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 16
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Of the five pastors of this church, two were dismissed ; two are now living ; and the average length of their pastor- ates in Greenfield was about eighteen years and a half.
SECOND CHURCH. The second Congregational church in Greenfield was organized Jan. 15, 1817, with 45 members. Its first and present Meeting-house was built in 1819; was remodeled in 1843, and materially repaired in 1851. Pre- vious to the erection of their house of worship, this church and society held worship in the court-house, and were sup- plied some time by Rev. Dan Huntington, who was then considered an Orthodox minister. Invitations to settle over this church were given to Rev. Dr. J. A. Albro, Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever, and Rev. O. E. Daggett, who severally declined. The amount given by this church and people to the cause of christian benevolence, in 1853, was $453 22. The Sabbath School, in 1851, numbered 145. The number- of church members in 1853 was 181. A council was called by this church to settle difficulties, in the spring of 1824. This church has been organized thirty-seven years, and has had a settled ministry about twenty-five years, and has been destitute of the same about twelve years. This church has had seven pastors.
PASTORS. 1 .* REV. CHARLES JENKINS Was ordained as the first pastor of this church, May 19, 1820, and was dis- missed from there in July, 1824. Mr. Jenkins was born in Barre, Aug. 28, 1786; graduated at Williams in 1813; was
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a tutor in the same college, from 1816 to 1819; after his dismission from Greenfield, was installed pastor in Portland, Me., Nov. 9, 1825, and the sermon was by Rev. S. E. Dwight. After his graduation, he taught the Academy in Westfield several years ; studied theology in Williamstown ; was licensed in 1819, by the Berkshire Association. In 1824, while a pastor in Greenfield, an Ecclesiastical Council was called to investigate charges brought against him by a part of the people of his parish, chiefly those who were shortly afterwards organized into a Unitarian society in that place ; and Mr. Jenkins was honorably acquitted ; and was soon dismissed according to a mutual agreement between himself and his people.
The American Quarterly Register, vol. 10, p. 270, says of him: " At the time of his death, he was one of the ablest ministers in New England. He possessed an original and extremely fertile mind. With a rich poetical imagination, he invested every subject in beauty and freshness. Some- times, perhaps, he failed in simplicity of style, and in adapt- ing his method of instruction sufficiently to the understand- ings of minds less elevated than his own. He was a powerful extempore speaker, though he chose generally to write out his sermons in full. He had great simplicity of aim and seriousness of manner, and the humility of a little child. He was uncommonly faithful as a preacher, and as a reprover of what he thought was wrong in his brethren. Some of his miscellaneous papers are inserted in the early volumes of the Christian Spectator. He published three sermons on the Sabbath, with Remarks on the Report in Congress on Sabbath Mails, 1830; also a sermon on the el- evated nature of true Piety, in the National Preacher, De- cember, 1831. A small volume of his sermons has been published since his death.
His first wife, who was Miss Ruth Benjamin of Williams- town, died while he was a pastor in Greenfield ; and his second wife was a daughter of Hon. Jonathan Leavitt of
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Greenfield. Mr. Jenkins died while a pastor in Portland, Me., suddenly, of influenza, Dec. 29, 1831, aged 45. His grave is near that of Rev. Dr. Edward Payson's, whose funeral sermon he preached ; and his pyramidal monument very similar to that of Dr. Payson's, on which is this epitaph : "The memory of the just is blessed."
The following is an extract from the obituary notice of Mr. Jenkins, published in the Christian Mirror, and copied into the Boston Recorder :- " We have been called to an- nounce no death since that of the beloved and venerated Payson, with so oppressive a sense of the loss which has been sustained by Congregational ministers and churches in Maine. It is not merely the importance of his location, which gave a wide scope to his influence, nor his agency in the prominent measures for enlightening and saving our pop- ulation and the world, which constitute the severity of the bereavement ; but the kind of influence which he exerted, and the distinguishing characteristics of his mind. In a promiscuous assembly, or a congregation to whom he was a stranger, he was, perhaps, less popular than hundreds of far inferior mental and moral worth; but with his intimate ac- quaintance, and his stated and constant hearers, he deserv- edly stood without any rival.
" His mind was, preeminently, of an original cast. His thoughts were his own-were shaped by his own reflections -were associated in his mind by laws in some respeets pe- culiar to himself, and were exhibited in language of great richness, strength, and beauty. His mind was amazingly fertile. He had no beaten track-no hackneyed topics-no worn out figures-no favorite forms of expression-no ste- reotyped phrases to be scattered through every performance, and by their perpetual recurrence to lull attention and anni- hilate interest. No one was further removed than he, from the too common habit of falling into the same train of thought, and the same method of illustration, whatever were the topic with which he set out. When he raised his voice
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in supplication to the Father of spirits, no fellow-worshipper could anticipate the form or the matter of the next petition. When he named his text, no hearer could anticipate the mode of treatment which it was to receive ; and no one in . the issue had reason to be dissatisfied. The first sentence of the introduction arrested the attention, and put the minds of hearers into a posture of inquiry, from which they were soon relieved by the development of a truth or principle, then evidently involved in the text, but which, till then, not one in ten, probably, had ever recognized. The illustration of this principle was attended in the minds of his auditory with the same process of attention, inquiry, conviction. There was a freshness, an unlooked for range of thought or mode of reasoning, in most of his discourses, which regaled the mind, at the same time that they commended the truth to every man's conscience, and imparted intenser ardor to all the holy affections. Still there was no straining after novelties, or unusual modes of expression. In him was no affectation, no extravagance-all was the spontaneous off- spring of his mental structure and intellectual habits. A rich poetical fancy, with which he was endued, contributed much to that 'infinite variety' of mental resources, which he had ever at command. But the vigor of his intellect was exceeded by no other quality. He seemed adequate to any mental achievement within the range of human possibility. He could seize a subject with a giant's grasp, and especially any appertaining to the philosophy of mind or to his profes- sion, and analyze it with the skill of a master, and point ont its relations and uses with the elearness of light. Though he was a diligent student and composed his sermons with much care, he could yet answer any unexpected call, with- out special preparation. The most powerful efforts, those in which the most overwhelming effects were produced on his auditory, have been, in several instances, those when he spoke on a sudden emergency, when the circumstances of the case have precluded all premeditation. Here too he
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used the same dignified style of utterance, the same ele- vated, bold, striking, select, and forcible language, which characterized his written compositions.
" He had great simplicity of aim ; and seemed determined to know, and to make known, nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. This was the great business which absorbed his soul ; and with so rare a combination of qualities for ex- erting a moral power, no wonder that he was successful, especially as the Lord wrought with him. He was one of those men, who are raised up for the church universally- receiving little except from God, but imparting much in every circle with which he mingled, and particularly to his ministering brethren, by which the prosperity of the church is advanced. This wide reach of his influence was very justly recognized in a sermon by the pastor of a neighboring church, the last Sabbath, who, in allusion to Mr. Jenkins' death, observed: 'A servant of Christ is gone, at whose loss we have cause to exclaim, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. It is doing injustice to no one, to say, that 110 death could have given us reason to feel more deeply af- flicted. His industry shamed the slothfulness of his breth- ren; his unbending integrity was a safeguard to all the measures of the church ; his wisdom kept us from extrava- gances. The gigantic stature of his mind and the singleness of his purpose to serve Christ, gave him irresistible control. An influence is lost, which reached to every interest of the church in this region, reached every professed follower of Christ and every sinner.' There is truth in this testimony, which will yet be felt more deeply. He was a man who could not fail to leave a deep impression on minds that came in contact with his own ; an impression sometimes painful, but always beneficial.
" He possessed the humility of a little child. His noble and majestic form, erect walk, and commanding aspect might have marked him out to a stranger as one of nature's nobility, not to be approached by ordinary men ; but in all
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who enjoyed personal intercourse with him, these feelings of awe and distance yielded to love and confidence. A con- descending benignity, a glowing, hearty benevolence soft- ened or annihilated the more forbidding traits, and exhibited him in the character of a brother, with a heart tremblingly alive to all the tender sympathies appertaining to this rela- tion. He was a man low in his own eyes, 'less than the least of all saints.' Unequivocal evidences of this were con- tinually developing themselves. It is but a few weeks since, that, when sitting on a council for the organization of a church, the candidates having been examined and retired, the moderator inquired of each member of the council, whether he was satisfied with the evidences of experimental piety exhibited by the candidates. When the question came to Mr. Jenkins, he raised his head, which had been reelined in deep reflection, and replied with affeeting solemnity, 'I think it more probable that they will go to heaven, than that I shall.' During the whole process he had evidently been applying to himself the questions and tests of christian ehar- acter, which were brought forward in the course of the ex- amination. The truth is, he had overwhelming views of human guilt, and of his own, as a member of the human family. Besides, his standard of christian character was un- usually elevated.
" He was a faithful preacher. He not only declared the whole counsel of God, but he did it in a manner the most clear and discriminating. His sermons were searching be- yond description. O, how did he unmask the hypocrite, ' disguise himself as he would ;' how rend away the false refuges, beneath which sinners entrench themselves; how trace and expose the windings and deceits of the human heart ; how show transgressors their ways! He brought the torch of truth as it were into the sinner's soul, that he might see his condition and character in the sight of God. Sinners trembled-they often complained, that the preacher was harsh and severe; and finding that there was no peace to
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the wicked in the presence of such a reprover, sometimes left his ministration, by which their consciences were so greatly disturbed, and probably are now in the condition of the man among the tombs, 'seeking rest and finding none.' Christians, too, under his preaching were often brought into doubt of themselves, and led to examine anew the founda- tion of their hope; but on the review they have reason to say, 'Faithful are the wounds of a friend.' * His stabil- ity and uncompromising integrity were as remarkable as any qualities which he exhibited ; and never perhaps has a day risen upon the church of Christ, when these traits in the character of his ambassadors were more desirable." Mr. Jen- kins' ministry in Greenfield was about four years.
2. REV. WILLIAM C. FOWLER was settled as the second pastor of this church, Aug. 31, 1825, and the sermon was preached by Rev. Professor Fitch of Yale College ; and he was dismissed from there, Oct. 24, 1827. Mr. Fowler was born in Killingworth, Ct., in 1793, and passed his early life in Durham, Ct. ; graduated at Yale in 1816; studied theology at New Haven, Ct. ; was a tutor in Yale College, from 1819 to 1823; after leaving Greenfield, was a Professor of Chem- istry and Natural History in Middlebury College, from 1828 to 1838; was a Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Am- herst College, from 1838 to 1843 ; published a work entitled " The English Language in its Elements and Forms ;" was a representative from Amherst to the State Legislature in 1851; visited Europe in 1852; married Mrs. Harriet Web- ster Cobb, daughter of Noah Webster, in 1826, who died in 1844. Mr. Fowler still resides at Amherst. His ministry in Greenfield was about two years.
3. REV. CALEB S. HENRY, D. D., was ordained as the third pastor of this church, Jan. 21, 1829, and the sermon was by Rev. Dr. William B. Sprague ; and he was dismissed from there, Dec. 12, 1831. Dr. Henry was born in Rutland in 1804 ; pursued classical studies for some time at Amherst College, but graduated at Dartmouth in 1825; studied the-
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ology both at Andover and New Haven ; after leaving Greenfield spent about two years at Cambridge ; installed colleague pastor with Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins in West Hartford, Ct., May 12, 1833; dismissed from there in the Spring of 1835 ; in June 1835 was organized as a minister in the Episcopal Church ; from 1835 to 1837 was a professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in Bristol College, Penn. ; from 1838 to 1852 was a professor of the same branches in the New York University, and during this time was for five years assistant minister in the St. Jolin's Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., and for three years was rector of the St. Clement's Church, New York; in 1851 from failure of health retired from public service, and now resides at Oakwood Hill, near Belleville, N. J. His doctorate was conferred upon him by Geneva College in 1838. He has edited several publica- tions, and published various works. His ministry in Green- field was nearly three years.
4. REV. THOMAS BELLOWS was ordained as the fourth pastor of this church, March 12, 1833, and the sermon was by Rev. Dr. Noah Porter of Farmington, Ct .; and he was dismissed from there, Sept. 2, 1834. Mr. Bellows was born in Walpole, N. H., Sept. 23, 1807 ; graduated at Dartmouth in 1827 ; studied theology at Andover and New Haven ; after leaving Greenfield preached a year and a half at Lunenburg ; and since then has been engaged in agricultural pursuits in Walpole, N. H., where he still resides. Mr. Bellows was never married. His ministry in Greenfield was about one year and a half.
5 .* REV. SAMUEL WASHBURN Was settled as the fifth pastor of this church, Aug. 2, 1837, and the sermon was by Rev. Dr. John Todd ; and he was dismissed from there, Nov. 23, 1841. Mr. Washburn was born in Minot, Me., Jan. 1, 1807 ; and lived for a short time in Connecticut, and New York city, but returned at six years of age to his former home. He pursued classical studies at the Academies in Hebron and Gorham, Me. He began his studies with reference chiefly
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to the profession of the law. In 1826 he hopefully experi- enced religion, and turned his attention at once to the ministry. He never graduated at any college, but received an honorary A. M. from Amherst College in 1839. He pur- sued theological studies at Princeton and at Andover. He was licensed by the Andover Association, in April, 1832; preached for a time in Amesbury and Salisbury, and Essex Street Church, Boston. A hæmorrhage of the lungs induced him to spend the winter of 1833-4 in the South and South- west. In 1834, he preached some in Philadelphia, New York, Norwich, and New Haven, and again bled at the lungs. In 1835, he labored in the service of the American Sunday School Union, and gathered a Congregational church in Philadelphia. On the 10th of July, 1835, he married Miss Hannah J. Marland of Andover, who died, March 23, 1845. While a pastor at Greenfield, returning ill health constrained him to seek a release from pastoral labor, and to try the effect of a voyage across the ocean. His dismission from Greenfield took place by the agency of an Ecclesiastical Council after he had entered upon this voyage.
Mr. Washburn died in the city of New York, Sept. 15, 1853, in his 47th year. A discourse was preached on the occasion of his death, at Baltimore, Md., Oct. 9, 1853, by his friend and fellow-student, Rev. Dr. Edwin F. Hatfield of New York, which was published, and from which the following extract is taken, viz. :-
" A visit to Europe having been advised for his restoration to health, he left his native land in October, 1841, and re- mained abroad until June, 1842. The results of his inqui- ries and observations were given to the public in a series of communications, published in the 'New-England Puritan.' On his return he entered into the service of the Foreign Evangelical Society, and became for a short season a resident of the city of New York. Another visit was made to Europe, in company with his wife, in April, 1843. They returned in the following August, with his own health much im-
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proved. After his return, he preached at Nantucket for a few Sabbaths, and then accepted a call from the Central Congregational Church of Fall River, Mass., where he was installed April 26th, 1844. His venerable father died in October of the same year; and, on the 23d of March, 1845, it pleased God to sunder the happy bonds of matri- monial fellowship, by the removal, after a lingering and pain- ful illness, to a better world, of her whose love had shed so much light on his pathway through this present world. Thus bereaved and desolate, he struggled on through a ministry extending over a period of five years, honored and beloved by his people, exerting a wide and happy influence over the young especially, and highly respected beyond the bounds of his own congregation ; when he was constrained to seek a dismission from his pastoral charge.
" For a period of about two years, he continued to preach without any particular charge, supplying the pulpits of his brethren in the cities of New York, Brooklyn, New Haven, and Norwich, and in several other places, principally in New England, wherever the hand of Providence conducted him, finding in the meantime a welcome home, in the intervals of service, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Jacob Bell, in the city of New York.
"In June, 1851, having declined very urgent calls to at least two other churches in New York city, he accepted an invitation to become the associate of the Rev. James G. Hamner, D.D., in the pastoral charge of the Fifth Presby- terian Church of the city of Baltimore, Md., and was in- stalled by the Presbytery of the District of Columbia, Nov. 2, 1851. By the resignation of Dr. Hamner, Aug. 8, 1852, he remained the sole pastor of the church. Here-as you, beloved, so well know-he accomplished a great and ardu- ous work. He secured the confidence of the whole congre- gation ; drew around him a devoted band of admiring friends ; by a judicious, prudent, and persevering system of measures, in which he was generously sustained, procured a large re-
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duction of the indebtedness of the society ; united the vari- ous shades of opinion in the congregation together, and snc- ceeded in the banishment of the spirit of contention and jealousy ; while by his pulpit ministrations he attracted many to the house of worship, and commended himself 'to every man's conscience in the sight of God,' winning some to the obedience of the truth, and commanding the respect of all. Already had he acquired a high reputation as a citizen, a christian, a scholar, a preacher, and a pastor, among all classes and denominations in the Monumental City. They had learned greatly to respect him, and highly to prize him as a distinguished ornament to their ministry. Seldom has a ministry of two short years accomplished so much, and so perfectly united a people in their pastor.
" The deep and ardent affection of his congregation found a most painful expression, when it pleased God to visit him, on Thursday, the twelfth day of May last, with a suffusion of blood upon the brain, consequent upon an affection of the heart. During the three or four days of unconsciousness which ensued, the city seemed to be moved with apprehen- sion of an approaching disaster. Pastors and their people expressed their united sympathy in terms of genuine friend- ship, that aided much in his temporary restoration.
But his disease was of a nature not to be trifled with. The entire suspension of his labors was imperiously demanded, and the absence for a considerable period of all mental ex- citement. He left his home in June, to return to it no more. A brief visit to New York, Boston, and Sharon Springs, ap- peared to be of at least temporary benefit to his health. He made his arrangements to return to Baltimore about the last of June for a short visit ; and was on his way, when he heard, in the city of New York, of the sudden and most afflictive decease at Boston of his brother's youthful wife, whom he had learned, on his recent visit there especially, greatly to admire and love. The shock was a severe trial to his health. He changed his course, and accompanied his sister to Boston
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on the mournful errand of sympathy and affection. It was more than his system could bear. Again his brain reeled, and prostration ensued. He recovered sufficiently to return to the city of New York, and then to repeat his visit to Sharon Springs, where he arrived on the 5th of July. On the 12th he was again, and with still greater severity, struck down by the fatal disorder which had seized upon him. Friends hastened to him, and watched for weeks by his side, during the long and alarming paroxysms of the disease.
" He had so far recovered on the first week of August, as to be able to retrace liis steps, with his sister, who had not left him for three weeks, and to reach, on the first of the month, the beautiful residence of Samuel E. Lyon, Esq., at White Plains, N. Y., where his city friends were spending the summer season. With the exception of a short visit to Long Branch, N. J., where he had a repetition of paralysis, he remained at White Plains until the morning of the 9th of September. On the 9th of August it was my mournful priv- ilege to spend a few hours with him in his quiet rural retreat, and to witness the change that had already taken place in his noble mind. I found him perfectly conscious of his con- dition, and deeply saddened by it. He spoke of his inca- pacity of mental action with deep emotion. He could scarcely endure the thought of being continued for months and years in a state of intellectual imbecility. He would speak of it at times as filling him with horror. The thought of death was pleasant. He had no fears of dying. He re- lied fully and hopefully on the Saviour. He rather wished and longed for death. 'If it please God,' he said to his sister a few days previous to his last attack, 'to subject me to another such visitation, I pray God that he would take me to himself.'
" Feeble, however, as he was, and unable to take sufficient care of himself, it was remarkable that he could not shake off the care of his beloved church. Again and again did he consult with myself for their supply, when we met repeat-
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edly at my own house at New York, in June. And when I saw him at White Plains, still all his thoughts appeared to run in that channel. We took counsel together in their be- half. 'If I could only see them well cared for, and provided with a suitable pastor, I should be satisfied,' he observed. It appeared to be almost his only care. A Sabbath or two be- fore his last attack, in conversation about his future prospects, after a short pause, he observed : 'If I only had some one to gather the lambs of the flock together, and keep the sheep from being scattered !' In the midst of the stupor of his last illness, when he seemed to be lying perfectly unconscious, the word 'Baltimore,' casually pronounced, instantly aroused him. His last thoughts apparently were of you, his beloved people.
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