USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Dunstable > History of the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the year of Our Lord 1873 > Part 14
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165
A MALIGNANT FEVER.
1813]
Benjamin Parker also enlisted, and both died at Sackett's Harbor.
In 1812 the town " voted and chose Isaac Taylor, Jr., to attend funerals with the hearse. & to allow him $1 for each funeral he should attend." This year was very damp and cold. A snow-storm commenced on the 4th of May, and continued twenty-four hours. Very little Indian corn came to maturity.
In 1813 the town cast sixty-five votes for Joseph B. Varnum, of Dracut, as governor. The school committee consisted of Deacon Zebedee Kendall, Edmund Page, Davis Chapman, Mark Fletcher, and James Taylor. The last-named citizen was chosen, Sept. 19, deacon of the church.
Of those doing service in the army at this time, Orderly Sergeant John Woodward, Jr., died at Sackett's Harbor, Sept. 4, and a sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Heywood at Dunstable, Oct. 24, in commemoration of the virtues of this brave soldier. The sermon was afterwards published. In a letter to his parents, dated Sackett's Harbor, Aug. 17, 1813, Sergt. Woodward says, " Gen. Harrison has taken Gen. Proc- tor's army. It is said that he took six hundred men, which I suppose to be true. It is expected that our fleet will have this day an engagement with the British fleet. If they should capture them, it is thought there will be peace." Of Sergeant Woodward his captain, Horace H. Watson, wrote, " As a man he was honest, upright, and virtuous ; as a soldier, prompt, attentive, and respectful ; and as a Christian, sincere, mild, and forgiving." His remains repose in the Central Cemetery, and the inscription on his headstone is : -
"IN MEMORY OF MR. JOHN WOODWARD JR., WHO DIED SEPT. 4, 1813, AGED 23 YEARS.
Sacketts Harbor is the place Where my body lies at rest There at rest it must remain Till the dead are raised again."
The spotted fever, fastening on the robust and strong as well as on the weak and feeble, proved very fatal during the year
166
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE
[1814
1813. The following persons died, mostly by this disease, dur- ing the course of the year : Mary, daughter of Leonard Butter -. field, Jan. 22, aged 15 years ; Benjamin Estabrook, Jan. 24, aged 68 years ; Elmira, daughter of Capt. Kendall, Jan. 27 ; Mary Blood, widow of James Blood, Feb. 11, aged 88 years ; Asa Swallow, aged 45 years, Feb. 15 ; Caleb Blood, Feb. 23 ; Joseph Parkhurst, aged 67 years, March 7 ; Sarah, wife of Isaac Taylor, aged 59 years, March 10; Lieut. Zebulon Blodgett, aged 60 years, March 21 ; Sarah, wife of Peter Blood, March 22 ; Capt. Jonathan Fletcher, aged 72 years, March 28 ; Peter Swallow, aged 69 years, April 7; Ensign Samuel Fletcher, April 10; Nathaniel Cummings, aged 45 years, April 17; Edmund, son of Silas Parkhurst, aged 2 years, April 18; Edward Kendall, aged 78 years, May 26 ; Betsy Robbins, July 22 ; Mary, wife of Jonas Taylor, Dec. 5 ; Gershom Proctor, Dec. 17, aged 60 years. Such a fearful mortality the town had never before experienced, nor was the cause of the fever ever satisfactorily determined. Sybil, widow of Capt. Oliver Cum- mings, who died Dec. 16, of the preceding year, was the first victim of the disease. Though many were sick with this fever in Tyngsborough at the time, the whole of them recovered.
On the 8th of October, 1814, Mr. Silas Johnson was acci- dentally killed by falling from an apple-tree on the northerly side of Forest Hill. The sad event is thus recorded on his headstone in the Central Cemetery :-
"IN MEMORY OF MR. SILAS JOHNSON WHO WAS KILLED BY A FALL FROM A TREE OCT. 8 1814 AGED 69 YEARS.
Alas, how distant was the thought When I the tree ascended, That I should to the ground be brought, And there my life be ended."
His widow, Rebecca Johnson, died Oct. 19, 1823, aged 60 years.
On Nov. 11, 1814, the town was called to deplore the loss by death of its beloved pastor, the Rev. Joshua Heywood. He was buried on the 14th, the Rev. Daniel Chaplin, of Groton,
167
PROSPERITY OF THE TOWN.
1815]
preaching the funeral sermon from Revelation xiv, 13. " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Mr. Heywood was graduated at Dartmouth College, in the class of 1795. He married Lydia French, of Boston, Jan. 27, 1800. He was a large man, of dark complexion, dignified and courteous in his demeanor, and highly respected by all who knew him. He was buried in the Central Cemetery, and the following words are inscribed on his headstone : -
" IN MEMORY OF REV. JOSHUA HEYWOOD, WHO DIED NOV. 11, 1814, AGED 51.
Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear Invades thy bounds : no mortal woes Can reach the peaceful sleeper here While angels watch the soft repose."
The signal victory of Gen. Andrew Jackson over the British forces under Gen. Packingham, at New Orleans, on the 8th of January (1815), terminated the war, and on the eighteenth day of February following, President James Madison issued a proclamation of peace. This was hailed by the people of Dunstable with the liveliest expressions of joy. A day was set apart for the celebration of the gladsome event, and three companies, one consisting of veterans of the Revolution, an- other of the enrolled militia, and still another of the boys of the town, paraded on the Common. The people assembled in their gala-day attire, and when the soldiers had gone through with their evolutions, all partook of a bountiful collation, and then, repairing to the church, they listened to a patriotic address from the Rev. John Peckins, a Baptist minister of Chelmsford.
In the general prosperity which followed the long and exhausting war, Dunstable, though not in a condition to engage directly in the manufacturing interests then absorbing the attention of the State, made improvements in its tillage, in its roads, its schools, and private residences. The people increased in wealth, in numbers, and intelligence. The barns were filled with plenty, and a more generous style of living soon became apparent. Newspapers were taken, the chaise
168
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1816
and Jersey wagon began to appear in the streets, the singing school was well patronized, a better kind of headstones were raised over the dead, and the use of ardent spirits was aban- doned at church festivals and funerals
The town, in concurrence with the church, voted, July 24, 1815, to extend a call to Mr. Levi Hartshorn, of Amherst, to settle with them as pastor, offering him $400 for a " settle- ment" and $450 per annum for salary, but he declined, Sept. 4, to accept the office.
On the second day of September occurred what was long known as " the great gale." The wind blew with such violence from the southeast and south as to overturn fences, chimneys, fruit and forest trees, and in some instances, barns and dwell- ing-houses. About sixty chimneys were blown over in Boston, and seventeen houses were unroofed in Dorchester. A poet wrote of it, -
" For low the favorite elms are laid, Which wrapped me in their folding shade, While the rich fruit tree's nectared store Will wave its blooming gold no more."
Columbian Centinel, September, 1815.
This was the severest storm that had occurred in New England since Aug. 15, 1635, when, according to the histo- rian William Hubbard, "many houses were blown down, many more uncovered. The Indian corn was beat down to the ground so as not to rise again. The tide at Narragansett rose twenty feet perpendicularly. The Indians were obliged to betake themselves to the trees, and yet many of them were drowned by the return of the tide before the usual hour."
The year 1816 was remarkable for the severity of the cold. Frosts appeared during each of the summer months, and the crop of Indian corn was mostly destroyed. A large spot was observed upon the disk of the sun, and on the 9th of June there was a fall of snow.
On Sept. 16 of this year the town concurred with the church in calling the Rev. Luther Wright (H. C. 1796) to be their minister, but he also gave a negative to the invitation.
169
ADMISSIONS TO THE CHURCH.
1818]
In the year 1817 the town raised $300 for schools, and the same amount for preaching ; it also repaired and painted the meeting-house. The pulpit was in part supplied by the Rev. Jabez P. Fisher. Dr. Micah Eldredge was the town clerk.
The church in 1817-1818 was favored with an extensive revival, and as many as seventy-three persons, many of whom were heads of families, made a profession of religion. Of this revival the Rev. Dr. John Spaulding gives some account in a sermon preached in Dunstable, Nov. 19, 1865. He says that " in the latter part of August, 1817, the Rev. Jabez P. Fisher arrived in town and commenced a faithful proclamation of the gospel. By his advice the church soon appointed a weekly meeting to pray especially for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. If the Sabbath school was a bow of promise on the cloud, this meeting was the bow reduplicated.
" The church then numbered but ten males and twenty-seven females, thirty-seven in all, and these resembled the weeping captives by the rivers of Babylon. Worldliness, Sabbath-break- ing, intemperance, and the like sins, had come in like a flood. In the language of the church, as expressed and published by one of its officers, 'Mirth and vain amusements much en- grossed the attention of the young people. Others, more advanced in life, were unconcerned for their souls.' As the work (of the revival) went on, the public morals improved, and for years after few towns were more free from open immorality and vice."
"On the thirtieth day of November four were received to the communion of this church on profession of their faith, on the first Sabbath in February thirty-two, on the 8th of March, five, and on other occasions seventeen, making fifty-eight new members, - more than doubling its number and quadrupling its strength. There were some fifteen others who gave cred- ible evidence of having passed from death unto life, whose youth or peculiar circumstances caused a delay of their pub- lic admission to the church. Thus it appears that seventy- three, or nearly one seventh of the entire population of the town (475), had recently been hopefully converted to God, and one, fifth of the inhabitants were members of the church of
170
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE. [1817
Christ." In speaking of those then converted, Dr. Spaulding said, " Of the fifty-eight received into this church as the im- mediate fruits of that revival, only six remain in town. Six have been excommunicated, two of whom have died. Of twelve dismissed and recommended to other churches, or lost sight of in other parts of the country, a majority are, doubtless, numbered with the dead. So also with the remaining thirty- four ; their names are starred on the records of the church, and we trust they star the crown of their Redeemer in glory. At least five sixths of the sixty-eight have gone to their final re- wards, leaving only about fifteen survivors."
" Thus star by star declines, Till all are passed away, As morning high and higher shines To pure and perfect day ; Nor sink those stars in empty night, But lose themselves in heaven's own light."
Sometimes you see the sun go down, shining as he departs with new brightness and glory. So some of them have de- parted. Some of those peaceful, triumphant death-bed scenes are still fragrant in your memories. Dr. Micah Eldredge was sustained in his last days and hours by the hope he received, the doctrines he cherished, the Saviour he embraced in that revival. Deacon Mark Fletcher literally slept in Jesus, so peaceful was his end. Deacon Isaac Taylor's mental faculties towards the last were clouded by disease, yet his whole Chris- tian life was the preface and commentary of a peaceful death. " The present number at this church," says Dr. Spaulding, in closing his address, " is sixty-nine, sixteen of whom are absent, leaving fifty-three, or one ninth of the population of the town (487), accessible members of the church."
The first Sabbath school, consisting of twenty-six members, was organized early in the summer of 1817, and Deacon Zebedee Kendall was one of the prominent teachers. " Most of the hour in this school," says the Rev. Dr. John Spaulding, "was spent in repeating portions of Scripture and sacred songs, committed to memory during the week."
I71
UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY.
1818]
The following table is reprinted from the address : -
Rev. Josiah Goodhue
Joshua Heywood .
15
30
66 Samuel H. Tolman
7
4
66
66
66
23
Levi Brigham
13
53
66 Darwin Adams
7
66
66
66
6
-
A Universalist society was formed by citizens of Dunstable and the towns adjacent, and a constitution adopted, Jan. 21, 1818. The names of the original members of the society are as follows : -
ISRAEL HUNT.
ABEL JOHNSON.
EDMUND PAGE.
MOODY ROBBINS.
LEONARD PARKHURST.
DANIEL INGALLS. WILLIAM FRENCH.
SIMON THOMPSON.
JOHN WOODWARD.
TEMPLE KENDALL.
JONA. WOODWARD.
JONAS FRENCH, Jr.
GEORGE JOHNSON.
WILLIAM ROBBINS, Jr.
ABEL SPAULDING, Jr.
JAMES READ.
CALEB READ.
NATHL. W. GILSON.
FRANCIS B. MAXWELL.
JESSE JOHNSON. EPHRAIM JOHNSON.
JAMES WHITNEY.
LIBNI PARKER.
DAVID JEWETT.
DANIEL H. LAWRENCE.
WM. COGSWELL.
DAVID PERHAM. SALMON SNOW.
JESSE BLOOD.
ABRAHAM BLOOD.
LEONARD KENDALL.
JOHN CALDWELL. BENJ. WILSON. WM. LUND. ELEAZER F. INGALLS.
CHARLES PARKER.
WILLIAM ROBY.
JESSE FALES.
ALLEN PERHAM.
LEVI WRIGHT. ISAAC J. SANDERSON. PETER TURREL. LEVI LUND.
RALPH PERHAM. JEREMIAH UPTON. ASA BUTTERFIELD. JOSEPH PIERCE.
EZRA FLETCHER.
THOMAS READ.
PETER BLOOD.
HENRY BLOOD.
ISAAC PIKE.
66
23
66 Eldad W. Goodman
66
66
66
66
16
66 William C. Jackson, present pastor, 6
69
216
Stated supplies, etc.,
39
83
108
299
ยท 17 years, members admitted, 65
CLARK PARKER.
ELIJAH ROBBINS.
172
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1820
SAMUEL ROBY.
JOSEPH INGALLS.
THEODORE WOODWARD.
JOSIAH DANFORTH.
AMAZIAH SHATTUCK. SAMUEL DAVIS.
EBENEZER FROST.
JOSEPH BUTTERFIELD.
WM. WHITING.
ALLEN PIERCE.
AVERY PRESCOTT.
DANIEL JAQUITH, Jr.
ABIJAH SMITH.
JOSEPH BUTTERFIELD, Jr.
CYPRIAN BANNISTER.
THADDEUS BLODGETT.
JOSEPH W. ROBY.
DAVID BUTTERFIELD.
LEVI KEMP.
AARON DAVIS.
STEPHEN PRATT.
ZEBULON BLODGETT.
NEHEMIAH GILSON.
ELIJAH FLETCHER.
THADDEUS MARSHAL ...
AARON ANDREWS.
DAVID M. COMBS.
LEONARD PARKHURST.
DAVID DARLING.
NOAH WOODS.
JOSEPH PIERCE.
LEVI BLOOD.
HIRAM KEMP.
HENRY BLOOD, Jr.
MOSES GLYNN.
JEFFERSON FRENCH.
SAML. SPAULDING.
JONAS PARKER.
THOMAS RICHARDSON.
NATHL. GILSON.
JAMES INGALLS.
JOHN BUTTRICK.
FREDERICK BLODGETT.
JOHN SPAULDING.
SILAS BLOOD.
REUBEN SHATTUCK.
THOMAS LEWIS.
PARLIN ROLLINS.
HENRY PARKHURST.
JEFFERSON TAYLOR.
WM. DANE.
ISAAC P. SANDERSON.
Edmund Page, Esq., was chosen clerk of the society, and was annually re-elected to this office until 1828, when Temple Kendall took his place.
The society used the old meeting-house as a place of wor- ship, and the pulpit was supplied by such preachers, holding liberal views, as could be from time to time obtained. Among them may be mentioned the Revs. Hosea Ballou, Paul Dean, Sebastian and Russell Streeter, Thomas Whittemore, D. D., Thomas B. Thayer, D. D., and Joshua Flagg.
The number of inhabitants in 1820 was 584. By an Act of the Legislature, passed Feb. 15 of this year, taking one family and some territory from Groton, the eighty-six angles formed between the towns in 1793 were reduced to the five which still remain. Tything-men were still chosen, Joseph W. Roby and Emerson Parker holding then that office. In April, Asa Woods, Caleb Blood, and James (or Jonas) Taylor, Jr., were chosen to " divide the use of the meeting-house," and the town
173
CENTRAL CEMETERY.
1820]
also formed a sixth school-district, embracing the families of Peter, Henry, Henry, Jr., James, Ebenezer, Jesse, and Levi Blood, together with that of Amos Hutchinson.
On the ninth of June Dr. Micah Eldredge, a man zealous in every good work, was chosen deacon of the church.
Jonathan Bennett and George Wright built a tomb, on which their names are inscribed, in the Central Cemetery in 1821 ; John Kendall and Leonard Butterfield built another in the same year. The other tombs, made after the same style and facing the road, are those of D. Chapman and A. Spaulding, 1836; Gilman Roby, 1840; Allen Cummings, 1840; Z. P. Proctor and J. O. Taylor, 1840 ; B. and N. C. Kendall, 1840 ; John M. French, 1841 ; and Isaac Woodward, Jr., 1843.
174
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1822
CHAPTER XI.
THE REV. SAMUEL H. TOLMAN INSTALLED. - THOMAS RALSTON AND A SON DROWNED IN SALMON BROOK. - MR. TOLMAN DISMISSED. - HIS MIN- ISTRY. - REV. WILLIAM K. TALBOT. - A POST-OFFICE ESTABLISHED. - THE FIRST PARISH ORGANIZED. - THE ORTHODOX SOCIETY FORMEDAND CHURCH ERECTED. - THE REV. ELDAD W. GOODMAN SETTLED. - A COLD MORNING. - VARIOUS TOWN OFFICERS AND APPROPRIATIONS. - THE REV. DANA GOODSELL. - THE REV. LEVI BRIGHAM ORDAINED. - MRS. ROBY KILLED BY LIGHTNING. - THE WORCESTER AND NASHUA RAILROAD OPENED. - NAMES OF MEN LIABLE TO DO MILITARY DUTY. - THE REV. DARWIN ADAMS SETTLED. - A CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. - HOUSEHOLDERS IN 1856. - THE REV. JOHN WHITNEY SUPPLIES THE PULPIT. - THE REV. WILLIAM C. JACKSON SETTLED. - POPULATION IN 1860. - DUNSTABLE CORNET BAND FORMED. - THE TOWN'S ACTIVITY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. - BURNING OF THE OLD MEETING- HOUSE. - INDUSTRIAL CONDITION OF THE TOWN IN 1865. - NAMES OF THE SOLDIERS IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
" One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh ; but the earth abideth forever." SOLOMON.
" How blest the man who, in these peaceful plains, Ploughs his paternal fields, far from the noise, The care, and bustle of a busy world." MICHAEL BRUCE.
ALTHOUGH the church had been somewhat strengthened by a revival, it was still unable to support a minister, and there- fore applied, Feb. 7, 1822, to the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge for some assistance, repre- senting that " about one half the property of this town stands on sectarian grounds" ; that " the church had been destitute of a settled minister for seven years " ; that " the church now consists of about one hundred and five members "; that " it is decidedly orthodox "; and that " for nearly three years past the Rev. Samuel Howe Tolman has labored among us a part of the time," and that they had given him a call to settle over
175
REPAIRING THE MEETING-HOUSE.
I828]
the church for the term of five years. In reply to this petition the society agreed to pay, conditionally, $100 per annum towards the support of Mr. Tolman. He was, therefore, in- stalled over the church and society on the 12th of June, the Rev. William Fay, of Charlestown, preaching the sermon on the occasion. " The audience," says the clerk of the church, " was numerous, solemn, and attentive, and the music truly sublime and melting."
Dec. 24 it was voted " to adopt into our church the use of the Select Hymns selected by Dr. Samuel Worcester, of Salem, Mass." This book took the place of the Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts. Several musical instruments, as the bass-viol, violin, and clarionet, had been introduced into the choir, and it does not appear that any one now objected to their use in the service of the church.
The town raised, in 1823, $300 to support the public schools and $ 150 to support the poor. It gave eighty-three votes for William Eustis, and twelve for Harrison G. Otis, as governor.
Edmund Page, who kept a store at the Centre and took a prominent part in town affairs, was the town clerk in 1824, and the town records of this period are in good order.
The town chose, in 1826, for its school committee, the Rev. Samuel H. Tolman, Dr. Micah Eldredge, Edmund Page, Jona- than Bennett, Joel Keyes, Mark Fletcher, and Chiles Kendall ; also Silas Blood and Capt. Peter Proctor, tything-men. Isaac Taylor, Jr., was chosen a deacon of the church ; Temple Ken- dall was the town clerk; and $300 were raised for carrying on the public schools.
On the 13th of September Miss Jane Parker was drowned by the upsetting of a boat in which she and four others were out on a pleasure excursion on Massapoag Pond. She was about twenty-six years old, and was buried in Groton.
In 1827 it was voted to repair the meeting-house, by mend- ing the shingles, glass, canopy (that is, the sounding-board), and plastering. Five hundred copies of the Confession of Faith were printed early in the year and distributed among the members of the church.
The selectmen for 1828 were Temple Kendall, Lieut. Francis
176
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1829
Fletcher, and James Swallow, Esq. Clark Parker was the treas- urer, and Capt. George Wright the pound-keeper. It was voted by the town in April " to pay for the Rev. Joshua Hey- woods grave stones."
On the 18th of June the sympathies of the town were awakened by a very serious accident, an account of which was entered upon the town records. Thomas Ralston, his wife and five children, who were passing on foot through the town on their way from New Brunswick to Kingston, U. C., stopped to rest awhile at Massapoag Bridge across Salmon Brook. Here the oldest two sons went into the deep water below the bridge to bathe ; being unable to swim and alarmed at the depth, of the water, the larger boy, aged eleven years, by clinching hold of some blades of grass, drew himself to the land. The father plunged into the water for the rescue of the other boy, whose name was Thomas Ralston, Jr., and who was nine years old, but becoming entangled in the mud and weeds, both were drowned together in the stream, leaving a wife and four chil- dren, far away from home, to mourn the loss. The remaining members of the unfortunate family were kindly assisted by the people of the neighborhood.
The town gave sixty-four votes for Edward Everett and four votes for Daniel Richardson, as representative to Congress.
For want of sufficient support, the Rev. Samuel H. Tolman was dismissed Jan. 28, 1829, from his pastoral relation with the church and society.
Mr. Tolman was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1806, and was pastor of the church in Shirley from Oct. 20, 1815, to Feb. 17, 1819. On leaving Dunstable, where his salary was only $200 per annum, he preached successfully in South Mer- rimack, Atkinson, Lempster, and other towns in New Hamp- shire. He was one of the trustees of the Groton Academy, from 1816 to 1840, when he resigned the office. He was a man of good abilities, and an earnest preacher of the gospel. On the dismissal of Mr. Tolman, the Rev. William K. Talbot, author of a treatise on English Grammar, supplied the pulpit, in part, from November, 1829, until April, 1831.
A post-office was established in the town on the 13th of
177
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
1830]
February, 1829, and Josiah Cummings, Jr., was appointed postmaster. He held this office until March 4, 1840, when he was superseded by Mr. Ranson Fish, who held the office until June 1, 1841. Mr. Josiah Cummings was then reappointed, and continued to hold the office until May 13, 1852. He died Sept. 19, 1864, aged eighty-one years. Previous to the estab- lishment of this office, the people received their mail matter at the office in Tyngsborough.
The population of the town in 1830 was 593, an increase of nine persons only in ten years. The town gave forty-seven votes for Edward Everett and seven for James Russell, as representative to Congress.
It was this year deemed advisable by the evangelical part of the religious society to withdraw from the old meeting-house, and to build a new one. An advisory council was, therefore, convened Dec. 10, which unanimously recommended the pro- posed undertaking. Subscriptions were at once solicited, a
THE PRESENT CHURCH EDIFICE.
site was purchased of Jasper P. Proctor * for the sum of $100 ; and the present neat and substantial edifice, under a contract
* Son of Jonathan and Rebecca (Pope) Proctor, grandson of Ebenezer Proctor, one of the early settlers. Jasper P. Proctor was born Feb. 29, 1793, and lived in 12
178
1 HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1833
with William Rowe, of Groton, was soon erected. It was dedi- cated Dec. 21, 1831, the Rev. Amos Blanchard, D. D., preaching the sermon.
The Orthodox Church voted July 9, 1831, that "for the future we meet in the new meeting-house for divine worship on con- dition that the pews be rented and the rents be appropriated to the support of the gospel in the new house."
At the same meeting the church extended a call to the Rev. Francis Danforth (Dartmouth College, 1819), which he declined accepting.
A call was then (Oct. 10) given to the Rev. Eldad W. Good- man, which he accepted. His installation and the dedication of the church occurred on the same day.
On the 29th of December the First Parish was legally re- organized by the choice of parish officers, and a new book of records commenced by Temple Kendall, who continued to be chosen clerk until March 13, 1843, at which time the journal of the church terminates.
Capt. Mark Fletcher was chosen Feb. 29, 1832, deacon of the Evangelical Church. He was the son of Phineas, and grandson of Deacon Joseph Fletcher, on whose place he was born Sept. 14, 1790, and died Aug. 4, 1851. He married Rhoda Fletcher, Jan. 24, 1818, and had issue, Rhoda, Eliza- beth, Nancy C., Samuel M., George Washington, and Susan Lucretia.
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