USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Berlin > History of the parish and town of berlin [Mass.] > Part 3
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wife had walked to meeting together until they approached the Common, and there they parted. His wife went to the New Church, while he went to the Old House, the house of his fathers. Now she was about to come back to him, and he admitted he had changed his principles. Truly said, "once a man and twice a child." He did not turn his coat, but pulled off the old and put on a new one, and it did not re- quire a very shrewd Yankee to guess where he got it. But Mr. Adams was installed. During the ceremonies another patch of plastering fell from under the church tower ; but this time it did not all strike the floor. A part of it struck the bass-viol which was leaning against the window-stool. It made a different sound from that which fell when Mr. Walcut was ordained. There were two "Cry outs," one of the walls, and one of the viol ; but the old heads were not listening probably, for if they were they did not repeat in the presence of the poll-parrots ; for the poll-parrots did not repeat, "The walls cried out, Ha! Ha ! Ha! Ha!" But Mr. Adams was installed nevertheless.
What was done afterward in the Church and Sabbath- school, I do not know. Whether the old members of the Church who had run away some years before without certifi- cates of recommendation to any other Church returned again without letters of recommendation, I do not know.
I did not belong to the Church or meddle with their business, but I was Superintendent of the Sabbath-school, chosen by the unanimous vote of the school and teachers, and had served in that place six months or more. I was first to propose a re-union, and by my influence, coupled with that of others, the re-union was brought about ; but they had got a new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph. They never knew me afterwards. I never resigned that office, and have not to this day. How they could have superseded me I cannot see, but I was informed that they organized a
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Sabbath-school, but never knew from any personal knowledge. I was anxious for a re-union, but supposed we were dealing with honest people ; but I had not studied Logic enough. I did then see that men could not, " Gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles." They had been taught that there was no merit in men, but only in the Savior. We had just what they had been taught. They could neither be honorable nor honest ; that would not serve their purpose. They seized what they could get and kept what they got, as the sequel will tell.
After the installation and other matters were accomplished, a Parish meeting was called, and one article in the warrant was, "To see how the Minister's salary should be raised." A motion was made to raise it by subscription. That was voted down : instantly uprose twenty or more of the old parish- ioners, with pieces of paper in their hands. I saw in an in- stant the danger and sprang to my feet to tell them what they were doing. The next instant I saw if I did it would set the house on fire. I looked across the house at their trusted leader and counsellor. He sat with his arms on the bench as motionless as a statue. I looked at his hands to see if he had a paper ; he had none. Had he counseled them? I turned back and looked at the clerk, he had re- ceived their certificates and they had committed suicide. They had ceased to be members of the Parish, and had thrown away their right in the meeting-house. They could not come back again without a majority vote of the remain- ing members, and the majority then was in the returned members.
I had intended to hold them to good behavior as we had a majority vote, but their dishonesty in drumming up recruits, and the unwitting defection of the old members, threw the balance into the other scale. They then had everything their own way. When they first left it was a Town Society, when
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they came back it was a Unitarian Parish. It had been or- ganized as such two or three years before by persons enroll- ing their names in a book purporting to be the " Parish Roll of Membership," the Parish having adopted that mode of admitting members. By signing that book they became legal members of the Unitarian Parish.
And what are they to-day? Have they reorganized, or are they the same Unitarian Parish? They went on very independently ; they occupied the town's meeting-house, built on a common given to the citizens of Bolton by deed of gift from Samuel Jones. It was aliened them and warranted and defended to them, their heirs and assigns forever. They committed a trespass upon the town's common by setting a lot of Rock Maple trees in geometrical form across the common, in front of the meeting house, obstructing it, thereby, from uses to which it had been appropriated, and also producing a disagreeable aspect.
A few of the trees at one angle were in the public way. Johnathan D. Merriam, Esq., being Highway Surveyor, re- moved them. They had hated him for years, he having been an obstacle to the accomplishment of their many de- signs. He was a general counsellor in Town and Parish affairs. They now found an opportunity to make an attrck upon him. They prosecuted him under the law for willfully mutilating public shade trees. The old man was known to shed tears under the persecution. He was tried and acquit- ted, he having the right as Highway Surveyor to remove them. The rest of the trees remained for a while, much to the disgust of many of the citizens, they objecting to the Parish placing obstructions upon the town's property. But they waked up one fine morning in the midst of mingled joy and consternation ; all the trees except those beside the County way were lying on the ground. They had been sawed off close to the ground, and who was the culprit?
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They measured footprints to try to find out who made them. One man was flatly accused of doing the deed, much to his own disgust. At last the culprit was found. He was a man the least to be suspected. He borrowed a saw, and told what he was going to do with it, and was thus found out. He was prosecuted and paid the penalty in the county-house. It was one of those cases where the Lord brings good out of evil. He violated the law and paid the penalty ; but the deed was productive of more good than any other individual act that I know of being done in Berlin.
It will have been observed that I raise the question,- What is the true name of the present Parish? Will their assumption change their name without a formal organization ? It was said in the latter part of Dr. Puffer's ministry, that the old ministers who participated in his ordination had changed their principles. They protested that they had not changed. Let us see by some acts which did take place.
There used to be two companies in town who had each their association of individuals, and they held their social dances, then called balls. They were styled the old compa- ny and the young company. I heard one of the old com- pany say, that at one of their balls, held at the tavern hall, they proposed to invite Dr. Puffer to take supper with them. Edward' Johnson was delegated to bear the invitation. The invitation was accepted, and he returned accompanied by Dr. Puffer, and he sat with them at their festive board, there- by sanctioning the innocent amusement of the young people many of whose foreheads had been baptized with his own hands. He addressed the Throne of Grace, and asked a blessing upon their festive board.
Another instance I will relate, of which I was an eye witness. The first ball I ever attended, Phebe Puffer, daughter of Dr. Puffer, and his only daughter by his last wife was one of the company, and Lewis Sawyer, son of Dea.
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Oliver Sawyer, was her companion and escort. The foregoing statement will serve to show the sentiments entertained by that denomination at that time. Let us now see from the sentiments expressed what the change was. The same company afterwards held another ball, and the seceders who left the old parish held a meeting the same evening, and were said to have expressed the following sentiments: "The young people are dancing themselves into hell."
In a later day, while Mr. Carver was minister, an old citi- zen by the name of Alvan Sawyer, died. His funeral was to take place on the Sabbath. He was an old honored citizen, and had always worshiped in the old house until enfeebled so that he could not. The Old Parish as usual threw open their doors for the funeral services, and Mr. Carver, their minister, was invited to the pulpit. We expected a funeral sermon. Instead we had a sermon directed entirely to a few young people who had held a social ball but a short time before. He took his text from Solomon's advice to young people ; he said it was ironical language ; he used it ironic- ally. He would say to the young people, " Enjoy yourselves but remember that you have got to be punished for such enjoyments." He asked the question : "Who would be willing to go out of a ball-room into Eternity ?" He was in the coward's castle, we could not answer him : the law would not allow us to disturb a religious meeting. We had to sub- mit to the insolence, but with rather an ill grace. We were a little unwise : to show our contempt we had another ball in about a fortnight.
I allude to these things to show the sentiment entertained by Dr. Puffer while he was associated with those Ministers who ordained him, and also those entertained by the sece- ders who ruled him in his last days.
The question now arises : " Who owns the present meet- ing-house?" The town built it and paid for it and the
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Common was given by deed to the citizens who compose the Town, and the Town has never sold the meeting-house, or given it away. If the Town has ever been deprived of its property, it was by fraud. Can any Parish or any other body of people prosper while entertaining a fraud? It may be said, if there is a fraud, their fathers committed it. If the fathers committed a fraud did not the sons uphold it? If there is a wrong, the wrong will never become right. Right is Eternal, and will ever beget right. Wrong is Infernal, and will ever beget wrong. Wrong can be superceded by right, but it can never become right. If there has been a wrong, there never can be prosperity while the wrong exists. There suggests to me two ways of doing right, one is to call a town meeting, see what the town will do with its own property, and let their decision be final. Another is to bring a Bill of Equity suit in the Supreme Court : that will decide the right of the Town and Parish finally.
Events are to be judged by their results : let us trace the effect of an erroneous theology. Dea. Fay was the champion of the Edwards' doctrine. He was well educated, a fluent speaker, and an efficient leader. He seemed to believe what he taught, and so believing, was ever active and untiring in his efforts. He was a plausible leader, and his followers were easily led, like those named in Scripture, as blind led by the blind, and both fell into the ditch. Dea. Fay was afterward admitted to be an insane man. Some persons thought he feigned insanity, on account of testimony given in the James Goddard will case ; but I knew him to be insane from occu- lar demonstration. I made the coffin for the body of his deceased son, and as was my practice carried it to the house to assist in depositing the remains therein. I placed it upon the floor beside the remains. Dea. Fay came into the room, caught hold of the head end of the coffin, lifted it up from the floor on end, looked at the bottom, the sides and the top
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in rapid motion. His son Nahum came and took him by the arm and led him out. No man feigning insanity, would have done that act within six feet of the body of his deceased son. He was insane; when did he become so? Were I under oath I could not tell. In my opinion he began to be insane when he first embraced the Edwards' theology ; as evidence, he used to teach school, and I heard my uncle say that when he was a scholar under him, he heard him tell the scholars if they did certain acts, naming them, when they came to die they would go to Hell and be cast into a fire hotter than any earthly fire, and there be burned forever. Such language is to me evidence of insanity. His mind was unbalanced ; he could see one thing and pursue that one thing to the exclusion of nearly all others. His followers seemed to partake of that one idea, which is evidence to me that a body of persons can become insane by following an insane leader.
He had a coadjutor in the person of Luke Fosgate. He was never tiring, always exerting himself to propagate the same doctrine. I have seen him often, going in and out of houses, and by inquiring of the inmates, I found that his business was to propagate religious ideas. For many years he was in that active business. At length a new tempest came up. The Millerite blast carried him away in its current. He became its most energetic advocate. I went to a meeting, held under a tent, the day before the one set for the destruc- tion of the world. Luke Fosgate was there present, and made a prayer, in which he uttered the following words : "Without a doubt before another day dawns, the Lord will come, and the wicked will be destroyed." I had learned what I went for, that they were an honest, deceived people. I went home and slept well that night ; when I rose in the morning, the world was all the same as before, nothing un- common had happened. I saw no more of Luke Fosgate
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for some time, but after a while I heard that he and his wife had gone to the Shakers. I saw him several times afterward dressed in Shaker garb ; once he was with the woman whom he had sworn to love and cherish as his wife. He called her "Sister Mary," and they had with them the inevitable spy, another woman must go with them when they traveled, no one woman ever being trusted alone with a man, not even Luke Fosgate and his wife, to whom we was lawfully married, and they had five grown up children. He lived and died with the Shakers. Was he sane?
I have promised to allude again to Mrs. Puffer. I was sent for by her after the societies had united, to do some painting in the rooms which she occupied in the old parson- age. I complied with her request, and did the labor ; during the time I was painting she was much in the rooms, one of them being her living room. I had a very pleasant conver- sation with her, and no one could be in her presence with- out feeling themselves elevated. She was a talented and noble woman. I spoke to her of the union of the socie- ties, which I had been instrumental in bringing about. 1 expressed to her my disappointment at certain results. She observed, " I am sorry they were ever united, they never can agree, and they ought never to have united."
I used language to draw out her theological sentiments. I would not engage with her in controversy. I knew it would be useless ; but I wished to know, personally, her real senti- ments. She expressed them freely. I found them strongly the Edwards' theory. I told her that I could not conceive it possible that a portion of a family should go down to that terrible abyss, while the other portion could be happy in heaven knowing that their friends were suffering such misery. She replied "Well, I believe that it will in some way be brought about, that the punishment of the wicked will con- tribute to the happiness of the righteous, and add to God's
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glory. I could but respect her, though I could not believe in her theory.
I must allude to one person more. Mr. Josiah Bride and I were always friends. We were of different opinions, but always charitable toward one another. He was superin- tendent of one sabbath-school, and I of the other, when the parishes united. He was upon one committee, and I upon the other while the preparatory proceedings for the re-union were taking place. Business life separated us for many years. Three years ago I met him before his own house. During a pleasant conversation, he said : " I think very dif- ferently from what I used to think. I had a very pleasant conversation with your Uncle a short time since, and I en- joyed it much. I am satisfied if we had known each others sentiments better we should have been more agreed, and there would have been less bitterness of feeling."
Mr. Bride was at my house a few weeks since and ex- pressed his views of the future, unsolicited and although I did not express mine, I could not now name any disagree- ment between us, and I do not know that I have ever changed my theological views.
I have heard that there has been some conveyances of land, purported to be a part of the common ; but it was a great mistake, as will be seen by reference to the copy which I herewith publish of the deed from Samuel Jones to the inhabitants of Bolton, who had been set off as a Parish. I obtained the copy of the deed from the Register of Deeds, and is certified to by him as a true copy. By that deed, there is a strip of land, being a part of the common, two rods wide, lying South of the County road. The first bound described was a Red Oak tree standing near the house of Mrs. Peters, about nineteen rods distant from the burying field, and not to the corner of the burying field as has been supposed, thence turning Northerly, running five rods
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which would carry it precisely to the North line of the County road ; thence turning Northeasterly, running ten rods to a Red Oak, marking the line of the County road, thence a little more Northerly on the North-westerly line of the Town way, twenty-six rods, thence Easterly across the Town way two rods, to a heap of stones ; thence South-westerly, eleven rods, thence Southerly about twelve rods, to the Northerly line of the County road ; thence South-westerly, across the County road, five rods, to the first bound.
It will be seen that the Common does not extend across the County road at the Western extremity, until it reaches ten rods from the point opposite the corner of the bury ing field. And then the Common is bounded on the Town way as it then existed, which was the only Town way leading to Bolton.
I understand that a Town way has been recently laid out on the west side of the Common, they supposing there was no Town way there. But if they had gone to the Town records of Bolton, they would probably have found the record of its being laid out, if not in Bolton, then at Lancas- ter, for Berlin was a part of Bolton when the deed was given and Bolton might have been a part of Lancaster at the time the deed was made out. Certainly the deed describes .. Town way on the west side of the Common, then existing : hence all the land west of the Town way, owned by the Town was an after purchase, and not included in the Jones' deed.
I well remember the meeting-house sheds being built. They were built by the Town, and sold to individuals, who by such sale obtained the right of use, but no right to tear down or destroy, any more than they had to tear out pews in a meeting-house. Every person who has taken down a shed has committed a trespass. Whoever bought of the owners, bought only the right of use, and not the right to
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mutilate the town's property. The Parish had no shadow of right there any more than the British had to offer Ethan Allen land to serve them. If there have been any deeds given of such land, by the Parish, they are a fraud and of none effect, and the givers of such deeds are liable to an action for fraud under the statute making it a penal offense to make a fraudulent conveyance of property.
If Miss Bullard has bought any real estate near her own premises, of the Parish, she has bought her own property ; for neither the Parish nor the Town ever did own any prop- erty there, and whoever made the conveyance had better not delay making restitution for the fraud.
I have written this history in behalf of right. I believe right is Eternal, and will ever beget right. Wrong is Infernal, and will ever beget wrong. Wrong can be substituted by right. Good may come from the discovery of wrong, but good can never be made out of wrong. It is said that error will go round the world while truth is putting on his boots. But when Truth comes with his boots well on, Error had better get out of the way, for Truth will stand firm in his boots.
Let me here advise the Parish in Berlin to do right, or they will never prosper. Every apparent prosperity will be a sham until they place themselves right.
1385
H. B. Davison
Marrisanna,
New York City . N. y.
7
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Being Was 4
In fine 1871 Ken, W. in Hey wood of Windsom & Ker. b. F. Water house of Clinton having kinot is nowlodge the existence of a liberal clement in the townand Below. Mass, can e have a preached atematily in the da un Hall an D'unday afternoonz. In Sept, following the services of the same diggynam were seemed to fin ane hina, At the Expiration of the year init had been the interest awakened that the present society was managed toting the name Frist Witarian vcity, tit ions Vatel to secure the ascries of a monster pour arde year, pledging for his an ffort the song Eight Honderd dollars , I'm b. H. Green was engaged , but after nine months lofor he resigned to enter the -
of the Christian Writy docuty in Boston, as a colatina with Ken. C. S. Bradley, Mir Granville Fierce was enplayed to fill the raconcy for three months, At. the close of this engagement in Pierce was undanned ! remained foster of the society for three years, doing a very successful work. He was succeeded in iem it." That her , i've reinimed The years , a was pallamed ly
Berlin 6-11-10h . A. 13, Claravar
I hend rer leg the Kindness of the a. H. carter, in the work containing The matiy / Berlin as an tem & faith, mit to the late of anganization of the present do is, which I have given in a lawir marion in writing , if these with half year in jam wonk I am glad to be ilie to help jun to them ,
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