USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 2 > Part 36
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The town meeting January 2d, 1792, took another view and refused to join with Nathaniel Kellogg, Nathan Warner, James Wing, Caleb Goff, Nathan Webb, Jared Foote, Charles Babcock, Amasa Frost, and Nehemiah Frost in a petition to the Legislature for a committee to locate the meeting house, and determine whether any part of the inhabitants ought to be set off to other towns. Several of the petitioners were or afterward became Methodists. In April there was no better success, and it was voted neither to remove the frame of the meeting house from the site where it had been erected under an early vote, nor to cover it.
In 1792, three town warrants were issued of an inexplicable charac- ter, unless they can be regarded elephantine practical jokes engendered by the local feuds of the day. In June the constable was ordered to warn some fifty citizens that they "depart the limits of the town within fifteen days, with their children and all others dependent upon them : they having lately, to-wit, since the 10th day of April, 1767, come into town for the purpose of abiding there, not having obtained the consent of the town." One of the persons warned out was " Abijah Parks, Gen- tleman," who signed the warrant himself in his official capacity as chair- man of the selectmen. Among the others were Eliphaler Chamberlin, Gent., one of the first board of selectmen, Major John Wiley, Gent .. Gladding Waterman, merchant, John Wright, physician, Benjamin Chamberlin, Gent., the wife of Robert Wiley, Chloe Isaacs, spinster, and Amos Smith, gentleman. and a long list of yeomen, husbandmen, and mechanics. The other lists were of a similar character One of them
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contained the name of William Williams, Esq., who gravely and without comment signed both the warrant for his own banishment and the record of the constables' return of its dne service. The persons warned were as a rule the most substantial citizens of the town, although some were of another class, and the women may have been included for the sake of giving poignancy to the satire. Nobody went out of town under the order.
Having relieved itself by this pleasantry, if pleasantry it was, the town now addressed itself seriously to the meeting house business, and on the 30th of December, 1793, requested three non-residents, Hon. Thompson J. Skinner, of Williamstown, Ebenezer Pierce, of Peru. and Nathaniel Kingsley, of - to fix a place for a meeting house, and appropriated £12 to defray the cost of their arbitrament. On the 3d of February, 1794, the committee reported that the house ought to be built where the frame still stood. They say that " they had given the matter all the attention which its importance demanded, believing that the polit- ical prosperity of the people of the town, and their children in a state of society here, and their prospects of future bliss in a state infinitely more permanent and important, depend in a measure upon a happy and cor- dial reconciliation of their present divisions upon this subject." They admit that "at the first view the location struck them as very disagree- able, as it must others on a cursory view ; but," they continue, " con- sidering that one half the inhabitants of the town must pass by the place, that a considerable number south favor it, that one of the southern ex- tremities would be but little benefitted by an alteration ; and that, although the other southern corner [afterward set off to Hinsdale] was not so well provided, yet being settled with a small number, their inter- ests must be surrendered to the public good in a state of society, it led to the foregoing result. . We are sensible that as to thein an exertion of patriotism and virtue is necessary." "In hope that they may possess this and every other virtue of the human mind," the committee submit their report. The eloquence of the referees was sufficient to induce the town to vote £70 to cover and enclose the house, build a porch to it, and lay the floors. Samuel Wiley, Daniel Morrison, and Calvin Sprague were the building committee.
The location thus fixed was in what is now the South Burial Ground, near Craneville, where Mr. John Chamberlin, a few years since, found the foundations still remaining near the receiving tomb. The first town meeting in the new meeting house was held December 15th, 1794. Al- though it was voted to finish the house that year the meeting refused to raise a tax for that purpose, and voted that the means should be raised by the sale of " pew ground." Abraham Porter, Eliphalet Chamberlin, and William Williams were appointed to lay out the ground and sell the lots. On the 5th of January, 1795, the committee reported that they had laid out the floor of the house as follows, there being twenty-two pews :
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
"One pew east of the pulpit nine feet long and six and half feet deep: one west of the pulpit seven feet long and four and a half feet deep; four wall pews at each corner, ten feet by four; three on each side between there and the corners eight and a quarter by four feet; eight body pews seven and a half feet by six; ten feet by six and a half for the pulpit, the pulpit stairs and the Deacons' seat; two seats fronting the body pews two feet and three-quarters deep, and the following alleys: one through the center of the house five feet wide, one on each side of the body pews three feet wide, one next the wall pews at the south end three and a half feet wide; one fronting the Deacons' seat and the pews at the north end four feet wide."
The meeting voted that every purchaser of a pew on the floor of the house should be obliged to take in an associate or associates until it have the number of adults specified in the report, which number shall be con- sidered as filling the pew, until such time as the circumstances of the town shall render it necessary to increase it, which the town shall have a right to do, leaving the proprietor a right to choose his associates. The sale then proceeded by auction, with the following result, which will give some idea of the social relations of the time. We give first the price of the lot upon which the purchaser was to build his own pew, next the name of the proprietor, and then his associates :
! No. 1, 856 ; Capt. Eliphalet Chamberlin, Capt. Abijah Parks, Lient. Nathaniel Kellogg. Absalom Porter.
No. 2, 837 ; Daniel Day. Charles Day, Jedediah Cleaveland.
No. 3, 833 : Daniel Boardman, sen., Lieut. Andrew Shepard, William Waterman Cady.
No. 4, 830 ; Benjamin Gallup, Rufus Cady, Aaron Fuller, William Walter Walker.
No. 5, 828 ; Calvin Sprague, Martin Chamberlin.
No. 7, 861.50 ; Henry Marsh. Israel Peck, Daniel Boardman, jr.
No. 8, 855 ; Gladding Waterman, William Williams, Esq., William Hale.
: 4%
No. 9, 824; Jesse Merriman, Luther Gallup, Nathaniel Merriman.
No. 10, $21; Justin Cole, Jonathan Bassett.
No. 11. $45 ; Lieut. Benjamin Chamberlin, Joseph Chamberlin, En- sign Benjamin Chamberlin.
No. 12, $45 ; Daniel Merriman, William Ensign, Enos Blossom.
No. 13, 813 ; Major John Wiley, Isaiah Farnam.
No. 14, $17; Major John Wiley, Ephraim Newell, Samuel Wiley.
No. 15, $35 and 5 shillings : David Lawrence, Amos Spafford, Daniel Chamberlin.
No. 16, $37.50 : Oliver Smith. Capt. Amos Smith. Samuel Wiley.
No. 17, 817 ; Abraham Stockwell, Henry Cleveland, Elijah Curtis, and the Widow Lydia Dwight.
No. 18, 813.50 ; William Cleveland, William Bassett, Nathan Bassett.
No. 19, $17 and one shilling ; Amasa Day, Ebenezer Russ, Micha Russell.
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TOWN OF DALTON.
No. 20, $16; Amos Smith, William Cleveland, William Watkins, Jonathan Hovey.
No. 21. $17 and one shilling ; Ephriham Bennett, Matthew Birchard, Otis Bicknell.
No. 22, 818, four shillings, and six pence; Job Bestow, Frederick Curtiss, Amos Nichols, Nathaniel Hill.
With the means furnished by this sale, the first meeting house in Dalton was finished. The outcome of the long wrangle was a plain small house of worship, in a disagreeable location, where services were held for a few years, and town meetings also. But it did not bring peace, to the latter at least.
The second school ward, where the dissatisfaction was the strongest, increased in population, and also in discontent. Rev. Theodore Hins- dale, who had recently been honorably dismissed from a church in Windsor. Connecticut, bought a farm in this ward, to which he removed in May, 1795. He "found his new plantation all out of order," and gave a good deal of time at first to " putting things to rights," which, being a man of sufficient means and no little energy, he probably found little difficulty in doing. especially as he had a son quite able to second his ef- forts, and supply his place when he was otherwise engaged. This was not infrequently, as he considered the gospel ministry to be his proper work. and all other affairs as comparatively trivial. The desire con- stantly expressed in his diary is for employment in this work. Many days are recorded in which he devoted himself exclusively to the study of religious works and writing upon religious subjects. He adhered to the orthodox Congregational faith of the day, and regarded the rejection of the doctrine of preordination or election by the Methodists, and some of the dogmas of the Baptist creed to be dangerous heresies. The unedu- cated ministry, which was common at that time, he regarded with pecu- liar disfavor. On the first Sunday after his arrival in town he listened to one of this class by the name of Hubbell, of whom he says: "He has not had a liberal education, but says he received an approbation and license as a candidate from ministers in Hampshire county. He seems to aim at being an orator without a good understanding of his mother tongue, without clear ideas, and without imbibing any other knowledge of the gospel than a system of morality." Mr. Hinsdale's desire for clerical employment was largely gratified. Although he never again be- came a "settled minister," he sometimes acted as "stated supply." and often temporarily at Charlemont, Bethlehem (now a part of Otis), and at home.
A few weeks after his settlement a committee of the Legislature. consisting of Judge Bacon, of Stockbridge, Nathaniel Bishop, Esq .. of Richmond, and " Esq. Taylor," of Buckland in the District of Maine, went to Dalton to enquire into the propriety of granting the petition of the inhabitants of the second school ward, with a portion of those in the west part of Partridgefield, to be incorporated as a town or parish. Op-
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
position was made by committees both from Dalton and Partridgefield, but in accordance with the report of the committee, the new parish was incorporated. Mr. Hinsdale was the leading speaker before the commit- tee in favor of the measure.
From this time the church history of this ward belongs practically to that of Hinsdale, of which it was the germ. In 1799 the town of Dalton, having relinquished its opposition, voted to petition the Legisla- ture to annex this ward to Partridgefield, and in 1800, that they would " prosecute and pursue this object to the next General Court." They did so, and all parties persevered until the parish was, in 1804, made the town of. Hinsdale, taking 2,500 acres of land and a considerable popula- tion from Dalton.
The Congregational church of Dalton was organized February 16th, 1785, but as the consent of the church and town was required in the set- tlement of a pastor, the latter determining and paying the salary, it was long before a minister was settled, an additional hindrance probably being that the first settled minister was not entitled by law to the consid- erable portion of land which became his in fee in most of the neighboring towns. We have already stated the case of Rev. Mr. Paige. Generally there was a vote of £20 to $24 annually to hire preaching. In 1795 the town, having obtained its meeting house, invited Rev. James Thomson to become its pastor, at a salary of £20 and 30 cords of wood annually; but afterward reconsidered the vote concerning the wood, as the burden would fall unequally on the inhabitants. The difficulty was, however, remedied by voluntary subscriptions, and Mr. Thomson was installed in March. In November the town purchased Pew No. 2 in the meeting house for the use of the pastor's family, paying $25 for it. Goldsmith makes his model village parson " passing rich with forty pounds a year." Considering that the American pound was worth little more than three fifths of the pound sterling, Rev. Mr. Thomson, even with firewood and pew rent added. could hardly be considered "passing rich " on twenty pounds, or about sixty-six dollars a year. fle only enjoyed this affluence until 1799, when he was dismissed. He appears not to have invested any large surplus of his earnings in the real estate of the county ; possibly did not retain as much of it as in the form of dust adhered to his de- parting feet.
. From 1799 to 1802 there was no settled pastor ; but, nothwithstand- ing the controversies between the mass of the town and the section of which he was a prominent leader, Mr. Hinsdale was engaged as minister for one year and a half and often officiated during the rest of the period.
Rev. Ebenezer Jennings was ordained pastor September 8th, 1802. Mr. Jennings was born in Windsor, Conn., in September. 1778, graduated at Williams College in 1800, and studied theology with Rev. Dr. Lathrop. of West Springfield. He was eccentric, witty, an independent thinker, and "singularly original in style and manner as a preacher." His pas- torate fell in an important and stirring period of the history of the coun-
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try and of the State. It was also one of much controversy in religious affairs, both as to creeds and the relations of the Church to the State, or the State to the Church. Mr. Jennings was a federalist in politics and, at first at least, a strong supporter of the orthodox Congregational faith and policy. In their support he said some pretty sharp things ; but he ap- pears, nevertheless, to have been a favorite of his opponents, and it was not his controversial acts which led to the termination of his pastorate in 1834. It is of tradition that, commencing his pastoral life with very or- thodox teachings, he gradually, without formally renouncing any of the tenets of his creed, ceased to preach, at least as vigorously as was desired, the doctrines of preordination and eternal punishment, and it began to be suspected that he doubted their truth. There is no evidence of any such doubt in his mind, and as he remained in town as an active member of the church until his death in 1850, the presumption is that he had none.
The true cause of his resignation was this : A little before 1834, the success of Rer. Mr. Nettleton, an eloquent "evangelist," raised up a class of imitators, who went from town to town manufacturing "re- vivals of religion." Rev. Dr. Humphrey wrote of them that "they generally insist upon taking the reins for the time being out of the hands of the ministers, and by so doing have unsettled many pastors; weakened and divided many churches." They insisted on extraordi- nary means for alarming the unconverted, and their supporters were there- fore called new measure men. One of these evangelists, a Mr. Foote from Albany, created a great furore in Berkshire county a little before 1834, with no good results. At Pittsfield, he divided the church, and caused the resignation of the pastor, Rev. Mr. Yeomans. Mr. Jennings cannot be accused of any remissness in spiritual work ; for in 1829 he records that there had been, during his pastorate "three spiritual refreshing's," the most extensive being in 1827, when it was "believed that fifty ob- tained a hope in Christ." Immediately after this awakening it was ascertained that nearly one half the people of Dalton were professors of religion. Still, Mr. Jennings was not a man to have the reins taken out of his hands " for the time being," by any evangelist, and he resigned once for all. The pastors who succeeded Mr. Jennings were : Rev. Harvey Boice, 1835-41 ; Rev. Thomas A. Hall, 1841-47 ; Rev. Oliver M. Sears, 1847-53 (Mr. Sears is the only pastor of the church who died while in office); Rev. Timothy Hazen, 1854-59 (He now resides in Lee without a pastoral charge); Rev. Edson L. Clark, November 30th, 1859, to March 11th, 1867 (now pastor in Southampton. Mass.); Rev. Richard Storrs Billings, July 27th, 1871, to July 16th, 1878 (now acting pastor in Somerville, Conn.); Rev. William R. Terret, December 1st, 1880, to No- vember 5th, 1881 (now pastor of a Presbyterian church at Saratoga Springs). Rev. W. E. Russell acted from May, 1832, to May, 1883, with- out being installed pastor. He is now professor of Biblical Theology in
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
the Yale Theological Seminary. Rev. G. W. Andrews became acting pastor in October, 1883, and still holds that position.
The deacons since 1834 have been : Varnum Holden, elected 1835 ; Zenas Crane, 1839 ; Alpheus Brown and Benjamin F. Pierce, 1845 ; Thom- as Darling, 1850; Abel Kittredge, 1873, reelected 1884; John D. Carson, 1884.
All the pastors have manifested character and ability, and have been well supported by the deacons. The church has flourished and it has a present membership of 145.
The traveler looking from the car windows on the Boston and Al- bany Railroad, as he passes through Dalton, admiring its succession of paper mills, and the beauty of the scenery, is attracted from them to the fine old meeting house, the best of its class which he will see on his route, and which its proprietors have had the good taste not to modern- ize, but toretain in all its old fashioned architectural beauty. This meet- ing house was built in 1812. but not until after much controversy as to its location, although the disturbing Second Ward had become a part of Hinsdale before the question was agitated In 1807 the town voted to re- move the old meeting house to the site where the present one stands ; and where Nathaniel Hovey had offered an acre of land for a site ; but the re- moval was not made. In 1810 it was voted to build a new house on the land offered by Mr. Hovey, and to tax the inhabitants $1,600, to be paid in materials for it. The old succession of conflicting votes and references to committees from abroad followed, but the church was finally complet- ed in 1812, the builder being John Dickerson, of Pittsfield, and the build- ing committee, John Chamberlin, jr., Calvin Waldo, Nathaniel Merri- man, Major Solomon K. Chamberlin. Daniel Boardman, and Abraham Porter. This was during the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Jennings, and tradi- tion preserves a couplet regarding it, in which the pastor "met his match," and without which no old Daltonian would consider the history of the town complete. The roof of the church is more flat than was usual and the steeple higher. Nathan Torrey, " the peasant-bard," of Hinsdale, and author of the famous ballad of "The Pesky Sarpint that bit the youth's heel on Springfield Mountain," was asked by Mr. Jen- nings for a verse to celebrate the erection of the church, and he gave this :
" Flat roof, tall steeple, Blind guide. ignorant people."
Mr. Jennings was certainly not a blind guide, nor were the people of Dalton ignorant ; but the jingle of the rhyme struck the popular fancy wonderfully, and it never escaped the memory of any Daltonians of the old time.
In 1786 Deacon William Williams obtained from his father, Col. Israel Williams, and Deacon Obadiah Dickinson. both of Hatfield, the gift to the town of Lots 53 and 54, embracing 284 acres of land. for the use of the Congregational church and society. In the year 1808, by
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TOWN OF DALTON.
permission of the Legislature, these lots were sold to Lemuel Pomeroy, of Pittsfield, for 81.500. In 1810 the town voted to appropriate this money for the building of a meeting house ; but finally that was done by tax, and the money received from the sale was used in buying a farm of seventy acres near the meeting house and building upon it a convenient parsonage, which, kept in good repair and improved, is still in use.
In the year 1788 or 1789 Rev. Samuel Smith preached the first Meth- odist sermon which was ever heard in Dalton or its vicinity. Mr. Smith was an itinerant minister in the Albany circuit, which in its immense ter- ritory included Berkshire county. In the southwest corner of Dalton and the southeast corner of Pittsfield there has long been what is known as the Tracy School District, the school being maintained jointly by the two towns. It is remote from town centers, but its inhabitants have always been people of intelligence and religious character. This district has the honor of being the birthplace of Methodism in Central and Northern Berkshire. Mr. Smith's sermon was preached at the house of Zebulon Herrick, which stood very nearly in the southeastern corner of Dalton and close to the Pittsfield line. The appointment was continued at the house of Mr. Herrick until the ensuing fall, when it was changed to that of Nathan Webb, about a third of a mile farther west, but in Pittsfield. There it continued for several years, and until a separate appointment was made for Dalton. Soon after the first sermon a class was formed, which included residents of both towns. In the meantime meetings began to be held and a class was formed in the center of the town, where it re- ceived the valuable aid of Martin Chamberlin, who had become disaffected with the standing order. Mr. Chamberlin entertained the itinerant clergy, generously insisting that they should make his house their home when-
ever they came to town. Meetings were held at his house in winter, and his cider mill is famous in tradition as the ordinary place of meeting at other seasons. Those meetings are remembered with delight by those who in their youth took part in them, and it is told with pride that a formal ticket, certifying that the holder was a member of the church, in good and regular standing, was required for admission to the love feasts in the old mill. Everything was done Method-istically ; nothing without method, or disorderly.
. In May, 1804, "The Methodist Religious Society of Pittsfield. Han- cock, Dalton, and Washington" was incorporated with the following members :
Gideon Allen, Loyal W. Allen, David Ashley. jr., Allen Barnes, Sol- omon Clark, John Clark, Seth Coe. John Dighton. Oliver Fuller. Ira Gaylord, Robert Green, Leonard Goff. Enoch Hubbard. Elisha Hubbard. Zadock Hubbard, Thomas Hubbard, Malcolm Henry, Nathaniel Hubbard. jr .. Joshua Luce, Richard Osborn, William Powers, William Roberts, Edward Roberts, sen .. Edward Roberts, jr., Aaron Roberts, Aaron Root. Amasa Smith, Samuel Stanton, Nicholas Stanton, Eliphalet Stevens.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Jonathan Stowe, Lobbeus Webb, Nathan Webb, sen., John Ward, Joshua Whitney, Joseph Ward, and Josiah Wright, with their families and estates.
The Legislature, during the same and next ensuing sessions, passed three acts supplementary to the act of incorporation and favorable to the new society ; providing, among other things, that persons having once- become members should continue so until they had taken the prescribed measures for dissolving their connection. Our information in regard to the history of this society is imperfect. Its charter may have lapsed, for at a date much later than 1804 the cattle of Martin Chamberlin were - seized and sold for the tax assessed upon him for the support of the town minister, which he refused to pay. But on the other hand, Mr. Cham- berlin may have refused or neglected to take the steps prescribed by the law to relieve himself of the liability, or the society may have neglected for a time to maintain a minister, as required by the statute.
Meetings, however, continued to be held in the school house which stood on the lot now occupied by the town hall. Rev. Morris Raynor first preached there. Others followed him, the most noted being Rev. Billy Hibbard, who was appointed on the Pittsfield circuit in 1813, and served for two years, except a few months while he was chaplain of the Berkshire regiment which went to the defense of Boston. For one year, at least, he preached every alternate Sunday afternoon at Dalton, receiv- ing for his services $50, which was raised by subscription : the subscribers being relieved by law from their tax for the support of the Congrega- tional minister. Mr. Hibbard preached often at Dalton, both before and after this appointment. He was one of the most notable men in the his- tory of the county and of his church.
Until 1840 Dalton was only a society in the large circuit to which it belonged, and we have no list of its ministers, but it must have been well supplied, as in 1834 the society had grown so as to be able to build a church edifice at a cost of 81,400. Griffin Chamberlin took the contract, but the builder was Charles Marsh. The church was remodelled in 1850, and again in 1869, so that it became a handsome and convenient build- ing, with the necessary class and lecture rooms. Rev. T. D. Thompson, a local preacher, and also a carpenter, worked as a day laborer in build- ing the church, remodelled it by days' works in 1850, and he is said to have lost $500 by contracting to rebuild it in 1869. A parsonage was built by subscription, Henry Chamberlin giving the lot, which he esti- mated to be equal in value to the cash subseribtions of either David Car- son or John Chamberlin, who gave $250 each. Capt. 1. L. Chamberlin gave $150.
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