History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 45

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 45

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Dr. Alden was of the seventh generation from John Alden, of the " Mayflower." The line of suc- cession from this honored founder, as traced by him- self and gathered from his volume entitled "The Alden Memorial," is as follows :

Of the eleven children of John and Priscilla (Mul- lens) Alden, the second was Joseph, who was born in Plymouth in 1624. In early manhood he became a citizen of Bridgewater.

Of the five children of Joseph and Mary (Simmons) Alden, the second was Joseph, who was born in 1667. He was known as Deacon Joseph, and lived in what is now South Bridgewater.

Of the ten children of Deacon Joseph and Hannah (Dunham) Alden, of Bridgewater, the eldest was Daniel, who was born Jan. 29, 1691. This Daniel remained an inhabitant of Bridgewater for a time, and then removed to Stafford, Conn.

Of the eleven children of Daniel and Abigail (Shaw) Alden, the second was Daniel, who was born Sept. 5, 1720. This last Daniel lived in Stafford, Conn., in Cornish, N. H., and in Lebanon, N. H., where he died. He was known as Deacon Daniel.

Of the twelve children of Deacon Daniel and Jane | Church ; and, so far as is known, having honored (Turner) Alden, the fifth was Ebenezer, who was born at Stafford, Conn., July 4, 1755.

Of the three children of Ebenezer and Sarah (Bass) | Alden, the eldest was Ebenezer, the subject of this sketch, who was born (as previously stated) March 17, 1788.

His mother, Sarah Bass, was also a lineal descendant of John Alden, of the "Mayflower," in the line of Ruth, his daughter, who married John Bass, of Brain- tree, son of Samuel Bass, deacon of the First Church in Roxbury. By the same line the family was con- nected with the Adams family of Quincy, the mother of John Adams, the second President of the United

States, being a descendant of Ruth, the daughter of John Alden.

Going back now a single step, let us make our de- parture from the first Dr. Ebenezer Alden. The track over which we have just traveled will serve to show that he came of a religious stock. He was educated at Plainfield Academy, Connecticut, and having pur- sued his medical studies with Dr. Elisha Perkins, was invited, in due form, to settle in the South Parish or Precinct of Braintree. He was called there in 1781, as the man the people had chosen for their physician, just as the Rev. Jonathan Strong, D.D., a few years later, was called to be their minister. This was a good old New England custom which we have now outgrown. It was just one hundred years from the coming to Randolph of the first Dr. Ebenezer Alden to the death of the second. These two men, in the qualities of their intellects and their characters, were in many respects alike, though the son had enjoyed larger opportunities for general and professional edu- cation than the father. When Dr. Alden, Sr., died at Randolph (of typhoid fever), Oct. 16, 1806, his pastor, Rev. Dr. Strong, said of him, "The duties of his profession he discharged with reputation to himself and great usefulness to his employers. His circle of business, though small at first, gradually in- creased until it became extensive. As a physician he was remarkably prudent, attentive, and successful. During the latter part of his life his advice was much sought and respected by his brethren of the faculty in his vicinity. No physician in this part of the country possessed the love and confidence of his pa- tients to a higher degree. This was evident from the universal sorrow felt at his decease."

His own son, in " The Alden Memorial," says of him, " He was eminently a child of the covenant, his parents and grandparents and theirs on both sides down to the first ancestors who came in the " May- flower," having been members of the Congregational their Christian profession." Not only was he an able physician with a wide and increasing practice, but he was also a medical teacher. Quite a number of young men were prepared by him for the medical profession, some of whom became eminent. He was cut off by a deadly fever just when he was rising into special prominence as a man and a physician. He fell in the very strength of his days, at the age of fifty-one. His son was blessed with a life protracted to an unusual degree.

The childhood and youth of the son were passed, therefore, in a home of intelligence and Christian worth. He grew up amid the associations and traditions of

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the old style of medical practice, when the country physician compounded his own medicines and carried them with him in large variety to suit the various exi- gencies that might arise. At that time the homes of the people were widely scattered ; the roads were rough and hard, and in the plain country towns apothecaries were almost unknown. To do business in any proper and efficient way, the physician must have his medicines and his instruments always with him.

The year after Dr. Alden's birth, i.e. in 1789, the Rev. Jonathan Strong, D.D., was settled in the parish as colleague pastor with the Rev. Moses Taft, | and was now in the feebleness of age. Mr. Taft died two years later, in 1791, when Dr. Strong remained sole pastor till his death, in 1814. Dr. Strong was therefore the minister of Randolph through all the early years of Dr. Alden's life. The Rev. Thomas Noyes, of Needham, in the American Quarterly Reg- ister, vol. viii. p. 54, says of him, " Dr. Strong's labors were much blessed in three revivals during his minis- try, in which he numbered more than two hundred converts. His influence was extensively felt. The Massachusetts Missionary Magazine and the Panoplist were enriched with his productions. He was one of the editors of the former work, and a trustee of the Massachusetts Missionary Society from its formation till his death." From his earliest years, therefore, Dr. Alden received that bent of character which brought him, all his life long, into close and living sympathy with the church and with all our great religious insti- tutions. It is fair to credit a good measure of this influence to Dr. Strong. In a place such as Randolph was at that time the families of the minister and the physician would be closely united. Especially would this be so when the physician himself was a religious man, and closely identified with the church.

Indian Charity School in the woods of New Hamp- shire, and so to lay the foundations of Dartmouth Col- lege. Here young Strong was educated, graduating with honor in 1786. He became a man of much more than usual mark in his generation. Quite a large number of the early graduates of Dartmouth were from Eastern Connecticut, and especially from the towns of Lebanon, Hebron, Bolton, Coventry, Windham, etc., where Dr. Wheelock was familiarly known and much admired. Jonathan Strong went from Bolton, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1786, and three years after was settled in Randolph.

Young Alden was made ready for college at the who had been in office there for nearly forty years, | age of sixteen, and entered Harvard in 1804, gradu- ating in 1808. After finishing his college course he went to Dartmouth College to study medicine. Using his own language, as copied from "The Alden Memor- ial," he " pursued his professional studies with Nathan Smith, M.D., at Dartmouth College, where he re- ceived the degree of M.B. in 1811; then attended the lectures of Drs. Rush, Barton, Wistar, Physick, and others, in Philadelphia, and received the degree of M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1812. He settled as a physician in his native town."

His father had died in 1806, while he was in col- lege. Had his father been alive, very likely the medical education of the son would have gone on largely at home. Other men resorted to that home for their medical education, and it would have been altogether natural that he should have done the same. As it was, he was fully educated professionally, and entered upon his work under happy auspices at the age of twenty-four.

Six years later, April 14, 1818, he was united in marriage to Miss Anne Kimball, daughter of Capt. Edmund Kimball, of Newburyport. She was born June 14, 1791.

One hundred years ago schools to fit boys for col- Dr. Alden was now fully launched upon his life- work, and by degrees came to fill the place which the father had left vacant, until at length he more than lege were rare. This educational work was largely done by settled ministers. Some of them, here and there, had family schools for this purpose. Dr. | filled it. By virtue of his superior education, both as Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford, Conn., Dr. Samuel Wood, of Boscawen, N. H., and many others, became noted teachers, though they had parish cares also con- tinually on their hands. Young Alden, in preparing for college, pursued his studies under the direction of his minister.

a physician and surgeon, and by his native powers and faculties, eminently fitting him for success, he was widely known and recognized as a leading member in his profession. Not only was he thoroughly in- structed in matters pertaining to his special calling, but he had also an innate love for studies historical and ecclesiastical. He grew to be a prominent Con- gregational layman, and his knowledge and experience in this department were often called into use. He was a Pilgrim of the Pilgrims, and he understood well

Dr. Jonathan Strong was a native of Bolton, Conn., born in 1764. His father was of the same name, and was a farmer. When the boy was eight years old the family removed to Orford, N. H. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock had just then gone up to plant his |the difference between the Congregationalism that

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came over in the " Mayflower" and that which early prevailed in the Massachusetts Bay and was embodied, in 1648, in the Cambridge Platform. He found great satisfaction in tracing out the way by which the latter style of church polity was gradually displaced in New England and the former brought to the front. The writer well remembers the pleasure Dr. Alden had, between twenty and thirty years ago, in a new edition of John Wise's famous book, "The Church Quarrel Espoused," and what measures he took to promote its circulation. He recognized in the Rev. John Wise-settled 1683-1725 over the Second Church, Ipswich (now Essex)-one of the stoutest defenders of the liberty of the New England churches as against the dominating power of the ministers. . It was in 1710 that the above book was first published, and it was largely through this volume and another from the same pen published in 1717, entitled " A | Vindication of the Government of the New England Churches," that a healthier direction was given to New England Congregationalism.

Dr. Alden was a bibliophile, and early began to be a collector of rare books and pamphlets, especially those appertaining to the civil and ecclesiastical his- tory of New England. He built up a choice private library at a time when such enterprises were not so common as now. That library still remains, and doubtless contains many specimens, in the shape of pamphlet and bound volume, which the collectors would call precious nuggets.

have thus been briefly noticed that Dr. Alden was long ago recognized as a "wise master-builder" in our ecclesiastical and educational departments, and for the last forty or fifty years (until laid aside by blindness and extreme age) he has been an active worker in these connections. It would probably be difficult to find another man who has been identified with so many religious and educational interests for such long ranges of time. The year after his marriage, ¿. e., in 1819, the first Sabbath-school was organized in Ran- dolph. He was chosen its superintendent, and con- tinued in the office for nearly forty years. In 1827 he was made one of the trustees of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. He held this office by re-election and performed its duties for forty-two years, until 1869. In the year 1837 he was chosen one of the trustees of Phillips Academy and of An- dover Theological Seminary. This office he retained forty-four years, till his death, though in his later years he was not able to attend the meetings of the trustees. For forty-one years, from 1840 to his death, he was one of the corporate members of the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions. From 1841 to 1874 he was a trustee of Am- herst College. From 1842 to 1867 he was a director of the American Education Society.

There was another class of organizations for which he had a lively sympathy, and with which he was in active co-operation. He had a strong love for anti- quarian and genealogical pursuits, and especially as they appertained to the origin and growth of New England. In all these connections he was an indus- trious worker. He early became a member of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester. He bore a prominent part in the formation and growth of the American Statistical Association. He became a member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society in 1846, the year after its organization, and soon after its present building was erected in Somerset Street, paid, of his own good-will, five hundred dollars towards the librarian fund. With all the early move- ments toward the formation of the Congregational Library, now grown to fair proportions, he had the most cordial fellowship and participation.

Then, again, as a prominent member of the medical profession, he was brought into quite another set of associations. He was connected with medical socie- ties, county, State, national, not as a mere looker-on or listener, but as one who contributed interesting papers and valuable information for their meetings. Of an observing and studious mind, he held also the pen of a ready writer, and took special delight in

It was because of such tastes and tendencies as , adding to the general stock of human knowledge.

Still, again, he was a bold and aggressive worker in the temperance movement, especially in its earlier days, and before it had become so intermingled with party politics. He was for many years known as a public lecturer upon this subject, and, from his estab- lished character as an able physician, his lectures carried with them unusual weight.

Then, in addition to all his other talents and ac- tivities, he was a singer, and took a lively interest in church music. Through the whole of his public life in Randolph he was a leader and organizer in this department, and this love continued with him to the last. In the year 1869, at the time of the National Peace Jubilee in Boston, the writer well remembers a brief interview with him as he was about to enter the great building erected for the concerts on the back bay. He was one of the chorus singers, and had his singing-book under his arm, and entered into the whole business with the enthusiasm of youth. He was at that time eighty-one years old. Of the great multitude of singers who made up the chorus for that first jubilee, he was, without much doubt,

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the oldest, but he yet carried with him a large meas- ure of the zeal and energy of his earlier years. He made one of the vastly larger chorus in the Inter- national Jubilee of 1872, being then eighty-four years old.

Not long after this his eyesight began to fail him, and little by little the shadows of night gathered about him, until at length he was wrapped in total darkness. His last years were passed in the quiet of his home and in the society of his kindred and neighbors. But with the eye of his mind he still watched the goings-on of the great world, and was interested in all passing events. He died Jan. 26, 1881, aged ninety-two years, ten months, and nine days.

The wife of his youth had passed away ten years before, April 14, 1871. Three children survive him. 1 These are the Rev. Ebenezer Alden, born Aug. 10, 1819, who was ordained a Congregational minister in | 1843, and spent five years as a pioneer home mis- sionary in Iowa, being a member of the "Iowa band." Since 1850 he has been the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Marshfield. While he was yet young in the ministry, he had as one of his parishioners no less a man than Daniel Webster, and it fell to his lot in 1852 to conduct the simple funeral services of the great statesman in the Webster mansion at Marshfield. It was like Mr. Webster to prefer that his funeral should be in the plain New England fashion, and should be conducted by his country minister. The second son is the Rev. Ed- mund Kimball Alden, D.D., who was ordained to the Some of these publications required a large amount of labor and careful study. For example, " The Early History of the Medical Profession in the County of Norfolk" involved brief biographies of the numerous physicians of the county during the earlier Congregational ministry in 1850, and, after serving for some twenty-six years as Congregational pastor at Yarmouth, Me., Lenox, Mass , and in Phillips Church, Boston, is now one of the secretaries of the American Board. There was another son, Henry Augustus, | generations, a work to be accomplished only by much born Aug. 8, 1826, who became a civil engineer and correspondence and patient research. died June 9, 1852. There were three daughters, of whom Mary Kimball died Aug. 18, 1860, and Anne Kimball died Dec. 28, 1854. The remaining one, Sarah Bass Alden, now occupies the homestead at Randolph, and has had the care of her father in his declining years.

Dr. Alden left a memorandum indicating his gen- eral wishes as to the disposal to be made of his prop- erty, which was considerable. It was not in the shape of a mandatory will. He constituted his three By his intellectual character, as also by his large enterprise and activity, he was a man to come to the front wherever he might happen to live, and bear a large share in human affairs. The totality of life within him was greater than in ordinary men, and surviving children his executors, but, confiding in their judgment, gave them certain discretionary powers that they might decide matters according to the circumstances of the case at the time of his death. Almost all the societies and institutions with which it was natural for him to put himself forth in thought

Dr. Alden was connected in his life came up before him for remembrance in this final disposition of his property, such as the American Board, the Massa- chusetts Home Missionary Society, the American College and Educational Society, the Seamen's Friend Society, Amherst College, Iowa College, Phillips Academy, the American Antiquarian Society, the American Statistical Association, the New England Historic-Geneaological Society, the Congregational Library, Stoughton Musical Society, etc.

We have already implied that Dr. Alden was a writer as well as a busy actor, but most of his writings were of a kind to servethe purposes of the passing time, and cannot well be reported in a paper like this. Nevertheless, he has left behind some published works in the shape of pamphlets and books, among which are the following : " Address before the Dartmouth Medical Society," Boston, 1820; " Medical Uses of Alcohol ;" " Tribute to the Memory of Deacon Eph- raim Wales," Boston, 1855 ; " Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Massachusetts Medi- cal Society," 1838; "Tribute to the Memory of Deacon Wales Thayer ;" "Tribute to the Memory of Mr. Samuel Whitcomb ;" " Early History of the Med- ical Profession in the County of Norfolk, an Address before the Norfolk District Medical Society," Bos- ton, 1853; " Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs. Mary Ann Odiorne Clark," Boston, MSS., 1844; " Memoir of Bartholomew Brown, Esq.," Randolph, 1862; " Memorial of the Descendants of the Hon. John Alden," 1867 ; enlarged 1869, octavo, pp. 184.

But these few publications would give only a faint idea of all that he accomplished by his pen. In a local paper he published a long series of articles on the history of Braintree and Randolph, going into the business minutely, taking up the several portions of the territory, and tracing the early families in their various localities. Indeed, he was the local historian, the public chronicler of Randolph, and, to a large ex- tent, of the region lying around.

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and action. Hence through the long years of his active life he was intensely busy, aiming to fill his place punctually and thoroughly in all his multiplied relations. Though connected with so many societies and associations, hardly any one was more likely to be present at their recurring business-meetings than he.

In the year 1861, July 3d, occurred in Braintree the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination and settle- ment of Dr. Richard S. Storrs. The occasion was one of very marked interest, both from the eminent character of Dr. Storrs himself, and from the con- spicuous men who took prominent part in the ser- vices. Among the last named was Dr. Alden, who followed the Rev. Dr. Park in the exercises of the afternoon. The presiding officer of the day was the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, Jr., of Brooklyn, N. Y., and in introducing Dr. Alden he said, " We have heard of the ministers of Braintree ; Dr. Alden will give us, from his knowledge and his personal recollections, a true sketch of the people of the town, and of their former manners and life."

From this address of Dr. Alden we will, in conclu- sion, select two or three passages, which will illustrate more perfectly than any general description can do the style of the man and his manner of thought. He said,-

" I have been requested to present some 'reminiscences of Braintree fifty years ago,' by which I understand in the olden time; but with a special caution to be very brief-' ten minutes better than an hour'-as if by any necromancy it were possible to bring up not only Samuel (Rev. Samuel Niles), but three generations of his people, and cause them to pass before you like a moving panorama at the bidding of your minister. Nev- ertheless, as it was my privilege to commence professional life with him and sometimes to prescribe for him, it is but reason- able that I should now consent that he prescribe to me; which I do not only cheerfully, but thankfully, because it affords me opportunity publicly to express the respect I have long enter- tained for him and for his people."

But in the first place it was needful to give the boundaries of the place which he was going to de- scribe, and these were as follows :

"The ancient Brantry was bounded north by Neponset River and Massachusetts Bay ; east by Narraganset; south by the Old Colony and ' terra incognita' long in dispute ; west by Punkapog and Unguety-including the present towns of Braintree, Quincy, and Randolph. Monatiquot, or modern Braintree, was bounded north by Merry Mount; east by Iron- Works' line ; south by Cochato and Scadin Woods; west by the Blue Hills, extending, in the dialect of Father Niles, ' from Dan to Beersheba.'"

Dr. Alden had in this address a somewhat lengthy and graphic passage on the singing question, as it was discussed in the churches before the middle of the .

last century. Throughout almost every part of New England the fierce discussion went on, and many churches were well-nigh rent asunder by the violent feelings awakened. The beauty and majesty of ancient New England conservatism are strangely ex- hibited in this conflict. The effort was to bring the people out of the miserable droning habit of singing four or five tunes only, and that by rote, and to teach them to read music so that they could sing all tunes by note. Dr. Alden said,-

"The evil became so intolerable that Rev. Thomas Walter, by request of several ministers of Boston and the vicinity, pre- pared and published, in 1721, a musical manual and tune book. . . . And here is a copy of it, the identical one which belonged to Elisha Niles, Esq., youngest son of the minister and executor of his estate. The names of twenty-two of the most eminent clergymen of the colony are attached to the recommendatory preface. But the name of Samuel Niles is not there. He insisted upon the 'old way' and his own way. Nor would he yield the tithe of a hair to any solicitations, lay or clerical.

" Meanwhile some of his people had provided tune books, and were bent on 'making melody to the Lord' by note. Then came the ' tug of war.' Original sin, with which the pastor was familiar, and afterwards wrote a treatise upon it, as he did upon 'Indian Wars,' broke out into actual transgression. The people assembled for public worship, but no minister came. They sent him word that they were all ' present before the Lord to hear all things which were commanded him of God.' He responded that he would not preach in the meeting-house unless they would sing by rote; and he invited all who were so dis- posed to repair to the parsonage, where he would preach, and they might sing 'in the old way.' Council after council convened without success to settle the controversy. At length, all parties having become weary, the last council, more fortunate, if not more sagacious than the rest, came to this unanimous, most profound, and successful result, which was adopted, but never, so far as I can ascertain, recorded on the church books: 'Voted that the council recommend to the pastor and church at Monatiquot, that in conducting public worship they sing part of the tune by note, and the rest of the tune by rote.'"

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 45

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