History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 11

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 11

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).

Many of the later years of his life were devoted to an enthusiastic study of the different English trans- lations of the Bible, from that of Wycliffe to that of 1611. He intended to write a history of them. The late Professor B. B. Edwards, of Andover, said he was better qualified to do it than any other person in the country. A conclusion which Dr. Homer reached was that King James's Bible was IN NO PART a new translation taken directly from the originals. He had the most ample facilities for ascertaining the truth of this statement. His shelves were filled with rare and choice books bearing upon the subject, many of them obtained from England with great painstak- ing and expense, and he performed the almost incred- ible labor of finding ont by personal examination the

source from which the translation of every verse in the Bible was taken, and he showed, what he had previously asserted, but what had been denied by Biblical scholars, both English and American, that not a single verse in King James's version was newly translated, but that the whole of it was taken from other versions, and was a compilation. He showed that thirty-two parts ont of thirty-three were taken from former English versions, chiefly from the Bish- ops' Bible, and that the remaining thirty-third part was drawn from foreign versions and comments. Having announced this result of his investigations, he quoted the words of the translators themselves, that they "had never thought from the beginning of the need of making a new translation."

It has been generally admitted that in the time of the Unitarian defection Dr. Ilomer was considerably influenced by his many friends who had embraced the erroneous views, and especially by Dr. John Pierce, of Brookline, and Dr. James Freeman, of King's Chapel, in Boston, whose wife was a sister of Mrs. Homer. But Dr. John Codman, of Dorchester, who was an intimate friend of Dr. Homer, and who preached his funeral sermon, said that he was decid- edly evangelieal and orthodox, though liberal and catholic in his feelings towards other denominations. "There was no bigotry in bim. His heart overflowed with love to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ of every sect and name. He was not a denominational Christian, but a member of the church universal." His heart was full of the tenderest sympatby for the suf- fering. He took orphans and homeless children to his own house and gave them a home until they could be provided for. More than thirty were cared for by him in this way.

A smile is sometimes awakened at the mention of Dr. Homer's name, because of the many queer and strange things that have been told of him. He was a very absent-minded man, and his wife was constantly expecting some odd event to occur from his eccentric ways. Professor Park, of Andover, says that he and Professor Edwards and others were once invited to dine at Dr. Homer's. When they were called to dinner they went into the dining-room and took their places around the table, their host not being present. Soon, however, he appeared at the door of the room, and seeing that the company were waiting for him, immediately commenced asking the bles-ing. By the time he had reached his place at the table he got through with the blessing and then saluted his guests. Other stories about Dr. Homer, under the name of "Parson Carryl," may be found in "The Minister's Housekeeper," one of Sam Lawson's " Old- town Fireside Stories," by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. "Yon may laugh as much as you will at brother Homer," said Father Greenough, of the West Parish ; "there is no man among us who carries with him the spirit of the gospel from Monday morning to Saturday night better than he."

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The year 1827 was the crowning year of this long ministry. Seventy-one persons were received into the church in that year, as many as had been receiv- ed in the previous nineteen years. The revival of that year is remarkable as showing what can be done by a few earnest laymen when religion is low, and when the minister is not the man to be the means of reviving it. Dr. HIomer was growing old ; he was absorbed in the study of English versions of the Bible, and he had not the faculty for conducting a revival, even if one were in progress. In four years only four persons had been received into the church on ronfession of faith, and one of these was a woman in the ninety-eighth year of her age. During this period Hon. William Jackson, a deacon, and a man born to be a leader among men, had spoken of the good state of feeling in the church. Perhaps his hopeful and enthusiastic spirit made it seem better than it was. Such a spirit is contagious, and he found large numbers in the church in full sympathy with him. " They labored," said he, "and loved to labor, both men and women, in season, and out of season, for Christ and the welfare of souls." Speak- ing of Elijah F. Woodward, Increase S. Davis and Asa Cook, he said, " We were four brothers indeed ! Together in the Sunday-school, together in the prayer-meeting, and together in every good work which our hands and hearts found to do. In these good works we continued with one heart and with one soul, until the fall of 1827, when God poured us out such a blessing that we had hardly room to receive it, and sure I am that none of us knew what to do with it, or how to behave under it. It was the hap- piest year of my life. Notwithstanding I gave my mind and very much of my time to this work, to an extent, in fact, which lookers on, Christians even, would have thought, and probably did pronounce, ruinous to my business, yet when I came to take an account of stock the following June, I found that it had been the most profitable year of my life, that I had never before laid up more money in one year. This blessed revival continued with more or less strength until 1834, when more than two hundred members had been added to our church. The mem- bers of the church, young and old, seemed all to love to pray and to labor, and f und their chief happiness in doing their Master's will."

Deacon Jackson's leadership was felt at every step of that revival. He said to Dr. Homer, "There is need of a great deal of work here, and we ought not to tax you at your time of hfe ; if you please, I will call in help from outside." The minister had such confidence in his deacon, that he allowed him to do whatever he pleased. Accordingly, Rev. Jonathan S. Green came and labored here several months, and after him, Rev. Isaac R. Barber. Deacon Jackson went about the parish with them, introducing them to the families and assisting them in conducting neighborhood meetings. Often he conducted such

meetings himself. Saturday night meetings were held at his own house. " This carpet will be ruined," said his wife, " by so many muddy boots." " Never mind," said he, " wait till the roads are dry, and you shall have the hand-omest carpet there is in Boston." Such was the fervor and intensity of his spirit that the meetings were full, even if it was known that he was going to read, as he sometimes did, a printed sermon. He spent much time in visiting the sick, and in more specifically spiritual work with individ- nals. For four or five years this kind of religious activity went on. Deacon Jackson, Deacon Wood- ward and others were never weary in well-doing, and we might almost call the revival of 1827 the deacons' revival.

Rev. James Bates was ordained as colleague pastor with Dr. Homer in November, 1827. He was a man whose soul was habitually penetrated with the thought of the infinite and amazing interests which the preaching of the Gospel contemplates. The eter- nal future of those to whom he ministered was to depend in great measure upon his fidelity. To be the means of their salvation was the passion of his life. Large additions were made to the church under his ministry. It is true that other agencies were at work. The revival of 1827 had not spent itself when he came here. A very successful four days' meeting was held in 1831, at which Dr. Lyman Beecher and Dr. B. B. Wisner were among the preachers, and the period from that time to 1835 was one of those great revival eras in which the windows of Heaven are open all over the land to pour down salvation. These considerations, however, should not detract from the value of the labors of Mr. Bates, for he was equally successful in Granby after he had left Newton.

Mr. Bates had for helpers two such deacons as any minister might be thankful for-Elijah F. Woodward and William Jackson. Deacon Woodward came of a goodly stock. Four generations of his ancestors had lived and prayed and died in the house in which he was born. His father and grandfather were deacons. He was made deacon at the age of twenty-eight, and held the office as long as he lived. He was twenty-nine years superintendent of the Sunday-school. He entered the choir at the age of eleven, and remained there forty-eight years, half of which time he was the leader with voice and viol of thirty or forty singers and players. He lived two miles from the meeting- house, and yet no one was more constant or more punctual than he in attendance upon all the meetings of the church and of the choir, both in the daytime and in the evening. Often he took a shovel in his sleigh to make a path through snowdrifts. He was farmer, teacher, surveyor, town clerk and treasurer, and yet his duties to the church were never neg- lected. His horse had heard the Doxology in Old Hundred sung so many times that he learned to rec- ognize the singing of it as the closing exercise of au

NEWTON.

evening meeting, and when he heard it he backed out of the shed and walked up to the chapel door, where he waited till his master came out. One of Deacon Woodward's duties as town clerk was to announce in- tentions of marriage. This he did from his place in the choir on the Sabbath, just before the benediction. Few men render the public so much service as he did, in so quiet and noiseless a way, and with so little desire to get the glory of it to himself. The appreci- ation in which he was held was shown by the attend- ance at his funeral. The meeting-house was full. People came from every part of the town, and from surrounding towns, and the procession of those who walked to his burial was more than half a mile long. This was their tribute to the goodness of a man in whom everybody had confidence.

Deacon Jackson was the champion of every right- eous and good cause, whether popular or unpopular. If it was unpopular it had all the more attraction for him, because it needed him the more. He was the first mover in the temperance canse in this town, and delivered the first temperance address. His action upon the subject of license, as selectman of the town, raised a storm of opposition which caused the subject of intemperance to be more thoroughly discussed and better understood than in any other town in the Com- monwealth. When he began to agitate the question, he said he knew of but three total abstinence men in the town-Captain Samuel Hyde, Increase S. Davis and Seth Davis. This was in 1826, the year that Dr. Lyman Beecher delivered his famous six lectures on intemperance. In less than two years from that time Deacon Jackson was sent to the Legislature as a tem- perance man. In the Legislature he opened his lips against Free Masonry and for that was sent to Con- gress two terms. While in Congress he saw the usurpations of the slaveholders, and this made him an anti-slavery man. When the Liberty party was formed he was its first candidate for Governor. When the American Missionary Association was formed in 1846 he was its first president, and held the office eight years. In 1828 he began to advocate the construction of railroads. For sixteen or eighteen years no subject engaged so much of his attention or occupied so much of his time as this. In 1829 he delivered lectures and addresses in the principal towns of the State, and wrote articles for the newspapers of Bos- ton, Springfield, Northampton, Haverhill and Salem. This was considered by many of his friends to be evidence of partial derangement. In May, 1831, the building of the railroad from Boston to Worcester was commenced, and there is no man to whom the public is more indebted than to him for the railroad facilities of the present day.

William Jackson was a leader among men without trying to be, and perhaps without knowing that he was, by the excellence and force of his character, by his knowledge of men and of affairs, by his quickness and sagacity, by the depth and strength of his con-

victions, by his loyalty to truth and dnty, by his capacity for being possessed and controlled by the conclusions to which his judgment and couscience conducted him, by the simplicity, earnestness and public spirit with which he urged his views upon the attention of others, and by his enthusiastic disregard of his own ease and time and money, if public in- terests might be subserved, and righteousness main- tained, and the kingdom of heaven brought nearer ; and when men saw in him these qualities and this de- votion to the public welfare, they gave him their confidence, acknowledged his leadership and lelt safe in following him.

The devotion of this remarkable man to public interests was never allowed to interfere with his duties to his church. He spent a great amount of time and money in promoting its welfare. He kuew nothing about the love of money for its own sake, or for luxury and display. He accumulated that he might give, and he could not say no to any person or cause needing aid. He wrote the early history of this church as contained in Jackson's " History of New- ton." Though in early life he was a Unitarian and an admirer of Dr. Channing, when he changed his belief he became one of the stoutest defenders of the orthodox faith we ever had. Ile ever maintained the most cordial social relations with his Uuitarian friends, and he gave them his hand and his heart as co- workers with bim for temperance and anti-slavery.

The pastoral relation of Mr. Bates and of Dr. Homer ceased at the same time, in April, 1839.

The seventh pastor of our church was Rev. William Bushnell, installed in 1842. As a preacher he was clear, sound, scriptural and instructive. He published sermons commemorative of Deacons Woodward and Jackson. His ministry terminated in 1846.

My own ministry began in 1847, and continned thirty-five years. In 1854 we enlarged the meeting- house and built a new chapel. In 1869 we again en- larged both the meeting-house and the chapel, at a cost of twenty-two thousand dellars. In twenty-six years our contributions to benevolent objects, including gifts of individuals and the work of the Ladies' Benevo- lent Society, amounted to nearly sixty-three thousand dollars.

The present pastor, Rev. Theodore J. Holmes, was installed in 1883. IIe has a special gift for interesting children and youth. Their attendance upon the services of religion has been greatly increased under his ministry and additions of young persons to the church have been numerous.

We have no means of knowing how many persons were received into our church by its first four ministers. It is probable that several hundred names were lost by the burning of the church records. Dr. Homer, as sole pastor for forty-five years, received two hundred and fifty-seven. He and Mr. Bates to- gether received, in eleven and a half years, one hun- dred and ninety-four. Mr. Bushnell in his four years

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

received seventeen. In my own ministry five hundred and thirty-six were received, or two hundred and fifty-four by profession and two hundred and eighty- two by letter. Brother Holmes has received in six years one hundred and forty-one, or sixty-six by pro- fession and seventy-five by letter.

The men whom this church has sent into the ministry are Ichabod Wiswall, William Williams, Thomas Greenwood, John Prentice, Caleb Trowbridge, Edward Jackson, Joseph Park, Samuel Woodward, Nathan Ward, Jonas Clark, Ephraim Ward, Calvin Park, Increase Sumner Davis, James M. Bacon, Edward P. Kingsbury, James A. Bates, Gilbert R. Brackett, Charles A. Kingsbury, Frank D. Sargent, James A. Towle, Erastus Blakeslee and John Bar- stow.

An ineredible story is told about the strength of Nathan Ward's voice. He was a disciple of White- field and was settled in Plymouth, N. H. A family living more than a mile from his meeting-house said they could remain at home and hear the sermon. Jonas Clark, of Lexington, illustrates the remark of the elder President Adams, that "American independence was mainly due to the elergy." He was an intimate friend of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who often visited him. Increase Sumner Davis was a man who could take a walk of twelve or fifteen miles before breakfast, and call it pleasant exercise. When his preaching places were distant he went to them on foot. On one of his walks in Piermont he met a man who had been drinking, and who came up to him and challenged him to a trial of strength. Mr. Davis tried to avoid him, but the man persisted. " Let me alone," said Mr. Davis, "or you will find that you have caught a full-grown man." But the man would not let him alone, and the result was that he was soon lying on his back in the snow with his head plunged into a snow-bank, where he was held till he promised to be peaceable and begged to be released. On being suffered to get up, he wiped the snow from his face and muttered : " You are a full-grown man any- . way."

Among the women from this church who have been wives of ministers was Abigail Williams, ancestor of President Mark Hopkins, of Hon. Theodore Sedg- wick, judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and of Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Her first husband was Rev. John Sergeant, and her second husband General Joseph Dwight. She was a woman of fine talents and acquirements, of dignified manners and of elevated Christian character. While teaching Indian girls as a missionary, she corresponded ex- tensively with persons eminent for learning and picty on both sides of the Atlantic. Miss Eliza Susan Morton, of New York, who became the wife of Presi- dent Josiah Quincy, of Harvard College, gives the following account of her personal appearance : " When Madame Dwight visited us in 1786 she was between sixty and seventy years of age, tall, straight,

composed, and rather formal and precise, yet so be- nevolent and pleasing that everybody loved her. Her dress was always very handsome, generally dark- colored silk. Sbe always wore a watch, which in those days was a distinction. Her head-dress was a high cap with plaited borders, tied under the chin. Everything about her distinguished her as a gentle- woman, and inspired respeet and commanded atten- tion."

Three missionaries have lately gone from us- Harriet N. Childs, to Central Turkey ; Bertha Robert- son, to Southern Georgia; and Sarah L. Smith, to Mieronesia.

Several of the ministers of our church have been nobly connected. Mr. Cotton was great-grandson of the man for whom Boston was named. Mr. Hobart was uncle to Dorothy Hobart, the mother of David Brainerd, one of the holiest men that ever lived. Mr. Eliot's first wife was great-aunt to Mrs. Jonathan Edwards, and his second wife was an ancestor, by a second marriage, of Josiah Quiney, president of Har- vard College. It is enough to say of Mr. Eliot that he was a son of the apostle Eliot, but his brother Joseph, of Guilford, had a son Jared, who was a re- markable man. He was the minister of Killingworth, Conn., where he never omitted preaching on the Lord's Day for forty years. He delighted in the gospel of God's grace to perishing sinners, and yet he was a physician, a philosopher, a linguist, a miner- alogist, a botanist and a scientific agrieulturist. He knew so much about diseases and their treatment that he was more extensively consulted than any physician in New England. Being on the main road from New York to Boston, he was visited by many gentlemen of distinction. He was a personal friend and correspond- ent of Bishop Berkeley. Dr. Franklin always called unon him when passing through the town. This man was nephew to Rev. John Eliot, Jr., and he onee preached in this place.

The record of the town of Newton for patriotism in the French and Indian Wars, and in the War of the Revolution, is a noble one. The church shares this honor with the town. The name of Captain Thomas I'rentice was a terror to the hostile Indians. Ile was an original member of the church in 1664, and so were two others, and probably more, who fell in the Indian Wars. In the army of the Revolution were four of the deacons of our church-John Woodward, David Stone, Jonas Stone and Ebenezer Woodward ; also Col. Joseph Ward, who received the thanks of Washington for his services, Col. Benjamin Ham- mond, General William Hull, and that brave and im- petuous soldier, Col. Michael Jackson, who had with him in the army five brothers and five sons. Two of our men were nearly sixty years old when they en- listed, two were nearly seventy and one was seventy- three. Fifty-seven names of sokliers of the Revolu- tion are on our church roll, forty of whom were mem- bers of the church at the time of the war, and seven-

NEWTON.

teen joined it afterward. More than half the male members of the church performed military duty. This shows how heivy the draft was that was made upon the population of the country to fill the ranks of the army. The population was small, and every able- bodied man of suitable age was needed in the struggle for independence. In the War of the Rebellion the population was so great that, though the armies were immense in size, the proportion of enlisted men was much smaller. Only nine of the members of this church were in the Union army, and three of these were not members at the time of the war, but became such afterward. Their names are Col. I. F. Kings- bury, Sergeant-Major Charles Ward, Captain George F. Brackett, Major Ambrose Bancroft, Roger S. Kingsbury, Edward A. Ellis, Johu E. Towle, Cap- tain Joseph E. Cousens and William H. Daly.

Edward P. Kingsbury enlisted and went into camp, but was compelled by ill health to return home.

William H. Ward, brother of Charles, might prop- erly be counted among the soldiers from this church, for here was the home of his boyhood, and this was the church he first joined.

In July, 1862, Charles Ward, who was almost ready to enter college, having the ministry in view, said to his friends : " I believe it is my duty to en- list." They said to him: "If you enlist for three years you will never come back." His only reply was: "I do not expect to come back." On the evening of his enlistment he said: "We hear the call of our country summoning us to her defense in the hour of peril. Is there a life too precious to be sacrificed in such a cause ? I do not feel that mine is. I rejoice that I am permitted to go and fight in her defense. I have come here to enroll my name as a soldier of my country, and I hope I am ready to die for her if need be." For a time he was detailed as clerk at division headquarters, but as soon as the call to arms was heard he dropped his peu for his place in the ranks, saying, " I cannot sit here writing when my company are going into battle." This was the battle of Chancellorsville, in which he fought bravely with his comrades.

His moral and religious character nobly stood the test of army life. He was as little affected by its de- moralizing influences as the three Hebrews were by the fury of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, when they came forth from it without the smell of fire upon them. The whiskey that was furnished to the sol- diers he would neither drink nor commute for other rations. He regularly took it and poured it on the ground. His religious influence was felt in the sol- diers' prayer-meetings, and in his habitual use of his Bible.

His calm and unwavering courage in battle, or in prospect of a battle, was a tonic to the whole regiment. Every man in it knew that he had given his life to the cause of his country, and that he stood ready to complete the sacrifice whenever his duty as a soldier

required it. At Gettysburg, on the very crest of the wave of that gigantic war, he laid down his life. In a charge across an open field under a deadly fire, a bullet pierced his lungs and he fell. He lived several days after this and was left in a barn with other wounded soldiers. One of them said, " I am sorry I ever enlisted." Charles overhearing him, said, " I do not feel so ; I am glad I came; this is just what I expected." He sent loving messages home to his friends, and said to them, " Death has no fears for me ; my hope is still firm in Jesus."

Such was the death in his twenty-second year of a Christian soldier, a young man who gave his life first to God and then to his country. An officer of his regiment said of him, "A pattern of goodness and worth, he became endeared to all, so refined and cul- tivated even amidst the rough usages of camp life, a necessity to the regiment." Fitly the Army Post of this city bears the name of Charles Ward.

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 11

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