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 6
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 6
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From the historical address of Rev. John P. Trow- bridge, the present pastor, given in 1903 on the 150th anniversary of this church, the following account of the church and its early pastors is chiefly compiled :
The first meeting-house in North Rochester stood about a mile westward from the present structure, in the north- west angle of the town. Its frame was raised November 17, 1748, with the sturdy exertion of many men, aided by some West India rum as the custom of the times demanded. It was a poor structure, built hastily because winter was at hand and a place of shelter for the ark of the Lord was sorely needed. Yet it was used for a place of worship a little more than forty years when its timbers were given to the man who would tear them down and carry them away, which lot fell to Mr. Abner Wood and his son Zenas.
In 1791 a second meeting-house was built on the site where a third meeting-house (the present structure) was erected in 1841. At the time of the building of the second meeting-house part of the parish wished it to stand on the lot formerly owned by Luke Perkins, near the Still- water Furnace, and timber was actually drawn there for the purpose. But others were not pleased with this ar- rangement and quietly carried the timber down to the present church lot.
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The church in North Rochester was organized in 1753, its first pastor being Rev. Thomas West, who was born at the Vineyard in 1708. He was a graduate of Harvard, and labored for some years at the Vineyard as a colleague Missionary before coming to Rochester. He was a good clerical scholar, and fitted several young men for the ministry. He is also described as having "apostolical simplicity of manner," and being "devoted to the proph- ecies." Two of the sons of Minister West attained dis- tinction in the ministry, one of them, Rev. Samuel West, having been the pastor of the Hollis Street Church, Bos- ton. Rev. Thomas West died in 1790, and was buried in one of the old graveyards of North Rochester, where his epitaph, blurred and broken, reads:
"Weep ye, my friends, for West is gone, His glass of time doth cease to run, His active tongue and virtuous heart Have ceased to act. They've done their part. Although he's gone he yet does live, His soul immortal does survive. He's now disrobed of earthly clay, And shines in one eternal day."
The second minister of North Rochester Precinct, 1791-3, was Rev. David Gurney, of whom the only men- tion in the church record is found in the following minute :
"Marcus Morton and Polly, son and daughter of Nathaniel and Polly Morton, were baptized Sept. 11, 1791, by Rev. David Gurney." The chief interest in this record, however, lies in the fact that the said Marcus Morton, who was born in the Middleboro part of this precinct, when grown to manhood became the Governor
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of Massachusetts, gaining his election by a majority of one vote.
The third pastor of the North Rochester church was Rev. Calvin Chaddock, who had studied theology with Dr. Emmons of Franklin, then at the height of his fame. The day of Mr. Chaddock's ordination, October 10, 1795, was an important one in the history of North Rochester. Dr. Emmons preached the ordination sermon, and in the words of one who was present, "The Solemnities of the day were performed." Before the service, the church met at the house of Mr. Zebulon Haskell (who lived by Great Quitticus Pond, on the site afterwards known as " The Roberts Place,") and adopted a new confession of faith which was "remarkable for its catholicity of spirit and brevity of statement, considering the habits of thought of that age."
Mr. Chaddock's pastorate was notable also for an "Academy" which he established at North Rochester, the first within the limits of the town territory. It did good work for a few years and drew some pupils from a distance, but came to an end at the close of Mr. Chad- dock's pastorate in 1805.
After this the North Rochester church went through a period of irregular preaching with two short pastorates of Rev. Ichabod Plaisted and Rev. William Utley, - until the coming of Rev. Isaac Briggs, whose long term of important service lasted from 1835 to 1857, during which the present house of worship was built, largely by Mr. Briggs's efforts in obtaining the funds. As this chapter deals with the precincts of Old Rochester, the shorter pastorates that have occurred since 1857 are not here followed.
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The Early Church and the Precincts .
After the withdrawal of the Mattapoisett, Wareham, and North Rochester members, the people of Rochester Center and Sippican remained together for many years as the First Precinct and First Church of Rochester. Mr. Ruggles continued to be the minister until 1768, when he died after a pastorate of fifty-eight years (his only pas- torate), during which 303 members were added to the church.
June 2, 1757, there was a solemn service in the meeting- house called the "Renewal of the Covenant," when Mr. Ruggles was assisted by the ministers of the other pre- cincts, and "16 females and 28 males attended the So- lemnity."
Although Mr. Ruggles was a man of peace, his last years were disquieted by a lawsuit, to which he was a party at the solicitation of his people, for the recovering of certain Ministry lands near the church which other persons were "improving," and which it was felt must be recovered "during the lifetime of our present minister." The land does not seem to have been recovered, but sev- eral generations later it was given back to the parish by the persons then holding it, and it is known to-day as " The Ministry Lot," lying just north of the church to the west of the North Rochester road.
On a large slate gravestone in the front of Rochester Cemetery one may read :
"In memory of ye Rev'd Timothy Ruggles, pastor of ye church in Rochester, who was an able Divine and a Faithful Minister. Having a peculiar talent at composing Differences and healing Divisions in Churches, he was much imployed in Ecclesiastical Councils and having spent his Days and his strength in the work of his Lord
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and Master finished his Course with Joy and departed this Life October ye 26, 1768, in the 84th year of his age and the 58th of his Ministry."
Minister Ruggles's successor in the First Church of Rochester was Rev. Jonathan Moore, ordained in 1768. He was a graduate of Harvard, and had been librarian of that college. Previous to his ordination also, he supplied for some months the pulpit of Brattle Street Church, Bos- ton, during the illness of Dr. Cooper, who attended his ordination at Rochester. His pastorate included the trying Revolutionary period, and on the alarm of Lexing- ton he joined one of the Rochester Companies as its chap- lain. It is said also that "he shouldered his musket and marched to Marshfield and also to Wareham during the Revolution."
The "half-way Covenant," adopted in many New England churches in the eighteenth century, began to influence Rochester church during the latter part of Mr. Ruggles's pastorate and was later supported by Mr. Moore. Perhaps this, as well as the religious decline under the infidel influence of France that was everywhere prevalent after the Revolution, had something to do with the disturbances that entered the First Church of Rochester during the last years of the eighteenth cen- tury, although the controversy seems to have been largely personal in its nature.
Mr. Moore was dismissed in 1792, but refused to recog- nize such dismissal, and for a while rival services were held in the meeting-house and in Mr. Moore's own dwell- ing. His name was taken from the roll of the church as well, but before his death in 1814 he was received back into the full communion of the church.
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The anonymous writer of 1815, previously quoted, says of Mr. Moore:
"He was a man of constitutional fearlessness of heart. The face of men in any garb had no terrors for him. - The latter days of Mr. Moore were embittered by dis- putes and lawsuits with his parish, finally issuing in his dismission. - He continued to preach to a part of the society more than two years in his dwelling-house, but in his closing years, renewed his communion with the church of which he had formerly been pastor. Mutual forgive-
ness of injuries is a Christian virtue strictly enjoined on all; in a peculiar manner those who make profession of the Christian name. It is proper to state that in 1794 when Mr. M. sued for arrears in salary, the Supreme Judicial Court gave the cause in his favour but the jury returned a verdict otherwise."
It seems probable that Mr. Moore had the technical rights of the case in his controversy with his church. Nevertheless, he was not, like Minister Ruggles, “skilled in the composing of differences." And the frictions of this period had something to do with the setting off of the Fourth Parish of Rochester in 1798.
Yet in the words of Rev. H. L. Brickett, "Mr. Moore was an able fearless and scholarly man." During the first part of his pastorate he did good service for the church in Rochester and his well-written records and other writings have real historic value. He is buried in Rochester Cemetery, and beside him lies Susanna, the wife of his youth. On another stone near by, one may read " In memory of Capt. Jonathan Moore, son of Rev. Jonathan Moore and Susanna his wife. He was master of the ship Newport of Boston and on his pas-
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. sage to London in Sept. of 1800 the ship foundered in a storm, when he with all the people on board, being upwards of 20, perished in the 30th year of his age.
God does the Raging Sea controul 'Tis He that rules the boisterous Deep, He makes the Sleeping Billows roll, He makes the rolling Billows sleep."
The second wife of Minister Moore was Anna, the daughter of Polypus Hammond of Mattapoisett, and some of the descendants of this second marriage are now there living.
About 1795 the people of Sippican, many of whom were opposed to Mr. Moore, began to hold preaching services in that part of the town. In 1798 the Fourth Precinct of Rochester was set off, and in 1791 a meeting- house (now the Luce store) was built in the lower village. One of the ministers who came to Sippican to preach during this period was Rev. Oliver Cobb, who proved to be a young man of promise and of power. The people of Sippican, however, had no desire to separate from the First Church, nor was either precinct desirous to assume the full support of a minister at that time. In 1799 the First Church of Rochester, made up of members of both precincts, extended a call to Mr. Cobb to be their pastor, the First Precinct agreeing that the pastor "should preach in the Fourth Precinct from a fourth to one half of the time." Practically, services were held alternately in the . two meeting-houses during Mr. Cobb's pastorate. The call was accepted and Mr. Cobb was ordained and took up his residence on the road between the two meeting- houses, though within the limits of the Fourth Pre- cinct.
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The account of the forming of the Fourth Precinct is more fully given by Mr. Holmes in 1821, as follows :
"In the first parish a great degree of unanimity pre- vailed until the year 1788, when an unhappy difficulty arose between the Rev. Mr. Moore the minister, and Major Earl Clapp a leading man in the church and parish. This difficulty though personal in its Commencement, very soon became general, and a more spirited controversy seldom if ever was known. This terminated in the dis- missal of Mr. Moore. In Feb. 1799 the Rev. Oliver Cobb was settled as the minister of that parish and of another parish in said town the origin of which will be narrated. -
"In the year 1798 a number of the inhabitants of the S.E. part of the 1st parish living remote from the place of publick worship, having built a meeting-house petitioned the Legislature to be incorporated into a distinct parish, - the first parish accompanying said petition with a certificate that they had no objection to the prayer of said petition. They were accordingly incorporated. These petitioners had no idea of settling a minister by them- selves but of joining with the first parish in settling one who should preach alternately in each meetinghouse. They accordingly joined in settling Mr. Cobb, as before mentioned, - but they have a church (i.e. a meeting- house) separately in said parish, and a considerable part of both parishes can attend each meetinghouse, the meetinghouses being only 4 miles distant from each other."
The following description of Rev. Oliver Cobb as well as that of Rev. Leander Cobb, Dr. Cobb's son and suc- cessor in the church at Sippican, is taken from an anni-
-
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versary sermon preached by Rev. H. L. Brickett of Marion in 1903:
" Rev. Oliver Cobb at the time of his coming to Rochester was 29 years of age, married, well fitted for the ministry and ready for service. In appearance he was slim, with a smooth face, medium height, and eyes as blue as the waters in Sippican Bay. He was a graduate of Brown University, from which he also received the degree of D.D. in 1834.
" Two churches, Rehoboth and Rochester, desired his services and he asked the advice of an Indian as to which he should accept. The Indian, Yankee-like, replied with a question, 'What are you going to preach for?' and added, 'If you are going to preach for money go where the most money is; if you are going to preach for souls go where the most devil is.' And he came to Rochester.
"In Mr. Cobb's family was a colored girl named Dinah, who was fond of Mr. Cobb and could not bear to hear him criticised. Once when some one had found fault with him in her hearing she burst forth, 'Anybody that talks about Dr. Cobb talks about a very wicked thing.' When Dr. Cobb heard of this he laughed and said, 'Dinah never spoke truer words.'"
With Mr. Cobb's coming to the First Church of Roches- ter, it entered on a period of much harmony and pros- perity. During this ministry there were three revivals of marked power, in 1807 and 1808, in 1816 and in 1819, and many new members came into the church in both villages.
In 1709 sacramental vessels were bought by the First Church for the "Harbour Meetinghouse." James Clark and Timothy Hiller were appointed deacons in that pre-
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cinct and thereafter the Communion Services were held alternately in the two villages. Thus by gradual steps there came to be virtually two fully equipped churches in the two parishes, though having the services of one minister in common.
It was the older and larger precinct that first grew tired of this arrangement and desired the entire service of a pastor. In 1827 Rev. Jonathan Bigelow was called to be colleague pastor with Mr. Cobb. The council called to install Mr. Bigelow being asked the question: "Is it expedient that this church be divided ?" replied that "It is expedient." So the church roll of members was di- vided, eighty-three members being assigned to the church in the First Precinct, and fifty-seven to the church in the Fourth Precinct, and Mr. Bigelow was installed as pastor in the First Precinct. Both churches were already fully equipped with officers, and the only change that occurred at this date was that the church at Rochester Center had a new pastor and both congregations now had services each Sabbath instead of on alternate Sabbaths.
Some discussion arose as to the names of the two churches, and some spasmodic and inconsistent attempts were made to call the two churches the Central and South Churches of Rochester, until the incorporation of Marion gave a natural distinction, as, the Congregational churches of Rochester and of Marion.
But in 1861 the following minute was placed on record by the church of the old First Precinct:
"Resolved: - that this church was originally incor- porated as the First Congregational Church of Rochester - and that this is our only legal name.
"Resolved: - that the title of the Central Church of
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Rochester by which we have sometimes allowed ourselves to be designated was only temporarily endured in con- sideration of the peculiar feelings of a former and beloved pastor now gone to his rest."
When the church of the First Precinct moved into its new house of worship in 1837, Dr. Oliver Cobb preached the last sermon in the old meeting-house where he had ministered for twenty-eight years as pastor, and the building was then taken down.
It seems entirely natural that Dr. Cobb, whose historic mind had done much to preserve and record the old church history of Rochester, ministering as he did to the day of his death in the same locality where he began his preach- ing and where his home was located, remembering also that within this precinct was the spot where the early settlers of the town first set up their altars of worship, should have clung to the old church name that for a whole generation had been applied to the church over which he ministered.
After all, the truest view of these church relations seems to be that the old First Church of Rochester, organized in 1703 on Rochester Green, has found its natural con- tinuance in five ancient sister churches occupying the five territorial divisions that from the first were the recog- nized "quarters" of the Old Rochester territory.
Between the years 1837 and 1845 all five of these Con- gregational churches thus formed out of the old First Church of Rochester had new houses of worship of similar architecture, for which Solomon K. Eaton of Mattapoisett was architect and builder. The one at Wareham was burned in 1904, and has been replaced by a building of different architectural style. The other four of these
MEETING-HOUSE OF THE FIRST PARISH Showing the Academy and Town Hall Building, Rochester Center
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meeting-houses are still in use. They all belong to what has been called the Third or Christopher Wren style of New England church architecture, though modified by the fact that all have square belfries instead of the usual pointed spire.
After 1827, when the churches in the First and Fourth Precincts had without reorganization gone on their sep- arate ways, Rev. Oliver Cobb continued with the church at Sippican as its pastor until his death in 1849.
In 1839 Rev. Leander Cobb became his father's col- league and later his successor. "He was a man of in- tellectual attainment and spiritual power, a graduate of Brown and of Andover, a gifted sermonizer and faithful pastor." Soon after his coming the new house of worship was begun, and its dedication and Mr. Cobb's installation occurred the same day, December 1, 1841. Rev. Leander Cobb was still the pastor of this parish when the Fourth Precinct of Old Rochester became the new town of Marion.
Meanwhile, in the old First Precinct the new pastor, Rev. Jonathan Bigelow, installed in 1827, also was doing a noble work for the church and parish. He served for many years on the School Committee of the town, and was perhaps the most influential factor in the establish- ment of Rochester Academy (opened in 1839), which was for a generation a most potent educational force in the town. He also had much to do with the building opera- tions that produced within a few years, the church, acad- emy, and parsonage at Rochester Center. Mr. Bigelow was a man of intellectual power and held in a marked degree the affection and respect of his people. He was dismissed in 1849 and was succeeded by the Rev. Eli
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Harrington, who was pastor in the old First Precinct at the time of the division of the towns.
But the sketch here given of the old precincts of Roches- ter would be very incomplete unless mention is made of other church organizations that grew up in the various parishes during the century and three quarters that com- prised the old town history.
The first form of faith other than that of the legal parishes to find entrance into Rochester was that of the " Friends or Quakers." Meetings for worship among the Friends were begun in Rochester as early as 1702. In 1707 a preparative monthly meeting of Friends was started, this being subordinate to the regular monthly meeting at Apponegansett or Dartmouth. A meeting- house was built which stood for many years close beside the pound in North Marion. The burying-ground opposite the Methodist Church in the same vicinity is still known as the old Quaker burying-ground. About 1740 the relations of this preparative monthly meeting were transferred to the monthly meeting at Sandwich.
In 1790 the rates of church taxes in Rochester by a vote of the towns were remitted to those "of contrery judgment who are professed Quakers." The chief minister or public speaker of this old Friends' Society was Nicholas Davis, who was a man of ability and in- fluence. After 1740 his membership was in the Sandwich monthly meeting. He died in 1755 while on a journey in New York State.
The writer of 1815 previously quoted says of his own era, "The Friends of whom there has ever been some in the place, have a meetinghouse not far from the shore. There may be fifteen families now in the town."
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Regarding the conditions of the Friends in Rochester in 1821, Mr. Holmes writes :
"In the N. W'ly part of the town are a number of the denomination of Quakers and attend religious worship in the northerly part of Fair Haven. About 2 miles S. easterly from the center of the town stands an Ancient Friends Meetinghouse [near the Pound, in North Marion]; but the society has for a great number of years been gradu- ally decreasing, and about 5 yrs since their publick speaker died at an advanced age, and it was thought the society would become extinct; but about that time a young gentleman who had recently assumed a religious charac- ter embraced their religious sentiments, altered his dialect and dress accordingly; resigned his commissions as a justice of the peace and a captain of the militia, joined their society and became a publick speaker. This event has had a considerable effect on the Society. If it has not increased their numbers, it has called the lukewarm into activity, has brought to the meeting occasionally many of the leading people of that denomination from New Bedford and Fairhaven and has brought to attend meeting some who before that were contented with their private devotions at home and will doubtless be the means of perpetuating the Society."
The society was perpetuated, and now holds meetings in the white meeting-house in Mattapoisett on the road between Mattapoisett village and Marion.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Baptist faith began to spread rapidly in the southeast part of New England, largely through the preaching of Elder Backus of Titicut, who became the historian of the Baptist churches. According to Mr. Backus, a Baptist church
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was established in Rochester in 1793. But the organiza- tion referred to seems to be the one that now worships in Long Plain, which had a large Rochester membership in its earlier years.
The only Baptist society now within the limits of Old Rochester is in Mattapoisett, at first as a branch of the church at Long Plain. After a time the members be- came divided in opinion, and various attempts were made to start a Freewill Baptist Church, or some other kind of Baptist organization - but with only temporary effect. The church was reorganized several years ago - as a "Church of the Christian Connection." Another " Christian Church" was started about the middle of the nineteenth century near Cushman's store in Rochester. But after a few years this was disbanded.
In the article of 1821, Mr. Holmes writes :
"A very considerable part of the inhabitants of this town are Baptists or Quakers, but Catholicism so far prevails that no considerable inconvenience arises there- from. In the election of any kind of officer, no attention is paid to the particular denomination of Christian to which the candidate belongs. An incorporated Baptist Society is in the S. W. part of the town who have a meeting- house. And a number more in the N.W. part of the town are incorporated with a Baptist Society in the northerly part of Fair-Haven. Most of the people of the north- easterly part of the town belong to a Baptist Society in Middleboro, and in the S. E'ly part of the town a number of Baptists have associated together."
About 1841-3 an Adventist movement, known as the " Miller Excitement," spread through New England, and had considerable influence in some parts of Rochester,
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especially among the Baptists, and a church was formed at Mattapoisett.
During the first half of the nineteenth century two Universalist churches were organized, in Sippican Lower Village and in Mattapoisett.
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