History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 119

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 119

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REMONSTRANCE.

" To the Ecclesiastical Council to be convened in Malden July 30th, 1828, for the purpose of installing the Rev. Sylvanns Cobb, as l'astor of the first Church and Parish in said town.

"GENTLEMEN,-Ilnving heard that a meeting of the first Church in Malden, without the demire, or request, or know ledge of the members, had been called by the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, who himself was not a member ; and that ut said unauthorized meeting, attended only by Mr. Ebenezer Townsend (cacommunicated from our Church May 31, 1828), his wife, Susannah, and Miss Elizabeth H. Sargent, the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb was elected by them a member, as they claim, of the first Church in Malden ; and that afterward the aforesaid persons, together with the Rev. Sylvi- nus Cobl, proceeded to receive to Church fellowship sundry other per- BUTIs, und also to elect the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb to be the Clerk, and the said Ebenezer Townsend to be a Dencon of the snid first Church, as they claim; and also having heard that the first Parish in Malden had given to the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb a call to settle in the ministry over the snid first Parish ; and that Wednesday, the thirtieth day of July Instant, was appointed for the installation-

" We, the undersigned officers and members of the church connected with the sund first parish, having never alionated ourselves, by certificate or otherwise, from the said Church or Parish, wholly disown and disap- prove of the doings of the above named Ebenezer Townsend, his wife and Miss Elizabeth A. Sargent and those connected with them in the above- named transactions, na being entirely unprecedented und contrary to ull ecclesiastient usage, and contrary to our own wishes and feelings. And we do also hereby remonstrate against nny ecclesiastical Council proceeding to install the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb ns pastor over the First Church in Malden. Malden, July 29, 1828.

" EPHRAIM BUCK, } Deacons. LEWIS FISHER,

" SILAS SARGENT,

NATHAN NEWHALL,

" AMON SARGENT, " PHINEAS SPRAGUE,

WM. 11. RICHARDSON."

" We, the undersigned, being members of the First Church in Malden approve of the above remonstrauce." To this approval of the remon strance arr aflix d the signatures of twenty-nine women, and the whole Is followed by the official certification : " True copy, Ephraim Buck, Vierk."

This remonstrance had no effect at the time, as the council of Universalist ministers which was called to install the Rev. Mr. Cobb refused to hear it read.

It is hut fair to look next at the records of the Universalist Church in Malden. Opening the book, we find that they are called " Records of the First

Church of Christ in Malden." The record of the first meeting is, in part, as follows :

" At a meeting of the First Church of Christ in Malden, holden at the Parsonage house, May 22ª, 1828 :

" Jat. Voted that we approve the doings of the Parish in employing Rev. Sylvanus Cobb to lead in our public devotions, and minister unto ns the word of life, the present year.

w 2d. Voted that Rev. Sylvanne Cobb and Mrs. Eunice H. Cobb be re- ceived into fellowship ae members of this Church.

"3d. Voted to receive Brs. Charles Hill, Artemus Cutter and Edward Wade into fellowship as members of this Church.

"4tb. Chose Br. Sylvanus Cobb Secretary of this Church."

A committee was then appointed " to prepare a new draught of the Confession of Faith and Covenant used by the Church in the admission of members, with suitable amendments, and also to draught a code of By-Laws." The meeting was then adjourned.

The question inevitably arises at this point, Who elected Rev. Mr. Cobb and received him as a member of the First Church in Malden? It is recorded that he was received at a meeting of the First Church in that town. But it is certain that neither the deacons nor any other of the numerous members of the First Church who signed "the remonstrance " had re- ceived any notification of that meeting, or had any knowledge of it until after it had been held. Was that so-called church meeting composed, at its open- ing, of simply Ebenezer Townsend, bis wife Susannah, and Miss Elizabeth H. Sargent ? and did they three assume to be the " First Church in Malden," and as such church receive members and elect Mr. Cobb as secretary ? If so, the prayer : "God have mercy on their souls," ought to have gone up from the hearts of all good people in Malden ; and not for those three persons only should the prayer have been offered, but also for all who abetted or sanctioned such a transac- tion. It is not believed that such a procedure would now be regarded by any member of the Universalist Church in Malden with any other than' feelings of repugnance and reprobation.

The First Universalist Church in Malden held its second meeting on June 7, 1828, at which it received seven persons by confession of faith, adopted " a new draught " of the Arminian Confession of Faith and Covenant, written by Rev. Eliakim Willis, " with suitable amendments," and also adopted a resolution as follows :

" Resolved, That whereas Deacons Buck and Sargeant have withdrawn themselves from the Parish with which we, as a Church, stand con- nected, have absented themselves from our religions meetings, and have united themselves to another religions Society, we can, therefore, no longer recognize them as Deacous of this First Church of Christ in Mal- den ; and it is expedient that we proceed to choose at least one person to that office at the present time. . . . Chose Br. Ebenezer Townsend First Deacon of this Church."

But Deacons Buck and Sargent, in the "Remon- strance" of July 30, 1828 (quoted above), distinctly and publicly affirmed that they were still "officers and members of the church connected with the First Parish, having never alienated ourselves, by certifi- cate or otherwise, from said church or parish," nor

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had they united themselves to any other religions society. They continued for years after this to be officers of the First Church and members of the First Parish. There is no record, up to this date, of any vote by which the First Parish had formally and le- gally sundered its long-continued connection with the First Church, nor of any vote by which the First Church had formally and legally sundered its long- continued connection with the First Parish.

It should be noticed that Ebenezer Townsend ap- pears at this meeting as a member of the church, so called, there assembled, and is elected deacon, But there is no record of his having been received to this Universalist Church. He must, therefore, have been one of those two or three members of the First Church who, on May 22, 1828, met secretly at a private house, called themselves "The First Church of Christ in Malden," received Rev. Mr. Cobb and four other per- sons, as they claimed, into the " First Church," and then elected Mr. Cobb secretary of that church. Mrs. Susan Townsend and Miss Elizabeth H. Sargeut are also recognized in the records of the Universalist Church as members of that church, but there does not appear to be any record of their reception into that church. This indicates that they united with Mr. Townsend, on May 22, 1828, in calling them- selves "The First Church of Christ in Malden." It does not appear that any others were associated with those three persons in that notorious act of assump- tion and fraud, until they had received Mr. Cobb and others as members.

The First Universalist Church in Malden beld its third meeting "at the Parsonage, June 23, 1828." The record of this meeting is as follows :

" 1st Chose Br. E. Wade, Moderator pro tem.

"2d Chose Br. E. Townsend, Secretary pro tem.

"3ª Voted unanimously, That this Church recommend to the Parish with which we stand conuected, to settle llev. Sylvanus Cobb as Pastor of our Church aud Parish.

" EBEN TOWNSEND, Secetary pro tem.

" A trne copy of the Record of the meeting. "SYLVANUS COBB, Secretary."

Returning now to the history of the First Church, we cannot find that more than three of its members united in the organization of the Universalist Church, viz .: one man and two women ; and the one man was, after due form and process of discipline, excommuni- cated from the First Church before the Universalist Church held its second meeting. The brethren of the First Church, and other men in the town who sympa- thized with them, retained their connection with the First Parish so long as there was any hope of restoring the parish property to the uses for which it had been intrusted to the parish. As late as January 23, 1832, they appear to have made a most earnest but fruitless effort, through the power of the ballot, to discharge their obligations as honest men, placed in care of trust property, a part of which had come down to them, unperverted in its use, through nearly two centuries. At a meeting of the First Parish, held at

the above date, the whole number of votes cast for moderator was 228. Of this, Edward Wade, Esq., a leader of the Universalists, received 134; the good physician and orthodox deacon, Ephraim Buck, re- ceived ninety-three ; and Thomas Odiorne received one. Another unsuccessful attempt of this kind was made at a parish meeting held March 26, 1832. This was the last effort which the orthodox party made, through the ballot, to save the parish property to the uses for which it had been intrusted to the parish.

It may not be best, in this place, to describe in detail the proceedings by which a Universalist majority was secured in those decisive parish-meetings. It is a painful story. Suffice it now to say that the majority, according to abundant and trustworthy evidence, was obtained by methods which were anything but right- eous and honorable. And when that majority was obtained, the bars were put up. New rules for the admission of members were forthwith adopted, which thereafter made it impossible for any persons except Universalists to become members of this ancient orthodox parish.

After the orthodox party had failed to restore by their votes the parish property to the service of evan- gelical faith, the service to which it was consecrated by its donors, they brought suit at law against the parish. But this, too, failed of success. The courts at that time were dominated by the influence of an extraordinary decision of the Supreme Judicial Court. of the Commonwealth, which had bereft the Congre- gational Churches of some of their dearest rights and most sacred liberties. That decision was given in the year 1820, in what has usually been termed "the Ded- ham case," but is now correctly cited as Baker versus Fales, 16 Mass., 488, and was regarded by some of the most eminent lawyers of the time, headed by Daniel Webster, as an unwarranted aud unrighteous deci- sion.

The Universalists in Malden pleaded that decision as justifying their method of organizing their church, their seizure, by a majority vote unrighteously ob- tained, of the entire parish-property, which had been sacredly devoted by the contributors of it to the sup- port of an evangelical church and ministry, and their devotion of that property forever to the support of a Universalist Church and ministry. Possibly they had the legal power to do at that time what they did. But might does not make right. No power, no civil constitution, no law or statute, no decision of courts, can transmute falsehood, fraud and breach of trust into righteousness, else American slavery, with all its inexpressible wickedness and infamy, and a thousand other tyrannies, persecutions and atrocious wrongs, would have been made righteous.

The members of the First Church clung affection- ately to their place of worship, attending faithfully the religious services held at the brick meeting- house, until, without their consent, against their pro- test, and to their dismay and grief, the Universalist

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majority in the parish called the Rev. Mr. Cobb, an avowed Universalist, to become the settled pastor of the First Church and Parish, and he accepted the call. Then the stern, remorseless voice of arbitrary power said to them, as it said to their Puritan Fathers in England two centuries before-Conform to a faith and to a worship which your souls abominate, sit un- der preaching which you believe to be false and haz- ardous to the eternal interests of men, or flee hence and go whither you will. They would not be false to God and their vows; they would not deny their Lord and His gospel, nor defile their consciences; and so they fled from their own house of worship, endeared to them by a thousand sacred associations and tender memories, where they and their fathers and mothers had worshipped God, where they had received baptism and had confessed Christ as their Saviour and King. The exiled flock turned first into Captain John Sar- gent's Hall, a little dingy upper room near the corner of Salem and Ferry Streets, now used as a court- room. Afterwards they gathered for their public · religious services in a small hall in the second story of the brick school-house on Pleasant Street. There were no persons of wealth among them. They had left a good meeting-house, a fine parsonage-house, and ample parsonage lands, the parish wood-lots, and a ministerial fund of about $4000-the whole, ac- cording to one estimate, valued at about $20,000. They were few in number, and could ill afford to bear the pecuniary burdens which they now assumed. But they were rich in faith, in hope and in good works.

The brethren of the First Church, and other men sympathizing with them, had now .separated from the Universalist Church and minister, but not from the First Church. As has already been shown, in the conscientious discharge of their duty as en- trusted with the parish property, they took active part in the parish meetings as late as March 26, 1832. But in July of that year they organized a religious society, which, in the place of the First Parish, was soon legally connected with the First Church. In the preamble to the Constitution and By-Laws of that society, they say :-

" Whereas we consider the service and worship of God, in ite purity and simplicity, not only a high and important duty, but an inestimable privilege, one that infinitely transcendsall others, and one for the support of which all things else, if necessary, should be sacrificed ;- und being fully persuaded in our own minds that the right ways of the Lord are perverted in the first religions Society tu this place ; and that any further attempts to restore the ancient order of things in the first rell- K ous Sorlety would he not only useless aad valo, but fraught with mure evils than would be atoned for by all the ministerial property be- longing to said Society if obtained ; therefore we whose names are here userted . . . do, on thistwentieth day of July, In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and thirty-two, hereby constitute and form ourselves into a religions Society, by the name of The Trinitarian Congregational Society ; und we do hereby mutually covenant and agree with each nther, and with och other persons as may herefter unite with us, that we will maintain and support the public worship of God (to the extent of our ability), according to the ancient usages of Congregational Socie- ties In New England."

The First Church was now wholly separated from the First Parish. It had passed through the greatest

trial in its long history of nearly two hundred years. But it had not been alone in its tribulations. It had known the blessedness of fellowship in suf- fering. In the early part of the present century eighty-one Congregational Churches in Massachusetts were forced in a similar way to separate themselves from the parishes or societies with which they had been connected. In most of these cases, however, Uni- tarians were the aggressors, and pursued a course in many particulars similar to that adopted by the Uni- versalists in Malden, taking from orthodox Churches their meeting-honses, parsonage-houses, ministerial lands and all other property. In some instances they wrenched from these churches even their communion service and church records. The action of the Uni- versalists in Malden with reference to the communion service of the First Parish will be noticed further on.

REV. ALEXANDER WILSON MCCLURE, D.D., THE TWELFTH PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH .- The fol- lowing extracts have been taken from a manuscript biography of Dr. MeClure, which has been com- menced (and it is hoped will be completed) by one eminently fitted to give to the world, in appreciative and elegant words, the life of this brilliant man, this masterful and brave minister of Christ :

" Alexander Wileoa McClure was born in Boston, May 8, 1808, and was named for his maternal grandfather, Captain Alexander Wilson, whose mother was the only daughter of Rev. John Morehead, the first Presbyterian Minister of Boston. His ancestry was Scotch-Irish on both sides of the house, his great-great-grandfather on hie father's side being Joha MeClintock, one of the besieged at Londonderry, Ireland, during the famous siege of 1689. These families were identified with the great Protestant struggle of the period in the North of Irelead. Hie uncle, Rev. David McClure, was a distinguished Missionary to the Indiane of hie day.

" His father, Thomas McClure, was a merchant of vigorous intellect and great force of character. He was possessed of fine business ability and was the owner of Schooners and Coasters which carried on active trade along the Enstern Coast quite far to the South.

" His mother, Mary Wilson, . . . was a woman of much personel charm, and possessed a dignified and elegant hearing, which, added to a fine wit and talent in conversation, made her a prominent member of the social circles of her day.

" He was the youngest of all his father's children, end on him was lavished all that a father's pride and a mother's affection could suggest. His capacity was considered exceptionally good froas earliest childhood, and his precocious scholarship excited the wonder of his parents end teachers. At the age of eight he wae rending Shakespeare with avidity, had finished Rollin'e Ancient Ilistory and other works, und At fifteen, when ready to enter College, he had made himself acquainted with all the booke in the Library of the Boston Atheneum. Ile was trained in the Boston Latin School and entered Yale College in 1823. . . . A finished and high-bred bearing was, through life, one of his prominent characteristics. At College his life was of the gayest. Hie well dieci- plined miad enabled him to perform his college duties with very little labor, nud his irrepressible spirite sought amneement and excitement in ways which often defied the strict rules of the College. His father dying very suddenly at the conclusion of hie sophomore year, he was trane- ferred by his mother to Amherst College, where he graduated at the age of nineteen."

During Mr. McClure's senior year there occurred a season of special religious interest in the college, and under its quickening influence, with all the enthu- siasm of his nature, he consecrated himself to the service of Christ, and soon "Set his face towards the ministry." There is a vivid account of his conver-

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sion, including a letter which he wrote to his mother at the time, in one of Jacob Abbott's books, entitled "The Corner-Stone," pp. 320-331. His name is not given, but it is known that the subject of the narra- tive was Senior McClure. The depth of his convic- tions and the genuineness of the religious change which he experienced doubtless had much to do in determining his subsequent theological beliefs. In- deed, he was born into an era of heated theological discussion. His father had been a prominent mem- ber of the old Federal Street Church, Boston, and for years sat under the preaching of the distinguished Dr. William Ellery Channing. But when Dr. Chan- ning embraced Unitarian views, the sturdy Scotch- man, Thomas MeClure, could not brook the new gospel, left the church, united with the Park Street Church, and was subsequently elected one of its dea- cons. Such an experience of the father could hardly have failed to exert a moulding influence upon the religious character of the son, especially after his conversion.

Mr. MeClure entered Andover Theological Semi- nary in 1827, and was graduated from the same in 1830. In the seminary he was the class-mate of men who afterwards bore such distinguished names as William Adams, D.D., LL.D., George B. Cheever, D.D., Bela B. Edwards, D.D., William G. Shaufler, D.D., and President Leonard Woods, D.D., LL.D.

The year following his graduation Mr. McClure was a resident licentiate at Andover. At the begin- ning of this year, or some time in the autumn of 1830, his life, like a new-creating power, came into the history of Malden. He preached as stated sup- ply to the First Church-probably coming from An- dover every Saturday-until April 6, 1831, when he be- came acting pastor. In this capacity he labored until December 19, 1832. At this date he was ordained to the Christian ministry, and installed pastor of the First Church in Malden. The ordaining council as- sembled in the hall of the Brick School-house at nine in the morning. Public services were held in the Baptist Church in the afternoon. Rev. Dr. Lindsley, of the Park Street Church, Boston, preached the ser- mon. "The services," writes the clerk of the church, Dr. Buck, " were solemn and interesting, the day was pleasant and the congregation respectable." Six days after his ordination (December 25, 1832), at South Hadley, Mass., Mr. MeClure and Miss Mary Brewster Gould were united in marriage. Mrs. McClure was the daughter of Rev. Vinson and Mindwell Wood- bridge Gould, of Southampton, Mass. The young pastor and his bride were soon received into the house of Dr. Buck, and resided there for about a year. The house was on the corner of Maiu Street and Gould Avenue, on a lot which is now vacant.

The advent of Mr. MeClure to Malden, in the au- tumn of 1830, was most opportune. Rev. Aaron Green had been dismissed August 8, 1827. For about seven months after his dismissal the First Church

and the orthodox members of the First Parish had control of the pulpit, and it was supplied by various orthodox ministers. " Mr. Talcot Bates " appears to have preached as a candidate for settlement, and some of the people desired that he should be called to the pastorate; but the parish, at a meeting held Dec. 26, 1827, voted not to extend to him a call. Rev. William W. Niles also preached as a candidate, and made a number of warm friends, at whose request a parish-meeting was called to see if the members of the parish would invite him to settle with them in the ministry. But the parish, January 8, 1828, re- fused even to consider the question of his settlement, by a vote of fifty-three against twenty-nine. There is no record that the church took any action in either of these cases. The Universalists, on March 8, 1828, having, by a majority vote in the parish, obtained control of the pulpit, and having at that date voted to invite a Universalist-Rev. Sylvanus Cobb-to offi ciate as their minister for one year, the First Church was driven to seek another place of worship and an- other minister. The first indication, in the records of the church, of any change in its place of worship, is under date of May 18, 1828. On that day, it being the Sabbath, the First Church worshiped in Captain John Sargent's Hall, and Rev. Cornelius B. Everest preached. At a church-meeting, held after divine service in the afternoon, it was voted, that the Rev. Mr. Everest "be invited to exercise all the rights and duties of a Pastor of this church." He accepted the invitation, and appears to have served as acting pas- tor for about one year. The Rev. John R. Adams, brother of.Dr. William Adams of New York, preached to this little flock for some time previous to the com- ing of Mr. MeClure. When the latter began his ser- vice as stated supply, the First Church had held ser- vices of worship separate from those of the First Parish for more than two years ; but the conflict was still raging. None of the orthodox party had sev- ered their connection with the First Parish, and the elangor and heat of theological debate still filled the town.

McClure was a strict Calvinist. He belonged to the class of theologians designated at that time as Old School, in distinction from those called New School. Those men whom Capt. John Dexter con- demned, on account of their "Bade Hopkintonian Principels," were New School in their theology, or, as they preferred to call themselves, "Consistent Calvin- ists." Theologically, Mr. McClure was in sympathy with his predecessors in the Malden pulpit, Mathews, Wigglesworth and Emerson. Rev. Mr. Wigglesworth, after his deccase, was referred to, in an oration deliv- ered at Cambridge, as "Orthodoxus Maldunatus." The same title might appropriately have been given to Rev. McClure. But the difference between the Old School and the New, of that time, was trifling in comparison with the difference between both of those Schools and the Arminians. Mr. McClure was

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 119

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