History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 122

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 122

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Dr. Dennen married, November 2, 1854, at Thom- aston, Me., Clara Whitney Ludwig, and their children were: 1. Clara Rollins, born at Watertown, Decem- ber 14, 1856 ; 2. Lucy Whitney, born at Watertown, April 12, 1859; 3. William Ludwig, born at Water- town, October 22, 1860, died September 21, 1862; 4. Jane Whitney, born at Watertown, January 16, 1863; 5. Stephen Howard, born at Somerville, February 2, 1865, died at West Newton, November 1, 1888; 6. Walter Kuight, born at Providence, R. I., April 22, 1868, died at Woburn, May 15, 1870; 7. Grace Ather- ton, born at Woburn, September 28, 1872.2

Rev. Henry S. Kelsey was installed pastor March 19, 1873. Rev. Dr. Webb, of Boston, preached the ser- mon ; Rev. Mr. Bissell, of Winchester, gave the right hand of fellowship; Rev. Mr. McCollom, of Medford, gave the address to the people, and Rev. Dr. Wallace, of Manchester, N. H., the charge to the pastor. Mr. Kelsey also had been previously a pastor. His min- istry in Woburn was short, it being only about three years and six months. During this time there were admitted, by profession and by letter, about 100 per- sons to membership in the church. He was dis- missed, at his own request, October 8, 1876. Before coming to Woburn he had been pastor of churches in Granby, Mass., Rockville, Conn., and Holliston, Mass. After leaving Woburn he was pastor of the College Street Church, New Haven, Conn., and now (1889) resides, without charge, in Chicago, Ill.

Henry Sylvester Kelsey, son of Sylvester and Polly (Gates) Kelsey, was born at LeRoy, N. Y., December 5, 1830; fitted for college at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass .; graduated from Amherst Col- lege 1855, and from East Windsor (now Hartford) Theological Seminary in 1857; was tutor in mathe- matics, Amherst College, 1857-60 ; professor of math- ematics and physics, Belcit College, 1860-63. He married, first, Harriet A., daughter of Philip Schuyler, of Litchfield, Conn., October 8,1861, who died August 3, 1865; second,Mrs. Eliza Leavitt Fiske, daughter of Rev. Aaron Foster, of East Charlemont, Mass., Octo- ber 16, 1869. She was the widow of Samuel Fiske, A.M., a tutor in Amherst College.3

Rev. Daniel March, D.D .- Soou after Mr. Kelsey's dismission in 1876, Rev. Dr. March, after a successful pastorate in Philadelphia, yielded to the strong and anxious desire of the people of his former charge iu Woburn, to resume his residence and work among

Rnnnel's " History of Sanbornton, N. H., " pp. 42-44.

2 Letter of Rev. S. R. Dennen, D.D.

8 " Biographical Record of Amherst Alumni," p. 294.

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them. Moved by their destitute and, at the time, somewhat discouraging circumstances, he consented, at first conditionally, and with the mutual under- standing that he should not immediately take the regular charge, but would ere long do it if it was deemed best. To this they gladly consented, provided only they might expect him after the proposed delay. At the expected time he came, and after about two years of stated labor as acting pastor, he accepted a cordial invitation to be reinstalled, and was accord- ingly installed by a large conncil, Jan. 22, 1879, in the same office which he had resigned seventeen years before. This position he still, and never more accep- tably, fills in 1889.

Dr. March has been an extensive traveller; "The Land of the Midnight Sun," and the more prominent States in Europe, Western Asia, India, China, Egypt, and various islands of the sea have been visited by him. During a portion of 1887 and nearly all of 1888 he made the most prolonged and widely extended of all his repeated journeys.

Dr. March has also been a voluminons writer. Among his published works the following have been well and widely known : " Night Scenes in the Bible," "Our Father's House, or the Unwritten Word," " Home Life in the Bible," "From Dark to Dawn, or Second Series of Night Scenes in the Bible," " Walks and Homes of Jesus," "Days of the Son of Man," "The First Khedive, or Lessons from the Life of Joseph." Many sermons in newspaper and pam- phlet form he has also published.

Rev. Daniel March, D.D., son of Samuel March, was born in Millbury, Mass., July 21, 1816. After spending some time in Amherst College, from 1834 to 1836, he left that institution and spent a year in other pursuits, but at length entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1840. He has been a pastor in Cheshire, Conn., in Nashna, N. H., in Brooklyn, N. Y., and in Philadelphia, Pa., besides being twice settled as pastor in Woburn.

Dr. March married, first, Jane P. Gilson, of Proc- torsville, Vt., Oct. 8, 1841, and she dying Feb. 27, 1857, he married, second, Anna B. Leconte, of Cheshire, Conn., April 29, 1859, who died in Woburn, April 8, 1878.1

Dr. Daniel and Jane P. (Gilson) March had four children :

1. Anna P., born in Proctorsville, Vt., Oct. 13, 1842, and died in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 26, 1863.2 2. Daniel, born in New Haven, Conn., May 25, 1844, graduated from Amherst College in 1865, mar- ried, Oct. 3, 1878, Jean H. Stephenson, of Cambridge, N. Y., and is a physician in Winchester, Mass.3 3. Frederick William, born in Cheshire, Conn., March 6, 1847, graduated from Amherst College in 1867,

studied theology in Princeton, N. J., married, Sept. 13, 1880, Jennie, daughter of Dr. Thomas Hill, of Newton, Mass., and is a missionary of the Presby- terian Board in Syria.4 4. Charles Augustus, born in Cheshire, Conn., Nov. 26, 1848, was a member of Amherst College, 1866-68, graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, 1870, and is a stenographer in the employ of the United States Government, Washington, D. C.5

HOUSES OF WORSHIP.6-The First Congregational Church and Society now worship in the sixth and by far the largest and most imposing structure ever occupied by them or their predecessors.

The first was doubtless very rnde in appearance and small in dimensions. It stood on the southerly border of the Common and on the north side of a narrow lane which is now expanded into Common Street, leading from Pleasant to Main Street, and not far from the Armory and Municipal Building. The exact date of its erection has not been certainly ascertained; bnt it must have been previous to 1642, for the ordination of Mr. Carter in that year was doubtless within its walls. The house was so frail and inadequate to the growing wants of the people that in about thirty years it became necessary to take measures for the erection of another. In No- vemuber, 1671, a committee was appointed to confer with carpenters in relation to it, and on the 20th of that month, after hearing their report, the town voted to build a new house forty feet square. In the autumn of 1672 it was ready for occupation.

The second house stood on the hill east of the Common and a short distance northeast of the " Zeb. Wyman " house and store, lately the home of Miss Ruth Maria Leathe. It was considerably more im- posing than the first honse, and was surmounted by a "turret" or cupola, in which was a bell. On the sides of the house within were galleries, which were constructed not at first, bnt from time to time subse- quently as needed, and then in part by private par- ties. For more than forty years there were only two pews on the main floor of the house, and these were occupied by the families of the minister and deacons. The people generally, under the guidance of the "Seating Committee," were seated on benches with high backs, the men and women apart, and the boys on long benches on the sides of the house, under the windows.

In 1678 the house, proving too limited in capacity for the accommodation of increasing numbers, was enlarged. And in 1709 it was repaired and again enlarged by an addition of twenty feet to the east end. This house stood eighty years, and for fifty- eight years was the only place of worship for the

1 " Biographical Record of Non-Graduates of Amherst College, " p. 49. 2 Letter of Rev. Dr. March.

3 " Biographical Record of Amherst Alumni," p. 405.

4 " Biographical Record of Amherst Alumni," p. 427. 6 " Biographical Record of Non-Graduates of A. C." p. 142.

6 The material for this brief sketch is largely from Mr. Sewall's " His- tory of Woburn," severely condensed, and from various old records, pri- vate papers, tradition aod meorory.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

entire town, then including Wilmington, Burlington and Winchester.

The third meeting-house, after many delays and many changes of the proposed location, was built on the easterly side of the Common, not far from the building formerly occupied as the post-office, now the store of William H. Curtis, and near the flag- staff on the west side of the street (now Main Street). This house, according to a note found in the Family Record of Zebediah Wyman, was erected (or raised) in the first week in December, 1748, and its steeple was put up in June, 1749. Mr. Sewall says it was not fully completed for more than three years, and was "probably " finished about March, 1752. It is described as "58 feet long, 42 feet wide, with 24 feet post." After being used nearly sixty years, it was, on the night of June 17, 1808, destroyed by fire.

The fourth meeting-house is still well remembered by many of our oldest citizens. After the destruction of the third honse, the people were prompt and zeal- ous in their measures for erecting another. In one year from the loss of one, the other (June 28, 1809) was dedicated. Rev. Joseph Chickering, the pastor, preached an appropriate sermon from Acts 7: 48, -- "The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands." The house stood on the site of the present Unitarian Church. It greatly exceeded either of its predecessors in capacity, architectural beauty and general appearance. But after it had been occupied a little more than thirty years, it was discovered that there was a degree of decay in the timber used in its construction that rendered, or was likely very soon to render, it unsafe. It was, therefore, taken down, and on the same site was erected, in 1840, another honse.

The fifth meeting-house, like the fourth, on Pleas- ant Street, looking easterly upon the Common, was dedicated December 31, 1840, the sermon being preached by the pastor, Rev. Joseph Bennett, from Haggai 2: 9,-" The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former."

Such was the growth of the parish and the in- creased demand for seats to accommodate new fami- lies, that in less than twenty years it was found ne- cessary to dispose of this spacious honse and erect a much larger one. It became the property of the Unitarian Society, and by them has heen so remod- eled and heantified as to be almost beyond recogni- tion by its former occupants.

The sixth and latest church edifice was erected during the first pastorate of Dr. March, and dedicated October 31, 1860. It is one of the largest in New England, and its conveniences are in all respects so excellent as hardly to leave anything to desire Its location, on Main Street, corner of Church Avenue, is easily accessible. One hundred and fifty fect in length, eighty feet wide, with a steeple one hundred and ninety-six feet in height, it has a substantial and majestic aspect not often seen outside onr large cities.

During the absence of the pastor (Dr. March, in 1887-88) this stately edifice was, at large expense, re- paired and refurnished, and so was the more appro- priate place in which, after his far-off journeyings, to welcome him home.

COLONIES FROM THE FIRST CHURCH .- In an ac- count of the churches which, at different times, have gone from the old First Church and become distinct or- ganizations, there should be special mention of the Second, the Third, the South and the North Churches. It is proper, however, to note the fact that the church in Wilmington was originally almost wholly, and the churches in Billerica and Arlington largely, composed of members who took letters from the First Church in Woburn.

Wilmington was for nearly a century a part of Wo- burn, and the people of that distant portion of the town worshiped with all the other inhabitants, near and remote, in the one and then only meeting-house in what has been called the Centre of the town. About three years after the incorporation of this northern portion of the town, then called Goshen, October 24, 1733, a new church organization was effected by seventeen men, and immediately after this act, performed, as was then the custom, by men only, the membership was increased by the addition of twenty-two other persons, men and women, making thirty-nine in all. Nearly all of these are believed to have taken letters from the old Woburn Church, one of them, James Thompson, having been a deacon of that church, as he was the first deacon chosen by the Wilmington Church. But as at the date of or- ganization the town was a separate municipality, we do not propose further to trace the history.1

It may properly be said here that the Congrega- tional Church in Billerica, organized in 1829, em- braced originally a considerable number of persons who had previously been members of the Woburn Church, including one who became the first deacon of the new church.

The church in West Cambridge (now Arlington), organized in 1842, also embraced a considerable num- ber of members of the Woburn Church, and among them Deacon Luke Wyman, one of its officers.

We come now to the colonies whose separate or- ganizations were within the bonndaries of Woburn.

The Second Church .- This church was organized October 29, 1735, in that part of Woburn which, for some time previously and for more than sixty years subsequently, was known as Woburn Precinct. A meeting-house was erected in 1732, but for some time previous to this the people met for worship in the house of Simon Thompson, near the centre of the present town of Burlington.

Following the usual custom of the times, the church was organized by men only, ten of whom, in-

1 " Wilmington Church Manual." Rev. D. P. Noyes' Historical Ad- dress.

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WOBURN.

cluding Rev. Supply Clapp, the first minister, signed the covenant at the date given above, or November 8, 1735, N. S. The names were as follows: Supply Clapp, George Reed, Ebenezer Johnson, Samuel Walker, James Thompson, Joseph Pierce, Edward Johnson, William Bruce, Simon Thompson, John Spear.

Two of these ten organizers-Samuel Walker and George Reed-had been deacons in the First Church. They were soon followed by twenty-three other per- sons, thirty-three in all, most of them having been dismissed from the First Church for this purpose.1

The first minister of this church was Rev. Supply Clapp. He had preached for the first time as a can- didate December 15, 1734, and he received a call to settle March 5, 1735, more than six months before the church was organized. He accepted the call "upon conditions," May 19th, and " in full " August 25th of the same year. He was accordingly ordained paster. October 29, 1735, the day on which the church was organized, and he remained in office twelve years, or till his death, December 28, 1747.

Mr. Clapp, the son of Deacon Samuel and Mary (Paul) Clapp, of Dorchester, was born in that town June 1, 1711. Graduating from Harvard College in 1731, he immediately engaged in the work of teach- ing in his native town. This work he followed two or three years, preparing himself in the mean time for the higher work of preaching. In 1734 he occu- pied for most of the year a pulpit in Roxbury, going thence to Woburn. His first sermon, after his ordin- ation, was founded upon Luke 12: 42, 43, " Who then is that faithful and wise steward, etc."

Mr. Clapp married August 11, 1737, Martha Fowle, daughter of the wife of Deacon Samuel Walker, by a previous marriage. A little more than two years after Mr. Clapp's death she married Nathaniel Thwing, of Boston, whose son James, seven years later, mar- ried her oldest daughter, Martha Clapp.

Mr. Clapp was a man of very feeble constitution, and was often seriously ill. He died when compara- tively young, between thirty-six and thirty-seven years of age. He was highly esteemed as a good man and a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. On his grave- stone in the old cemetery in Burlington is the follow- ing inscription :-

" IIere lie interred the Remains of the Revd. Mr. Sapply Clap, Iate Pastor of the 2nd Church of Christ in Wobura, Who departed this Life December the 28th, 1747, in the 37th Year of his age, and the 13th of his ministry. He was a good Christian, and a faithful Pastor, and being dead Yet Speaketh, Especially to the People that were his charge, Saying, remember how Ye have received and heard, etc. hold fast.'12

1 Letter of MIr. Samnel Sewall.

" "Clapp Memorial," pp. 19-21.

Rev. Supply and Martha (Fowle) Clapp had three children :-

1. Martha, born August 6, 1738, died in 1807 ; she married James Thwing, and had children :- Nathaniel, Supply, James, Rebecca and Samuel. Of these, Re- becca married William Furness and was the mother of Rev. William H. Furness, D.D., of Philadelphia, Pa.

2. Supply, born January 3, 1742; he lived in Ports- mouth, N. H., and was never married. Died March 24, 1811, aged sixty-nine years.

3. Samuel, born about June, 1745, lived in Boston, where he died in 1809.3

The compiler of the " Clapp Memorial " says, " The children of Rev. Supply Clapp ever retained a grate- ful recollection of their native town ; they made fre- quent visits to it, lingering about the spot which was the scene of their childhood. About 1790 they pre- sented the church, over which their father had labor- ed, a large folio Bible for the use of the pulpit."+

Mr. Clapp's immediate successor was Rev. Thomas Jones. He was the son of Ebenezer and Waitstill Jones, of Dorchester, where he was born 'April 20, 1721; graduated from Harvard College 1741, and during the same year taught the school in his native town, at the rate for the first quarter of £85 per annum, and for the next three months at the rate of £95, probably old tenor money. He also taught in 1742. He was ordained and installed as pastor of the Second Church, January 2, 1751, Rev. Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, preaching the sermon. After a ministry of a little more than twenty-three years, he died sud- denly March 13, 1774. While engaged in the Sabbath morning service he was stricken with apoplexy in the pulpit, and was immediately carried to his home, where, at sunset, he expired, much lamented by his people. His widow survived him many years, and died at the great age of ninety years, in consequ ence of a fall in 1814.5

Rev. Thomas Jones married Abigail Wiswall, of Dorchester, September 5, 1751. They had three children :- 1. Lucy, baptized July 8, 1753, married Rev. Joseph Lee, of Royalston. 2. Martha, born May 17, 1758, married Rev. John Marrett, the successor of Mr. Jones as pastor of the Second Church. 3. Mary, twin of Martha, born May, 17, 1758, married Edward Walker, of Burlington.

Rev. Samuel Sewell, in 1857, says of the house in which Mr. Jones and his two immediate successors lived : " The house I live in was purchased by Mr. Jones soon after his ordination, was his dwelling while he lived the abode of his widow till her decease, and also of her son and daughter Marrett; so that it has been a ministerial abode above a century. And it is a memorable house, as the place of refuge to

3 " Clapp Memorial," p. 21. "The Thwiog Family," p. 34. 4 "Clapp Memorial," p. 21.

5 "Am. Qy. Register," vol. xi. p. 379 and p. 392, and " History of Dor- chester,11 pp. 524-525.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Hancock and Samuel Adams on the 19th of April, 1775."1

Mr. Jones was succeeded by Rev. John Marrett, the son of Amos and Mary (Dunster) Marrett, of Cambridge, where he was born September 21, 1741. He was a direct descendant from one of the first settlers of Cambridge and also from Rev. Henry Dunster, the first President of Harvard College. Having gradu- ated from Harvard College in 1763, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Second Church December 21, 1774, and died in office February 18, 1813.2

Mr. Marrett is supposed by his son-in-law, Rev. Samuel Sewall, to have studied divinity at Cambridge, where he resided several years during the interval between his leaving college and his settlement at Woburn Precinct. At the time of his ordination he had likewise a call to take charge of the church in Topsfield. 3

Mr. Marrett married Martha, a daughter of his predecessor, Rev. Thomas Jones, December 16, 1779. He had an only son, who died in infancy, and, at his death, February 18, 1813, left an only daughter, Mar- tha, who became the wife of his successor, Rev. Samuel Sewall. Mrs. Marrett died September 11, 1803.

It is not the object of this sketch to trace the his- tory of the Second Church of Woburn after it became the First Church of Burlington, incorporated as a separate town in 1799. We can only say here that Mr. Marrett was succeeded, in 1814, by Rev. Samuel Sewall, who remained in office, honored and esteemed by all who knew him, till 1842, when, at his own request, he was released from service, but continued to reside in Burlington till his death, February 18, 1868.

It is worthy of mention that the house of worship, built in 1732, is still, in 1889, occupied as it has ever been from the first. It was, however, remodeled in 1846, and again in 1888, and is now more attractive and convenient than ever, and dearer than ever, as the place where the fathers worshiped one hundred and fifty-seven years ago.

The Third Church .- It is not possible to give an intelligible account of the Third Church without assuming the difficult and unwelcome task involved in at least a brief description of the long-continued controversy that led to it. Allusion has already been made to a serious alienation between Rev. John Fox and his colleague, Rev. Edward Jackson. It was a source of great trouble for many years, and gradually disturbed the peace and prosperity of the entire parish. Doubtless the greatly enfeebled health of the senior pastor, which often disqualified him for any share in the active work of a pastor, and, added

to this, his total blindness during the last fifteen years of his life, complicated, in some measure, the mutual relations of the two men. Even before his loss of sight, Mr. Fox, in an important communica- tion, described, in terms which long-continued suffer- ing made strikingly pathetic, his almost utter help- lessness at times and his general disability for labor. And after the added privation, involved in his blind- ness, came upon him, his case seemed sufficiently hopeless to elicit universal sympathy instead of cen- sure for failing to do his share of the mutual work. This claim for sympathy was the more emphatic, when to the reality of his sufferings, as related by him, responsible physicians sent their unqualified testimony.

But, besides all this, there seems to have been an utter incompatibility between the men-a striking lack of congeniality in each for the other. Mr. Fox was much the older, more grave, more reverent, and, to use a common phrase, "more ministerial," than Mr. Jackson. So far as appears, he was also more conscientious, more self-respecting and more deeply religious.

Mr. Jackson was comparatively young, lacking in moral balance, careless in the use of language, and often very severe in his criticisms of Mr. Fox.

Within the past two years a large collection of valuable papers have been deposited in our Public Library, which, after being, for several of the later generations, unknown to the people of Woburn, have proved to be a new revelation touching this old con - troversy. They were discovered by Hon. Joseph B. Walker, of Concord, N. H., among the papers of Rev. Timothy Walker, the first minister of that place and a native of Woburn, and they were kindly placed by him in their present accessible position. 4

It is not possible nor necessary here to go into details in our mention of these papers; but it is proper to say, in general, that the controversy which, to Mr. Sewall and others, once seemed, in some respects, inexplicable, receive, in the light they shed, an explanation which is sufficiently plain to be painful in a high degree. It is evident from them that Mr. Fox sought repeatedly and earnestly, both by pro- posals to Mr. Jackson and by correspondence with others whose kind mediation he solicited, to heal the open wounds. Rev. Dr. Coleman and other ministers in Boston also labored in vain to effect a reconciliation. But, strangely, Mr. Jackson seems to have refused every overture; had no confession to make, no apology to offer and no proposal to suggest

1 " History of Dorchester," pp. 524-525.

2 "Am. Qy. Register," vol. xi. p. 392, and " Letter of Samuel Sewall, Esq."

3 " Am. Qy. Register," vol. xi. p. 392, and " Letter of Samuel Sewall, Esq."

4 To these Walker Papers may be added a pamphlet of six pages in the form of a letter dated Woburn, September 13, 1747. It is without signature, printed abont 1750, and was lately presented to the Library by Isaac Brooks Dodge, of Amherst, N. II. No other copy of it is known to exist. It relates wholly to the controversy between Mr. Fox and Mr. Jackson, and, so far as it goes, it essentially corroboratee the statements found in the Walker Papers and gives reasons for the organi- zation of the Third Church.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 122

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