History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 132

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 132

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Parris rid the church of his ill-fated presence on the last day of June, 1696, having doggedly hung on to a position where he served but to perpetuate and keep alive the troubles for which he was so largely responsible. It is human nature to feel one's blood boil at the thought of the part this man, a minister of God, took in the murder of innocent people, but greater than he were not great enough to rise above the accepted ideas of their time. Through these poor instruments One that is greater than all was working in a way they knew not of. Only such a sacrifice could arouse mankind to the horror of their own unreason. The rocky summit of Gallows Hill bears witness that never again under civilization shall human life be imperiled by such superstition.

With the departure of Parris, a leaf was turned on the record of the dark days of the earliest history of the parish and church, and brighter days appeared,

when after much effort to fill the vacancy, an invi- tation to Rev. Joseph Green was accepted. He was a Harvard man, and was not quite twenty-three years old when he was ordained, November 10, 1698. Be- fore this he had preached many months, the people had ample opportunity to know him and to become settled in their own minds. It was with unanimity that he was called, and the response which he made he entered in the church book : " I gave an answer to the church and congregation to the effect that if their love to me continued, and was duly manifested, and if they did all study to be quiet, I was then willing to continue with you in the work of the ministry." As an evidence of the new peace brought about by his ministry, certain members who had had nothing to do with the church since the witchcraft days, came to communion February 5, 1699, a red-letter day in the history of the church.

Two years later, and a day of thanksgiving was observed for continned peace and prosperity. The change, says Mr. Rice, was permanent. "Nothing, scarcely, before the settlement of Mr. Green, had been done by a united people. Nothing of importance, scarcely, since, in the space of a century and three- quarters, has been done in any other manner. No minister has been settled except with a practical una- nimity ; and in each case but one, I think, there has been no dissenting vote in church or parish. Nor has there been, in all that long period, a single seri- ous and obstinate contention among the members of this church and society."

With the beginning of a new century the people determined to have a new meeting-house. Very like- ly more room was needed, but there were plenty of `reasons why the old building should be abandoned. It might well have been dragged where the gibbets had stood and there burned to ashes, but with less poetic justice it was taken down and set np again as a barn on the opposite side of the road, where it stood, Mr. Upham says, "until, in the memory of old per- sons now living, it mouldered, crumbled into powder- post and sunk to the ground." The new building was erected on " Watch-house Hill," the site of three succeeding meeting-houses, including that now in use. The hill had been leveled considerably and otherwise cleared ; it can easily be seen that the spot was wisely chosen by the earliest settlers for the location of a block-house defense against the Indians. The meeting-house of 1701 fronted north, facing Dea- con Ingersoll's house. It was first occupied July 26, 1702. From the thirty-four by twenty-eight of the first building the dimensions were increased to forty- eight by forty-two. The building committee were Captain Thomas Flint, Joseph Pope, Lieutenant Jona- than Putnam, Joseph Herrick and Benjamin Putnam. The cost was about three hundred and seventy pounds, part of which was raised by subscription among per- sons outside of the village limits. Mr. Green contrib- uted liberally and the town people helped somewhat.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

A diary kept by Mr. Green has been preserved and printed by the Essex Institute, with notes by Deacon Fowler. It reveals the lovable character of the writer and gives many a glimpse of life in Salem Village during his pastorate. On the 26th of No- vember, 1715, having just reached the age of forty years, and having completed eighteen years of minis- try among his people, Joseph Green died, and was buried in the old cemetery which bears the name of one of his successors. Good and just man, the great- ness of his work l'ar exceeded the length of his life. Deacon Edward Putnam made this minute in the church-book.

"Then was the choyces flower and grenest olif tree in the garden of our Lord hear cut down in its prime and flourishing estate at the age of forty years and 2 days, who had ben a faithful ambasindor from God to us 18 years, then did that brite star seet and never more to apear her among us: then did our sun go down, and now what darkness is com upon us. Put away and pardon our Iniqntyes, o Lord, which have hen the cause of the Sore displeasure and return to us again in marcy, and provide yet again for this, thy flock, a pastor after thy one hearte as thou hast promised to thy people in thy word, one which promise we have hope, for we are called by thy name ; o leve ns not."

June 5, 1717, a year and a half after Mr. Green's death, the Rev. Peter Clark was ordained. He was also a Harvard man, five years out, and about twenty- five years old. Hobart Street is named for Peter Hobart, the father of Mr. Clark's wife, who came here to live about 1730. Mr. Clark's pastorate lasted fifty-one years. Mr. Rice says of him : "Mr. Clark was a man very unlike his predecessor, and yet well fitted to serve the people among whom he came. He had a sharp and vigorous mind, with a taste for theo- ogical discussions." A modern congregation would find it hard to sit through a single sermon such as the Rev. Peter's people had to endure every week. A delegation once went to him to suggest that he adminis- ter his teaching in less heroic doses ; but he said "No; any could leave when they had heard enough, but the sermons must go on to their appointed ends." Two volumes of his works, as well as a number of scatter- ing sermons have been published. One of these, which Mr. Rice seems successfully to have analyzed back to its original plan, presents a scheme of heads and sub-heads, fearfully and wonderfully made-in all, eighty-four separate divisions. No wonder he was widely known as a stalwart preacher, and was called upon to deliver choice specimens of his liter- ary and oratorieal skill on special occasions in Boston and elsewhere. Once he had neglected for some rea- son to join in the prayers of neighboring ministers for the cessation of existing drought, but having been formally requested so to do, he also the next Sabbath prayed for rain, and it soon rained. His negro man, who knew well his master's character, said "he knew that when Massa Clark took hold, something would have to come."

During Mr. Clark's pastorate the first church bell was hung, in 1725; the town of Middleton was incor- porated, 1728, and a church there organized in 1729 oc-

casioned the withdrawal of twenty-four members of the Village Churchi; and in 1752 the Village was separated from Salem and became a part of Danvers.

This entry in the church book, made by Deacon Asa Putnam more than half a century after Deacon Edward Putnam entered his touching obituary of Mr. Green, tells its own story :

"Now, it has pleased God in his holy Providence to Take away from us our Dear and Rev'd pastor by Death, Mr. Peter Clark, who departed this Life June ye 10, 1768-in ye Seventy-Sixth Year of his age, and on ye 15th day was his funeral. itt was attended by Great Sollemnity ; his Corps was Carried in to ye Meeting-house ; a prayer was made by ye Rev'd Mr. Diman, of Salem ; a Searman Delivered by the Rev'd Mr. Barnard, of Salem, from Galatians, 3 Chap., 14 verse. Then Removed to his Grave with ye Church walking before the Corps, assisted by 12 Bears, with a great Concours of People following. . . Now he is gone, Never to see his face no more in this world, no more to hear the Presions Instructions and Examples out of his mouth, in Publick or in Private, any more ; that ye God of all grace would be pleased to sancti- fee this great and Sore bereavement to this Church and Congregation for good, and in his own Due Time Give us another Pastour after his own heart to feed this People with Truth, Knowledge and Understanding, that this Church may not be Left as Sheep without a Shepherd, &c."

It was not until after more than four years that the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Clark's death was filled. The church repeated its action of a half century be- fore. It took to itself another young inau fresh from his studies, and relinquished the services of his life- work only when death called him to the fullness of his years. More than fifty-three years was Dr. Wads- worth pastor of this people. Over more than a hun- dred years the two pastorates of himself and his predecessor extended. It was but twenty-five years after the witchcraft times-they seem far back iu our annals-that Mr. Clark was settled. The Missouri Compromise had been effected some years before Dr. Wadsworth's death. What chapters of history were enacted while these two men preached at Salem Vil- lage and the First Parish of Danvers.

Benjamin Wadsworth was born in Milton, July 18, 1750, graduated at Harvard in 1769, and was licensed to preach a few months before his ordination in Dan- vers. This event occurred December 23, 1772, and it was an especially great time for the parish. Certain festivities incident thereto have been the subject of local tradition which gives some hint of the nature of the liquid refreshment dispensed by some of the villa- gers to numerous guests from out of town. Judge Holten made this minute:

" The utmost decency wus preserved through the whole of the Soleni- nity and the Entertainment consequent, was generous and elegant, re- flecting great Honour upon the Parish."

Among the items of the bill of costs for the " En- tertainment," are :

"For Bisket, £2 58. Od. ; Pork, Beef. Salt (?) and Rye and Injun Meal, £20 178.Od .; about one Ton of Good Hay, £25; for Turkeys, £8 148. 0d. ; for Malt, £0 78. 6d. ; for Rum, £0 8s. Od. : Syder about half a Barrel £0 158. Od. ; New England Rum, £0 16s. Od."

Mr. Wadsworth's salary was at first fixed at ninety pounds. Not loug after his coming, came the stirring times of the Revolution. The young minister was among the Danvers men who flew to the North Bridge

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DANVERS.

at Salem to repel Colonel Leslie's march. About 1784, by way of compromise for a new parsonage, the par- ish gave Mr. Wadsworth an acre of land on the road west of the old parsonage lot, upon which he erected the rather stately mansion which still bears his name. At this time, too, the square hip-roofed meeting-house which had stood the use of some eighty-four years, was considered too old aud small, and in 1786-87 a new meeting-house, the third in the history of the par- ish, was erected. It was sixty feet long by forty-six wide, twenty-seven feet post, with an ordinary pitch roof. A square tower ran up in front, surmounted by a belfry which in turn was surmounted by a tall and slender conical steeple. The old bell of 1725 was hung in the belfry, but in 1802 a new bell was pro- cured weighing six hundred and seventy four pounds and costing $299.56.

This meeting-house was burned on the morning of September 24, 1805. " It was supposed to be set on fire by some incendiary." wrote the parish clerk. The accused person was so evidently insane that he "was therefore sentenced to receive no punishment but that of confinement as a lunatick." The greater part of the plate was stolen and suspicions were strong and well grounded that the real criminals were certain persons who used the poor imbecile for a cats-paw, but through lack of evidence they escaped conviction. The ruins had not ceased smoking when the standing committee,-Amos Tapley, Asa Tapley aud Jonathan Porter, Jr .- issued their warrant for a meeting to be held the next week at the Upton Tavern, to consider rebuilding. It was voted to rebuild, that the new building should be of brick, that it should bave a dome. The dimensions of the "Brick Church " were sixty-six feet by fifty-six feet, twenty-eight feet to the eaves, and the tower was " sixteen feet four inches square, having two wings, covered with a cupola, and terminated with a vane ninety-six feet from the foun- dation,"-Dr. Wadsworth's words. The corner-stone was laid May 16, 1806, and the finished building was dedicated November 20th of the same year. Dr. Wadsworth's sermon, then delivered, was published. Its rhetoric, especially in descriptions of the fire, is sufficiently lurid to meet the demands of the occasion. By an act of the Legislature, March 8, 1806, a num- ber of Danversport people were transferred with their estates, from the South Parish to this parish ; they had for some time maintained a practical connection here, though the territory of Danversport was never within the original limits of Salem Village and its inhabi- tants, belonged to the Middle Precinct or Sonth Parish. "Ten respectable characters with their fam- ilies," Dr. Wadsworth calls them. They were Sam- uel Page, John and Moses Endicott, Nathaniel Put- nam, Samuel Fowler, Caleb Oakes, William Pindar, Jasper Needham, John Gardner, Jr., and Amos Flint, the last three being from what is now West Peabody.

A vote was passed in 1819 that the minister might read a portion of the Scriptures at the opening of the

meeting on the Sabbath and on " all other Publick Days, as in his opinion shall be to the advantage and benefit of his hearers."

In March, 1825, Dr. Wadsworth felt the approach of the end. Previous to that time he had scarcely known sickness. On the 18th of January, 1826, he died, in the seventy-seventh year of his life and the fifty fourth year of his pastorate. In his last sick- ness he bought the old burial-ground which bears his name and gave it to the parish, and there is his own grave. An outline of his character, as presented by Mr. Rice, is here condensed :

"Dr. Wadsworth was a man of fine personal appearance, aud with the bearing of a thorough gentleman of those days. He is described by the late Judge Samnel Putnam as 'of great bodily vigor, with limbs finely proportioned ; about five feet ten inches in height, with a hand- some and florid countenance.' But there are those of yourselves, with whom the figure of this former pastor is still familiar. 'I can see him now,' says Dea. Samuel Preston, 'precisely at the minute appointed, with a dignified step passing up the broad aisle, dressed in surplice and band, cocked hat in hand, the curls of his auburn wig gracefully waving over his shoulders ; slightly recognizing the powdered dignitaries, such as Judge Holten, Judge Collins and others, as he passed ; ascending with an agile step, the stairs of his high pulpit, and taking his seat under the huge canopy or sounding-board which hung suspended over his head.'

"The doctor was formal and ceremonious, but courteous without ex- ception to all, and warm and kindly, withal, at heart. He kept his po- sition, as the manner of those times was with ministers, a little apart from his people. The children looked upon him with a kind of awe ; and the feeling extended to his family and the house in which he lived. Tbe lad who drove his cows to their pasture was not expected to enter the yard by the front way. He could keep persons at a distance from him whenever he chose to do so. with wonderful civility and ease. He was reckoned by many to be reserved ; and he was 60 with many, but not with his intimate friends. In his intercourse with his brother min- isters he was often facetious and witty, which may be thought a singu- lar circumstance. But even with his brother ministers he was under- stood to be a person of dignity. By one of them, Mr. Huntington, of Topsfield, it used to he said that ' wheu any of the brethren called upon Dr. Wadsworth, they were civil enough,' but when they came to his house ' they threw in their saddles at the front door.' The former part of this only should be believed.

' He was conservative in all his tastes and habits, and did not enter readily into new methods. He introduced the observance of the month- ly concert near the end of his ministry, held in the afternoon of Mon- day ; but there were at that time no other prayer-meetings.

"The weekly meeting on Friday evening dates from the settlement of his successor. The service of public or social prayer by the brethren of the church had fallen, indeed, considerably into disuse at this period, so that at the establishment of the Sahbath-school there was some diffi- culty in finding persons who were willing to offer the opening prayer.

"But, if Dr. Wadsworth had the weakness of a conservative temper, he had also its strength. He was steady and judicious in his work. He did little that ever needed to he undone, either by himself or by any one else. He was a lover of peace, and had wisdom to maintain it. He was able in his own life to illustrate, in a good degree, the principles of the religion he taught. He exhibited remarkable patience and calmness in the midst of difficulties, and resignation in time of trial. He had a steadiness of devotion and of trust, the power of which was not lost upon his people. And thus, if in its later years his ministry failed somewhat in general and marked popular effect, it did not lack in thoroughness and beauty of impression upou those that cherished its influences. It was long afterwards to he noticed that among those whose lives had been moulded by his ministry, there was to be found a rare and admir- able type of Christian character."

In a little less than three months after Doctor Wadsworth's decease there was another ordination in the village. Once again the church took unto itself a young man who, in his turn was to grow old in its service. The young man, Milton Palmer Bra-

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man, had preached somewhat during Doctor Wads- worth's sickness, and was speedily and unanimously called to become his successor. The date of the ordi- nation was April 12, 1826. He resigned March 31, 1851, after a pastorate of nearly thirty-five years. Nearly one hundred and sixty three years before, the revered young Joseph Green came to Salen Village, and only four lives bridge the span between his coming and Doctor Braman's resignation. A single pastorate of half a century is here and there met with in the history of other churches, but a series of life pastorates like this, aggregating so many years, will not be easily paralleled.

The present parsonage property was purchased May 26, 1832, and was first occupied by Mr. Bra- man January 8, 1833. In 1835 a vestry or chapel was built on Hobart Street, east of the parsonage, where it stood until 1871, when it was bought and removed by G. B. Martin. In 1838 an act of the Legislature incorporated Samuel Preston, Samuel P. Fowler, Jesse Putnam and their associates under the name of the First Religious Society in Danvers, and a month later, April 18, 1838, this act was repealed, and a new act passed, beginning, "The North Parish in Danvers, of which the Rev. Milton P. Braman is pastor, is hereby made a corporation," etc., and slightly altering the provisions of the for- mer act so that the society "may assess the pews in any meeting-house hereafter erected by them or conveyed to them."

The new meeting-house to be " hereafter erected " was not long in coming. Fears were entertained of the safety of the brick meeting-house. " A certain cracking and settling of the walls which had for years been noticed, became too serious, it was thought, to be longer neglected." There was a unanimous vote to pull it down and build once more a new house. The present meeting-house, the fifth in line of succession, was finished and dedicated November 21, 1839. Its cost was about twelve thousand dollars. Jesse Putnam, Samuel Preston, William Preston, Nathaniel Pope, Peter Cross, Daniel F. Putnam (on his decease, Nathan Tapley), and Jolin Preston were the building committee ; Levi Preston, master carpenter. Dimensions of the building, eighty-four by sixty feet.

Early in Mr. Braman's ministry, 1832, a Benev- olent Circle was formed among the ladies of the parish. Mrs. Braman was its first president. Some interesting reminiscences, written by Harriet P. Fowler, are here condensed :

" Let your readers como with me in imagination to some old-fashioned farm-honse in the North Parish, now Danvers Centre. It is fifty years ago. F'rom one totwo in the afternoon the members are arriving, some in chaises, some in wagons, while others walk over the hills and pas- tures, not omch impeded by stone walls or fences, as trains and pull- backs are not in vogue. At two o'clock quito n large company has as- sembled, the President reads n chapter from the Bible, and business com- mences. Some of the ladies linve brought large bage and boxes. In one corner a smart, energetic woman is denling out shoes to bind ; a trying

ordenl for novices to sit by an old shoe-binder and try to turn off as many as she does. In another part of the room a lady is giving out material for stocks, those elaborate structures of hair-cloth, bombazine and Satin, in which men of that generation arrayed their necks. Wonder they were not stiff-necked for life ! I'ress-boards, holders and flat-irons show that the ladies mean Imsiness.

" A group of elderly women are deftly plying their knitting-needles- wise women, who know that cold hands and feet make cold hearts-so they are providing warm mittens and stockings for fathers, husbands, sons. There is a table where shirts and collars are being made for the luckless wigbts who have neither mother nor wife to provide for then. A bevy of young misses are tastefully arranging patch-work for quilts, to be given to invalids, or sold to increase the funds of the society. At twilight work is suspended, and after a cup of tea and simple refresh ments, it is again resumed till nine o'clock. In the evening the men drop in, making themselves useful by holding yarn for the young ladies or perchance threading the needles for the older ones, and generously re- sponding when the collection was taken at the close of the evening.

" With the money earned we relieved the wants of the poor, clothed Sabbath-school children, and bought tbem books; we carpeted the church and helped to build the chapel ; we gladdened the heart of the home missionary, and accumulated quite a little fund found nseful in subsequent emergencies. In such a meeting in one of these old-fash- ioned rooms could be seen the graceful and energetic Mrs. Bramao, the quiet but efficient Mrs. Kettelle, and many others whom we of the pres- ent might be proud to claim as mothers or grandmothers."

At the fiftieth anniversary of this society, cele- brated November 8, 1882, ten of the fourteen original members then living were present.

In the year 1844 the church suffered the loss of those of its members, who formed what is now the Maple Street Church, at the Plains. This division occurred chiefly through consideration of convenience. The earlier losses, when Middleton was incorporated, and when the South parish was established, were of the same nature. But from time to time in the history of the church, members have separated from it to ac- cept the doctrines of other denominations. All of the churches hereafter to be mentioned, except the Catholics, have drawn for their organization in a greater or less degree on the strength of the parent church. Yet the numerical strength of the First Church, in 1867, when there were two hundred and two members, was greater than ever before. The congregations were largest just before the withdrawal of the Plains people, a fair attendance on a pleasant Sabbath being about four hundred.

March 31, 1861, has been mentioned as the date of Dr. Braman's resignation. He had a number of times previously expressed a desire to he dismissed, but his people would not let him go. This time he had de- cided. "I have reached that time of life when I wish to retire from the labors which the ministry im- poses on me, and when it is usually better to give place to younger men."

Dr. Braman was the son of a minister, Rev. Isaac Braman, of Georgetown, and his mother was the daughter of a minister. The father, in response to an invitation to attend the George Peabody reception in 1856, wrote: "If Barzillai, the Gileadite, when only four score years old, could think himself excus- able for not going up to Jerusalem with his King, whom he highly esteemed and loved, much more may one who is in his eighty-seventh year be excused from

Eng" by A. H. Futchie

Mitton. P. Praman

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DANVERS.

going to South Danvers." The son, Milton Palmer Braman, second in a family of five children, went from Phillips Academy to Harvard, graduated from there in 1819, and after a year's teaching entered the Andover Seminary. He preached his first sermon at Danvers, in December, 1825. He married Mary Parker, of Georgetown, in November, 1826, seven months after his settlement here. He moved to Brookline shortly after his resignation, then to Au- burndale, where he died April 10, 1882, in his eighty- third year. He was buried in the town of his birth after a brief service at the home of his aged mother.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 132

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538