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 15
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UNITARIANS. Revs. John Bascomb and F. A. Tenny, Unitarian ministers, originated from Gill.
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OF GREENFIELD.
SUMMARY of preachers originating from Gill: Orthodox Congregationalists, 3 ; Methodists, 2 ; Unitarians, 2. Total, 7.
GREENFIELD.
This town was formerly a part of Deerfield, and was in- corporated June 9, 1753. Its population in 1850 was 2580. Six churches have been organized in the town, viz., two Orthodox Congregational, one Baptist, one Episcopal, one Methodist, and one Unitarian.
CONGREGATIONALISTS.
FIRST CHURCH. The first Congregational church in Greenfield was organized at the time of the settlement of the first pastor, which was March 28, 1754. Eleven mem- bers were organized. Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, senior, then of Stockbridge, was on the council to constitute the church.
Meeting-houses. The first house of worship in Greenfield was begun in 1760, but was not finished for many years ; it was for some time without pews or slips. It was located some two miles north of the village, and about two miles east of the present house of worship belonging to the first church and society, and was occupied for religious worship until it was demolished in 1831. The second house of wor- ship belonging to the first Congregational society was built in 1831, and was remodeled in 1852. In the early settle- ment of the town, the people were notified of meetings on the Sabbath and on other days, by the beating of a drum ; and for this service the sexton was paid one year four pounds and ten shillings.
Revivals. In 1817 and 1818, there was some special re- ligious interest, and twenty-nine were added to the church ; in 1831 some cases of hopeful conversion occurred ; and in 1852 ten were added to the church. The early church
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records being lost, it is difficult to ascertain the state of the church in the first part of its history.
Previous to the settlement of the second pastor, about 1760, a call was given to Mr. Bulkley Orcutt to settle as a pastor, but he declined.
The amount given by this church and people to the cause of christian benevolence in 1853 was $143 89. The Sab- bath School in 1852 numbered 85. The number of church members in 1853 was 50. This church the present year is a century old. It has had a settled ministry about eighty- eight years and a half, and has been destitute of the same about eleven years. This church has had five pastors.
PASTORS. 1 .* REV. EDWARD BILLINGS was installed the first pastor of this church, March 28, 1754. Instead of a sermon on such occasions at that period, the charge to the pastor often took its place. Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, senior, then of Stockbridge, the moderator of the council, gave the charge.
In August, 1753, a day was set apart for fasting and prayer in reference to the choice of a pastor, and several of the neighboring ministers were present. A committee was also appointed at another meeting, to take advice of various ministers with respect to inviting Mr. Billings to settle as their minister. The first council for the settlement of Mr. Billings was convened in 1753, and did not install him. On the controverted question of that day relative to qualifications for admission to christian ordinances, Rev. Mr. Ashley, of Deerfield, and Mr. Billings were on opposite sides. Mr. Ashley being invited on the first council took with him three delegates. The other churches sent but one for each church. The people of Greenfield, who called the council, were un- willing that the Deerfield church should have a larger repre- sentation in the council than the other churches. The council was then dissolved ; and another one from a distance was called, that installed Mr. Billings as stated above. The
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doings of those councils were published in a pamphlet at the time, and are still extant.
But little definite information relative to Mr. Billings' his- tory is now accessible. It is supposed, that he lived in early life in Sunderland, and perhaps was born there. He gradu- ated at Harvard in 1731; was settled as pastor at Cold Spring, (now Belchertown) probably about April, 1739, and was dismissed from there in 1752; preached for a time at a place called Nine Partners, N. Y. ; and died while a pastor in Greenfield, not far from 1760; but as there is no church record of that period extant, and as there is no stone to mark the spot where he is buried, the precise date of his death, and his age, cannot be ascertained. In Doolittle's Sketches of Belchertown his death is dated at 1757 ; and in the Cata- logues of Harvard College it is dated at 1760. The settle- ment of his estate in the probate court was closed in August, 1760. He is said to have died suddenly, having preached on the preceding Sabbath. He married Miss Lucy Parsons, a sister of Rev. David Parsons, the first minister of Amherst, in 1741 ; and at a precinct meeting in Belchertown, October, 1741, it was voted, that money should be raised in the next rate to pay the cost of Mr. Billings' wedding. He left four children at his death, whose names were Edward, Ebenezer, Jonathan, and Ethan. His son Edward was once licensed as a preacher, of whom some notice is given in the account of preachers who originated from Greenfield. The " Genea- logical and Historical Register," vol. 2, p. 178, says, that Mr. Billings was " dismissed from Belchertown, by reason of a difference in opinion between him and a majority of the church, as to the qualifications for church membership ; Mr. Billings having embraced the opinions of President Edwards, and the church the opinions of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, on this subject." Doolittle's Sketches of Belchertown say, " Traditionary history imputes to him un- usual energy of character, ardent zeal, and devotedness to the work in which he was engaged." Mr. Billings was the
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minister who visited David Brainard the evening before his death, to whom reference is made in Brainard's Life, p. 344. Mr. Billings was on the councils convened in President Ed- wards' case at Northampton ; and his views coincided with the President's, and he was not in favor of his dismission. Mr. Billings wrote his name without an s, but that letter is now almost invariably added to the name. Some of his descendants are now living in Greenfield. Mr. Billings' re- mains were interred in the old burying ground in Greenfield, and, it is supposed, near the grave of Rev. Dr. Newton, his successor. Of the thirty-six Congregational pastors of churches in Franklin County, who have been buried in the county, the graves of only two, Rev. Mr. McDowell, of Coleraine, and Rev. Mr. Billings, of Greenfield, are without any stone erected, or in progress of erection, to mark the spot. As the date of Mr. Billings' death is not known, the length of his ministry in Greenfield is not definitely known, but was probably about six years.
2 .* REV. ROGER NEWTON, D. D., was constituted the second pastor of this church, Nov. 18, 1761. He was born in Durham, Ct., May 23, 1737 ; graduated at Yale in 1758 ; studied theology with Rev. Mr. Goodrich of Durham, Ct. ; was married to Miss Abigail Hall of Middletown, Ct., in August, 1762 ; was bereaved of his wife by death, Oct. 21, 1805 ; received his Doctorate from Dartmouth in 1805. Dr. Newton had eight children. His daughter Abigail married Rev. Nathaniel Lambert, and his eldest son, Roger, died while a tutor in Yale College, Aug. 10, 1789. Dr. Newton died Dec. 10, 1816, aged 79. Rev. Dr. Lyman of Hatfield preached his funeral sermon. The following is an extract from the obituary notice of Dr. Newton, which was pub- lished in the Greenfield " Franklin Herald," Dec. 24, 1816, and also in the "Panoplist," for April, 1817 : " This ven- erable minister of Christ consecrated himself to his Master's service from his youth. He willingly took the oversight of this people when they were feeble and few in number.
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OF GREENFIELD.
Under his ministry they have greatly increased, and become a numerous and respectable people. His care was to feed them with gospel truth, and to nourish their souls with the great saving doctrines of free sovereign grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. His public discourses were well studied, sound, compact, weighty, and full of useful and important instruc- tion. An attentive and willing hearer could not fail of being profited and made better by his labors. While he had reason to praise God for assisting and blessing him in his ministry, yet for wise purposes, God saw fit to afflict and prove him by some heavy domestic trials and bereavements, under which he was supported and comforted and sanctified to his christian and ministerial work. Like other good men under the chastisement of a Father's rod, 'he shone brightest in affliction's night.' 'Tribulation wrought in him pa- tience, experience, and a hope which maketh not ashamed.' It was the care of his life, to make the providences of God subservient to the improvement of his mind in those minis- terial gifts, which would render him of the greatest use to the people, and to the general interest of the church of Christ. He studied to make himself approved of God, 'a workman who needeth not to be ashamed ; rightly dividing the word of truth, and giving to every man his portion in due season.' A man of uncommon strength of mind, and of discriminating powers, and richly furnished by study and contemplation, he held an eminent rank and station among his brethren in the ministry. Much employed as a counsellor and guide in cases of difficulty and ecclesiastical discipline, his able and pacific labors of love will long be remembered with grati- tude and thanksgiving to God, not only by the people of his charge, but by the professors of Christ in the neighboring churches. A friend to peace, it was his desire and labor ' that brethren should dwell together in unity.' He was a burning and shining light, and blessed be God that we so long rejoiced in his light. Nor was our deceased father less distinguished by his amiable and useful talents in the walks
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of private life. By his discreet and circumspect deportment, the urbanity of his manners, his affectionate and affable con- versation, he never failed of securing the love and esteem of his friends and acquaintances. His social intercourse was both pleasing and profitable, being seasoned with the salt of wisdom and benevolence. It was the fault of those who enjoyed his conversation, if they left him without improve- ment in knowledge and goodness. It was his object, by courtesy and kindness, by prudence and a virtuous example, to cultivate in others those graces, which adorn the social and christian life ; and to enforce on their minds the utility and importance of those practical and doctrinal truths, which he inculcated in his public ministrations. Great was the blessing which this people enjoyed, in having a minister who enforced the precepts and doctrines of Christ, by the living example which was daily set before them. But alas ! from these privileges, both of a public and private nature, a holy God hath now removed them. A bereaved church and con- gregation, and an extensive circle of affectionate friends, as- sociates and acquaintance, are now called to bemoan their loss, and to go to Jesus and tell him their grief, and to pray to him that he would be to them a repairer of this breach and restorer of paths to dwell in. The ministers of Jesus, his professing children, and those who love the prosperity of Zion, will unite their voice and cry after him, 'My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof !' It hath pleased that holy and faithful God, who by his de- cree hath fixed to all men the bounds of their habitation, beyond which they cannot pass, to call off his servant from the trials and labors, the temptations and afflictions, of this empty and transitory life, and, as we hope, to bring him home to himself, to receive the rewards of a faithful servant, and to participate in the nobler employments and joys of a blessed immortality. Our venerable friend, our father and guide, after a few years of gradual decline, and after, to him, a painful period of suspense from his active public labors,
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OF GREENFIELD.
fell asleep, and was gathered to his fathers, in the S0th year of his age, and the 56th year of his ministry."
The following extracts relative to Dr. Newton are taken from " Willard's History of Greenfield :- " His religious char- acter was far from that of the bigot, partisan, or zealot. He possessed great mildness and equanimity of temper and man- ners ; always dignified, and appeared among his people like a kind father among his children. The single circumstance, that the town enjoyed peace and union for nearly the whole period of his ministry, FIFTY-SIX years, is of itself strong evi- dence of his virtue and prudence." "His moderation of manner, conciseness and perspicuity of style; the sound sense of his sermons, and their particular brevity in cold weather, (meeting-houses had no stoves in those days, ) as well as the dignified and venerable form of the good man, are still fresh in the memory of many. Consummate pru- dence, caution and shrewdness were distinguishing traits in his character. His prayers in public worship had much of sameness and formality, yet no one found fault therewith ; they were seldom varied, except on particular occasions, yet he was always pertinent, and on many occasions remarkably so. In his latter days, he very frequently read, for the choir to sing, the Psalm of Watts, commencing,
' Now to the Lord, a noble song,'
the reading of which always affected him to tears."
Many interesting anecdotes are current in the community, illustrative of his prudence, caution, and sagacity. He fur- nished one of the sermons which compose the volume pub- lished by the "Northern Association of Hampshire County." Some of his descendants reside in Greenfield and vicinity. The following is the epitaph on his gravestone, viz. :- " His life was adorned with private and domestic virtues, and dis- tinguished by public and professional usefulness." He had eight children. He owned one slave, called Tenor, at whose funeral the Dr. preached a sermon commendatory of her
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virtues. Dr. Newton's ministry in Greenfield was twenty- two days over fifty-six years.
3. REV. GAMALIEL S. OLDS was settled as the third pastor of this church, Nov. 19, 1813, and the sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Samuel Austin. He was colleague pastor with Dr. Newton about three years, and was dismissed just before the Doctor's death in 1816. The first council, that was called for the settlement of Mr. Olds in Greenfield, met with difficulties in their course, which prevented their proceeding to the settlement of the candidate. Rev. Dr. Willard, who had been settled a few years previously in Deerfield, by a Unitarian council, was invited and took his seat as a member of the council in Greenfield. A portion of the council ob- jected to sitting and acting with him under such circum- stances, on the ground, that they believed him to be funda- mentally heretical in religious sentiments, and that to unite with him in an Ecclesiastical council, would constitute an act of fellowship with him. The council was dissolved without ordaining Mr. Olds. Another council of Orthodox sentiments was soon convened, by whom he was ordained. Mr. Olds was born in Marlboro', Vt., in 1777; graduated at Williams in 1801; was a tutor in that college, from 1803 to 1805; was also a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Phi- losophy in the same college, from 1806 to 1808; was a pro- fessor of the same branches in the Vermont University at Burlington, from 1819 to 1821; was a professor of the same branches in Amherst College, from 1821 to 1825 ; afterwards resided several years at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., and was employed in teaching in several places in New York ; re- moved to Circleville, Ohio, about 1842, where he died. He was dismissed from Greenfield, Oct. 31, 1816, to accept a professorship in Middlebury College ; but some difficulty occurring between him and the President of the College, he did not enter upon the duties of the office. He wrote, and by the advice of Franklin Association, published a " State- ment of Facts " in the case. An account of the peculiar cir-
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OF GREENFIELD.
cumstances attending his settlement in Greenfield, was pub- lished soon afterwards, in connection with an account of the circumstances attending Rev. Dr. Willard's ordination in Deerfield, several years previously, in a series of pamphlets, written by different authors.
Mr. Olds died at Circleville, Ohio, June 13, 1848, in the 71st year of his age. The following obituary of him was published in the New York Observer, which was written by Rev. Milton A. Sackett, who was then a pastor in Circleville and attended his funeral :- " The circumstances attending his death were peculiarly painful and afflictive. On Satur- day, the 3d of June, (1848) he left home for the purpose of supplying one or two vacant churches in the town of Bloom- field, about twelve miles distant from Circleville. There he passed the Sabbath, preaching in two different places, and with an uncommon degree of vigor and unction. On Mon- day morning, in the enjoyment of his usual strength and health, he started for home, and when about a quarter of a mile from the place where he had spent the night, his horse took fright, and starting to the side of the road, threw him from his carriage down a precipitous bank, a distance of ten or twelve feet. Two of his ribs were broken, and he expe- rienced other severe injuries. He was taken to an inn about two miles distant from the place where he was hurt, on the way towards home, and being unable to proceed further, was left there. His wife was sent for, and eminent phy- sicians were immediately called in, but the injury could not be repaired. He lingered in great pain until the 13th, when his peaceful, resigned, and happy spirit parted from his shat- tered tenement, and took its flight to the invisible world.
" Professor Olds was one of the great men of the age in which he lived. From his early manhood up to the merid- ian of his days, he filled a brilliant sphere in the educational and literary history of New England. * In his theolog- ical studies he was a pupil of Dr. West of Stockbridge, Mass., but completed his course at Andover Seminary. He
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was settled for a short period over the Congregational church in Greenfield, Mass. As a preacher, his manner was not attractive, yet his style was beautifully simple, pure, and lucid, and no one could listen to him without being struck with the strength and comprehensiveness of his mind, and the logical accuracy with which he dissected and developed his subject. He was eminently instructive both in preach- ing and conversation, and though his themes as a preacher, were sufficiently diversified, yet you could see shining through every discourse, like beacon lights, the great cardi- nal principles of the christian faith. These lay at the foun- dation of his own rich experience, and he justly appreciated their importance, as constituting the only true and inde- structible foundation of a happy and fruitful experience to the christian church.
" While at Amherst College, his intense application and arduous labors induced disease, which in the end disquali- fied him for continuous and responsible toil. He retired from active life, and for many years has been known only to a comparatively small circle of friends. Yet he has continued to labor, as far as his health and strength would permit, in the cause of his Master, lightening the burdens that rested upon his brethren, by preaching in their stead, and often supply- ing destitute and feeble churches with the ministration of the word and ordinances of the gospel. This labor he has performed, for the most part, without compensation. His last work was of this character. It was that he might preach the gospel of God's grace to the poor and destitute, that he left his beloved companion, and that dear home to which he never returned. But the gospel, which he preached to others, was found to be an adequate solace and stay to his own soul in the trying hour. He felt himself to be the chief of sinners, yet he spake with the deepest interest of the atonement and righteousness of Christ, as being the only and sufficient ground of his hope. He desired no other refuge. Often in his last sickness did he advert to this great doctrine,
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OF GREENFIELD.
and derive from it the most abundant consolation. He was much in prayer, and was frequently heard to say, " The will of the Lord be done." His last hours were serene and peace- ful, and he fell asleep in Christ, in the blessed expectation of having a part in the first resurrection. Thus has been ex- tinguished one of the most gifted and richly stored minds of the age. Its acquisitions were varied and vast, as there was scarcely any department of human knowledge with which it did not seem familiar. But his highest culogy is this, that he was a humble follower and a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus.
" His companion survives, a lonely, stricken widow. She has followed all her children to the grave,-three in infancy and one in the prime of manhood,-and now that her hus- band is taken, the world to her is turned into a dark and desolate wilderness. But this is her joy, that the Lord reigns, and she looks to have her weary pilgrimage terminate ere long in Heaven." The widow of Mr. Olds died in 1851. In 1815 he published a volume of eight sermons on " Epis- copacy and Presbyterian Parity." His ministry in Green- field was about three years.
4. REV. SYLVESTER WOODBRIDGE was settled as fourth pastor of the church, April 23, 1817, and Rev. Dr. John Woodbridge of Hadley, his brother, preached the sermon ; and he was dismissed from there, April 17, 1823. Mr. Wood- bridge was born in Southampton, Nov. 9, 1790 ; graduated at Williams in 1813; studied theology at Andover ; preached in Ashfield and received a call to settle there, but want of unanimity among the people prevented the council, which was convened Jan. 2, 1816, from proceeding to his ordina- tion. After leaving Greenfield he was installed as pastor in Greenville, N. Y., Feb. 16, 1825, and Rev. Dr. Porter of Catskill, N. Y., preached the sermon ; after his dismission from Greenville, about 1831, he labored for seven years as an agent of the American Tract Society ; then labored one year as an agent for the Auburn Theological Seminary ; then
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supplied about six years a church in Westhampton, on Long Island, N. Y .; served two years as an agent for Oakland College, in Mississippi, and was installed as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, La., Dec. 18, 1852, where he still continues.
The farewell sermon he preached at Ashfield, after the failure of the council to ordain him, was published. During his pastorate at Greenville, N. Y., he requested and obtained an ecclesiastical investigation of certain injurious reports respecting his conduct when on a visit at Greenfield ; and the Presbytery, in their result, say, that " the Presbytery were unanimously of the opinion that the aforesaid charges against Mr. Woodbridge have not been sustained." Mr. Woodbridge has four sons in the ministry, viz., Rev. John Woodbridge, at Saratoga Springs, N.Y. ; Rev. Jahleel Wood- bridge, at Baton Rouge, La. ; Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, Jr., at Benicia, California, and Rev. Samuel M. Woodbridge, at New Brunswick, N. J., who was born in Greenfield, and of whom some account is given in the sketch of ministers originating from Greenfield. One of his daughters is the wife of Rev. Charles Beach of Woodville, Miss., at which place the wife of Mr. Woodbridge died, Nov. 19, 1851, aged 63. Mr. Woodbridge's ministry in Greenfield was about six years.
After the dismission of Mr. Woodbridge from Greenfield, in 1823, the church was destitute of a settled pastor till 1832 ; and during a considerable portion of this period the desk was supplied by Rev. Lincoln Ripley of Maine, Rev. Ebenezer Halping of Vermont, and the Revs. Messrs. Pack- ards of Shelburne.
5. REV. AMARIAH CHANDLER, D. D., was installed as the fifth pastor of the church, Oct. 24, 1832, and Rev. Bancroft Fowler preached the sermon. Dr. Chandler was born in Deerfield, Oct. 27, 1782; at about five years of age removed to Shelburne, where he lived till manhood ; graduated at Burlington in 1807; studied theology with Dr. Packard of
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Shelburne ; was ordained as pastor in Waitsfield, Vt., Feb. 7, 1810, and Rev. Elijah Lyman of Brookfield, Vt., preached the sermon ; and he was dismissed from there, Feb. 3, 1830, and then supplied in Hardwick, Vt., till his installation in Greenfield. He received his doctorate from the University of Vermont in 1846. He has published several occasional sermons and addresses. He was a delegate to the Massa- chusetts Convention for the revision of the State Constitu- tion in 1853. He still continues a pastor at Greenfield, in the twenty-second year of his ministry there.
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