History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 30

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 30

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In the early days of this church the Merrimack Company had pursued towards it a very liberal and generous policy. It had erected for it the first small house of worship, had for two years directly paid the salary of its rector, and had given to it a lease of the church property without rent for fifteen years, ending in November, 1842, and in various ways contributed to its support. The parsonage was erected in 1825.

The harmonious relations between the church and the Merrimack Company seem to have been inter- rupted at the expiration of the lease in 1842, for at

that time the Merrimack Company claimed $12,000 for the church property and that the parsonage should be vacated before March 1, 1843. To this de- mand the "Religious Society," known since 1831 as the "Congregation of St. Anne's Church," yielded, the church was purchased by individual subscrip- tions and the pastor removed to the stone house near Pawtucket Falls, afterwards the residence of Mr. J. C. Ayer.

The course of the Merrimack Company seemed so unjust to the church, that in February, 1856, a suit was brought against the company before the courts to recover the possession of the church building and the parsonage. Distinguished counsel were employed on both sides. For the church were Hon. Joel Parker, Hon. John P. Robinson and Benjamin F. Butler, and for the company were Hon. Rufus Choate, Hon. F. B. Crowninshield and S. A. Brown, Esq. The final decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, after a delay of about four years, sustained the claim of the Merri- mack Company, which received for the parsonage nearly $17,000, raised by private subscriptions, and the rector re-entered the house on March 21, 1866, and there spent the remainder of his life.

There was a strong conviction on the part of many that the conduct of the Merrimack Company towards the church was oppressive and unjust, and it is said that the distinguished Patrick T. Jackson, having met the treasurer of the church on his way to pay over the money to the company, declared the trans- action " no better than highway robbery."

In the above narration to avoid the numerous long names by which the St. Anne's religious society was called at different times, I have used the word " church" with perhaps too little precision.

From the close of this contest with the Merrimack Company to the end of Dr. Edson's life, in 1883, the affairs of this church present not many things de- manding historical record, and my record will be brief, and in somewhat detached statements.

March 8, 1874, was observed as the fiftieth anniver- sary of the introduction of religious worship in" Lowell.

The St. Anne Sabbath-School, for almost sixty years, had two sessions every Sabbath, and was cate- chised by the pastor every month.

In 1830 a building was erected north of the church at a cost of $600 for the use of the Sunday-School, and a second building in 1839. These gave place in 1868 to the present stone chapel, which was erected at the cost of $12,000. The number of scholars in 1840 reached 655. In 1873 the choir-room and sac- risty were built at a cost of $5000.

St. Luke's church, an off-shoot of St. Anne's under the Rev. A. D. McCoy, erected a house of worship in Belvidere, which before its completion, was sold in 1845, to the High Street Congregational Church, and the enterprise was relinquished. Rev. Mr. McCoy had been employed in 1839 as an assistant to the rector of

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St. Anne's for one year, and services were held by him in Chapel Hall. This was warranted on account of the large attendance at the mother church. Out of this movement came the formation of the society of St. Luke in Belvidere.

On October 17, 1857, took place the dedication of the chime of eleven bells which, by the generous sub- scriptions of private individuals, had been placed in the tower of St. Anne's. Mr. George Hedrick had, by persistent effort, raised the subscription of more than $4000, and had pushed the work to its comple- tion. "Rich and poor, high and low, men of every shade of religious opinion," contributed to the pur- chase of the bells. With great propriety this chime of bells was placed in the tower of St. Anne's, the oldest of the churches in the city proper, and that in which the fathers of the city first joined in religious worship. The bells were founded in the city of Troy, N. Y., and on each bell was an appropriate inscrip- tion. To make my account more brief, I will men- tion only (as an example) the inscription on thesixth in order, whose pitch is on B:

" B, 683 lbs. Musicians' Bell.

To the memory of Handel. Born A. D. 1684 ; died A. D. 1758. Pre- sented by the principal musical professors and amateurs of Lowell, A.D. 1857.

To music ! Noble art divine, Ring forth, ye bells, a merry chime."

The total weight of the eleven bells is 9899 pounds.

An orphanage, located near the church, was insti- tuted in 1875. This institution was dear to the heart of Dr. Edson. On Jan. 1, 1890, it had two teachers, and supported twenty-one children. Children are received who are from two to seven years of age.

At the death of Dr. Edson, who owned this orphan- age, it became the property of his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Edson, who has generously donated it to the church.

Of the memorial windows already placed in St. Anne's Church, the first is given by Dr. John O. Green and William A. Burke, in which two female figures, "Charity " and " Devotion," are designed to repre- sent, respectively, the most marked characteristics of the departed wives of the givers.

The second, representing "The Annunciation," is placed by the widow of the late George H. Carleton, in memory of her husband, who for many years was a warden of the church.

The third was placed by Mrs. Eliza C. Davis, as a memorial of her father and inother.

The fourth was placed by Mr. Elihu S. Hunt and his son-in-law, Mr. Albert G. Cook, in memory of their respective wives.

After the death of Dr. Edson the parish was in charge of Rev. A. E. Johnson and Rev. F. Gilliatt. The church was without a rector for nearly one year.

Having brought the history of St. Anne's Church down to the time of the death of its first rector, I pause to give a brief account of his life. It would be

impossible to write a history of this church, or even of the city itself, with Dr. Edson left out. His long life, his intense individuality, his high official posi- tion, his iron will and his tireless energy make him stand out alone as a marked man who can be com- pared with no one else. "We shall not look upon his like again."

Theodore Edson was born in Bridgewater, Mass., August 24, 1793. Though he learned the carpenter's trade, his tastes led him to a life of study. He en- gaged in school-teaching for the whole or part of two years. Subsequently, in 1816, he went to Phillips Academy, at Andover, and spent two years in prepar- ation for college. He entered Harvard College in 1818, at the age of twenty-five years. In college rank he was the fourth scholar in his class of sixty members, among whom were Charles G. Atherton, Nathaniel I. Bowditch, Rev. Dr. Worcester and Rev. Dr. Hill, of Worcester. Having assumed deacon's orders after his graduation, he was supplying St. Matthew's Church in South Boston when Kirk Boott came to his humble study to invite him to come to Lowell. In accepting the invitation he assures us he did not even think of his remuneration, but was filled with the thought of his own unworthiness of so sacred an office. I quote his own words: "I entered the min- istry with a very deep sense of unworthiness of so great an honor, and with intense gratitude to God for putting me into the sacred calling."

In the early years of his ministry he took an active and responsible part in every effort of the benevolent in promoting the religious and intellectual welfare of the new settlement. Far from limiting his labors to the bouuds of his own parish, his voice was uplifted in public halls and in the pulpits of other denominations in the defence of every good cause. In his last years, when the bounds of religious societies had become more distinctly defined, and when the burden of years pressed upon him, he very naturally confined himselt more strictly to his own parochial duties, but it was not so in his earlier days. To no man is Lowell more indebted for starting things aright than to him.

Dr. Edson's long pastorate of nearly sixty years presents an almost unparalleled devotion to duty. He never spared himself. No forin was more often met in the streets, but he was never obeying the call of pleasure, but always that of duty. There was some widow who needed bread, some troubled soul who called for sympathy, some dying man who needed the consolations of religion. On this subject Bishop Clark made the following eloquent remarks in 1865 in reference to Dr. Edson : "The sun has not been more regular in his rising and setting than he has been in his daily round of duties. No storin has ever raged which he would not cheerfully face when the call of the sufferer called him from his fireside. No Sunday ever dawned when the doors of St. Anne have not been opened to the worshiper. No heavy- laden sinner ever asked his counsel and was sent un-

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comforted away." It is said that throughout his long ministry he never sought a summer vacation, though on one occasion he received a gift from a parishioner of $1000 to defray his expenses on a voyage to the old world. This voyage, however, was his "strange work," and even in this he was probably obeying the call of duty.

Very few clergymen have been so often called as he to officiate at the burial of the dead. On such occasions the solemn and beautiful burial service of his Church though so often repeated, seemed always fresh and new. With what solemn awe he always approached the mystery of death. We, who have so often lis- tened to his voice at the burial of the dead, can never forget with what tender, pleading pathos he was wont to utter the words : " O God, most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer ns not, at onr last hour, for any pains of death to fall from Thee." This prayer, so often uttered, was abundantly fulfilled in his own case, for his physi- cian and life-long friend, who watched by his bedside during the long weeks of severe suffering which closed his life, testifies that these sufferings "were borne with the sweetest submission and calmest resignation." When he saw that the end was near he asked that the " sacrament" be no longer delayed, and "he sank serenely and gently, in the conscious presence of his mental powers and with cheerful submission of his soul to God." He died of congestion of the lungs, June 25, 1883. He left one daughter, his wife having died ten years before.

Rev. A. St. John Chambre, the second rector of St. Anne's Church, assumed the duties of his office May 15, 1884, and he worthily fills his high position.

THE HOUSE OF PRAYER .- This Episcopal Church, which is far more ritualistic in its form of worship than any other in the city, was organized in 1876 by Rev. B. F. Cooley. Services had previously been held in Highland Hall and in private parlors by the Rev. Mr. Roberts, pastor of St. John's Church. Mr. Cooley entered upon his work with great energy and enthusiasm. He acted as architect in designing the new church building, and as artist in decorating its walls. He also embroidered many of the vestments, and, by conducting the music, he secured a very ex- cellent choral service. He was succeeded by " Father" Brown, of Methuen.

Rev. J. J. Cressy was rector of this church from 1881 to 1837. The present rector, Rev. A. Q. Davis, came to the church in March, 1888. There are 167 persons connected with the parish.

"The services, being in music and ritual, are as much in advance of what is now common as the present services have advanced beyond those of forty years ago."

The church edifice, on Walker Street, was opened for worship December 29, 1876. The corner-stone was laid by Rev. Dr. Edson in September, 1876. On this occasion several of the clergy and the choirs of

the House of Prayer, of St. John's (Lowell), St. John's (Lawrence) and the Advent (Boston) were present and assisted in the services. The church edi- fice, with the land, cost about $4000.

ST. JOHN'S PARISH .- The organization of this par- ish of the Episcopal Church was effected July 30, 1860. Preliminary to its organization Rev. Charles W. Homer, of Cambridge, who in 1859 had come to Lowell as an assistant of Dr. Edson, had held Sunday services in the chapel of St. Anne, beginning on Feb. 27, 1859. Subsequently, for want of sufficient room in the chapel, these services were transferred to Me- chanics' Hall.

The connection between the Rev. Mr. Homer and St. Anne's Church was dissolved Oct. 1, 1860, and steps were immediately taken to establish a new par- ish. This parish was organized, as stated above, July 30, 1860.

Rev. Charles W. Homer, first rector of St. John's Parish, was chosen to his sacred office July 29, 1860. On the first Sunday in October, 1860, the Sunday ser- vices were transferred from Mechanics' Hall to " Wyman's Church," a hall in a building which stood on the site of the present Edson's Biock, in Merri- mack Street.

The erection of a house of worship was promptly begun, and the corner-stone was laid on Monday, April 15, 1861, with Masonic ceremonies. The pastor, by his winning manners and affable address, was re- markably successful in raising funds from all denomi- nations of Christians for the erection of the church.

The new church was first occupied for religious worship on the first Sunday of October, 1861. This house, with the chapel, was erected at a cost of $17,000. Its walls are of Westford granite.

The first rector resigned Nov. 22, 1862, and Rev. Cornelius B. Smith assumed the pastoral office on May 24, 1863. Under his rectorship the debt of the church was paid.

The Rev. Charles L. Hutchins succeeded Mr. Smith as rector Nov. 1, 1865. During his term of service the west window, with the figure of St. Luke, the beloved physician, was placed in the church in honor of the first warden, Dr. Elisha Huntington, a citizen whom, perhaps above any other, Lowell has delighted to honor. Another window was also placed in the church in honor of Mr. Samuel Burbank, a most worthy man.

Rev. Daniel C. Roberts succeeded to the rectorship June 1, 1869, and served the church four years.

The present rector, Rev. L. C. Manchester, assumed the pastoral office October 1, 1873.

One of the marked features in the worship of this church is its tasteful and excellent music, the credit of which belongs very greatly to Mr. Charles H. Bur- bank, librarian of the City Library, who, for nearly thirty years, has devoted much time to this part of sacred worship. A boy-choir has been successfully employed for more than twenty years.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

PAWTUCKET CHURCH .- The Pawtucket Church is far the oldest within the present territory of Lowell. It is situated in that part of the city which in 1874 was set off from the town of Dracut. But as St. Anne's Episcopal Church was the first established within the original limits of the city, the honor of being the first church in Lowell justly belongs to St. Anne's.

The town of Dracut is supposed to have received its name from the town or parish in England from which came Samuel Varnum, who, about 1675, one hundred years before the War of the Revolution, bought land of the Indians on the north side of the Merrimack River and thus probably became the ear- liest English settler of the town. It was incorporated as a township in 1701, one of the provisions of the act of incorporation being this : "That the inhabit- ants of said land assist in ye maintenance of the ministry of the town of Chelmsford, as at present they do until they are provided with a minister as the law directs."

In 1711 the inhabitants of Dracut in general town- meeting voted to build a meeting-house of their own, and in the same year they chose as their minister Mr. Amos Cheever, who, four years before, had graduated at Harvard College. He was to have as his salary fifty pounds per year, and also eighty pounds for building a house. This offer was declined. A simi- lar offer was made to Mr. Wigglesworth in 1712, which was also declined. The salary was probably too small to warrant a settlement. It was not till 1718 that the meeting-house was completed, although it was dedicated two years before this date. Nor was it till 1720 that the church secured the services of a pastor.

By vote of the town this first meeting-house was to be thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide (about the dimensions of a large parlor). The pay of the workinen on the edifice was, by vote, to be " two shil- lings one man a day for getting timber; four cattle and a man a day five shillings and so according ; the trustees to get the work done as cheap as they can." " The locality," says Mr. Varnum (to whom I have already expressed my obligations), "was on what is now called Varnum Avenue, about a half a inile above Pawtucket bridge, on the southerly side of the street, on land owned by Deacon Abel Coburn, and just east of his present residence. The spot still re- tains the name of the old 'meeting-house lot.' We are informed by Mr. Coburn that there appears also to have been a 'Noon-house,' in which the people assembled between services to warm themselves and partake of a lunchı."

As to these "Noon-houses " or "Sabba' day houses " Mr. Varnum makes the following quotation from Ed- ward Abbott's work called " Revolutionary Times " : "Comfort, being carefully shut out of the ineeting- house itself, was only thus rudely provided for in such subordinate structures. The 'Sabba' day house ' was a family affair generally comprising but a single

apartment, perhaps fifteen feet square, with windows and a fire-place. It was very plainly and sparsely furnished. Chairs for the old people and benches for the children stood round the walls, and a table in the centre might hold the Bible and a few religious books and pamphlets, while on one side shelves con- tained dishes for cooking and eating. A group of such cabins standing about the meeting-house added not a little to the picturesqueness of the spot, and their use conduced greatly to the convenience and comfort of Sabbath worship, especially in winter. The family able to keep a Sabba' day house, drove directly thither on Sabbath mornings, warmed them- selves up by a hot fire without and quite likely by a hot drink within, and here spent the intermission with further wholesome regards to the wants of the inner man."

Rev. Thomas Parker was the first settled pastor of the church. He was evidently a superior scholar, for he graduated at Harvard when only seventeen years of age, and settled in the ministry at Dracut at the age of only nineteen years. The vote to extend a call to Mr. Parker was passed on Dec. 28, 1719, in general town-meeting, and his salary was then fixed at eighty pounds per year.

It must not be supposed that before the settlement of Mr. Parker the people of the town were without religious instruction and privileges, for as early as. 1711 the town appointed a committee to employ a minister at five shillings a day (temporarily, of course), and Mr. Wigglesworth and Mr. Hail were so em- ployed. The following town record on the subject of employing temporary preachers is a noteworthy record, as presenting, in its form of language, an inter- esting puzzle :

"Also it is voted that Mr. Wigglesworth should come to preach for a time, in a way to making a settlement after Mr. Cheevers has been treated with, and don't come to preach and in a way to making a settlement."

Mr. Parker's pastorate of forty-four years seems to have been an ideal one, for he spent his whole remain - ing life with his people, dying after a year of declin- ing health in the sixty-fourth year of his age. The records leave no trace of anything but affection for their pastor, and the town voted the generous sum of twenty-four pounds for a mourning dress for his widow and six rings to the pall-bearers who conveyed the sacred dust to the grave. A few years since, by order of Mr. Varnum, the remains were removed from the field in which they were first placed to the Wood- bine Cemetery in Lowell.

During a part of Mr. Parker's pastorate the harmony of early years seems to have been broken ; for the little, old meeting-house, which the builders were ordered to make as cheap as they could, had be- come too small and too much decayed for further use, and the location of a new chureh beeame a subjeet of somewhat acrimonious dispute.

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However, in 1748, a new church, with front and side galleries, was erected, in the style of the times, with square box pews arranged around the walls for the dignitaries who could pay for them, and benches in the centre of the church for those who could not purchase pews. Eight seats of "dignitie" were established by vote of the town, thus quaintly defined in the order of rank, to wit :

"Fore seat below, second seat below, fore seat in front gallery, fore seat in the side gallery, third seat below, second in the front gallery, fourth seat below, second in side gallery."

Rev. Nathan Davis was the second pastor of the church. His ordination occurred Nov. 20, 1765. His salary was fixed at eighty pouuds, like that of his pre- decessor, but to defray his expenses in changing his residence and beginning a new pastorate, a special grant of 150 pounds was given him. Such a grant was customary in those days and was denominated a "settlement." Mr. Davis resigned his office in 1781. after a service of sixteen years.

In 1785 a call to settle as pastor was extended to Rev. Timothy Langdon. This call was given just after the close of the Revolutionary War, when the country was most deeply suffering from a depreciated currency and the evils of poverty were almost as hard to be borne as had been the dangers and hardships of war. Only by slow degrees did the thrift and energy of the American people, aided by the financial policy and wisdom of Alexander Hamilton, dispel the gloom which rested upon the hopes of the American people. The people of Dracut had made a noble record of sacrifice during the war, but their poverty forbade them to offer such a salary to Mr. Langdon as he could accept.

Two years after Mr. Langdon had refused to as- sume the office of pastor, a call was extended to Mr. Solomon Aiken, offering a settlement of £150, a salary of £94 and twenty cords of wood. This call was accepted, and for twenty-five years he " proved himself to be an efficient and faithful pastor."

In 1793 a violent contest arose in regard to divid- ing the parish into two parts on account of the great inconvenience to which many were subjected in reaching the church, the two extremes of the old parish being so far apart. The result was that the church now known as the Centre Church was erected in what was claimed to be near the geographical cen- tre of the town. The people of the west part of the town, where the old church had stood and where the pastor resided, were far from being satisfied that the new church was erected so far away, and resolved that they would have a church of their own near Pawtucket Falls. A new religious society was formed, a lot of land for a new church was purchased of James Varnum, a large land-owner, the deed bearing the date of Jan. 7, 1796. The church erected upon this land by the newly-formed society is the same church building which now stands near the Paw-

tucket Bridge. The location was very favorable for a church, for besides being near the bridge across the Merrimack, it was situated upon the Great Mammoth Road, which had been laid out four years before. Mr. Varnum also adds in regard to the choice of this location : "There may have been a bit of romance considered, for this was the Ancient and Capital Seat of the Pawtucket tribe of Indians, and the spot where John Eliot first preached the gospel to them in 1647 and for many years afterward, as they gath- ered to obtain their supply of fish at the falls."

The new society was called " The West Congrega- tional Society in Dracut," and the act of its incorpora- tion is dated June 22, 1797. Their house of worship was a plain structure, having square pews, with seats around the sides of the pew, so that as many hearers, if the church were filled, faced from the pulpit as towards it. There were galleries on three sides, and the deacons' seat directly in front of the pulpit. There was the decorated sounding-board hanging over the preacher's head. This sounding-board seems to have been the object of a most unaccountable affec- tion of one at least of the worshipers; for when, about 1828, it was removed from its place, this devout man, on entering the church and perceiving that the object of his affectionate regard had been removed from its sacred position, soliloquized thus: "They have taken away the ark of the Lord and I will go too." He then left the church and returned no more. A box-stove, purchased by individuals for warming the church, was set up first in the winter of 1820-21, the foot-stove, a small square box of tin or iron, en- cased in a wooden-frame and containing within a dish of coals broughit from home, having heretofore been the only means of protecting from freezing the aching feet of the worshipers. In 1820 the steeple of the church was erccted, and the first bell, at a cost of $700, was purchased.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 30

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226