USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Mattapoisett > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 17
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Rochester > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 17
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Dr. Robbins had before this had letters from friends and from various institutions, especially Williams College, in regard to the disposal of his library; and at this troubled time came a very alluring proposition through Hon. Henry Barnard, of Hartford, of an arrangement by which the Connecticut Historical Society would eventually come into possession of his books, and Dr. Robbins himself would become the Society's librarian, on a stipulated salary, of nearly double the amount he was then receiving at Matta- poisett, through the remaining years of his active life.
He decided to accept this arrangement and immediately thereafter he requested a precinct meeting and desired that he be given $200 and the expense be paid of removing his library to Connecticut. This was voted unanimously, and the amount raised by the subscriptions of about two- thirds of the congregation. At his request a church council was called, which sat on August 6, and voted dis- mission on the ground of mutual agreement of the parties.
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"Many people," he writes, "seem much tried at the pros- pect of my removal." September 8, 1844, "Preached my farewell sermon on Matthew xvi. 18, in the afternoon to a large assembly. Took a brief review of my ministry in this place. A very pleasant day. Had a solemn meeting. Took notice of the late death of the aged Mr. Jesse Hammond. A very industrious, just and good man."
Monday morning the minister was very busy preparing for his removal. He had engaged a vessel to take his goods around to Hartford, and his library had been packed into over forty great boxes. Tuesday there was "a con- fused scene " getting things on board. Wednesday morn- ing (11th), "Worked laboriously at my effects and got them on board a vessel which sailed for Hartford in the afternoon." And as the sun drew nearer to the tops of the pines on the ridge at the west, and the shadows length- ened toward Cannonville Hill, we can seem to see the quaint figure of Thomas Robbins, leaning on his cane, out by the end of the wharf, his back to the village and his new meeting-house; watching the little vessel bearing his dearly loved treasure, steer first southeast, and then turn down the bay to head out to the open sea.
When he came up toward the street, caulkers and joiners would have bowed or spoken respectfully. The sailors and captains ashore would have greeted him kindly, for the whalemen felt better to have his Bibles and tracts aboard ship, and when in from the voyage they liked to find his well-known figure as a land mark among the new faces on the streets. They brought him foreign coins, shells and coral; battle-axes and curios from the south seas, and these he cherished with his shot-gourd from the Mayflower, and his piece of Martin Luther's table. It is
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said that not long after his departure, one of these whalers coming in, the captain inquired for the minister, and being told the recent happenings, broke out in language more suited to the open ocean than to the printed page and called down all the anathemas of heaven upon those who had caused the good man to go away.
September 13, 1844, Dr. Robbins wrote: "Paid Mr. White, Mr. Baker, Rogers Barstow, and Mr. Crosby. Balanced all pecuniary accounts. At noon took the stage, left Mattapoisett and rode to New Bedford. Took cars and rode to Boston. Much fatigued with many labors. May God in mercy remember my people now destitute of a pastor for the first time in more than seventy years." The Sabbath following he tarried with his brother in Enfield, finding his surtout lost there on his last journey, and on the 16th he was in Hartford anxiously awaiting the arrival of Captain Baker and his vessel. On the 19th all came safely, and several truck loads of books were carried up to the Athenæum; where for ten years thereafter Thomas Robbins filled the office of Librarian.
Dr. Henry R. Stiles wrote in the Round Table of Jan- uary 6, 1866 (quoted but in part) :
"The old librarian was the last of a line of New England Divines. He had been a settled pastor for a good portion of his life and was a good writer of sermons. A studious man by nature, books were not so much a luxury as a necessity to him. It was a pleasant arrangement this by which the books which he had spent so great a portion of his life in collecting should thus repay his loving care by giving to his old age the little comforts which it needed.
"Antiquaries Hall was a rare and fitting shrine for such a character. Old portraits, old chairs and chests out of the May- flower, Captain Miles Standish's dinner pot, Indian relics, worm- eaten manuscripts, old battle flags, hacked, haggled and rent,
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and scraps of ancient costume were the appropriate surround- ings of this old librarian with his small clothes and knee buckles, and his white silk stockings or white top boots with their silken tassels.
"Here old age deepened insensibly the mellow shadows of life, death wooed him so gently that he knew it not, his memory failed, his beloved books alone were able to retain, and then only for a moment, his wandering thoughts. An assistant was procured for him, but the old man scarcely knew the change. He lingered on until September 13, 1856, when he passed peacefully away at the home of his niece Mrs Elizabeth (Robbins) Allen in the town of Colebrook, Connecticut, at the age of 79." 1
Following the pastorate of Mr. Robbins the history of the Second Precinct in Rochester took on a new aspect. What might be termed the patriarchal system with its lifelong pastorates gave place to the more modern custom of an acting pastor supplying the pulpit for a short term of years. "Dr. Robbins's new meeting house" still stands, and persons now living can review in memory the sixty-three years since this new era began. Its history is not greatly out of the ordinary and need be outlined but briefly.
In November, 1844, Mr. Isaiah Thacher, who was a native of Dartmouth, and who had been graduated from Union College in 1841, having preached two Sabbaths, was invited to supply the pulpit for twelve months at a salary of $600. He accepted and was duly installed by Council, Christmas Day, 1844, and continued as pastor until dismissed in 1849, when he immediately accepted the pastorate of the Central Congregational
1 The funeral occurred at the Centre Church, Hartford, and the Historical Society, having first listened to a memorial address at its rooms by the Rev. Joel Hawes, attended in a body.
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Church, Middleboro, who had that year erected their present house of worship. The precinct seemed to be concerned during this time mainly with the circulating of various kinds of subscription papers. Edward Buell had one to collect "to defray the church's housekeeping," and if you met Rowland Howland, his was for a new stove pipe, to be preferably of copper.
Mr. Thacher is said to have preached good stiff orthodox doctrine, and it appears that members who were "doubt- ful on the doctrine of total depravity and eternal punish- ment " were called up to give account. His successor, Mr. Mather, also took a vigorous hold on church dis- cipline, and those who forsook communion, "habitually misrepresented facts," "patronized the ball-room," or kept livery stables open on Sunday, received censure. The last record of church discipline, other than the mere erasure of a name, occurred under Mr. Parsons in 1861.
November, 1850, the precinct had voted to install Rev. Wm. L. Mather, offering a salary of $500, and appointing Alexander Cannon treasurer and collector and Charles C. Beals to solicit money for "contingent expenses: " and these did so well that at the end of the year the balance of $11 was paid to Solomon K. Eaton "for the improvement of singing." In 1855 it was voted "the congregation be requested to sing with the choir the last hymn in the fore and afternoon." The stone posts with chains, which now enclose two sides of the meeting-house lot, were set by William Taylor in the fall of 1851. Mr. Mather dwelt in the house now the home of Mrs. Wealthy A. Cross, and also at Cannonville. He was dismissed by council in 1855, - and in November of that year he and his wife
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Amanda were granted letters to the church in Ann Arbor, Mich.
In September Rev. Charles Livingstone was installed pastor, at a salary of $800. He was the son of Neil Livingstone and Agnes Hunter, of Blantyre, in Scotland, and consequently was the younger brother of David Livingstone, the African missionary and explorer. Of Charles, W. G. Blaikie in his Personal Life of David Livingstone, Harpers, 1881, page 88, says:
"In 1839, when David Livingstone was in England, Charles became earnest about religion. A strong desire sprang up in his mind to obtain a liberal education. Not having the means to get this at home he was advised by David to go to America and endeavor to obtain admission to one of the colleges there where the students support themselves by manual labor. To help him in this David sent him five pounds, being the whole of his quarter's allowance in London. On landing in New York, after selling his box and bed, Charles found his whole stock of cash to amount to £2, 13s. 6d. Purchasing a loaf and a piece of cheese as viaticum, he started for a college at Ober- lin, seven hundred miles off, where Dr. Finney was President. He contrived to get to the college without having ever begged. In the third year he entered on the theological course with a view to becoming a missionary. He did not wish, and never could agree as a missionary, to hold an appointment from an American Society on account of the relation of the American Churches to slavery; therefore he applied to the London Mis- sionary Society. The Directors declined to appoint Charles Livingstone without a personal visit, which he could not afford to make. This circumstance led him to accept a pastorate in New England, where he remained until 1857, when he came to this country and joined his brother in the Zambesi Expedi- tion. Afterwards he was appointed H. M. Consul at Fernando Po, but being always delicate, he succumbed to the climate of the country and died a few months after his brother, on his way home in October, 1873."
He appears as joint author with his brother in an account
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of the Zambesi expedition: on which journey Dr. Living- stone took his party twenty miles off their regular route that they might see the grand Victoria Falls, and " Charles Livingstone, who had seen Niagara, gives the preference to Mosi-oa-tunya." And it is evident that, at that time, he was the only person in the world able to make that comparison. He had left Mattapoisett abruptly, and sent back but little information of his plans or move- ments either to his parish or his family. Various com- mittees waited on Mrs. Livingstone, but she could give them no news; official inquiries remained unanswered. So the precinct voted, July 13, 1857, "To instruct the committee to write Mr. Livingstone, that as the time having expired for which he asked leave of absence, and having no intimation from him when he may return, if at all, and being destitute of a minister we have decided to invite a supply of the pulpit without reference to his return."
The position was then offered to a Rev. Mr. Wheeler, but Dr. Bartlett reported he could not be obtained. Others declined. Rev. William L. Parsons, D.D., ac- cepted at a salary of $900, and preached for six years. He was duly installed, in which service Rev. Mr. Thacher and Rev. Asahel Cobb had parts. This church partici- pated in the general revival season of 1857 and '58, and on May 9, 1858, seventy-seven were admitted to member- ship upon confession of faith. In July and September following were others, among whom was John Smith, the son of Solomon, a free negro, who until his death was seldom absent a Sunday from his northeast corner pew, and who in his later years, in the absence of a deacon, at times officiated at communion.
Mr. Parsons was the first minister to occupy the par-
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sonage, the land for which was deeded on July 19, 1860 (for so long as thus used), by Capt. Franklin Cross, to the precinct; the official title of which was changed by the Act of March 5, 1860, to "The First Precinct in Mat- tapoisett."
Mr. Parsons continued as pastor until the fall of 1864, when on account of his health he left to become the in- structor in mental and moral science at Ingraham Uni- versity, LeRoy, N. Y., where he died December 23, 1877. He preached his farewell sermon at Mattapoisett, on September 4, 1864, and at the same time set apart to the office of Deacons, Solomon K. Eaton and Noah Hammond, both of whom were men of value to the community as well as the church. Mr. Eaton as an architect and the builder of his own and four or more other meeting-houses within the limits of old Rochester territory; the first Lieutenant of Company I, 3d Regi- ment, M.V.M., in the Civil War; and as organist or choir- master for fifteen or twenty years he maintained a standard of church music seldom attained in a small com- munity. Esquire Hammond had an extensive practice in probate court, and as a conveyancer and surveyor. He
completed the town map begun by the data of Ansel Weeks. For an extended period he was the chairman of the selectmen, and died in 1893 while serving as repre- sentative to the General Court. Mr. Parsons while at Mattapoisett published a religious work entitled "Satan's Devices."
The minister who presided at the council which in- stalled Mr. Parsons was the Rev. John P. Cleveland, of the Appleton Street Church, Lowell. The precinct re- quested Mr. Parsons, when he left, to seek the services of
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this friend of his in their behalf. As a result Dr. Cleve- land was acting pastor at Mattapoisett from October, 1864, to June, 1867. He was a graduate of Bowdoin in 1821 and studied theology with Rev. C. Upham at Roches- ter, N. H. He had been dismissed from Lowell in 1862 to accept the chaplaincy of the 35th Massachusetts Regi- ment, which served at Ship Island and New Orleans. His vigorous sermon at Mattapoisett on the occasion of the assassination of Lincoln is often referred to by those who heard it.
A speaker at anniversary services of the Lowell church said of Dr. Cleveland: "He loved the doctrines and often preached them with great point and power. He had logic and keen wit. He studied men as well as books. An earnest advocate of temperance and a true patriot. He was a thoroughly consecrated minister of the gospel. His spirit was balmy, buoyant, kind and sweet. His face beamed with goodness." He had other pastorates at Salem, Detroit, Cincinnati, North- ampton, and Providence. He died March 7, 1873, being seventy-three years of age.
In the decade following 1867 there were three short pastorates. Rev. Benj. F. Manwell was called in May, 1868, and continued as installed pastor until the spring of 1870. He was a man of literary attainment and was leader in the organization of the local "Philistorian So- ciety." Rev. Edward G. Smith was installed in April, 1871, and dismissed in June, 1875; and Rev. Nathaniel Larselle served as acting pastor from May, 1876, to July, 1878. He came to Mattapoisett from Amesbury, being a graduate of Bowdoin and a man who read much, espe- cially of unusual literature. He had held prominent pas-
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torates, and by those who recall him he is said to have been the ablest and most eloquent preacher among the later ministers of this church.
In the interim following Mr. Larselle the precinct voted "to continue to have while we are candidating two services, and meeting in the evening, but when we get a permanent supply the A.M. service is to be omitted." The candidate who became this permanent supply was Rev. Augustus H. Fuller, who was ordained at Lynn in October, 1878, and came at once to Mattapoisett for his first charge. He was a graduate of Brown University and Bangor Theological Seminary. He continued with this church until May, 1886, and held pastorates in Massa- chusetts, at West Medway, Billerica, and Easton, before his present service at Ballardvale, Andover.
Mr. Fuller's successor was a young man of twenty-five who had been preaching at Woods Hole. Rev. Frank L. Goodspeed was ordained and installed at Mattapoisett, June 29, 1887. He continued his studies during his pas- torate, taking degrees from Harvard College of A.B. and Ph.D., and was also a graduate of Boston University School of Theology, and later received an honorary D.D. Leaving Mattapoisett in 1890 he held successive pas- torates at Hingham and Amherst, and for the last thirteen years has been settled over the old First Church of Spring- field, one of the largest in the Congregational denomi- nation.
He was followed at Mattapoisett by a more elderly man, the Rev. Charles H. Phelps, who had been born in 1835 upon the frontier of Pennsylvania, his pater- nal ancestor, William Phelps, having participated in the emigration led by Thomas Hooker, one of the founders
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of the town of Windsor and of the Connecticut Colony. Before coming to Mattapoisett, Mr. Phelps had been in mercantile business, had taught at Tabor Academy, Marion; and had served through the Civil War as private and hospital steward, and had preached in Smithfield, Pa., Greenwich, Marblehead, and Kelley's Island, in Ohio. Mr. Phelps resigned, from ill health, at Matta- poisett, in Sepember, 1893, since which time he has lived at his childhood home farm at Milan, Pa.
The two ministers who have completed their service at Mattapoisett since 1893 were both natives of London, in England, and both had served with their wives in the foreign mission field. Rev. Charles A. Ratcliffe came to this church from pastorates at Buxton, West Scarboro, Baldwin, and Madison in Maine. From 1885 to 1888 he had served under Bishop William Taylor in the African mission at St. Paul de Loanda. His early education was obtained at Bancroft's Hospital, London, and he had drilled in soldierly tactics in the broad moat and yard of the old Tower of London. He had also taken a course of study at the Kortegarn Institute, Bonn, Germany; and while at Mattapoisett he continued the study of theology, at Boston University. He accepted a call to North Attleboro in June, 1896, and has been pastor at Norton since April, 1901.
Mr. Ratcliffe's successor in Mattapoisett was Rev. Robert Humphrey, who came to this country from Ontario in 1883, having left England in 1881. He had acquired his education in the public and science schools in the old country, in part in Canada, and in part at Oberlin College. He was graduated in 1886 from Oberlin Seminary, and took special post-graduate work
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under Professor Moore at Andover. Besides pastor- ates at Rye, N. H., Saugatuck, Mich., and Randolph, N. Y., he and Mrs. Humphrey were connected for two years with the Madura mission in South India, and for three years just prior to their coming to Mattapoisett they were in the work of the A.M.A., and founded and taught in the High School at Whittier, N. C. Mr. Humphrey continued at Mattapoisett for nine years until March, 1905, and held a short pastorate at Hooksett, N. H., before accepting a call to Dighton early in 1907.
The present minister, Rev. C. Julian Tuthill, began his service as acting pastor August 11, 1905. He is a native of Belchertown, a graduate of Boston University and Andover Theological Seminary; and had previous pas- torates at Saylesville, R. I., Sanford, Me., and George- town, Mass. Mr. Tuthill is a member of various fraternal orders, and recently won a large prize for the preparation of the ritual now in use in the A.O.U.W.
In February, 1891, the meeting-house was struck by lightning and damaged to the extent of about $1000. by the resulting fire. William L. Hubbard and George H. Dexter acted in behalf of the precinct in the adjust- ment of this matter, and the structure was renovated under the direction of Dr. William E. Sparrow, Nathan S. Mendell, Mary F. Dexter, Elizabeth R. Winston, and Harriet W. Dexter. The large enclosed pulpit had previously been taken out and the principal change then made was the building of an arch on the plain north wall, and the removal of certain pews at the front and rear. The bell brought down from the third meeting-house had been replaced prior to 1870. This second bell cracked in January, 1880, and the present one, of about
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fourteen cwt., was secured by Noah Hammond, Joseph R. Taber, and Elbridge G. Caswell, committee, at a cost of $453.
Various members of the precinct have in recent years left bequests for the general expenses of this parish. Among these are, Alice Meigs, Susannah P. Dexter, Lemuel LeBaron, William B. Rogers, Nathan H. and Mary Barstow, Francis LeB. Mayhew, and Stephen Randall. The deacons of the church chosen since 1864 have been Arvin Cannon, 1868-85; James Cannon, 1885-87; William B. Rogers, 1887-94; Elliot R. Snow, 1894 -; J. Charles F. Atsatt, 1894-1905; Thomas L. Ames, 1904-06; Nathan Smith, 1905 -; Dr. David H. Cannon, 1906 -. This church, January 1, 1907, had seventy-three members. Sarah E. C. Hathaway has for some time been treasurer, and Elliot R. Snow, Dr. Walter E. Blaine, and Dr. Irving Niles Tilden, are the Precinct Committee in 1907.
Not quite ten years after minister LeBaron was in- stalled at Mattapoisett, a young man of twenty-six was called and settled over the Baptist church in Dartmouth. His name was Daniel Hix, and the region about his meet- ing-house soon became known as Hixville. His father was Elder John Hix, of Rehoboth, and at his house there, three quarters of a mile south of Oak Swamp Meeting- house, Daniel was born, November 30, 1755. As a boy he was a leader in mischief; as a youth a minute-man for Lexington alarm; and as a man, Elder Goff, in the "Herald of Gospel Liberty," said of him: "Father Hix was one of the most popular Baptist ministers in Massachusetts. The evidence, aside from the unanimous verdict of his
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contemporaries, exists in the following facts, - first, large congregations, including many of his orthodox neighbors, everywhere waited on his ministry. Second, he collected in a rural and sparsely settled community a church of more than five hundred members. Third, his inter- position to settle difficulties. And fourth, when seven or eight years later he left the Baptists and united with the Christians, his, whole church accompanied him. He had then been submitted to inquisitorial examination and pronounced heterodox. This only increased his popu- larity."
His sermons are said to have been long, often two or three hours, and although not carefully prepared, so re- markable for strength and originality of thought, so prac- tical and full of the Holy Spirit, that his hearers never tired. Elder George N. Kelton remembered Elder Hix, and said: "I was at a conference of ministers at Swansey, in September, 1830. The impressive services of the day were about to close, a feeling of deep interest pervaded the audience, when an aged man, of medium height, com- pact muscular build, broad chest and shoulders, short neck, bushy iron gray hair, heavy beetle brows and broad swarthy features, slowly arose in the pulpit, ejaculating, 'When the lion roars the weaker beasts tremble, eh ? The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has roared to-day, and there is an awful trembling in the camp.' In the man I saw a lion type, and in his words heard Judah's lion in princely right and dignity." 1
Elder Hix especially excelled as an organizer of churches.
1 A Sketch of Elder Daniel Hix, with a History of the First Chris- tian Church in Dartmouth, by S. M. Andrews, New Bedford, 1880. Page 22.
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In 1806, July 27, baptized in Rochester, Thos Sherman. 1807, Micah Winslow, Hannah Winslow, Deborah Shearman. In Rochester, 11th August, at the Shore, a precious season, Medad Cannon, Thos. Kinney, Mary Studson, Susannah Frasher, Penney Beck and Eliz. Dunham were baptized. Aug. 20, Joseph Whitridge. At Mattapoisett Harbour, a glorious Day, Aug. 25th, Anna Weston, Betsey Briggs, Polly Green, Mary Dexter, Arty Besse, Amelia Haskell, Abigail Briggs and Thankful Shearman were baptized. This was a time to be remem- bered. The next morning at the same place the Glory of God was evident, and four others were baptized, Seth Ames, Timo. Ellis, Edmund Beck (Buck ?) and Mollie Ellis. Sept. 9, at Rochester Shore, Thos. Ames, Asa Dunham, Ebenezer Fuller, Joseph Hammond, Betsey Haskell, Mary Dunham, Joa Hammond, Rocksa Haskell, Thankful Higgins, Joa Bowles, Lois Atsel (Atsatt ?) and Dolly Snow were baptized. A glorious work in this place, the Lord reigns marvelously, saints rejoice and sinners mourn. At Rochester Shore, Oct. 6th, the Lord leadeth and his people follow, - Nancy Hammond, Seney Ham- mond, Prudence Wilbur, Abigail Kinney, Joanna Dexter, Holder Gelatte were baptized. Also in Rochester soon after, Jos. Edwards, Benj. Perkins, Judah Perkins, Lucy Haskell, Polly Haskell, and Abigail Skiff.
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