USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > History of Dedham, Massachusetts > Part 11
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*In the course of time the original precinct of Dedham became the First Parish by which name it has since been known.
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purposes. His successor, the Rev. William Cogswell, graduated at Dartmouth in 1811. He was settled over the Church in 1815 and continued in the pastorate for 14 years. In 1829 Mr. Cogswell accepted the general agency of the American Educational Society.
The Rev. Harrison G. Park, a graduate of Brown University, was ordained minister of the Church in 1829. He continued in the pastorate for six years. Mr. Park was a good sermonizer and an able man. After holding important pastorates in other places he returned to Norwood where he passed the remaining years of his life, taking a deep interest in all that pertained to its welfare.
The Rev. Calvin Durfee, a graduate of Williams College, was installed pastor of the Church March 6, 1836. He resigned after a ministry of 21 years and became the financial agent of Williams College. His "Annals of Williams College" ranks as an extraor- dinary literary compilation. The Rev. Moses M. Colburn was the sixth pastor of the church. He was a graduate of the University of Vermont. He remained in the pastorate for 14 years., He is spoken of as a faithful pastor and one deeply interested in the youth of the town.
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. This Society was incorporated in 1827. Preaching services were held prior to this time in the hall of the hotel by the Rev. Thomas Whittemore. A meeting house was dedicated June 18, 1829 "designed to be a temple for the worship of the one living and true God, as the universal Parent of Mankind, who will have all men to be saved and come to the know- ledge of his truth."
The Rev. Alfred V. Bassett was ordained as pastor and teacher of the Society June 17, 1830. He was a young man of fine talents and an able preacher. His pastorate was closed by death Decem- ber 26, 1831. Other pastors previous to the incorporation of Nor- wood were Rev. Rufus S. Pope, Rev. Edwin Thompson, Rev. Charles H. Webster, Rev. N. C. Hodgdon, Rev. Ebenezer Fisher, Rev. A. R. Abbott, Rev. J. H. Farnsworth, Rev. M. R. Leonard and Rev. George Hill.
BAPTIST CHURCH. The first public service of Baptists was held in Union Hall on August 8, 1858 by the Rev. Joseph B. Breed of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. In November 1858 Mr. Breed was constituted pastor of the church. On January 2, 1859, "Brother
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Messer was today baptized." This was probably the first time the ordinance of baptism, by immersion, was administered in South Dedham. Immediate steps were taken to build a meeting house which was dedicated December 1, 1859. Mr. Breed's successors have been Rev. James J. Tucker, Rev. C. Osborne, Rev. George G. Fairbanks and Rev. Edwin Bromley.
CATHOLIC CHURCH. St. Catherine's Church was formerly connected with St. Mary's Church of Dedham. Services were held in private houses several times a year as early as 1852 by the Rev. P. O'Beirne of Roxbury. Later services were occasionally held in Union Hall and later in Village Hall. In 1863 a purchase was made of the church formerly occupied by the Universalist Society. Af- ter remodelling it was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on August 3, 1863. Soon after the church was put under the pastoral care of the Rev. John B. Brennan of Dedham, who was still the pastor in 1872.
THIRD PARISH. The General Court was in error if it thought the inhabitants of Clapboard Tree would willingly return to the First Parish. In May 1735 an effort was made to obtain permission to worship in the Clapboard Tree meeting house but failed; again in September an attempt was made to legally use their meeting house with the added request that two ministers be supported by the First Parish. Failing in this request the inhab- itants of Clapboard Tree secured a minister and maintained preach- ing in their meeting house on Sunday. The next step was to ask the First Church in Dedham for a dismissal to form a new church in their own neighborhood. This request was denied by the First Church. A council of churches was therefore called which convened at Clapboard Tree on June 4, 1835 and embodied them into a distinct and separate church of which the Rev. Josiah Dwight was the first minister. Thus the Third, or Clapboard Tree* Parish, of Dedham was formed which was incorporated as the town of Westwood, April 2, 1897.
The Rev. Josiah Dwight was born in Dedham and graduated from Harvard in the class of 1687. In 1690 he was ordained the first minister in Woodstock, Connecticut. His salary was small and paid in part in land which he cultivated and thus gave offence
* The name Ciapboard Trees was derived from the character of the timber grown on the territory which was used in making clapboards.
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to some of his parishioners. He was sometimes hasty in speech and did not refrain from very sharp words. He was dismissed from the pastorate by the town in 1726. Although in his 66th year Mr. Dwight was called to the Clapboard Tree Parish and installed as the first minister June 4, 1735. Mr. Dwight and his people did not get on without differences and after a pastorate of nearly eight years he requested a dismission.
Rev. Andrew Tyler was settled as the second minister of the Parish on November 30, 1743. He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1738. Two of Mr. Tyler's sermons were published at the request of his hearers in 1756. "The Terms of Christianity briefly Considered and the Reasonableness of them Illustrated." A suc- cessor in the pulpit says of these sermons: They are strong, well reasoned sermons calculated to make an impression on a congrega- tion, as they evidently did. They indicate that the preacher was a man of fair ability, and that he was inclined, according to the fashion of the day, to give to Christianity a somewhat practical interpretation. Mr. Tyler's annual salary was from sixty to eighty pounds and was added to by the free-will offering of his people. He was an owner of a slave who swept and took care of the meet- ing house from 1748 to 1756. In 1746 it was voted to give Mr. Tyler "a free gift of forty pounds old tenor on consideration of the scarcity and uncommon price of the necessaries of life." In 1758 thirteen men were appointed by the Parish "to Over See ye Boys on Sabbath Days." Mr. Tyler after a pastoral of twenty-seven years resigned December 17, 1772. At a meeting of the Parish, on October 18, 1779 it was unanimously voted to concur with the church in calling Thomas Thacher to be pastor of the church. Mr. Thacher accepted the call April 4, 1780 and was ordained June 4th. The Parish voted him the improvement of six acres of land, a supply of fire wood not exceeding twenty-five cords a year, and an annual salary of sixty-seven pounds lawful money, to be paid in the following proportion viz : beef at twenty shillings per hundred weight, rye at four shillings per bushel and Indian corn at three shillings, four pence per bushel, sheeps wool at one shilling four pence per pound and sole leather at one shilling, two pence per pound; and whereas the war is very distressing to the people we do reserve a right to deduct one third (or any part of
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said third) part of said sixty-seven pounds during the present war with Great Britain, and two years after said war shall cease. Mr. Thacher was born in Boston in 1756, graduated from Har- vard in 1775 and became pastor of the Clapboard Trees Parish at the age of 24. He died October 19, 1812 in his 56th year, and the 33d year of his pastorate.
Mr. Thacher possessed intellectual powers far above the ordi- nary level. He was able to take comprehensive views and could express them in strong and clear language. He had great power of sarcasm, and he endulged it sometimes, perhaps, without the most delicate regard to circumstances. It is recorded that in exchange with the Rev. Mr. Haven of the First Church in Dedham, during the fierce political discussion of the early years of the Republic, he preached a sermon that was extremely partisan in its character, as he was strongly devoted to the principles of the Federalist par- ty, and not at all disinclined to give strong expression to his opin- ions. A number of persons arose and went out of the meeting. Mr. Thacher stopped and said, "I see that I have, at least, one apostolic gift-the power to cast out devils." As a preacher Mr. Thacher was marked for good sense, clear thought and an earnest purpose. He was generous, sympathetic, hospitable, social and a lover of wit and fun. As a public spirited citizen he was on all occasions greatly interested in all town affairs and in politics of the state and nation. In 1788 he was chosen a member of the State Conven- tion, which was called for the purpose of ratifying the National Constitution. His colleague from Dedham was Fisher Ames who first gained his reputation at that time. Mr. Thacher addressed the convention in a speech in favor of adopting the Federal Con- stitution. By invitation Mr. Thacher delivered the eulogy on Gen- eral Washington in Dedham on February 22, 1800. In 1805 he de- livered the Dudlein lecture at Harvard.
The Rev. John White, the fourth minister, was called to the church in February 1814 and was ordained on April 20th of the same year. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, December 22, 1787 and graduated from Harvard in the class of 1805. He died February 1, 1852 after a prosperous ministry of thirty-eight years. It is said of his service that a more peaceful ministry never existed. His successors in the Clapboard Parish have been : Rev. Calvin S. Locke, Rev. Elisha Gifford, Rev. Edward Crowninshield, Rev.
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George W. Cooke, Rev. W. J. H. Hogan, Rev. Obed Eldridge and Rev. Thomas E. Allen.
THE BUILDING OF A NEW MEETING HOUSE. The first meeting house in the Clapboard Trees Parish was erected in 1731 and was used for public worship for seventy-eight years. At the March meeting in 1804 a committee was appointed to "examine the meeting-house and see if it be worth repairing." It wa's the con- sensus of opinion that the parish needed a new meeting house. In March 1806 it was voted to build a meeting house on Deacon Ichabod Ellis's land. At the April meeting this vote was annulled. As was often the case there was great difficulty in selecting a site for a meeting house. Two lots were seriously considered by the parish, (a) the rock on Deacon Ellis's land, (b) land of Mr. Rich- ards, near the burying ground. At the March meeting in 1807, twenty-six voted in favor of the Ellis lot and twenty-three voted against it. On a motion to set the meeting house on Mr. Richards' land twenty-three voted in favor and thirty-three against it: While a majority of the legal voters were in favor of Deacon Ellis's land, the minority was determined not to accept this location. It was therefore decided to leave the selection of the location to disinter- ested persons, the parish voting "that the committee or major part of them agreeing on a spot, it shall be decisive." A commit- tee of disinterested persons was called from Westboro, Dorchester and Medway and instructed to take "the roads, houses and all other local circumstances into view, in selecting the spot for the meeting-house." The committee met on April 28, 1807 and after due consideration unanimously agreed and determined that the rock, or within ten rods of the rock in Deacon Ellis's land, shall be the place for the proposed meeting house. The parish there- fore proceeded to build a meeting house which was dedicated on March 1, 1809. The church received the gift of a Paul Revere bell - which is still in use - from the Hon. Joshua Fisher of Beverly.
A committee was chosen to sell the old meeting house which was bought by Aaron Baker, acting for a committee of those who had withdrawn from the parish. It was subsequently taken to pieces, moved to High Street and rebuilt for public worship. As those who seceded from the Clapboard Trees parish could not be
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incorporated as a Congregational Church, or escape taxation with- out connection with another church they associated themselves with the Medfield Baptist Church; although few, if any, at that time were Baptists. In the contention it was simply the west side against the east side of the parish. In 1810 the Rev. William Gamwell became the minister and preached on alternate Sundays in Medfield and West Dedham. He continued this service until 1823.
BAPTIST CHURCH. On March 15, 1824 the "First Baptist Church in Dedham" was incorporated. The church recorded large accessions to its membership in 1828 and again in 1832 and has continued in a prosperous condition through the years. The min- isters connected with the church previous to the incorporation of the town of Westwood are as follows: Rev. Samuel Adlam, Rev. Jonathan Aldrich, Rev. Thomas Driver, Rev. T. G. Freeman, Rev. Joseph B. Damon, Rev. J. W. Parkhurst, Rev. Jeremiah Chaplain, Rev. Benjamin W. Gardner, Rev. I. J. Burgess, Rev. Samuel J. Frost, Rev. G. O. Chandler, Rev. T. M. Merriam, Rev. E. S. Ufford, Rev. O. P. Bessie and Rev. Lyman Partridge.
SPRINGFIELD PARISH. Many persons living in the wes- terly part of Dedham, Springfield as it was called, shared the dis- content of the inhabitants of the town living distant from the Dedham meeting house. In attending the Sunday service some in Springfield had to travel twenty miles. About 1725 there was a growing feeling that those who lived at a distance from the meeting house should be freed from the minister tax at Dedham and allowed to build a meeting house of their own where they could conveniently worship. This spirit took shape when on the 3rd of March 1728 the inhabitants petitioned "that they and their estates be set off into a distinct precinct." This request was granted by the town November 9, 1728. Having been made a pre- cinct by the town it was their ambition to be made a distinct precinct by the General Court, that they might be freed from the ministerial tax at Dedham and vested with parish privileges. In response to the petition to the General Court made November 29, 1729 they were freed from paying the minister rate in Ded- ham and assigned to the churches in Medfield, Natick and Need- ham where they were ordered to pay their minister tax. For
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twenty years the residents were content to worship in other towns but there was a growing feeling that they should be incorporated, have a meeting house of their own and a settled minister; so a petition was made to the General Court April 5, 1748 asking to be made a distinct precinct. This request was granted November 18, 1748. The following spring steps were taken to prepare tim- ber for a meeting house which was raised August 30, 1750, and dedicated in December 1754. In April 1762 a call was extend- ed to Benjamin Caryl A. M. to become the minister of the parish. This call was accepted in September 1762. Mr. Caryl graduated from Harvard in 1761. He was a classmate of Dr. Nathaniel Ames of Dedham who in his early ministry frequently heard him preach but made no comments on his sermons. Dr. Samuel Wil- lard, the famous Vermont editor, left some curious notes on the Commencement program in 1761 in which he says of Mr. Caryl "an extraordinary genius, a good scholar and companion." Mr. Caryl was ordained November 10, 1762. He died November 14, 1811 in the fiftieth year of his ministry. The Fourth or Spring- field Parish* was incorporated as the District of Dover July 7, 1784.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS. In 1815 some of the mothers of the town were desirous that their children should receive a better religious education and resolved to organize a Sunday School. On a lovely Sunday morning in May 1816 ** quite a number of child- ren, under the age of ten or twelve years, were seen hastening along, with Testaments and catechism in hand, to the old brick school house which stood on the church grounds. There were probably enough children to form three or four classes. The offi- cers and teachers of the school were all women. Mrs. Tracy was the first superintendent or directress. Of the teachers four are remembered, Mrs. Martha Barry, Miss Sweet, Miss Maria Dixon, and Miss Rebecca Damon. The School was opened by prayer. The exercises of the hour were chiefly recitations from the Testament and Hymn Book without explanation. At the close of the school the classes were led by their teachers from the school to the meeting house. A code of rules was adopted which each scholar
* The name is derived from the beautiful boiling springs on Spring Brook, Spring- dale Avenue.
** See Historical Sketch by Calvin Guild.
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was required to read every Sunday morning before leaving home. The code was as follows: (1) The children are to attend school punctually at the first ringing of the church bell in the morning with face and hands clean, hair combed and clothes clean. (2) To take their seats (after making their courtesies and bows, which are by no means to be omitted), and not to leave their seats, except by special permission of their teacher. (3) To be perfectly silent in school, and to be attentive to their books, and never fail. to bring a Bible or Testament, the Sunday School Catechism and Watt's de- vine hymns. (4) On all occasions to speak the truth. (5) To be kind to all men, also to animals. (6) To avoid bad company. (7) To be respectful and attentive to their teacher. (8) To use no bad words or call names. (9) To come to and go from church orderly. (10) To never.mock lame or deformed persons. (11) To behave with solemnity in places of public worship. (12) To be obedient at home to parents and friends. (13) To avoid quarrelling. (14) To go out of class after class, as regulated by the teaching Direct- ress, all making bows and courtesies. Small paper cards were given as rewards for good behaviour.
The school had no library. Books suitable to children of their ages were limited to "Little Henry and His Bearer", "The Life and Happy Death of Mary Ann Clapp" and a very few biographies of children, but by the early fifties their number had been increased by hundreds of volumes prepared expressly for Sunday Schools. With the enlargement of the Vestry in 1856 the Sunday School library became a prominent feature of the school. Under the direction of John D. Cobb, the old Parish Library, established in 1794, was reorganized with adult and juvenile departments. The books for adults were on one side of the entrance and the juvenile books on the other side. After two years (1818) the first Sunday School was divided. The children of those who organized the New Meeting House Society, held their session, by invitation, in the basement of the Episcopal Church until the completion of the new meeting house in December 1819.
The Sunday School in the Second Parish (Norwood) was or- ganized in the Congregational Church in 1819 on the same plan as the district school. The classification was decided by lot with no regard to age or ability of the pupil. Teachers drew the names of
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the prescribed number of pupils by lot and as a result they often had the oldest and the youngest pupils of the school in the same class. In the Third Parish (Westwood) Mrs. Betsy Baker organ- ized a Sunday School in the Baptist Church in 1817. In the Clap- board Trees Parish a Sunday School was started about 1826 by the Rev. John White with a library. Deacon Reuben Guild was superintendent for many years.
A Sunday School was organized in St. Paul's Church in 1822.
We have in the Sunday School of the First Church the evolu- tion of Sunday Schools. The exercises in the early years, as we have seen, consisted of the committing to memory of passages of scripture and the learning by heart of hymns. No lesson books were in use before those issued by the Rev. Joseph Allen of North- boro followed through the years by the various publications of Sunday School Societies.
The one hundredth anniversary of the organization of the first Sunday School was observed by the First Church. The exer- cises held in the Parish House were conducted by the Rev. William H. Parker, assisted by the Rev. Seth C. Beach and former officers of the school. One who attended the school tells us how the little girls dressed seventy-five years ago. We wore in the winter some elegant black velvet bonnets, with white ruching around the front, with a little bow of colored ribbon, or flowers artistically tucked in, with a ribbon tied under the chin to keep the bonnet securely on our heads. I am sure we all wore white cotton stockings and congress boots.
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CHAPTER VIII
EDUCATION
Dedham was foremost in the establishment of a free public school and for the most part generous in her appropriations for its maintenance. Elementary education was taken for granted that all might be able to read and understand the principles of religion.
The founders of Dedham were as well educated as others in the homeland of the same walk in life. England had at that time private elementary and dame schools as well as endowed grammar and Latin schools. While the names of only five Ded- ham founders appear as alumni of Cambridge, yet there were educated men among them who at least inust have studied at Latin grammar schools. They were much better educated than the succeeding generation. In the busy life of the settlers gene- ral education was not at first to be thought of, home instruction was all that could be attempted. But before the state had taken note of the general neglect of education in the colony, Dedham at her general town meeting held on January 2, 1642-3 unani- mously voted that on a proposed division of land lots should be set apart for public use as follows, namely, for the Town, the Church and a Free School. The land so set apart was included in the Training Field which is now rightly used as a play field by the pupils of the Dexter School. The decree of the state made in 1642 is as follows: "In every towne the men chosen to manage the prudential affairs shall have power to take accmpt from time to time of their parents and masters, and of their children, con- cerning their calling and impliment of their children, especially of their ability to read and understand the principle of religion and the capitol lawes of the county and to impose fines upon all those who refuse to render such accompt to them when required."
After this action of the General Court, Dedham took steps to establish a public school. On January 1, 1644 the town voted to establish a free public school to be supported by general taxation which is believed to be the first free school to be so supported in America. The vote was as follows: "The sd Inhabitants takeing
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into Consideration the great necesities of providing some means for the Education of the youth in or sd Towne did with an unani- mous consent declare by voate their willingness to promote that worke promising to put too their hands to provide maintenance for a Free Schoole in our said Towne." "And further did resolve and consent testefying it by voate to rayse the some of Twenty pounds p. annum towards the maintaining of a Schoole mr to keep a free Schoole in our sd Towne." Which salary was continued until 1695 when it was made twenty-five pounds.
This was a school taught only by men and attended only by boys. In the absence of records, it is established by tradition that Ralph Wheelock was the first Dedham teacher. In 1651 he cast in his lot with the Medfield settlers where he was the first teacher in that town. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge Uni- versity and was the ancestor of the first and second presidents of Dartmouth College.
The following are recorded as being present at the town meeting on January 1, 1644, which voted the Dedham Free School. Mr. John Allin, John Hunting, Elder Henry Chickering, Thomas Wight, John Thurston, Anthony Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Daniel Fisher, John Luson, Mr. Ralph Wheelock, John Gay, Wil- liam Bullard, John Bullard, Robert Crosman, Henry Wilson, John Newton, Edward Colver, Henry Smith, Nathan Colburn, Nathan Aldis, Henry Phillips, Samuel Morse, Daniel Morse, John Morse, Joseph Kingsbury, John Dwight, Lambert Chenery, Edward Kemp, Edmond Richards, Thomas Leader, George Bearstowne, Jonathan Fairbanks, Michael Powel, Michael Metcalf, John Met- calf, John Frary, Eleaser Lusher, Robert Hinsdale, Peter Wood- ward, John Guild, Richard Everett, Robert Gowing.
The Dedham school in its establishment was unlike the schools previously established in Boston, Dorchester, Salem, and Ipswich, as it was supported by general taxation. The Boston Latin School was established on a subscription foundation while the Dorchester school was supported by the rent of Thompson's Island. If the island was rented the school had an income; other- wise did it have a support ? It is believed that the success of the Dedham School was a factor in shaping the statute of 1647 which was the first statute enacted relating to education. The
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