History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 43

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 43

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" Voted, That Mr. John Burt take the contribution money that shall be given in the said three months

towards supporting the scholar that shall preach to us, and be accountable to the town for it."

" Voted, To build a meeting-house in our said town of Berkley, forty feet long, thirty-four feet broad, and eighteen feet stud."

"Voted, That John Burt give the dimensions, and appraise and approve of all timber for our said meet- ing-house when good."

"Toted. That Gershom Crane, John Paull, Joseph Burt, and John Burt, under John Burt, procure the timber, divide the work, and proportion it among the inhabitants equally [equitably], and that each man who labors on said meeting-house shall be allowed four shillings per day, and lads or boys proportion- ally, as the committee shall see fit."

The town-meetings relating to the settlement of Mr. Tobey as pastor and the completion of the meet- ing-house were held as follows, viz. :

" March 8, 1736. Voted, To pay Mr. Samuel Tobey forty pounds for serving in the ministry one-half year, he finding his own board."

" Aug. 3, 1736. Voted, To give Mr. Samuel Tobey one hundred pounds in bills of credit, such as passeth between man and man, or silver at twenty-six shillings per ounce, annually, so long as he, the said Tobey, continueth in the work of the ministry in our town." " Sept. 27, 1736. Voted, That the assessors of our town of Berkley forthwith assess or make a tax of three hundred pounds for Mr. Tobey,-two hundred pounds for his settlement, and one hundred pounds for his salary this present year."

" Voted, That Elkanah Babbitt, Gershom Crane, John Paull, Abiel Atwood, and Abel Burt be a com- mittee to let out our meeting-house as cheaply as they can to finish after a decent and comely fashion or manner."

" Voted, To raise six hundred pounds on our said town, to enable the committee which was chosen to finish said meeting-house."

REV. SAMUEL TOBEY .- Berkley became a distinct town in 1735, as has been already stated, and two years subsequently a church was organized with Rev. Samuel Tobey as the pastor. Mr. Tobey was a native of Sandwich, Mass., and a graduate of Harvard Col- lege, of the class of 1733. He was ordained Nov. 23, 1737, he being but twenty-five years old. His ministry continued until the time of his death, Feb. 13, 1781, a period of nearly forty-four years. Notwithstanding Mr. Tobey kept the church records with the greatest fidelity, there are none of his manuscripts that have been preserved, nor is it known that he ever pub- lished any of his writings.

The year following his ordination Mr. Tobey was married to Bathsheba Crocker, a daughter of Timothy Crocker, of Barnstable. Twelve children were the result of this union, of whom the two youngest, Paul and Silas, were twins.

A local historian, Rev. Enoch Sanford, at the pres- ent writing a nonogenarian, who had seen several

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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

persons who had sat under Mr. Tobey's preaching, wrote of him thus,-

" As a preacher, he was not brilliant, but grave and honest in declaring what he believed true and essen- tial. As a 'master of assemblies,' he was firm and impartial. He was of a full countenance, and un- commonly engaging in his person and manners. All revered him as a man of eminent abilities and of great common sense and unaffected appearance. The children not only revered but loved him, especially when he came into the schools and talked to them as a father. He seemed to regard all the people not only as his flock, but as his children.

"' Even children followed with endearing wile, And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile.'

" The structure of his sermons was formal, according to the manner of ministers of that time, who made many divisions of their subjects. His style was open, and so plain that the unlearned could understand and remember the truths uttered. In his devotional ex- ercises in the pulpit he was somewhat formal, using nearly the same expressions in many of his prayers. That he was edifying and attractive to the common people is evident from the fact that he was highly esteemed in his deportment and public services for nearly three generations."

REV. THOMAS ANDROS .- After an interim of six years, during which the pulpit was variously sup- plied, Rev. Thomas Andros, of Norwich, Conn., was ordained in 1788, March 19th, and for forty-seven years occupied the pulpit, at the end of which time, admonished by waning strength and the existence of differences that time had developed in the church and society, he asked for and received a formal dis- missal from his pastoral charge, and retired, not to a life of idleness, but, on the contrary, to the end of his days was an active worker in all the great reforma- tory movements of the day. His early life having been passed amid hardships and privations, he fully appreciated and estimated the value of those advan- tages he failed to possess or enjoy, and he worked faithfully to increase an interest in popular educa- tion in the town, and gave an impetus to it whose in- fluence was undoubtedly permanent and lasting. The Taunton Association of Ministers, on the occasion of his death, said of him, " Mr. Andros was an eminent example of self-taught men, a warm patron of edu- cation, and a deeply-interested friend of the rising generation. As a preacher, he held high rank; as a pastor, he was affectionate, laborious, and untiring in interest, both for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his people, to whom he ministered for more than forty years."

The early life of Mr. Andros was an eventful one. He lost his father in his childhood, and consequently upon his mother devolved the care and responsibility of rearing and educating four children in compara. tively straitened circumstances. They removed to

Plainfield, Conn., in the vicinity of which her rela- tives resided. There being few or no public schools in that day, and means being limited, it may readily be inferred that the advantages of mental culture enjoyed by Mr. Andros were small indeed. To a son of Mr. Andros is the writer indebted for the narration of the following thrilling events of his personal his- tory :

" At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war in 1775, though but a youth of sixteen years, he was the first to enroll himself as a soldier in the Continental service, and shortly after joined the American army, then encamped at Cambridge. After the evacuation of Boston, he was engaged in the battles of Long Island and White Plains, and under Gen. Sullivan was engaged in the conflict at Butt's Hill. In 1781 he enlisted on board a private armed vessel, but his cruise was destined to be a short one, for they were captured by an English frigate and condemned to the 'old Jersey prison-ship' in New York Harbor. In a manner singularly providential he succeeded in effecting his escape, and after suffering incredible hardships and innumerable perils, finally reached the home of his mother.

" A severe illness prostrated him for many months after his self-restoration to liberty and home, his recovery from which was well-nigh miraculous. It was probably this near approach to death, by which the doors of the future world were, as it were, opened wide before him, that fixed his subsequent career, and led him to dedicate the remainder of his life to the work of his Redeemer."

After recovering his health he devoted himself for several years to a careful preparation for the ministry under the Rev. Joel Benedict, of Plainfield, Conn., and received his first call to fill the pulpit at Berkley made vacant by the death of Rev. Samuel Tobey. To give a lengthy dissertation upon the merits of Mr. Andros would far exceed the limit and object of this work, the design of which is general rather than per- sonal history, but a few words more may not be amiss to illustrate as far as may be the superior ability of this man, who for half a century was a leading spirit in the locality under consideration.

Mr. Andros, though in the main adhering to the views inculcated by the most eminent New England divines of that period, was notwithstanding an inde- pendent thinker. Quoting from Mr. Sanford again, "He never preached that Christ made atonement by his death for the elect only, and not for all mankind ; or that justifying faith consists in one's believing that his sins are forgiven, and that he is one of the saved ; or that man, in regeneration, is as passive as a child in being born into the world : or that man is unable to repent ; or that no mere man, since the fall, is able perfectly to keep the divine commands. He is remem- bered never to have believed or preached that the sin of the first man is imputed to all his posterity, and that in him all sinned, and that each brings sin enough

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into the world to subject him to the loss of heaven. Neither did he preach that Christ's righteousness is made over or transferred to believers, but rather that he teaches us how we may acquire the righteousness which is acceptable by faith and good works. He strenuously enforced that men have the power of choice, are responsible for their moral acts; that no divine agency operates in men to harden or tempt them to sin, but rather to restrain them from it."

As a patriot and politician, he never hesitated to be pronounced in his opinions, and it was questioned by his friends whether his strong partisanship was not too strong for one who occupied so public a position, and whether the judicious use of some finesse on his part would not have proven "the better part of wis- dom." His Thanksgiving and Fast-day sermons were usually political ones, and especially attractive to those who agreed with him, as well as to those who held opposite views. In one of that ilk he took occasion to speak of Mr. Jefferson in the following denunciatory language : "He is the object of my soul's most implacable abhorrence." It is but just, however, to say that in after-life he acknowledged his misconception of Mr. Jefferson's religious and poli- tical views, and actually joined the party of which the author of the Declaration of Independence was the founder and acknowledged exponent. Too favorable a notice cannot be made of the influence he exerted upon the cause of education, both with reference to the common schools, of which he was an avowed friend and defender, and also to the higher branches, in which he had many private classes and pupils. In his daily walks of life he exerted a strong influence upon the generations already risen to adult age, he fully indorsing the aptness of Pope's memorable epigram,-

" Men must be taught as though you taught them not, And things unknown proposed as things forgot."

He also examined teachers for public schools, and drew about him a corps of teachers whose acquire- ments and ability to impart knowledge were un- equaled in those days and rarely surpassed in these.

During Mr. Andros' ministry a circumstance oc- curred which will illustrate his native shrewdness. A master-mariner living near the line of Berkley, in Taunton, who had come from a trip to Albany, ' " beat" up to Grassy Island, then meeting a " head tide," anchored his vessel, went on shore, intending to walk home, a distance of two miles. Passing by a clump of bushes, a hen fluttered out, announcing in unmistakable language the presence of her nest. Examination of the spot disclosed a newly-laid egg, upon which the sailor transcribed "Woe to the in- habitants of Barkly." The writer of this minatory prophecy had procured in Albany a graphite pencil, a thing almost unknown in those days. The egg was warm and moist, the plumbago united chemically with the shell, and so intimately as to be apparently a part of it. The owner of the hen, a pious lady,

was horrified when, upon gathering up her eggs at night, she found the one already alluded to, and in perfect consternation took it to Mr. Andros, hoping he might explain the calamity it appeared to portend. The minister shut his eyes closely, as was his wont, and said, " It was not the Lord's doings, for He would have known how to spell Berkley." This ready an- swer quieted her fears ..

Mr. Andros represented his town twice in the Leg- islature after he retired from active ministerial service. His last sermon was preached the 5th of October, 1845, and the following December 30th he died from the re- sult of a succession of apoplectic attacks.

He was twice married, first to Miss Abigail Cutler, and after her death to Miss Sophia Sanford. The former had nine children and the latter eight. Five of his sons were master-mariners, and made many foreign voyages. Another son, the late R. S. S. An- dros, was a well-known New England writer and poet. Another son, Milton Andros, is at present a distinguished attorney-at-law in the State of Califor- nia. Descendants of other members of his family still attest to the wide-spread influence of this man, whom the writer deems the one of all others whose life gave a coloring to the affairs of this town of Berk- ley, both educational and spiritual, and without whose brief personal history a methodical record of the im- portant events which concern this town could not be written.

The next settled minister was the Rev. Ebenezer Poor, of Danvers, Mass. His pastorate was about two years in duration. He was esteemed an interesting preacher. He was succeeded by Rev. J. U. Parsons, who was installed in 1838 and dismissed in 1840. He was the author of a series of school readers and some religious works. In 1842, Rev. Charles Chamberlain, formerly tutor in Brown University, was ordained as the successor of Mr. Parsons, and resigned his charge in 1844. Since that time the pulpit has successively been supplied by Rev. Messrs. Eastman, Gould, Gay, Richardson, Craig, Smith, Lothrop, Davis, Babcock, Bessom, Barney, Chamberlain, and Parker.

This society-the Congregational-now occupies the third meeting-house, all of which houses have occupied the same and to many a sacred spot. It is a large and well-arranged house and in good condition. Adjacent to the meeting-house is a neat and attrac- tive parsonage, having a desirable location. This so- ciety is in a very healthy condition financially, the annual rent of the pews and the income of the " min- isterial fund" placing the society above pecuniary anxiety.

In 1848 a division in the Congregational Church and Society occurred from causes which it would be unprofitable to lift the veil of oblivion from now. Some twenty members of the church and a number of the society withdrew and organized the "Trini- tarian Congregational Society in Berkley," March 1, 1848, and built a comfortable house called the

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"Chapel." Rev. L. R. Eastman was the first pastor, commencing his pastorate the first Sabbath in April, 1848, and left in March, 1856, being a pastorate of eight years.

Rev. James A. Roberts having been invited to fill the pulpit made vacant by the resignation of Mr. Eastman, he entered upon his ministry the first Sab- bath in April, 1856, continuing his pastorate until the last Sabbath in September, 1872, a period of more than sixteen years. He retired then, as he said, " to rest," thinking perhaps that he might be able to re- enter the pulpit again. But he never rallied, and in the following November, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, he " rested" from his labor.

Mr. Roberts was born in Trowbridge, England ; preached in a Dissenting Church in London and else- where three thousand nine hundred and forty-two times ; came to America and was settled as pastor of the South Congregational Society in New Bedford, where he remained several years; went back to Eng- land, and returned to New Bedford again. He preached four thousand seven hundred and seventy- seven times in America before his pastorate in Berk- ley, and in Berkley he preached fifteen hundred and fifty-five times. He resigned his pastorate in New Bedford and retired to his farm in Lakeville. Soon after he entered upon the ministry in Berkley he re- moved thither, bought a house and lands, where he lived ever after and where he died.

Mr. Roberts was a man beloved by all who knew him well for bis geniality, good practical sense, and for his benevolence. He was loved particularly by the children and youth with whom he became ac- quainted, and there are those who remember his kindly and wise suggestions and admonitions and have treasured them up. As a preacher, he was gen- erally interesting, his sermons short, but generally well considered; his manner of delivery animated, and sometimes highly expressive; his prayers re- markably comprehensive, earnest, and sympathetic. He was free from that arrogance peculiar to his nationality; his adopted country was his country, and few " to the manner born" were more patriotic. His love of the cultivation of fruits and flowers was almost unbounded, and to this work he devoted much attention and displayed much taste. His love for his parishioners, the heathen world, and for the whole human family was demonstrated whenever he could do them good by word or by deed. His remains lie buried in. the cemetery with the Rev. Samuel Tobey and with the Rev. Thomas Andros, a worthy com- panionship of noble men.

In 1873, March 1st, the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Berkley was organized, a large part of Mr. Roberts' church and society joining with the Methodists and occupying the " Chapel," where they worshiped until 1875, when the Methodist Society built a very pleasant, neat, and commodious building at an expense of seven thousand five hundred dollars,

and it is understood that this building is paid for. This church and society has prospered, and although some of the members have made great exertions to put this society upon a firm foundation, they have done it willingly, cheerfully,-"The Lord loveth a cheerful giver,"-and having "cast their bread upon the waters," it is confidently hoped that "they shall find it after many days." The clergymen of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Berkley have been Rev. Mr. Wright, one year; Rev. Mr. Ewer, three years ; Rev. Mr. Nutter, one year; Rev. Mr. Hum- phrey, two years ; Rev. Mr. Burn, three years.

There is a Methodist Episcopal Church also near the pleasant village of Myrickville, in the eastern part of the town, which was formerly a part of the city of Taunton, but was annexed to Berkley in 1878. The congregation though small, the numbers are increasing and the prospects of the church bright- ening. It seems to have a location which required some house of public worship established, as there was none for miles around.

John Crane is the first person named as a school- teacher, there being a small sum voted to pay him for keeping school. Jonathan Crane likewise was paid for the same purpose. Both of these schools were of short duration. Then the town employed Rowland Gavin, an Englishman of good attainments. He taught in different parts of the town some two months in a place, in such buildings as could be se- cured for the purpose. His penmanship was exceed- ingly good. Each scholar had a blank-book prepared by sewing a number of sheets of paper together. The " master" would write the arithmetical examples into each scholar's book, and the scholar would write the solution, the " master" having the only arithmetic in the school. Reading- and spelling-books also were scarce and expensive, and the pecuniary means of the parents small. Grammars and geographies were not used in school in those early days. But, notwith- standing the many disadvantages under which those scholars labored, a knowledge of reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic was attained almost incredible when compared with the proficiency of the scholars of the present day, measured by the difference in length of school, convenience of studying, abundance of text-books upon all desirable subjects, and teachers who have in turn had ample means of qualifying themselves for their important duties, important not only in developing the mental faculty in the direction of science, but important also in the shaping of the moral character of those committed to their charge. But then the parents and children prized their slender opportunities and made good use of them. Their few books were used at home at odd hours in the daytime, in the evening by fire-light, it may be, and it sometimes was so. The bodily exercise, from which none escaped, the absence of heated rooms, which none enjoyed, gave to their minds a clearness and vigor not attainable perhaps in any other manner.

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The difficulties which had to be surmounted also added force to their characters. Here, then, is an instance of the resulting beneficence of the law of compensation that permeates all of the works of God, who so kindly tempers the storm to the shorn lamb.

But soon after the settlement of Rev. Mr. Tobey, and during his pastorate, the condition of the schools improved quite evidently and continually. In 1763 the town began to build school-houses, which were more comfortable and more conveniently located than the extemporized school-rooms that had heretofore been available. Some young men had measurably qualified themselves, under Master Gavin's teaching and at home, for the position of elementary teachers, and the winter schools and winter evenings were util- ized to a creditable degree. Thus the soil was being gradually prepared for the future harvest. Soon after the settlement of Mr. Andros in 1787, a new impetus was given to education, largely through his instru- mentality, which is stated elsewhere, but aided by other causes also. The war of the Revolution had exhausted the pecuniary resources of the whole country. But the advent of peace, the formation " of a more perfect Union" by the adoption of the Con- stitution, the confidence in the administration of Washington, the unparalleled success of the financial policy of Hamilton began to recuperate the palsied hand of industry, and better times dawned in the horizon. Its influence was felt all over the country. In 1793 the town was divided into four school dis- tricts, afterwards into five, then into six, and after the accession of Assonet Neck the number of school dis- tricts in town in 1799 was seven. In 1794 the town voted one hundred and twenty pounds to the four school districts to build their school-houses, which money had been raised for the enlargement of the meeting-house. In 1800 the scholars belonging to the several school districts between the ages of four and sixteen were over four hundred, and the popula- tion one thousand and thirty-four. In 1865 the popu- lation was eight hundred and eighty-eight. In 1880 the population was nearly one hundred less than eighty years before, and the children between five and fifteen years of age only one hundred and sixty- three, and notwithstanding the town had had three accessions of inhabitants and territory from Taunton in the mean time, particularly that of Myrickville, together with the adjacent and surrounding neighbor- hood, it being an important and very desirable acqui- sition to the town. Although the schools have been becoming small and smaller for the last forty years until the scholars are less than one-half in number than there was then, yet the town's annual appropria- tion has increased from three hundred dollars to fourteen hundred dollars for support of public schools.

Some of the pupils of Master Gavin had under diffi- culties acquired a taste for study, which increased as they advanced in science until they in turn were well

able to teach what they had been taught by their master and were advancing to a higher plane. Capt. Joseph Sanford, Rev. Levi French, Col. Adoniram Crane, and Capt. Giles G. Chace were among the first and most able teachers which the town has ever had, and their services were sought in many of the sur- rounding towns, and each of them taught for more than thirty winters. Then there arose a succession of juniors, some of whom taught many years in the common schools and in higher branches of learning and in academies ; such were James, John, Enoch, Alpheus, and Baalis Sanford, brothers, and sons of Capt. Joseph Sanford, and Silas A. Benjamin, who taught during most of his life; Daniel and Abrathar Crane, brothers, and sons of Benjamin Crane; Ebene- zer Hervey, who taught here, in Taunton, and else- where in New Bedford for more than thirty years, and taught in all more than a half-century. William M. and B. L. Cornell, brothers ; David French, Darius Phillips, Daniel S. Briggs, Enoch Boyce, Thomas C. Dean, Dr. S. Hathaway, Walter D. Nichols, P. Ches- ter Porter, Thomas P. Paull, etc.

Since their time of teaching females have been most generally employed, and their success has been quite satisfactory, and they, as a class, have in that department an enviable record. It has been said in the past, and not without reason, that this town fur- nished more common school teachers according to its population than any other town in the commonwealth. And in this respect there has been perhaps as little decadence as in any other; for while we have but comparatively few male teachers in active service, our young ladies with commendable ambition have come to the rescue, have prepared and are now pre- paring themselves thoroughly for the discharge of their duties in this most important field of labor ; for the public school, with its mental and physical discipline, its inculcation of noble thoughts and pre- cepts, reinforced by good and patriotic instruction at home by the fireside, is the bulwark of an enlightened liberty, of freedom and equality under the law. They also shape the law itself. The school-houses and their surroundings generally are such as reflect great credit upon and are an honor to the town. The im- provement in this respect came gradually and rather tardily, but it has come nevertheless at last.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 43

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818