History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 34

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 34

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Rev. Dexter Clapp, installed as colleague with Dr. Flint December 17, 1851, was born July 15, 1816, in Easthampton, Mass .; gradnated at Am- herst College, 1839, and at the Cambridge Divinity School in 1842; was ordained pastor of the Unitarian Church in Savannah, Ga., November 26, 1843, and continned in the ministry there for a few years, after which he was settled over the Second Church in Rox- bury (First in West Roxbury) five years. He was minister of the East Church twelve years, till Feb- ruary, 1864, when he resigned on account of ill-health. He died July 26, 1868. During his ministry in Salem his society was united and strong. It was with sin- cere regret that his resignation was accepted. He was a spiritually-minded man, an earnest preacher, and a high ideal of ministerial duty made both his pulpit and his pastoral services acceptable and effec- tive.

A few months after his resignation Rev. Samuel C. Bcane was called by the society to succeed him. Mr. Beane was born December 19, 1835, in Candia, N. H .; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1858, and from the Cambridge Divinity School in 1861 ; ordained in Chicopee, Mass., January 15, 1862; installed in Salem January 1, 1865; resigned January 1, 1878; installed in Concord, N. H., Jannary 9, 1878; resigned May 10, 1885, since which time he has been a mis- sionary for Northern New England, appointed by the American Unitarian Association. Rev. George H. Hosmer was installed pastor of the East Church Jan- uary 1, 1879, and resigned Jannary 1, 1886. He was born in Buffalo, N. Y., May 14, 1839; graduated at the Meadville Theological School, 1866 ; ordained as an evangelist in 1867, and after preaching in Deer- field, Mass., some time, was installed in Bridgewater December 17, 1868, where he remained ten years. He was installed in Neponset February 20, 1887. Rev. William H. Ramsey, the present minister, was or- dained October 15, 1886.

EPISCOPAL .- St. Peter's .- The great majority of the first settlers of Salem brought with them no love of Episcopacy from the Old World home. John Lyford, the well-known disturber of the peace of Plymouth, " came hither also," as an associate of Roger Conant, and held services for a time, before- Endicott and his

company came, according to the usages of the Eng- lish Church. He was here but a short time, however, as he went to Virginia in 1627, and died there the same year. Of Endicott's company there were a few-at least the two brothers Brown, John and Sam- nel-who did not fail in loyalty to the Church of England. They were leading men and conncillors. When they saw in the organization of the First Church that a new departure, amonnting to a virtual secession from the National Church, was determined on, they, with some others of like mind, set up a sep- arate worship after the order of the Book of Common Prayer. When Governor Endicott summoned them to answer for their schismatic attitude towards the Salem Church, they persisted, "and therefore, find- ing those two brothers to be of high spirits and their speeches and practices tending to mutiny and faction, the Governor told them that New England was no place for such as they, and therefore he sent them both back to England at the return of the ships the same year." "This proceeding," says Palfrey, " had first raised, and for the present issue had decided, a question of vast magnitude. The right of the Gov- ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay to exclude at their pleasure dangerous or disagreeable persons from their domain they never regarded as questiona- ble, any more than a householder doubts his right to determine who shall be the inmates of his house." 1

The experiment of Episcopal worship was not tried again with a view to permanency for a long time. To Mr. George R. Curwen's valuable notes, which I am kindly permitted to use, I am indebted for many in- teresting and important facts in the history of St. Peter's Church. He says that in 1727 Rev. George Pigot, then rector of St. Michael's, in Marblehead, delivered monthly lectures and administered rites of the English Church in Salem, from which he infers that there was an organized parish of that order here at that time. In 1733 a church was built on " Prison Lane " (now St. Peter's Street), and was consecrated June 25, 1734, the land on which it stood having been given in part for the purpose by Philip English and his family, a pew in the church being set apart to them as an equivalent for the rest. The gift was es- timated at nineteen-twenty-fourths of the value of the land, viz., ninety-five pounds, the other five-twenty- fourths representing the estimated value of the pew, viz., twenty-five pounds. This church had forty pews and a tower upon its western end. It gave place to the present Gothic stone building in 1833, which was en- larged in 1845 and further improved not many years since by the erection of the stone chapel annexed to it. Rev. Charles Brockwell, a graduate of Cambridge, England, was the first rector, entering upon his office, says Mr. Cnrwen, October 8, 1738. (Mr. Felt says May 9, 1739.) November 27, 1746, he left St. Peter's, having heen appointed by the Bishop of London to

1 'History of New England," vol. i., p. 299.

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King's Chapel, in Boston. He died August 20, 1755, says Felt (April 20, 1755, say Osgood & Batchelder, in sketch of Salem), at the age of fifty-nine.

Mr. Brockwell was educated at St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge, and was appointed by the Society (in England) for the Propagation of the Gospel in for- eign parts, to St. Andrew's Church, in Scituate, Mass., but " finding neither the place nor the people to an- swer his expectations," he removed to Salem. The officers of the Salem Church, in applying to the So- ciety in England for a clergyman to succeed him, in 1747, testify to his faithfulness, and speak of theirs as "this infant, though flourishing church."

Rev. William McGilchrist was appointed his succes- sor. Mr. McGilchrist was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 1703; graduated at Baliol College, Oxford, in 1731; ordained priest in 1733, and sent by the above-meu- tioned missionary society, in 1741, to Charleston, South Carolina. After four years' service he was obliged, by the state of his health, to return to Eng- land. Recovering from his illness, he was appointed to succeed Mr. Brockwell in Salem, and entered on the duties of his office in 1747. He died in the min- istry in Salem, April 19, 1780, aged seventy-three years. His services seem not to have been quite con- tinuous, however, through the thirty-four years inter- vening between his settlement and his death. The opposition to the English Church establishment had not died out. The parish was not strong, though it gradually increased until 1761, when it was found necessary to add twenty feet to the length of the church building. It was not without difficulty, however, that, in the face of popular odium and legal ban, the small congregation upheld its standard. In 1777 the revolutionary spirit was impatient and intolerant. The Legislature passed a law prohibiting the reading of the Episcopal service under heavy penalties. Later, however, the service was reinstated by the rector. From 1771 to December, 1774, Rev. Robert B. Nichols, a native of the West Indies, educated at Queen's College, Oxford, was an assistant to Mr. Mc- Gilchrist. He was afterwards a chaplain in the British army, and became still later dean of Middle- ham, England.

Rev. Nathaniel Fisher was the next rector. He was born in Dedham July 8, 1742. The mother of Fisher Ames, the distinguished statesman and orator, was his sister. Mr. Fisher graduated at Harvard College in 1763, taught a school in Granville, near Annapolis, Nova Scotia, under the patronage of an English mis- sionary society, soon after the Revolutionary War be- gan. In 1777 he went to London, and was there or- dained a priest by the celebrated Dr. Robert Lowth, Bishop of London, and was licensed on the 25th of September of that year as assistant to Rev. Mr. Wood, of Annapolis, and continued after the death of Mr. Wood, which occurred the following year, in charge of his mission in Annapolis and Granville, till the close of the year 1781. On his return to Mas-

sachusetts at that time he was invited to Saint Peter's Church, Salem, and entered upon his duties there, February 24, 1782. His ministry in Salem extended over a period of thirty years, and closed only with his life, on Sunday, December 20, 1812. Mr. Fisher hecame a man of leading influence in the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, being active in the early years of his ministry in measures for the organization of that church in Massachusetts and parts adjacent, and was held in high respect by the clergy and laity. He was a man of independent mind and action, more than once casting a solitary vote in conventions of the Episcopal Church on important questions coming before them, when his voice alone broke the other- wise unanimous decision. He was a man of strongly- marked traits of character, "and very decided and fixed in his prejudices, which he took no pains to conceal." His demeanor, says his successor, Rev. Charles Mason, was somewhat stern, but he was a man of generous feelings and habits. In person he was strongly built and of a large frame. His consti- tution was vigorous, and remained firm till his death. In the preface to a volume of his sermons published several years after his death, it is observed that "to clearness of apprehension the author joined a spright- ly imagination, which was exercised with care and modesty, and contributed equally to illustrate and en- liven his sentiments. This, as well as the other faculties of his mind, was regulated aud enlivened by a devoted study of the ancient classics, which, to the latest period of his life, he read with the ardor of a true scholar."

"In regard to these sermons," says Rev. Mr. Ma- son, "it may be proper to add that while they contain earnest and impressive appeals to the heart and con- science, especially those which the author last wrote, -- we find in them no clear and distinctive instruc- tion upon the great orthodox doctrines of the church. They convey, indeed, no positive doubt in regard to any of these doctrines, but are deficient in such defi- nite statements as would show that the writer firmly and heartily maintained them. It is possible that they may not do entire justice to their author in this respect, and that the preferences of the editor, who is supposed to be a friend who afterwards joined the ranks of the Unitarian denomination, may have in- sensibly biased his judgment in the selection." The person referred to as having edited the volume of ser- mons was probably the late Joseph Story, one of the jus- tices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Story was a devoted friend and parishioner of Mr. Fisher, and to his pen is attributed a highly ap- preciative obituary notice of his pastor, which ap- peared in the Salem Gazette of December 25, 1812.

At the time of Mr. Fisher's death the congregation worshipping in Saint Peter's Church was in a very fee- ble condition. The commercial misfortunes and restric- tions that led the way to the War of 1812 had operated disastrously upon the town, and especially upon the

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Episcopal Society. The clergy of the town, of various denominations, severally in turn, supplied the pulpit of the church through a series of Sundays succeeding Mr. Fisher's death. The ministry of Mr. Fisher was followed by that of Rev. Thomas Carlile, who first officiated as lay reader, and after ordination entered upon the duties of rector January 22, 1817. He was born in Providence, R. I., January 12, 1792, and graduated at Brown University, 1809. His ministry was eminently useful to the parish, raising it from the low condition in which he found it to a position of comparative prosperity. He resigned the rector- ship October 6, 1822, and died in Providence March 28, 1824.

Rev. Henry W. Ducachet, who followed Mr. Car- lile, was born February 7, 1797, in South Carolina. He was educated at Princeton, studied medicine and practiced as a physician some years in Baltimore and New York. Changing his profession for that of the ministry, he first served St. Peter's Parish, as lay reader, in 1823, and for a short time as rector, after ordination as a priest. He resigned December 5, 1825, and removed to Norfolk, Virginia.

Rev. Thomas W. Coit, the next rector, was born in New London, Conn., June 28, 1803, graduated at Yale College, 1821, was settled in Salem July 16, 1826, re- signed March 22, 1829, and became rector of Christ Church, Cambridge, Mass. He died in Middletown, Conn., June 21, 1885. His ministry in Salem, though short, was very useful to the parish. He was highly esteemed in the Episcopal Church, and wrote vigor- ously in defense of churchmen, as against the Puri- tans.

The St. Peter's Parish was much disheartened when Mr. Coit left them, but entered into a corre- spondence with Rev. Alexander V. Griswold, bishop of the Eastern Diocese, and then rector of St. Mi- chael's Church, in Bristol, R. I., which resulted in his coming to Salem to take the pastoral charge of St. Peter's, which he did December 24, 1829. He continued in the office till June 26, 1834, when he re- moved to Boston. Mr. Griswold was born in Sims- bury, Conn., April 22, 1766, and died February 15, 1843. He was widely known and universally esteemed through Eastern Massachusetts for his personal vir- tues and his exemplary simplicity, dignity and fidel- ity in the responsible office to whose duties he was devoted. During the ministry of Bishop Griswold the new stone church was built, his last official act being its consecration.

Rev. John A. Vaughan was Bishop Griswold's successor. He entered upon his duties June 26, 1834. Mr. Vaughan graduated at Bowdoin College in 1815, and resigned the Salem rectorship in 1836. Rev. Charles Mason followed him, being inducted into the ministry in Salem May 31, 1837. Mr. Mason was a son of Jeremiah Mason, the eminent lawyer; was born in Portsmouth, N. H., July 25, 1812; graduated at Harvard College, 1832. Dur-

ing his ministry the church was enlarged by a chan- cel and vestry-room. The congregation increased and there was growing strength and constant union in the parish. Mr. Mason resigned May 30, 1847, and became rector of Grace Church, Boston, in which office he continued until his death, March 23, 1862.

Rev. William R. Babcock came to the vacant rectorship April 30, 1848, and resigned April 18, 1853. He was born in Westerly, R. I., March 28, 1814; graduated at Brown University, 1837. From Salem he removed to Natchez, Miss. Rev. George Leeds succeeded him in the St. Peter's rectorship September 4, 1853, and resigned April 8, 1860. He was born in Dorchester, Mass., October 25, 1816. Mr. Leeds removed from Salein to Philadelphia, and died there April 15, 1885.

Rev. William Rawlins Pickman was the next rector. He took charge of the parish October 7, 1860, and left it in 1865. There was a serious interruption, in the course of his ministry, to the harmony which had existed before, and the agita- tion did not cease while he continued in office. Rev. James O. Scripture succeeded Mr. Pickman in November, 1865. He was born June 26, 1839 ; gradu- ated at Dartmouth College, 1860, and died August 9, 1868, having officiated in all the usual services, in- cluding the communion, at St. Peter's Church, the Sunday next preceding his death. He died sincerely mourned by his warmly attached and suddenly be- reaved congregation. From May I, 1870, to March 28, 1875, Rev. Edward M. Gushee filled the rectorship of St. Peter's, having been previously settled over St. Paul's Church in Wallingford, Conn. From Salem he removed to Cambridge, Mass., and is in charge of a church in that city. In 1872, during the ministry of Rev. Mr. Gushee, the stone chapel was erected in rear of the church. The present rector of St. Peter's, Rev. Charles Arey, D.D., commenced his services in Salem September 26, 1875. He came to Salem from St. John's Church in Buffalo, N. Y. He was born in Wellfleet, Mass., August 22, 1822.

TABERNACLE CHURCH .- The Tabernacle Church is next in age among the churches of Salem. The causes of its origin have been already mentioned, in part, in the story of the First Church, to which the reader is referred. In 1735 the disaffection in the First Church towards Rev. Samuel Fisk, its minister, came to a crisis, as has been stated, in his exclusion from the pulpit of that church, and his withdrawal with a majority of its members : Dr. Worcester says, " three-fourths, at least, of the church and society ;" the remaining members, in their petition calling for a meeting for reorganization, assert that the late minister " was dismissed by a major part of the brethren of the church of the First Parish, qualified by law to act in that matter." The preacher of the first Centennial Dis- course says that neither the day nor the month can be ascertained when Mr. Fisk and his friends deter-

SALEM.

mined to establish themselves upon a separate founda- tion, or when they consummated their determination by any formal process. In inquiring for the birth- day of this, the " Third," or Tabernacle Church, I in- eline to fix on May 4, 1735, as its probable date. This church conceived of itself as having had a con- tinnous life and identity with the church of 1629. It was not till the 23d of May, 1763, that, by a formal vote, it relinquished the title of the First Church and assumed that of the Third Church. But its date of actual beginning may be assumed to be the first time it assembled after its expulsion from the meeting- house of the First Church. If the exclusion was, as the record says, on the 27th of April, 1735, there can be no doubt that the congregation met somewhere, probably enough at the house of Joseph Orne, the next Sunday, which would be May 4, 1735. They soon began the building of a new meeting-house, which was completed in 1736. It will be remembered that they first placed it too near the house of the old parish, "only twelve perches and eleven feet" from it, and that the General Court ordered it to be re- moved to a limit "not nearer to the other than forty perches." This house stood nearly upon the site of the Perley Block, and was completed early in 1736.

In 1744 Mr. Fisk asked for a colleague. The confidence felt at first in his leadership and in the wisdom of the step taken in separating from the mother church, had begun to wane. Some correspondence was had with that church relative to an accommoda- tion. No agreement could be reached. Rev. Dudley Leavitt was called to be colleague with Mr. Fisk. He declined to take the office of colleague pastor, but, it was understood, might consider an invitation to be- come sole pastor. August 12, 1745, the congregation voted that Mr. Fisk be discharged from ecclesiastical relations with the society ; the church had taken simi- lar action two weeks before. The way being now considered open for Mr. Leavitt's settlement, the call to him was renewed and accepted, and he was or- dained October 23, 1745, not, however, peacefully. Mr. Fisk's friends were present at the time and place appointed in sufficient force to interrupt the public services and prevent the orderly proceedings of the ceremony. Those who had come together to settle the new minister retired from the tumultuous scene to a neighboring garden, where, under the shelter of a tree, the service of ordination took place. Mr. Lea- vitt died, sincerely lamented, February 7, 1762. The society prospered during his ministry. The church, says Mr. Worcester, became "more Calvinistic" un- der his preaching. Mr. Leavitt was born in Stratham, N. H., in 1720, and graduated at Harvard College in 1739. That his influence was marked in calming the troubled waters of controversy, that his mind was large and his spirit catholic, and that the impression made by his labors was deep and lasting, is shown by the fact that the church which had been led by his counsels not only surrendered its claim to the title of

First Church, soon after his death, but voted to take, in affectionate commemoration of him, the title of "The Church of which Rev. Dudley Leavitt was late Pastor." It kept this name from August 2, 1762, to May 23, 1763, when it voted to assume the name of the "Third Church."

Mr. John Huntington was ordained successor of Mr. Leavitt September 28, 1763, but lived less than three years from his ordination, dying May 30, 1766, at the early age of thiry years. He was born in Nor- wich, Conn., in 1736, and graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1763.

The next ministry was that of Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, D.D., which continued for fourteen or fifteen mostly stormy years. He was settled July 28, 1769, and his connection with the society was dissolved February 24, 1784. He made some un- usual conditions as preliminary to his acceptance of the society's invitation to Salem. The cus- tomary services of installation were not to be ob- served. Certain articles of agreement between him- self and the church must be adopted, changing ma- terially the method of church government and organ- ization from that usual with Congregational Churches, making it essentially Presbyterian. He afterwards endeavored to bring the church formally into connec- tion with the Boston Presbytery. He was himself a Presbyterian. With a view to substitute some equiv- alent for the omitted installation service, he proposed that the Rev. Messrs. Diman, Barnard and Holt, neigh- boring ministers, should be invited to be present "as friends to the society and the common cause of relig- ion." This was done, and the ministers invited re- turned an answer declining the invitation, not wish- ing to countenance proceedings which they character- ized as "irregular," and remonstrating against the course taken, though in an entirely friendly spirit. The church was prepared to comply with all requisi- tions made by the pastor-elect. He was a man of popular gifts ; his preaching was much admired. He was energetic, active, inclined to assume power and to take control in whatever matters engaged his interest. The conditions of the union between pastor and people had not been very distinctly drawn. The church, under the blinding glamours produced by the preach- er's brilliancy, accepted everything, and soon awoke to the fact that they were entangled in the meshes of various concessions not well defined, opening doors to misunderstanding and contentions which in due time ripened into open and bitter strife. On the 6th of October, 1774, the meeting-house of the society was burned. At this time those who had been pushing a resolute opposition to Dr. Whittaker withdrew and organized the church now known as the Soutlı Church. Reports unfavorable to Dr. Whittaker's character had been in circulation, and the secession of those who had withdrawn did not bring peace. The attendance upon his ministrations fell off, and after long and persistent efforts to accomplish the end,

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the society relieved itself of its discredited pastor and of Presbyterianism, and resumed its place among the Congregational Churches of the town.

After the burning of the first meeting-house the society built a new one on the corner of Washington and what was then Marlborough (now Federal) Streets, the site of the present church. The new church was built in 1776, though not supplied with pews until the following year. The society was not in a condition to make the building of it easy, or to bring it promptly to completion. When dedicated, it was, says Dr. Wor- cester, without galleries, without pulpit and without even plastering upon the walls. Being modeled after Whitfield's London Tabernacle, the building, and from it the church and congregation took, in the pop- ular speech, its name, which in time was adopted by the society, though without any definite action au- thorizing it. The close of Dr. Whittaker's ministry, in 1784, was in striking contrast with its imposing beginning. His friends were few, he had no regular salary, his parish was weak, his fame tarnished. He was born in Long Island, N. Y., February 22, 1732, graduated at Princeton College, 1752, and died Janu- ary 21, 1795, in Virginia.

Rev. Joshua Spaulding followed him. He was ordained October 26, 1785. The society recovered its strength under his ministry, and for a time prospered. The meeting-house, having added pul- pit and galleries, was finished and furnished. Mr. Spaulding, says Mr. Worcester, was a man of un- questioned piety, " but the vehemence and pungency with which he preached the distinguishing doctrines of grace often inflamed the enmity of the carnal mind," and tended to make him " less popular." En- gaging also in political controversy, both with pen and voice, and finally asserting his own right, as pas- tor, "to negative the votes of the church," he brought upon himself finally a warm and determined counter- action of his measures, within his church, and was led to ask a dismission, which took place April 23, 1802. He did not cease to minister to a portion of his flock, however, as those who disapproved of the action of the society in dismissing him withdrew with him from the church and organized "the Branch," or Howard Street Church, of which more is to be said in its place. Mr. Spaulding was born in Killingly, Conn., graduated at Dartmouth College, 1786, resigned the pastorship of the Branch Church May 4, 1814, and died September 26, 1825, at the age of sixty-five years.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 34

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