the summer of 1833 and speedily completed. It was dedicated February 19, 1834. The cost of construction exceeded the amount received from the sale of the pews, but the loss was sustained by the organization that had volunteered to build the house. The heavy, clear-toned bell which still hangs in the belfry was purchased by subscription in January, 1834, at an expense of five hundred and seventeen dollars.
The new meeting-house being completed, and the former entangling alliances with the town dissolved, the parish
308
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
entered upon an era of concord and quietude. Occasionally called upon to join with the church in the dismissal or settle- ment of a minister, its chief and successful employment has been to raise money for the payment of current expenses. At times the money has been secured with difficulty but the parish, by a conciliatory policy and by consulting its mem- bers in regard to methods of taxation and voluntary sub- scriptions, has met its obligations and has seldom suffered its fortunes to be dimmed by the cloud of debt. Through the indifference of many the burden has rested more heavily upon others, yet at all times a reliant purpose has met every obstacle and overcome every difficulty. During the past sixty years the salary paid the minister has been increased from time to time from four hundred and fifty to twelve hundred dollars.
The meeting-house was thoroughly remodelled in 1869. After an ineffectual discussion of many plans and several inoperative voies of the parish a number of gentlemen gen- erously volunteered to become responsible for the expense of rebuilding the house. The repairs were immediately made under the direction of Ohio Whitney, Jr., William P. Ellis, Jerome W. Foster, George C. Winchester and Addi- son A. Walker. The amount expended was about thirteen thousand dollars, The deficit, after the sale of the pews, was assumed and soon paid by the parish. At this time a superior pipe organ was purchased by subscription. The parsonage was purchased in 1864, and in it are invested the ministerial fund received from the town and the legacy of Mrs. Lucy Davis.
CHAPTER X.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. - CONTINUED.
THE METHODISTS. - THE FIELD AND THE SITUATION. - TIIE EARLY PREACHERS. - THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE. - THE SECOND MEETING- HOUSE. - THE MINISTERS.
THE UNION CHURCH. - THE ELEMENTS COLLECTED. - THE MEETING- HOUSE. - A CHURCH EMBODIED. - THE EARLY PREACHERS. - ELDER EDWARD A. ROLLINS. -- REV. A. A. WHITMORE. - TEMPORARY SUP- PLIES. - REV. DANIEL WIGHT. - THE PARISH. - PERSONAL NOTICES. - THE DEACONS.
THE BAPTISTS. - PREACHERS WITHOUT PAY. - STEPHEN GIBSON. - DIS- INTEGRATION.
ADVENTISTS. - THEIR BELIEF. - NO CHURCH ORGANIZATION.
THE CATHOLICS. - FIRST SERVICES IN THIS TOWN. -- PURCHASE A MEETING-HOUSE. -- REV. JOHN CONWAY.
METHODIST CHURCHES were organized in many of the towns in this vicinity in rapid succession. It was during the last decade of the past century. In its outline features the history of the introduction of Methodism and of the growth and progress of the churches planted by the early preachers is the same throughout New England. Until the arrival of the pioneer preachers of a new faith, in every town there was one church of the standing order which, founded soon after the settlement of the town, had remained the sole occupant of the field. Over each of these churches the "learned orthodox minister" was settled for life and labored without a rival. The orthodox minister of the olden time was an earnest and solemn laborer, austere in manner,
309
310
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
dignified in bearing; faithful and diligent as a pastor he labored for his people with singleness of purpose. With formal precision he visited the sick and comforted the mourner in learned phrases. His counsel was the voice of wisdom, while his sympathies were congealed in the solem- nity of his presence. Standing half way between God and man, there was a fixedness about him that invited the rever- ence and commanded the homage of the people. His sermons, logically arranged, were earnest and solemn appeals to the reason of his hearers. From the lofty pulpit of the olden time he maintained his accustomed eminence among his flock and through the week he walked in even lines above them. They respected him, addressed him, thought of him with reverence, and if any loved him they loved him with an admixture of awe that suffered no passage of the gulf that separated the minister from the hearts of the people. 'If neither the example of his life nor the spirit of his discourse invoked the emotions or aroused the sudden impulse, he moulded and solidified the character and per- suaded men to live under the guidance of principle and a rational sense of duty.
The minister of that day is a character prominent and still honored in the annals and traditions of the past. In the midst of his supremacy came the pioneer preacher of Methodism. These heralds of a new creed announced their message with plainness of speech and simplicity of manner. Their early success sprang more from the manner of the man than from the matter of their discourse. They lived among the people and when not engaged in exhortation they conversed and mingled with them. They neither spoke from pulpits nor held themselves aloof from their fellow-men. They preached in dwellings, in barns and in the groves. While preaching they stood on a level with their hearers.
311
ECCLESIASTICAAL HISTORY.
Wisely assuming that the elergy of the standing order had faithfully instructed the masses and inculcated among them a general knowledge of the Christian religion they asserted the tenets peculiar to their sect. If' they appealed to the emotions of men they satisfied a hunger of the soul that the teachings of the older school could not appease ; and if they became earnest and impassioned in manner they felt a responsive echo in the worship of the multitude.
With such labor and under such conditions the early Methodist preachers found adherents in every community. They rapidly planted churches and confiding them to the self-sustaining influences of the class-meeting they passed on to new fields and to renewed conquests. Over these infant churches a preacher was not assigned for a stated time. Indeed the earlier preachers were not fixed in their fields of labor, but were transferred so rapidly from one station to another that we gain but glimpses of their approaching or retiring presence. When assembled for worship, mysteri- ously there came a minister to preach to them ; from whence he came, or where he went, or the name of the roving preacher, is difficult to determine.
The introduction of Methodism into Ashburnham in method and in the attending conditions was similar to the general work and success of the youthful church throughout the country. In a historical discourse delivered at Ashburnham July 9, 1882, Rev. Stephen Cushing has sneeinetly stated the prominent events connected with its growth and progress. To that discourse is credited many of the events in the following paragraphs. Within five years from the introduc- tion of Methodism into New England, Rev. John Hill preached the first Methodist sermon at the house of Lemuel Stimson in the north part of the town. This was in the autumn of 1793. Early in the following year a society of
312
HISTORY OF ASHBURNHAM.
eight members was constituted and soon meetings began to be held with considerable regularity at the house of Silas Willard, Esq. In the autumn of 1796 Lorenzo Dow preached to the infant society in this town. This famous preacher was then nineteen years of age. The following extract from his journal refers to this occasion : " October 23, 1796, 1 spoke in Hardwick to about four hundred people ; thence to Petersham and Winchendon, to Fitchburgh and likewise to Notown where God gave me one spiritual child. Thence to Ashburnham, where we had some powerful times."
In 1800 a quarterly meeting attended by Rev. John Broad- head, a presiding elder, was held in the town. At this time the church embraced a membership of fifty or more. Three years later Bishops Asbury and Whatcoat preached at the house of Mr. Willard by whom they were entertained. Preaching was maintained in the north part of the town and a society with increasing numbers was in existence thirty- eight years. The preachers were frequently transferred to other fields in the intervals between the formal assignments by the Conference. From the records of such appointments and transfers it is found that during this time sixty-five preachers had been designated for Ashburnham and depend- ent societies. A society was organized in Westminster in 1814 and a few families in the south part of the town were included in its membership.
In 1831 the Ashburnham and Westminster societies were made a station and a pastor assigned them. This arrange- ment was of short duration and only one appointment, that of Rev. Nathan B. Spaulding, was made. The following year the Ashburnham society, having proposed to build a meeting- house at the centre of the town, was made a station and has continued to the present time an independent organiza- tion. It was during the year of the union with the West-
313
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
minster society, and perhaps suggested by the inconvenience of that arrangement, that active measures for building a meeting-house were proposed and favorably entertained. At that time the trustees were Joshua Burgess, Luther Barrell, John Kibling, Lemuel Whitney, John Willard, James Puffer, Silas Willard, Lemuel Stimson, Stephen Cushing, Oliver Samson and Hezekiah Corey. A considerable sum of money was raised by subscription and the work fairly begun in the autumn of 1831. The house was completed without suspension of the work and was dedicated July 4, 1832. The dimensions were fifty-six by forty-one feet.
Again, thirty-eight years is an epoch in the history of the Methodist church of Ashburnham. The present commo- dious house of worship was erceted in 1870. It was then seventy-six years since the organization of the church in this town. Dividing the time in two equal portions, was the building of the first meeting-house in 1832. The first span of time had witnessed the growth of the church from a class of eight persons to one hundred members. Through many discouragements they had existed and had increased. At all times their ardor had been unabated. Through all these years of their carly history they found many occasions for devout gratitude for the past and buoyant hope for the future. During the second period, or while occupying the first meet- ing-house. they were attended with continued prosperity. The visible results are witnessed by many seasons of spiritual power and by frequent and considerable addition to the membership of the church.
At the close of the second epoch, the erection of the present church edifice was undertaken. In 1869 the site for the proposed building was purchased and the foundations were laid. From the board of trustees Reuben Puffer, Nathaniel Eaton and Andrew J. Smith were chosen a build-
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.