USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 11
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"When Mr. Lord became treasurer it was decided to com- mence the work of replacement of these funds and also to free the church of debt. With his guidance all indebtedness was
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DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
paid up on April 30, 1917 and the last of the endowment funds restored on November 15, 1926.
"In 1913 Mr. Lord and his mother, Mrs. Mary B. Lord, were the authors of a comprehensive history of the church includ- ing its auxiliary organizations. This book has rightly taken its place with other historical writings of Athol."
Note :- This church treasuryship was terminated in 1944 after forty years continuous service but ere long the call came for other service and mem- bership on the Executive Board of the church has continued to this writing.
PASTORS
10- 4-1820-3-11-1832
Stephen S. Nelson
1831
1833
(Assistant and acting pastor)
Ambrose Day
1833
1835
Joseph Glazier
1835
1839
Asaph Merriam
10-18-1839
1846
Oren Tracy
1849
1851
George Mathews
1851
1852
George W. Gunnison
1852
1853
Otis Converse
1853
4-1855
Charles Farrar
5-1855 -
4-11-1858
J. Douglas Reid
5-11-1859 - 6-22-1861
Charles Ayer
4-1864
3-31-1867
Darius H. Stoddard
7-23-1867 - - 3-29-1874
John C. Emery
6- 2-1874 - - 4- 6-1876
Edwin M. Bartlett
7- 1-1876 - -1- 1-1881
John H. Cox
9- 2-1887 -
3- 1-1893
Byron H. Thomas
9- 1-1895 - - 6- 1-1900
Daniel W. Lyman
11-12-1900 - 7- 1-1903
Charles S. Nightingale
10- 1-1903 -5- 1-1907
Isaac W. Grimes, D.D.
12- 1-1907 -
1914
F. W. Peakes
6- 1-1914 -
2-1921
Arthur Jeffries
8- 1-1921 -2- 1-1925
Howard W. Joslyn
5- 1-1925-10- 1-1930
Reuben J. Davis
2-15-1931-11-19-1940
Ira J. Martin
4-15-1941-11- 1-1944
Paul S. Haslett
1-21-1945-10-11-1945
Warren E. Stewart
9-29-1946- 8- 1-1949
Frederick C. Webber
11-13-1949 - To present
Evangelical Congregational Church 1830 (Athol Congregational Church, Inc .- 1926)
On October 2, 1830 a meeting of unusual importance was held of the seceding members of Athol's first church, tem- porary articles of faith were adopted, and the Evangelical Con-
127
8-1862 4- 1-1864
George L. Hunt
Horace F. Brown
6-1893 4-1895
John N. Shipman
3-1881 -5 15-1887
Isaac Briggs
HISTORY OF ATHOL
gregational Church formed with Rev. Mr. George J. Tillotson as pastor.(27) He continued to minister to this church whose meetings were held in the Town House at Main and Common Streets for the space of three months and was invited to be- come its settled pastor. But he declined this offer to accept the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Brooklyn, Con- necticut which office he held for twenty-seven years.
Born in Farmington, Connecticut on February 5, 1805, ed- ucated at Yale College, and later as one of the Trustees, Rev. Tillotson was active in the ministry for forty-five years. In 1860 he married for his second wife, Mary Wood, a well known teacher and descendant of the Sweetzer family of Athol. He was interested in education and gave $5,000 to start a colleg- iate and normal institute in Texas for the education of the freedmen of that State, to which the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association gave his name.
Following Rev. Tillotson, Rev. B. B. Beckwith of Lyme, Con- necticut, a graduate of Williams College and a student at Yale Theological Seminary, was pastor from 1831 to 1834. Notable events of this pastorate were the building of a house of worship and a revival conducted by the Rev. Horatio Foote, an evange- list of some contemporary note. A tall, slim man, he was a plain, strong, emotional preacher, hated by some and loved enough by others to fill the church building to overflowing. His conversion of nearly sixty people in Athol awakened such opposition in others that it is said a cannon was fired near the church during services, and a stone was hurled through the window in the direction of the pulpit. Thus Athol was in tune with the rest of New England which at that time was experienc- ing a wonderful religious awakening.
(27) Rev. Henry A. Blake's "Historical Address," pub. 1880, pp. 5-10.
We can little realize the gamut of emotions at this period for mingled with religious zeal was denominational strife. Unitarians and Orthodox often met in bodily conflict. My uncle Frank has told me that he rarely got by the First Church on Sunday without getting insulted, often being pelted with mud, sods, or stones. In return he with other boys would lie in wait around the Common for the Unitarian boys to come home.
My father, too, has often mentioned the laying of the corner stone for this new church building when fights were constantly going on at the outskirts of the crowd while Rev. Mr. Foote preached from the text "They that have turned the world up- side down have come hither also."
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DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
This church building finished and dedicated in June, 1833 was designed by Joseph Parmenter of Petersham, who also built in exact duplicate the North Church at Petersham. To this day the church in Petersham remains unchanged while the Athol building has undergone several alterations. Originally the underneath part of the building was an open place into
ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 1833 - 1859 TO DATE
which wagons were often run. There were two doors at the front reached by a flight of three wooden steps. On each side of the top step were large pillars.
Entering, one came first into a narrow vestibule where stood two stoves which warmed the church by long pipes stretching to chimneys at the farther end of the house. Over this ves- tibule was a small vestry used for prayer meetings in front of which projected the singers' gallery over some of the back
129
HISTORY OF ATHOL
pews, supported in part by two pillars. From the vestibule two doors led into the auditorium on the same level. There was then no centre aisle but a double length of pews filled the middle of the house and a row of single length abutted against either side, leaving room for two aisles between the centre and side seats. Stairs led up from both sides into the boxed pul- pit. Back of the pulpit was hung a blind and over this a red damask curtain looped over a large brass knob at one side. The blinds on the outside of the house were finished in semi- circles at the top, the marks of which are still to be seen on this building. A cupola, painted black and holding the bell on which were cast the names of its six donors, surmounted the whole. With love and hard work this building was constructed by members of the church, all of the lumber being contributed and the land donated by Mr. Frederick Jones of Boston. Until the house was repaired in 1859 there hung a board in its front gable on which was painted the date of its building, 1833.
Rev. James F. Warner of Wilbraham, Massachusetts suc- ceeded Mr. Beckwith on March 4, 1835 and remained until December 18, 1837. During his ministry a small legacy of $200 for the supply of the communion table and of singing was left by General James Humphrey, Esq., the cracked bell was replaced by another, and $300 was raised by subscription towards the expense of building a new vestry to replace the original one now found to be too small. Though the old vestry was torn out, nothing further was done until later on.
One stormy week-end Rev. Warner's quick, excitable tem- perament was aroused when he expected to exchange pulpits with Dr. Sabin of Templeton. Saturday was too stormy for travel so on Sunday morning Rev. Warner made the journey to Templeton to find the good doctor still at home with no inten- tion of travelling on a Sunday to keep his engagement in Athol. At once Rev. Warner turned his horse about and in due time marched with a very firm step and a very suggesive air up the aisle of his own church. In earnest he preached from the words "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the the Sabbath," telling the whole story of the exchange. His mu- sical talents soon took him to New York City where he became a teacher of music, and never again took up the work of the ministry.
During 1838 when Rev. John D. Smith was acting pastor, the new vestry was built "in the roof of the meeting house." Space just over the auditorium was fitted up by Mr. Parmenter and there for twenty years the prayer and conference meetings of the church were held. The floor was upheld by iron rods
130
DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
fastened to the roof; a round table circled one of these rods, rude benches served for seats and two flights of stairs led up into this place to which was popularly given the name "sky parlor." In the fall of 1839 while a singing school was in ses- sion in this vestry, the floor suddenly settled due to some im- perfection in the arrangements for its support, plaster fell into the church, and for several weeks thereafter three tall, rough pine tree trunks stood in the auditorium to uphold the ceiling.
Excitement was high in the years between 1839 and 1851 when Rev. R. M. Chipman, recently of Harwington, Connecti- cut served as pastor. For the members of this church as well as other churches in Athol were aroused. Temperance Reform, Anti-Slavery, and the Millerite agitation shook the very faith of each person. The outcome-liquors, even includ- ing cider, were banned. This was too much for some twenty- nine persons who became excommunicated from the church for failure to comply. Happily, there appears no record of anyone's violating the Anti-Slavery rules. Millerism took hold for a time, gathering into its fold some Baptists and Congre- gatonalists. That story is told, however, elsewhere in this chapter.
A pastorate of great blessing to the church began on Feb- ruary 19, 1852 when the Rev. John F. Norton was called by these people as their minister. His was the longest term of service in the history of this church. It was he who wrote "Athol in Suppressing the Great Rebellion," a most complete history of our Civil War activities. In Lewis' History of Wor- cester County" he wrote the Athol chapters contributing much to our published local history. In late life he wrote a history of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire which is invaluable to that town. Born in Goshen, Connecticut on September 8, 1809 he was educated at Yale College and at East Windsor Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the ministry in 1844. He was a busy, methodical, studious, vivacious man, of a decided social nature public spirited yet conservative. A member of our School Committee in 1856 he was its Chairman when the High School opened and for six years after.
As one result of Rev. Norton's second year of service, thirty- four persons were added to the church on profession of faith. Most of these converts in the slow re-awakening of the need for a better spiritual life were women; the men, twenty-nine of them, came in the greater movement of a few years later.
The church grew not only spiritually but in 1859 was exten- sively repaired and enlarged. A committee of John F. Hum-
131
HISTORY OF ATHOL
phreys, Thomas Babbitt, Edwin Ellis, Joab Kendall, Goodell Goddard, Charles C. Bassett, and Elias Bassett was chosen to proceed with the repairs not to exceed $3,500. When the work was done by February, 1860, $6000 had been expended but the building was now a place of beauty.
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REV. JOHN F. NORTON 1892
Raised about eight feet, the building was high enough to allow the erection of the present vestry underneath. An addi- tion of about twelve feet was made on the South end, new win- dows were put in, the whole front of the church was changed, and a tall steeple built in place of the old black belfry. In- side, the pulpit platform was lowered and surmounted with a new rose-wood desk, the projection of the singers' gallery was taken down, new seats were put in, and a new carpet laid.
At the dedication Rev. Norton used as his sermon text "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have builded!" It is an interesting aside that in order to turn around and stand facing the choir during the singing, some of the ladies were forced to step out into the aisle on account of the large size of their hoops worn in obedience to the fashion of that time.
132
DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
Rev. Norton left in 1868 to become pastor of a church in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. At his death in 1892 his re- mains were brought back to Athol where he had spent the prime of his life, and here he is buried at the Highlands. He left a widow and one son, Lewis M., long a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Succeeding Rev. Norton, Rev. Temple Cutler of Skowhegan, Maine came on March 4, 1868. For eight years Mr. Cutler's vitalizing warmth nourished "the good seeds well sowed" by Rev. Norton, and he became widely loved. His thorough de- votion to his work in Athol found continual evidence while here and after was most signally proved by his work in behalf of the freeden of the south, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and later in Charleston, South Carolina. During his pastorate the vestry was lighted by gas, a set of gas chandeliers for the au- ditorium was presented by Mr. A. M. Sawyer, a fine pipe organ was placed in the singers' gallery, a silver communion service was given by Deacon Goodell Goddard, and a new communion table given by the young people. Also, forty individual mem- bers purchased and presented to the Society a parsonage.
On the thirteenth of September, 1876 Rev. Henry A. Blake, a native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, a graduate of Brown Uni- versity and just from Andover Theological Seminary, was in- stalled as minister. The historical address which he gave on the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of this church is a valuable addition to the church history of Athol. After a seven years' successful pastorate he became minister of a Church in Providence, Rhode Island and then in Webster, Massachusetts.
Rev. H. W. Stebbins, a graduate of Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary, was minister of this church for five years. His resignation, demanded by the people, which took effect on December 31, 1881 climaxed one of the most important ecclesiastical councils ever held prior to 1900 in this section of New England. This trouble regarding the pas- tor nearly divided the church.
The ninth minister, Rev. Edwin S. Gould, served in the 51st and 60th Mass. Regiments of the Civil War, had three years of newspaper work, and seventeen years in the ministry before he came to our pulpit in May, 1890.
The present stately steeple was built in 1881. Later, in 1906, the plastered walls and ceiling of this church were cov- ered with steel and stained glass memorial windows added.
133
HISTORY OF ATHOL
Shedding their rich colored light over this fine old church these ten beautiful windows are in loving memory of
Addison M. Sawyer and Family David and Sallie Goddard (Gift of Hiram Goddard)
Charles C. and Lucinda S. Bassett J. Sumner Parmenter and Edwin Ellis
Phebe Sheman Gould
Asa and Anna Hill Joab and Louisa Kendall
Samuel Clapp and James I. Goulding (Gift of Harriet E. Phelps) Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Goodspeed Gift of Junior Y. P. S. C. E.
In 1929 when another major renovation of the building was carried out, the steel walls were replaced with plaster and tint- ed glass windows put in place of the heavier stained glass. Some fourteen years before a new pipe organ had been in- stalled at the right side of the front of the church, and in 1929 new lighting fixtures and carpeting were added.
Since 1896 there have been only seven ministers, Rev. Charles O. Eames and Rev. Daniel I. Gross, D.D., both having served for fourteen years. Rev. Leonard W. Fowler, the pres- ent pastor, began his duties in December, 1945.
Rev. Edwin S. Gould
1890 - - 1896 1904
Rev. Rolla C. Bugbee
1897
Rev. Warren J. Moulton 1904 - 1905
Rev. Charles O. Eames 1905 1919
Rev. Elliott O. Foster 1919 - 1925
Rev. Benjamin A. Willmott
1925 - - 1930
Rev. Daniel I. Gross 1931 - 1945
Rev. Leonard W. Fowler
1945 - to present
Rev. Rolla G. Bugbee served the church from December 1896 to March 1904 and was succeeded in July 1904 by Rev. Warren J. Moulton who was accepted most enthusiastically by the church as well as the townspeople, but after eleven months Mr. Moulton summarily closed his pastorate and at once en- tered the teaching staff of Bangor Theological Seminary where he spent the remainder of his active life.
November 4, 1905 Rev. Charles O. Eames succeeded to the pastorate and for thirteen years served the church as its leader to be succeeded in the autumn of 1919 by Rev. Elliott O. Foster, a military Chaplain recently relieved of active service. After fourteen years service here, Mr. Eames resigned to ac- cept a pastorate over a Federated Church in Millbury, Massa- chusetts, and Rev. Benjamin A. Willmott came to the vacant
134
DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
pulpit. During the five years that Mr. Willmott remained here every department of the church prospered and it was no un- common occurrence to have the auditorium filled to its full capacity. During his term of service here Athol Rotary Club was formed and Rev. Willmott became a most beloved member of that civic body.
Reluctnatly in 1930 the church acceded to his request and dismissed Mr. Willmott from its leadership.
After much searching the church decided upon Rev. Daniel I. Gross, D.D., of Portland, Maine, as its leader and he began his duties in 1931.
Dr. Gross, like his predecessor, was beloved alike by the church and the townspeople and had not death intervened it is likely that his might well have been the longest pastorate in the church's history but he weakened under the strain and died among his people on September 30, 1945.
Only Rev. Mr. Norton and Dr. Gross of the long list of pas- tors found their last resting place in Athol's soil.
When Dr. Gross became incapacitated by illness a few months before his death, arrangements were made with Rev. Leonard W. Fowler who had been just relieved of active duty as a Navy Chaplain. Mr. Fowler was no stranger to this com- munity for he had spent much of his early life in our adjoin- ing town of Royalston. In due time the temporary arrange- ment with him ripened into an active pastorate.
Soon after assuming duties as actual pastor, Rev. Mr. Fow- ler took the leadership in a radical rearrangement of the pul- pit area in the church.
Today this church known since 1926 as the Athol Congre- gational Church, Inc., has a newly decorated auditorium and in it many precious things given by some of its members in loving memory. The Daniel I. Gross Memorial Organ, pre- sented by the people, is enhanced by the Deacon and Mrs. Oren M. Lawton Memorial Chimes, given by their children and grandchildren. Lovely and simple against a background of old colonial architecture stands the altar with its gold cross and candlesticks. Presented by their children, Barbara, Leonard and Katherine, this altar is in memory of Deacon and Mrs. Daniel P. Kimball. The cross and candlesticks were given by Mr. and Mrs. Norman W. Mackay in memory of their son, Kenneth F. Other memorials dedicated on December 19, 1948 were vases, altar Bible, pulpit, lectern, pulpit Bible, lamps, contribution plates, and upholstery.
135
HISTORY OF ATHOL
Sunday School
Without the history of the Sunday School the story of the church would be incomplete. The church school stems direct- ly from the work of one, Robert Raikes of Gloucester, England, who gathered into schools on the Sabbath all the idle and poor children whom he could find and paid women to teach them to read and to learn the church catechism. For some twenty years all Sunday School teachers were paid until the beginning of the 19th century when they did the work gratuitously. After a time the secular instruction in reading and writing and arith- metic was given over to the weekday schools and the Sunday School became one for religious instruction only.
Just when the first Sunday School started in Athol is un- known. One of the original members thought it was 1811 and Deacon Goodell Goddard said it was in 1827. But all are agreed that the beginning was made by Miss Catherine Lyman, then a day school teacher in the Bell School House that stood on the green in the centre of this village.
Deacon Elijah Goddard, born on Chestnut Hill in 1771 and elected deacon of the old First Church in 1807, was Superin- tendent until the division of the Society in 1830. Of interest is the fact that after the Church School opened in this, the newly formed Evangelical Congregational Church, about one- half of the members were over eighteen years of age, due quite possibly to the fact that the separation was made on ac- count of the faithfulness of the church to the great teachings of the Bible.
Immediately after the separation Deacon Elijah Ballard be- came Superintendent, followed during the next thirty-three years by Deacon Samuel Sweetser, Mr. Lewis Thorpe, Mr. Cal- vin Kendall, and Deacon James I. Goulding, the latter serving for fifteen of those years.
MINISTERS
Rev. Mr. George J. Tillotson
1830 (3 months)
Rev. B. B. Beckwith
6- 8-1831 - -11-11-1834
Rev. James F. Warner
3- 4-1835 - 12-18-1837
Rev. John D. Smith-Acting pastor
3- 1-1838 - 3- 1-1839
8-15-1839 - 12-23-1851 Rev. Richard Manning Chipman
Rev. John F. Norton
3-17-1852 3-11-1867
Rev. Temple Cutler
3- 4-1868 4-19-1876
Rev. Henry A. Blake
9-13-1876 5- 1-1883
Rev. H. W. Stebbins
9- 1-1883 12- 3-1888
Rev. Edwin S. Gould
5-18-1890 7-1896
Rev. Rolla G. Bugbee
12-16-1896 3-1904
Rev. Warren J. Moulton
9- 1-1904 8-1905
136
DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
Rev. Charles O. Eames
11- 4-1905 10-1919 1-1925 1919
Rev. Elliott O. Foster
Rev. Benjamin A. Willmott
925 - 12-14-1930
Rev. Daniel I. Gross, D.D.
2-1931 9-30-1945
Rev. Leonard W. Fowler
12- 9-1945
To present
South Athol Church 1831
The Town of New Salem in the first two decades of the nineteenth century was not only the most populous town in Franklin County but the largest town geographically. Grad-
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SOUTH ATHOL METHODIST CHURCH 1834 -
137
HISTORY OF ATHOL
ually its territory has been taken to make a part of the Town of Prescott, to be added to Orange, and finally a considerable area joined to Athol. This easterly section which became a part of Athol in 1837 is an area where a considerable village grew up prior to its annexation to our town.
One of the incidents in its development was the organiza- tion on December 12, 1831 of a Methodist Church. In 1836 the present church building at South Athol was erected and from that time to the present day the history of this church has been an unbroken one. Never large in membership it has been an essential part in the development of that portion of our town.
For a goodly number of years we had a rather complete list of pastors, but in recent years the pulpit has been supplied by Morgan Memorial proteges and by part-time service connect- ing it at times with North Dana, and at other times with North Prescott and with Orange.
Recently the activities of the Morgan Memorial Cooperative Industries and Stores, located in that village, have overshad- owed the work of this church, but the church has continued to supplement the activity of that charity.
Morgan Memorial
Henry Morgan, a child of the poor, early learned from his mother a watchword of hope which served as a talisman through his life of service. "Never too poor to pray. Never too weak to win." Those words uttered by Rev. Henry Mor- gan's mother burned in his mind and were the foundation of the Morgan Memorial work all over the world, including South Athol.
In 1907 the first section of the South Athol Farm was given to Morgan Memorial by Hannah Parker Kimball to be used by the underprivileged and handicapped in Boston's South End tenements. Since that time twenty-nine camps and buildings have been erected on this farm and enough land added to make about 760 acres given over to the benefit of those children, men, and women who need vacations away from city heat. In 1948 a new camp, the most modern and best equipped of all, was built for forty boys.
Besides the camps in South Athol are the Goodwill Work- shops, which comprise a small Rug and Blanket Factory, Canning Factory, Toy Shop, and the Mineral Water Bottling
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DENOMINATIONS EVOLVE
Plant. Income from the sale of these Golden and Pale Dry Ginger Ales helps to support these Fresh Air Camps.
On May 30, 1938 this Rural Goodwill Industry Plant was completely destroyed by fire, seriously curtailing the program. Another factor also temporarily affected the output, for dur- ing the years of World War II the industrial program there was drastically curtailed because of the shortage of labor and the employment of workers in War industry.
Today the work of the Morgan Memorial Cooperative Indus- tries and Stores in South Athol goes forward providing work for many including the sick and the aged who must be paid more than they can actually earn. This consideration saves them from worry, inspires them to an independent life, and compels belief that practical Christianity is still in the world.
Millerism 1843
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