History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 95

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896

USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II > Part 95

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" What part Mr. Moxon took in this prosecution is not known. That he syn- pathized with his children in their sufferings, and believed in the reality of the denmoniacal influence, to which the common superstition of the times ascribed them, can hardly lu doubted. It was a weakness that infected some of the strongest minds of that age. A port of that day has left to us the following tribute to Mr. Moxon's character, written shortly before his departure, in which may be detected an allusion to the peculiar domestic visitation that made the last year of the minister's residence in Springfieldl so unhappy :

"" As thou with strong and able parts art 'made, Thy pers m, stunt with tuyl and labour, shall, . With help of Christ, through difficulties warle. Then spend for him; spare hot thyself at all. When errors crowd close to thyself and friends, Take up truth's sword, trifle nut time, for why ? Christ called his people hither for those ends To tell the world that Babel's fall is nigh, And that his churches through the world shall spread Mangre the might of wicked men and devils. Thru Moxon thou need'st nut at all to dread, But he avenged on Satan for his evils. Thy Lund ('hrist will under thy feet him tread.'

"The departure of three such men as William Pynchon, Henry Smith, his son-in-law, and Mr. Moxon was a serious loss to the church and the town. There is a tradition, mentioned by Mr. Breck in his century sermon, that it came near to breaking up the settlement. But the shock, though severe, was not fatal. Neither the temporal nor the spiritual prosperity of this people suffered any permanent check. The wise leadership that had been exercised by the eller Pynchon was devolved upon his son John, then a young man of twenty-six, of sterling qualities, who, through all that century and down to the time of his death, maintained an influence, not only in Springfield, but in all this region, that justly entitled him to the appellation by which he is distinguished in the record, 'the worshipful.' Nor were the religions interests of the people ner- lected. The dracons, Chapin and Wright, with Elizur Holyoke, son-in-law of William l'yuchun, were pions and capable men, and the people gathered in their sanctuary as they had been accustomed to do before, to hear the word of Gal expounded by them. In February, 1653, less than five months after Mr. Moxon's departure, Rev. William Hosford was preaching here as a supply. Previ-ely when his labors huge legan and when they ended is not known. His stay did not exceed the year at the longest. He was succeeded by Rev. William Thomp- son, who graduated at Harvard College in 1653, and is supposed to have been the som of a minister of the same name at Braintree. He was here in November,

1655. On the 15th of that month the town records say, 'At a town-meeting it was voted and concluded yt Mr. Thompson, during his continuaure a preaching minister in Springfield, shall persens and enjoy yo Towne house-lot and housing . . . which formerly ye towne bought of Mr. Moxon.' 'As also they intend by ye help of God to continue Mr. Thompson's maintenance $50 pr annum, and to give him a parcel of ground by reason of the inability of ye towne to increase his maintenance.'

" This, although perhaps a liberal salary for those days, did not insure Mr. Thompson's ' continuance as a preaching minister' for a very long period. Ile left his people under such circumstaners as led the town, on the 24th March, 1656, to pass the following vote to provide for the supply of its spiritual needs : "It is agreed by joynt consideration of ye Plantation that seving Mr. Thompson hath deserted this Plantation and sve we are left destitute in respect of any ministry of ye word for continuance, that therefore these persons under written shall take counsel among themselves what contar may be taken for a supply in ye work, and that they shall take that course that to them shall seem good by sending abroad for advice in this matter; and sor accordingly they shall give information to the town wt they have done or think convenient to be done. The persons hereunto chosen are Mr. Pynchon, Deacon Chapin, George Colton, Benjamin Cooley, Deacon Wright, and Elizur Holyoke. It was further voted and agreed,' continues the record, ' that whereas yesterday being the Lord's day, Deacon Wright was chosen to dispense the word of God in this place till some other should be gott for yt worke, yt de.won Wright shall have for his labor in ye employment 50sh ye month for such tyme as he attends on ye said work.'

" Good Deacon Wright, who had settled here in 1639, and had been one of the deacons of this church through all the subsequent years of Mr. Moxun's min- istry, did not continne long to ' disease the word' in Springfield. Soon after the passage of this vote he emigrated with his family to Northampton, where, on the 17th of October, 1665, he died, as the record says, 'when asleep in his chair.' Deprived of the ministrations of Deacon Wright by his removal to another field of usefulness, the town voted in February, 1657, ' that Mr. Holly- ock and Ilenry Buit should carry on the work of the Sabbath in this place; but in case that through any providence of God either of them should be disenabled, that dlecon Chapin should supply that present vacancy.' A little later, in No- vember, 1657, the record says, "Mr. Holyoke is made choise of to carry on ye work of ye Sabbath once every Sabbath-day, which he accepts of. Mr. Pynchon is made choise of for one part of ye day ouer a fortnight, wh he will endeavor to in tyme by reading notes and somewhat of his owne meditations till March next. Deacon Chapin and Henry Burt are made choise of to carry on ye other pt of yo day once a fortnight.'

"However profitable, in a spiritual point of view, the labors of these intelli- gent laymen may have been, the church still aimed at securing the services of some 'Godly and faithful minister,' who should become its primanent pastor. Nor was it long before a young man was found whose ministrations were so acceptable that the people, with great unanimity, extended to him a call. This was Mr. Samuel Hooker, a son of Rev. Thomas Houker, of Ilurtford, whom Cotton Mather styles ' the Light of the Western Churches and Pillar of Con- necti/ut Colony.' Mr. Hooker was first employed to sujudy the pulpit for a period of three months, with especial reference to his settlement. The record is very complimentary to the candidate. It reads as follows : ' At a Towne-meet- ing Feb, 7, 1638' (or 1659, according to the present division of the yra: ), ' There was a full and unanimous acceptance of Mr. Hooker to dispense ye word of God tons ; and whereas he at present will not certainly ingage to us longer than 3 months, the Towne due agree and ingage to give or allow him 200 pr ye sd Thice months. & with all manifest thei e desires & hopes of his further continuance among us, & being willing to contiune, ye like further allowance upon his further continu- ance stb us. And Mr. Pynchon, Mr. Holyoke, & Deacon Chapin were appointed to signifie ye Towne's mind & desires to Mr. Hooker, why accordingly did it, & Mr. Ilooker manifested his willingness to help us three months, as aforesaid, & for ye present could resolve noe further, but his coming to a res anti mn shonhl take rise from this tyme ' It is sail of Mr. Hooker that he was 'an animated and pious divine, an excellent preacher, his composition goud, his address pathetic, warm, and engaging.' In preparing his sermons, as he told a friend, he made it a rule to do three things, ' write them, commit them unto his memory, and get them into his heart.' But, in the providence of God, Mr. Hooker was not to be the pastor of this church. For reasons which do not appear he pre- ferred another field ot labor, and went to Farmington, Conn., where he was installed pastor of that church in July, 1661.

"The summer of 1659 found this church still without a pastor. Seven years had clapsed since the deras ture of Mr. Moxon, and all the efforts of the people to secure a settled ministry had proved aburtive. It cannot be doubted, how- ever, that with every new failure they recurred to their well-qualified laymen, and that the word of God was ' dispensed' and the work of the Sabbath 'carried on' as Irfore. According to Mr. Breck, Mr. Pelatiah Glover was hete early in July, 1659, and preached his first senon July 30, from Jer. iv. 11. Ile was at first engaged for one year, but afterward accepted a more permanent relation. According to that learned anti mary, James Savage, Mr. Glover was ordained as the second minister of Springfield, June IS, 1661. But as the town, as early as Dec. 12, 1600, made provision for his maintenance here, as for its settled minis- ter, as-igning to him the use of the ministry house and land, and stipulating for his support the payment of a yearly salary uf E40, to commener from the 29th of September, 1660, to this last date, perhaps, Lis settlement should be referred. Mlr. Glover was the son of John Glover, an early and prominent settler of Dorchester. Je receive this eduration at Harvard College, but did not take his dogive their. Ile was not far from twenty-four years of age when he commenced his labors as the minister of this town. He was settle.J, as all ministers then mint for many years afterward were settled, for life, and for more than thirty years he per- formed here the duties of the pastoral office. There now exist no mate. ials for

848

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

a personal biography of Mr. Glover, or a detailed history of the church while he was its minister.

" There were some stirring events during this period, events the like of which have never been witnessed here during the ministry of any other man. It was a day of terror and trondde when, on the 5th of October, 1675, oll style, the Springfield Indians, till then peaceful and friendly, having admitted to their fort on Long Hill a body of King Philip's hostile Indians, nited with them in a sudden and murderous attack upon this settlement. Notified by a messenger from Windsor, who arrived at midnight, that this place was to be attacked, most of the inhabitants fled to the fortified houses, but, sering no immediate move- ment, the first alarm had partially subsided, and some had returned to their own houses. Of this number was Mr. Glover, who had moved his family and his " brave' library, as Hubbard calls it, to a plare of safety, but, derming the alarm grimudless, and ' being impatient for want of his books,' had moved the latter back again to his own house, Comparatively few of the settlers lost their lives, Imt the destruction of buildings and property was great. About 30 houses and 25 barns, with their contents, were burned. The house of Mr. Glover, with his valuable library, was consumed. The meeting-house, which was fortified, es- raped the conflagration. Great distress prevailed. The people were discouraged and entertained the idea of abandoning the settlement altogether, as too much exposed to the incursions of the savages. Some actually left, but the greater part of the inhabitants, encomaged by the sympathy and aid of the colonial government, and trusting in the care of an overruling Providence, determined to hold on. A letter of John Pynchon to his son, then in England, written about two weeks after this calamity, breathes a spirit of fervent piety and submission to the divine will. Jonathan Burt, then or soon after a deacon of the church, in a brief narrative of the facts entered upon a fly-leaf of the records, which is signed ' Jonathan Bart, an eye-witness of the same,' recognizes devoutly the good providence of God in preserving the lives of the people.

" An event of importance to the church, that occurred a few days after the burning of the town, was the death of Deacon Samuel Chapin, which took place on the Ilth of November of the same year, From a very early period he had been one of the deacons of this church, one of its most useful and influential members. Savage calls him 'a man of distinction," and when we consider the responsible trusts reposed in him by the church and the government, the appel- lation seems highly appropriate. He was not only associated with Mr. Pynchon in the administration of the temporalities of the town, but he was one whom the church designated often to carry on the work of the Sabbath. The loss of such a man, occurring as it did so soon after the great calamity, must have been deeply felt. The deacons during the remainder of Mr. Glover's pastorate appear to have been Jonathan Burt, already named, and Benjamin Parsms. Deacon Parsons died in 1689, and was succeeded in office by John Hitchcock. Deacons Burt and Hitchcock survived Mr. Glover more than twenty years. Hitchcock held the military office of ensign and lieutenant, in addition to that of deacon. Ile and Deacon Bart were both men of some note. Both have representatives in this church among their descendants.

" Soon after the destruction of the town by the Indians, in 1675, the original meeting-house, which had escaped the flames, was taken down and a larger and more commodious structure erected farther west, mostly if not wholly within the limits of what is now Court Square, very near its southwestern angie. It was built in 1677. A very strong attachment subsisted between Mr. Glover and his people. In 1669, findling himself straitened in his means of living, on ac- count of the smallness of his salary, yet aware of the inability of the people to increase it at that time, he addressed to them a communication in which he ex- pressed his desire to remove to another field of labor on that account.

" To this the town, by the hand of Mr. Holyoke, sent the following reply :

1.'Sr,-Wee are much affected with this sad providence by this motion of yours for leaving na, and the rather beinge sensible of our general inability to increase your stipend at ye present by reasons of God's hand upon us by the food and blast, and at such a tyme as we have taken in hand the building of a house for yon, which through the help of God we shall goe on with, the cost whereof will be neere one hundred pounds to us, besides the END of ye stipend, web by the Lord's assistance wee shall endeavour panetually to present and make good in ye best manner we can, notwithstanding all the difficultys of the yeare web doe retard var doing further or more at present; but yet, if the Lord enable us, we shall for future, according as yr needs call for it, enlarge and doe to our utmost ability, and that according as God shall bless us; that soe you may live honor- ably and with int distraction in your employment. And we intreat your accept- ance of these our synsere intentions, and the manifestations of your love and affections to us by yr cheerful going on in yr ministerial work in this place, which we take soe much content in, and cannot neither dare quitt our interest in, Int must according to God hold it fast to our utmost, all words of parting being like darts, fortil the thoughts of change.

". ELIZUR HOLYOKE, Recorder, "'in the name and by ye appoyntment of the town. "SPRINGFIELD, month 4, 18th, 1669.'

" In regard to the character of Mr. Glover as the pastor of this church and people, Hubbard, a contemporary historian, says: 'He was a great student, and much given to books;' and Breck adds, 'he lived in great harmony with our fathers, and highly esteemed.' John Pynchon, who knew him better and more intimately than either of them, an I whose judgment was unsurpassed, in his private book of records calls him ' the Reverend Teacher of ye church of Spring- field," 'a faithful minister of the gospell and teacher of ye church of Springtell.' This is surely high commendation for this servant of God. It needs no expan- sion or muldition. But there is a touching expression in the entry upon our mil - lie record of his death which must not be omitted. It is in these words, ' The Reverend Mr. Peletiah tilover fell asleep in Jesus, March 29, 1692.'

" It is not strange that, after the death of their revered pastor, Mr. Glover, his people should have sought for his successor one who was nemly allied to him. Accordingly, Mr. John Haynes, who became the husband of Mr. Glover's youngest daughter, Mary, soon after her father's death, was invited to fill the vacant pas- torate ; but this call, although persistently urged, was unsuccessful. A spiritual teacher and guide was, however, soon found, as the record reads. The town ' voted to send Captain Thomas Colton and Sergeant Luke Hitchcock to the Bay for the procuring a minister to preach the word of God to this town; and that they apply themselves to the Rev'l the President of the College, with the rest of the elders in Boston, for their help for the obtaining a minister that may pro- mote conversion among us.' Mr. Daniel Brewer, a native of Roxbury, a graduate at Harvard College of the year 1687, came here in response to this appeal. The town voted to give him 'an invitation to carry on the work of the Gospel in this place,' and offered him a salary of ESO and the use of the ministry land. The committee by whom this call was communicated to Mr. Brewer, in their report say that he answered that ' provi led we were nnanimons, he was inclin- alle to compliance with the town's proffer, and in order to continnance with us, if he shall further find God leading him to doe so' And thereupon ' Col. John Pynchon, Esq., and Deacon Jonathan Buit were appointed to declare to Mr. Daniel Brewer the town's good resentment of Mr. Daniel Brewer his answer to the town's invitation, and to give him thanks for the same.' With a candi- date thus ' inclinable to compliance,' and this ' good resentment' on the part of the people, nsettlement was sure to come, and on the Ioth day of May, 1694, Mr. Daniel Brewer was ordained minister of this church and people. He was at the time of his ordination twenty-five years of age, and unmarried. Abont five years afterward he married Catharine Chauncey. From this union sprung all of the name of Brewer in this town and vicinity, inchiding two deacons of the church, one of whom united in his person both these names. Rev. Daniel Brewer's ministry here continued till his death, on the 5th November, 1733, nearly forty years.

" Computed with the stirring times of Mr. Glover's ministry, this was a time of quiet and growth. The settlers, at first limited to a narrow space, had now spread themselves in every direction, and laid the foundation of new parishes, soon to require each their own separate pastors. This condition of things led to the most important event of which the records take any notice dming Mr. Brewer's ministry, to wit : the formation of a new parish on the west side of the river, and the subsequent, although not immediate, separation of this first parish from the town, which had before transacted both municipal and parochial affairs under one and the same organization. There had been for some years a feeling among the settlers on the west side of the river that they were subjected to pe- culiar inconveniences, if not dangers, in being obliged to cross the river to attend public worship on this side. As early as May, 1674, they had brought before the town this subject, and a committee was appointed to consider the propriety of the town's furnishing, at the common charge, a boat to convey them across the river, to attend worship on the Sabbath and other public occasions. There is a tradi- tion that several persons had lost their lives in attempts to cross.

" In the year 1695 the prople on the west side of the river presented to the General Court, at Boston, their petition for leave to procure a minister for that part of the town. Those living on this side did not feel willing to part with so large and substantial a part of the ecclesiastical boly, and, being a majority, they passed a vote in town-meeting that ' something' should be drawn up to send to the General Conrt to answer this petition of their' neighbors on the west side of the great river,' and they appointed Deason Burt and Lient. Abel Wright to draw up this ' something." At a subsequent meeting in May, 1696, Sergt, Inke Hitchcock was chosen the agent of the town to ' give in reasons and objections' against said petition, and, that there might be a good understanding and unan- imity of sentiment on this ing ortant question among the dwellers on the cast sido, a committee was appointed to meet the people at the school-house and ac- quaint them with the objections. Whatever may have been the objections, they were unavailing against the petition from the west side of the river. The peti- tion was granted by the General Comt, and a second parish or precinct estab- jished in what is now West Springfield, in 1696, over which the Rev. John Wood- bridge was ordained pastor in 1698. The creation of a new parish legally dissolved the relation of the town to the old parish. They were no longer identical organ .- izations. The inhabitants of the town, as such, could not properly transact the business of the original parish as they had heretofore done in town-meetings. But this was not at once realized. The town books continned for some time to record the transactions of the first parish. The meetings, however, purport to have been of " the inhabitants of Springfield on the east side of the river,' and when soon afterward a third parish was created in what is now Longmeadow, the style was further changed, and the record reads: 'At a meeting of the in- habitants of the town on the east side of the river, the precinct of Longmeadow excluded,' it was voted, etc. The latest record of this kind upon our town records is under date of Jan. 1, 1717. The oldest parish record (properly so called) begins Ang. 7, 1731, after the death of Mr. Brewer and the ordination of his successor. The earliest church record now in existence bears date Jan. 1, 1736, and is, with one or two exceptions, merely a record kept by the pastors of admissions to the church, marriages, baptisms, and deaths.

" At the time of Mr. Brewer's ordination, in 1694, one of the deacons of the church was Jonathan Buurt, who had served in that capacity under the ministry of Mr. Glover. Hle undoubtedly continned in that office until his death, Oct. 19, 1715, at an advanced age. He was a man of some prominence, and served for a time as clerk of the town. Another deacon in the carly part of Mr. Brewer's ministry was John Hitchcock, already named, who held various civil and mili- tary offices, and at one time represented the town in the General Comt. The successors of Dencons Bint and Hitchcock were James Warriner and Nathaniel Munn. Deacon Warriner died May 14, 1727, before the close of Mr. Brewer's ministry. Deacon Munn survived Mr. Brewer about ten years, and served in

849

HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTY.

that office under his successor till the last day of December, 1743, when he died at the age of eighty-two. Before the close of Mr. Brewer's pastorate the dea- conship passed again into the Burt family, in the person of Henry Burt, son of Deacon .Jonathan.

" The harmony which had subsisted in this church and parish during the ministry of Mr. Brower was destined soon to a serious interruption. The settle- ment of a successor was attended with unusual difficulties, and produced an ex- citement not only here, but very extensively throughout this region. In May, 1734, Mr. Robert Breck, a young man then not quite twenty-one years of age, a son of Rev. Robert Breck, of Marlboro', Mass., was invited to preach here with reference to a settlement. He had graduated at Cambridge in 1730, at the early age of seventeen. Before he was invited here he had been preaching at Scot- land, a parish of Windham, Conn. He preached his first sermon in Springfield, on the 26th of May, 1734. On the 30th of July following the church made choice of him for its pastor, and on the 7th of August the parish concurred in this choice, and proposed to him terms of settlement, which, although at first de- clined for other reasons, were ultimately accepted. Soon after Mr. Breck com- menced preaching here as a candidate, reports prejudicial to his character for orthodoxy began to be circulated in this town and among the neighboring clergy. The authority for these reports was Rev. Thomas Clap, of Windham, afterward president of Yale College. The effect of these rumors was to disaffect a minority of the parish with Mr. Breck, and to create so strong an opposition among the ministers of this vicinity that, for the time, the project of his settlement was abandoned, and a call extended to Mr. Joseph Pynchon. This being declined, the attention of the church and parish was again directed to Mr. Breck, and he was again invited to preach as a candidate. At the parish meeting in March, 1735, a committee was appointed to wait on the reverend ministers of the county, at their next meeting in April, to get what information they could relating to the charges exhibited against Mr. Breck by the Rev. Mr. Clap and others, and to ascertain the sentiments of the ministers. It does not appear from the parish records that this committee ever made a report. Probably they never acted under their appointment. The opposition of so large and respectable a number of ministers as the association of the old county of Hampshire did not deter this church and parish from their purpose. With all their reverence for the clergy, they appreciated their own right as Congregationalists to choose their own pastor, and their hearts were fully set upon Mr. Breck as the man. Accord- ingly the church, on the 17th April, 1735, formally renewed their call to him, and the parish, one week afterward, concorred in the call.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 95

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 896

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896