History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 109

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 109

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1654 Mr. Matthews was succeeded by Michael Wigglesworth. Mr. Wigglesworth was born in Eng- land in 1631, and at the age of seven years arrived at Charlestown with his father and family. They re- moved to New Haven shortly after, and after prepara- tion for collego under Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, he entered Harvard, and graduated in 1651, one of a class of ten, which included, besides himself, Seahorn Cotton, son of Rev. John Cotton ; Thomas Dudley, son of Gov- ernor Thomas Dudley ; John Glover, Henry Butler, Nathaniel Pelham, perhaps a son of Herbert Pelham, the first treasurer of the college ; John Davis, Isaac and Ichabod Chauncy, sons of Rev. Charles Chauncy, of Scituate, but afterwards president of the college, and Jonathan Burr. After graduating, he became a fel- low and tutor at Harvard, and Increase Matthews, oue of his pupils, said of him that, "With a rare faithfulness did he adorn his station. He used all the means imaginable to make his pupils not only good scholars, but also good Christians, and instil into them those things which might render them rich bless- ings unto the Churches of God. Unto his watchful and painful essays to keep them close unto their academ- ical exercises, he added serious admonitions unto them about their inferior state; and (as I find in his reserved papers) he employed his prayers and tears to God for them, and had such a flaming zeal to make them worthy men, that upon reflection, he was afraid lest his cares for their good and his affection to them should so drink up his very spirit, as to steal away his heart from God."

Mr. Wigglesworth, as might be expected from his appointment as a tutor at Harvard, was a scholar of large attainments and culture, and in 1662 published a poem entitled "The Day of Doom," of which two editions were published within- four years, the first of

464

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

which was of 1800 copies. Altogether seven editions have been issued in this country and one in England. In 1669 he published a poem on the sanctification of afflictions, of which at least five editions have been published. His ministry continued until his death, | June 10, 1705, during which he was prevented from preaching some years by ill health, and was aided in his ministry at different times by three colleagues. The first was Benjamin Bunker, who was ordained December 9, 1663, and remained in service until his death, March 12, 1669. Mr. Bunker was the son of George Bunker, of Charlestown, and was born in that town in 1635. He graduated at Harvard in 1658, one of a class of seven. The second was Benjamin Black- man, who was settled about 1674, and left in 1678. He was the son of Rev. Adam Blackman, of Stratford, Connecticut. After leaving Malden he preached in Scarboro, Maine, from which place he removed to Saco, which town he represented in the General Court in 1683. The third was Thomas Cheever, who was ordained July 27, 1681, and was dismissed May 20, 1686. He was the son of Ezekiel Cheever, and grad- uated at Harvard in 1677. After many years of retire- ment, he was ordained the first pastor of the first church in Chelsea, October 19, 1715, where he re- mained until his death, in 1750, at the age of ninety- one years.

The connection of the family of Rev. Mr. Wiggles- worth with Harvard College was a remarkable one. His son Edward, a graduate at that college in 1710, was its first Hollis Professor of Divinity, and con- tinned in office forty-three years until his death, in 1765. Edward, the son of Edward, a graduate in 1749, succeeded his father in otliee and continued in service twenty- six years until his resignation, in 1792. The last Edward was succeeded in the professor's chair by Rev. David Tappan, grandson of Samuel Tappan, of Newbury, who married Abigail, daughter of Rev. Michael Wigglesworth.

After several ineffectual efforts to settle a successor to Mr. Wigglesworth, on the Ist of July, 1707, the Malden Church was presented by the grand jury for being without a minister and was ordered to obtain one at once. Several more attempts were made to secure a pastor, all of which failed until the 14th of September, 1708, when Lientenant Henry Green and John Green, in behalf of the town, informed the Court " that they have had several meetings of the church, and one of the town, in order to the accommodating of that affair, but can make nothing take effect; but yet are in a very unsettled and divided frame and so like to continue and leave themselves to the pleasure of the Court." The Court, however, ordered "that Mr. Thomas Tufts is a suitable person qualified for the work of the ministry in Malden, and see cause to set- tle him there in that work, and further ordered the town of Malden to pay him for his maintenance dur- ing his continuance in said work amongst them, after the rate of seventy pounds money per annum; the

same to be levied upon the respective inhabitants of the town, according to their respective proportion to the province tax for the time being."

In the mean time, while the Court was thus consid- ering the matter, an invitation had been extended to Rev. David Parsons, of Springfield, who made his ap- pearanee in Malden to preach on the Sunday when Mr. Tufts entered on his ministry in compliance with the order which the Court had issued. A committee applied to the Court in behalf of the church to sus- pend its order, and on the grant of their petition Mr. Parsons was ordained early in the year 1709. In 1721 he was dismissed and removed to Leicester, where he was installed September 15, 1721, and dis- missed March 6, 1735. Mr. Parsons graduated at Harvard in 1705, in the class with Edward Holyoke, who was president of the college from 1737 to his death, June 1, 1769. He died in Leicester in 1737.

Rev. Joseph Emerson succeeded Mr. Parsons and was ordained October 31, 1721. He was the son of Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Mendon, and was born in Chelmsford April 20, 1700. He graduated at Harvard in 1717, and married, December 27, 1721, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Moody, of York, Maine, by whom he had nine sons and three daughters. Three of his sons were ministers-Joseph, of Pepperell ; William, of Concord, and John, of Conway. His grave-stone, in Malden, says : " Here lies interred the remains of that learned, pious and faithful minister of the Gospel, the Rev. Mr. Joseph Emerson, late pastor of the First Church in Malden, who very sud- denly departed this life, July the 13, Anno Domini 1767, in the 68th year of his age, and forty-fifth of his ministry. How blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."

The successor of Mr. Emerson was Rev. Peter Thacher, who wasordained September 19, 1770. He was the son of Oxenbridge Thacher, and was born in Milton, March 21, 1752. He graduated at Harvard in 1769, in the class with James Winthrop, Theophilus Parsons, William Tudor and Peleg Wadsworth, and was declared by Whitefield to be the ablest preacher in the Colonies. Mr. Thacher was a delegate from Malden to the convention which framed the Constitu- tion of Massachusetts, and took an active part gen- erally in the transformation scenes of the Revolution- ary period. In 1785, on the 12th of January, he was installed as the successor of Rev. Dr. Cooper, in the Brattle Street Church, in Boston, leaving the Malden church after a pastorate of fifteen years. He died in Savannah, Georgia, December 16, 1802, a victim to a disease of the lungs, from which he had sought relief in the milder air of the South.

Rev. Adoniram Judson followed Mr. Thacher, and was ordained Jannary 23, 1787. Mr. Judson was born in Woodbury, Conn., June 25, 1751, and gradu- ated at Yale College in 1775. After his settlement in Malden he was installed at Wenham, December

165

MALDEN.

26, 1792, and at Plymouth, May 12, 1802. In 1817 his connection with the Plymouth Church was dis- solved, and having fully embraced the Baptist faith, he preached a few years in Scituate, and there died, November 25, 1826. He married Abigail, daughter of Abraham and Abigail Brown, of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and had four children, -- Adoniram, Abigail Brown, Elnathan and Mary Alice. Adoniram, the oldest of their children, was the distinguished mission- ary at Burmah, and was born in Malden, August 9, 1788. He graduated at Brown University in 1807, and opened a private school in Plymouth, where he prepared for the press a book entitled, "Young Ladies' Arithmetic," and also a work on English Grammar. In 1808, while traveling through the United States, his mind became imbued with infidel views of religion, and with no decided plans as to his course in life, he was for a short time a member of a theatrical company. In 1809, having passed through a season of skepticism and doubt, he joined the Third Congregational Church, in Plymouth, over which bis father was the pastor, and after a short time spent at the Andover Seminary, he was admitted to preach by the Orange Association of Congregation- al Ministers, in Vermont. His ordination took place February 6, 1812. About that time he married Ann Haseltine, and sailed February 19, 1812, for India, with a view to devoting his life to missionary-work. He settled in Rangoon, where he labored for nearly forty years, for the promotion of the cause he had es- poused. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the Burmese language, into which be translated the Bible and other books. In 1820 his wife died, and in April, 1834, he married Mrs. Sarah H. Boardman, the widow of George Dana Boardman, a brother missionary. By his second wife he had five child- ren-Adoniram, Elnathan, Henry, Edward and Abby. His second wife died September 1, 1845, and in June, 1846, he married Emily Chubbuck, well known in literature as Fanny Forrester, by whom he had one child, Emily, who married a gentleman by the 'name of Hanna. Mr. Judson made only one visit to his native country during his whole missionary service, during which he married his third wife. The writer of this sketch saw him during this visit, and the saint-like expression which he wore, together with his intercourse with those about him, gave him the impression of a man who, though lingering among the scenes of earth, seemed to belong to a higher and purer world.

The successor of Mr. Judson in Malden church was Rev. Eliakim Willis. He was born in New Bed- ford, January 9, 1714, and graduated at Harvard in 1735. He was settled first over the church of the South Precinct of Malden, October 16, 1751. After about forty years' service in that precinct this church was united with the North or First Church, March 25, 1792, and it is probable that he was either ordain- ed about that time, or assumed, by an agreement be- 30-iii

tween the two churches the pastorate of the reunited church. In order that the reader may understand the reference to the South church, it will be neces- sary to go back to an earlier date in Malden's cccles- iastical record.

The first meeting-house was built not far from the year 1650, though the precise date of its erection is not known. In 1727, its size proving inadequate to the wants of the congregation, it was proposed to build a new one. Two sites were at first proposed, one near the old church site near Bell Rock and the other in the orchard of the parsonage; but both of them were finally abandoned and the town voted to build " between Lewis' Bridge and the pond on the west side of the country road." Up to that time those who dwelt at "Mistic " Side within the limits of Charlestown, had worshipped with the inhabitants of Malden. In 1726 " Mistic " side was annexed to Mal- den, including all the territory of Charlestown on the northerly side of " Mistic" River, and the easterly side of North River, except a small strip of land at Penny Ferry, and comprises about one-half of the town of Everett. The members of the church living in the annexed territory were dissatisfied with the location. They said, however, that they would agree to a loca- tion selected by a committee of " wise and indiffer- ent men."

Yielding to their wishes, the town voted, on the 17th of November, 1727, to choose a committee of "five eminent men of the colony, to whom the three localities mentioned should be submitted for their decision."

The committee reported in favor of the Lewis Bridge location, but a majority of the Board of Selectmen be- ing south side men refused to put the report on rec- ord. The Court, however, interposed and not only required the report to be recorded but ordered the meeting-house to be built between the bridge and the pound, on the site now occupied by the meeting-house of the First Church. The house was raised August 28, 1729, and it is described as being unpainted inside and outside, with the pulpit on the north side op- posite the south door which was the principal en- trance. Two stairways in the corners led to the galleries, and the record states that "the east stair was for women and the west stair for men, and they could not get together in the gallery without getting over the railing. The first sermon preached in the new church was preached by Rev. Mr. Emerson, August 16, 1730, but very soon after the south side people became dissatisfied and, though contributing to the support of the ministry absented themselves from church worship. In 1733 they petitioned the Court to be made " a distinct Township or Precinct," with Pemberton's Brook as the northern bound. This was opposed by the town and the petition rejected, but in 1734 a council of neighboring churches established the Malden South Church and a meeting-house was built on land given by Jonathan Sargeant for that

466

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

purpose. It was built on Nelson's Hill, but it is stated that it was never fully completed, and is represented as having been in 1787 in a dilapidated condition.

Rev. Joseph Stimpson, of Charlestown, wasordain- ed the first pastor of the South Church, September 24, 1735. 1n 1737 the town was finally divided into two precincts, and the south people were henceforth relieved from bearing their share of the support of two ministers. Mr. Stimpson was a graduate of Har- vard in 1720. He was partially disabled from per- forming his duties as pastor and was dismissed in 1744. He remained in Malden after his dismissal until his death, in 1752.

In June, 1747, Rev. Aaron Cleveland, a native of Cambridge, and a graduate at Harvard in the class of 1735, was installed. He remained in Malden three years, when he removed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and became a clergyman of the Established Church. He died in Philadelphia in 1754.

Rev. Eliakim Willis, already referred to, succeeded Mr. Cleveland soon after his dismissal. Some oppo- sition was made to his settlement " on account of an in- ability to support him, and the prospect of the two parishes being united again if his settlement be de- ferred." When Mr. Judson was ordained in 1787 the same objection was made by a part of the church, who " feared that it would offer an effectual barrier in pre- venting the mutually wished for union of the two Churches, both of which have severely feit their sep- aration, and thus remaining will probably terminate in the ruin of both." A protest against Mr. Judson's settlement was made by the dissatisfied persons who afterwards left the church and joined the South Church, thus giving a temporary encouragement to the people of the south. The South Church, on the strength of reinforcements, repaired their old ineet- ing-house and struggled on until the dismissal of Mr. Judson opened a way for a return of the new to the old church, a re-union of both and the continued ser- vice of Rev. Mr. Willis as the pastor of the united churches, in 1792. Mr. Willis remained as pastor until his death, which occurred March 14, 1801. IFis funeral took place on Wednesday, March 18th, and Rev. Messrs. Roby, Prentiss, Osgood, Thacher, Lothrop and Eliot attended as pall-bearers. Rev. John Lothrop made the first prayer at the funeral, Dr. Peter Thach- er preached the sermon and Rev. Mr. Prentiss made the concluding prayer.

Rev. Aarou Green succeeded Mr. Willis, having been ordained September 30, 1795, as his colleague. Ile was born in Malden, January 2, 1765, and gradu- ated at Harvard in 1789. On the Sth of August 1827, he resigned his pastoral charge and soon after removed to Andover, where he died December 23, 1853, the last survivor of his class. During the pastorate of Mr. Green, Samuel Shepard, a Baptist, arrived in Malden' in 1797 and preached a sermon which planted the seed from which the Baptist Society of Malden finally sprang. Regular services were established in 1800,

first in a school-house and afterwards in a barn when the school-house was closed to the "Schismatics," as they were called, and on the 27th of December, 1803, the first Baptist Church with a membership of forty- two persons, was formally recognized by a council of the neighboring churches. In 1804 a meeting-house was built on Salem Street, on a site now endowed in the Salem Street Cemetery. This house was occupied until 1843, when a new meeting-house was built at the corner of Salem and Main Streets. The present Bap- tist meeting-house was built on the same site, after the destruction of the two preceding it hy fire.

In 1802, also during the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Green, the meeting-house of the First Church was taken down and replaced by the present brick structure, which has been several times enlarged and remodeled. It originally had two towers or cupolas, in one of which a bell was hung, presented to the church by Timothy Dexter, of Newburyport.

During the pastorate also of Mr. Green the First Church suffered another depletion by the formation of the Methodist Society in North Malden. In 1813 most of the people in that section of the town were Republicans in politics, and became much excited by the delivery of a sermon in the old church strongly inclining to Federalism. A new society was conse- quently formed, which gradually drifted into Method- ism, and became the parent of the present Methodist Episcopal Church in Malden Centre. The new society held its first meetings in the house of James Howard, and afterwards in one of the school-houses of the town. Services were held in the school-house on School- house Hill until 1825, when a meeting-house was built on Main Street. In 1843 the meeting-house now used was built.

In this sketch of Malden only one additional event in its ecclesiastical history will be referred to, and with that event the divisions and subdivisions of the First Church will end. After the formation of the Baptist and Methodist Societies, that church passed through a most important experience, and one which, so far as its doctrinal life was concerned, radically changed its current. Mr. Green, who was not inclined to preach doctrinal sermons, belonged to the Arminian School, and the majority of his people were far from displeased with the expression of his liberal senti- ments. There was even among some of them an in- clination towards Universalism. The seed sown by him only needed some crisis in the church to develop it, and the crisis was reached when, after the resigna- tion of Mr. Green, the selection of a new minister became necessary. In the discussions which pre- ceded this selection, the widely differing sentiments of members of the church showed themselves and the struggle between the old and new order of things was a serious one. The struggle ended by the choice of Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, a Universalist minister, who was installed July 30, 1828, against the wishes of a consid- erable portion of the church, which at once withdrew

467

MALDEN.

and took steps to form a new society, The disaffected members met at first in Sargent's Hall and afterwards in one of the school-houses. A claim was set up that the new society was in reality the First Church and entitled to all its privileges including, the possession of its records. It is not necessary to recur to the un- fortunate dissensions of this period, and it is sufficient to state that the new society was organized in 1832 under the name of the Trinitarian Congregational Society, and Rev. Alexander W. McClure was ordained as its pastor. A meeting-house was erected in Haskins Street in 1833, and finally removed to Main Street near the square, where it was destroyed by the famous gale of September 8, 1869. The old society with its new faith, retains the name of the First Parish and worships in the old church built in 1803.

Returning now to the general history of the town, the record states that only a few years after its estab- lishment its people experienced the necessity of more room, and presented the following petition to the Gen- eral Court.

"To the Hond Court now assembled at Boston, the 7th of the 4th mo., 1662, the petition of the inhabitants of Malden bumbly shewing :

" That the hounds of our town are exceeding streight, the most of our improved land and inendow being limited about two miles in length and one in breadth ; and that also the most part of it by purchase from Charlestown, whereof we were a small branch ; from whom also we had all the Commons we were, which is very emull and rockie.

" That hitherto we have had no enlargement from the countrie, nor can we have any neere adjoining, being surrounded by sundry town- shipe. That our charges to the countrie and ministry munch exceedeth sundry others who have many times our accommodations and as many here do know.

"Our teacher, Mr. Wigglesworth, also hath been long visited with verie great weaknesses from which it ie much feared he will not be re- covered.

" For these and other weightie considerations, vur mnost butible peti- tion to this much honored Court, je that a tract of lands of about fouret miiles square at a place called'Pennycooke, may be granted as an addition to us, for our better support and encouragement, in the service of Christ and the Countrie ; to be laid out by Mr. Jonathan Danforth or some other artist, and Capt. Ed. Jonson or Jobu Parker.

" So with our heartie prayere to God for your_utmost peace and proe- peritie, we crave leave to subscribe ourselves.

"yr verie humble servants, " Joseph Hille,

" Will. Brackenhury,

"John Wayte,

" John Sprague,

" Abra. Hill,

" Tho. Call, " Job Lane,

" Peter Tafts,

" Robert Harden,

" In the name of the rest."

This petition was rejected, and it was ordered by the Court, " upon information that Pennicook is an apt place for a township, and in consideration of the Lord's great blessing upon the countrie in multiply- ing the inhabitants and plantations here ; and that almost all such plans are already taken up, it is ordered by the court that the lands at Pennicook be reserved for a plantation till so many of such as have petitioned for lands there or at others, shall present to settle a plantation there."

It was not until 1726 that the houndaries of the

town were enlarged. In that year, as has been al- ready stated, " Mystic side " was annexed, including so much of the town of Charlestown as lay on the northerly side of the Mystic River and the easterly side of north river, except a small strip of land at Penny Ferry." Since that time the boundary lines have been changed at various times.

On the 10th of June, 1817, an act was passed setting off' from Malden to Medford a tract,-

" Beginning at the boundary-line between said towne, at the point where the creek, running from Creek Head, so called, crosses said boun- dary live ; thence running in a southeasterly direction, by said creek, pursuing the course thereof, to a stake on the southerly side thereof, on the land of Nathan Holden, bearing south fifty degrees east and distant from the place of beginning, ju a straight line, about one hundred and twenty eight rods ; thence south six degrees west across the Bradbury farm, so called, about two hundred rods, to a stake in the line between said farm and land of Richard Dexter ; thence south nine degrees east, 80 as·to divide the land of said Dexter, and passing in a straight line be- tween said Dexter'e land and land of Benjamin Tufts, about one hun- dred and thirty rods to Mystic River, at a stake ; thence westerly, by Mystic River, to the old dividing line between said towns, and by said old line to the place of beginning ; Provided herein that said lands and the inhabitants thereon shall be holden to pay all such taxes aa have heen lawfully assessed or granted by said town of Malden, in the same manner as they would have heen holden if this act had not bren passed."

On the 3d of May, 1850, the town of Melrose was incorporated and set off from Malden, the territory in- eluded in the act of incorporation,-

" Beginning at the moonment set up at the junction of the towns of Saugus, North Chelsea and Malden; theuce running north eighty. eight degrees twelve minutes west to the town of Medford, suid line, where it crosses Main Street, eo called, being one hundred and sixty-seven feet south of the miile-etone standing on the easterly elde of said street, south of the dwelling-house of Joseph Lynde (2d), and on Washington Street one hundred and twenty-two feet north of the land of Robert T. Barrett, oo said street, ou the most northerly corner of said Barrett's land, add- joining land of John J. Mahoney."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 109

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278