USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Somerset > History of the town of Somerset Massachusetts : Shawomet purchase 1677, incorporated 1790 > Part 16
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"The meetings were generally largely attended. Some of the most widely known clergymen in the country have been heard from that ancient pulpit. Bishop Francis Asbury once preached in the old place of worship. He was the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church in America. The noted Lorenzo Dow conducted services there at two different times. The church was crowded on both occasions. The first time he preached the gallery, which was large and closely packed, settled, causing great commotion among the congregation, and a general stamp- ede for the doors and windows, and Dow finished his sermon in the open air, speaking from a horse-block in the yard.
"At this meeting a woman, excited by curiosity, put her head through a window pane, but no occurence, how- ever exciting, ever disturbed the equilibrium of this ec- centric man. He simply said: "Woman, what are you breaking that window for?" Mr. Dow was peculiar in appearance as well as eccentric in manners. He had a dark complexion, his beard completely covered his face, and must have been nearly or quite a foot in length. He had a sharp, penetrating voice, and he abounded in ex- pletives.
"John Brayton, a man widely known three quarters of a century ago, was a leading member of the old church. When Dr. Artemus Stebbins, thinking perhaps that pray- er is the essence of worship, required the communicants to be engaged in this form of inspiration about all their leisure time, and Mr. Brayton and others demurred to be the instruments to carry out this requirement fully, he and other prominent members were put under very severe discipline. This circumstance for a time checked the growth and prosperity of the organization. The late Job and Peleg S. Gardner were also prominent members of the church. Mrs. Mary B. Young, of Fall River, had always entertained a friendly interest in the society.
"In those days people generally worked hard, and often deprived themselves of sufficient sleep; and we have been told by a person whose memory goes back more
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than seventy years, that on one occasion, out of an at- tendance of twenty-five, fifteen of the number were ap- parently sound asleep.
"We are very glad to hear that the Rev. Mr. Rood, who has been officiating for the past two years in the church just burned, and who had concluded to seek a new field of labor, has consented to remain another year. He is much liked by members of the society. Services will be held in the schoolhouse opposite the site of the church for a time."
The building destroyed by this fire of March 30, 1889 had served the congregation just forty years, having been dedicated in 1849. In 1859 it had been altered and im- proved and a parsonage added. Altered once more, in 1870, it had just been reopened when lightning struck and damaged it to the extent of $500.
The editor's hope that it would soon be replaced was realized, for the following year the present edifice was finished, dedicated and the balance of its building cost, over and above large donations by Mrs. Mary B. Young and John S. Brayton, grandchildren of the John Bray- ton who had been its first member after founding, sub- scribed at the dedication meeting. John S. Brayton deliv- ered at the dedication one of his historical addresses in which he preserved for future times a large accumulation of early local history.
The South Somerset Methodist Episcopal Church was organized only eighteen years after the election of the first Methodist bishop in America. This was the Bishop Asbury who preached at the South Somerset Church, and the pioneer character of this church can be judged from the fact that Francis Asbury was the missionary appoint- ed in 1771, by the church in England, to come to America and spread Methodism.
The South Somerset M. E. church was the first church of its denomination for a great distance around. The building built in 1804 was a year older than the town charter of Fall River, which was granted in 1805. Fall River, then named Troy, had but eighteen families within
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its bounds. The State of Massachusetts had been under constitutional government only fourteen years.
The pioneers in this pioneer church were Captain James Sherman, of Revolutionary fame, Nathaniel Lewin, Dianna Lewin, Sarah Lewin, Jemima Lewin, Gardner Anthony and Israel Anthony. They met at the home, on the Point, of John Wilbur. Here on March 2, 1802, the church was first organized under preaching first by Joseph Snelling and then by Rev. John Finnegan, a fiery and eccentric Irishman who had been preaching Methodism in this country eleven years, the last seven as an ordained minister.
Other pioneer members were Edward Mason, Mahala Anthony Mason, Captain Preserved Read, Persis Anthony, Hezekiah Anthony, Sally Bowers, Mrs. Sarah Ann Cook, Job Gardner, Peleg S. Gardner, Mrs. Mary G. Gardner, Mrs. Susan B. Gibbs, Charles W. Anthony, Arthur G. Weaver, William G. Pearse, Daniel Wilbur, Sr., and Dan- iel Wilbur, Jr.
The land for the site of the church erected in 1804 was given by Captain William Read. The building was about forty feet square, two stories in height, with a pro- jecting vestibule. The description is from John S. Bray- ton's 1889 dedicatory address. There were forty pews on the first floor. These pews were straight-backed, made of hard wood, paneled, of natural color and without paint. There was a gallery, occupying two sides and the front of the audience room; and a very high pulpit, the floor of which was several feet above the level of the heads of the audience.
Many of the worshippers were accustomed in winter to bring with them footstoves, which were filled with live coals of fire, and served to keep their feet warm during the services. The heating of a church by stoves was then considered an unchristian luxury, although a stove was installed at a later period.
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There was no means of lighting the church. When meetings were held in the evening each family of the con- gregation would be represented by a tallow candle, held in a brass candlestick which they brought with them from their homes. All evening meetings were announced to commence "at early candle light."
No musical instruments were used in the original church. The services were conducted much of the time without any choir, the minister leading the congregation in the singing.
In 1825, the South Somerset M. E. Church began a mission in Troy, the later Fall River, sending its minis- ters to preach with such success that in 1827 a separate parish was formed there. To this new Fall River parish was assigned Reverend Edward T. Taylor, later famous as the Father Taylor of the Boston Seamen's Bethel and the much admired friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson. All other Methodist churches on both sides of the Taunton are virtually the offspring of this mother church in Som- erset.
For many years the ordinance of baptism was ad- ministered in this church only by immersion and public baptisms were held either at Slade's Ferry or at the pub- lic landing on Lee's River. Baptism by sprinkling finally became optional, and then by choice universal, the last immersions taking place at Lee's River landing in Oct- ober of 1878.
The church built after the 1889 fire was dedicated on December 5, 1889, together with the bell and clock pre- sented by descendants in memory of John Brayton.
On Sunday, March 13, 1927, the South Somerset Meth- odist Episcopal Church celebrated its 125th anniversary with a program participated in by many of its previous pastors and Bishop John W. Hamilton of Washington: and a pageant of fifteen episodes prepared by Mrs. Albert B. Almy, Israel T. Almy, Amy R. Weeden, Martha E. Grif- fiths and Fred S. Clarner.
Ministers of the church from its beginning to the present time have been:
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Joseph Snelling, 1800: John Finnegan and David Fiddler, 1801; Reuben Hubbard, Caleb Morris, Alexander Cobb, 1802; Alexander McLane, 1803-1804; Joseph Snell- ing, 1805-1806; Joshua Crowell, 1807; Levi Walker, 1808- 1809; John Lindsey, 1810; Thomas Asbury, 1811; Artemas Stebbins, 1812-1813; Edward Hyde and William Marsh, 1814; Benjamin R. Hoyt and J. Walker 1815; Richard Emery, 1816; Nathan Paine, 1817; Isaac Jennison and E. Streeter, 1818; Isaac Bonney, 1819, Thomas W. Tucker, 1820-1821; Benjamin Hazleton, 1822-1823; Ebenezer Blake, 1824; Heman Perry, 1825; Charles Virgin and N. B. Spaulding, 1826; David Culver, 1827-1828; N. S. Spaulding and Robert Gould, 1829; Nathan Pane and H. Walker, 1830; F. Dane and H. Walden, 1831; Warren Emerson and J. B. Boldwin 1832; James Bicknell, 1833; none, 1834-1835; Isaac Bonney and LeRoy Sun- derland, 1836-1837; S. W. Wilson and Wareham Camp- bell, 1838; J. T. Sturtevant, 1839; William B. Sim- mons, 1840; George Carpenter, 1841; Levi Daggett, Jr., 1842; Ezekiel W. Stickney, 1843; Micah J. Talbot, 1844; Benjamin L. Sayer, 1845; John W. Case 1846; John E. Gifford, 1847; none, 1848; Edward B. Hin- ckley, 1849; James M. Worcester, 1850; Lawton Cady, 1851-1852; J. N. Collier, 1855; John Livesey, 1856; Var- num A. Cooper, 1857-1858; C. Collard Adams, 1859; Joseph Baker, 1860-1861; Henry H. Smith, 1862-1864; William Penn Hyde, 1865-1867; Edward L. Hyde, 1868- 1870; C. S. Morse, 1871-1872; George H. Lamson, 1873- 1875; George W. Wright, 1876-1877; S. Hamilton Day, 1878; E. Tirrell, 1879-1881; John Livesey, 1882-1884; William I. Ward, 1885; John A. Rood, 1886-1889; Orville A. Farley, 1890-1891; Louis M. Flocken, 1892-1895; Er- nest W. Eldridge, 1896-1898; J. Elbert Thomas, 1899- 1902; Henry Hutchinson, 1903; John Thompson, 1904- 1905; Jacob Betts, 1906-1908; William H. Worrall, 1909- 1913; Harry Evaul, 1914-1916; Ambler Garnett, 1917; Horace B. Patten, 1918; William H. Worrall, 1919; John N. Patterson, 1920-1921; Ferdinand Batholomew, 1921; Joseph J. Timperley, Jr., 1922-to the present time.
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THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH
THE First Christian Church will observe its one hundredth anniversary in 1941. When the society was founded in 1841 houses were few and far between. From time to time ministers from surrounding towns visited the district and held services either in private dwellings or in the old town hall on County Street.
Among the clergymen who visited the town and held services were: Elders Macomber, F. P. Snow, Israel Wood and Luther and George Kilton. The nucleus of the Sunday School library was a few books donated by Elder Kilton, who, it is said, brought them in a red bandana handkerchief. Elder Kilton was pastor of a church in Rehoboth and organized a Sunday School.
As a result of these early meetings the idea of a per- manent organization took root, and it was desired to hold meetings more regularly. Consequently a small company, led by Leonard Chace and Samuel Purington constituted them- selves a "Christian Band." The exact date of its founding is not known, but it was believed to be some time in 1838. The articles in their bond of agreement were:
"We, as brethren and Christian friends, entertaining a hope that we have passed from death into life and found peace and forgiveness in obeying and believing the truth as it is in Jesus our Lord ; and desiring to unite ourselves as a band of brothers for our mutual improvement in the divine life and spiritual enjoyment in the service of the Lord and also for the spread of the Redeemer's Kingdom in the world :
"We, therefore, agree to unite with each other in the capacity of a band of brothers in the Lord. We also humbly promise to associate and walk together in the fear of the Lord and endeavor to be co-workers with him as dear brethren, to watch over each other for good and for edifica- tion in righteousness and to be helpers of each other's joy and will strive to do and to keep the commandments of our Lord, according to our understanding of the New Testament and further, we will endeavor to sustain religious meetings
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in improving our gifts, in exhortation, prayer and praise and in waiting upon the Lord, that we may renew our strength and will and give of our property according to the several abilities which God hath given us :
"And when the will of God and our duty seem to direct will seek to be organized into a Church according to the word of God."
This paper was signed by thirty people who as the "Christian Band" laid the foundation of the present church.
No action was taken towards building a church until 1840, but the Christians of the community, feeling for some time the need of a suitable building for holding services, took the first steps towards securing such a building in October 1840. Samuel Purington drew up a subscription paper and started out with the understanding that the church would be built, providing the sum of $1200 be sub- scribed. Nearly the whole sum was pledged the first day.
Meetings of the subscribers were held in the town hall and shortly after, a committee was appointed to visit sur- rounding towns and inspect church dwellings with a view to finding a model for the local building. After a careful survey of several, the Christian Church at Swansea was selected as filling the requirements. Samuel Purington gave the land on which the building stands and in November 1840 work on the church was begun. In May, 1841, it was ready for dedication. There is no picture or plan of the building, the only record of how it may have looked is in a sampler worked by Eunice Purington, showing the front of the church as it was when first built. It was a plain little structure thirty-four by forty-two feet and, as was custom- ary, in rural districts, had a long row of sheds to accommo- date the carriages, as many of the members drove many miles to attend the services. There was no steeple nor vesti- bule in the original structure, and part of where the organ now stands has been added since. There were two doors at the front with two entries and the old fashioned high pulpit was at the west end. The basement was left un- finished.
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The building being completed and ready for dedication and the members of the Christian Band anxious to organize as a Christian Church, the double ceremony took place on May 26, 1841. The sermon was preached by Rev. James Taylor and the right hand of fellowship was given by Elder E. Edmunds.
The charter members were : Samuel Purington, Leonard Chace, Asa Pierce, David Pierce, John Pierce, Dexter H. Purington, Samuel S. Purington, Marcus P. Chace, Samuel C. Purington, George R. Bennett, James Pierce, James B. Wilbur, David B. Purington, George Purington, 2nd., Moses Chace, Eunice Purington, Polly Chace, Nancy Pierce, Lydia Chace,Mercy Slade, Harriet Gibbs, Betsy R. Slade, Persis Chace, Eunice W. Chace, Sarah B. Chace, Eliza A. Purington, Amy Ann Grant and Harriet Bowers.
Daniel R. Purington was for over fifty-three years clerk of the church and kept a very clear record of its meetings. The church has had 26 pastors :
William Shurtleff, 1841-1843; Hezekiah Burnham, 1843- 1844; J. J. Thatcher, 1844-1846; Charles Bryant, 1846- 1849; R. B. Eldridge Jr., 1849-1850; Frederick Plummer, 1851-1852; B. F. Summerbell, 1853-1856; George H. Eldridge, 1857-1859; Aaron Porter, 1860-1861. There was an interval of two years when the pulpit was supplied by various clergymen, as it was a time when conditions were upset owing to the outbreak of the Civil War, but in 1864 M. B. Scribner was called as pastor until 1866. Then John H. Haley served from 1866 to 1869.
C. A. Tillinghast served from 1870-1879, the second longest pastorate in the history of the church; Z. A. Piste, 1879-1881; R. A. Allen, 1882-1883; A. M. Letts, 1884-1888; J. H. Howard, 1889-1892; J. E. Everingham, 1892-1894 ; E. A. Phillips, 1894-1898; E. J. Boardman, 1899-1900; William Miller, 1900- 1901; J. W. Leonard, 1901-1904; L. E. Coffin, 1904-1906; S. G. Palmer, 1906-1910; H. G. Rothwell, 1910-1912; Jesse Kaufman, 1912-1914; John A. Dillon, 1914-1915; John Kaufman, 1915-1917; Frank H. Gardner, 1917-1938, the longest pastorate in the history of the church, and Lawrence M. Hatlestad, 1938 -.
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Following the organization of the society the member- ship increased in the next two years until there were over one hundred members enrolled. The church building as first constructed was a modest building, but as the need grew a vestry was finished in 1855 and the following year a par- sonage was built. This was at first a one story cottage.
In 1872, the singer's gallery and the two entries were taken out of the church with the old fashioned high pulpit and the present vestibule was built with the towering steeple and an addition put on the west end to accommodate the organ and choir. The present organ was purchased in 1881. In 1892, the parsonage was made into a two story building. At the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary in 1891 the bell was rung for the first time. Stained glass windows had been added, and a great chandelier with its lamps was con- sidered a thing of beauty at the time though discarded at last for electric lights. At the Fiftieth Anniversary, cele- brated in May, 1891, several of the original members of the church were present and six members of the choir of 1841 provided the old time music. There were five singers: Mrs. Juline Pettee, age 71; Mrs. Clarissa Slade, age 64; Samuel G. Purington, age 69; Charles G. Purington, age 71; and James Wilbur, age 70, who with George S. Purington, age 74, who played on his ancient bass viol for the first time in thirty-five years, made up the original six. They were assisted by Ira A. Hathaway on the violin.
One of the features of the exercises was the reading of the roll call by Daniel R. Purington, 81 years of age, who had been secretary of the church for fifty years.
In 1911, the church was duly incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The first meet- ing of the incorporated church was held September 28, 1911. George W. Rice, Warren H. Sanford, William E. Phillips, Eva J. Hathaway, Laura S. Thurston, Florence Sanborn, Mary E. Wood, Flora B. Wood, and Clifford Grime were present at this first meeting. A set of By Laws was adopted. Warren H. Sanford was elected president; Adam W. Gifford, treasurer; Mrs. Warren H. Sanford, financial secretary; Clifford B. Grime, clerk; George W. Rice, Warren H. San-
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ford, Adam W. Gifford, William A. Hathaway and Guy V. H. Slade, Standing Committee.
After Rev. Frank H. Gardner became pastor in 1917 at the period of the World War, a steady increase in mem- bership and interest is recorded. In 1924 the Sunday School room was enlarged and the interior of the church was painted. Over $3,000 was spent, part of which was a mort- gage of $1,200 on the parsonage. This mortgage was gradually reduced until the final payment of $250 was made in 1940.
In 1929, the Christian denomination merged with the Congregational body as the result of meetings held at Seattle and Piqua. In 1930, Rev. Gardner, president of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Christian Conference, was elected moderator of the combined ministerial associations of the Taunton district. In 1933, the local church voted to join with the Congregationals. In 1935, the name of the church was changed to the Congregational Christian Church of Somerset.
Extensive repairs to the exterior of the church and parsonage were made in 1935 under the direction of Rev. Gardner.
In May 1938, Rev. Gardner, after serving the church most faithfully for over twenty years, voluntarily resigned. At that time the church had 180 resident and 54 non- resident members. Mrs. Gardner served as organist during Rev. Gardner's pastorate.
After a six months period of supply pastors, Rev. Lawrence M. Hatlestad of Winthrop was called as minister, in 1939. On February 6 a fire of unknown origin damaged the interior of the church. The insurance money proved ample to renovate the auditorium. The membership now consists of 191 resident and 59 non-resident.
ST. PATRICK'S ROMAN CATHOLIC
ST. PATRICK'S Church began, like virtually every other church in Somerset, with meetings in Somerset homes. When not attending the then distant Fall River
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churches of, first, St. John the Baptist which later became St. Mary's, and Sacred Heart, Fall River's second parish, local Catholics met in one of several homes until by 1873 the attendants at services had become numerous enough to move to Central Hall.
In that year, the town was transferred to a newly formed Fall River parish of St. Joseph's, with Reverend William Bric, pastor, and Reverend Edward E. Norbert assistant.
Father Bric began at once to plan a church building in Somerset. Oliver W. Washburn, manager of the Parker Mills, the later Mt. Hope Iron Works, donated the site on South Street, members of the parish contributed their labor on cellar and foundation, and in November, 1873, the building was dedicated to the honor of St. Patrick as a mission of St. Joseph's.
In 1877, Somerset and Warren were joined as a parish under Father Norbert who chose Somerset as his home, he thus becoming Somerset's first resident priest and remain- ing here until 1883 when he moved to Warren where he died later in the destruction of his house by fire.
Reverend James Masterson was promoted in that year from curate at Fall River's Sacred Heart Church, to which he had come from ordination in Paris, to pastor of St. Patrick's.
The parish to which Father Masterson came in 1883 numbered 800. Big in body and energy as he was in heart, this pastor set vigorously to the attractive tasks of his new charge. He purchased, laid out and cleared St. Patrick's cemetery, bought the site of the present rectory, organized the church's first choir, and began Sunday afternoon vespers.
After a fifteen years' pastorship Father Masterson retired, to be succeeded by Reverend David F. Sheedy, a native of Fall River. Father Sheedy built the present rectory adjacent to the church and later saw the parish through the period of distress which followed the closing down of the Iron Works in 1905, organizing in addition to a Men's
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Catholic Club a Ladies' Aid Society which labored early and late to provide revenues for the parish.
During Father Sheedy's pastorate, Mrs. William Synan organized Sunday School classes for Pottersville children which grew in such volume that they were held in Town Hall. His pastorate extended from 1899 to 1910.
Rev. George F. Maguire, who succeeded Father Sheedy, marked the five years of his pastorate, 1910 to 1915, with the complete renovation of the church, the installation of electric lighting, and the freeing of the church from debt. The flooding of the church interior with electric light, which first came to Somerset in 1910, was not more thrilling than the entertainment offered at parish lawn parties in those years when, for a consideration, one might ride in that strange new vehicle an automobile.
Father Maguire was a gifted speaker whose oratory was in much demand for all town events, and his public lectures drew large audiences. The parish in his time in- cluded a part of Swansea and services were held in a building in Barneyville donated by the Barney family for the pur- pose.
Reverend James W. Conlin, who succeeded Father Maguire upon his transfer to Dighton's Immaculate Con- ception parish, remained for the three years from 1915 to 1918 during which period it fell to his lot to see Somerset's contingent off to the World War.
He was succeeded by Reverend William Sullivan whose popularity was enhanced by the parish's recollection that he had been in his Fall River high school days one of the best baseball pitchers in this region.
Like Father Maguire, a gifted speaker, and like Father Masterson a builder, he was active in civic affairs, and im- proved the church building, adding a new tower. His long pastorate of twelve years was marked towards its end by a patient struggle with a long illness which ended with his death in 1930.
The Chapel of St. Thomas More, on County Street, Somerset's newest church building, was planned during the
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tenure of St. Patrick's next pastor, Reverend Thomas P. Doherty, whose pastorate extended from 1930 to 1938.
Father Doherty marked his pastorate with improve- ments on all the church's property : the renovation of the rectory, the beautification of the cemetery with walks, retaining wall and establishment of perpetual care, and plans for the renovation of the church which were completed in his successor's time.
The site of the chapel of St. Thomas Moore had been in the possession of the Diocese of Fall River for some years when its construction was begun in 1937. The first mass in the new church was said on the first Sunday of May, 1938 following and the dedication by Most Reverend James E. Cassidy, D. D., Bishop of Fall River, took place on May 22.
In the meantime Father Doherty had received a new parish in New Bedford and Reverend Felix S. Childs, as pastor of St. Patrick's and Reverend James A. Dury as assistant had arrived in January for the charges they now hold. Along with the building of the chapel the parish pro- ceeded with the beautification of the interior of the church on South Street, the installation of a bell in the church tower and the exterior renovation of the building.
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