History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 221

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 221

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ing and continued till sundown. With commendable forethought, authority was given Joseph Bacon by the town to keep the Common so far clear of specta- tors as that they should not interfere with the raising of the house. With equal forethought, a committee was appointed to furnish food and drink for the work- men and instructed, with prudent hospitality, "to give the spectators one drink." An accident, whereby a Mr. Day, of Winchendon, and a Mr. Gregory, of Templeton, came near losing their lives by the falling of a stick of timber, marred somewhat the harmonies of the day and gave it a tinge of sadness. Neverthe - less, the frame was up, strong and sure, before night, its pitch-pine sills twelve inches square and posts of oak of equal size and other timbers in proportion , in- cluding two hundred oak braces, giving it a solidity and power of endurance which might defy storm and tempest, if not time itself.

But the building, though raised and soon after en- closed and covered, and so made available for public uses, was not completed according to the original plans for several years. Work in the way of finishing it and making it comfortable was done upon it as the means of meeting the expense involved would allow. To raise money, the pews, seventy-oue in number, were sold in 1788, long before they were put io, a method of dealing in "futures" not uuknown to the modern commercial world. At that date, in- deed, the galleries were not built, nor the floors wholly laid, nor the doors and windows cased, nor the lathing and plastering done. There was the shell of a building and nothing more. At length, in January, 1789, the town closed a contract with Lieutenant Foster to finish it, "as Westminster Meet- ing-house is finished," by the 1st of November, 1790, for £199,10s., all the material to be furnished as he needed it. Under this arrangement, the house was finally completed, though not to the satisfaction and acceptance of the town, till the summer of 1791, four years after the frame was erected. It was a plain, unpretending structure, scarcely larger than a moder- ate-sized chapel of these days, painted stone-color, with green doors and white trimmings, quite unlike the elaborate, complex, highly decorated, fully-equip- ped piece of ecclesiastical architecture which now stands in its place.

During these years of the building of the meeting- house, preaching had been maintained the greater part of the time, for awhile in private houses, but afterward in the unfinished building, seats and pulpit being improvised in true primitive style. Four days' preaching were provided for at first, then three months, then a year. There is no record of any action of the town in regard to the employment of a minister during the year 1787. Whether this was an omission of the clerk, or whether the citizens felt obliged to economize in this particular on ac- count of straitened circumstances, is left to conject- ure. If the latter, the experiment was uever tried

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

afterward, no year having transpired since in the town, and but very few Sundays, when the voice of the preacher has not been heard, when public prayer and praise have not been offered to God.

A place of worship having been provided, even though it was as yet unfinished and in a crude con- dition, some one must be found to preside at its altar and lead in its service as the permanent minister of the town. A church had been formally organized February 1, 1786, but under what auspices or by whose agency, no one can tell. And who were the first preachers in the place-" the transient supply " -has not been ascertained. But after a time, Mr. Frederick Parker seemed to commend himself to the people as a suitable man to fill the responsible position, and received from the church a formal call " to settle in the work of the Gospel ministry in this place." The town, at a meeting held May 11, 1789, concurred. The terms of the proposed contract were : "for the settlement £150, to be paid in neat stock at the market-price, and for the salary, £60 a year for five years, and £66 afterwards; one-half to be paid in produce from the farm, viz. : beef, pork, grain, butter, cheese at the market-price ; also twenty cords of hard wood yearly, cord-wood length, delivered at his dwelling-house." Mr. Parker seems not to have been ready to accept the invitation on the terms proposed. The call was renewed the next year with the same result, and that ended all negotiations with Mr. Parker.

The town in appropriating money for preaching the following year, 1791, instructed the committee on pulpit supply, in terms indicating a wise cantion worthy of emulation in later times, "to hire some person of good character for four Sabbaths." The person of good character very soon appeared, and proved so satisfactory that he received an invitation to settle from the church in the usual order, which was ratified by the town, July 21st, the same year. The acceptable candidate was Jonathan Osgood, a native of Andover, Mass., and a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1789. The terms upon which the call of Mr. Osgood was offered, were, " £160 for his settlement and £75 annnal salary," to which was subsequently added "twenty cords of hard wood, to be delivered at his dwelling-house, beginning three years after his settlement." On those conditions Mr. Osgood accepted the invitation in a letter dated September 21, 1791, which is preserved in the town records, with the pro- viso that "if at any future period, as you increase in wealth, I should stand in need, I trust you will be ready to afford me relief," adding significantly, “I shall depend that you punctually fulfill the proposals you have made." Mr. Osgood was duly ordained and installed as minister of the town of Gardner, October 19, 1791, the five neighboring churches, together with the two churches in Andover, the second church in Boxford, the church in Littleton and the church in Bolton, ten in all, with their pastors, being invited to

representation in the council called to aid in his settlement. Mr. Osgood was a "cure " of bodies as well as of souls, and served in both capacities with such skill and efficiency as to secure the confidence, esteem and cordial support of the people of the town and community at large. For over thirty years he filled the two positions of minister and physician, his labors ending with his life, May 21, 1822.

For two years the town was without a minister, at the expiration of which period Mr. Sumner Lincoln, a native of Warren, and a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 1822, having studied theology at New Haven, and qualified himself for the profession, was invited to the vacant place with the offer of "a salary of five hundred dollars and a pew in the meeting- honse." Mr. Lincoln accepted the call and was regu- larly ordained and installed as pastor of the First Church in Gardner June 16, 1824. Mr. Lincoln was settled as minister of the whole town, according to the ald custom, and served in that capacity for about three years, when the secular and religious interests of the inhabitants were separated, the town yielding all its hitherto exercised rights in ecclesiastical affairs to the newly-formed religious society called the First Parish of Gardner, which became the lineal successor of the town in such matters. Under this new régime things went on as before until 1830, when the contro- versy between the Unitarian and Trinitarian branches of the Congregational denomination, which had been going on elsewhere in the State for several years, reached the place and became so decided and marked in its expression as to canse a division among the members of the church and parish, which resulted in a separation of the two opposing parties and the for- mation of a new religious organization, representing the views of those who withdrew from the previously existing body. The turning-point of this matter was the vote of the parish, dismissing Rev. Mr. Lincoln, who had assumed the Trinitarian position in the dis- cussion, thereby committing itself fairly and unmis- takably to a strictly Unitarian position. In accord- ance with the now declared views of the parish-the dissenting members having severed their connection with it-the Rev. Jonathan Farr, a minister of pro- nounced Unitarian views, was settled December 9, 1830, by a council composed wholly of ministers and delegates in full theological sympathy with himself. He was dismissed, after a pastorate of two and a half years, in July, 1833. His successor was Rev. Curtis Cutler, a native of Lexington, and a graduate of Har- vard College and Divinity School, who was settled October 30, 1833. This relation was dissolved in 1839, when Rev. George W. Stacey took charge of the pul- pit. He remained but a year or two and was followed by Rev. William H. Fish, who was the last acting minister of the First Church and Parish of Gardner in its distinctively Unitarian character and fellowship.

At the close of the ministry of Rev. Mr. Fish, the society and all its interests fell into a state of

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suspended animation, which continued for several years, no minister being employed and none of the functions of a church being exercised, when, in 1846, the house of worship having been remodeled and made convenient and suitable for religious services, the question of a resumption of the public exercises of religion within its walls arose, awakening consid- erable interest and feeling in the community. This question involved another of deeper import, to wit: Under what auspices, theologically considered, shall the re-constructed edifice be opened ? In other words, Shall the old lines of religious opinion and affiliation be taken up and followed out, or shall a new de- parture be made, ignoring the history of the society for the past sixteen years and starting out indepen- dently of all previous professions, declarations and alliances? It was finally decided by those who had been chiefly instrumental in re-constructing the meeting-house, and who had the larger pecuniary interest in it, that thenceforth the parish should act in sympathy with the more popular branch of the Congregational body, and maintain ecclesiastical re- lations with the so-called Orthodox Churches of the general community, retaining its old name and all the prestige, historical and ecclesiastical, properly belonging to it.

In accordance with that decision, overtures were made to the Evangelical Congregational Society, un- der which name those withdrawing from the First Parish in 1830 had organized and were legally known, for a union of the two bodies, which were favorably received, but which finally failed, by rea- son of the inability of the two parties to agree upon the conditions of the proposed intermarriage. Where- upon a call was extended to Rev. Mr. Banister to become the pastor, which was so far accepted as that he acted in that capacity for about a year, when Rev. John C. Paine, a native of Ashfield, succeeded him, being formally installed in office January 12, 1848. Mr. Paine proved to be a man of ripe culture, of pleasing manners and a popular preacher. After sixteen years of service he left, in May, 1864, and in the following October Rev. Win. D. Herrick, a gradu- ate of Amherst College in 1857, who had studied theology at Andover, and been settled four years at Redding, Conn., was installed in his place, Rev. Julius H. Seelye, D.D., president of Amherst Col- lege, preaching the sermon. He remained four years, when the union of the two societies, attempted twenty years before, was consummated, and he was dismissed, agreeably to the terms of the consolida- tion of the two distinct organizations and the churches connected with them referred to. The Ar- ticles of Faith aud Covenant of the Evangelical Church were to be retained, while the names of the religious and secular departments, under the new arrangement, were to be the First Congregational Church and the First Parish in Gardner, respectively.

Thus it came to pass that, after twenty years, dur-

ing which time there had existed two churches in town nominally of one form of theological doctrine and both struggling for existence, their houses of wor- ship only a few rods apart, yet with more or less of alienation, if not bitterness of feeling, between the members of them, not altogether becoming those who thesame faith profess and " the same Lord obey," these separate religious bodies came together, their two lives blending in one common life thenceforth as time went on. If, at the time of the union there was not, as the historian of Gardner intimates, that spirit of cordiality and co-operation between all the parties concerned that could be desired, yet since then, we are assured, "the old lines of separation have become less dis- tinct," a growing harmony is displacing former uu- friendliness or distrust, and there seems to be a dis- position prevailing more and more to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace."

Under the new dispensation a call was extended to Rev. William Belden to become the pastor of the united Church and Society, which was accepted by him, and he was installed January 22, 1868. His pastorate was brief, being terminated by his dis- mission, March 22, 1869. August 25th, the same year, Rev. John E. Wheeler, a native of Amherst, N. H., and a graduate of Amherst College, was clothed with the honors and assigned the duties of the same office. He remained but about three years, closing his labors early in July, 1872. The parish was with- out a minister for nearly two years, several attempts to obtain one proving ineffectual. At length, on the 15th of May, 1874, the parish united with the church in extending a call to Rev. Wm. D. Herrick, pastor of the First Parish and Church at the time of the consolidation seven years before, who, although he had declined a similar one made a few months pre- viously, finally accepted. Mr. Herrick was installed the second time in Gardner, June 11, 1874, and en - tered at once upon an active and useful career in the church and community. After two or three years' service, however, his health began to give way, and he was obliged to curtail his labors and, after a time, to suspend them for a season altogether, in the hope that he might find complete restoration of his depleted energies and be able to resume his ministerial work with his old-time vigor and promise of success. But he only partially recovered, and on taking up his pro- fessional duties again found himself unequal to the task of performing them to his own satisfaction, and seeing no prospect of entire recovery, deemed it due to his people as well as to himself to proffer his resig- nation. It was reluctantly accepted, and he closed his labors not long afterward. During his ministry he prepared, under directions from the town, an elaborate and detailed history of Gardner from the date of its incorporation, including a genealogical record of many of the principal families, which was published in a large volume of five hundred and thirty-five pages, in 1878.

S56

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

During the same period the parish greatly improved its property and facilities for prosecuting the various departments of ministerial, church and parish work. In 1875 it erected a commodious and attractive par- sonage, with stable and other conveniences attached, at an expense of about six thousand dollars. Early in the year 1878 the project of a new house of wor- ship was started, which resulted in the completion, the year following, of the present spacious, well-ar- ranged and well-equipped, imposing edifice, located at the head of the Common, very near, if not on the exact site, where the original town meeting-house was built. Until this was ready for occupancy, the church and society, subsequent to the union of the two parishes in 1867, had worshipped in the sanctuary of the Evangelical Congregational Parish, which stood on the east side of Green Street, fronting the Common. The present edifice is one of the finest pieces of church architecture in the northern part of Worcester County. It is of Gothic style, with steep, slated roof, and covers an area of sixty-four feet front, which is the width of the structure, and a length of one hundred and eighteen feet, having, at the southeast corner, a tower one hundred and twenty- five feet high, in which is a clock with four dials. The material is principally brick, with underpinning and steps of light-colored granite and brown sand- stone trimmings. The building is lighted by stained- glass set in lead sashes, a large rose window adorning the front part. It has convenient entrances in front and at the sides, the latter leading to the main au- dience-room and to the chapel in the rear. There are six hundred sittings in the auditorium, all facing the preacher's platform and desk, at the right of which is the choir and organ-loft, and at the left a pastor's room. Nearer the walls there are ample passage-ways to the other parts of the building, where there are on the lower floor a spacious lecture- room, an infant class-room, library room and parlor, with a stairway to the second floor, where may be found a dining-room, kitchen, lavatory and all the modern improvements and conveniences. The whole is warmed by hot water and steam and lighted by electricity. The cost of the building, including or- gan and furnishings, was thirty thousand dollars, which amount was raised by the persevering efforts of Mrs. Henry Heywood and Mrs. Alvin M. Greenwood. The present pastor is Rev. Lawrence Phelps, who has served the church and society about five years. Everything betokens prosperity and usefulness.

THE EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY .- As the history of the religious enter- prise represented by this name is so closely inter- linked with that of the First Parish and Church, it is noticed next to it in this review, although, chrono- logically considered, it would be assigned a later place in the list of the religious organizations of Gardner. The members of the First Parish who, as has been said, withdrew on account of marked theo-

logical differences in the year 1830, were legally or- ganized on the 25th of June, the same year, under the title given at the head of this paragraph. A consti- tution was drawn up, approved and signed by forty- one male members, who were thus qualified for the transaction of business. Steps were at once taken to- ward the erection of a meeting-house, which was ac- cordingly built and dedicated June 16, 1831. The church connected with this parish was instituted agreeably to Congregational usages August 11, 1830. Rev. Mr. Lincoln, who had been minister of the old church and society, withdrew with the seceding mem- bers and by previous arrangement was at once chosen minister of the new body. The same council which was called to formally dismiss him in ecclesiastical order from his former pastorate installed him in the later one the same day, August 11, 1830. In addition to the regular salary of four hundred dollars in money voted Mr. Lincoln for his services, he was granted "his choice of all the pews in the house for his use." He remained pastor of this church and society until February 23, 1842, when the relation was dissolved. Mr. Lincoln is still living in the enjoyment of a fair degree of bodily and mental vigor, his heart warm as ever towards all generous and noble things, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. Although at the time of the division in the First Parish of Gardner he sympathized with and became the minister of the Trinitarian party, he yet subsequently entered the fellowship of the Unitarian denomination and has been for a long time one of its most devoted and honored clergymen. .

The several pastors of the Evangelical Congrega- tional Church and Society succeeding Mr. Lincoln were, Rev. Wm. B. Stone, settled February 23, 1842, and dismissed in August, 1850; Rev. D. C. Frost, who served as acting-pastor about two years ; Rev. Abijah Stowell the same for five years; Rev. J. W. Healey, who was installed December 3, 1857, and was dismissed July 11, 1859; Rev. Samuel J. Austin. in- stalled December 8, 1859, and dismissed in May, 1864. Subsequent to this date there was no regular minister for about two years. Several persons had been favored with an invitation to the vacant place, but de- clined. At length Mr. George F. Stanton, of Lowell, a recent graduate of Bangor Theological Seminary, accepted a call extended to him, and was ordained to the work of the ministry and installed pastor of the church under notice, June 6, 1866, the sermon being preached by Rev. E. D. Foster, D.D., of Lowell. In the following May he retired in order to facilitate the union of this church and society with those repre- sented by the First Parish, which was at that date accomplished. Thus, after an existence of thirty- seven years, this body was reunited to the lineal de- scendant of that from which it seceded, the changed theological attitude of the latter making this step possible without offence to the distinctive religious convictions of the members of either party.

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GARDNER.

It is a fact worthy of record and remembrance, that this Evangelical Church and Society, besides repre- senting its own characteristic form of Christian faith, and doing the work incumbent upon it in its religious capacity, was, from the beginning, earnestly devoted to the reform movements of the age, maintaining a consistent and unequivocal position in their behalf, and displaying unusual fidelity, zeal and courage in the support and furtherance of the cause of temper- ance and of the abolition of American slavery.

The first meeting-house of this parish, built in 1831, was remodeled in 1846, and finally supplanted by a new one, more favorably located and better suited to existing needs, which was dedicated May 8, 1856. This house was used by the party erecting it until the union spoken of was effected, and by the consolidated churches until the occupancy of their present place of worship.

THE FIRST BAPTIST SOCIETY AND CHURCH .- In the year 1827 a few individuals living in the village of South Gardner and vicinity, desirous of having bet- ter religious privileges than they had previously en- joyed, inaugurated measures for the formation of a new society in that part of the town. In a brief time the object aimed at was accomplished, the organization taking the name of The Baptist Society of Gardner, as an indication of the religious convictions and pref- erences of its members, who were encouraged in their efforts by the sympathy and co-operation of the Bap- tist Church and Society in Templeton. The original membership consisted of ten persons, among whom Messrs. Sullivan Jackson and George Scott occupied the most prominent position. The immediate object of the association was to raise money for the purpose of sustaining a meeting and supporting the preaching of the Gospel in South Gardner village. To more effectually promote this object, an auxiliary associa- tion, called the Parochial Society, which is still con- nected with the church, was legally instituted Janu- ary 30, 1828, for the management of the business in- terests of the enterprise. Moneys were raised, and regular religious services were opened at once in the house of Mr. Jackson, and continued for several years. Other activities of church life were established, among them a Sabbath-school, which consisted, to begin with, of fourteen members. The movement, once fairly started, attracted public attention and increased in numbers and importance. The need of a house of public worship was soon recognized, and steps were taken to provide one. Money was raised and a build- ing was erected in 1833, at a cost of three thousand dollars, which amply met the wants of the society for many years, and was used as first constructed, with slight improvements, till 1872, when it was much en- larged and greatly improved in many ways, at an expense of over seven

thousand dollars. The audience-room was entirely remodeled and newly furnished, and a commodious vestry with ante-rooms in the basement, was titted up. A new and graceful

spire supplanted the former inartistic cupola or bel- fry, in which was placed an excellent clock for the convenience of the neighborhood. Ten years later, in 1882, a good pipe-organ was introduced and other im- provements made, at an aggregate cost of three thou- sand dollars. At present the edifice is exteriorly neat and attractive, and also well-furnished and equipped within, rendering it admirably adapted to the uses of a living Christian body of believers.

The church connected with this society was estab- lished in the year 1830, when twenty-three members of the Baptist Church in Templeton, who resided in Gardner, withdrew from that organization by mutual consent and in the spirit of brotherly love, for the purpose of having church privileges nearer at hand, and of exerting a greater influence for good upon the public mind and heart. An ecclesiastical council convened at the house of Sullivan Jackson on the 15th of November of that year, under whose author- ity the First Baptist Church in Gardner was organ- ized, Mr. Jackson being chosen the first deacon. Its present deacons are Marcius A. Gates and Elmer L. Lovewell. The total number received into the church from the beginning is five hundred and forty, the present membership being one hundred and ninety- five.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 221

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576