History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 36

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 36

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After the example of the mother church, from which it had its birth, this church, for a time-from 1814 to 1827 -- allied itself with Presbyterianism, and in time returned, after the same example, to the Congre- gational order. The characteristics of the first min- ister, Rev. Joshua Spaulding, have been touched upon in the notice of the Tabernacle Church. His minis- try in the Howard Street Church extended from April 17, 1805, to May 4, 1814, when he resigned and re- moved to the State of New York. He died Septem- ber 26, 1825. For nearly five years after Mr. Spauld- ing's removal the church was without a pastor. It joined the Presbytery of Newburyport. Rev. Henry Blatchford was installed in its ministry January 6, 1819, and resigned December 20th of the following year. He was born in Lansingburg, N. Y., graduated at Union College 1811, and died September 7, 1822. Mr. William Williams was ordained his successor July 5, 1821, and remained pastor of this church till February 17, 1832, when he resigned, on account of a division in the church, and on the 22d of November,

SALEM.

1832, was installed pastor of a newly-gathered church branch of this " branch," composed of a very consid- erable following of members of the Howard Street Church, who withdrew with the pastor.

Mr. George B. Cheever, the next minister of the church, was ordained Feb. 13, 1833, and resigned Jan. 4, 1838. He was born in Hallowell, Maine, April 17, 1807, and graduated at Bowdoin College 1825. His ministry was a busy one. An irrepressible vitality and mental activity gave his pen as little rest as his voice. He wrote for the journals and the reviews. His eyes were about him to see what was wrong and reprehensible in the customs of society and in the conduct of individuals. For giving his pen too great freedom in his strictures upon these he incurred a suit of libel and a judgment involving thirty days' im- prisonment. His theology was Puritanic and posi- tive. His convictions were strong and urgent. He was a zealous preacher of reform, a vehement orator, aggressive and unsparing in attack upon whatsoever and whomsoever he found, in his judgment, hinder- ing the cause of which he was the champion. In 1838 he became the pastor of the Allen Street Presbyterian Church in New York, and in 1846 was installed pas- tor of the Congregational Church of the Puritans in the same city. He still lives in a vigorous old age.

Rev. Charles T. Torrey was installed on the day on which Mr. Cheever was dismissed, January 4, 1838. He had been settled before as pastor of the Richmond Street Congregational Church, in Providence, R. I. He was born in Scituate November 21, 1813, grad- uated at Yale College 1833, resigned his charge in Salem July 21, 1839, and, after having twice suffered imprisonment in Baltimore, Md., for alleged viola- tion of the laws of that State in conspiring with slaves to effect their escape from bondage, died in the Mary- land penitentiary May 9, 1846.

Mr. Torrey regarded it as a great crime to enslave a fellow-man. He preached this conviction. He car- ried his faith into practice, and suffered for it. The story of his martyrdom, as told by Henry Wilson in "the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," possesses a sad, an almost romantic interest. "Well-born, with superior talents, education and professional prospects, a charming home, cheered by the presence of a lovely wife and little ones, he sacrificed them, disregarded the popular sentiment of the North, and braved the vengeance of the South, to aid the lowly and down- trodden." He claimed to have assisted four hundred slaves to obtain their freedom. He frankly told Rev- erdy Johnson, by whom he was defended in the courts of Maryland, that he had helped one of his slaves to escape. He attempted, with others, to get out of the Baltimore prison. Being betrayed, he was heavily ironed and placed in a damp and low arched cell, and treated worse than if he had been a murder- er. "I was loaded with irons weighing, I judge, twenty-five pounds, so twisted that I could neither stand up, lie down, nor sleep." December 30, 1843,

he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in the penitentiary. After his death, even the officials of the Park Street Church, in Boston, refused their per- mission to have the funeral services over his dead body in that church. But an indignant multitude followed his remains to Mount Auburn with tokens of sorrow and sympathy. And Faneuil Hall, the evening after, echoed the mournful but honoring words of his eulogists. Whittier wrote: "There lies the young, the beautiful, the brave ! He is safe now from the malice of his enemies. Nothing can harm him more. His work for the poor and helpless was well and nobly done. In the wild woods of Canada, around many a happy fireside and holy family altar, his name is on the lips of God's poor. He put his soul in their soul's stead ; he gave his life for those who had no claim on his love save that of human brotherhood."

Rev. Joel Mann, a native of Orford, N. H., and graduate of Dartmouth College 1810, was installed pastor of the Howard Street Church May 6, 1840, and resigned April 14, 1847. At the time of Mr. Mann's dismission the condition of the church seemed so hopeless of substantial revival from its divisions and losses, that the council called to dismiss him advised the church to "separate and unite with other churches till they can organize anew with a greater prospect of union and usefulness. The major part of the church complied, but the rest, claiming to be the Howard Street Church," still clung together, and maintained public worship, with small and steadily declining numbers, for about seventeen years longer, Rev. Messrs. M. H. Wilder, E. W. Allen and C. C. Beaman serving as ministers during that time. Rev. Mr. Beaman, the last of the number, came in 1857, and resigned October 2, 1864. The Howard Street meeting-house after being occupied a short time by a newly-formed " church of the New Jerusalem," was sold at auction, by authority of the Legislature June 28, 1867, to the First Methodist Society in Beverly, and in 1868 was taken down, transported across the river, and set up again on Railroad Avenue, Beverly, with the exception of the tower, which was not found in good enough condition for re-erection. This year (1887) a lofty tower has been added to the front end of the church, and an extension has also been made in the rear. The building was well worth preserving, whether for itself or its history. It was designed un- der the advice and direction of Mr. Samuel Macintire, a Salem carpenter, famous also as a successful church builder, the South meeting-house on Chestnut Street, in Salem, having been designed by him.

It will be seen by this brief sketch of the history of the Branch, or Howard Street Church,-not one of the older churches of Salem, beginning its existence with- in the present century, and but short-lived as the lives of churches are reckoned, having become extinct in about sixty years from its formation,-that it has had more of stirring incident, of eventful and disintegrat-

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ing controversy, of salient characteristics in its mem- bership and of striking biographical episodes in the carcer of its pastors than usually falls to the lot of churches of much longer life.

When the use of the North meeting-house was re- fused to Mr. Crowninshield and his friends, for the funeral services of Captain Lawrence and Lieutenant Ludlow, who lost their lives in the engagement be- tween the frigates Shannon and Chesapeake, in 1813, the doors of the Howard Street meeting-house were opened, and there Mr. Story's eulogy was deliv- ered. The inherent spirit of Puritanism, with its flavor of intense individuality, fearless assertion of freedom, its equally fearless application of condemna- tory truth, its stiff, " conscientious contentiousness, or contentious conscientiousness,"-this spirit lias had many a picturesque illustration in the brother- hood of "the Branch."

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH-It has been claimed that there were Baptists in Salem as early as the period of Roger Williams' residence and ministry here. They were here prior to 1639, at least. That year, says Felt, William Wickenden, a Baptist preacher, moved from Salem to Providence. That year the Salem Church notified the Dorchester Church that it has excommunicated Roger Williams and nine others named, all but two of them having been re-baptized. Anabaptists they were often called-that name signi- fying the " re-baptized." It was not till December 24, 1804, that the First Baptist Church was embodied in Salem. Its first place of worship was a frame build- ing, one story high, thirty-six by fifty-five feet in dimensions, standing not far from the spot now occupied by the meeting-house of the society. " This house faced the West, and stood on a high bank, forty or fifty feet East of North Street, with its Southern side nearly on the line of the present Odell court." It soon gave place to the present brick meeting-house, which was dedicated January 1, 1806. Since its opening, considerable land has been pur- chased to constitute the front on Federal Street, which, with various other improvements, have given the house and lot their present attractive aspect. In 1868 the interior of the building was reconstructed and improved throughout. October 31, 1877, it was vis- ited by fire, and its interior so destroyed as to require rebuilding entirely.

The first minister was Mr. Lucius Bolles, born in Ashford, Conn., September 25, 1779, graduated from Brown University 1801, and settled in Salem January 9, 1805. His connection with the church in Salem, as an active pastor, practically ceased in June, 1826, when his release from the pastoral office was requested and obtained of the church, by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, that he might become its corresponding secretary ; though for eight years after, till August 6, 1834, he con- tinued to be the senior pastor of the church, with- out discharging any of the duties of the office. He

died in Boston January 5, 1844. When Mr. Bolles came to Salem, those who adhered to the theological views of the Baptists "were few in numbers and fee- ble in resources," says Dr. R. C. Mills, in his fiftieth anniversary sermon : "The state of piety in the American churches was low." In theological opinions the early Baptists of America were strictly Calvinistic. The disintegration of the Calvinistic creed had pro- gressed in Eastern Massachusetts at the time this church was formed, so far as to cause those who still held it in its integrity, deep solicitude for its mainte- nance. The Baptist denomination was cordially allied with its supporters of other names, and regarded itself as in some sort an especial bulwark against the spread of the opposite errors; as the case was set forth by one of its ablest advocates : " Infant baptism led to Arminianism, and that to Socinianism in churches which had been strictly Calvinistic."

The Baptist Church increased from the first, and soon grew strong in Salem, under the devoted ministry of its earliest pastor. There was no considerable hostility at that time among the people at large, either to the tenets of this denomination respecting the mode and subjects of baptism, to which many persons inclined, or to their creed, the Unitarian controversy not having yet opened iuto public discussion. The use of the North meeting-house (corner of Lynde and North Streets) was asked for the ordination services at the settlement of Mr. Bolles, and was granted ; but, for some reason, they were held, not at the North, but at the Tabernacle Church; possibly because, though the vote granting the use at the North meeting-house passed, it became known that there were twelve dis- sentients among those voting. Dr. Bolles became eminent in his denomination. He laid his founda- tions well. A minister both capable and zealous, his period of service was long enough to educate a gener- ation, and so to fix habits, and to stamp his congre- gation with distinctive characteristics which have run on, doubtless, into the succeeding years. In twenty years, and before he left them, they were strong enough to colonize, and a second church was formed.

Rev. Rufus Babcock was installed as colleague with Dr. Bolles August 23, 1826, and was practi- cally the sole pastor, his senior having relinquished to him all pastoral duties. Mr. Babcock remained till October 11, 1833, when he resigned to accept the presidency of Waterville College, in Maine, his resignation being accepted by his people with re- luctance. Mr. Babcock was born in Colbrook, Conn., September 18, 1798, and was graduated at Brown University, 1821. After leaving Waterville he was pastor of churches in Philadelphia, Poughkeepsie, New Bedford and other places. He died in Salem, Mass., May 4, 1874, while on a visit among old friends.

August 6, 1834, Rev. John Wayland, having been a professor in Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., and called from that position to succeed Mr. Babcock,

SALEM.

was settled pastor of the church, and continued in office until near the close of 1841, his resignation be- ing accepted November 12th of that year. Mr. Way- land afterwards became an Episcopalian. He was held in high esteem by his parishioners in Salem. He was succeeded by Mr. Thomas D. Anderson, who was settled March 15, 1842. In 1848, his health hav- ing failed, he resigned, and his resignation was ac- cepted, January 28th of that year, with every testi- mony of regret on the part of the church at their loss.

Rev. Robert C. Mills was installed as the next pastor of the church June 14, 1848. Dr. Mills' ministry continued till April 21, 1876, when he resigned, and within a few years after removed to Newton, in which city he now resides. Dr. Mills was born, Feb- ruary 6, 1819, in New York City, and graduated at the University of New York 1837. His was the long- est sole and active pastorate this church has known, being but little short of twenty-eight years.

Rev. George E. Merrill succeeded Dr. Mills February 2,1877; his health failed after some years of activeser- vice, and he resigned June 1, 1885. He was born in Charlestown December 19, 1846, graduated at Har- vard College 1869, and bad been settled in Spring- field, Mass., from October, 1872, to Jannary, 1877. In the more equable and milder climate at the foot of the Rocky Mountains he has so far regained health as to be able to take charge of a Baptist Church at Colorado Springs, Col. Rev. Galusha Anderson, D. D., followed Mr. Merrill in the pastorship of the church, being · recognized as pastor November 18, 1885. He resigned his ministry January, 1887, to take the presidency of Granville College, Ohio. He had come to Salem from another important educa- tional position-that of the presidency of the Univer- sity of Chicago, Ill. Mr. Anderson was born in Ber- gen, Genesee County, N. Y., March 7, 1832, gradn- ated at Rochester, N. Y., 1854, was two years pastor of a Baptist Church in Janesville, Wis., from 1858 to 1866 pastor of the Second Baptist Church in St. Louis, Mo., from 1866 to 1873 professor in the Theo- logical Seminary at Newton, from 1873 to 1878 pas- tor of the Strong Place Church in Brooklyn, N. Y.

FREE-WILL BAPTIST .- There were two or three kindred religious movements in the early years of the century, which were not very clearly distin- guished from one another in the popular appre- hension, but whose differences assumed no incon- siderable importance, for a time at least, to those who contended for their respective tenets and built upon them. They had this in common : that they marked in some cases a partial modification, in some a pronounced rejection of Calvinistic doc- trinal standards, as a ground of Christian commu- nion and church fellowship. They also indicated the ecclesiastical unrest of the time, and showed a long- ing for greater spiritual freedom, a growing intel- lectual activity and courage, and, as a consequence, a perceptible widening of the scope of theological in-

quiry and religions sympathy. We find a society formed in 1806, which built a meeting-house on Eng- lish Street in 1807, and which Messrs. Osgood and Batchelder mention as a society of " Free-Will Bap- tists, sometimes called Christians." These two are quite different denominations, divided on theological grounds and on the conditions of fellowship. The society that worshipped in English Street was formed, says Felt, as a Free-Will Baptist Society. Thirty years later, in June, 1840, a portion of the society, having imbibed the views of Alexander Campbell, withdrew and organized a separate meeting, taking the name of "Christians " (especially repudiating the name Christ-ians, by which they were more commonly called), and worshipped in several different places till they became extinct. A list of the ministers of the Free-Will Baptist Society in " Felt's Annals " contains the following names: John Rand (1806-07), Abner Jones (1807-12), Samuel Rand (1813-14); Moses How (1816-19), Abner Jones, 1821. George W. Kelton, William Andrews, William Coe and Christopher Martin are also said to have preached for this people prior to 1840. Among the ministers who preached for the Christians were William W. Eaton (1843-47), David O. Gaskill (1847-50 or later).

UNIVERSALIST .- In 1804 a Universalist preacher, Samuel Smith by name, appointed a meeting at the Court House and preached, so far as is known, the first Universalist sermon ever heard in Salem. It was not altogether a satisfactory service to those who at- tended it, but served to bring together and make known to each other a considerable number of per- sons who were disposed to entertain with favor the views of that denomination. Between that time and 1808 meetings were held, at first at irregular intervals, but soon weekly, as an established Sunday congrega- tion. Varions ministers came and went,-the veteran John Murray, Hosea Ballon, Thomas Jones of Glou- cester, and others. The meetings were held in private houses at first, but a hall, or large room, in the new house of Nathaniel Frothingham, on Lynde Street, was found suitable, and there they stayed mostly, till their meeting-house was built. The soci- ety was organized in 1805, but its records for the first twenty-one years-from 1805 to 1826-are lost. In 1808, Ang. 17th, it laid the corner-stone of its meet- ing-house, at six o'clock in the morning ! and on the 22d of June, 1809, dedicated it, and installed a minis- ter the same day. A lot of land on St. Peter's Street (then known as Prison Lane), valned at a thou- sand dollars, had been given by Benjamin Ward for a meeting-house, covering, in part at least, the present site of the Central Baptist meeting-house, and now deemed more eligible than the spot in Rust Street on which the house was built, but not so regarded then ; it was accordingly sold, and the land bonght on which the church now stands. The minister settled on the day the church was dedicated was Rev. Edward Turner, who came from Charlton, Mass., where he

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

had been the minister of a Universalist society. He retained his connection with the Universalist society in Salem till June 1, 1814, when he accepted a call to the Universalist society in Charlestown, Mass. When, a few years later, the question whether all punishment for sin is limited to this life divided the Universalist denomination, Mr. Turner took the negative, and after severing his connection with the society in Charlestown he became identified with the Unitari- ans. He died in West Roxbury Jan. 24, 1853, at the age of seventy-six years. The line of ministers fol- lowing Mr. Turner may be conveniently given here, with their periods and in their order: Rev. Hosea Ballou, June 18, 1815, to Oct. 12, 1817; Rev. Joshua Flagg, Dec. 7, 1817, to March 1, 1820 ; Rev. Barzillai Streeter, Aug. 9, 1820, to Sept. 20, 1824; Rev. Seth Stetson, June 1, 1825, to March 23, 1828; Rev. Lem- uel Willis, March 25, 1829, to May 26, 1837 ; Rev Matthew Hale Smith, June 6, 1838, to April 5, 1840 ; Rev. Linus S. Everett, May 12, 1841, to April 12, 1846; Rev. Ebenezer Fisher, May 4, 1847, to Oct. 7, 1853 ; Rev. Sumner Ellis, Feb. 1, 1854, to Sept. 1, 1858 ; Rev. Willard Spalding, March 4, 1860, to Nov. 28, 1869; Rev. Edwin C. Bolles, D.D., June 18, 1871, to Sept. 1, 1887.

Several of these were preachers eminent within their denomination, and the fame of two or three went beyond it. Mr. Ballou was one of the earliest apostles of Universalism, possessing great native vigor of intellect, unfailing courage and a power of plain, simple and direct statement which made him one of the ablest and most effective among the advocates of his faith in the times of its earlier promulgation, when it was unpopular, and kept its earnest defenders in incessant controversy. He went from Salem to Boston, and for more than thirty-five years labored there. Rev. Matthew Hale Smith be- came widely known both as a champion and an assailant of Universalism. Versatile and having a facile command of pen and speech, a too easy mobil- ity carried him away from one to another denom- ination and back again, and from one to another profession in such rapid successiou that his confessions and renunciations lost their power of impression from their number and their nearness to each other. Rev. Mr. Willis' ministry is regarded as having been emi- nently useful, and helpful to the prosperity of the church. The ministry of Mr. Fisher and that of others since have been characterized by a devotion to Christian scholarship and a careful instruction of the people in religious truth. Dr. E. C. Bolles, the last of the line, now about leaving Salem, and whose pastorate is the longest upon the list, is known as one of the most prominent preachers in his own denomi- nation, while his services as a popular lecturer and speaker at gatherings non-denominational are in large demand. The society is large and prosperous, and has more than once given promise of coloniza- tion.

A second Universalist society was indeed organ- ized in 1844, and held its first public meeting in Lyceum Hall on the 12th of May of that year. Afterwards its meetings were held in Mechanics' Hall, then in the Sewall Street meeting-house, and finally in Phoenix Hall. On the 6th of June, 1852, however, it voted to discontinue its meetings, and was dis- banded. Its first settled pastor was Rev. Day K. Lee, who was succeeded by Rev. Messrs. Benjamin F. Bowles, S. C. Hewett and E. W. Reynolds. Again, about twenty-five years ago,-perhaps in 1861,-the experiment of maintaining a second Universalist place of worship was carried on for some months at Lyceum Hall, but no permanent organization came of it.

The Sunday-school connected with the first society was organized during the ministry of Mr. Willis, and by him, May 3, 1829, and "was the first in this de- nomination this side of Boston, and the third known to exist among the Universalists." It is at this time one of the largest, if not the largest, of the Protestant Sunday-schools in Salem.

The meeting-house has undergone several exten- sive and costly transformations since it was built, both within and without. In January, 1840, the changes necessary for the reception of an organ were made. In 1842 the pews of the gallery were taken out and replaced by new ones of more con- venient form, the walls and ceiling were painted in fresco, and other larger and lesser changes in different parts of the building were made, some of them to prepare for the placing of stoves. In 1855 still greater changes were carried through, with an outlay of several thousand dollars. The floor was raised, the old pews were removed, and an increased number with different arrangement took their place ; a new pulpit was put in, costing five hundred dollars and paid for by the ladies of the society. The whole interior was renewed in form and color. In 1857 the space in front of the church was opened and enlarged by the removal of a neighboring dwelling-house, while new fences and new bricking and boarding of side-walks made the approaches to it more roomy and pleasant. Again, in 1877, the spirit of improvement took the venerable building in hand and chauged its whole aspect, internally and externally, bringing it to its present appearance. Its original square, plain tower, stopping so abruptly and baldly as to suggest the likelihood of its not having been finished according to the builder's original intention, was carried up to its present graceful height and proportions, with some not excessive ornamentation. The new coloring with- out and within produced marked effects. The pulpit, regarded with so much pride in 1855, gave way to the modern platform and simple reading desk. It is now one of the largest and most satisfactory of the church edifices in the city,-a city which has a fair number of attractive houses of worship.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 36

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