USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hanover > History of the town of Hanover, Massachusetts, with family genealogies > Part 5
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These forerunners of the later Yankees were true to the repu- tation which their descendants have earned. The English ad- venturers, as those who backed the venture were called, lost money, while the Pilgrims succeeded in their part of the bargain; for they reached the haven they sought.
They came for religious reasons. At home, they were harassed in their religious beliefs and ceremonies. At Leyden they were given freedom in these particulars; but their environment was inimical to the highest religious life and to the proper rearing of their children.
In coming here, they sought not, as poetry and too often history, also has claimed, freedom to worship God. Their primary object, equally commendable, was freedom to live a religious life, true to their own beliefs, where no hostile surroundings could mar its per- fectness.
This is the consistent explanation of the subsequent unwillingness
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of the Colony to suffer Anabaptists and Quakers to gain foothold among them.
These schismatics had as perfect a right to their own beliefs and forms of worship as had the Pilgrims themselves. The Plymouth Colony did not wish to interfere with either, in the abstract. Their objection and the cause of the exclusion of these troublesome intruders, was that, as they had sought these shore to be free from intrusion, they wished to keep themselves so.
If others wished to live different religious lives, they should do as the Pilgrims did in similar circumstances : seek a location where they would interfere with no one, and where no one would interfere with them. The Pilgrim fathers were Saparatists or, as a later movement of a political character was called, Secessionists ; and, like the Secessionists of 1860, all they asked was to be let alone.
This position was certainly consistent and reasonable, and was not the result of bigotry. It was exclusive; but a nation or a municipality has a right to be exclusive. It is a right which is recognized to-day in America and enforced in the Chinese exclusion acts.
Then let no one accuse the Pilgrims of Plymouth of bigotry, religious or civil. They were only exercising that right which is destined to become soon a right recognized by our highest juris- prudence, the right of privacy applied to a community.
The peculiar cause of their migration and its religious nature made it almost imperative that their civil government, while dem- ocratic in form, should be, in essence, theocratic. The church and state were so closely united from the first that the reply of Louis XIV. "L'etat ? C'est moi," might have been translated, for the Plymouth Colony, "The State ? It is the Church."
The support of the Church was, in their polity, as much a civic duty as the support of schools or contributions for the common de- fense, or any other function of civil government.
Thus we find, at the very outset, provision made for taxes for the support of the ministry. The reason given for the necessity of establishing our town as a separate town was a religious reason. (See act of incorporation.)
St. Andrew's Church.
Massachusetts was settled in the seventeenth century by those who rebelled against the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England. The American successor of that Church is the Protestant Episcopal Church. It is not strange that the Episcopal
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Church made slow headway in the colonies. It was not until 1725 that, so far as we can learn, any attempt was made in Plymouth Colony to hold services under the form of the Episcopal Church.
The first record of such service was in Scituate, in 1725. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts, the oldest Missionary Society in Christendom, having received its charter, June 16, 1701, from King William I. of England, sent its missionaries into this territory from time to time, one of whom was Rev. Ebenezer Miller, S. T. D. He is said to have held services, at various times, in Scituate, in private houses, with good audiences. The dates he does not give, but it was prior to 1731.
But, in 1725, a little unpleasantness between the Rev. Mr. Bourn, then the minister of the north parish in Scituate, and Lieut. Daman, one of his parishioners, resulted in a service of the Church of Eng- land being actually held in the north parish meeting-house. It seems that Mr. Bourne was absent from home and had, apparently, left his flock unprovided with a preacher, Lieut Daman "and an- other gentleman of large estate" invited Rev. Timothy Cutler to come to Scituate and preach. The Rev. Doctor with several at- tendants came and, to the great scandal of many of the good parish- ioners, held, on the 25th day of July, 1725, in the North Church, a service in the form of the Church of England. That this was done seems to have been a great source of gratification to the Epis- copalians of the time, and an equal source of dismay to the good church members in Scituate.
For, upon their return to Boston, either the Rev. Doctor or some of his attendants could not refrain from heralding to all the people the success of their meeting, and some of them published a very complaisant account of the service in the Boston Gazette, congratu- lating themselves upon the eminent respectability of the gentlemen who had invited them, the goodly numbers who had been present at the service, and the consequently happy prospects for their church in Scituate.
Human nature in Scituate in those times closely resembled the human nature of to-day and, of course, this trumpet blast of triumph could not be allowed to go unanswered.
The other newspaper, "The Boston News Letter," was used as a means of conveying to the public a "counter statement from a Scit- uate gentlemen." This article denied that any principal in- habitants of the town had invited the Rev. Doctor, and stated as fact "that only three men of Scituate, a number of disaffected men from neighboring towns, and about forty school boys" constituted the
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whole audience. The letter bore underneath the signature the
words "By authority." And now the contest waxed warmer and extended into high places. "Dr. Cutler complained to the Gover- nor and Council demanding justice and protection." This would seem, in consideration of the size of the offense, to be a large demand.
But the Governor and Council acted upon this tempest in a teapot and, on the second of September; 1725, passed the following order.
"Whereas inconveniences have once and again arisen to the Gov- ernment, by several matters being printed in the newspapers and said to be published by authority, which have never been known by the Government nor offered for their approbation, therefore advised-that the Lieutenant Governor give his orders to the several publishers of the several newspapers, not to insert in their papers those words 'by authority,' or words of the like import, for the future."
"J. WILLARD, Secretary."
The Doctor seems to have had the best of this controversy, and the work of encouraging the church in the Plymouth Colony went bravely but slowly on. Dr. Miller's efforts were so far crowned with success that, in October 11, 1731, he officiated at the opening of the first Episcopal Church in Plymouth Colony, called then and now St. Andrew's. At this service he baptized eight children.
The church edifice was at the Central part of Church Hill in Scituate, now Norwell, near the Hanover Four Corners. This church was small, seating about one hundred and fifty people. It had a low belfry and a bell. The windows had diamond-shaped glass set in lead, and at the top were in the form of a gothic arch. There were three on each side. The church was enlarged in 1753. It was once struck by lightning, without material damage, and, in 1811, was taken down, when the church-home of this church was removed to a new edifice at the Four Corners, which is still (1905) standing and in use. -
It is an excellent model of colonial church architecture.
"In 1810," says Barry, "owing to difficulties in the First Parish in Hanover, some of the members left and joined the Episcopal Church." Desiring a church more conveniently located, it was suggested that the Society should build a new church. No one was averse to this, provided the expense of building it should not fall on the parish, and, at a meeting of the parish held April 24, 1810, it was "Voted, that the Society are willing to attend public worship
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in Hanover, provided individuals will build a new church in said Hanover."
The new church was built. It cost $5,000. Capt. Albert Smith and Melzar Curtis were the contractors who erected it. It has been twice remodeled. The spire was first changed and, again at a more recent date, another lightning stroke made a second remodeling of the spire necessary. The second spire, straight and tall, came gracefully to a point at the top. The present spire was designed by Stringer and Brigham of Boston, in 1880. It is shaped like a dome, surmounted by a tapering spindle which is contracted like a wine glass near the dome.
This church was the first church in Massachusetts to be con- secrated by Bishop Griswold.
The church, from the small beginnings spoken of, has lasted, with more or less interruption, during the dark days of the Revolu- tion, up to the present day, and is still flourishing and increasing. It had no legal existence, however, until it was incorporated as St. Andrew's Parish, in 1797, Charles Bailey and Thomas Barstow, Jr., being then the wardens.
The records of the church prior to 1780 have been lost.
One of the early difficulties, against which this and all but the original Orthodox churches had to contend, was the parish tax. Churchmen disliked to contribute to churches which they could not attend, owing to differences of religious opinion. It was early the habit to remit these taxes to churchmen, a very liberal method of making religious liberty practical. In the south parish in Scit- uate, in 1741, this was done under the head of "contingent charges."
Another hardship in the growth of this parish was brought about by the Revolution. The litany, which demanded prayers for the King, could scarcely be expected to meet with favor or to escape bitter opposition among patriots who were making the sacrifices which the followers of the Declaration of Independence were daily making for the sake of political separation. The consequences were only such as always occur in such cases; but they caused a retardation of the growth, and a decline in the prosperity of St. Andrews; and the church was often without a rector, and the ser- vices during the war were intermittent.
At the end of Mr. Davenport's charge, it is said that there were but three regular partakers of the Holy Communion. Mr. Thompson, the rector from 1762-75, is said to have died "partly from bodily disorder and partly from uncivil treatment from the
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rebels of his neighborhood." One is constrained to remark that. treatment which was even a partial cause of death, must have been very euphemistically spoken of as merely "uncivil."
Mr. Deane says, "Mr. Brockwell, born in England, and a graduate of Cambridge in England, was the first clergyman who officiated for any length of time at St. Andrew's. Barry and the historical address of Rev. Dr. W. H. Brooks put Mr. Brockwell after Mr. Davenport.
The members of St. Andrew's sent an earnest request to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to send them a missionary. In 1733, Rev. Addington Davenport was sent them, with an allowance of sixty pounds per year from the Society, and a further allowance of books for libraries and de- votional books for distribution among the poorer members. Mr. Davenport remained rector for three years. His ministry was a time of struggle. Troubles about church taxes arose, and arrests. of churchmen for non-payment were not infrequent.
With the true missionary spirit, Mr. Davenport showed his. interest in the new and struggling Society of his chosen faith, by giving, at his decease, in 1743, to the Society for the Propagation of ยท the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in trust forever, for the use of the: ministers of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate, his residence here,. consisting of seven acres of land with dwelling house, barn, and other buildings thereon. By authority of the Legislature, this land was sold, in 1817, and the sum of $466.69 was realized there- for. This and other funds and gifts amounted in all, in 1849, to $2,589.90 ; and this was used in building the rectory, now standing- on Washington street, Hanover, nearly opposite the junction of Oakland avenue. It was for the first time occupied on July 13, 1849.
Mr. Davenport, as was the universal custom in the early days,. was a college man. He graduated at Harvard University in the. class of 1719, and he also received a degree from Oxford University in England.
Rev. Charles Brockwell, who, according to Mr. Deane, was the. first preacher, although not the first regularly settled rector, suc- ceeded Mr. Davenport, remaining from 1737 till early in 1739, when he went to Salem, in response to a call from the latter place.
No regular rector was again appointed until 1743, when at the request of people in Scituate, Hanover, Pembroke, and Marshfield, the Society in England re-established the mission, donating there- for forty pounds per year; and Rev. Ebenezer Thompson became.
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rector, remaining so until his death, at the age of sixty-four, November 28th, 1775. The cause of his death has been alluded to above. He lived at the Davenport place until two or three years before his death, when he removed to another residence at Church
Hill. It was during his ministry that the old church edifice at. Church Hill was enlarged. His widow survived him until 1813 thirty-eight years, and both lie buried in the old Church Hill Cemetery. "He is spoken of as a prudent, worthy minister. pleasing and interesting in his conversation and general deport- ment." He was born, and, until he came to Scituate, had lived in
New Haven, Connecticut. He had nine children. A grand daughter was the wife of Dr. Freeman Foster. Another married! John Barstow of Hanover and, later, of Providence, who has shown his interest in his native town and her institutions in many notable- ways.
During the years of the Revolution, the sentiment of the neighborhood was strong against anything which smacked so much of loyalty to the King as did the services of this church.
Edward Winslow, however, served as rector in 1775 and 1776, and then the services were practically discontinued. Between 1780 and 1782, however, Rev. Samuel Parker occasionally held- service here, and a regular rector again took charge, in May 15,, 1783, in the person of Rev. William W. Wheeler, who remained here until his death, January 14, 1810, at the age of seventy-five. During this time, he rendered occasional service to the churches at Marshfield and at Taunton. His wife was Jane Thompson, daugh- ter of the former rector, Rev. Ebenezer Thompson, who died July 30th, 1821, age sixty-four. During Mr. Parker's service, Joseph Donnell, of Hanover, was one of the wardens, and among the ves- trymen the following Hanover men appeared: Elijah Curtis,. Thomas Stockbridge, Mordicai Ellis, Stephen Bailey, and Benjamin Mann.
The next year the new church at Hanover was dedicated, and Rev ... Joab Goldsmith was its first rector. He retired from service in 1816.
Two years later, Rev. Calvin Wolcott, or Woolcot, of Gloucester, was called. He resigned in 1834. While here, for a year, he was principal of Hanover Academy. He was born in Williamsburg,. April 27, 1787, and died in New York, January 21, 1861. In 1811 he married Sarah Gardner of Danvers, a lineal descendant of Gen. Israel Putman of Revolutionary fame. He entered Phillips An- dover Academy, August 12th, 1809, but left it in 1811 and studied
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theology under Bishop Griswold. His first charge was St. Andrew's in Hanover.
After leaving Hanover, he officiated in the churches in Otis and Blandford in Western Massachusetts, was rector of Christ Church in Quincy and in Hopkinton, Vermont, leaving there about 1844. For some years he served as general agent of the American Bible Society, in Massachusetts and in Virginia. In 1850, he became -assistant to his old friend, Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, of St. George's, New York, and resigned, owing to failing health, nine years later. He had taught school in what is now Norwell, and in the attic of his own house, at the corner of Broadway and Oakland avenue, he had a private school at one time. Two of his sons, Samuel G. and Asa G., became physicians of some prominence and another, George "T., taught for a short time at Hanover Academy. Rev. David Barnes Ford's History of Hanover Academy says, "He was a very nervous man, and was at times very severe in his punishments % and yet * * * his scholars, almost "without exception, liked him and loved him."
Rev. Samuel G. Appleton was rector from 1835 until November, 1838. During his incumbency of the rectorate, the church pur- chased a new organ. He was succeeded by Rev. Eliazer A. Green- leaf, who, in 1841, gave place to Rev. Samuel G. Cutler, who first occupied the rectory referred to above. This was Mr. Cutler's only charge during his life.
His service ended in 1872, and he died, July 17, 1880.
Mr. Cutler was born in Newburyport, May 12, 1805. He was the :son of Samuel and Lydia (Prout) Cutler. In his earlier years, he engaged in business in Portland, Maine, and in Boston, but at the age of twenty-nine he began his preparation for the ministry and, five years later, took charge of St. Andrew's, in Hanover. After -serving there from November, 1841, to March, 1872, over thirty years, he relinquished the work and retired to Boston, where he died. He was buried at Hanover, at the cemetery at the Centre.
During his pastorate, the Country passed through the stress and turmoil of Civil War. He was deeply interested in the conduct of the Hanover Academy, now gone out of existence as an active school, for a score of years serving as president of the Board of Trustees. Rev. David Barnes Ford in his "History of Hanover Academy" says of Mr. Cutler, he "was a man in whose character and conduct there was nothing light or frivolous. Life, right, and duty were with him very serious matters. His regard for real attainments and solid worth made him averse to all pretence and
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH
CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
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show and insincerity. From a course which seemed right to his. conscientious convictions, nothing could deter him nor turn him. aside. Evidence of this may be seen in the partial change of his ecclesiastical relations which, in his later years, he felt it his duty" to make, yet at a cost whose greatness cannot be easily imagined."
He wrote a number of small volumes. The most noted was. , entitled "The Name Above Every Name."
Mr. Cutler was succeeded by Rev. William Henry Brooks, S. T. D., April 14th, 1872, who came here from Webster, Mass., and. remained until November 1, 1888, when he removed to Boston ... While here, he was a member of the school committee, and a repre --- sentative to the Great and General Court. For thirty-four years he was secretary of the Massachusetts Diocesan Convention, and for- sixteen years president of the Trustees of Hanover Academy. He- was private secretary of Bishop Phillips Brooks during his Episcopate and, afterward, secretary of Bishop Lawrence.
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, January 11th, 1831. He- graduated from Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, in. 1852, and was later given the honorary degree of S. T. D. He was- ordained in the historic Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, of which Washington had been a vestryman. His various charges- have been, in their order, Newark, Delaware; Lenox, Massachu- setts ; Brockport, New York; Plymouth and Webster, Massachu- setts, and Hanover.
At the dedication of the soldiers' monument in Hanover, Dr. Brooks was president of the day and published the proceedings, in full, in pamphlet form. He was a very popular man in town, as- his offices attest. His genial, social qualities endeared him to all men, whether communicants at his church or not. He died in Boston, in 1900, leaving one son, William Gray Brooks, a practising lawyer. He prepared an "Historical Address," giving a full history of his church in Hanover. His interest in things historical. caused him to bring to light a most interesting document, illustrat- ing the change which time works in the views of mankind. It is- a subscription paper with a long list of names, the "sums set. against" which were for the purpose of purchasing lottery tickets, of which the proceeds, if any accrued, were to be devoted to the support of the Gospel in St. Andrew's parish, in Hanover.
Dr. Brooks' successor in the rectorate was Rev. Frank S. Harra- den, who, coming here May 1st, 1889, married a daughter of one of Hanover's citizens, Miss Eliza Salmond Sylvester, (daughter of Edmund Q. Sylvester, deceased) and was, until his death, July 29,
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1905, the rector of St. Andrew's. He occupied the Rectory several years and, afterwards, lived in the house formerly occupied by his wife's grandmother, Eliza, the widow of Samuel Salmond, which stands on the westerly side of Washington street, just south from the Four Corners.
Mr. Harraden was a native of Concord, N. H. He was son of Timothy Augustus and Caroline A. (Sanborn) Harraden. He took his A. B. degree from Trinity College, Conn., 1867, and his A. M. in 1870. From 1867 to 1874, he was head Master of Ury House School for boys, at Philadelphia, and was ordained to the Diaconate, in 1872, by Bishop Niles of New Hampshire, and to the Priesthood, in 1876. He became rector of Trinity Church at Tilton, N. H., where he remained for two years. In 1878-9 he was rector of St. John's Church in East Boston. Subsequently until 1881, he was connected with the Episcopal City Mission in Boston and, from time to time, until he was called to St. Andrew's, he ministered to the parishes of St. John's at Framingham and St. Paul's at Natick, Mass.
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He married Lizzie Helen Carr,, who died at Hanover, March 9, 1891. His second marriage to Miss Sylvester occurred June 8, 1893. Mr. Harraden died at Hanover, after a long and painful illness, July 30, 1905. His successor is the Reverend Joseph Dinzey.
Rev. Joseph Dinzey, the son of Sir Richard and Eliza (Peterson) Dinzey, was born, May 18, 1833, on the island of St. Bartholomew, in the West Indies. Until he was fifteen years of age, his educa- tion was obtained in the West Indies. Then he was, for three years, at Burlington College, N. J. and, afterward, four years at St. Augustine's Missionary College, Canterbury, England.
He was ordained deacon, February 14, 1857, in St. John's Cathedral, Antigua, and was made priest, in 1858, by the Rt. Rev. Stephen J. Rigaud. From February, 1857, to July, 1859, he was curate at St. George's Church, Basseterre, St. Kitts. Then, for one year he was minister in charge of the United parishes of St. Mary's, Cayon, and Christ Church, Nicola Town, St. Kitts. From August, 1860, to December, 1861, he was assistant minister at the Cathedral of St. John, and rector of St. Luke's, Antigua.
Unable to endure the climate longer, he resigned his pastorate in Antigua and went to England, where he became successively min- ister in charge of the parish of Axminster, Devon, and first curate, Weybridge, Surrey. Temporarily he was chaplain of the English Church in Stockholm, Sweden, and the English Church in St.
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Petersburg, Russia. After his return to England, he went to Canada. For two years he was curate at St. Catherine's, Ontario, and an equal length of time at Woodstock, Diocese of Fredericton, N. B. and, for one year and ten months, rector at Richmond, in the same diocese.
Then followed fourteen years of service as rector and in educa- tional work, in Compton, Quebec. He was principal and chaplain of "The Compton Lady's College" for the higher education of the daughters of the church, with a staff of eight resident teachers.
Next as rector at Eastport, he remained six years. While here, as well as while at Richmond, he built several new churches, a rectory, parish-house, and otherwise increased the material pros- perity of his charge.
In October, 1891, he became rector of the Church of the Mes- siah, at Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, and remained there four years. Three months as substitute for Dean Sells, at the Cathedral, Port- land, Maine, was followed by three years as assistant rector at the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Boston, and fourteen months as acting rector, at St. Mark's, Leominster. February 1st to August 1st, 1905, he had charge of the parish of St. Andrew's, during the illness of the rector, Mr. Harraden, upon whose death, Mr. Dinzey was unanimously elected rector.
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