History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 149

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 149

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Meanwhile the white population of Natick was in- creasing with considerable rapidity, and in 1749 it appears to have outnumbered the one hundred and sixty-six Indians. The English had, at that date, fifty dwellings and the Indians forty.

Comparatively few of the white families had settled in the immediate vicinity of the Indian meeting- house, for Peagan Plain (where the central village of the town is located) was fast becoming a favorite place of residence. Besides, it is perfectly plain that the "color question" (which, in many minds, is now so difficult of solution) was beginning to affect public opinion in Natick one hundred and forty years ago. The Indians appear to have been respectable, and they certainly transacted their public business in an orderly and becoming manner, but the prejudices awakened by the matter of nationality were nearly inveterate. These statements will aid in understand- ing the animus of the votes that follow, which are copied from the parish records, for Natick had not as yet arrived at the dignity of a town, but was only a parish or precinct :

"January 25, 1749-50, voted to accept the Rev. Oliver Peabody as the parish minister, upon condi- tion he will come to the centre of the parish to preach and so long as he preaches there."

The same conditions were annexed to the following : " Voted to grant Mr. Peabody £300 salary, old tenor, yearly." At a later period, when the article in the call of the parish meeting was-"To see whether they agreed to take Rev. Mr. Peabody, the Indian pastor, to be the Parish Minister, the vote stood twenty-four to six against the proposition." So this excellent man lived and died the pastor of the Indians, who loved him as a fatlier. His death took place February 2, 1752, after a ministry of thirty-one years, during which time he baptized one hundred and ninety-one Indians and four hundred and twenty-two whites, and ad- mitted to the church one hundred of the latter and thirty-five of the former. Two hundred and fifty-six Indians died during the same period.

From the above it is evident that, in the face of the votes of the parish, a large part of the white popula-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

tion of Natick regarded Mr. Peabody as their religious teacher.

Mr. Peabody's successor in the ministry at Natick was Rev. Stephen Badger. In a letter to the cor- responding secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, written five or six years before the close of his long pastorate, Mr. Badger said: "Immediately previous to my settling in this place a church was gathered which consisted partly of English and partly of Indians, and though some additions were soon after made of Indian professors, yet, from the causes already mentioned, a decrease gradually took place and has continued to the present time."

From this statement it has been generally sup- posed, and that not without reason, that the Natick Church which was gathered by Rev. Mr. Peabody was disbanded at or soon after his death, in 1752. If so, it was a very unusual proceeding for which no adequate reason can be imagined.

Mr. Badger was born in Charlestown in 1725, of humble parentage, as the Historian Biglow de- clares, because his name stood last of his class in the Harvard College catalogue, at a time when the names of the students of that college were arranged upon its lists " according to the real or supposed dig- nity of their parents."

Be this as it may, Mr. Badger graduated in 1747, and in March, 1753, he was ordained by the Commis- sioners for Propagating the Gospel in New England, as a missionary over the Indians in Natick.1 From the beginning to the end of his long pastorate of about forty-six years Mr. Badger enjoyed but little peace, for the local divisions among the people of the town, especially in regard to the location of the meeting- house, which so annoyed and hindered the usefulness of his predecessor, continued and bore fruit during this entire period. The third meeting-house, which had been built chiefly for the accommodation of the Indians upon the site of their first rude building for school and religious purposes, had become unsuitable for public worship before the death of Rev. Mr. Pea- body, and soon after Mr. Badger had commenced his ministry here the fourth house had been raised and partially finished upon the same locality. At an early day such progress had been made in this work that the building could be used for the Sabbath ser- vices, but it was not finished for thirteen years, or till 1767. This delay was due to the prevailing conten- tions. The minister appears to have given good sat- isfaction to the Indians, but the white inhabitants were very unwilling to acknowledge the "Indian Missionary " as their Pastor, and for a considerable period did but little for his support. Biglow asserts, in his "History," that "a large part of the white people of his (Mr. Badger's) day had adopted as many of the Indian manners and habits as the Indians had of theirs, so that a considerable number of both nations

were but half civilized, and their pastor received such treatment as must naturally be expected from such a flock." Obviously this was a harsh judgment of the case, for Mr. Badger came to Natick and continued here as " the Indian Missionary," and the white peo- ple had taken no part in his settlement.

The action of the church with regard to obtaining another minister we only know from inference, but the parish, July 6, 1756, "voted to concur with the church in their unanimous choice of the Rev. Solo- mon Reed to be their minister;" and to grant Rev. Mr. Reed £66 13s. 4d. as encouragement for him to settle with them, fixing his annual salary at £53 6s. 8d. in case he should accept the call. The former of these amounts, it will be understood, was intended as a gift according to the custom of the times when a pastor was called. Mr. Reed, who had been pastor of a second church in Framingham for a short time and was highly esteemed in the region, as a matter of course, declined the invitation, as the church had al- ready its missionary pastor.

In 1762 the parish took action relative to the sup- port of Mr. Badger that had the appearance at least of peaceful intentions, and voted £19 6s. 8d. annu- ally for four years for "his salary.". A committee chosen by the parish, consisting of Mr. William Bald- win, of Sudbury, Captain Josiah Stone, of Framing- ham, and Samuel Bullard, of Sherboru, appears to have labored here to settle "disputes and controversies," but with what success is uncertain, but in 1773 the town voted "to repair the meeting-house and that the selectmen see it done."

In 1778 the town voted refusing Mr. Badger as its minister and forbidding his preaching any more at the cost of the town, but very soon was found voting the money for his salary, including a considerable sum that had been withheld, with interest on the same. Later, propositions were made by both parties for the settlement of the difficulties, but all without favorable resul ts, till July 23, 1798, the town " chose a committee to treat with Mr. Badger, and request of him in writing what objection he has to the town to have preaching in said town ; if none, to manifest the same in writing ; if otherwise, to join him in calling a council, and if he refuse, to call a council without him." This action seems to have brought matters to a crisis, for he closed his services in Natick in 1799, and died about four years later, viz., August 28, 1803, at the age of seventy-eight. Mr. Badger was buried at South Natick. Mr. Biglow says of him, " Like many of his distinguished contemporaries in the ministry, he was a Unitarian ; but like the rest, with the ex- ception of Dr. Mayhew, of Boston, and Dr. Howard, his successor, he thought that, though it was lawful for them to avow this sentiment, it was not expe- dient." This testimony plainly should be taken with considerable allowance. During the later years of Mr. Badger's ministry many Natick families connec- ted themselves with the congregations in neighboring

1Biglow's " History," p. 60.

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NATICK.

towns,-thirty-three in 1797,-and at his death the church became extinct. Sixty-nine were admitted to the church during the ministry of Mr. Badger, and he is the "Parson Lothrop " who figures largely in Mrs. Stowe's "Old Town Folks." No date is given, but the Indian proprietors laid out, in their own right, land "to satisfy a purchase for the Rev. Mr. Bagger."

The fourth meeting-house seems to have become unfit for use before the close of the eighteenth cen- tury.

Anticipating what was to come, September 18, 1798, the town voted to build a new meeting-house and fixed the site of it on the ministerial lot at "the cross-roads, where the Old Pound formerly stood." The brick church of the Congregational Society now stands upon this spot. This fifth church was to have a " suitable porch in front." The edifice, for the building and finishing of which fifteen hundred dollars were raised, was commenced in June, 1799, and was forty by forty-five feet in size and two stories high. The town voted "to paint the roof of the meeting-house red and the rest white," to rent the pews, that the selectmen should hire the preaching and that "the blacks sit in the hind seats in the north part of the galleries."

In February, 1802, a new church was organized with ten male and thirteen female members, and a month later William Goodnow and Abel Perry were chosen its first deacons. April 22, 1802, a call was given by the church to Mr. Samuel Brown to become pastor, and the town concurring voted to give Mr. Brown a salary of $300 per year, twelve cords of wood and the use of the ministerial lot, besides building a decent two-story house and barn within two years, and providing house-room for him until all this was done. But before he could answer the call, his sickness and death intervened. Three years passed and Rev. Freeman Sears was called to the pastorate, with similar proposals regarding support, "so long as he serves the town as a faithful gospel minister and supplies the desk." But such changes were subse- quently made in the conditions of settlement that Mr. Sears built a house for himself on leased land, which is now the first house fronting north on West Central Street, later the home of Rev. Martin Moore.1

Mr. Sears was a graduate of Williams College in 1804, became a licensed preacher in 1805, and was ordained pastor of this new church January 1, 1806. He is represented as a man of good intellectual at- tainments, of pleasing address and of consistent and unaffected piety. Once each month he heard the children of the congregation recite the Assembly's Catechism and in every good work was laborious and faithful. But pulmonary disease forced him to spend the winter of 1810-11 in Georgia, and he reached home very feeble June 10, 1811. On the 30th of

that month he died at the age of thirty-three years. He was buried in the cemetery just north of his church, where the brick blocks of Messrs. Rice, Morse and Winch now stand. In 1857 his remains were re- moved to a central place in Dell Park Cemetery, and in 1873 a granite monument was erected over them at the expense of the friends of true piety and genuine worth in Natick.

Nearly four years now elapsed before another pas- tor was settled, and in the interval a number of cler- gymen preached as candidates. November 18, 1813, a call to the pastorate was extended to Rev. Martin Moore, in which the town concurred, offering au annual salary of $500 and the use of the first pew. Mr. Moore was a native of Sterling, and a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1810. His theo- logical studies were pursued under Rev. Elisha Fiske, of Wrentham. He was ordained at Natick February 16, 1814, when he was twenty-four years old, and the ordaining council "voted that the Bishops who may be in the pulpit at the time of the consecrating prayer be requested to lay on the hands of the Presbytery." His wife was Miss Sarah Fiske, of Natick. Under the ministry of this pastor, missionary concerts were established, the first Sabbath-school in Natick was organized, with Deacon Oliver Bacon as its superin- tendent, the first Standing Committee of the church was appointed, the South Middlesex Conference of churches came into existence, the first Temperance Society with a Total Abstinence Pledge began its work, and many other forms of Christian usefulness were introduced. One hundred and eighty-three members were admitted to the church during his pas- torate. Dismissed in 1833, Mr. Moore was a pastor at Cohasset for eight years, when he removed to Bos- ton to become one of the editors and proprietors of the Boston Recorder. In this last-mentioned service he spent nearly twenty years, and died March 11, 1866, aged seventy-five years.

Rev. Erasmus D. Moore was the next pastor of the Congregational Church. Born in Winsted, Conn., educated at Amherst and Yale Colleges and Yale Theological Seminary, he was ordained here Novem- ber 6, 1833. His salary was $600 per annum. The year following the settlement of Mr. Moore, the Boston & Worcester Railroad was opened, and with a large increase of business in the town, the meeting-house became too small, and a new one was erected upon the same site. This was done in 1835, at a cost of about $8000. Thirty-three were admitted to the church during the short pastorate of Mr. Moore, who was dis- missed in 1838. Later he was settled in Kingston and Barre, and then became one of the editors of the Boston Recorder. Later still, viz., in 1847, he pub- lished the Boston Reporter, which, after two years was enlarged and became The Congregationalist. For six years Mr. Moore was employed in preparing the Old Colony and Bay State records for publication.

Rev. Samuel Hunt succeeded Mr. Moore as pastor.

1 Church Manual.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Graduating at Amherst College in 1832, and studying theology at Princeton, N. J., he was ordained in Na- tick July 17, 1839, on a yearly salary of $650. He was an active and useful pastor here for about eleven years, when he was installed in Franklin, where he labored for fourteen years. Later he became the su- perintendent of education among the freedmen, and finally the private secretary of Hon. Henry Wilson, his former parishioner and friend. "The History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," which Mr. Wilson left unfinished at the time of his death, Mr. Hunt completed and carried through the press. In 1858 be prepared "The Puritan Hymn and Tune Book."

The next pastor of the church was Rev. Elias Nason, who was ordained May 5, 1852. His salary for the space of three years was $900, and then raised to $1000. Mr. Nason graduated at Brown University in 1835 and studied theology with Rev. Theodore M. Dwight in Georgia. The congregation having again outgrown the meeting-house, this was sold to a Uni- versalist Society, which later, becoming extinct, sold the house to the Roman Catholic denomination. This, enlarged, is the Catholic Church of the present day in the centre of Natick. The Congregational Society then erected a third meeting-house upon the site of the one removed, during the years 1853-54, which was dedicated Nov. 15th of the latter year. Including the bell and organ, that edifice cost $28,- 103.65. Mr. Nason remained pastor about six years and admitted to the church one hundred and twenty members. In 1858 he was dismissed and became pastor of the Mystic Church in Medford. Later he was settled in Exeter, N. H., and then removed to North Billerica, Mass. He was a voluminous writer and lectured more than one thousand times before literary and scientific associations. Mr. Nason died of Bright's disease Juue 17, 1887, aged seventy-six years, leaving five children, one of whom is Rev. Charles P. H. Nason, of Germantown, Pa.

Rev. Charles M. Tyler, D.D., was the next pastor. He graduated at Yale College in 1855, and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary, New York. His first settlement was at Galesburg, Ill., and he was installed at Natick May 19, 1859, upon a salary of $1200, which was raised to $1600 in 1866. Mr. Tyler represented this town in the Legislature of 1862, and was the chaplain of the Twenty-second Massachu- setts Regiment during "the Wilderness Campaign." His Natick pastorate continued about nine years, or until December 31, 1867, when he accepted a call to the South Congregational Church in Chicago. The changes that followed the great fire in that city in 1872 introduced him to the pastorate of the First Congregational Church in Ithaca, New York, where he is most highly respected and increasingly useful. One hundred and ninety-three were added to the Na- tick church under Mr. Tyler's ministry.

Rev. Jesse H. Jones succeeded Mr. Tyler, July 21,

1869, the salary offered being $2000. He was born in Belleville, Canada, graduated at Harvard University in 1856, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1861. During the war for the suppression of the Re- bellion he was the captain of a New York company for nearly two and one-half years. During the two years of his Natick pastorate he admitted to the church twenty-eight members. Since leaving Natick Mr. Jones has preached in East and North Abington, and was a member of the Legislature in 1876. His publications have been very numerous, mostly bear- ing upon the great questions of human rights and pro- gress. He now resides in North Abington.

Rev. Francis N. Peloubet, D.D., who succeeded Mr. Jones, was born in New York City, was graduated at Williams College in 1853, and at the Theological Seminary at Bangor in 1857. Before coming to Natick he had been a pastor at Lanesville, Oakham and At- tleborough. His installation here took place Jan- uary 17, 1872, and the salary given him was $2500. Two years after his settlement, viz., January 13, 1874, nearly all the business portion of Natick was laid in ashes, including every hall in the place and the Con- gregational Church, just enlarged and improved at the cost of about $13,000. This loss of the sanctuary rendered necessary the building of a temporary taber- nacle, which, in a rough way, was made ready for re- ligious and other purposes as soon as possible, at the cost of about $1700. Additional land was purchased upon the east side of the old church lot, and the erec- tion of the present beautiful brick church edifice commenced, and so far completed that the vestries could be used for public worship April 30, 1876. The bell was the gift of Mr. Leonard Morse, and Mr. Na- thaniel Clark gave the valuable clock for the church tower. At the date last given the families connected with the congregation numbered 325, the church, 386, and the average attendance in the Sabbath-school was 326.

In 1875 Dr. Peloubet commenced the publication of his "Select Notes upon the International Sabbatlı- school Lessons," and each year since has given to the public a similar though now greatly improved volume. These "Notes" may now be found in nearly every part of the Christian and even heathen world. And to these he has added a series of Sabbath-school Question Books, which are used in large numbers. These publications demanding more time and thought than any pastor of a large church and congregation can give to such work, led Dr. Pelouhet to ask a dis- mission from his pastoral charge in 1883.

The additions to the church under his ministry were large, as many as 142 having been received during the first five years of his pastorate, and later many more, bringing the whole number received up to 296.

In 1884 Dr. Peloubet published "Select Songs for the Sunday-school," a compilation of the best hymns and tunes for such service in the English language.

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In the same year he edited a new edition of Smith's Bible Dictionary. In 1889 he attended, as a dele- gate from the United States, "The World's Sabbath- school Convention," in London, and took an active part in its proceedings. Mrs. Peloubet was Miss Mary Abbey Thaxter, of Bangor, Me., and they have four daughters, viz., Mary Alice, wife of Prof. L. M. Norton, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy, Boston, residing in Auburndale ; Grace Thaxter, wife of Mr. D. W. Farquhar, a Boston merchant, re- siding in Newton; Ernestine May, the wife of George A. Swallow, of Allston, and Harriet Louise.

Dr. Peloubet's honorary degree was conferred by the University of Eastern Tennessee, at Knoxville, in 1884.

After Dr. Peloubet's retirement from the Natick pastorate several clergymen were heard as candidates for settlement, without giving entire satisfaction, until public attention was directed to Rev. F. E. Sturgis, D.D., pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tenn., who had supplied the pulpit-but not as a candidate-for two Sabbaths in 1883. With great unanimity a call was extended to Dr. Sturgis, which he accepted. The salary offered was $2500, and addi- tional provision was made for the removal of his family. He commenced bis labors as pastor in March, 1884, and was installed 14th of May of the same year. Dr. Sturgis was born October 1, 1841, at Riverside, Kennebec Co., Maine, and fitted for college at Augusta High School; graduated at Amherst College in 1864, and from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1868. In October of the same year he was ordained at Skow- hegan, Maine. Later he visited Europe and Western Asia, and after his return became pastor of a Presby- terian Church in Knoxville, Tenn., continuing such from 1876 till he removed to Natick in 1884. He mar- ried at Knoxville Miss Charlotte C. Abbott, and they have five children. His honorary degree was given by the University of East Tennessee, at Knoxville. The church and congregation are increasing con- stantly under the pastorate of Dr. Sturgis. January 1, 1889, the church membership amounted to 580, of whom 49 had heen added in 1888. Since the opening of the year 1889, 37 have been added, and the mem- bership is 617 now. Amount raised for benevolent purposes in the year 1888, $8668.57. Recently $11,050 were subscribed, during one day, for the extinguish- ment of the debt upon the church edifice. Practically the parish is free from debt.

The superintendent of the Sabbath-school is Mr. George A. Swallow, and Messrs. Charles H. Jones and Melvin Brock are his assistants. Mrs. William P. Bigelow has charge of the intermediate department and Mrs. W. L. Coolidge of the primary. The school is very large, the weekly enumeration repeatedly showing from 600 to 660 present.

Among the deacons in Natick have been Joseph Ephraim, an Indian, who bore this title as early as 1734 and as late as 1754. He was an intelligent and

trusted man. Ebenezer Felch must have been the associate of Deacon Ephraim for a number of years, and was a man of large ability and great worth. Micah Whitney was a deacon as early as 1761 and as late as 1770. Nathaniel Mann and Nathaniel Chick- ering were among the early deacons, and so was John Jones, who died in 1802. William Bigelow, born in 1749, was not only a deacon, but the "good Deacon Badger " of Mrs. Stowe's "Old Town Folks." The deacons of the Congregational Church, since it was established in the centre of the town, have been the following: Abel Perry and William Goodenow, who were elected at the first meeting after its organization, viz., March 13, 1802. They always sat-according to the custom of the times-in front of the audience, close to the pulpit, on communion occasions. Oliver Bacon, 1822, but died after one year's service ; Samuel Fiske, 1828, served till 1844, when he united with the church at Saxonville; John Travis, 1831, served till his death in 1869; Willard A. Wight, chosen in 1852, and his name is still borne upon the list of the deacons of this church. The same is true of John O. Wilson, chosen in 1852. John R. Adams, chosen in 1869, is still one of the deacons; William L. Coolidge, elected in 1869, served till 1878; George L. Bartlett was chosen January 3, 1878, and is still in office, and is treasurer of the parish; E. H. Walcott was chosen January 1, 1880; Mark B. Babb was chosen January 9, 1884; Gilbert W. Howe was chosen January 14, 1886; Messrs. Bartlett, Babb, Howe and R. H. Ran- dall are regularly officiating deacons at the present time; Frank M. Forbush is the parish clerk; Deacon George L. Bartlett is the clerk of the church.

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH .- By advice of friends of the Baptist cause, a Baptist meeting was held in South Natick, in " Eliot Hall," February 13, 1848, and this was the beginning of the large and influential Baptist organization of the present day in Natick. In Octo- ber, 1848, Rev. W. H. Watson commenced serving as stated supply, and February 20, 1849, the Baptist Church was recognized, with a membeship of twenty- five-eight males and seventeen females. Rev. Mr. Watson was now called to the pastorate. A legally- organized parish was formed March 19, 1849, named, at the time, "The South Natick Baptist Society," but subsequently changed to "The First Baptist Society of Natick." In 1875 this society was dissolved, the church having assumed all its work and having a legal corporate existence. In 1851, a change of locality having been deemed advisable, a lot was secured on the west side of South Main Street, in the Central Village, an l a church edifice built thereon, costing about $5000. This church was moved across the street in 1866 and placed where it now stands. In 1874 a considerable addition was made to it, to ac- commodate an organ presented to the church by Mr. W. D. Parlin. And now (July, 1889), the congrega- tion having outgrown the church edifice, a large ad- dition is being made to its seating capacity, $10,000

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 149

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