History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 22

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 22

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1 MS. letter of the late Rev. Jacob Ide, D.D., a classmate.

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

yield to solicitations that he would enter upon a special service in behalf of the American Colonization Society. Samuel J. Mills, who had become an agent of that society, was requested to enlist some one as an asso- ciate in visiting Sierra Leone and other parts of the West African coast, with a view to selecting a site for a colony of free blacks from the United States. " Will you go, Brother Burgess?" wrote Mills in 1817. " Can we engage in a nobler effort ? We go to make free men of slaves. We go to lay the foun- dation of a free and independent empire on the coast of poor degraded Africa. Your knowledge of the Spanish language may enable you to perform most important services. The information you have already obtained on the subject under consideration qualifies you to be eminently useful on the mission." While at Andover he had been deeply interested in behalf of | the colored race, and a series of articles from his pen had appeared in the newspapers of Boston, and other articles elsewhere. He accepted the proposal. The two men received their commissions, and sailed from Philadelphia, Nov. 17, 1817. The voyage was mem- orable for a very signal deliverance. During a terrific storm the captain ordered the masts to be cut away. The ship drifted helplessly toward a ledge of rocks which extended both ways as far as the eye could reach, and on which the sea was dashing furiously. " We are gone for this world !" exclaimed the captain. Dr. Burgess went on deck, where the crew, in con- sternation and expecting death momentarily, gathered round him, and he commended them to the mercy of Almighty God. Fellow-passengers in the cabin were at the same time engaged in earnest prayer. The ship on coming within a few rods of the rocks was caught by a strong current, carried into deeper water, and borne along nearly parallel with the reef. She rounded the western extremity, just grazing on a shoal of sand, and was safe. All exclaimed, " It is the work of God !"

Arriving in London, the two commissioners pre- sented their letters to Zachary Macaulay (father of the late Lord Macaulay), previously Governor of Sierra Leone, and to the Rev. Messrs. Pratt and Bickersteth, secretaries of the Church Missionary Society. William Wilberforce also received them cordially, and introduced them to Lords Bathurst and Gambier, preparatory to their introduction to His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester, who was president of the African Institution.

The required information having been obtained, ; and other preparations made, they embarked for Africa Feb. 2, 1818. A voyage of seven weeks brought them to their destination, where letters from

Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to the Governor and other officers at Sierra Leone, secured | for them civilities and assistance. The two agents having made needed exploration of the coast for more than two hundred miles, and held intercourse with native chiefs, embarked May 22d on their homeward voyage. Within less than a month Mills died of a pulmonary disease, and was buried in the ocean. Returning by way of England, Dr. Burgess arrived home Oct. 22, 1818. The report of the exploration served materially to concentrate the thought and en- courage the anticipations of those who were friendly to African colonization. He was requested to super- intend the establishment of that colony which became the Republic of Liberia ; but his health was impaired ; the effects of an African malarial fever were still upon him, and he had other duties in view. His interest, however, in the cause of colonization remained with- out abatement, and in 1827 the managers " Resolved, That the thanks of this society be presented to the Rev. Mr. Burgess for his continued exertions in the cause of this society." When in 1839 the constitu- tion was so altered as to admit directors for life, on the payment of one thousand dollars, he became one. In 1843 he was chosen a vice-president of the Massa- chusetts Colonization Society, and the year following its president, in place of Hon. William B. Banister, deceased ; but he declined on the ground that the office should be filled only by a layman. A town in Liberia was named Millsburgh, in token of combined respect for the two explorers.

Some months in the winter and spring of 1819-20, Dr. Burgess spent in study with the Rev. Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin, at Newark, N. J., but on the last Sabbath of July in the last-named year he commenced supply- ing the pulpit of the First Church in Dedham. This church, the fourteenth in the order of seniority among churches organized in New England, was instituted Nov. 8, 1638. There had been a succession of six pastors, five of whom died in office, and one, then living, the Rev. Joshua Bates, D.D., had, early in 1818, become the president of Middlebury College. In the autumn of that year the parish, having called a minister in opposition to the voice of a majority of the church, the latter, by a decision of the Supreme Court, lost its records and other property. A new house of worship, however, was ready for dedication at the close of 1819, and Dr. Burgess was installed pastor March 14, 1821.

During the forty years of his active ministry in Dedham he commanded, with great uniformity, the respect of his fellow-citizens, and the unwavering confidence and deferential affection of his parishioners.

DEDHAM.

In the pulpit he was always noticeably reverent, and there, as well as elsewhere, his devotional exercises were characterized by appropriateness, variety, and freshness. His sermons never failed to have a lucid arrangement, a practical aim, and well-considered, in- structive material. Mere speculation and imaginative flights were quite foreign to his ideas of what is best suited to the wants of a congregation, needing, as every congregation does, to be built up in a firm and intelligent apprehension of the great truths and duties of the evangelical system. Theologically he differed but little from Jonathan Edwards. Among the Scrip- ture doctrines uniformly inculcated, and always im- plied in his discourses, were the native depravity of the human heart, the consequent need of regenerating grace, the duty of immediate repentance and faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh. The days of the Assembly's Catechism were not then numbered, and in that the young were faithfully taught. Neighborhood prayer- meetings were not unfrequently held ; and for years a week-day service, with preaching, was maintained at Mill village. Distance, darkness, inclemency of weather never detained him from any official ap- pointment. Indeed, his habits of punctuality, prompt- ness, and general fidelity were of a marked order.

In pastoral labor the poor, the sick, and afflicted always received tender and faithful ministrations, and, where there was special need, were often thought- fully remembered in the way of temporal aid. The young of the congregation, whether in the Sunday- school or not, had a large place in his heart ; and in the form of little books or otherwise, they often received proofs of his affectionate thoughtfulness. Dr. Burgess took great pains to improve the service of song in the house of the Lord by his encourage- ment of singing-schools year after year.

Secular education in the public schools enlisted his interest. He was the first, so far as is known, to intro- duce into New England the infant school with some- what of the kindergarten element. The first tem- perance gathering in Dedham was upon his invita- tion, which resulted in a town temperance society duly organized. He was also the first in the place to suggest an institution for savings, became the first president of the same (May, 1831), and continued in office till his death. Perhaps no savings-bank in the State has been more wisely and faithfully admin- istered. In the year 1826, Dr. Burgess built at his own expense a spacious vestry to the new meeting- house.1 During his active ministry there was scarcely

! a Congregational Church formed, or a house of wor- ship built in the vicinity, to which he did not con- tribute personal and pecuniary assistance. In sup- plying the families of Norfolk County with the Bible he took a prominent part. He held office in various local benevolent societies, and an active membership in several that were national. It would not be easy to reckon up the number of boxes containing useful and valuable articles that went from his house for the aid and comfort of home missionaries at the West.

When the fortieth year of his pastorate and the seventieth of his life were completed (1861), Dr. Burgess resigned official responsibilities and salary. At the outset of his ministry the average Sabbath congregation was about one hundred. In the church of eighty resident members there was, at that time, not one young man. Growth, however, steady, healthful, and substantial, took place. Five or more seasons of marked religious interest occurred. One of these was in the year after his ordination, when fifty-two members were added to the church ; another in 1827, the fruits of which were seventy-three such additions; yet another in 1832, when sixty-seven heads of families made public confession of faith in Christ. No professional evangelist was employed by him ; the occasional services of earnest and judi- 1 cious ministers were welcomed. Upon his demission | of pastoral duties the membership of the church numbered two hundred and fifty-three, all but six of whom had been received in the course of his min- istry. During the same period nearly an equal num- ber (two hundred and thirty-two) had left to consti- tute or to strengthen other churches, the Spring Street Church in West Roxbury being a colony from that in Dedham. The whole number admitted was six hundred and twenty-four, of whom one hundred and forty were removed by death, while the obituary list of the society amounted to between five and-six hundred. Two hundred and seventy-five marriages were solemnized, and three hundred and ninety-five children baptized.

When Dr. Burgess became a pastor annual minis- terial vacations had not come in vogue. As time advanced it became his practice to take a journey, at considerable intervals, with his family, visiting the Middle or Western States, or Canada. One voyage with an invalid brother-in-law, Mr. Edward Phillips, was undertaken in the summer of 1826, and in 1846 -47, accompanied by his family, he made a tour in Europe, which embraced, besides the countries usually visited by Americans, two or three which were then less frequently resorted to, Russia and Sweden, a trip down the Danube to Constantinople, a visit to Greece,

1 Worthington's " History of Dedham," p. 125.

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Sketches, to a limited extent, of the trip, which involved an absence of fifteen months, appeared in the form of letters to the Puritan Recorder.

As a general thing Dr. Burgess refrained from frequent contributions to the periodical press, and such contributions, when made, were almost invaria- bly anonymous. For similar reasons, partly from native modesty and self-distrust, partly from a fixed A more affectionate father, wisely indulgent, yet tenderly vigilant and firm, it would be hard to find. The early conversion of his children and their relig- 'ious culture were evidently his chief aim. The tes- timony of many who were well acquainted-having been inmates of the family for months, and some of them even for years-is that as head of the house- hold Dr. Burgess was most exemplary, prudent, sym- purpose to allow nothing to interfere with professional duties, he refrained from authorship. He had schol- arly tastes, was more or less acquainted with the French, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic ; was familiar with the Hebrew, as well as the Greek and Latin ; he had clearly defined opinions regarding the topics of the day ; he used the pen daily and with much ease; and yet he shunned the enticement and the i pathizing, noticeably thoughtful of the comfort and publicity of ordinary book-making. With rare ex- welfare of all, domestics included. One who spent ceptions he declined, when requested, to give sermons into the printer's hands. Only a few were published, as

" A Sermon preached before the Auxiliary Educa- tion Society of Norfolk County," 1825.

" Wareham Sixty Years Since :" a discourse deliv- ered at Wareham, May 19, 1861.

" Our Fathers Honorable and Useful to Posterity :" a Centennial Discourse delivered in Dedham, Nov. 8, 1838. This was the closing sermon in the volume entitled " The Dedham Pulpit," pp. 517, which Dr. Burgess edited in 1840.

A sketch of the Rev. Samuel John Mills, Jr., from his pen is found in Sprague's " Annals of the American Pulpit" (1849), vol. ii. pp. 569-72.

In 1865 appeared the " Burgess Genealogy," a volume of 212 pages.

As a minister of the gospel, "This one thing I do," was his motto; hence he declined the presidency of Middlebury College, which was offered him not long after his ordination. Other offers of eligible positions were also declined. It was a settled purpose with him not to allow his name to stand in any connection implying responsibility without endeavoring faithfully to meet the demands of the place. This led him to resign as trustee of the Andover 'Theological Seminary, when his tour of 1846-47 would occasion an absence from at least two meetings of that body.

now seems to be fast becoming a lost art, was gener- ously exercised at their house. Not only parishioners, but numberless other persons found a uniform and hearty welcome. For more than twoscore years it was a ministers' home, a frequent place for their rest and refreshment. Home and foreign missionaries found an asylum there. Distinguished visitors from a distance were often guests.

three years in the family, a person of high culture, keen discernment, and connected with a different denomination, has said, deliberately, " He was the best man I ever knew."

In stature Dr. Burgess was above the average height, erect, and finely proportioned. The first im- pression made upon a stranger would be that of dig- nity and gravity. One acquaintance used to pronounce him " the last of the Puritans." For the Puritans and Pilgrims he entertained a profound filial respect. His native county had a large place in his heart. On vis- iting Plymouth, holding his first-born child in a large willow basket, he set the little fellow on Pilgrim Rock, and, raising his hands towards heaven, engaged in silent prayer.

Dr. Burgess' manners were in some measure old- time manners, with a touch of primitive New England stateliness. But it required no long acquaintance to discover a genuine benignity, a pervasive kindliness. No harsh judgments would escape from him ; no loss of temper would ever be witnessed ; no social or pro- fessional indiscretions would be detected. The clerical office was sure to be respected in the man. Egotism had no place ; for ostentation he cherished a deep dis- like. Regularity, personal neatness, and temperance in meats and drinks were characteristics. His three thousand manuscript sermons are models of unblem- ished orderliness ; not a blot and scarcely an erasure could be found on them.

Whatever a man's public character may be, the | home test is, after all, the chief test. In his domestic In all later years Dr. Burgess enjoyed excellent lated exercise in superintending and cultivating his farm on the banks of Charles River. To human ap- pearance there was every reason to suppose that in life and relations Dr. Burgess was peculiarly happy. | health, which was due in part, no doubt, to well-regu- May 22, 1823, he married Abigail Bromfield, a daugh- ter of Lieutenant-Governor William Phillips, who became a helpmeet, with warm sympathy in all his religious interests and labors. Hospitality, which longevity he might even surpass his ancestors. In

Alvan Langson

DEDHAM.

March, 1870, however, at eighty years of age, he met with an injury which undermined his strength, and which induced or aggravated a fatal complaint. Only a few times could he appear at worship on the Lord's Day. Suffering became extreme, but it was borne with Christian heroism till December 7th, when, joyfully trusting in Him who is the resurrection and the life, he entered into rest. Underneath his name on a monument in the cemetery are these words,-

" Whose faith follow."

ALVAN LAMSON.

Alvan Lamson was born at Weston, Mass., Nov. 18, 1792. The genealogy of the family does not seem to be very well known. John Lamson, the great-grandfather of Alvan, is believed to have gone from Reading to Weston, and is supposed to have been the son of Joseph Lamson, of Charlestown, or Joseph Lamson, of Cambridge,-the name Joseph Lamson appearing in both places. Joseph Lamson, of Cambridge, was the son of Barnabas Lamson (or Lamsonn, as he wrote his name), of Cambridge.

John Lamson, of Weston, the grandfather of Alvan, was born in 1724, married Elizabeth Weston, of Lincoln, and died in 1785.

John Lamson, the father of Alvan, was born in Weston, in 1760. He married Hannah Ayers, of Needham, Oct. 17, 1790, and died Sept. 3, 1833. He was a farmer, owning the land he cultivated.

Alvan Lamson worked on his father's farm till he | tuted being now known as the "Orthodox," or " Allin left home for the academy at Andover. He early showed a love of reading and study, being marked at the district school as exemplary in conduct and rank- ing high among his schoolmates. When still young he looked forward to studying for the ministry. | After attending the district school and being for some time under the instruction of Dr. Kendall, the clergy- man at Weston, he went to Phillips Academy, And over, where he completed his preparatory studies, and in 1810 entered Harvard College.

His class-the class of 1814-contained several who stood high in after-life, among others, James Walker, who became professor and president of the college; Pliny Merrick, who was judge of the Su- preme Court of Massachusetts; and William H. Prescott, the historian. He took a high rank among his classmates in the beginning, and maintained it to the end. In college, as at the academy, he depended largely on his own exertions for his support.

For two years after graduating he was a tutor in

Bowdoin College. He then entered the Divinity School at Cambridge, appearing in the catalogue as a member of the first class which graduated from the school (in 1817).

In 1818 he was invited to become the pastor of the First Church and Parish in Dedham, and, after some hesitation, accepted the invitation.

It was a time of change in religious societies. Differences of opinion and belief had become de- cided and sometimes irreconcilable, many old parishes were divided and new ones formed. There was dis- agreement in the Dedham Church and Parish as in others. A considerable majority-two-thirds, or more-of the parish sympathized with what was called the Liberal, or Unitarian belief, the larger number of the most active members of the church being more favorable to what has been known as the Orthodox faith. The invitation to Dr. Lamson was given by the parish without the concurrence or approval of the church, though a majority of the members of the church finally acquiesced in the action of the parish. Hence arose a controversy which was prolonged and bitter. The parish, and, in its turn, the church, summoned a council, and the conflict led to legal proceedings, the final decision of the Supreme Court 1 being that the parish and the portion of the church which remained with it still continued to be the First Church and Parish, re- taining all their rights and property. The members of the church and parish who were not satisfied with the consequences of this decision withdrew and formed a new association, the church thus consti- Congregational Church."

After his settlement Dr. Lamson devoted himself to his parish and to literary pursuits. His life was earnest and laborious, but, like most lives given to study and the quiet performance of duty, it affords little on which the writer of a brief memoir may enlarge or which will arrest the attention of a casual reader. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from his college in 1837, and acquired a high repu- tation as a preacher, writer, and scholar. He at- tended carefully to his pastoral duties, performing them with his best strength and ability.

He fully appreciated the importance of good ; schools, and gave much time and labor to the care 1 and improvement of the public schools of the town, being an active member of the school committee for a number of years, and diligently attending to some of its most troublesome and important duties.

1 Baker rs. Fales, Mass. Rep., vol. xvi. p. 488.

100

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

His health was never robust, and at times was quite feeble, and his work often brought weariness, nervousness, and discouragement,-uncomfortable days, and nights with little sleep. About middle | his decease, under the supervision of Professor Ezra life he was attacked by a serious illness, which, be- Abbot. He was familiar with the history and doc- trines of New England Congregationalism, and was summoned as a witness in a case in the New Hamp- shire Court,1 which depended on the meaning of the term "Congregational." He was also selected to write the article on Unitarianism, in Rupp's " History of all the Religious Denominations in the United States." sides its effect on his general health, produced a paralysis of certain muscles, and which perplexed and baffled his physician. He suffered from this for several years, but was finally relieved by vigorous treatment at the hot sulphur springs of Virginia. During his absence there the cause of his illness was almost accidentally discovered. It arose from the use of water impregnated with lead. This water was Dr. Lamson was very fond of country life, thought much of his garden, and took great interest in agri- culture, pomology, and arboriculture. He was a member of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, and de- livered the annual address before it in 1857. brought from a spring on " Federal Hill," through logs, to two reservoirs in the village, and thence dis- tributed by lead pipes. It was supposed to have caused several cases of severe illness and some deaths.

This visit to Virginia in pursuit of health, and a trip to Europe of a few months in 1853, were prob- ably his most extended absences from home after his settlement. Living thus in Dedham, which during the earlier part of his residence was a somewhat secluded village, he came to feel a strong attachment to the place and his people, and a deep interest in all that concerned them, and these feelings continued to the end of his life.

Dr. Lamson had a strong literary taste. He had a high estimation of the Greek and Latin classical writers and the standard English and American authors, and was well versed in general literature. He was a ready though not a hasty writer. His style-always pure and simple-had force and beauty, and his writings won the warm praise of his contemporaries, who were most capable of judging of them. He was for a number of years a member of the examining committee in Rhetoric, during the professorship of Edward T. Channing, in Harvard College.

He wrote many articles in the Christian Examiner, of which, with Rev. E. S. Gannett, he was editor from January, 1844, to May, 1849. He published a volume of sermons in 1857, and a number of occa- sional sermons and addresses, including " A History of the First Church and Parish in Dedham, in three | Discourses," delivered Nov. 29 and Dec. 2, 1838. was a member of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety, and one of the original members of the Dedham Historical Society.

He was fond of historical and antiquarian researches, died July 18, 1864, of paralysis, of which he had

He was especially interested in the history of the early church, and in the works of the early Christian writers,-the Fathers, as they are often called. In 1860 he published a volume entitled “ The Church

of the First Three Centuries." He spent much time on this work after its first publication, and a revised and enlarged edition of it was issued in 1865, after

His personal character was of much simplicity. He was conscientious,-sometimes more than conscien- tious,-scrupulously honest and honorable in his dealings, always anxious to avoid violating the rights of others, and often ready to sacrifice his own. But he was not wanting in judgment and sagacity. He was exact in the performance of all which he regarded as duty, desiring to leave nothing undone which properly belonged to him to do, but was generally in- dulgent in his judgment of others. He was no ascetic, and was never inclined to condemn a reason- able indulgence in the amusements of life. In his hours of leisure he enjoyed social intercourse, though a natural reserve and sensitiveness, and his studious habits, prevented him from seeking it as constantly as many do, and gave him the appearance of caring less for it than he really did.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 22

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