History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 119

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 119

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Soon after his marriage Thompson became ac- quainted with Governor Wentworth, of New Hamp- shire, who, struck by his appearance and bearing, conferred on nim the majority of a local regiment of militia. He speedily became the object of distrust among the friends of the American cause, and it was considered prudent that he should seek an early op- portunity of leaving the country. On the evacuation of Boston by the royal troops, therefore, in 1776, he was selected by Governor Wentworth to carry de- spatches to England. On his arrival in London he almost immediately attracted the attention of Lord George Germaine, secretary of state, who appointed him to a clerkship in his office. Within a few months he was advanced to the post of secretary of the province of Georgia, and in abont four years he was made under-secretary of state. His official du- ties, however, did not materially interfere with the prosecution of scientific pursuits, and in 1779 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Among the subjects to which he especially directed his attention were the explosive force of gunpowder, the construc-

tion of firearms, and the system of signaling at sea. In connection with the last, he made a cruise in the Channel fleet, on board the "Victory," as a volunteer under the command of Admiral Sir Charles Hardy. On the resignation of Lord North's administration, of which Lord George Germaine was one of the least lucky and most unpopular members, Thompson left the civil service, and was nominated to a cavalry command in the revolted provinces of America. But the War of Independence was practically at an end, and in 1783 he finally quitted active service, with the rank and half-pay of a lieutenant-colonel. He now formed the design of joining the Austrian army, for the purpose of campaigning against the Turks, and so crossed over from Dover to Calais with Gibbon, who, writing to his friend Lord Sheffield, calls his fellow - passenger "Mr. Secretary-Colonel-Admiral- Philosopher Thompson." At Strasburg he was intro- duced to Prince Maximilian, afterwards elector of Bavaria, and was by him invited to enter the civil and military service of that state. Having obtained the leave of the British Government to accept the prince's offer, he received the honor of knighthood from George III., and during eleven years he re- mained at Munich as minister of war, minister of police, and grand chamberlain to the elector. His political and courtly employments, however, did not absorb all his time, and he contributed during his stay in Bavaria a number of papers to the Philosoph- ical Transactions. But that he was sufficiently alert as the principal adviser of the elector the results of his labors in that capacity amply prove. He reorgan- ized the Bavarian army; he suppressed mendicity and found employment for the poor; and he im- mensely improved the condition of the industrial classes throughout the country by providing them with work and instructing them in the practice of domestic economy. Of the prompt and the business- like manner in which he was wont to carry his plans into execution, a single example may serve as an il- lustration. The multitude of beggars in Bavaria had long been a public nuisance and danger. In one day Thompson caused no fewer than 2600 of these out- casts and depredators, in Munich and its suburbs alone, to be arrested by military patrols and trans- ferred by them to an industrial establishment which he had prepared for their recepti n. In this institu- tion they were both housed aud fed, and they not only supported themselves by their labors but earned a surplus for the benefit of the electoral revennes. The principle on which their treatment proceeded is stated by Thompson in the following memorable words: "To make vicious and abandoned people happy," he says, "it has generally been supposed ne- cessary first to make them virtuous. But why not reverse this order? Why not make them first happy, and then virtuous ?" In 1791 he was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and chose his title of Rumford from the name as it then was of the Ameri-

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can township to which his wife's family belonged. In 1795 he visited England, one incident of his journey being the loss of all his private papers, including the materials for an autobiography, which were contained in a box stolen from off his post-chaise in St. Paul's Churchyard. During his residence in London he applied himself to the discovery of methods for curing smoky chimneys and the contrivance of im- provements in the construction of fireplaces. But he was quickly recalled to Bavaria, Munich being threat- ened at once by an Austrian and a French army. The elector fled from his capital, and it was entirely owing to Rumford's energy and tact that a hostile occupa- tion of the city was prevented. It was now proposed that he should be accredited as Bavarian ambassador in London ; but the circumstance that he was a Brit- ish subject presented an unsurmountable obstacle. He, however, again came to England, and remained there in a private station for several years. In 1799 he, in conjunction with Sir Joseph Banks, projected the establishment of the Royal Institution, which received its charter of incorporation from George III. in 1800. Rumford himself selected Sir Humphrey Davy as the first scientific lecturer there. Until 1804, when he definitely settled in France, Rumford lived at the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street, or at a house which he rented at Brompton, where he passed his time in the steady pursuit of those re- searches relating to heat and light and the economy of fuel, on which his scientific fame is principally based. He then established himself in Paris, and married (his first wife having been dead for many years) as his second wife the wealthy widow of Lavoi- sier, the celebrated chemist. With this lady he led an extremely uncomfortable life, till at last they agreed to separate. Rumford took up his residence at Auteuil, where he died suddenly in 1814, in the sixty-second year of his age.

He was the founder and the first recipient of the Rumford medal of the London Royal Society. He was also the founder of the Rumford medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Rumford professorship in Harvard University. His complete works were published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston in 1872, and a full and extremely interesting memoir of the author which was issued with them was republished in Lon- don by Messrs. Macmillan in 1876.

ARTISTS RESIDENT IN WOBURN : BENJAMIN CHAMP- NEY AND ALBERT THOMPSON.1

BENJAMIN CHAMPNEY, painter, born in New Ipswich, N. H., Nov. 20, 1817. He was graduated at Appleton Academy, in his native town, in 1834. He went to Boston in that year, worked in Pendleton's lithographic establishment in 1837-40, studied and painted at the Louvre, Paris, in 1841-46, then visited

Italy with Kensett, and, revisiting Europe in 1847- 48, painted a panorama of the Rhine. Since 1853 he has passed his summers at North Conway, N. H., where he has a cottage and a studio, and has painted many White mountain views, as well as those of Switzerland, which are owned in and around Boston. He was president of the Boston Art Club in 1858, and in 1865-66 he again visited Europe, spending a sum- mer in Brittany.

ALBERT THOMPSON, artist, born in Woburn, Mass., Mar. 18, 1853. He became a pupil of William E. Norton in 1873, and in 1872 and 1875 traveled in Europe. During 1880-81 he studied in Paris under Jules J. Lefebvre and Gustave R. C. Boulanger at Julien's academy, and also anatomy at the École des beaux arts. Among his works, mainly landscapes and cattle-pieces, are "After the Shower " (1876) ; "Clearing up" (1877) ; "More Wind than Rain," in Woburn Public Library (1885) ; and "Changing Past- ure " and "An October Afternoon " (1886). He is the author of "Principles of Perspective" (Boston, 1878).

INVENTORS : SAMUEL BLODGET, A NATIVE, AND CHARLES GOODYEAR, A RESIDENT OF WOBURN.

SAMUEL BLODGET, inventor, born in Woburn, Mass., April 1, 1724; . died in Haverhill, Mass., Sept. 1, 1807. He participated in the French and In- dian war, was a member of the expedition against Louisbourg in 1745, and afterwards became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Hills- borough, N. H. In 1783, with a machine of his own invention, he raised a valuable cargo from a ship sunk near Plymonth, Mass., and then went to Europe for the purpose of engaging in similar enterprises. He met with discouragement in Spain, and his prop- osition in England to raise the "Royal George " was unsuccessful. On his return to the United States he established a duck factory in 1791, and in 1793 re- moved to New Hampshire, where he began the canal that bears his name around Amoskeag Falls in the Merrimack. He expended a large sum of money on this enterprise without being able to complete the work, and, becoming financially embarrassed, was for a time imprisoned for debt. See "Massachusetts Historical Collections " (second series, vol. iv., pp. 153, 154). (Cf. Woburn Journal, October 25, 1873, for an extended sketch.)

CHARLES GOODYEAR, inventor, born in New Haven, Conn., December 29, 1800; died in New York City July 1, 1860. In 1834 Goodyear first turned his at- tention to the substance of India rubber, and from then until his death the idea of producing from it a solid elastic material cccupied his entire mind. His ex- periments were conducted in Philadelphia, New York and in different towns of Massachusetts, with bis family always in want, and himself frequently in prison for debt. Although he died in debt, he lived to see his material applied to nearly 500 uses, and to give employment to upward of 60,000 persons.

1 From Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.

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"At Woburn, one day in the spring of 1839, after five years' previous investigation, he was standing, with his brother and several other persons, in a store near a very hot stove. He held in his band a mass of his compound of sulphur and gum, upon which he was expatiating in his usual vehement manner, the company exhibiting the indifference to which he was accustomed. In the crisis of his argument he made a violent gesture, which brought the mass in contact with the stove, which was hot enough to melt India rubber instantly. Upon looking at it a moment after he perceived that liis compound had not melted in the least degree ! It had charred as leather does, but no part of the surface had dissolved; there was not a sticky place upon it. To say that he was astou- ished at this would but faintly express his ecstasy of amazement. The result was absolutely new to all experience-India rubber not melting in contact with red-hot iron ! Eagerly he showed his charred India rubber to his brother and to the other bystand- ers, and dwelt upon the novelty and marvelousness of his fact.

" Then we see him resorting to the shops and fac- tories in the neighborhood of Woburn, asking the privilege of using an oven after working hours, or of hanging a piece of India rubber in the man-hole of the boiler. If the people of New England were not the most ' neighborly ' people in the world, his fam- ily must have starved or he must have given up his experiments. But with all the generosity of his neighbors, his children were often sick, hungry and culd, without medicine, food or fuel. One witness testifies, --

" ' I found (in 1839) that they had not fuel to burn, nor food to eat, and did not know where to get a morsel of food from one day to another, unless it was sent in to them.'

" By the time that he had exhausted the patience of the foreman of the works near Woburn, he had come to the conclusion that an oven was the proper means of applying heat to his compound. An oven he forthwith determined to build.

to his mind. To this gentleman he determined to apply for relief, if he could reach his house. Terri- ble was his struggle with the wind and the deep drifts. Often he was ready to faint with fatigue, sickness and hunger, and he would be obliged to sit down upon a bank of snow to rest. He reached the house and told his story, not omitting the oft-told tale of his new discovery, that mine of wealth if only he could procure the means of working it! The eager eloquence of the inventor was seconded by the gaunt and yellow face of the man. His generous acquaint- ance entertained him cordially, and lent him a sum of money, which not only carried his family through the worst of the winter, but enabled him to continue his experiments on a small scale. O. B. Coolidge, of Woburn, was the name of this benefactor."

These selections are from Parton's Famous Ameri- cans of Recent. Times.

COLLEGE PRESIDENTS, NATIVES OF WOBURN : SAMUEL LOCKE AND JAMES WALKER.

SAMUEL LOCKE, educator, born in Woburn, Mass., 23d November, 1732 ; died in Sherborn, Mass., 15th January, 1778. He was graduated at Harvard in 1755 ; ordained a minister at Sherburne, 7th Novem- ber, 1759, and retained this pastorate till 1769, when he was appointed president of Harvard, 21st March, 1769. On 1st December, 1773, he resigned from the presidency, and spent the remainder of his life in re- tirement. Harvard conferred on him the degree of D.D. in 1773. The only production of Dr. Locke's in priot is his "Convention Sermon " (1772).

JAMES WALKER, president of Harvard, born in Burlington or in Woburn, Mass, of which that town was then a part, 16th August, 1794; died in Cam- bridge, Mass., 23d December, 1874. He was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1814, studied theology at Cam- bridge, and was pastor of the Unitarian Church in Charlestown for twenty-one years. During this period he was active in his parochial duties and in advocat- ing the cause of school and college education, lec- tured extensively and with success, and was a close student of literature and philosophy. In 1831-39 he was an editor of the Christian Examiner. He re- signed his pastorate in July, 1839, and the following September became professor of moral and intellectual philosophy in Harvard, was elected its president in 1853, and held office till his resignation, in 1860. He devoted the remainder of his life to scholarly pursuits, and left his valuable library and $15,000 to Harvard. That college gave him the degree of D.D. in 1835, and Yale, that of LL.D. in 1860. He published nu- merous sermons, addresses and lectures, including three series of lectures on " Natural Religion " and a course of Lowell Institute lectures on "The Philosophy of Re- ligion ; " "Sermons preached in the Chapel of Har- vard College " ( Boston, 1861); a " Memorial of Daniel Appleton White " (1863); and a "Memoir of Josiah

" It was in the winter of 1839-40. One of those long and terrible snow-storms, for which New Eng- land is noted, had been raging for many hours, and he awoke one morning to find his little cottage half- buried in snow, the storm still continuing, and in his house not an atom of fuel nor a morsel of food. His children were very young, and he was himself sick and feeble. The charity of his neighbors was ex- hausted, and he had not the courage to face their reproaches. As he looked out of the window upon the dreary and tumultuous scene, 'fit emblem of his condition,' he remarks, he called to mind that a few days before an acquaintance, a mere acquaintance, who lived some miles off, had given him upon the road a more friendly greeting than he was then ac- customed to receive. It had cheered his heart as he trudged sadly by, and it now returned vividly " Quincy " (1867). After his death a volume of his

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"Discourses " appeared (1876). He also edited, as college text-book+, Dugald Stewart's "Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers " (1849), and Dr. Thomas Reid's "Essays on the Intellectual Powers, Abridged, with Notes and Illustrations from Sir Wil- liam Hamilton and Others " (1850). See " Memorial" (Cambridge, 1875), and "Services at the Dedication of a Mural Monument to James Walker in the Har- vard Church in Charlestown " (1884).

MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM WOBURN : EDWARD D. HAYDEN.

Mr. Hayden was born in Cambridge, December 27, 1833. He attended the public schools in that place, and was afterwards sent to Lawrence Academy, in Groton, to be fitted for college. In 1850 he entered Harvard College, graduating with his class in 1854. He studied law at Harvard Law School, and in the offices of the late Chief Justice Chapman, in Spring- field, and Ezra Ripley, in Boston. In February, 1858, he opened a law-office in Woburn, where he continued in practice until 1862, when he received the appointment of assistant paymaster in the United States Navy. He served in the Mississippi Squadron, under Admiral Porter, during the Vicksburg and Red River campaigns. In 1866 he returned to Woburn, and engaged in business in the firm of J. B. Winn & Co., in which he continued until 1875. In 1874 he was elected president of the First National Bank of Woburn, which office he held until 1890. Mr. Hay- den was re-elected to the House for 1881, having been a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1880. He was a member of the 49th and 50th Congresses, representing the Fifth Massachusetts Congressional District. In Woburn he has held many local offices, selectman, library trustee, etc.

CHAPTER XXXI.

WOBURN-(Continued).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

BY REV. L. THOMPSON.

THE Ecclesiastical History of Woburn is, in its beginnings, closely connected with that of Charles- town, of which Woburn was once a part, and, in its progress, with that of several other towns, which were once a part of Woburn. The founders of Woburn were all, or nearly all, from the early settlers of Charles- town. As early as 1640 some of these men, more ad- venturous than the rest, began to explore the "un- known northernness," sometimes called "the wilder- ness," though included within the bounds of Charles- town, and, till the date of its incorporation, October 6, 1662, called "Charlestown Village." It then in-

cluded Wilmington, Burlington and nearly all of Winchester. Led on by Edward Converse, a man of wonderful energy and ever-restless activity, and the builder of the first house, the first bridge and the first mill in the unsettled region, many followed, some of whom being, as the historian Johnson says, " shallow in brains," soon became faint-hearted and returned. The number of settlers, however, became, little by little, so numerous that they began, more and more earnestly, to entertain the thought of a church organ- ization. Meauwhile the mother church at Charles- town became so seriously apprehensive that Charles- town itself would be depopulated by the departure of so many of her members as to raise objections to and decidedly discourage the proposals for a new settle- ment. And it was not till it was clearly seen that the tide setting in that direction could not be resisted, and the increase and permanence of the settlement were inevitable, that the consent of the First Church was gained to the proposed enterprise. Seven men, all members of the church in Charlestown, were, at length, appointed as a "committee" to effect, in the usual way, the outward and legal organization of a new church. These men were: Edward Johnson, Edward Converse, John Mousall, William Learned, Ezekiel Richardson, Thomas Richardson and Samuel Richardson-the last three being brothers. There were many besides these seven among the first settlers, both men and women, equally interested, who doubt- less only awaited the accomplishment of this organi- zation to become, with the seven organizers, members in full communion.

The organization was effected August 14, O. S., or August 24, N. S., 1642. Beside the Hon. Increase Nowell as the representative of the secular authority of the Colony, there were present the following mes- sengers of the churches : Rev. Messrs. Symmes and Allen, of Charlestown; Wilson and Cotton, of Bos- ton ; Shephard and President Dunster, of Cambridge; Knowles, of Watertown; Allin, of Dedham ; Eliot, of Roxbury ; and Mather, of Dorchester.

To the seven men appointed by the mother church to effect the organization, after making each for him- self a confession of his faith and Christian experi- ence, and after prayer and preaching by Mr. Symmes, the elders and messengers of the churches had oppor- tunity to propose such questions as they thought proper. All questions being satisfactorily answered, they entered into the following

COVENANT.

" We that do assemble ourselves this day before God and his people, in an unfeigned desire to be accepted of him as a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Rule of the New Testament, do acknowl- edge ourselves to be the most unworthy of all others, that we should attain such a high grace, and the most unahle of ourselves to the per- formance of anything that is good, abhorring ourselves for all our former defilements in the worship of God, and other wayes, and resting only upon the Lord Jesus Christ, for attonement, and upon the power of his grace for the guidance of our whole after course, do here, in the name of Christ Jesns, as in the presence of the Lord, from the bottom of our hearts, agree together through his grace to give up ourselves, first

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unto the Lord Jesus, as our only King, Priest, and Prophet, wholly to be subject unto him in all things, and therewith one unto another, as in a Chure Body, to walk together in all the Ordinances of the Gospel, and in . such mutual love and offices thereof, as toward one another in the Lor. and all this, both according to the present light that the Lord hath given us, and also according to all further light, which he shall be pleased at any time to reach out noto us out of the Word by the goodness of his grace : renouncing also, in the same Covenant, all errors and schismes, and whatever by-wayes that are contrary to the blessed rules revealed in the Gospel, and in particular, the inordinato love and seeking after the things of the world."

"Every Church hath not the same for words : for they are not for a form of words."

After the solemn adoption of this Covenant, the little band, now duly organized, received from the messengers of the churches the right hand of fellow- ship in the name of the churches they represented.1

The loss of the records of this church from its organization onward more than one hundred years is greatly to be deplored and is doubtless irreparable. But, from other sources, we learn that Rev. Thomas Carter was ordained the first pastor, November 22, 1642, and Edward Converse and John Mousall were chosen, probably earlier in the same year, the first deacons. The editor of Johnson's " Wonder-Working Providence " says, in his introduction, p. 92: "The wives and children who were communicants must have been as numerous as the heads of families. The early membership, therefore, of the Woburn Church, I think, was thirty persons at least."

The town having been "erected," and the church duly organized, the same council, with perhaps the exception of one man, accompanied again by the Hon. Increase Nowell, as the representative of the civil authority, were called on "the 22 of the 9 moneth following, or December 2d, N. S., 1642, to aid in the ordination and installation of Rev. Thomas Carter as the first pastor. The exercises appear to have been, in the main, similar to exercises on like occasions in these days. There was, however, one noted exception. Instead of calling upon messengers of other churches who were present, to officiate in the simple act of ordination by prayer and the imposition of hands, the church, jealous of their rights as an in- dependent body, preferred to delegate two of their own members to do it on their behalf. It is perhaps not certainly known who the two men were, though it has been thought there were reasons for believing they were Edward Johnson and Edward Converse. After Mr. Carter had preached and prayed, according to the custom of the times, these men, in the name of the church, laid their hands upon his head and said : " We ordain thee, Thomas Carter, to be pastor unto this church of Christ."

Following this simple act of consecration, the ex- ercises were continued by prayer from oue of the min- isters who were present.

It does not appear that there was any serious oppo-

sition to this departure from the common usage, on the part of the council, though it is quite likely that some had doubts of its propriety. But outside their number, there was, for some time, considerable dis- satisfaction and demurring. Even Governor Win- throp had some misgivings about it and declared it "not so well and orderly as it ought." 2 Yet, at length, all acquiesced, and the peculiarity of the ordination never was a bar to the fellowship of the church with other churches, though, from that time to this, the case has often been referred to by writers on congre- gational polity as being, though not in itself necessa- rily a breach of genuine congregationalism, a nearer approach to pure independency than would generally be deemed desirable. So far as is known, the church, after its organization, was very prosperous. Johnson, writing in 1651, nine years later, says, "After this, there were divers added to this church daily," and the original members had been increased to "74 persons or thereabouts," the number of families being about sixty.3

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 119

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034