History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 163

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 163

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Mary Leverett Denison, daughter of President Lev- erett of Harvard College, and widow of Col. John Denison, was his first wife, married December 25, 1728. His second wife was widow Mary Staniford, married May 4, 1758, and died in 1780. His children were Margaret, Sarah, Elizabeth, Martha, Lucy and Nathaniel.

He was emphatically a strong-minded man ; he could state exactly his reason for the hope within 37₺

him ; he could not brook irregularity in faith or prac- tice. Clearly perceiving his way, he pursued it without fear or favor and with few or many. His ob- ject was a clear conscience. He was an industrious man and charitable. The welfare of his church was his pride, and deeds of kindness his solace. Read the record upon the tomb :

" A mind profoundly great, a heart that felt The ties of nature, friendship and humanity, Distinguished wisdom, dignity of manners; Those marked the man ; but with superior grace, The Christian shone in faith and heavenly zeal, Sweet peace, true greatness, and prevailing prayer. Dear Man of God ! with what etrong agonies He wrestled for his flock and for the world ; And, like Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures, Opened the mysteries of love divine, And the great name of Jesne ! Warm from his lips the heavenly doctrine fell, And numbers, rescued from the jawe of hell, Shall hail him blest in realms of light unknown, And add immortal lustre to his crown."

Mr. Rogers' assistant was REV. TIMOTHY SYMMES, who was born in Scituate, graduated from Harvard, and ordained at East Haddam, Conn. He began his work here in 1752, and labored in season and ont of season, in whatever his hands found to do, for the stability of the church and the good of souls. He was called to his reward in the midst of his useful- ness, and the ripeness of his manhood. He died April 6, 1756, in his forty-first year. His wife was Eunice Cogswell, daughter of Francis and Hannah. He left two sons,-Ebenezer and William, born about 1755 and 1756 ; his widow married Richard Potter.

10. Sixth Pastorate .- This was held by REV. LEVI FRISBIE. Mr. Frisbie was born in April, 1748, at Brantford, Conn. At the age of sixteen he joined Dr. Wheclock's Indian Charity School, at Lebanon, where he became seriously affected, and began a preparation for college, which he completed with Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem. He entered Yale Col- lege and remained more than three years, but gradu- ated at Dartmouth College, with the first class, in 1771. He was much attached to Dr. Wheelock, in- terested in the permanency of the school, and was devoted to the cause of Indian education. While a senior at Dartmouth College, he sung the labors, the anxieties and the remarkable occurrences attending the removal of the school and college and their estab- lishment at Hanover. His poem concludes as follows

" Thus Dartmouth, happy in her sylvan seat, Drinke the pure pleasures of her fair retreat ; Her songs of praise in notes melodious rise, Like clouds of incense to the listening skies ; Her God protects her with paternal care From ills distractive and each fatal snare ; And may he still protect, and she adore, Till Heaven and earth and time shall he no more."

To prosecute his desire to Christianize the Indians, he and, at the same time, David McClure were or- dained missionaries at Dartmouth College May 21, 1772, and the next month proceeded to occupy their chosen field along the Muskingum. But the year

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belonged to the decade of war, the country was exer- cised with questions of statecraft, and agitated with the precursors of war, and, more than all to him, the Indian was inimical to the English. He aband- oned his mission, traveled in Canada, labored awhile in Maine, and visited the South. In March, 1775, he became an assistant to Mr. Rogers, and after the death of that venerable pastor, accepted a call to settle, and was installed February 7, 1776. His sal- ary was one hundred pounds. He was patriotically devoted to his calling. His heart and hands were warm and active for his country. He labored for her salvation, and hoped as he hoped for the salvation of souls. As his heart succeeded in his country's wel- fare, so the Blessed Spirit aided him in the church. Especially was His power manifest in the years 1799 and 1800, when twenty-eight were added to the church. During his ministry there were added eighty of such as should be saved.

In 1781 he published an oration upon the an- nouncement of peace; in 1784 a memorial of Rev. Moses Parsons, of Newbury ; in 1799 two fast sermons and a fellowship address at the ordination of Mr. Josiah Webster; in 1800 a eulogy on George Wash- ington and a thanksgiving sermon; and in 1804 a sermon before the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians.

In 1805 his church contributed largely to the for- mation of a Baptist society in town, which not a little disturbed the well-earned quiet and the tender sensi- bility of his age. His last official service was to ad- minister the sacrament September 21, 1805. He died February 25, 1806. His parish voted a funeral benefit of one hundred dollars, and Rev. Asahel Huntington, of Topsfield, preached at his interment the 28th.

His first wife was Zevirah Sprague, eldest daughter of Captain Samuel Sprague, of Lebanon, Conn. She was born March, 1747, and she died August 21, 1778, in her thirty-second year. His second wife was Mehit- able Hale, of Newburyport; married June 1, 1780, and died April 6, 1828, aged ninety-six. His children were Mary, Sarah, Levi, Nathaniel and Mehitable. In his personal appearance he was, says Mr. Felt, "of light complexion, above the common height, and ra- ther large." Dr. Dana, of the South Church, pays the following tribute to his memory : "His manner was serious, his conception lively, his expression natural and easy. He was interesting and profitable. He read, thought and conversed much. His labors were blessed. In his catechizing and visits he was affec- tionate. He had great tenderness of conscience. The loss to his family and flock was great. The vicinity was greatly bereaved. The Society for Pro- moting the Gospel have, in him, lost a worthy mem- ber. Zion at large will mourn. But to him it is be- lieved that death was a blessed release."

11. Seventh Pastorate .- Mr. Frisbie's successor was Rev. David Tenney Kimball. He was born in

Bradford November 23, 1782, to Lieutenant Daniel and Elizabeth-Tenney Kimball. He united with the Bradford Church November 13, 1803, where his pa- rents had consecrated him in baptism years before. He dated his conversion from a period in his college life. He graduated at Harvard College in 1803, taught one year in Phillips Academy, Andover, studied divinity, or theology, with Rev. Jonathan French, of same place, and was approbated by the Andover Association August 6, 1805. He was intro- duced to this pulpit by Rev. Mr. Frisbie on the com- munion Sabbath, September 22, 1805. He was called to settle, without a dissenting voice, June 17, 1806, was ordained October 8th following, and continued in the ministry till 1851, when he withdrew from the activities and responsibilities of pastor, retaining, however, his relationship till his death, February 3, 1860. He had a settlement of six hundred dollars and a salary of six hundred dollars.

Father Kimball's was a long and useful service. He left nearly two thousand fairly written sermons, and the Good Spirit crowned his labors with remark- able success, as appears from his last pulpit utterance -his semi-centennial address, October 8, 1856. At the time of his settlement the membership of the church was twelve males and forty-one females-a total of fifty-three. He had admitted three hundred and fifty-three hundred and twelve by profession, and thirty-eight by letter. The address further states that he had attended more than a thousand funerals, nine hundred and seventy of which were in his own parish ; he had united in marriage more than a thou- sand persons; and that only two of the members of the church when he was ordained were then living.

He was an esteemed and useful member of the Es- sex North Association of Ministers, was chosen Scrihe May 12, 1812, and continned in the office till his death. He survived all who were members of the association when he was settled, and all but two of those who were clergymen in the county at that time. He was a warm friend of the cause of education, a member of the American Educational Society, whose object it was to assist young men preparing for the ministry, and did much to enlist the efforts of the churches in its behalf, and his service for the schools in his own town was valuable.

The following are among his publications : " A Fel- lowship Address at the Ordination of Messrs. Cyrus Kingsbury and Daniel Smith as Missionaries to the West," in 1815; "Female Obligations and Disposi- tion to Promote Christianity," in 1819; "Sermon be- fore the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Chris- tian Knowledge," "The Installation Sermon to Rev. William Ritchie, of Needham," and "Ecclesiastical History of Ipswich, in 1821; "The Fellowship Ad- dress at the Ordination of Mr. Daniel Fitz over the South Church," in 1826; "An Address before the Essex County Foreign Mission Society," in 1827 "An Address before the Essex County Auxiliary

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Educational Society," in 1828; "First Church Cen- tennial Sermon," in 1834; "Sermon," in 1838; "Ser- mon," in 1839; "Last Sermon in Old Meeting- house," in 1846; "First Sermon in the New Meeting- House, in 1847 : " "Semi-Centennial of his Ordina- tion," in 1856 ; " Memorial of Rev. Isaac Braman, of Georgetown," and "Memorial of Rev. Gardiner B. Perry, D.D., of Groveland,"-which he was preparing for the press, when prostrated with his last sickness -in 1860. He also contributed to various religious publications.

He married October 20, 1807, Dolly Varnum Co- burn, daughter of Captain Peter and Elizabeth-Poor Coburn, of Dracut, and granddaughter of Deacon Daniel Poor, of Andover, They had seven children and one adopted child, See " Noted Natives" be- low.

Mr. Kimball was a learned, laborious and eminent- ly useful man ; he had a welcome and honored place among the titled and learned men of his day ; yet it was not beneath his dignity to recite nightly, with his worthy consort, their cradle hymn :

" Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take,"

-a practice which seldom outgrows childhood, but which, if continued, would tend to banish dissipa- tion and profanity, to polish speech, and to ennoble character.

Says one who knew him : "The distinct impression which he leaves on the memories of all who knew him, is his fidelity and untiring industry. As the old divines used to say, he was a painful preacher, a painful pastor, a painful scholar, a painful man. This mark pervaded all his performanees. His voice was confined in its compass and husky, and yet he con- trived to impress on his audience the conclusion of most of his sermons. He always disappointed you on the right side, making a deeper impression than you had anticipated. His sermons were very care- fully written. He visited his people with uncommon diligence. He was a respectable scholar in sacred Greek, but began Hebrew after he was forty years old, and by perseverance enabled himself to profit by the exegetical commentaries of the times. O, departed brother! if we have something to forget, we have much to remember; and may thy activity and devo- tion preach to ns forever."

The remains of this worthy man repose in the High Street Cemetery, where a monument is erected to his memory. The shaft is of Oak Hill granite, and is fifteen feet high, surmounted with a cross and crown. The inscription reads :

" Rev. David Tenney Kimball, born in Bradford, Mass., Nov. 23, 1782: graduated at Harvard College in 1803, ordained the eleventh Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Ipswich, Oct. 8, 1806, in which relation he died, Feh. 3, 1860, aged 77 years.'

" A fine classical scholar, a vigorous writer, a man of unsullied purity

and humble piety, a kind husband and tender parent, a sincere friend, a faithful pastor."

"When the summons came, catching a glimpse of heaven, he said, "The gates of the New Jerusalem are open, I see within the city.'"

12. Eighth Pastorate .- Rev. Robert Southgate suc- ceeded Father Kimball. Mr. Southgate was born in Portland, Me., January 28, 1808. His parents were Horatio and Nabby-Mclellan Southgate. He fitted for college in his native city, and graduated at Bow- doin College in 1826, when he was eighteen years old. He dated his conversion from the week of prayer for colleges ; he unhesitatingly consecrated himself, as four of his other brothers had done, to the Christian ministry. He completed the prescribed course at the Andover Theological Seminary, then studied a year in the Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Conn. After spending a year in various ministerial labors, he was called to the Congregational Church, at Woodstock, Vt., and he entered upon the duties January 4, 1832. During the winter of 1834-35, he experienced a show- er of divine grace, which brought into the churches in the town more than two hundred persons, and the greater part to the Congregational Church. In 1836, his health failing, he resigned, and he was dismissed October 26th. He was settled over the Congrega- tional Church in Wethersfield, Conn., February 7, 1838, as colleague pastor with Rev. C. J. Tenney, D. D., and became full pastor on the resignation of Dr. Tenney, January 10, 1841. He had there three marked seasons of religious interest. The church membership was enlarged by one hundred and sev- enty-three accessions. He requested a dismission, which took place November 22, 1843. The church keenly regretted his withdrawal. He was next settled over a young and small Presbyterian Church, in Monroe, Mich., in October, 1845. In two years the society huilt and furnished a beautiful and commo- dious house of worship; and while he was there, he experienced many seasons of refreshing and many accessions to the church. Malarial troubles in his family forced him to relinquish the pleasant place and goodly heritage for the green hills and healthful air of New England.

In December, 1850, he was called unanimously and urgently to this church, and was installed July 24th following. Here also his labors were blessed with many tokens of divine favor, and one hundred and twenty-five persons became members of the church. In his seventeenth year he tendered his resignation, which was not accepted. He renewed it, and was dismissed March 31, 1867. He then preached a year in Hartford, Conn., while the pastor of the church was in Europe; then a year at Oxford, N. H .; and then a year at Hartford, Vt., where he was called to settle, and was installed December 20, 1871. During his service there, the society repaired and beautified the house of worship, and the church mem- bership was enlarged. In that vineyard of the Lord, "he was not for God took him," He died of apo-

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plexy, Thursday, February 6, 1873, while visiting his daughter at Woodstock, and passed

"In the wink of an eye, or the draught of a breath, From the blossom of health to the paleness of death."

Mr. Southgate contributed forty-two years of earn- est Christian labor ; five churches were blessed and strengthened by his efficient ministry, and left har- monious and sorrowing at his departure. Says the memorial of him : " He was a sensitive, modest, self- distrustful man, whose full merit was slowly discov- ered. He was a plain, direct, earnest preacher, glorying in the cross of Christ. He had a tropical exuberance of feeling and language through which he always made Christian truth seem like a garden well- sown and cultured, and bearing precious fruit in abundance. He had an extraordinary gift in prayer, that showed he dwelt in the prophet's own cham- ber, whose windows looked out upon the glorious heavens. He excelled as a pastor, his heart was quick and sympathetic, and carried on it the burden of his people." That "he was a good minister of Jesus Christ" was the people's verdict.

Mr. Southgate married, October, 1832, Miss Mary Frances Swan, daughter of Benjamin Swan, Esq., of Woodstock. She died October 2, 1867. There were five children. One died young, the others are wor- shippers with the people of God, one of whom is a minister of the gospel ; another, a native of this town, is noticed in "Noted Natives " below.

13. Ninth Pastorate .- REV. THOMAS MORONG was installed February 5, 1868. His pastorate continued about eight years, closing January 12, 1876, which we believe was a season of general prosperity.

14. Tenth Pastorate .- REV. EDWIN BEAMAN PALMER was born in Belfast, Me., September 25, 1833. He fitted for college at North Bridgeton, 1850-52; graduated at Bowdoin College August 6, 1856, and at the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1859. For a year, while studying in the Seminary, he held the principalship of the high and grammar schools in Brunswick. He was ordained, September 20, 1859, over the Second Congregational Church in New Castle, which he resigned because of nervous ex- haustion from over work, and from which he was dis- missed, February 10, 1862. From October 10, 1862, to March, 1863, he served in the field as chaplain of the Nineteenth Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry, and from March to October, 1864, the Pine Street Church, Lewiston, when the pastor was temporarily in the army. He was installed, December 26, 1864, at Southbridge, Mass., and was dismissed, May 3, 1869, to accept a call to the Third Congregational Church, Chicopee, where he was installed June 10, following. That pastorate closed March 23, 1875, in which year he was called to this church, where he was installed January 12, 1876. He gave a devoted Christian service, amid many untoward circumstances. " His first year," said a friend, " seemed full of funer- als ; it seemed as if he had been called to bury the

people." The same year the seminary closed, and some fifty pupils were taken from his congregation. He received eleven members by profession of faith and seventeen by letter. There were two baptisms, and strange enough there were, during the time, but two births where both parents were in the church, and only four where either parent was a member. He soleminized seventy marriages, and attended two hundred and three funerals, forty-one of which were members of his church. He was dismissed, upon his request, May 3, 1885, and Jnne 17th, following, was elected treasurer of the Massachusetts Home Mis- sionary Society, where he now serves, with office in Boston and residence in Winchester.

15. Eleventh Pastorate-REV. GEORGE H. SCOTT is the present incumbent. He is a native of Bakers- field, Vt, ; he graduated at Williams College in 1865, and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1873. The same year he became pastor at Plymouth, N. H., where he continued with gratifying results till 1881, when he returned to the Andover Seminary to pursue a post-graduate course, during which he received a call to settle over a church at Lawrence, Kansas. There he labored and nourished a healthful growth of the church for two years, when he was obliged to resign and return East. He supplied one year at Rockland, Me. Upon call he was installed here De- cember 30, 1885.

The church and society are practically free from debt, and meet their current expenses without diffi- culty. The church is heartily united and enjoying a healthful growth, there having been additions at each communion season during the year. There is now, Christmas, 1886, a membership of about one hundred and seventy-three.

16. Deacons .- Rev. David T. Kimball has furnished the following list of deacons, which, for want of suffi- cient records, cannot be made satisfactory :

John Shatswell was a resident in 1634, and served for some time. Deacon Whipple is recorded in 1651. William Goodhue was called deacon in 1658, and his son Joseph some time after. Moses Pingry served 1658 to 1683 ; Thomas Knowlton, 1667 to 1678 ; Dea- con Jewett, 1677; Robert Lord, 1682; Thomas Low, 1696; Jacob Foster, 1697 to 1700; Nathaniel Knowl- ton, 1700 to 1723; Deacon Abbott, 1710 to 1715; John Staniford, 1721; Thomas Norton, 1727 to 1737 ; Jonathan Fellows, 1727 to 1736 ; Aaron Potter, 1737 ; Daniel Heard, Mark Haskell, Aaron Potter and Samuel Williams (who died in 1763), 1746 ; Jeremiah Perkins, 1763-90 ; Joseph Low, 1763 to 1782; John Crocker, 1781 to 1790; William Story, Jr., 1781 to 1788; Caleb Lord, 1790 to 1804; Thomas Knowlton, 1801 to 1832; Mark Haskell, 1804 to 1825; Moses Lord, 1825 to 1832; Isaac Stanwood, 1832 to 1867. The present incumbents are Zenas Cushing and Aaron Cogswell, chosen April 2, 1866.

17. Conclusion .- This church has had fourteen pas- tors, the present incumbent is the fifteenth. They

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served during a period of more than two hundred and fifty years, and during that time rendered a col- league or double pastorate service of more than a hundred years, making an aggregate service of three hundred and fifty-five years. The longest pastorate was Mr. Rogers', 1692-1745, fifty-three years ; the average service has been twenty-five years. A double pastorate in the early times seems to have been neces- sary, because of the extent of territory covered by the parish, including Essex and Hamilton, and the triple labor of catechizing, lecturing and sermonizing. There seems to have been very little colleague ser- vice after 1745, about the time the Linebrook and South Parishes were formed.

This church is said to have been, in early times, the most flourishing and vigorous in New England ; and probably no element contributed more to give the town the prestige it enjoyed than this church, holding forth such luminous names as Ward and Norton, as Cobbett and Hubbard and the Rogerses, au- thorities in the church and molding influences in the land. Thus we conclude our notice of this mother of churches.

SOUTH PARISH AND CHURCH.

1. First Pastorate .- This church came off from the First Church, during the pastorate of Rev. Nathaniel Rogers. The first effort in that direction was a peti- tion dated November 17, 1745. Little or nothing was done about the request at that time, because of the death of Rev. John Rogers, that soon followed. The petition was renewed the next year. The church then had three hundred and four members, and the edifice was crowded and unfit for its purpose. Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, Rev. John's colleague and succes- sor, opposed the movement. Then came the ques- tion of pastoral succession, Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, the late colleague, or Mr. John Walley, of Boston. To effect a compromise, two houses of worship were built, and each minister occupied his own pulpit in the morning and exchanged in the afternoon. The plan failed of its purpose, and December 2, 1746, sixty-eight members of the Parish resolved to peti- tion the Legislature for a new parish. Accordingly a petition, dated December 24th, was sent in to the General Court. The south part, however, made further overtures of settlement January 6, 1747; and again, May 27th, petitioned the Legislature. The new parish was incorporated June 20th, following. The act provided, however, that the parish was to remain intact, if they took " effectual care for build- ing a new meeting-house" on the south side of the river before July 20th, and settled another minister, and supported the two churches out of the common fund, as a joint-stock company,-which they did not do, and so the new parish was established. The church was embodied July 22d, of twenty-one or twenty-two members from the First Church. The following 7th of August, they voted unanimously to call MR. JOHN WALLEY, at a salary of £150, and a

settlement of £1200, old tenor. Mr. Walley was a son of Hon. John Walley, of Boston, and was born in 1716. He graduated at Harvard in 1734, and was a member of the South Church, Boston. In his letter of acceptance he refers to his feeble health. He was ordained November 4, 1747, the day on which the frame of the church edifice was raised. He labored faithfully more than sixteen years, and was dismissed February 22, 1764, hecause of sickness.

The meeting-house was first occupied May 22, 1748. It was two-stories high, and sixty feet long by forty feet wide. It was finished and furnished in the usual manner of that period. In 1819 two stoves were added to the furniture, much to the good sense and comfort of the people.

Mr. Walley was installed at Bolton, in May, 1773. He was dismissed to that church in 1784. He died in Roxbury, March 2, 1784. His wife, was Eliza- beth Appleton. In his will he says: "I give, as a token of my love, to the South Parish in Ipswich, £13 6s. 8d., the yearly income to he given by them to such persons in the Parish, as they shall judge to be the fittest objects of such a charity." He was a man of average height, and light complexion, of an affec- tionate disposition and a pious heart ; he held the pen of a ready writer, and was an eloquent speaker, and possessed a clear, able and learned mind.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 163

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