History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 35

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 35

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The next minister, the fifth in the ministerial line of the Tabernacle Church, was Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D. He was installed pastor of the Tabernacle Church in Salem, April 20, 1803, and continned in the office till his death, June 7, 1821. His ministry covered a period of great religious activity, in and out of his church, in which he bore a conspicuous part. The Unitarian controversy, which divided many of the principal Congregational Churches of Eastern Massa- chusetts, was at its height. Dr. Worcester was a promi-

nent champion on the orthodox side, and wrote in opposition to Dr. Channing, especially in review of the sermon preached by Dr. Channing at the ordina- tion of Mr. John Emery Abbot over the North Church in Salem, April 20, 1815. He was an active promoter of the organization of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in 1810, and became its corresponding secretary. In his church the first missionaries to India were ordained and com- missioned on the 6th of February, 1812. His influ- ence extended widely beyond his society, and was strong and deep within it. His labors outside his church became so weighty and engrossing that a col- league was settled in 1819, that his connection with his people might continue, though only a part of his time and strength could be devoted to their service. The meeting-house underwent no little change during these years. In 1804 it lost its dome and belfry in a tempest. The next year a steeple was built upon its front, changing it materially from its original tent- like form. Mr. Worcester was born in Hollis, N. H., November 1, 1770, graduated at Dartmouth College, 1795, and had been five years pastor of a church in Fitchburg before his settlement in Salem. He was a younger brother of Noah Worcester, the "apostle of peace," and the author of "Bible News " and some other important contributions to the Trinitarian con- troversy, upon the Unitarian side.

The colleague settled with Dr. Worcester, July 21, 1819, was Mr. Elias Cornelius, a native of Somers, N. Y., born July 31, 1794, graduated at Yale College 1813, dismissed from the Tabernacle Church December 22, 1826, to take a position in the service of the Amer- ican Education Society. He died February 12, 1832. His parish esteemed him an able and devoted man, and regretted his departure. February 14, 1827, John P. Cleaveland succeeded him. Mr. Cleaveland was born in Rowley July 19, 1799, graduated at Bowdoin College, 1821, was dismissed from the Tab- ernacle Church May 14, 1834.

His successor, the eighth in the pastoral line, was Rev. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, son of Rev. Samuel, chronicled above as the fifth in the line. He was born in Fitchburg, September 4, 1801 ; graduated at Harvard College, 1822 ; from 1823 to 1834 professor in Amherst Col- lege; settled in Salem December 3, 1834; resigned Jannary 31, 1860; died August 16, 1866. His tastes, though scholarly, and his training, though directed to service in the church, did not limit his sympathies and activities to scholastic or ecclesiastical lines. He was a true patriot and took a profound interest in the national crisis which the country passed through in the years from 1860 to 1865. He had represented the town of Amherst, the city of Salem and Essex County in the State Legislature. His orthodoxy was stanch and positive, but his spirit was genial and kind, and his bearing was courteous and friendly with all.

iti=川北."

Thor Barnard

SALEM.

A new church-the present building-was erected in 1854, on or near the site of the old, and a large new chapel, of two stories, was built in its rear and in connection with it, in 1868,-the ample size and commodiousness of these buildings attesting the prosperity of the society, and the largeness of the wants they were designed to meet.

Mr. Charles Ray Palmer was ordained pastor of the church August 29, 1860, and dismissed June 13, 1872. Mr. Palmer was born in New Haven, Conn., May 2, 1834; graduated at Yale College, 1855, and, after his dismission from the Tabernacle Church, became the pastor of a church in Bridgeport, Coun. From June, 1872 to Dec. 31, 1873, the church was without a pastor. On the last-named date Rev. Hiram B. Putnam was installed. His health failed, causing him to seek a dismission, which took place March 15, 1877. Mr. Putnam was born in Danvers January 27, 1840; graduated at Amherst College, 1860, and had been settled over a church in West Concord, N. H., before his installation in Salem. Rev. De Witt S. Clark, the present pastor of the church, was installed January 15, 1879. He was born in Chicopee, Mass., September 11, 1841; graduated at Amherst College, 1863, and had been pastor of a church in Clinton, Mass., before his settlement in Salem.

NORTH CHURCH .- On the 3d of March, 1772, The Proprietors of the North Meeting House organized themselves into a religious society with the above title, in the Salem Town Hall. They had been mem- bers of the First Parish ; there were forty-three. On the 19th of July of the same year, fifty-two persons, having received a dismission from the First Church on the 16th of May preceding, met at the house of Ben- jamin Pickman, on Essex Street, opposite St. Peter's Street, constituted themselves a church, which they afterwards voted should be called the North Church. This secession from the First Parish grew out of a disagreement in the choice of a minister. In 1770 the highly-esteemed minister of the First Church, Rev. Thomas Barnard, became disabled by paralysis, and his people looked for a colleague. Thomas Barnard, Jr., a son of the pastor, who had a little before com- pleted his preparation for the ministry, supplied his father's pulpit for some months, and about half of the society earnestly desired his settlement as colleague pastor. A small majority preferred another man, who, after much delay, was called and ordained. The disappointed friends of the younger Barnard were unwilling to give him up, and organized the new (North) society, as above related. A site for a meeting-house had been selected and purchased on the 14th of February, 1772, on the corner of Lynde and North Streets, on the western line of what was early known as "Sharpe's Training-Field." This meeting-house was first opened for public worship August 23, 1772, though not nearly completed. After occupying it three Sundays, the proprietors deter- mined to add side-galleries, not originally contem- 4

plated in the plan of the building committee. It was not considered finished till nearly five months after the society began to meet in it. It was a house of large capacity, and was on that account much re- sorted to for civic celebrations ou the Fourth of July, and on other public days, for many years. Thomas Barnard, Jr., was ordained January 13, 1773, and continued in the pastoral office till October 1, 1814, the day of his death. He came of a ministerial an- cestry. His father, an uncle, a grandfather, a great- grandfather had all been preachers; nor does this roll completely sum up the clerical kinsmen descended from the American progenitor, Rev. Francis Barnard of Hadley. Thomas Barnard, Jr., was born in New- bury, February 5, 1748; graduated at Harvard College, 1766, and studied theology with Dr. Williams, of Bradford, afterwards professor at Harvard College. The North Society suffered in common with other churches during the Revolutionary War. Mr. Barn- ard at first leaned to the side of the Royalists, and a considerable number of his leading parishioners were pronounced Loyalists, including several who quit the country. He turned to the Whig side, how- ever, before long, and was afterwards steadfast in that way. Though but a young man, he made him- self prominent at the North Bridge, when Colonel Leslie, the British officer, came at the head of three hundred men from Marblehead, for guns supposed to be collected and deposited on the other side of the North River. He bore himself with dignity and firm- ness that day, albeit as a pacificator of the roused passions ready to burst into a flame. He has the credit of counseling the compromise which saved bloodshed, aud led to the turning back of the King's troops, leaving the object of the expedition unac- complished.

Dr. Barnard's long ministry justified the loyalty of his early friends. He was broad-minded, wise and catholic in spirit, effective as a preacher, genial and trustworthy as a friend and a pastor, fond of chil- dren, and the society was united and prosperous through his ministry. As a scholar he stood well among the scholarly. He was held in such honor among the preachers of his day, and was of such repu- tation in the churches and in the State, as to be often sought to preach on days of general public conven- tion, both ecclesiastical and other. Among the able pulpit leaders of thought in a highly intelligent com- munity, and at a time when theological inquiry was exciting great interest, and becoming more free and earnest, he held an eminent place, held it long, and at the close of his forty years and more of service, his influence showed no sign of waning. In his theo- logical opinions he belonged to the liberal school, and so educated his congregation that they elected a Uni- tarian to succeed him with hearty unanimity.

That successor was John Emery Abbot, son of the distinguished head of Phillips Academy, in Exeter, N. H., Dr. Benjamin Abbot. Mr. Ab-

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

bot was born at Exeter August 6, 1793, graduated at Bowdoin College 1810, and pursued his professional studies partly at Cambridge, under the direction of Dr. Henry Ware, Sr .; and partly with Dr. Wil- liam Ellery Channing, of Boston, who preached at his ordination as minister of the North Church, April 20, 1815. The sermon of Dr. Channing on this occasion produced a deep and wide-spread impression, and was followed by strictures and controversial arguments against its positions from the pen of Dr. Samuel Worcester, of the Tabernacle Church, in Salem. Mr. Abbot, not yet twenty-two years of age, taking charge of this large society, and giving him- self with great devotion to the studies and labors incidental to a position so exacting and responsible, broke down in health within two years. Rest and travel brought only temporary and partial alleviation to his illness, and he died at his father's house in Exeter October 7, 1819. Though his ministry was so short, it left a lasting influence. Mr. Abbot was a good scholar and a conscientious student. But his highest power lay in a soul of deep religious sen- sibility, a character of rare purity and loftiness of aim, and a consecrated fidelity.

Mr. John Brazer succeeded him. His ordination took place November 14, 1820. Mr. Brazer was born in Worcester, Mass., September 21, 1789, grad- uated at Harvard College 1813, was appointed tutor in Greek in the college 1815, and from 1817 to 1820 was tutor in Latin. His ministry in Salem ended with his life, February 26, 1846. In Jan- uary, 1846, he left his home in Salem for a milder climate, his health requiring rest and change; and he died at the plantation of his friend and class- mate, Dr. Benjamin Huger, on Cooper River, near Charleston, S. C. Dr. Brazer was of a sensitive and nervous temperament, which made him seem reserved, almost shy, to many, but he was a friend of the poor, and a minister of comfort to the sorrow- ing. Conservative by nature, he was a preacher of commanding power, clear and logical in thought, grave and dignified in manner, serious and searching in bringing truth home to the conscience. For the twenty-five years and more of his ministry he held one of the largest and most intelligent congregations in Massachusetts in close and united attendance upon his services. During all this period the society was in a condition of the highest prosperity. It was during the ministry of Dr. Brazer that the present stone church was built on Essex Street. The ques- tion of building was some time in agitation. The project was not finally approved by all. But the majority having decided upon it, the corner-stone was laid May 16, 1835, and the church was dedicated June 22, 1836. It was finished at first perfectly plain in its interior, with white walls. In 1847 it was completely changed within, and assumed its present appearance, under the direction of the late Francis Peabody, Esq.

Mr. Octavius Brooks Frothingham was ordained successor to Dr. Brazer March 10, 1847. He was born in Boston November 26, 1822, graduated at Harvard College 1843, resigned his charge in Salem April 9, 1855, and was installed pastor of a newly- gathered Unitarian Society in Jersey City, N. J., . September 11, 1855. The year following he re- moved to the city of New York and became the minister of the Third Unitarian Society in that city, where for many years he was widely known as an eloquent expositor of so-called "radical" religious thought. Leaving this position in somewhat im- paired health, Mr. Frothingham, after a period of travel and rest, has taken up his residence in Boston. Mr. Frothingham's ministry in the North Society produced some results worthy of notice. In the first years of it his theological views and his ideal of the ministerial aim were in closest accord with those of his hearers. They were what were termed, in the phrase of the day, conservative. But a change came -by the fault of nobody. The minister was in earnest in the pursuit of truth. It led him, in time, to conclusions which modified materially his pulpit utterances. Some persons who could not change with him no longer enjoyed his ministrations as before. But we have to notice that an important edu- cation went on under this experience of listening to teachings in themselves not welcome, not accepted, but heard with respectful attention, because of the recognized ability and sincerity of the preacher. It gave the society broader sympathies, a more fear- less spirit of inquiry, and a tolerant, self-possessed and catholic mind towards all forms of honest thought. A habit of candid hearing grew ; novel and unaccept- able teachings were heard with patience; the mind was not thrown off its balance by hearing its cher- ished opinions arraigned or denied. During the min- istry of Mr. Frothingham the society huilt its vestry, in the summer of 1853.

Rev. Charles Lowe succeeded Mr. Frothingham. Mr. Lowe was born in Portsmouth, N. H., Novem- ber 18, 1828, graduated at Harvard College 1847, was tutor in Greek and Latin in the college 1850-51, ordained colleague pastor with Rev. John Weiss, in New Bedford, July 28, 1852, resigned in 1854, on account of ill-health, installed minister of the North Church, Salem, September 27, 1855, and re- signed July 28, 1857, as before, on account of ill health. On the 28th of May, 1859, he was in- stalled minister of the Congregational (Unitarian) Church in Somerville, and after a ministry of nearly six years, was once more compelled by the state of his health to resign. With a partial regaining of his health there came, as was always sure to come with returning strength, a desire of active service, and he gave several years of efficient administration to the American Unitarian Association, as its secretary, be- sides cditing for a time the Unitarian Review. Mr. Lowe dicd June 20, 1874.

E.B. Willson.

SALEM.

The present minister of the North Society is Rev. Edmund B. Willson, who was installed June 5, 1859. He was born in Petersham, Mass., August 15, 1820, was a little while in Yale College, and graduated at the Cambridge Divinity School, 1843, ordained in Grafton, Mass., January 3, 1844, installed in West Roxbury July 18, 1852.

SOUTH CHURCH .- Mention has been made of a di- vision in the Third (uow known as the Tabernacle) Church, in 1774, growing out of dissatisfaction with Dr. Whitaker, and a secession or dismission of some thirty-eight members has been noticed as having taken place after the church was burned. Those withdrawing purchased the Assembly House, as it was called, built in 1766, which stood on the site of the present vestry of the South Church, and estab- lished public worship there. They organized church, which an ecclesiastical council, so far as such a council was empowered to confer and confirm a title, authorized to take the name of the Third Church. An issue was made later as to its right to do so. It was argued that not even an ecclesiastical council has retroactive power to alter facts, or to enact that a misrepresentation shall have the force of truth ; that this was not made the Third Church in Salem by a declaration that such should be its name. There was a Third Church of the Congregational order (chrono- logically), and this was not it. We must suppose that the church worshipping in Cambridge Street considered itself, on some ground or other, as having come right- fully into possession of the title which its mother church, Dr. Whitaker's, had enjoyed, but had now forfeited. It can hardly claim that, by reason of Dr. Whitaker's or the church's defection from Con- gregationalism to Presbyterianism, the title of the Third Church had lapsed or become a disnsed and un- claimed waif, which any church might pick up and appropriate at will. If the transfer of Dr. Whita- ker's church to the Presbyterian body, real or quasi, had broken the line of descent, it surely had broken it as fatally for the daughter church as for the mother. If : Whitaker's church was not the Third Church, there was none, or the North Church was that, for the North Church was organized in 1772. If the church worshipping on Cambridge Street was the Third Church, what was that church still existing under the ministry of Dr. Whitaker ? It was not extinct. Had the withdrawing portion of the society conveyed away with it the entire and identical body, of which it had been but a member - a part? and could it assert its lineal and unbroken de- scent from Rev. Samuel Fisk's church ? It seems to do so. What did this withdrawal of the aggrieved do to Dr. Whitaker's church ecclesiastically, legally, or as simple fact ? Here it is to-day, under whatever name, the same church that has had a continuous life from 1735 to this year of grace.

Such has been the general line of argument and statement pursued by those who have questioned the

historical truth of that name adopted by the church of the Sonth Society in February, 1775. We do not see how it is to be answered. There was one more church in Salem after February 14, 1775, than there had been before. Can there be any question which one began at that time, or that, in fact, the church of the South Society was the new one, whose ex- istence dates from that time ?

The meeting-house of the Third Church, on Essex Street, was burned on the 6th of October, 1774. The dismissed members and those who joined them in the new enterprise had their purchased house of worship ready for occupation on the 18th of December following. The church was, in the phrase of its own preference, "recognized" by a council called for that purpose, February 14, 1775, and this may be taken, in our judgment, as the date of the beginning of the church's independent exist- ence. The society called itself the Third Congrega- tional Society till March 15, 1805, when it was incor- porated under the title of "The Proprietors of the New South Meeting-house," on entering its new (the present) meeting-house on Chestnut Street. This house, built in 1804, was dedicated January 1, 1805. It was remodeled and renewed throughout in its interior in 1860, but its fine exterior architectural forms and proportions were preserved unchanged.

The first minister was Mr. Daniel Hopkins, a younger brother of Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of Newport, R. I., the famed theologian and founder of a school of divinity well known in the beginning of the cen- tury. He was born in Waterbury, Conn., October 16,1734, graduated at Yale College, 1758, and tanght a school for young ladies in Salem from 1766 to 1778, this being "the first school for the exclusive instruction of young ladies ever instituted in Salem, and taught by a gentleman." While teaching he preached as opportunity offered. He was ordained November 18, 1778, and his ministry continued till his death, December 14, 1814, he having the assist- ance of a colleague from 1805. Mr. Hopkins pos- sessed some of the traits of his more distinguished brother. They were both more than ministers, warm patriots, and did good service for their country dur- ing the Revolutionary crisis. Mr. Hopkins, of New- port, was a resolute foe to slavery ; the Salem brother was a forward advocate of independence. He was a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775, and in 1778 was elected a member of the Council of the Con- ventional government. His theological views were in substantial accord with his brother's. His sermons were not written beyond a mere outline. "The doc- trines he preached," says his son-in-law and colleague, Mr. Emerson, "and the plain, direct and pungent manner in which he presented them, procured for him warm friends and bitter enemies. Such was the opposition awakened against him, that a committee, consisting of some of the most influential men in the town, waited upon him at his residence, and made

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

a formal and earnest request that, for the peace of the community, he would leave the town. With characteristic shrewdness, he closed his eyes, smoothed down his face and mildly said, 'Gentle- men, I smoke my own tobacco.' The committee withdrew and gave him no further trouble." At the same time that he is described as giving offense by the severity and point of his preaching, enforced, too, with the vigor of a man of strong native talent, he is said to have been of a kind and amiable disposition, affable and courteous in social intercourse, his con- versation marked by good sense and pleasantry.

April 24, 1805, shortly after entering the new meet- ing· house, Mr. Brown Emerson was ordained col- league pastor, and commenced a ministry of the re- markable length of sixty-seven years, ending with his life, July 25, 1872. During thirty-five of these years he was sole pastor, having been for the first nine years the junior pastor with Dr. Hopkins, and the last twenty-three years the senior pastor with two juniors, successively, Rev. Mr. Dwinell'and Rev. Mr. Atwood. For the last fifteen or twenty years of his life his participation in the duties of the ministerial office was slight and infrequent, and for a few years had ceased altogether. He was born at Ashby, Mass., January 8, 1778, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1802. The union and strength in which the society maintained itself, while he ministered to it, best attest the quality of the man. In the days of his highest vigor and fullest activity he was a preacher acceptable to his hearers, and fulfilled the duties of his office to the satisfaction of those who attended upon his ministry.

Mr. Israel E. Dwinell was ordained colleague with Mr. Emerson November 22, 1849, and resigned on ac- count of loss of health in 1863, and removed to Cali- fornia, in whose more genial climate he has filled a pastorate of many years in Sacramento, and since, for some years, a professorship in the Theological Sem- inary in Oakland, California. He was born in East Calais, Vermont, October 24, 1820, and graduated at Burlington, Vermont, in 1843. Rev. Edward S. At- wood succeeded Mr. Dwinell and is the present pas- tor of the church. He was born in Taunton, Massa- chusetts, June 4, 1833, graduated at Brown University in 1852, and was installed in Salem October 13, 1864. He had been pastor of a church in Grantville (now Wellesley Hills) previous to his settlement in Salem.

BRANCH CHURCH (or HOWARD STREET) .- It has appeared more than once in these annals that the Puritans did not leave behind them, on quitting England and its church establishment, the elements of dissent and causes of division. From every form of dissent dissenters were sure in time to arise; and if doctrines afforded no pre- text for non-conformity, administration did. Some- times voluntarily, sometimes upon compulsion, the division took place, only to be followed by sub-divi- sion. The multiplication of churches came oftener

from explosive forces within, producing cleavage, than from the requirements of increasing population. Each portion, majority and minority, seceders and seceded-from, kept in itself its proportion of the seeds ofseparatism. Separatists who had once tried non-con- formity and self-exile had had a lesson and an experi- ence which rendered a repetition of the experiment by them the more probable and the more easy. Sometimes the pastor headed the exiles, as did Rev. Sam'l Fisk, lea- ving the church without a pastor ; sometimes the pastor drove a restive portion of the flock into the wilderness without a shepherd, as in the case of the thirty-eight brethren and sisters of Dr. Whitaker's church. And now again, in 1803, from this same church goes out the minister, Rev. Joshua Spaulding, leading forth such as preferred sharing with him exodus and uncer- tainty to remaining safe in the fold of the mother church without his voice to guide. In this way came into being "the Branch " Church (as it was at first called, afterwards (from its location, the Howard Street Church). These emigrants from the Tabernacle Church possessed abundance of energy and faith, if they were not rich in this world's goods. Organized December 29, 1803, after a brief period of meeting in a private house, then in a vestry loaned them, and for a time in chance pastures with neighboring flocks, they built a large and handsome meeting-house on Howard Street in 1804, which they dedicated Febru- ary 8, 1805. They were not a quiet people. Their history is colored by varying fortunes. The spirit of zeal, independence and aggressive reform had its home among them. Temperance and slave-emancipa- tion numbered warm and self-sacrificing advocates in both pulpit and pew. Those who "sat under" the preaching of Rev. George B. Cheever and Rev. Charles T. Torrey were in no danger of sleeping under it, nor of resting in indifference to the great social evils of their time.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 35

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