USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > New Bedford > History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 1620-1892 > Part 51
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to state here that the evidence is almost absolutely conclusive that it had never at any time been a town parish in reality; that the town, as a town, never once levied nor paid a tax to support a preacher or to build a house of worship, nor elected a preacher who would receive any part of his support from the public treasury.
" The next pastor was Israel Cheever, who was settled in 1751, and was dismissed in 1759. He was a native of Concord, Mass., and a graduate of Harvard College.
" Mr. Cheever was succeeded by the famous Dr. Samuel West, inci- dents in whose remarkable career have been treated in earlier pages of this work. Like all of his predecessors in the old pulpit, he was a graduate of Harvard College. He was born in Barnstable in 1730, and graduated in 1754. He came to Dartmouth in June, 1760, and was invited to settle by both the church and the precinct on the 25th of September, 1760. His ordination did not take place until July 3, 1761. Dr. West was a man of powerful intellect, possessed of deep knowledge of the Bible, was well versed in history and politics, and an ardent pursuer of truth in all fields. He was strong in controversy and did not hesi- tate to measure his powers with the ablest men of his time. He was an ardent patriot, one of the earliest believers in the necessity of the Revo- lution, and his influence was a great help to the cause of freedom. In · religious thought he was ahead of his time, and judged by his own time he was an Arminian, which was the transition passage to Unitarian- ism. It was a strong point with him to urge the people to take the Bible itself for creed rather than any creed which sectarians had ex- tracted from it. For forty years he ministered to this church and it will readily be understood that his influence for good in the community was most powerful. Yet he sometimes suffered for want of the salary he had earned. One of his statements made in 1785 gives the amount due him as 541 pounds, 12 shillings and 11 pence. . This account,' he says, 'I desire may be laid before the quarter sessions which sits in Taunton this week, that they may order the precinct officers to collect the money for me. My reasons for this request are: First, I owe money which I want to pay. Secondly, I want bread-corn for my family, and I can neither get money to purchase it nor the promise of it from those who owe me. Thirdly, I want clothing for myself and
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family. These are important articles, for which, if they cannot be ob- tained, my family must suffer.' That was only one hundred years ago, and Samuel West was one of the greatest men of his time, yet this must not be attributed all to the thoughtlessness, much less to the in- tentional injustice of his parishioners. They were for the most part, especially at this time, just after the Revolution, in a condition of poverty. They were all poor together, with few exceptions. Dr. West knew this, and evidently waited as long as he could before presenting his account and asking for a legal collection. And it is evident, too, from the large amount that remained due at the end of his labors, that the legal measures had not brought anything like the full sum owed to him. It is probable they brought enough for his temporary relief, and that then he would not permit the last legal resort to be taken for his benefit.
" In 1787 the township of Dartmouth was divided and the town of New Bedford formed. The parish then had the same bounds with the territory of the new town. In consequence the defining numeral, 'Second,' was dropped off its name and it became ' The Precinct'- only now the precinct of New Bedford, instead of Dartmouth. Still, by its incorporation, as well as by the tendencies of the time, it retained the management of its affairs in its own hands. Another change of still more importance was impending. After the Revolution, the popu- lation having largely increased on both sides of the river near its mouth, the inhabitants who were accustomed to go to church at the Head of- the-River, in the old church, began to be restless. They wanted a place of worship nearer home. This resulted, in 1790, in building a church in Fairhaven by certain Congregationalists who were members of the old parish, and Dr. West for about a year preached to both congregations ; but this feeling of amity did not continue. The pro- prietors of the new house began to move for a separate precinct. When this proposition was presented to the old parish, of which the petitioners were still a part, it was voted ' that the precinct shall not be divided.' The petitioners then applied to the General Court for re- lief, and remonstrances were presented in opposition thereto, the chief argument against the proposed change being that the separation of so many of the congregation from the old parish would imperil .its life. But the remonstrances did not avail, for in the same year, 1792, the
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Fairhaven precinct received its charter and was to be known as the ' Second Precinct in New Bedford,' the old parish then becoming by legal construction 'The First Precinct.' By compromise, however, the division line was drawn a good deal farther south than was first proposed, and families south of the line, if they chose, might remain in the old parish, while three or four families on the Bedford side were to go with the new. The new parish was to pay thirty-seven pounds to the old precinct for the privilege of leaving the old homestead and set- ting out for itself. This separation left the old parish in a somewhat distressed condition, as had been anticipated, and in 1794 a parish meeting was called to consider a petition to the General Court for re- lief. Nothing was done in this direction ; but the meeting voted that ' Dr. West hold his meetings in Bedford village the last Sabbath of each month through the year.' This action had important results, as we shall see.
" At the parish meeting next year, April 7, 1795, the record shows a wonderful revival of courage and activity. The parish voted to repair its meeting house ; it divided itself into four collection districts and ap- pointed a collector for each ; it raised Brother West's salary again to £76. Steps had already been taken to build a new meeting-house in Bedford vil- lage. They were going to try, under better auspices, the experiment which had failed in Fairhaven. On the last day of the previous January ' about thirty persons,' most of them active members of the old parish, met and organized as ' the proprietors or subscribers for building a new meeting-house in the village of Bedford.' A series of votes followed, covering the acceptance of one-quarter acre of land lying north of Joseph Russell's orchard and west of the County road, donated by Ephraim Kempton, sr .; the plan of a house 40 by 50 feet, two stories high (afterward enlarged); the sale of the seats at vendue, etc. At a meeting a little later the sale of the pews was actually made, although the house existed only on paper, and finally was not built on the lot first proposed. There were thirty-nine subscribers for building the new meeting-house, who were for the most part purchasers of the pews. On the 2d of May, 1795, the vote accepting the lot above mentioned was rescinded by a vote of twenty-nine to two. Then it was ' Voted, unanimously, that the proprietors will accept of a lot of land, offered by
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Mr. William Rotch, of 100 feet east and west line and 67 north and south line, and establish it as the place whereon to build the house.' This lot was on the northwest corner of Purchase and William streets. The erection of the house was now pushed forward, and was probably far enough advanced to be occupied in the fall. Already, in July, the proprietors had voted to apply to the precinct at its next meeting (that is, to the old parish, where they were still members and voters), asking that Dr. West officiate in the new meeting- house 'every second Sab- bath throughout the year ;' and in August the precinct voted that Dr. West should do so 'if agreeable to him.' The house was not finished for two years or more, and still later the pews were put in the gallery, but services appear to have been held there every alternate Sunday from the fall of 1795 as long as Dr. West was able to preach. Here, then, was a parish with two meeting-houses and one minister ; with all general parish affairs managed in the parish meetings as before, which both parts of the precinct attended. In June, 1803, Dr. West retired from his pastoral duties on account of the infirmities of age, and soon afterward removed to Tiverton to reside with a son, where he died September 24, 1807, at the age of seventy-seven years. His body was brought back to the old burial ground and placed at rest among his kindred and people.
" After Dr. West's retirement there ensued a series of troubled years There is record of only one meeting of the parish after Dr. West's re moval to Tiverton. This was in 1805, when a vote was passed restrict- ing the conditions for permitting the town to hold its meetings in the old church. During a quarter of a century the house was opened occa- sionally for religious services, and the Methodists, when they first started their church at Acushnet, occupied it for several years ; and the town of Fairhaven, after it was set off in 1812, used it for its meetings for a number of years. The ancient church disappeared in 1837.
" The time now seemed to have arrived for the Bedford village end of the parish to act for itself as an independent organization. The village had greatly increased in the thirteen years since the house was built The proprietors of the meeting-house had fulfilled all their obligations to Dr. West, and they naturally wanted a minister who could preach to them every Sunday. Accordingly, April 16, 1807, the old precinct
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was called together to act upon another question of division, and the vote was unanimous to set off the southerly portion of the precinct on the Bedford side. This was probably the last act of the old precinct. The petition sent to the Legislature in consequence of this action re- sulted in an act which was signed by the governor February 29, 1808. By a certain clause in the act the Bedford Precinct retained its rights of property in the old meeting-house and burying-ground. These rights have not, as far as known, ever been canceled. By that act also this, the First Congregational Society, has its present existence. A subsequent act, in 1824, simply changed the name from the Bedford Precinct to the present name, but changed nothing else. These facts are of little importance from a property point of view, but they are in- teresting as bearing on the relation of this society to the old parish. The relationship is clearly much closer than that of simple parentage. This society retained certain rights in the old parish, and continued to that extent to be a part of it and identical with it. And since the old organization has lapsed and disappeared, while the organization of this society remains vital, it would appear that this society, not merely in the sense of ecclesiastical descent, but by property rights, is the sole living representative of the ancient parish. This fact makes the rela- tion of this society to the ancient Acushnet parish very different from that of the Fairhaven society, which had no proviso for retaining pro- prietary rights. Rather did it make a payment of money to the old parish to secure an entire separation. This society, too, or the prelim- inary organization from which it grew, remained for thirteen years an organic and harmonious part of the first precinct after it had a meeting- house of its own-a fact indicating a mutual confidence and common interest between the two parts of the old parish, which may have led to that special feature in the charter for Bedford Precinct, by which the old and new precincts were still to hold certain rights in common as equal partners, or a joint ownership in property that they had pre- viously held together.
" During the early years after Dr. West's retirement there was no set- tled minister at the church on Purchase street, though a number of ministers kept up preaching, each officiating several weeks or months at a time. But the old unanimity was gone ; the bond of peace in which
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the revered pastor held his flock was withdrawn. Already there had been some differences of opinion in the proprietors' meetings with re- gard to the admission of certain preachers to the pulpit. It was the beginning of the doctrinal cleavage which was soon to run through the society and through the Congregational churches of New England. Some of the young ministers, who preached as candidates or as supplies, showed strong Calvanistic proclivities. Others were of the mild Ar- minianism of Dr West. Others, still, were getting nearer to avowed Unitarianism as the years went on.
" The storm broke here in 1810. The precinct church which had been organized in 1807,-that is, the body of communicants-voted July 10, 1810, that they 'were dissatisfied with the present parish committee, and also with the candidate;' and that 'a committee be appointed to confer with the parish.' The committee reported that the conference with the parish offered no satisfaction, and thereupon the church (Au- gust 7, 1810) voted thus: 'That we meet for public worship at some public or private house on the Lord's day ;' and thus the fatal step of separation was taken. It was the church members, or a majority of them, against the great majority of the society. There were only nine- teen male members of the church and twelve of them voted that the church secede from the congregation, and five against, two not express- ing themselves, or being absent. The question was, whether these twelve men should dictate the choice of a minister to the great body of the society, who made much the larger part of the congregation and paid a correspondingly large part of the expenses. The result of this division was the establishment of the North Congregational Church, from which afterwards sprang the Trinitarian and the Pacific Churches -the latter having been dissolved. So that of these several Congre- gational societies in this city, it may be said that they all had relation to the ancient parish through the Bedford Precinct, by whose charter this society still exists and has held an unbroken existence.
" With regard to the Congregational Society at Acushnet village, what- ever grounds there may be for the claim that the church connected with it (that is, the body of communicants) was a resuscitation of the church formerly connected with the ancient parish, there is no basis for a claim, nor is claim made, that the society is a continuation of the old parish.
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The Acushnet society was organized as if de novo in 1829. It made no claim to ownership in the old meeting-house, then standing unused, nor to the lot on which the house stood. In beginning its records, it made no reference to the old parish nor assumed its name, but appro- priately called itself 'The Congregational Society at the Head of the River.' Seven years afterwards it changed its name to 'The First Congregational Society in New Bedford,'- the corporate name which the society described in this chapter had then borne by legislative en- actment for twelve years. The Acushnet society is not incorporated ; but the present identity of name leads not infrequently to inconvenience and confusion. As to the legal question involved, the decisions of the Massachusetts courts have uniformly been in the line with a judgment rendered in a special case before the Supreme Court, by Chief Justice Shaw, when he summed up for the full court thus : 'The identity of a church is determined by the identity of the incorporated religious society with which it is gathered, and such church, although a merely volun- tary association, has perpetuity through its connection with a corpora- tion, which has perpetual succession.'
" Since the division between the Unitarian and Trinitarian elements, the society has had no further separation or break in its activities. The communicants remaining with the congregation adopted a new confes- sion of faith, much more liberal than that which the church had adopted under Calvanistic influences in 1807. In the period between 1812 and 1823 there were three short pastorates-those of David Bachellor, who had been a Methodist preacher, Ephraim Randall, and Jonathan Whit- taker. Mr. Whittaker's stay was nearly seven years, from October, 1816, to May, 1823. His preaching was distinctive and pronounced Unita- rianism. In the latter part of 1823, Orville Dewey, a man on an intel- lectual level with Dr. West, was called to the pastorate. He had been in orthodoxy; was a graduate of Williams College and of Andover Theological Seminary ; but had become by personal conviction a Uni- tarian. The parish now awakened to renewed life. The meeting-house was enlarged by cutting it in two parts and building an addition in the middle ; and stoves were put in, for it had not before been heated. Many of the older and prominent members had died, but in 1824 quite a large number of influential Quakers of the town joined the society-an im-
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portant fact in the ecclesiastical annals of the community. This wel- comed invasion of Quakerism into a society of Puritan stock not only marked the close of a past bitter conflict, but it helped largely to shape this society's after-character and history.
"The outward testimony to the prosperity of Dr. Dewey's ten years of ministry in the old church was the building of the stone church. In 1832 the records of the society state that a committee was appointed 'to report generally on the erection of a meeting house.' In 1833 a reso- lution appeared to the effect that whenever the subscribers to the - building of a new meeting-house felt themselves warranted to purchase land and erect a new house, the society would hold its meetings therein. Nothing further regarding the project appears in the records until the building was finished in 1838. The actual work of erection began in 1836, after the lot had been purchased of William Rotch, jr. The work was vigorously prosecuted by the building committee, whose names follow : Stephen Merrihew (chairman), George T. Baker, William T. Russell, Charles W. Morgan, William H. Taylor, James Howland 2d, William H. Allen, Gideon Allen, William W. Swain, David R. Greene, and James B. Congdon. The house, like the old one, was not built by the society, but by individuals of the society, who then sold the pews to indemnify themselves, and deeded the property to the society for a nominal consideration. While this church was in process of construc- tion the great preacher was stricken with illness, went abroad for a year without full recovery, and resigned in 1834. In the transition period after Dr. Dewey's ministry, while the new house was building, there was a brief pastorate of two years (1835 to 1837), by Joseph Angier, a man of fine talents. It should be stated also that during Mr. Dewey's absence in Europe, his place was supplied for six months by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Such a wonderful impression did that great man make on the congregation, that when Dr. Dewey resigned, the com- mittee to whom was referred the question of a new pastor, was in- structed 'to extend an invitation first to Rev. Ralph Waldo Emerson.'
"The new meeting-house was dedicated May 23, 1838, Dr. Dewey coming from New York to preach the sermon. The end of the story of the old house is briefly told. The 'proprietors and purchasers ' and their successors had always retained its ownership, and after its aban-
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donment and the fixing of the ownership of the various shares, the building was sold to a new organization, raised high enough to form a basement story, interiorly transformed, and called 'Liberty Hall.' There the anti-slavery doctrine, which always found ardent advocates in this community, was vigorously proclaimed. It was destroyed by fire in 1854.
" On the day succeeding the dedication of the new church, Ephraim Peabody was installed as pastor, and John H. Morison as associate. This association continued six years and was broken by Mr. Morison's withdrawal ; and after fifteen months more, Dr. Peabody resigned to ac- cept the pastorate of King's Chapel, Boston. After an interval of tem- porary supplies, there were eleven years of service by John Weiss, an incomparable preacher, a man of rare intellectual qualities. During one year of his ministry he had a regularly ordained colleague in Charles Lowe." *
On December 28, 1859, the present pastor, the Rev. Wm. J. Pot- ter, came to the church. His ministry has been one of great accept- ance to the people and productive of the highest good to the com- munity. During the pastorate a chapel has been built for the better accommodation of the Sunday-school; the ownership of the church property has been vested in the society ; a vesper service has been in- stituted and maintained ; and many philanthropies and charities have been projected. Rev. Paul R. Frothingham was ordained as associate pastor, October 9, 1889. The present officers of the church are as follows: Clerk, Thomas H. Knowles; treasurer, Standi-h Bourne ; assessors, Charles W. Clifford, Francis Hathaway, Charles H. Pierce.
The North Congregational Church .- This church is situated at the corner of Purchase and Elm streets. It was formed by an ecclesiastical council October 15, 1807, in the meeting house of the precinct, formed in 1795. There were represented in the council the Second Church of Christ of New Bedford (Fairhaven), and the First Church of Christ in Rochester. After the members of existing churches and the candidates for admission had been examined, the covenant and confession of faith was laid before them, and a church known as the Third Church in New Bedford was regularly formed, the ordinance of baptism being adminis- tered to those who had not been baptized: Elkanah Michell, Caleb Jenne,
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William West, Joshua Barker, Edward Pope, John Shearman, Gamaliel Bryant, Abisha Delanoe, Jireh Willis, Ebenzer Willis, Cornelius Burges, Cephas Cushman, Mariah Jenne, Abigal Samson, Sarah Kempton, Joannah West, Elizabeth Jenne, Joannah Ayres, Clarissa Crocker, Pamela Williss, Abigail Kempton, Elizabeth Pope, Dorcas Price, Catharine Long, Huldah Potter, Drusilla Potter, Fear Crocker, Anna West, Aurilla Barker, Deborah Bryant, Mary Peckham, Abigail Michell, Susannah Spooner, Lois Hart, Abigail Willis, Abiah Garish, Mahittable Willis, Hannah Peckham, Anna Burgess, Nancy Howland. The first officers of the church chosen May 11, 1809: Joshua Barker, first deacon ; Cornelius S. Burgess, second deacon ; and it is presumed, Cephas Cushman, clerk. It appears Rev. Curtis Coe preached for the church in 1809. About the year 1809- 10 "an unhappy division began to appear," which resulted in the formation of two churches, the one Trinitarian, the other Unitarian. In the differences that followed a memorial was presented to the council protesting against the ordi- nation of Mr. Ephraim Randall, in 1814, although prior to that time attempts had been made at reconciliation. On August 7, 1810, a vote was taken and thirteen of the nineteen active male members of the church separated from it. This left six members, one of whom took no active part in the dissension. Soon after the separation, if not be- fore, Sylvester Holmes, a licentiate, began his labors with the church. A meeting was held June 29, at which it appears a hope was enter- tained that a reconciliation might still be effected. An adjourned meeting was held July 27, and four days lated Mr. Holmes was or- dained. Services were held at first in the North Purchase street school- house, then in the south school house on Walnut street, and, as occa- sion required, at the residences of the church members. Later, a hall over William W. Kempton's store, southwest corner of Mill and Sec- ond streets, was obtained and the meetings were held there until a church edifice was built in 1814. The site of this building was next south of the house then occupied by Silas Kempton, situated on the southwest corner of Second and Elm streets. In 1812 the five mem- bers who had remained with the society adopted a covenant differing from that of 1807, and Rev. David Batchelder was installed as pastor of the " Church and Society in Bedford Precinct." These five, with
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the exception of one who had died, were formally excommunicated by the remonstrants, December 19, 1814. The church increased in num- ber, and a new building was erected on the corner of Purchase and a street that has since been named Elm. It was finished in June, 1813, and consecrated on the 23d of that month. The Sunday-school, which was organized in 1819, was the outgrowth of Rev. Mr. Holmes's class in the catechism. The church building was enlarged in 1826, and the old meeting house, then used for school purposes, was moved from Sec- ond street to a site on Elm street, just west of the meeting-house. It was subsequently raised, the lower part being used for a vestry, the upper part for a school-room ; but after being used in this manner for a few years, it was removed and remodeled into a dwelling-house. The North Congregational Church was incorporated by an act of the General Court, approved by the governor January 27, 1827, and at the first meeting. June 8, William W. Kempton was elected clerk, Joshua Bar- ker, Cornelius S. Burgess and Hayden Coggeshall, trustees ; and David Briggs, treasurer and collector. The distinctive title of " Third" was discontinued. after the incorporation of Fairhaven in 1812, and it is probable that the word " North " was applied to distinguish the church from the old meeting-house that occupied the present site of Liberty Hall. The membership had reached such large proportions that, on March 11, 1836, the corporation voted to erect a meeting-house, and the present granite structure that graces the corner of Purchase and Elm streets was the result of their deliberations. The corner-stone was laid May 13, 1836, and the house dedicated December 22 of the same year. An audience of nearly 1,500 people listened to a sermon by Rev. Dr. Hawes, of Hartford, Conn. The church was first occupied regularly, January 1, 1837. Mr. Holmes remained with the church until February 21, 1839, when he became the general agent of the American Bible Society, a position held by him four years. He then returned to New Bedford, but found the church desirous of per- manently severing their relations with him, and he was dismissed by the council March 15, 1843. More than 500 persons were received in- to the church during his ministry, and his influence was not only felt in New Bedford, but also in the Congregational churches throughout southeastern Massachusetts. He served the Pacific Church for nearly
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