History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 14

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CHAPTER VIII.

DEDHAM-( Continued).

Second Parish-Rev. Jabez Chickering-Third Parish-Rev. Thomas Thacher-Fourth Parish Incorporated as a District under the name of Dover-Shay's Rebellion-Incorporation of Norfolk County-Episcopal Church-Rev. William Mon- tague-Old Church Removed and Rebuilt-Fisher Ames ; Sketch of His Life-Edward Dowse-Rev. Jason Haven- Church Covenant of 1793-Division in the Third Parish- New Meeting-House-About Sixty Members Withdraw to the Baptist Society in Medfield-Second Parish and Church- Rev. William Coggswell.

ALTHOUGH for eight years the town had been dis- turbed in its internal affairs by the burdens of the war, still they did not suffer the vacancies in the office of pastor to go unfilled. In the Second Parish Mr. Balch died in 1774, and on the third day of July, 1776, the Rev. Jabez Chickering was ordained as his successor. He was born in the Fourth, or Springfield Parish of Dedham, now Dover, Nov. 4, 1753, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1774. He studied theology in his native town under the direc- tion of the Rev. Benjamin Caryl. He married Miss Hannah Balch, a daughter of his predecessor, April 22, 1777. During the early portion of his ministry the public mind was occupied with the Rev- olutionary struggle, and the number of additions made to the church during his long ministry is said to have been small. His parish was harmonious, however, and he continued its pastor for thirty-five years and eight months. He died March 12, 1812, in his fifty- ninth year. He was a man of excellent repute in the churches, but he left no printed discourses.

June 7, 1780, by the Rev. Thomas Thacher, who was born in Boston Oct. 24, 1756, and was a son of Oxen- bridge Thacher, Esq. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1775. He was a man of excellent abilities, and about twenty of his discourses were published. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a delegate from Dedham to the convention for adopting the Constitution of the United States in 1787, with Fisher Ames as the other dele- gate. It was during his ministry in 1808 that a divi- sion occurred in this parish respecting the location of a new meeting-house, and a portion of the parish withdrew and afterwards were members of a Baptist Society in the same territorial parish. Mr. Thacher was opposed to the Calvinistic theology, and by his will he gave his farm of twenty acres, and personal estate amounting to three hundred and sixty-five dol- lars, upon the condition that the parish should dis- solve its connection with any pastor who should adopt the Calvinistic or Hopkinsian creed. He died Oct. 19, 1812, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and the thirty-third of his ministry. He never married, and in his manners was somewhat eccentric, but was much respected for his character and abilities.

In 1784 the Fourth Parish was incorporated as a dis- trict, with the name of Dover. Its first minister, the Rev. Benjamin Caryl, survived until 1811. Dover was incorporated as a town, March 31, 1836.

During the Revolutionary period, the town was accustomed to give minute instructions to its repre- sentatives in the General Court. In 1786, they in- structed Nathaniel Kingsbury, its representative, to attempt the reduction of taxes by reducing the sala- ries of public officers, by lopping off unnecessary de- partments of government, by abolishing the Courts of Quarter Sessions, by regulating the practice of lawyers or totally abolishing them; also to use his utmost efforts to procure a division of the county, to oppose the emission of a paper currency, to encour- age manufactures, and to prevent the introduction of foreign luxuries. It is obvious, from the language of these instructions, that there was a considerable num- ber of sympathizers with the promoters of the insur- rection known as Shay's Rebellion in 1786. But in September of that year the town promised to use strenuous exertions in support of the government, and in October a committee appointed to report a list of grievances made their report, protesting against treasonable and riotous proceedings, and proposing, as remedies for existing evils, private economy, industry, and frugality.

The General Court, by an act passed March 26,

In the Third Parish, the vacancy occasioned by the dismission of Rev. Andrew Tyler in 1772 was filled ' 1793, which took effect on June 20th, incorporated

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the county of Norfolk, including all the towns of Suf- pounds sterling per annum for preaching every other Sunday, and at the end of that time he was to have | one hundred pounds sterling per annum. He was to have liberty to reside in Boston, Cambridge, Brain- tree, or Dedham. At the same time, Mr. Montague was authorized to settle the affairs of the church relative to the lands, leases were to be executed, and the prices, shape, and dimensions of the lots were to be fixed by him. In February, 1794, he procured an act to be passed by the General Court by which folk, except Boston and Chelsea. Hingham and Hull were excepted by an act passed subsequently. Dedham was made the shire-town. This had been the desire of the people for many years, and at several periods since 1726 it had been the subject of votes and reso- lutions in the towns. The local position of Dedham probably determined its selection as the shire-town, although several other towns were proposed, among them Medfield, and it was also proposed that several towns of Middlesex County should be united with | the rector, wardens, and vestrymen were authorized this county. A wooden court-house and jail were . to lease the lands and to do all necessary corporate finished in 1795. The court-house stood on the west side of Court Street, fronting the meeting-house common, while the jail stood near the corner of High- land and Court Streets. Until the erection of a court-house the courts were held in the meeting- house. acts. Mr. Montague was his own surveyor and con- veyancer, and the divisions of the lots and the lines of the streets bounding and intersecting them are the work of his hand. A considerable portion of the land was alienated. As the church lands occupied a cen- tral situation in Dedham village, there was a demand for lots, and Mr. Montague was frequently brought in contact with the people in a manner which led to dis- trust and misunderstandings. He continued to offici- ate in the church at irregular intervals until 1811, when he ceased, although he claimed to be rector at a subsequent time. Moreover, his accounts in the management and leasing of the lands, being unsettled and involved, became the subject of disputes with the members of his parish, and afterwards of litigation.

In 1792, the Rev. William Montague, who was born at South Hadley, Mass., Sept. 23, 1757, and was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1784, came to Dedham. He had been admitted to orders as deacon and priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States by Bishop Seabury in 1787. He was no doubt attracted to Dedham by the condition of the Colburn estate, which had now fallen to the Epis- copal Church upon the decease of Mrs. Colburn. He took an especial interest in the recovery of glebe- lands which had been given for the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as in Mas- sachusetts, during the time he was in Dedham. He found here scarcely more than a handful of the old churchmen remaining. During the period which had passed since Mr. Clark's departure, in 1778, the services of the Episcopal Church had been suspended, except on a few occasions, when Dr. Parker, of Boston, officiated. The old half-finished church, then called Christ Church, was standing, but its windows were broken and it was much dilapidated. It was made a depository of miltary stores during the war, but it had been afterwards cleared for public worship at the request of Dr. Parker. The trustee who had resisted the urgent request of Mr. Clark, to set apart the church-acre according to the provisions of the will of Samuel Colburn, had also suffered great and unnecessary waste to be committed upon the rest of the estate. Probably he was embarrassed, if not overawed, by the intense hostility which then existed towards the Episcopal Church. Twelve persons as- sembled and agreed with Mr. Montague that he should become rector, and wardens and vestrymen were chosen. The income of the estate was vested in him for fifteen years, and he was to receive fifty

Finally, in 1818 about thirty persons, including all the members of the parish, obtained a new act of in- corporation giving the church control of the estate, and in July of that year Mr. Montague was suspended from the ministry, upon his resignation, by Bishop Griswold. He died in Dedham, July 22, 1833.

The old church was repaired, pews built, and an organ put up in 1795. In 1797 it was voted to re- move the church to vacant land on what is now Church Street, on Franklin Square. The church was moved to this new location, but while raising it to the proposed height, the timbers supporting it gave way, the whole structure fell, and was broken in frag- ments. The rebuilding of the church was begun, only a portion of the old church being used. This work was carried on during several years, and it was not finished until 1806. It was constructed with a basement, originally intended for an academy by Mr. Montague, but which afterwards was used for storage. The entrance to the church was by means of a double flight of steps rising parallel with the front on Church Street. It had a recessed chancel, with pulpit and reading-desk in front of the chancel-rail, and a gal- lery at the opposite end, in which was an organ. It was painted in fresco, with Grecian columns and cor- nices. It was surmounted with a belfry, and in

DEDHAM.

1818 a bell was placed in it by subscription. In 1803, Madam Esther Sprague gave five hundred dol- lars to the church, and Madam Elizabeth Sumner gave two hundred and fifty dollars for a library or plate. In 1813 there were thirteen communicants and twenty families belonging to the parish.

After the reorganization of the parish, which during the time Mr. Montague continued to be the rector, was known as Christ Church, the church was repaired and opened for divine service on the last Sunday of October, 1818. From that time, services were continued without interruption, sometimes by the neighboring clergy, and from Easter, 1819, until the beginning of 1821, the Rev. Cheever Felch, a chaplain in the navy, officiated. On the 22d day of November, 1821, the Rev. Isaac Boyle, having been elected rector, was formally instituted into that office by Bishop Griswold.

In the spring or summer of 1793, Fisher Ames, after an absence of a few years, returned to Dedham, and from this time he made his permanent residence there. He was born in Dedham, April 9, 1758, and was the youngest child of Dr. Nathaniel Ames. His mother was Deborah Fisher, the daughter of Jeremiah Fisher, from whom he took his first name. His father died when he was but six years old, and his early train- ing was left to his mother, a woman of excellent capa- city and strength of character. He early began the study of Latin, and was instructed partly in the town school when the teacher happened to be capable of teaching him, and partly by the Rev. Mr. Haven, min- ister of the Dedham Church. In 1770, soon after he was twelve years old, he entered Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1774. He was too young during his college course to master the sciences then taught, but he was remarkably attentive to his studies, and his mind was quick and accurate. He excelled in the classics and the literary exercises. His declama- tions were remarkable for their energy and propriety, and he sometimes spoke an original theme and wrote some verses. He had a poetic imagination, which he showed in his prose writings afterwards, but he never confessed to being a poet. After his graduation in 1774, on account of his youth and the troubles inci- dent to the outbreak of the Revolution, as well as the limited resources of his mother, he did not begin his professional studies for some years. During this pe- riod he was engaged for a time in teaching school, and he did military service in some expedition to places in Massachusetts or to the Rhode Island fron- tier. He continued his studies, revising his course in the Latin classics, and reading history, both ancient and modern. He was especially fond of poetry, and

was familiar with Shakspeare and Milton. He studied law with William Tudor in Boston, where he was admitted to the bar in 1781. He probably began practice in Dedham, although at that time there could have been but little litigation. But he em- ployed his pen in writing a series of political essays for the Independent Chronicle, under the names of Lucius Junius Brutus and Camillus, upon the questions which agitated the people of Massachusetts during Shay's Rebellion. The vigor of thought and style of these essays attracted attention, and they may be regarded as the beginning of his public career, since they first introduced him to prominent public men. He was chosen a delegate to the convention for rati- fying the Federal Constitution, held in 1788, of which he was an ardent supporter. He made his first speech in this convention upon biennial elec- tions. He was elected also to the Legislature of 1788. He produced such an impression upon the public mind by his speeches and essays, that he was chosen the representative to the first Congress from the Suffolk District, which office he held during the whole of Washington's administration, a period of eight years. His congressional career was brilliant and successful. Probably in the galaxy of statesmen and orators, for which this period of American history was so remarkable, there was no man who produced a greater impression as an orator and political writer than Fisher Ames. He was a Federalist of the school of Hamilton, Jay, and Pickering, and his later essays are worthy of being ranked with the papers of the " Federalist." As a political writer his fame has been as enduring as it was brilliant. The few speeches which have been published were prob- ably imperfectly reported, and while characterized by an elevated tone of thought and vigorous expression, yet much of the profound impression which they produced must have been due to the circumstances under which they were delivered.

On the 15th day of July, 1792, he married Frances, the third daughter of the Hon. John Worthing- ton, of Springfield, of whom President Dwight, of Yale College, said, " He was a lawyer of the first emi- nence and a man who would have done honor to any town and any country." After his marriage, Mr. Ames kept house in Boston until the succeeding spring. In 1791 he had opened a law-office on King, now State Street. The formation of the new county of Norfolk doubtless determined his removal to Dedham. In November, 1795, he finished his substantial mansion, built upon his patrimonial estate, near the old house where his mother continued to reside. His law-office in Dedham was on the corner of the meeting-house

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

common, near the "Pillar of Liberty." About the He was active in attempting to improve the ex- ternal appearance of the village. In 1800 he writes, " I went home yesterday to attend town-meeting. After a long and rather wrangling contest, sometimes outvoted, at last prevailing, we carried it to apply nine hundred dollars by way of contract to our roads," and concludes, " I am sick of town-meeting. I took no refreshment, but stayed many hours in the meet- time he removed to his new residence his health sud- denly failed in a dangerous and alarming manner, and for the remainder of his life he never fully recovered it. In a letter dated Dec. 9, 1795, referring to a party of his neighbors to partake of a supper in his new house, he speaks of lying down "to prepare himself for sitting up and talking, and husbanding his words till the supper was done." In another let- | ing-house, and am two-thirds dead in consequence." ter he speaks of weighing one hundred and forty-four pounds, which was thirty less than his utmost in health. In August of the same year he writes, " Court week is over and I am alive and beginning to take long breath. Not half the jury actions were tried. My share of them kept me in a throng of people at my | that all admired, and many will, I hope, imitate it. own house, and on the way to and from court, and there the heat, the crowd, and the effect of speaking, almost did me over."

From the close of his congressional career in 1797, | Mr. Ames spent the most of his time upon his estate in Dedham. He practiced his profession in Suffolk and Norfolk, and had his health permitted he would have devoted himself to the law. But he took great satis- faction in the care of his farm. He makes frequent allusions in his letters written at this time to his large stock of cattle; to the productiveness of his cows ; to his breed of sheep; to his sixty swine; to his de- sire to get the best of garden seeds ; to his belief that his farm is approaching the period when it will be profitable, and adding that "if he did not think it would be, it would not be an amusement ; it would be a mere piece of ostentation on any other prospect, an expensive folly, a toilsome disappointment."

Mr. Ames was deeply interested in the growth and development of his native town. Writing to Thomas Dwight in 1795, he says, " Dedham will never become more than a village, but it is growing up to be a smart one ;" and after describing the new house of Judge Haven then building, and the establishing of a mill for printing calico and muslin, he resumes, "This, if true, will look very like bragging. But is there not a cold, hard spot in that heart which is indifferent to the natale solum ? Philosophers affect to despise such attachments, and few who do not feel them will give them quarter. The growth of the place I live in concerns my profit and pleasure, and it seems to me there is reason, if not philosophy, for my taking an interest in the event." He had a desire to cultivate social relations with his neighbors. After alluding to having invited thirty to his house to a supper, he continues, " Although it is a reproach that so much company has been so unsocial, I do not despair with proper help of regenerating Dedham in this respect."

Soon after he writes again, " We have done as well with our road through our village as we did ill in the meeting-house. The whole, from Mr. Joe Lewis' up to Parson Wight's, is an elegant road, equal to a turnpike, all ploughed, and raked and rounded off, so It was done by subscription." He was interested in schools ; in a scheme for bringing water in logs to the western part of our plain ; in the building of the Boston and Providence Turnpike, of which corpora- tion he was the first president; in the making of a public square in the centre of the village; in the draining of the meadows on Charles River; in the straightening and widening of the roads; in the es- tablishment of an academy, a library, and the build- ing of a new meeting-house and a town-house for holding meetings and the safe-keeping of the records. He planted the elms on High Street, of which but few remain, the only memorials of the taste and public spirit of Fisher Ames. With his declining health and strength, he was unable to overcome with his per- suasions and arguments the determined opposition of the sturdy farmers from the other parishes to the orna- mentation and improvement of the village, which has not disappeared in the lapse of three-quarters of a century. Had the suggestions of Mr. Ames been adopted in his time, Dedham village would have been the " loveliest village of the plain."

The only public office which Mr. Ames held after- wards was that of councilor, when Increase Sumner was Governor. He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the College of New Jersey in 1796. In 1804 he was chosen president of Harvard College, but he declined the office. In 1800, by request of the Legislature, he delivered an eulogy upon Wash- ington, which has been much admired.

The most attractive side of Mr. Ames' character is revealed through his familiar letters. Those which have been published are written with a remarkably facile pen, and are full of brightness and wit. They give us an idea of his personality and of his conver- sational powers, for which he was distinguished. We desire to know more of his social and domestic char- acter, and it is to be regretted that no memoir of

DEDHAM.

personal recollections was written by one of his con- temporaries. The essay by President Kirkland, pub- lished with his works, is rather an estimate of his character and services, than a biography.

Fisher Ames died on the morning of July 4, 1808, being little more than fifty years of age. He had a public funeral in Boston, at which his friend Samuel Dexter pronounced the eulogy. He was buried in the old burial-ground in Dedham village. Mrs. Ames resided in Dedham until after the decease of her eldest son, John Worthington Ames, in 1833, | after which she resided with her son, Seth Ames, at Lowell until her death, Aug. 8, 1837. The mansion- house was sold in 1837, and nothing but the frame now remains in the main portion of the residence of Mr. F. J. Stimson, opposite the court-house.

Fisher Ames was the youngest child in a family of five children. His eldest brother was Dr. Na- thaniel Ames, who was born Oct. 9, 1741, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1761. He married Melitiah Shuttleworth, March 13, 1775, and died July 21, 1822, leaving no children. He was a practicing physician, and he also was the first clerk . of the Court of Sessions and Court of Common Pleas in the county. He built and occupied the house now owned by Dr. J. P. Maynard, and his land joined that of his brother Fisher. Dr. Ames was pronounced in his political views, and he was a thoroughgoing Republican. Between the two brothers there was no agreement in politics, and this led to heated controversies between them, but it should be added that this did not destroy their fraternal affection and confidence. Another brother was Dr. Seth Ames, born Feb. 14, 1743; was graduated at Harvard College in 1764; was a sur- geon in the Revolutionary army, and died Jan. 1, 1778. William Ames, another brother, died young, | and Deborah, a sister, was married to Rev. Samuel Shuttleworth, of Windsor, Vt., who was afterwards a member of the bar.

Fisher Ames had six children. John Worthing- ton was the eldest, born Oct. 22, 1793; was gradu- 'ated at Harvard College in 1813 .; was a member of the bar; representative to the General Court and president of the Dedham Bank, and died Oct. 31, 1833. Nathaniel, the second son, entered Harvard, but left during his college course and went to sea. He was the author of " Mariner's Sketches," a book which attracted some attention. Jeremiah Fisher Ames, the third son, was graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1822, was educated as a physician, and pur- sued his studies abroad, but he died at the age of twenty-seven. Hannah Ames, a daughter, died

young and unmarried. William Ames was bred to |business, but retired early. He lived in Dedham until his death, in 1880, though he was accustomed to make annual visits to Springfield and other places. All these children died unmarried. Seth Ames, who was born April 19, 1805, and was graduated at Har- vard College in 1825, and who was chief justice of the Superior Court and a justice of the Supreme Ju- dicial Court, died in 1881, leaving several children, none of whom reside in Dedham. The youngest son, Richard, removed to the West when a young man, and died, leaving a family in Bloomington, Ill. There is no living representative of the Ames family in Dedham. The most conspicuous and illustrious name in its history has disappeared from among its citizens.

In 1798, Mr. Edward Dowse, a retired merchant from Boston, purchased the lands on either side of High Street, and soon after built his mansion-house upon the north side of the street. He married the daughter of William Phillips, of Boston, a wealthy merchant, and her sister, Mrs. Shaw, the widow of Maj. Samuel Shaw, lived with them. Mr. Dowse was a hospitable and liberal-spirited gentleman, and was the donor of the clock in the spire of the meet- ing-house, which still strikes the hours for the village. He was a Republican, and was elected to Congress in 1819 from the Norfolk District, but resigned his seat at the close of the first session. In this house Presi- dent Monroe was entertained during his visit to Bos- ton. Mr. Dowse died in 1828, in his seventy-third year. Mrs. Shaw died in 1833, and Mrs. Dowse in 1839, and then the estate passed into the possession of their nephew, Hon. Josiah Quincy, and was the resi- dence for many years of the late Edmund Quincy.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534