USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Natick > Manual of the first congregational church, Natick, Mass. > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Natick > Manual of the first congregational church, Natick, Mass. > Part 5
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Historical Sketch.
be requested to lay on the hands of the Presbytery." July 19, 1814, Mr. Moore was married to Miss Sarah Fiske, who was born in Natick, August 21, 1786, and died at Boston, February 4, 1858, a most worthy and exemplary Christian, respected and beloved by all who knew her.
During his ministry, Mr. Moore was peculiarly suc- cessful in introducing what may be called new forms of usefulness, as the first Missionary Concert in Natick, in September, 1817 ; the first Sabbath School in Natick, organized in May, 1818, with Deacon Oliver Bacon as its first Superintendent ; a Standing Committee to assist the pastor in the examination of candidates for the church, and to advise and aid in cases of discipline, first chosen, May 27, 1821 ;} delegates to assist in or- ganizing the South Middlesex Conference of Churches, chosen August 10, 1828, (this conference first met at Natick, May 12, 1830, with about four hundred com- municants present) ; started the first Total Abstinence Pledge, June, 1831 ; held the first Protracted or Four- Days' Meeting in Natick, August 30, 1831, with happy results. At the first inquiry meeting after its close, eighty inquirers were present, thirty of whom were in- dulging the Christian hope, in view of which the pastor records : " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." October 16, 1831, the church voted to pledge themselves to observe the Christian Sabbath, and to form a Sabbath Association, auxiliary to the Massachusetts Society. A Sabbath School Library and Sabbath School Concert of Prayer
* Church Records, p. 64.
+ Stoves were first introduced into the meeting-house in the autumn of IS21 or 1822.
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were both introduced about this time ; as, also, a Bible Class for young people on Sabbath evenings. Nearly all these Christian forms of usefulness were not only first introduced during this pastorate, but they have been generally observed with interest to the present. As a partial result, during his ministry, he admitted to the church one hundred and eighty-three members, and, not to mention other seasons of revival, the last seven years of his labors here were almost 'one continued re- vival. He called it his " seven years' revival." He was dismissed August 7, 1833, leaving a church of about one hundred and seventy members in a population of less than one thousand, or about one in six.
He afterwards labored eight years as pastor of the Congregational church in Cohasset, and then removed to Boston, where he resided till his death, March II, 1866; aged seventy-five years. He was buried in Mount Auburn. For nearly twenty years from 1844, he was one of the editors and proprietors of the " Boston Recorder." Besides numerous articles for periodicals, he published a sermon delivered at Natick, January 5, 1817, containing a history of said town from 1651 to the day of delivery; Memoirs of the Life and Charac- ter of Rev. John Eliot, 1822 ; a second edition of the same, 1842 ; Memoir of Sophronia Lawrence, of Co- hasset ; a History of the Boston Revival of 1842; and Pastoral Reminiscences, still later. He was elected a member of the New England Historical and Genealog- ical Society in 1847, and was one of its Vice Presidents from 1861 till his death.
Mr. Moore has been well described as " of a cheerful and sunny temper, throwing a genial, social influence around him, changing sorrow into gladness, tears into
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Historical Sketch.
smiles. He had fair intellectual powers, combined with strong common sense. As a preacher, solemn, earnest, plain and effective. From the press as from the pulpit, he proclaimed the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel without reserve or qualification ; a firm de- fender of the Puritan faith, of the truth of which he never seemed to entertain a doubt. A remarkably strong physical constitution enabled him, with an almost tireless activity, to pursue his professional labors for more than half a century, so uninterruptedly that he was never kept from the pulpit by sickness, except for a single Sabbath. But when mortal disease fastened its unrelenting grasp upon him, the energies of the strong old man yielded like the grass under the scythe of the mower, and he rapidly hasted to the grave. Death, however, had no terrors for him. He gloried in the cause in which he had spent his life, and seemed to re- joice like an old soldier, leaving the field of battle, where he had fought long and bravely in a just and vic- torious cause." *
The remaining pastors of this church are all still liv- ing, six in number, and we must pass over them more briefly, hoping it may be long before their obituaries shall be required.
REV. ERASMUS D. MOORE, 1833-1838.
POPULATION IN 1835, ABOUT 1,000.
Erasmus D. Moore was born in Winsted, Litchfield County, Conn., educated at Amherst and Yale Colleges and at Yale Theological Seminary, invited to this pas- torate on a salary of $600, September 9, 1833, and or-
* Circular.
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dained the 6th of November following. Rev. Dr. Skinner, of New York city, preached the sermon. In 1834, the Boston and Worcester Railroad was opened through Natick, and our prospects began to brighten. The congregation was enlarged, and the former meeting- house, becoming too small and antiquated, was removed and fitted up as a store on the corner of Main and West Central streets, till removed to Summer street, where it still stands, enlarged as a shoe manufactory. A new meeting-house was erected on the same spot in 1835, costing about $8,000. December 29, 1835 : " Voted, thanks to Hon. John Wells for an elegant pulpit Bible, two volumes; to Deacon S. Fiske for a clock inside the church ; and to Rev. E. D. Moore for a communion table, two hymn books and two lamps." Mr. Moore admitted thirty-three members to the church, and was dismissed in April, 1838. He was afterward settled in Kingston and Barre, and in 1842 became an associate editor of the " Boston Recorder " for several years, after which he started the "Boston Reporter " in 1847, which was enlarged two years later into the "Congregationalist," Mr. Moore remaining office editor for a year or two. He then assisted in preparing the Old Colony and Bay State Records for publication, a service of six years, after which and till the present, he has been employed in the Boston Custom House, keep- ing his connection with the pulpit and the press by occasional services.
REV. SAMUEL HUNT, 1839-1850.
POPULATION IN 1840, 1,285; IN 1850, 2,816.
Mr. Hunt was born in Attleborough, March 18, 1810, was graduated at Amherst College in 1832, and studied
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Historical Sketch.
theology at Princeton, N. J. He received a call to become pastor of this church, May 20, 1839, and was ordained the 17th of July following, on a salary of $650. Rev. Dr. Ide, of Medway, preached the sermon. During his ministry our late Vice President, Henry Wilson, was here laying the foundations of his subse- quent usefulness and honors, in which his pastor exerted no small influence. Mr. Hunt also gave a new impulse to the cause of Christian benevolence, partly by his "Letters to the Avowed Friends of Missions," published in 1844, and partly by a system of collections in every school district, presenting each great and ap- proved cause to every family, yearly, for voluntary sub- scription. After a useful ministry of eleven years, re- ceiving fifty-two members to the church, he was dis- missed May 22, 1850. The same year, December 4, he was installed in Franklin, where he labored till June, 1864. He was then invited to become the First Super- intendent of Education among the Freedmen, under the American Missionary Association, at New York, where he labored for two or three years, organizing their work till his health failed. After a brief rest, he accepted the position of private secretary to Hon. Henry Wilson, his former parishioner and friend, and assisted him in many of his literary labors, but especially in his great work, "The History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," which, being unfinished at the time of Mr. Wilson's death, he has completed and carried through the press. He has also published a sermon on " Political Duties a part of the Counsel of God," 1852 ; an "Aniversary Discourse," in 1853; "Christianity versus Spiritualism," 1856 ; and prepared for the press the "Puritan Hymn and Tune Book " in 1858.
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REV. ELIAS NASON, 1852-1858.
POPULATION IN 1855, 4,133.
Rev. Elias Nason was Mr. Hunt's successor, receiv- ing a unanimous call, March 31, 1852. He was born in Wrentham, April 21, 1811, graduated at Brown Univer- sity in 1835, and studied theology with Rev. Theodore M. Dwight, of Georgia. He spent nearly ten years as a teacher in Newburyport, where he was licensed to preach by the Essex North Association, July 11, 1849, and ordained pastor of the church in Natick, May 5, 1852. Rev. Dr. Leonard Withington, of Newbury, preached the sermon. His salary was $900 till 1855, when it was raised to $1,000. The village and our con- gregation now rapidly growing, the meeting-house again became too small, and was sold to. a Universalist So- ciety, then existing, who afterwards sold it to the Roman Catholic Church, and, as since enlarged, they still occupy it. A third new meeting-house on the same spot was erected during the years 1853-54, costing $28,103.65, including bell, organ, etc. It was dedicated November 15, 1854 ; sermon by the pastor, afterwards published. June 5, 1857, the church adopted the Con- gregational Hymn Book, prepared by the pastor. Rev. Mr. Nason, having admitted to the church one hundred and twenty members, during a six years' ministry, was dismissed November 1, 1858.
November 10, of the same year, he was installed over the Mystic Church in Medford, where he continued two years, till November 19, 1860. He was again dis- missed, to be installed over the First Church in Exeter, N. H., the 22d of the same month. He labored there till May 29, 1865, and then removed to North Billerica,
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Historical Sketch.
Mass., where he has since resided, except while acting as pastor of the church in Dracut, 1868 ; in Southboro', 1873 ; and spending a year traveling in Europe. He has since devoted most of his time to writing books, and supplying pulpits occasionally. His principal pub- lications have been a series of Hymn and Tune Books ; the lives of Vice President Wilson, Hon. Charles Sum- ner, Sir Charles Henry Frankland, and Susannah Raw- son ; Our National Music ; and the Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts. He has also been editor of the "New England Genealogical Register," and lec- tured more than one thousand times before lyceums and other literary and scientific bodies.
REV. CHARLES M. TYLER, 1859-1867.
POPULATION IN 1860, 5,515; IN 1865, 5,220.
Rev. Charles M. Tyler, our next pastor, was born in Limington, Me., January 8, 1831, was graduated at Phillips Academy, 1851, and at Yale College in 1855. He entered Union Theological Seminary, New York, and was ordained pastor of the First Church in Gal s- burg, Ill., May, 1857. He was installed over the Church in Natick, May 19, 1859, with a salary of $1,200, raised to $1,600 in 1866. He was chosen to represent the town in the Legislature in November, 1861. Having been invited by General Wilson to the chaplaincy of his regiment, the 22d Massachusetts Volunteers, the church voted, December 17, 1863, a leave of absence for six months. This was during the Wilderness Campaign. After an increasingly useful ministry of nearly nine years, having received one hundred and ninety-three members to the church, he was dismissed December 31,
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1867, to accept an invitation to the South Congrega- tional Church, in Chicago, Ill., where he remained about six years. In consequence of the destruction of his church and a neighboring one, in the great fire of 1872, the two bodies united in one, and Mr. Tyler was dis- missed in June, 1872, with a parting present of $5,000, besides several months' furlough the year preceding. Before leaving Chicago, he was instrumental in building a church in that city, and in December, 1872, received a call to the pastorate of the First Church in Ithaca, N. Y., where he is still most pleasantly settled in the midst of an intelligent and thriving city, the seat of Cornell University. Several of his sermons have been pub- lished in the Chicago and Syracuse papers, and one in pamphlet form.
REV. JESSE H. JONES, 1869-1871.
POPULATION IN 1870, 6,404.
Rev. Mr. Jones, Mr. Tyler's successor, was born at Belleville, Upper Canada, March 29, 1836, was gradu- ated at Harvard University, 1856, at Andover Theolog- ical Seminary, 1861, licensed to preach by the Suffolk North Association, and ordained as an Evangelist in Cambridgeport, May 19, of the same year. From Sep- tember 23, 1861, to January 21, 1864, he was Captain of Company I, New York Volunteers, and stated supply at Antwerp, Jefferson county, N. Y., from June 1, 1865, to May 1, 1869.
He was installed pastor of this church July 21, 1869, with a salary of $2,000. His father, Rev. Charles Jones, now of Saxonville, preached the sermon. September 3, 1869, the present communion service was presented
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Historical Sketch.
to the church by the two elder Deacons, W. A. Wight and J. O. Wilson, and by the widow of the late Dea- con John Travis. Mr. Jones was dismissed July 18, 1871, having received twenty-eight members to the Church. He has since labored in East and North Abington, where he now resides, and was a member of the Legislature of 1876. He published "Know the Truth " in 1865 ; a tract of sixteen pages, entitled "An Appeal to the Pulpit, the Platform and the Press, by Friends of the Workingman," in 1872 ; "The Kingdom of Heaven," in 1871; "The Bible Plan for the Aboli- tion of Poverty," in 1873 ; and from April, 1874, to De- cember 1875, edited "The Equity," a monthly quarto.
REV. FRANCIS N. PELOUBET, 1872.
POPULATION IN 1875, 7,419.
Rev. F. N. Peloubet, our present pastor, was born in New York city, December 2, 1831 ; was graduated at Williams College, 1853; at the Theological Seminary, Bangor, 1857 ; ordained December 2, of the same year, over the church in Lanesville, and installed December 25, 1860, over the church in Oakham; June 21, 1866, in Attleborough ; and, January 17, 1872, in Natick, with a salary of $2,500.
January 13, 1874, the great fire occurred in Natick, which laid in ashes nearly all the business part of our village, including every hall in the place, and the Con- gregational church - our beautiful sanctuary, nearly new, and just enlarged and improved at an expense of about $13,000. All our congregations were burned out, except the Baptist and Roman Catholic. The Baptist Church most kindly invited us to share with them the
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privileges of their house, which was thankfully accepted and enjoyed for a few Sabbaths, till a temporary taber- nacle was erected, 64x68 feet, on the ground, with twelve foot posts, costing only $1,700. The insurance on the former house and organ amounted to $31,500. March 16, 1874, the parish voted to purchase the bakehouse lot on the east, at a cost of $3,600, and on the 24th of the same month, voted to build a new church of brick, with seven hundred and fifty sittings, on the old locality, at a cost, including vestries, etc., not exceeding $50,000. A building committee of five were chosen to procure plans and proceed to build. The cellar and foundation walls for the new structure were prepared in the autumn, and May 29, 1875, the corner stone of the new church was laid with appropriate services, inclosing a sealed metallic box, with various documents and valuables. The church was so far completed as to permit the dedi- cation of its several vestries, on our removal from the tabernacle as a place of worship, April 30, 1876. The audience-room above remains unfinished to the present.
"March 26, 1876, Leonard Morse having offered to provide a suitable bell for the new church [as a memo- rial of his mother], it was voted, unanimously, that he have his choice for three seats, gratis, while desired." An excellent bell was accordingly furnished, weighing 2,531 lbs., and put in place April, 1876, costing with the hangings, $829.30. Mr. Nathaniel Clark presented the parish with a valuable clock for the church spire, with four faces, costing $400. Mrs. Eunice M. Fiske, of Grantville, presented the church with a beautiful time- piece for the vestry, soon after the fire in 1874. On entering the new vestry in 1876, various classes in the Sabbath school presented different objects, as the gas-
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Historical Sketch.
burners, another time-piece, engravings, etc. The num- ber of families connected with the congregation January I, 1877, was 325 ; average congregation Sabbath morn- ings, 500 ; no service Sabbath afternoons ; in the even- ing a prayer meeting or concert is held, with occa- sional preaching. The church then numbered 386, of whom 128 were males. The Sabbath school had 40 classes, including the junior department, with a mem- bership of 620; average attendance, 326; meeting immediately after the morning service. The following societies are connected with the congregation, viz .: the Ladies' Social Circle ; Ladies' Missionary Society ; Young Ladies' Mission Circle, and the Busy Bees. Benevolent contributions during the year 1876, were $1,636.56 ; parish expenses about $3,600 ; paid toward the new church $6,046.10, making a total for the year of $11,282.66. The summary for the five years ending Jan. 1, 1877, was as follows : for benevolence, $ 13,317.40, and for parish expenses, including repairs on the old church and rebuilding the new, about $38,000, a total of $51,317.40. During the same five years the pastor received to the church 142 members. His publications are a series of Sabbath School Question Books on the International Lessons for 1875, and each year since, with a yearly volume of Select Notes on the same. These Question Books, and especially the Select Notes, have become very popular, the sales for 1877 being 67,000 Question Books and 14,800 Select Notes. He has also published three sermons, one on Temper- ance ; one on the Image of Christ ; and one on Faith.
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DEACONS.
So far as I am able to ascertain the facts, the follow- ing persons have sustained the office of deacon in the line of the Congregational church in Natick.
Referring to the church officers in Natick during Eliot's labors here, Dr. Francis says : "The churches were all furnished with religious officers except the church at Natick, where, says Mr. Eliot, 'in modesty they stand off ; so long as I live, they say, there is no need.' " *
JOSEPH EPHRAIM, an Indian, was the first we find mentioned who held this office in Natick. He was a freeholder in 1719, having thirty acres for his lot, set off with the original proprietors. When he was chosen deacon does not appear, but he is mentioned as bearing this title as early as 1734, and late as 1754, being through the greater part of Rev. Mr. Peabody's min- istry. He was chairman of the selectmen in 1735, and of a committee to execute legal deeds in 1754, showing that he was a man of some intelligence and ability.
EBENEZER FELCH must have been his associate in office, a school teacher as early as 1731, and holding various offices in town and church affairs as late as 1758. He was a selectman, a surveyor, proprietor's clerk, and an excellent penman, as the records abun- dantly show - a man of large ability and influence.
MICAH WHITNEY was deacon as early as 1761, and late as 1770, it may be through a much longer period. He also bore various other offices, and must have been
* Dr. Francis' Life of Eliot, p. 264.
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Historical Sketch.
a man of considerable influence during the early part of Mr. Badger's ministry.
NATHANIEL MANN and NATHANIEL CHICKERING are mentioned as deacons of the church, probably follow- ing those above named, but I find no dates bearing on the exact time of their labors.
JOHN JONES was also one of Mr. Badger's deacons, dying February 2, 1802, aged eighty-four. How long he had been deacon does not appear. He was justice of the peace, surveyor, colonel of the militia, etc.
The above six all held office in South Natick.
WILLIAM BIGELOW was born October 22, 1749, and lived in South Natick. He was "the good Deacon Badger " of Mrs. Stowe's "Old Town Folks," and the miller for the vicinity. He was deacon of Rev. Thomas Noyes' church, in Needham, the last part of his life ; and perhaps earlier, one of Rev. Mr. Badger's deacons. He died March 25, 1813, "a man of kindly nature and benevolent bearing."
The first deacons of the church at the Center, organ- ized 1802, were ABEL PERRY and WILLIAM GOODE- NOW, both chosen at their first meeting after organ- ization, March 13, 1802. Mr. PERRY was born in Natick, June 12, 1757, resigned his office August 2, 1822, having served full twenty years, and died April 10, 1841. Deacon GOODENOW was born in Natick, May 17, 1759, resigned his office August 5, 1828, having served fully twenty-six years, and died January 19, 1837. Both were men of distinction in the town as well as church, bearing the prominent offices of select- men, representatives to General Court, assessors, etc. On communion days they always sat in the deacons' seats, in front, under the' pulpit - venerable men.
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OLIVER BACON was born in Natick, May 22, 1794 ; an efficient agent in starting the first Sabbath school in Natick, of which he was its only superintendent while he lived ; was chosen deacon of the church August 4, 1822, but died at the close of one year's service, August 24, 1823, deeply lamented, not only by the church, but by the whole town. His pastor wrote of him : "I never wept over any man's grave, as I did over his."
WILLIAM COOLIDGE was born in Natick, December 3, 1777, elected deacon September 21, 1823, to fill Deacon Bacon's place, and died April 2, 1859, a good man and sound in the faith.
SAMUEL FISKE was born July 21, 1781, elected deacon August 20, 1828, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Deacon Goodenow. He was dis- missed from this church to unite with the church in Saxonville, May 31, 1844, but returned to its fellowship November 25, 1866, and died October 16, 1867, a man of wealth and influence.
JOHN TRAVIS was born in Sherborn, April 8, 1794, chosen deacon December 2, 1831, and died in office June 29, 1869, respected and beloved by all who knew him.
WILLARD A. WIGHT was born in Natick, April 21, 1816, chosen deacon December 3, 1852, resigned January 15, 1876, and re-chosen for eight years, May 5, 1876.
JOHN O. WILSON was born in Hopkinton, May 31, 1821; chosen deacon December 3, 1852; resigned February 17, and re-chosen for six years, May 5, 1876.
JOHN R. ADAMS was born in New Boston, N. H., March 3, 1832 ; chosen deacon July 28, 1869 ; resigned
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Historical Sketch.
February 10, 1876, and re-chosen for four years May 5. 1876.
WILLIAM L. COOLIDGE was born in Natick, April 21, 1833 ; chosen deacon July 28, 1869 ; resigned verbally January 13, and by letter February 3, 1876, and was re- chosen for two years May 5, 1876.
THE SABBATH SCHOOL.
The first Sabbath School in Natick was organized the second Sabbath in April (12th), 1818, with Oliver Bacon as its first and only superintendent till his death in August, 1823. As no records of the school were kept till 1837, and memories often disagree, we are left in some uncertainty respecting this interval. It is prob- able, however, there was no school for one year, either in 1819 or 1820. After the death of Deacon Bacon it is believed the pastor superintended it for one year or more. Mrs. Eunice M. Fiske, of Grantville, writes that the firm "Homes & Homer " of Boston made a present of money for our Sabbath School Library in 1825 or 1826. In 1827 and 1828, Deacon Aaron Cool- idge was both superintendent and librarian, when he writes " the school numbered about forty." This esti- mate is far too low, as the following year, 1829, the pastor reported one hundred, besides thirty in the Bible Class. (See Table.) During the years 1829 and 1830 there is much uncertainty who was superintendent,- probably Alexander Coolidge, or one of the deacons. In 1831 Captain William Stone was superintendent, and
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following him for several years, Alexander Coolidge, till 1835 or 1836, when Charles Dickson was chosen for one or two years, certainly in 1837, as the records testify. George M. Herring was chosen in 1838, and Alexander Coolidge again in 1839, after whom Willard A. Wight was chosen superintendent for twenty years, from 1840 to 1860, with the exception of two years, 1845 and 1847, when Deacon John Travis and Moses W. Bickford were chosen. In 1860 Deacon Abner Rice was chosen; in 1861 and 1862, Deacon J. O. Wilson; in 1863 and 1864, Deacon J. R. Adams, and from 1865 to 1869, Lewis Broad. April 28, 1869, and April, 1870, Deacon W. L. Coolidge was chosen superintendent ; May, 1871, 1872, and 1873, Erwin H. Walcott was chosen; 1874 and 1875, Deacon W. L. Coolidge superintended, and in 1876 and 1877 George L. Bartlett was chosen, and superintends to the present.
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