USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > North Adams > History of the North Adams Baptist Church from October 30, 1808 to October 30, 1878 > Part 8
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George Witherell served the church five years and baptized twenty-one persons; Elisha F. Willey served a year and a half and baptized four ; Hosea Wheeler, one year and baptized one ; George Robinson, about one-half year and baptized thirty-two; Samuel Savory, five years and baptized fourteen; Charles B. Keyes, seven years and baptized forty; Asa H. Palmer, two
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years and baptized forty-three; Lemuel Covel, two years and baptized thirteen; Thomas S. Rogers, two years and baptized twenty ; John Alden, six years and baptized one hundred and 1 seventeen ; Horace T. Love, six years and baptized one hundred and forty-four ; Miles Sanford, eighteen years and baptized two hundred and seventy; A. C. Osborn, present incumbent, one year and has baptized one hundred and thirty-six. These fig- ures are taken from the minutes of the Shaftsbury, Stephen- town and the Berkshire Association, and in the apportionment of the baptisms to the several pastors, except the last, are not exact, as pastorates did not uniformly end and begin with the associational year. The total number of baptisms into the North Adams church by the same authorities from the found- ing of the church to the present day is eleven hundred and sixty-nine.
REV. H. T. LOVE.
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Deacons
The church has been greatly blessed in those who have held the office of deacon. The first business held by the church after it was constituted was on January 9, 1809. In the min- utes of this meeting we read :
."Chose Otis Blackinton and Caleb Whitman Deacons." Thus the first action of the church after its constitution was the ap- pointment of deacons. Mr. Blackinton was a farmer, and lived on his farm a mile and a half west of the village on the south road to Williamstown. He was inducted into his office in the most formal manner. A council was called, which sat through two days. An examination was made as to the char- acter of the candidate, his views of Christian doctrine, and his views of the duties of the office he was about to enter. Then he was formally ordained by the council by the laying on of hands. Except in the case of the two elected next after these, Deacon Tyler and Deacon Long, so far as appears from the records, deacons subsequently were not ordained, but entered at once upon their duties upon their election or appointment by the church. The record of the ordination of Deacon Blackin- ton, inasmuch as it was among the earliest acts of the church, and somewhat exceptional in the history of the church, is of sufficient importance to be given entire :
"October 14, 1809, Voted to ordain Otis Blackinton."
"December 24, 1809, Agreed to send a letter to Elder Kies, to Elder Leland, to Elder Warden's church to send Deacon Carpenter and other brethren, and to Stamford church, for council, to aid us in ordaining Brother Blackinton to the office of a deacon on the Tuesday and Wednesday prece ling the last Sunday in January next."
"January 30, 1810, According to appointment and the above request, the brethren met at the North School house in Adams
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for the above business. Brethren from sister churches, viz., Cheshire, Isaac Whittington; Stamford, Jacob Sampson, Ben- jamin Kies, Matthew Baker.
"1st. Chose Brother Sampson, moderator.
"2d. Elder Witherell, clerk.
"3d. Looked to God to direct in so important business.
"4th. Brother Blackinton called upon, and related the work of grace on his soul; expressed his mind concerning the quali- fications of deacon, also his duty ; and his ideas concerning the doctrines of the gospel and the discipline of the church.
"5th. Brethren inquired as to his moral character.
"6th. Brethren voted satisfied with Brother Blackinton's qualifications for the office of a deacon, and to set him apart to that office according to the request of the church.
"th. Voted to adjourn and meet at Brother George Whit- man's tomorrow at ten of the clock in the morning.
"January 31st, met according to appointment. Elder Kies being present was received into the council.
"After calling upon God by prayer, voted Elder Kies to preach the ordination sermon; Elder Witherell to make the ordaining prayer ; Elder Kies and Brother Caleb Whitman to lay on hands ; Elder Kies to give the charge ; Deacon Blackinton the concluding prayer. Voted to meet at eleven o'clock, instant, to proceed and ordain Brother Blackinton to the office of deacon. Lastly, voted to dissolve the council.
"JACOB SAMPSON, Moderator. "GEORGE WITHERELL, Clerk."
Can it be doubted that there would be a greater sense of responsibility and increased fidelity in office if this usage of the fathers were still adhered to? The church has never had such a deacon as Otis Blackinton. He carried its interests upon his heart by day and by night. He led in its services when a min- ister was not present. When a minister was present he fol- lowed the sermon with tearful exhortations and prayers. He looked after the finances. He relieved the poor. He was at home in every home of the church. The friend and counsellor of every one, never weary of walking in the footsteps of his
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divine Lord and Master, going about doing good. To him and to the influence he exerted, more undoubtedly than to any other one man, whether minister or layman, does the church owe its many years of prosperity. He only that knows the heart knows how much of the Christian consecration and mar- velous usefulness of that life was owing to impressions received and impulses given on that solemn day of ordination. No true Christian minister ever loses the impressions of the solemn hour of his ordination, or forgets the outgoing of his heart in un- reserved devotion and entire consecration, as the hands of the men of God are laid upon his head, and before God and man he is set apart for the remainder of his earthly life to the service of God. Would that it had never been discontinued in the induction of the deacons of our churches into their office. Whether it be essential as a divine appointment or not, it is a fitting recognition of the reception of a most important trust, and of what should be the fact in the experience of minister or deacon in entire consecration to the service of Christ and of His church. Deacon Blackinton died after a life of eminent usefulness, September 20, 1848, aged seventy years, having served as deacon thirty-nine years.
Deacon Caleb Whitman, one of the constituent members of the church, was by trade a mason and plasterer. He had pre- viously been a member of the church at Stamford, Vt., and brought a letter from that church. He continued a member of the church, holding the office of deacon until 1834.
At a meeting of the church, held March 10, 1832, the follow- ing entry occurs :
"The subject of choosing deacons being proposed, the sub- ject was freely discussed by all of the brethren present. Bros. Duty S. Tyler and Lawson Long were mentioned as proper persons for said office. As Brother Tyler was not present, it was voted that Brother Blackinton mention the subject to Brother Tyler for his consideration."
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In the records of a meeting, held May 12, 1832, we read :
"The subject of choosing deacons was next considered, and it was voted to appoint two, and that Bro. Duty S. Tyler and Lawson Long be set apart to the office of deacons, and that the ministering brethren be requested to ordain them to that office 'at the time of the association."
The association met that year only eight days afterward at the North Adams Church. In the annual letter of the church to the association is the passage: "We request the ministering brethren to ordain Brethren Duty S. Tyler and Lawson Long for the office of deacons." The request was referred by the association to the committee of arrangements. That commit- tee, of which Rev. Elnathan Sweet was chairman, reported as follows: "On the subject of ordaining deacons, they think it advisable to set deacons apart to their office by ordination in the usual way." From this it is to be inferred that there was a diversity of opinion in the association as to the necessity or propriety of the proposed ordination. In accordance with the vote, however, the two brethren were duly ordained as desired by the church. The records make mention of no ordination of deacons after this.
Deacon Tyler was a manufacturer of cotton goods, and at this time one of the firm of Tyler & Ingalls, proprietors of the Union Mills. Deacon Long was a practicing physician of good repute. He removed from the town shortly after his ordina- tion.
Upon the removal of Dr. Long there remained two deacons, Deacon Blackinton and Deacon Tyler. February 24, 1844, Samuel Ingalls, business partner of Deacon Tyler, and Edward Richmond, a manufacturer of cotton goods, who was already serving the church as clerk, were elected deacons.
Deacon Tyler, after a life second in usefulness only to that of Deacon Blackinton, entered into rest August 26, 1857, hav- ing served as deacon twenty-five years. He came to North
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Adams from Conway. He was baptized by Elder Calvin Keyes at Conway in 1814. He subsequently became a member of the Second Baptist church of Savoy. That church became extinct. Upon his removal to North Adams he was, therefore, unable to bring a letter of dismission. By special vote on April 10, 1830, he was received into the fellowship of the church without a letter. Upon the occasion of his death the Berkshire Associa- tion, at its annual meeting in 1857, made the following entry in its minutes :
"Duty S. Tyler, a deacon of the North Adams church, was ready for every good work. He was a model of Christian fidelity and a servant of Jesus, whose praise is in all the churches. May his mantle fall on some of our young Elishas, and, like him, may they ever be found at their posts and ready for the summons that shall call them away."
Deacon Ingalls, in eminent usefulness, was scarcely, if at all, behind Deacons Blackinton and Tyler. He died May 25, 1863, after nineteen years of efficient service. He was born in Cheshire, whence he removed to North Adams. He was for many years one of the foremost business men. He was bap- tized into the North Adams Baptist church by Rev. John Alden May 21, 1843, and was elected a deacon of the church February 28, 1844, only nine months after his baptism. Two years later he was elected clerk of the church, and served in both offices with great fidelity until his death. The record, which he as clerk entered in the minutes of the Covenant meeting one month before his death, is a devout expression of gratitude for fellow- ship with God's people. One month after that entry he passed to be indeed with God's people. The associational minutes for 1863 contain an obituary notice in which it is said:
"He was a deacon for nineteen years and clerk of the church for seventeen years. He possessed the entire confidence of his brethren and died as he had lived, in the assurance of a better resurrection."
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Upon the death of Deacon Ingalls the only incumbent of the office was Deacon Richmond. In June, 1863, the standing committee recommended, and the church resolved, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Deacon Ingalls. An elec- tion was held July 9, 1863 ; five deacons were elected, namely : John H. Eaton, Samuel C. Woodward, Jonathan Hemenway, Henry J. Chapman and Philemon Houghton Nichols.
Deacon Eaton was superintendent of one of the cotton mills. He first united with the church in 1853, by letter from New- burg, N. Y. In 1859 he removed to Pittsfield. In 1860 he returned and again became a member on letter of dismission from the Pittsfield church. Three months after his election as deacon he closed his connection with the church by removal to Colraine.
Deacon Woodward was cashier of the Adams bank. He united with the church in 1859 by letter from Lawrence, where he had already served as deacon. Ten months after his elec- tion by the North Adams church he removed from the town, taking a letter of dismission, and thereby vacated the office.
Deacon Hemenway was a farmer, living one mile south of the village. He united with the church in 1859 by letter from Stamford, Vt. He died in the triumphs of the faith after but one year as service as deacon.
Deacon Chapman was superintendent of the woolen mills at Blackinton. He became a member of the church in 1859 upon a letter from Cassville, N. Y. He served as deacon eighteen years, until dismissed in 1881 to Middlebury, Vt.
Deacon Nichols at the time of his election as deacon was connected with the Arnold Print Works. Of all those elected deacon up to this time he was the only one who had been here baptized in this church. He was baptized in 1850. He served in the office of deacon twenty years. For sixteen years he was superintendent of the Sunday school. He died May 17, 1883. For a great part of the thirty-three years of his connection with
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the church he was a devoted Chritsian laborer, faithfully serv- ing the Master and his church. During the last five years of his life his home had been with a daughter in Pittsfield.
At the opening of the year 1867 there were but three deacons, of whom Deacon Chapman was at Blackinton, three miles away, and Deacon Richmond was eighty-four years of age. Thus Deacon Nichols was practically the only acting deacon. Another election became necessary. On May 2, 1867, the church elected as deacons Charles D. Dyke, Samuel Veazie, Jeremiah Wilbur, Sanford Blackinton, Oliver Arnold and J. Monroe Canedy. The last three declined to serve.
Deacon Dyke was by trade a butcher. He joined the church by letter from Lebanon Springs in 1856. He entered into rest October 5, 1872, after serving five years as deacon. He was a godly man, thoroughly devoted to Christ and His cause.
Deacon Veazie, a machinist, is still in the active service of the church. He was baptized into the fellowship of the church in 1832, having thus been for nearly half a century in the service of God, a humble, devoted, faithful follower of Christ.
Deacon Wilbur united with the church by letter from Pitts- field in 1851. He was, however, born in North Adams and was only temporarily in Pittsfield when he was there baptized. He had for many years been proprietor of the principal hotel in North Adams, and had seen in his own family and in others the dire effect of intoxicating drinks. He became convinced of the wrong involved in its sale and use, rolled his entire stock of liquors in the street and then made a grand bonfire of the whole before an immense concourse of people, amid the greatest demonstration of joy. His devoted wife had for many years been praying for him. His conversion was not only to tem- perance, but to Christ. He continued his hotel as a temperance house for some time, and subsequently for many years was pro- prietor of the leading bakery in the town. He still, with un- swerving fidelity, continues to serve in the office of deacon.
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The Sunday School
The Sunday school of the North Adams Baptist church has been the school of the church. It has never had a separate, independent organization. It originated in the church, and the church has ever kept its control. It has never been regarded otherwise than as one of the instrumentalities by which the church may the better do its proper work. From the beginning the church has elected the superintendent, secretary, treasurer and 'librarian. The annual reports of these officers have been made not to the school, but to the church. In a certain sense, therefore, these officers of the Sunday school are officers of the church, elected by the church for the specific work of teaching the Word of God. Hence a conflict between church and school, not infrequent elsewhere, could never occur here.
As early as 1832 the church made a direct appropriation from its treasury for the purchase of books for the school. From time to time since, as occasion has arisen, the church has thus indicated that the work of the school is its own work. The fact that the Sunday school was regarded simply as a part of the work of the church was shown in 1836, when the Berkshire Baptist Sunday School Union was organized. The church, not the Sunday school, sent delegates to the meeting to effect that organization. And in 1850 the church, by official vote, set apart the third Sunday evening in each month for prayer for the Sunday school and missions.
The Sunday school of this church had its beginning in Sep- tember, 1819, eleven years after the organization of the church.
Almost everything which has been especially salutary in its workings, and permanently spiritual in its results in the Christian church, has been the outgrowth of a higher type of piety and an increased zeal among its members. This Sunday
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school was an outgrowth of a great revival. In the spring of 1819 there was a revival in the village of remarkable power. The Baptist church was the only church in the village, and it was without a pastor. The spirit that creates men anew- in Christ Jesus was poured out with almost Pentecostal power. For several weeks the whole population, with few exceptions, ceased from their ordinary pursuits and gave themselves up to the consideration of their personal relations to God. The stores and shops, and even the hotel, were closed. The result was the addition of sixty persons to the little Baptist church. This was a very large number, as the community then was very small.
In the following September a few members of the church were impressed with the conviction that not enough was done in the religious training of the children and their instruction in the Word of God. They gathered a few children together on Sunday for the purpose of teaching them the Word, and im- pressing upon them its saving truths. Such was the origin of the Sunday school. It was conceived in a revival. Its pur- poses were all in accord with a revival spirit and revival pur- poses.
But it met opposition. It was a new thing and strange; bringing unknown practices and usages into the Lord's church, that the Lord had not instituted. It was feared that it would disturb the ancient landmarks, and become the source of laxness of faith and practice. Others feared it would overpersuade the young and lead them, when unqualified, to the acknowledg- ment of a faith which they had never experienced. Others objected to holding a school on Sunday, as violating its sanc- tity ; forgetting that the Lord himself had designated those that accepted Him as His disciples,-His scholars.
But those that were in the movement had faith, and hope, and love. They persisted in endeavoring to train the children
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and youth for God. They planted seed that has borne fruit beyond their utmost thought.
The first record as to the size of the school is in the letter to the association for the year 1832. That letter says : "Our Sab- bath school has fourteen teachers, sixty scholars, and two hun- dred volumes in library."
The letter to the association for 1841 says: "Our Sabbath school is in a flourishing condition. We have continued it through the year. The scholars commit facts to memory for the Sabbath school concert. Our school numbers, with the Bible class of adults, one hundred and fifty."
Previous to this the school had always been discontinued in the winter. From this date the school continued its sessions through the year. The above is the first mention of a Sunday school concert. In a sermon preached by Dr. Miles Sanford on the semi-centennial anniversary of the school, on September 15, 1869, he has this to say in regard to the monthly concert :
"For more than twenty-nine years it is on record that we have observed the monthly Sabbath school concert. Whether it was observed previous to 1841 we are unable to learn. Since then, with occasional intermissions, its observance has been constant, and attended with highly beneficial results. Within the last few years we have succeeded in investing it with an interest which invariably secures a large attendance and leaves an excellent impression. We select some representative char- acter of the Old or New Testament, or some topic of doctrine, and prepare on it a series of questions, which are intended to bring out whatever the Bible says upon the character or topic. These questions, some twenty-five or thirty, are numbered through the entire series. A single question is given to two scholars, one of whom is to ask the question and the other is to find an answer, consisting of one or more passages of Scripture, which he commits to memory for recitation. The pastor con- ducts the exercise. He announces the number of the question. One of the two who have it asks the question and the other gives the answer. If the meaning of the passage or passages
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given and the answer are obscure, the pastor gives an explana- tion. If some important principle of divine ethics is stated he sometimes cites instances of its application. Or if some prin- ciple of practical life is given he illustrates and enforces it. This exercise is followed by recitations of a moral and religious character. Intermixed with the whole we have singing from the children, which gives it variety and charm."
Such an exercise as this, continued monthly for twenty-nine years, could but have a powerful influence for good upon the children and youth, and also upon the adults that attended.
Dr. Sanford also states that up to that date, 1869, there had been 195 baptisms from the Sunday school, an average of ten per year. In one year, 1840, forty converts from the Sunday school united with the church.
The teaching in the school at first for many years was from the Bible alone, no other text-book or helps being used. After- wards question books were used by the teachers ; then prepared lesson papers or helps have been used. In Dr. Sanford's day all question books and papers were discarded and the scholars required to go back to the old usage, and commit to memory seven or eight verses of Scripture every week. It is a serious question now whether children from the Sunday school under that usage, with such a store of Bible truth laid up in the memory, did not grow up into men and women better grounded in the Word of God than by any system that has superseded it.
The superintendents, up to the close of Dr. Sanford's pastor- ate, were: Rev. C. B. Keyes, Dr. Lawson Long, Rev. John Alden, Duty S. Tyler, F. W. Waterbury, Charles Butler, J. H. Eaton, S. C. Woodward and P. H. Nichols, who was superin- tendent eleven years.
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