USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Leicester > History of the Second Congregational church and society in Leicester, Massachusetts > Part 11
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"A large number of these are gathered to their fathers." No ! " Live at God's right hand, " and " in solemn troops and sweet societies," hold such communion in those heavenly homes as we but poorly conceive; but to which amidst all life's scenes of enjoyment, trial or usefulness,
" Our longing souls may still aspire, With ardent hope and strong desire."
They still commune with us, I would fain believe, and still influence by their gentle but powerful drawing, to clothe ourselves in the pure white vesture of truth, and peace, and perpetual good will.
I close here these imperfect recollections of this Church of Christ and of its members. *
* I am but just returned from the new-made grave of the Rev. Samuel Joseph May, and I speak to you now with the multitude of loving testimonies to his character still ringing in my ears. I rejoice to say he was a friend of this Church and Society ; - one of its first friends.
He bore a part in my ordination, and has frequently spoken from this pulpit his loving words for God and righteousness and human happiness. He was a shining light in our Israel,
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and, by universal consent of those who knew him, an honor to the name of Man and Christian.
Said one of him, "He never needed a change of heart ; he was born into the Kingdom of Heaven, and never left it." His life and work are a priceless legacy to all lovers of God and man.
Of even deeper and more enduring interest is that familiar talk by Mr. May twenty-five years later, at the dedication of the Parish House, April 23, 1896, when the church was filled with townspeople, who loved, revered and honored him, gathered to rejoice over the completion of the needed vestry.
Mr. May, now eighty-six years of age, exemplified, as is rarely witnessed, the vigor, graciousness and beauty which are possible to this venerable period.
In opening the meeting, he offered the following resolution. Resolved : That the Unitarian Society desires to recognize its obligation to the Ladies' Society for their courage in undertak- ing, and their perseverance in carrying forward, the erection of the Vestry building, now happily completed and connected with the church ; and to put on record its approbation of the work done, and its thanks to all who have so generously worked together, both for the building itself and in furnishing it for its appropriate uses.
Being unanimously voted, Mr. May continued : -
"I often think of that congregation on which for twelve years I was wont to look from the pulpit. Young enough (twenty-four years of age) and inexperienced I was at first, and often wondered what I could say to help those men and women ; many of them educated and highly intelligent; for Leicester had a high reputation in that respect. The
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Academy, bringing teachers and scholars here, exerted a strong and steady influence. It was a subject of common re- mark that no where was there a society of women of higher literary taste, of more cultivated thought, than here. The Friends' Society of the town contributed largely to this circle of refined and high-minded women, who had a kind of liter- ary association of their own. Out of that company, there came to help from the Unitarian Society such noble women as Laura Flint, Elizabeth Jackson, Mindwell (Jones) Sar- gent, Maria Southgate, Laura Webb, Philena Upham, and others.
"But I was taking a brief pulpit glance at my congregation. On my immediate right, sat Captain Silas Gleason, daughter and son ; Thaddeus Robinson and wife, and three brothers Marsh, Welcome, Douglas, and Melatiah, sons of Joel Marsh of the Friends' Society. In the first pew on the west wall was Miss Jackson and her niece, Miss Pickford; and then one after another, Colonel Joseph D. Sargent (for a short time only) and wife; John Whittemore and family; John A. Smith and family; Henry E. Warren, mother and sister, and later, the young wife Mary Whittemore; then Browns and the families of Bradford, David, Corey, and William McFarland; Bonds, and so forth.
"Directly before me was the worthy old hatter, Thomas Green (hard of hearing and occupying the open bench). In the front pew were the Dwight Bisco family, Emily, and so forth, not Mr. Bisco himself at first, because he was up in the high gallery with the Choir, until his hearing became so impaired that he could not continue with them. Then came Daniel Upham, wife, daughter and son; then Capt. Isaac
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Southgate, wife and sister; then Capt. Hiram Knight, wife and children; then George Upham, Joseph B.'s older brother with William Hatch, whose wife was a granddaughter of Rev. Benjamin Conklin.
" In front on the East side was the minister's pew; and there for many years, sat my dear wife, with the little ones, as they came along (whose various restlessness and performances in that pew were occasionally the subjects of her caustic commentary). Then came Waldo Flint, whose wife Cather- ine (Dean) Flint, was our faithful organist and in the gallery, but Mr. Flint was rarely without company in his pew. Then Joshua Clapp, our wealthiest member, who married a beautiful daughter of Leicester, Lucy Denny (daughter of Nathaniel Paine Denny, Esquire), with two or three children, scarce old onough for church. Mr. Clapp had bought the woolen mills in what is now Rochdale, built the house now owed by Mr. Samuel E. Winslow, and then the wonder of the county. Mrs. Clapp's home had been on Mt. Pleasant, in the house now occupied by our fellow-members, Horace and Warren Smith. Their father, Oliver Smith, did not come to Leicester until a few years after I was settled here, but became a strong friend and member of the Society.
" To complete my survey of the original audience, I turn to my extreme left hand, where were the pews of Miss Anna Henshaw, Honorable David Henshaw and nieces; Doctor Edward Flint, wife, daughters, and son; John Sargent and wife; then on the East wall were Abraham Firth and wife Louisa Maria Russell-Firth ; Lyman Waite ; John Holland and family ; Ira Earle and Mrs. Iris Earle ; Laura Flint and
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later Mr. and Mrs. John Clapp; Mrs. Billings Swan and children. (And this is not a complete list.)
"Among the original office-bearers of the church and society, I wish to speak particularly of two, the first of whom con- tinued a resident here less than two years after the meeting- house was built; the other filled up the full measure of his days with us. Both of them honored their positions and themselves and us, 'by lives and conversation becoming the Gospel,' as the Apostle expresses it. The first I mention was George Whiting, first deacon of our church, a modest man, full of goodwill to all, and a very staunch Unitarian. He had recently come here from Uxbridge, and was by trade a harness-maker; diligent and faithful in all he did. If I tell you that the work of upholstering the little church was done by him, some of you, whose bones have ached upon our thin pew-cushions, may be disposed to put in a caveat to what I say of his good work; but let me add, Mr. Whiting did the best he could with the material allowed him. The resources of the little church were not unlimited, and I well remember his joke over the filling of said cushions, partly ' hair,' and another part, as he drawled it out, 'hay-er.' There was a fragrance of a mowing field about them at first, we may con- fess. He was, I said, our first deacon, and great was the sorrow felt by us all when the necessities of his growing family constrained his removal to Buffalo, where he joined the Unitarian Society. I think of him, to. this day, with a true affection. He talked with me about my sermons, and made helpful suggestions for my work here. Mr. William Whittemore will remember him,- possibly Mr. Joseph
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Upham may. (Joseph Upham spoke, and said he remem- bered Mr. Whiting and his harness-shop perfectly.)
" The other officer whom I name became Mr. Whiting's successor as the deacon of the church-and he remained in the office with us to the end of his life, a period of upwards of forty years. While I write his name, unbidden tears fill my eyes: when I speak the honored name of Dwight Bisco, a flood of happy, respecting, and admiring recollections come over me. 'Admiring,' I say-yes, whom could I more justly admire than one, who under severe losses, was never, to my knowledge, even ruffled, never tempted to complain of providence, or speak harshly of his fellow men; who, when past the usual period of the most active life, seeing the earn- ings and savings of his life largely swept away (in an enter- prise which he undertook more to sustain the business credit of the town, than in expectation of personal gain), quietly, and with no fuss whatever, put on his working apron, and went back to the factory bench, and toiled diligently for many years, to replace what he had lost ;- years which he had thought to take more leisurely, and spend in home and family occupations. He was a reader, and the literature of the Unitarian church was his choice. He, early in life, began to take and to read the 'Christian Register,' and I have heard him say that his aim was to read every word of it, from be- ginning to end, and that he often did so. For my whole ministerial life here of twelve years he sat by my side at the communion table,-excepting the brief early time of Mr. Whiting,-and together we administered the simple rite of the Lord's Supper as well as we knew how, and we often experi- enced the truth of the Great Teacher's words, that ' where
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two or three are gathered together in His name,' He would be in the midst of them.
Mr. Bisco held also the office of the Society's Treasurer, from the very first, and for forty successive years. A great service it was which he thus rendered in every sense a labor of love. The most of you remember well his later years; but only a few of us the earlier ones, when constant and assid- uous, early and late attention to business left him no real leisure, and but little time for a treasurer's duties. Still, in both early and later years, the duty was done with an exact- ness and fidelity which left nothing to be desired,-and nothing to be regretted, except that we had not more such men as he. He honored his church and the Unitarian name, and all men who knew him would say of him, as one did, who in business relations had summered and wintered him for many years-' No man in Leicester has a better record than Dwight Bisco.' I hope it is not a too personal remark, if I say just here, that we are to be congratulated in having the treasurer's office continue in his family, and held by one of his name, and if I add the wish that the son may live in confirmed health, and a fair prosperity, to hold the office as long as the father did ;- and find the labors made lighter by the habitual punctuality of all on the subscription papers. It seems to me, that if we of this religious household rightly value our church, our Faith, our principles, there would be no other payment of money so much enjoyed, so wholly satisfactory, and so gladly offered, as the payment for their maintenance and spread.
" I love to think of that early company of church mem- bers, which, by the favor of God, I collected here in 1834,
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It was composed at first of but twelve members, but others came soon, and with a healthy growth. There was no claim of superior excellence on their part, and no thought of sepa- ration in any way from the rest of the society. Each, in his or her own way, had felt the satisfaction and joy of the larger, freer, happier religion which the Unitarian conception of the Bible and of life had brought them, each had desired to recognize the goodness of God to them, 'the God and Father of their Lord Jesus Christ,' and they were ' perfectly joined in one mind, ' and in one spirit. The oldest member of the twelve was Mr. John Whittemore, grandfather of sev- eral of our present company; and the youngest Henry E. Warren ; then there were Messrs. Waldo Flint, Dwight Bisco, and Lyman Waite; and of ' honorable women,' Mrs. Olive Knight, Mrs. Harriet Flint, Miss Elizabeth Jackson, Mrs. Maria Southgate, Miss Laura Webb-five men and five women. (Laura Flint was not an actual member, but thoroughly so in spirit.) Immediately were added Mr. Whiting and his wife, and a little later Mr. Joshua Clapp, Mrs. Lucia Denny Clapp, Mrs. Susan Green, and 1Miss Mary Ann Emerson, the last being the youngest sister of Mrs. Harriet Flint, and who came to us from the First Church- came, too, through much tribulation, on which it would not be profitable now to enlarge-is it not all written in the chronicles of the Church ?- and through which she bore her- self with a modest firmness and self-possession, which per- fectly triumphed over every obstacle. Her life was beautiful here and loving, her death was like it.
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" The next four members were Mrs. Mary E. Warren (mother of Henry E. Warren), her step-daughter, Miss Lydia Warren, Mrs. Sarah Russell May, and Mrs. Mindwell Sargent. I have often said, and I fully believe, that Mrs. Warren, in spirit, life, and character was as perfect a woman as I ever knew.
"Of Mrs. Mindwell Sargent I would gladly speak at length did the time allow. We had no more wise and in- telligent member; quick of understanding, clear and accu- rate in judgment, true to her convictions and well able to defend them. Her children and grandchildren, wherever scattered, have remained loyal to Leicester and to her princi- ples and faith. Only one of her adult descendants is now a resident of Leicester, and he has been for years, and still is, as you know, one of the Society's Standing Committee.
" It would be taking an undue proportion of the time for me to go on with this list, which would be enriched by the names of Firth-at least four of the name-of Upham, Smith (first wife of Oliver Smith), Ira and Iris Earle, McFarland, Waite, Flint, Clapp, Trumbull, Spear, Scott, Fuller, Wood- ward, Pike, and others.
"To speak of the Sunday School as I would like would take all the time I should have the right to use, and I for- bear, only saying that Dwight Bisco was its Librarian, from its first I believe.
" There were some eight classes : Abraham Firth, later, its Superintendent. The children sang prettily, as we thought, and I used to instruct and drill them Saturday afternoons.
" Teachers' meetings were faithfully kept up and attended. 12
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" In speaking of the Choir, I must go back to those earlier days,-before the meeting house was, when we met in the little old Town Hall, where I preached for six weeks in the autumn of 1833, and for some four months in the spring and summer of 1834. I cannot recall that there was any other instrument ever used by the choir, there, than a pitch pipe.
"Billings Swan, Chorister, Bradford, David and Warren McFarland, Dwight Bisco. Angeline Draper and Jerusha White were our principal female singers.
" When the church was dedicated, August 12, 1834, a small organ was placed in the gallery; Mrs. Waldo Flint became organist ; and the choir as already named came there. After some years, Mr. Swan left us ; and Warren McFarland took his place very effectively.
" I believe that Miss Draper continued of the choir during the whole twelve years of my ministry. She was a beautiful and refined lady, the daughter of David Draper. She be- came the wife of Sidney Downes.
"Miss Jerusha White was soon married to Warren McFar- land, and continued in the choir a while. (Their removal to Worcester was much later.)
" The Sunday of sixty years ago was a very different one from the Sunday of to-day-in Leicester, as elsewhere. I shall not discuss the question of better or worse, more than to say that, if the old Sunday was better in some respects, it was not nearly so good in others. I hope and I think, that we are still on the road of improvement, and shall yet have a Sunday wherein both God and man may take ' delight,' and ' call it honorable.' The value of the Sunday of sixty years ago was both positive and negative ; there was an ab-
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sence of much-perhaps most-of the really evil and crimi- nal indulgence which largely obtains to-day; and certainly the mere absence of that evil now would be a great gain. But, on the other hand, there is a positiveness now, a willing and a glad devotedness to objects and ends of real utility, benefit, and moral and spiritual upbuilding which then were not. The Church attendance then was from custom, author- ity or fear on the part of the most. They came to the meet- ing house and sat a prescribed time-very critical if the time was unduly prolonged-and then, like Tennyson's farmers, having sat quietly while the preacher ' said what he ought to have said, they coom'd away.'
" Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free '-was one of the new topics of the new, that is the Unitarian Church,-and it was strongly insisted upon. That some have taken an unfair advantage of it,-and to their own hurt, often,-is not to be doubted.
" This community was eminently a meeting-going one sixty to forty years ago. The number of chaises, wagons, carryalls, which every Sunday then collected on Leicester Hill from the four points of the compass, remaining for about four hours-and then departing-was, to say the least, a curious sight. It was with this Church as with the rest- two services-two gatherings-dismissed at twelve, and coming back soon after one; this was the regular and fixed fact, which no one thought of questioning and to which all conformed, unless the case were such as made attendance about impossible. Of course two sermons had to be made ready-and all else duplicated.
" This Church differed from the others about it-in ob-
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jecting to a third service, holding such only rarely, and for special reasons. The Unitarian Churches generally asserted and maintained the independence of the prescribed custom in that respect, and the Sunday evening was claimed as a time of quiet neighborly intercourse and personal rest.
At our meetings then the attendance would average the year round fully a hundred; it was considered in good weather that one hundred and twenty-five was a fair con- gregation. The parents came, father and mother, and all the children from seven or eight years upwards. Every pew had its occupants-and sometimes no room for more.
"You will hardly be able to conceive of Leicester with no Roman Catholics in it; but such was very nearly the case when I came here sixty-two years ago-(at least so far as the centre is concerned).
"I have not undertaken or expected to surprise any of you this evening. But perhaps I shall give you all a mild surprise when I say that this room is not the first 'vestry' which we have had. On the church records, page thirty-eight, stands this entry-'January 3, 1845. At a meeting of the church, held at the room temporarily used as a vestry, it was voted unanimously, that, of the funds in the hands of Deacon Bisco, twelve dollars be paid to Mrs. Susan Green, a member of this church.'
"For a series of years, the room in question, which was the front room, second story in the brick building next cast of the hotel, at one time occupied by the bank, had been rented as a place for church meetings, and for regular meetings (1 think every week), for the purpose of religious conversation and improvement, and brief social intercourse. It was also
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used, if I rightly remember, by the Sunday School teachers for their weekly meetings. The special meetings for religious improvement, were well attended, and regarded as very help- ful and interesting. I particularly associate with those meetings Mr. Ira Earle and Mrs. Iris Earle, whose loyalty to this church, fine spirit and excellent character, we can never forget. They with their two daughters and one son were most constant and true.
"For my own part, I did not, while the minister of this Society, adopt,-nor have I ever regretted that the Society did not adopt-the aggressive (pushing and crowding) ways which some religious persons and bodies deem it right and necessary to pursue. It has seemed to me not consistent with the self-respect, or the proper dignity which every reli- gious society owes to itself, and should claim. Eagerness to secure a new member easily becomes a scramble; and com- petition leads to rivalry and that to jealousies and envyings. Personal courtesy is the duty of all to all, and in that I hope we have never, any of us, been lacking ; - never intention- ally so, I am sure. I think it may be true that, in our fear to go too far in offering church hospitality, we may have neg- lected a proper manifestation of it, in some cases, and so have not done our whole duty. Now that we have these commodious and attractive rooms we may feel that we have a Society House, a Church Home, to which we can all ask our neighbors and friends to come; - and that without trenching upon their just liberty, or in any way compromis- ing our own self-respect.
"Another and principal good result of building and furnish- ing this Vestry will be, I hope, a stronger and deeper con-
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viction, on our own part, in our own hearts and consciences, of the positive value of the Unitarian faith; and the Unitarian Church position,- I am sure there is need of this, - not in Leicester alone, but everywhere. Nor is this need peculiar to Unitarians. There is, everywhere, more or less of church- joining and church-going, because it is popular, because personal interest and profit are connected with it. This is det- rimental to genuine faith, and not less to high personal char- acter, and the church which does not cultivate and strengthen these, is doing nothing of lasting worth in any community. The Unitarian position, in casting off all human authority, all ecclesiastical dictation,- in planting itself upon the great foundation of Love to God, and Love of our Neighbor, that is, our fellowmen everywhere, takes the strongest, the high- est ground possible. None can controvert it. It is the very foundation and essence of Christianity; it is the mind of Jesus himself. It is, as Theodore Parker declared, " Abso- lute religion "- the religion which includes and fits mankind everywhere - never to be exceeded, never superseded, never outgrown,- ever more lovely and venerable to the end.
"And there is nothing negative about it, and never was; unless Jesus and Paul and the great benefactors of mankind, the great Reformers of Wrong, have been negative. It is a very positive faith; perfectly intelligible; and a basis upon which all life, all knowledge, all progress, may be built up. Nothing narrow or commonplace about it. It is broad às humanity, and fresh as every new day is, and the new life which comes with the day. It furnishes the implements and tools of our daily work, the humblest or the highest, - and the inspiration to use them. Let us but open our hearts wide
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to its light and its warmth, and our pathway shall glow with its radiance and cheer.
"In a recent sermon to us, Rev. Mr. Seaver spoke of the unusual number of Unitarian men (he might have included women) in public or prominent life, in proportion to their whole number. Recent governors-Ames, Robinson, Green- halge, Wolcott. He might have gone back a little further and found Governor John A. Andrew, 'the great War Governor.' A little further baek and found Governors Levi Lincoln and John Davis and Edward Everett. Two United States Presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, both Unitarians ; and Abraham Lincoln, a student and learner of Theodore Parker.
"To my mind, the fact that the Unitarian body gave to the Anti-Slavery Movement far more distinguished leaders (in proportion) than any other denomination is one of the bright- est of its jewels -Channings, Follen, Ware, Pierpont, Clarke, Furness, Stetson, Theodore Parker, Ames, Hall, Frothing- hams.
"I have wholly avoided speaking this evening of my own ministry-its aims, objects, motives, efforts, and of my work as a preacher and pastor here .- I might properly enough have done so, I suppose, under the subject assigned ; but it did not seem to me the proper occasion, and it would have called for such an addition to my time, as you could surely not have excused. At the end of eleven years I resigned my ministry, because a leading member of the society was strongly, yea violently, opposed to my saying aught about the abomination of American slavery. The society asked me to recall my resignation, even the gentleman in question joining in the
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request, but the opposition on his part continuing, and caus- ing a disturbed feeling, at the end of the twelfth year I renewed the resignation.
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