USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > History of the churches and ministers, and of Franklin association, in Franklin County, Mass., and an appendix respecting the county > Part 11
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Rev. Sylvester Hovey went to Conway to live in 1805, at eight years of age, and died in Hartford, Ct., May 6, 1840, aged 43. He had been a professor in several colleges. Rev. Daniel Rice was born in Conway, but, as he removed in early life to Charlemont, he is noticed in the account given of the ministers originating from that town. Mr. William F. Avery and Mr. Augustine Root of Conway, are pursuing theological studies at Andover, preparatory to the ministry.
Of the sixteen Congregational preachers, who are here reckoned as the sons of Conway, eleven were born in the town ; eleven were graduates ; twelve have either been pas- tors or have been ordained ; one is a Foreign Missionary ; and ten are now living.
OTHER DENOMINATIONS.
BAPTISTS. The Baptist church in Conway was consti- tuted in 1788, and dissolved in 1819, and reorganized in 1820, and the number of members in 1853, was 110. Among the preachers who have supplied this church, are Revs. Adam Hamilton, Amos Shevi, John Leland, Asa Todd, Calvin Keyes, Josiah Goddard, Mr. Himes, Mr. Grant,
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Phineas Pease, Abbott Howe, William H. Rice, David Wright, Henry H. Rouse, Joel Kenney, P. P. Sanderson, Richard Lentil, C. A. Buckbee, M. Byrne, and Phineas Pease in 1853. The following Baptist ministers originated from Conway, viz., Revs. Josiah Goddard, Foster Hartwell, Calvin Keyes, and Edmund H. Smith.
EPISCOPALIANS. Rev. John Avery, of this order, originated from Conway.
METHODISTS. A Methodist class was formed, May 18, 1852, and was reorganized in September, 1853, and now has 17 members. They have been supplied by Revs. William F. Lacount and A. S. Flagg in 1853. One Methodist min- ister, Rev. Increase B. Bigelow, originated from Conway.
UNITARIANS. Rev. Luther Hamilton, of this denomina- tion, was born in Conway. He once belonged to the Ortho- dox church in that town.
UNIVERSALISTS. Revs. Otis W. Bacon and W. Wilcox, Universalist preachers, originated from this town.
SUMMARY of Preachers originating from Conway : Ortho- dox Congregationalists, 16; Baptists, 4; Episcopalians, 1 ; Methodists, 1; Unitarians, 1; Universalists, 2. Total, 25.
DEERFIELD.
The Indian name of this town was Pocomptuck, and it began to be settled by white people about 1670, and was incorporated May 24, 1682. It began to be inhabited before any other town in the County, and has been the scene of dreadful slaughter by the Indians. The population in 1850 was 2421. Within the limits of the township six churches have been organized, viz., four Congregational, one Baptist, and one Methodist.
ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONALISTS.
FIRST CHURCH. The first Congregational church in Deer- field was probably organized not far from the time of the
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settlement of the first pastor, in 1686, but the exact period of its formation cannot be ascertained, as the early church records are not to be found. So far as can be learned, the building of the second house of worship was commenced about 1693; and October, 1696, it was " voted that the rules for seating the Meeting-house be age, estate, and dignity ;" the next house was built in 1729 ; and the present one was erected in 1824. Between 1696 and 1708 this church received from the General Court £110 for the support of the gospel. This church became Unitarian in the early part of the present century. While it maintained its Orthodox character three pastors were settled over it. In the 121 years since the probable period of its organization till the settlement of its first Unitarian pastor, it had settled pastors about 110 years.
PASTORS. 1 .* REV. JOHN WILLIAMS was the first pastor ordained in the county ; and it is supposed that he was settled over this church May 17, 1686. He was born in Roxbury, Dec. 16, 1664; was the grandson of Robert Williams, who came from Norwich, England, to Roxbury in 1638, and from whom all the families of Williams, in this part of the country, are supposed to have originated. He graduated at Harvard in 1683. The following account of his captivity, at the capture of Deerfield, is taken from the American Quarterly Register, vol. 10, p. 268 : "On the morning of Feb. 29, 1704, the town was attacked by 200 French and 142 Indians, from Canada, the people being almost wholly unguarded. The snow was four feet deep on the ground. Mr. Williams' house was entered. Two in- fant children and a black domestic were murdered. Him- self, his wife, and five children were taken prisoners. The number of prisoners taken in Deerfield was 112. The num- ber killed was 47. The enemy lost about the same number. The distance to Canada was 300 miles. Mrs. Williams, being unable to travel, was tomahawked. She was a daugh- ter of Rev. Eleazer Mather of Northampton. On the 25th
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of March, Mr. Williams reached Chamblee, 15 miles from Montreal. In 1706 he was redeemed, and, with 57 of the captives, returned down the St. Lawrence to Boston, which town they reached on the 21st of November. Among those who returned were two of his children. The others were also redeemed, with the exception of his daughter Eunice, who remained in Canada. Mr. Williams did not return im- mediately to Deerfield. On the 30th of November the town chose nine commissioners to proceed to Boston and treat with Mr. Williams for his resettlement. He accepted the call, though the war still continued with unabated fury. On the the 9th of January, 1707, the town agreed to build him a house, 'as big as Ensign Sheldon's, and a back room as big as may be thought convenient.' "
The following is an extract from Mr. Williams' " Re- deemed Captive" : "They came to my house in the begin- ning of the onset, and, by their violent endeavors to break open doors and windows with axes and hatchets, awaked me out of sleep ; on which I leaped out of bed, and running towards the door, perceived the enemy making their entrance into the house. I called to awaken two soldiers in the chamber, and turning toward my bedside for my arms, the enemy immediately broke into the room, I judge to the number of twenty, with painted faces and hideous acclama- tions. I reached up my hands to the bed-tester for my pistol, uttering a short petition to God for everlasting mer- cies for me and mine, on account of the merits of our glori- fied Redeemer ; expecting a present passage through the valley of the shadow of death ; saying in myself, as Isaiah, iii. 10, 11, ' I said, in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave : I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living : I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.' Taking down my pistol, I cocked it, and put it to the breast of the first Indian that came up ; but my pistol missing fire I was seized by three
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Indians, who disarmed me and bound me, naked as I was, in my shirt, and so I stood for near the space of an hour. Binding me, they told me they would carry me to Quebec. *
" I cannot relate the distressing care I had for my dear wife, who had lain in but a few weeks before ; and for my poor children, family and christian neighbors. The enemy fell to rifling the house, and entered in great numbers into every room. I begged of God to remember mercy in the midst of judgment ; that he would so far restrain their wrath as to prevent their murdering of us; that we might have grace to glorify his name, whether in life or death ; and, as I was able, committed our state to God."
Allen's Biographical Dictionary says of him : " At length, after witnessing the most agonizing scenes during a journey of three hundred miles, Mr. Williams arrived in Canada. Here new trials awaited him, for every exertion was made to convert this heretic to Popery. His Indian master, after seeing the inefficacy of other methods, lifted his hatchet over the head of his prisoner, and threatened to bury it in his brains if he did not instantly cross himself and kiss a crucifix ; but Mr. Williams was governed by too elevated principles to be made to violate conscience from regard to his life."
A note in Holmes' American Annals says : "One of his daughters [Eunice] became assimilated to the Indians, to one of whom she was afterwards married. No solicitations could prevail with her to leave her family, or to renounce the Ro- man Catholic religion, which was, with much artifice, instilled into her mind, at an age and in circumstances favorable to the seduction. She repeatedly visited her relations in New England ; but she uniformly persisted in wearing her blan- ket and counting her beads."
After his return from captivity he married his second wife, Miss Abigail Allen of Windsor, Ct. Three of his sons became ministers of the gospel, viz., Eleazer, Stephen, and
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Warham ; the last two of these were carried into captivity with their father. Eleazer was a pastor in Mansfield, Ct. ; Stephen was a pastor at Springfield, (now Longmeadow) ; and Warham was a pastor at Watertown, (now Waltham ). Two of his daughters married ministers. Four of his grand- sons were ministers ; and eight of his grand-daughters mar- ried ministers. Rev. Eleazer Williams, an Episcopal minister at Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been represented by some as being the Dauphin, the son of Louis the Sixteenth, late king of France ; but it appears more probable that he is the grandson of Eunice Williams, and the great-grandson of Rev. John Williams of Deerfield.
Mr. Williams published several works besides the " Re- deemed Captive," and preached the Convention sermon at Boston in 1728. He died while a pastor at Deerfield with the apoplexy, June 12, 1729, aged 64, and in the forty-fourth year of his ministry. Rev. Isaac Chauncey of Hadley preached his funeral sermon.
The Boston News Letter contained the following biograph- ical notice of him, viz. : " God, who first sent him to us, and inclined his heart to settle with us in our small beginnings, hath made him a great blessing unto us. His heart was engaged in his work, and [he] was abundant in his labors, both in season and out of season ; plainly, faithfully, and frequently warning, urging, and entreating both elder and younger unto piety and perseverance in it. He was much in prayer, and singularly gifted in it. We hope through grace he has left many seals of his ministry among us. The divine Providence which fixed his post in one of the frontier towns of the Province, fitted him for it by giving him patience and cheerfulness of spirit, so that he was won- derfully carried through all the difficulties, distractions and dangers that he encountered. And his prayers, counsel and example did not a little contribute to the support and en- couragement of his people from time to time."
Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson thus describes him : "The
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character of Mr. Williams was extensively known, and held in high estimation, as may be learned, aside from other respectful attentions, by his appointment to preach to a general Convention of the clergymen of Massachusetts, at Boston. He is represented by his contemporaries, who have witnessed his efforts before the most enlightened and power- ful auditories in the Province, as a powerful and affecting preacher. He is also commended for his domestic virtues, his eminent piety, humility, sincerity and goodness of heart. His voluntary abandonment of the scenes of his beloved nativity, secure from the incursions of the savages, to settle in a frontier place, perpetually exposed to their depredations, where personal safety, so indispensable to other enjoyments, was for many years a stranger to their habitations ; and his return to the work of the ministry, subject to the same dangers, after the complicated afflictions of his captivity, evince his ardent love for the people of his care, and testify that he was animated with the spirit of a martyr in the ad- vancement of the gospel. It is impossible to peruse his interesting narrative of the destruction of Deerfield, and the slaughter and captivity of its inhabitants, in the suffering in which he so largely participated, without being inspired with a respect for his talents and piety, and an admiration of that unexampled fortitude which could sustain him under private calamities such as rarely happen to man, and a view of public desolations, similar, though less extended, to those apostrophized by the mournful son of Hilkiah. But a holy resignation to the Supreme Disposer of events was the balm of every sorrow. His path was lighted by a hope that looks beyond this transient scene. He was redeemed from the flames, passed through the wilderness and sea of dangers, and, as we trust, reached a temple eternal in the heavens." The length of Mr. Williams' ministry in Deerfield, includ- ing the two years of his absence in Canada, was abont forty- three years.
During Mr. Williams' absence in Canada a Mr. Choate
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preached for this people ; and, after Mr. Williams' death, the pulpit was supplied for a time by Revs. Benjamin Pier- point, John Warren, and James Chandler, all three of whom were invited to settle, but declined.
2 .* REV. JONATHAN ASHLEY was the second pastor of this church, and was ordained, Nov. 8, 1732, and the sermon was by Rev. William Williams of Hatfield, and was published. Mr. Ashley was born in Westfield about 1712, and was a descendant of Robert Ashley, who came from England and settled in Springfield in 1639, and was a relative, probably a cousin, of Rev. Joseph Ashley, once a pastor in Sunderland. He graduated at Yale in 1730. In the controversy respect- ing the qualifications for church membership that was prevalent in the country during his ministry, he was in opposition to President Edwards, and, after the president's: dismission, preached by request on the subject in North- ampton, and the discourse was published. In the war of the revolution he was inclined to favor the cause of the British, and occasionally introduced politics into his ser- mons. According to tradition, when he was once preach- ing in Greenfield, and discoursed in the morning too favorably in behalf of American toryism to suit the people, the meet- ing-house was fastened up in the afternoon, and he was prevented from preaching. He afterwards preached in his own pulpit in Deerfield concerning the doom of those Ameri- cans who had fallen at Lexington, as being fearful in the future world; and, on the next Sabbath, when he attempted to enter the pulpit, he found it firmly fastened up with spikes. Requesting a deacon present, who was a black- smith, to unfasten the pulpit, the deacon gravely replied that he did not use his tools on the Sabbath. Mr. Ashley then sent for an axe or maul, and split down the door of the pulpit before the eyes of the congregation, and held the service. An intelligent Deerfield correspondent says of him :: " He would send for the young men to his study and ad- monish them for their roguish tricks. The boys believed.
17
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he had transcendental powers, for their more private and secret transactions seemed to be known to him. He sent for two boys on one occasion and told them to bring their CARDS ; and, after severely reprimanding them, ordered them to burn their cards, and to throw them into the fire in his presence." He refused to act in the council for settling Rev. John Ballantine in Westfield, in 1741, because the churches invited were not named in the letters missive. Rev. John Taylor, his successor, says of him : " Mr. Ashley had a discriminating mind, independence of feeling, and was a pungent and energetic preacher." Allen's Biographical Dictionary thus speaks of him : " He possessed a strong and discerning mind, and lively imagination, and was a pungent and energetic preacher. He proclaimed the doctrines of grace with a pathos which was the effect not merely of his assent to their divine authority, but of a deep sense and lively view of their importance and excellency." The American Quarterly Register says : " Mr. Ashley is said to have been a man of ready talents, and many of his sermons in the latter part of his life were delivered from very com- pendious notes." During his ministry of forty-eight years at Deerfield, he officiated in 249 marriages, and 1,009 bap- tisms. A citizen of Deerfield gives this account of him : " Mr. Ashley was a tall, well proportioned, venerable looking man, ranking in biblical knowledge and theology next to President Edwards. His Sunday exercises were unusually long and wearisome. He commenced without an introduc- tory prayer, and the congregation sung but once in the morning. They assembled at ten, and the clock would often strike eleven before his prayer was finished. He would then take his Bible, read his text, lay it aside, and looking straight forward, neither to the right nor to the left, address his congregation till the clock struck twelve." On account of the dissatisfaction among his people with his politics, they refused for several years, contrary to their agreement, to procure for him his firewood. A council was
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called and was held ten days. John Trumbull, the histo- rian, advocated the case of the people. During the session of this council occurred the dark day, May 19, 1780. Mr. Ashley was sick at this time, and the sickness proved to be his last. He died pastor of the church, Aug. 28, 1780, aged 68. Rev. David Parsons, Sen., of Amherst, preached his funeral sermon. The following is the epitaph on his grave- stone : " Leaving a name dear to his friends and acquaintance for his social and pleasing deportment, and particularly for his zeal in the cause of Christianity, which, united with superior knowledge, and a ready utterance of moral and divine truths, rendered him a shining light in the station where God had placed him." The length of his ministry in Deerfield was nearly forty-eight years.
Between the pastorates of Mr. Ashley and his next suc- cessor, Rev. Samuel Goodrich was invited to settle, but declined.
3 .* REV. JOHN TAYLOR was the third pastor, and was ordained Feb. 14, 1787, and was dismissed on account of ill health and a failure of his voice, Aug. 6, 1806. He was born in Westfield, Dec. 23, 1762. He was the fourteenth child of Hon. Eldad Taylor, who was the fourteenth child of Rev. Edward Taylor, who came from England in 1668, and was the first minister, and for a time the only physician in Westfield, and was guided in his first journey to the place by marked trees. Rev. John Taylor graduated at Yale in 1784, and studied theology with Rev. Mr. Atwater of Westfield. In 1802 he performed a few months of missionary service under the Hampshire Missionary Society, in the Black River country, N. Y. The instructive missionary journal which he kept has been incorporated into the documentary history of New York. In 1807, one year after his dismission from Deerfield, he removed to Enfield, Ct., and engaged in agri- culture, and was often elected to represent the town in the State Legislature, and as health improved he preached oc- casionally, and received one invitation to settle. In 1817
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he removed to Mendon, N. Y., supplied the destitute settle- ments around him with preaching, and was an efficient agent in organizing numerous Congregational churches, and was invited to settle at Canandaigua, N. Y. He removed to Bruce, Michigan, in 1832, where he preached and labored till his death. One of his sons thus speaks of him, in reference to his residence in Michigan : " Although he had attained to three score years and ten, when he first entered upon the work allotted to him in that rude wilderness, he preached to his little congregation for eight years with scarce a single intermission from bodily weakness or ill-health ; and his intellectual powers seemed in no degree to suffer decay on account of his advancing years. In 1835 he wrote to one of his children, 'I assure you our days in our old age are spent happily. My health is good, although I feel more and more the debility of old age. I am able to preach regularly, and am much encouraged by having an excellent church of about thirty members, and a constant and attentive audience.' In 1838 he wrote, 'I send you the Michigan Observer, in which you will find some of my ideas respecting slavery. I know not how you view this agitating subject, but I think I fore- see consequences that are alarming. The question of slavery is, and must be agitated, be the consequences what they may. There is no national sin (except, perhaps, our treatment of the Indian tribes) of equal magnitude with this. We have had for four or five weeks a most powerful and wonderful work of God going on among us. It began in a protracted meeting in Romeo. * * * After which we kept up the meeting in our school-house, and all the people, Deists, Universalists, scoffers, &c., except about eight or ten, are rejoicing in the Lord. This has been the most remarka- ble display of grace I have ever witnessed.' * There were two causes, dear to humanity, which deeply engaged his sympathies while he lived in Michigan, Temperance and Human Freedom ; and although his great age might have been pleaded with justice as a reason for exemption from all
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extra labors, intellectual or physical, yet, when his assist- ance was solicited, he made no such plea, but was always ready to render his aid in the promotion of those humane and benevolent enterprizes. Copies of his addresses were often secured for the press, and had a large circulation. The vigor of his mind remained in a high degree unim- paired to the last."
He died with the apoplexy, after lingering in an unconscious state one week, Dec. 20, 1840, lacking three days of being 78 years old. He published a discourse, which he preached on the centennial anniversary of the destruction of Deer- field by the French and Indians in 1704; and also published in the Greenfield paper a lucid account of that strange sect in Leyden called Dorrelites. He married Miss Elizabeth Terry of Enfield, Ct., by whom he had eleven children, seven of whom lived to adult years, only three of whom are now living. All his children, who lived to reach manhood, and fourteen of his thirty grandchildren, have either died in the faith of the gospel, or are members of evangelical churches. His descendants are scattered abroad in Con- necticut, New York, Michigan, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and California.
The following article, relative to Mr. Taylor, was fur- nished for the " Ladies' Repository," Cincinnati, Ohio, by Rev. Resin Sapp, a circuit preacher of the Methodist denomination :
" The fully Ripe."
" Observe his awful portrait and admire ; Nor stop at wonder : imitate and live."
" On a lowering and murky Saturday evening in Decem- ber, my horse stopped at the residence of an aged Congrega- tional minister, who resided in the neighborhood of one of my regular Sabbath appointments, in the northern part of Michi- gan. I gently tapped at the door, having my portmanteau
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resting on my left arm. I was immediately ushered in by the amiable hostess of the house, the daughter-in-law of the old gentleman, by whom I was introduced to him. I found him to be,
' An aged man, a man of cares,
. Wrinkled and curved, and white with hoary hairs.'
" He had transcended the period allotted to the children of men, as pilgrims on earth ; and to be released from the buzz of the world had taken up his residence in a quiet and peace- ful neighborhood, waiting the call of his Master to enter the upper sanctuary. His features were those of an aged pil- grim. I was reminded of Abraham, the friend of God, and of Israel, ready to gather up his feet and depart. The old gen- tleman had accompanied his son to this country eight or ten years ago, and had since then gathered around him a small but interesting flock, consisting principally of Scotch Pres- byterians, and his own countrymen, New Englanders. To these he ministered each succeeding Sabbath the treasures of the gospel from his well-stored and deeply pious mind. I had not been in his company long, before I found myself sitting at the feet of a teacher, who in his conversation was remarkably interesting and instructive. He had been edu- cated in one of the New England colleges, expressly for the ministry, and this was the fifty-third year of his attendance at the altar. It was like talking to past ages. He had been a close observer of transpiring events. He spake of religion as it existed sixty years since in the land of steady habits, and of the wonderful changes which had come over the face of things since that period. He vividly described the prog- ress of the French infidelity, and the danger which many supposed religion was in, of receiving a final overthrow. He said, 'I am truly astonished at the contrast presented between the sermons written in those days, and those written after the storm had subsided.' He then adverted to the rapid rise and immediate succession of Unitarianism, which had made
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