USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Memorial history of the First Baptist Church : Watertown, Massachusetts. 1830-1930. > Part 6
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October 8, 1865, it was voted : "That the deacons be instructed to obtain unfermented wine for the use of the Sacrament if such an article can be obtained." By such action the church proved the sincerity of its coven- ant obligation : "To deny worldly lusts." Unfermented wine, or its equivalent, was obtained and such wine has been used, without repeal, by the church at each monthly celebration of the Holy Supper.
No one in his right mind, who ever saw saloon days in Watertown, could work or wish for the legal return of any institution where liquor of an intoxicating con- tent could be sold. The memory of those manhood- wrecking, civic-corrupting, prosperity-undermining, saloon influences is a horrid night-mare.
Cleaning up Watertown has been a long, holy war- fare in which her finest citizens have triumphed. The "Total Abstinence Society," "Reynold's Reform Club.
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Movement," "Law and Order League" and "Anti- Saloon League" followed each other in aggressive suc- cession and, in the van of these forces, the manhood of the Baptist church was never found wanting.
February 15, 1870, Hiram McGlauflin was received by letter and January 2, 1885, James H. L. Coon was baptized into the membership of the First Baptist Church. The town owes these two Baptist laymen an unpayable debt. They were bitterly assailed, viciously attacked, intimidated and threatened by the saloon element and its friends, but they could not be stopped.
They worked long hours to obtain evidence; pre- sented that evidence in such a manner as to win the open praise of the courts; and obtained for themselves a reputation for unbribable integrity. No raids under their supervision were ever tipped off in advance.
They lived to see a saloonless town and to receive high public honors at the hands of grateful citizens.
McGlauflin became Chief Engineer of the Hollings- worth and Whitney Mills, while Coon served the town as selectman, represented the town in the General Court and won a long term of service as a member and inspec- tor of the Massachusetts State Police.
Sunday, March 6, 1892, the following resolutions were adopted unanimously by the 304 men and women who attended the morning service at the Watertown Baptist Church.
"Whereas the indications are that the "World's Fair" to be held in Chicago, in 1893, will be open on Sunday : therefore-Resolved-that we the undersigned citizens
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of Watertown, State of Massachusetts, believing it to be contrary to the Law of God and man : do earnestly protest against the opening of the same, or any part of it, upon the Sabbath."
"Whereas the local directory of the World's Fair has decided that the Saloon be a part of it, therefore- Resolved-that we the undersigned, believing it to be a shame, that the nation, known as the representative Christian nation of the earth, should become a partner in such immorality, do earnestly protest against the sale of liquor on the Fair Grounds, either on the Sab- bath or week day."
In the initial stages of this warfare against the saloon, women could only pray and plead, but they reached God's ear and men's hearts with their petitions and persuasion. They helped to quicken the public con- science when righteousness was at stake.
When man's help-meet came into her suffrage rights she joined praying power with constructive militancy. W. C. T. U., ceased to remain contemned initials : they were transformed into a hard-hitting slogan : "Women Can Triumph Universally."
God has never been without a Deborah when a Barak has flunked and 1930 Flunkers need to re-read history.
Mrs. Henry W. Peabody, a former member of this church, is one of the recognized leaders of Law En- forcement in America. In the 1930 hearing at Wash- ington, before the Congressional Committee, she was an outstanding champion of the Constitution. Her uniform courtesy, untiring energy and brilliant mastery
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of temperance facts won for her a right to be considered for the next woman's place in the National Hall of Fame. Mrs. Mattie Crawford, a direct descendant of the John Coolidge whose generosity and devotion crys- tallized Baptist interests in Watertown, is an active supporter of the First Church at the present time. As a member of the Massachusetts Woman's Committee for Law Enforcement and associated with Mrs. Pea- body on its Executive Committee, she has been an ardent co-worker in the present crisis that threatens to try men's souls.
Such Deborahs cheer the heart of every liberty-lov- ing, clean-living, unselfish-sharing, man and woman in America.
Early in 1921 the church showed that it was keenly alive to one of the greatest evils of all time and that it was anxious to learn the attitude of those who would represent it at the General Court.
February 28, 1921.
Mr. E. K. Bacon, Clerk First Baptist Church, Watertown, Massachusetts,
My dear Mr. Bacon :-
Replying to yours of the 22nd with enclosed record of vote of your church societies, usually I reserve my opinion on legislation until I can hear both sides, but there are exceptions to every rule and the matter of prohibition is one of them.
No man or woman who has the best interests of this country at heart, will either by voice or vote, do any- thing which will put before the people poisons in any
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form. Please assure my friends that I will voice their sentiments in every way. We want to keep this stuff away from the rising generation.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
House of Representatives.
Cordially yours, GEORGE H. DALE.
Here is the Oath of the Young Men of Athens. "We will never bring disgrace to this, our city by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffer- ing comrades in the ranks.
We will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city laws and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those above us who are prone to an- nul, or to set them at naught; we will strive unceasing- ly to quicken the public sense of civic duty.
Thus in all these ways we will transmit this city, not only, not less, but greater, better, and more beauti- ful than it was transmitted to us."
The voting membership of the Watertown Baptist Church have made that ancient oath, in reality, their century aim of civic conduct.
The Twentieth Century forces of righteousness have nothing to fear while such allies are pledged in Solemn Covenant to keep step with an Advancing God.
Church Discipline. July 18, 1830. The church adopted a Covenant, a really remarkable document, that has served the church for a century. It is read to-
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day at every Communion all the members standing. Here is one section : "We solemnly covenant with each other * to exercise a Christian care and watchful- ness over each other, and, as occasion may require, faithfully admonish and entreat one another."
Article XVII of the By Laws refers to this section : All matters of discipline shall be referred to the Ad- visory Committee who shall prefer charges before the whole church if they deem it advisable."
Remembering the words of Jesus: "Go and sin no more," and the admonition of Paul: "Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted," the church, in a "Spirit of Meekness," has ever sought to exercise a spiritual oversight of its members. The sturdiness and steadiness, of the major portion of its membership, might be listed a century church asset of real character value.
For the first fifty years of church history the Advi- sory Committee was kept busy dealing with a variety of religious lapses.
Members were "admonished and entreated" for such flagrant direlections as these : Profanity, Immor- ality, Drunkenness, Theft from Employer, Failure to report for fifteen years and for "imbibing the pernici- ous errors of spiritualism." Others were dropped be- cause they had joined Pedo-Baptist Churches-Swed- enborgian, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and Advent.
Worldliness, Failure to keep the tongue from evil, and "Expressing opinions and sentiments widely diver- gent from those we consider of sacred and vital impor- tance," form a third group.
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One enlisted in the Mexican War and never came back, a second did not like the minister, a third did not believe a minister should preach from notes. One woman was ahead of her time: "She did not believe it was right to exclude any Christian from the Lord's table and consequently did not feel at home in a Bap- tist Church." Another stated bluntly that, "She felt no interest in religion, nor in the affairs of this church. She had attended dancing parties and should continue to attend them and wished her name erased from the church list."
There were few Church Covenant and Business Meetings where some name was not under fire. This constant recurrence of admonitory reports may account in part for the oft repeated entry in the earlier records : "We are sorry to report a low state of spirituality among us."
Life in a small church, in a small town, at a period when hours of labor are long and hard, when books are scarce, newspapers seldom read, magazines un- known, transportation difficult and modern inventions are in the dream stage, is bound to be a circumscribed life. Such limitations are liable to produce morbid introspection and make religious expression the keep- ing of a few rules. "Thou shalt not" is made more vital than "Follow me."
The church records for the past fifty years are dom- inated by a broader outlook and couched in that happy phrase : "We are glad to report."
The original covenant is still read in the Watertown Church and Article XVII abides unchanged. Names of members are still erased and dropped. But religious
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education, training and inspiration, with cooperative endeavor, are supplanting "Admonition and Entreaty" and this is the resultant fruitage: Church membership is being translated in character building terms, while vital programs of religious activities are helping the "Children to guard what the Sires won".
Memorial Window. In the American Architect and the Architectural Review, Mr. Joseph G. Reynolds Jr., has published an exceedingly valuable series of articles on "Modern Stained Glass." He states that at the dawn of the Nineteenth Century the art of glass paint- ing was at a very low ebb. Then he traces the develop- ment of the art through a hundred years of commer- cialism, incorrect conception, and poor craftmanship to the dawn of the Twentieth Century when the great traditions of the past began to express themselves in a modern revival of the noblest art.
Mr. Reynolds is a member of the firm of Reynolds, Francis and Rohnstock from whose Boston studio mod- ern masterpieces are being shipped to the Riverside Church, New York.
Mr. Reynolds also refers to modern stained glass as "Decorated Light." The church window is not a color- ful expedient to fill up openings in the walls, it is a decorative treatment of light.
We are glad to quote this happy comment on Mr. Reynold's phrase : "Long before Jesus accompanied to Calvary and to a cherished place in the hearts of men the instrument of His death, it was written of old time that God had said : "Let there be light." The people of Israel through many generations repeated at devo-
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tions the words of their Psalmist, "The Lord is my Light." Isaiah, the prophet, visioned the delivery of the Captives of Babylon with the promise that "The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light".
Light means life and life is the expression of Har- monious, Universal Law. A stained glass window when it is well conceived arranges this natural symbol of the Life Giver into symphonic color patterns that suggest a transcendent beauty not of this world; the profound beauty that must have been in the thoughts of the master when He said: "I am the light of the world".
It is fitting that the First Baptist Church of Water- town, as it faces its new century should have added to its worship equipment a beautiful example of "Deco- rated Light," designed and executed by Earl Edward Sanborn.
For historical record we add, the Foreword to the Commemorative Booklet, written by Charles Lyon Seasholes.
FOREWORD
The Mary Louise Holt Memorial Window was un- veiled with appropriate exercises at the First Baptist Church, Watertown, Massachusetts, December the thirtieth, nineteen hundred and twenty eight.
The window is the gift of Mr. Rollin L. Holt, of Belmont, in memory of his wife, who was for many years a devoted and beloved member of the First Bap- tist Church of Watertown. To the munificence of his first gift, Mr. Holt now adds the generous provision for the publishing of this commemorative booklet.
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The addresses delivered at the service of unveiling by Mrs. Holt's pastor, Rev. Charles Lyon Seasholes, and by her former pastor, Rev. Charles Hoben Day, D. D., are published in the order of their delivery.
At the suggestion of Mr. Holt, the addresses on the "Window" which were given by the pastor on Sunday evenings following the unveiling, are included." Easter Sunday, 1929. CHARLES LYON SEASHOLES
What better investment could the church make as it works out its worship program in the New Century than to place a companion window in the northern sec- tion of the Main Auditorium and add, from time to time, other examples of "Decorated Light" that shall portray worship in the "Beauty of Holiness".
The World War. During the carnival of interna- tional horror that left its stain upon the opening years of the Twentieth Century, "Somewhere in France," "Killed in Action," "Missing," and "Buried in France," became gripping household phrases in the homes of America. The holy pilgrimage of "Gold Star Mothers" to their sleeping dead adds a pathetic note to this centennial year and calls for a fresh review in this Memorial volume of our own share in the cost of war.
From the Yale Review we quote these tender stan- zas in our tribute to those who paid the sacrifice and to those who providentially returned.
"Graves in France"
Their fate shall be a song, a schoolboy's wonder, For many a day-
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O, the red treasure we have buried yonder, So far away!
O, the poor, panting love that must go weeping Through bloody foam,
To find the soldier in his glory sleeping, So far from home.
France, we have loved thee! But beyond all measure, Our love shall be,
Since in thy bosom we have hid our treasure Of agony.
November 1, 1918. The church appointed a War Committee consisting of W. D. Gooch, chairman and the following associates: Mrs. John Vivian, Mrs. W. D. Gooch, Mrs. Walter Cooper, Mrs. Leslie Powers, Miss Edna Smith and Miss Stella Morse. One of the chief duties of this committee was to keep the church in touch with our boys who were in camp and at the front.
The Church Calendar for May 1918 announced that seven members of the Boy Scout Troop had won the Congressional Medal for selling Liberty Bonds.
Charles Thompson, Walter Fairbanks, Lloyd Ray- mond, Alvah Howard, Ernest Redding, Wilfred Rund- lett and George Wiseman.
The Watertown church gave her sons, her service, her sympathy and her sacrifice when called upon to prove her faith in America by her deeds.
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OUR HONOR ROLL
Enlisted in the United States Service
Laurence W. Bent
Donald H. Lucas
Harold E. Burnham
G. Waldo Livermore
William A. Bruce
Hiram H. McGlauflin
George A. Bishop
Oliver R. Milton
Frederick C. Crawford
Richard B. Carlton
Burpee Milton Harold F. Moore
Basil S. Collins
Walter K. Moore
James H. Coon
Richard F. Mooney
Edward R. Critchett
Charles O. Chase, M. D.
Arthur L. Morse Walter L. Mayo
Leon Caragulian
Robert B. McDonald
Ulmont M. Carlton
Arthur D. McClellan
Alexander D. Campbell
Will Carlton Niles
Bela Dudley
Gordon S. Pinkham Bagdassar Piligian Robert Proctor
Harold E. Hales
Fred G. Harmon
Robinson Parlin
Carl Howard
Randall H. Quessy
Edward C. Jackson
Irving Benson Rich
George H. Lord
C. Everett Ross
George Rafuse
Joseph V. Thompson
Winthrop G. Rockwell
James H. Towle
George H. Wiswall, Jr.
George Wilson
Ralph H. Wing
Enoch D. Saunders
Harry H. Weeks
Paul N. Swaffield
Joseph W. Zwicker
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Albert W. Rockwell Truman H. Safford Basil F. Shovelier
Ralph Hunnewell
THE SECOND BUILDING, 1858 Located on site of first edifice.
Watertown Baptist Church
Enlisted in S. N. T. C. - S. A. T. C.
Theodore Arms
Ernest Macurdy
Ernest Buffum
Edward Morris
Ralph P. Colby
Everett C. Pinkham
Arthur C. Clark
Richard H. L. Skinner
William C. Rugg
Ronald M. Stone
Nathan Drake
Karl E. Westcott
Red Cross - Y. M. C. A. - Allied Service
Eunice M. Buzzell
George R. Merriam
Maud G. Caldwell
Francis A. Rugg
Dorothy P. Fuller
Elliott G. Vivian
H. de Anguera
Those Who Paid the Price
Harold E. Burnham Will Carlton Niles
Harold E. Hales Irving Benson Rich
Killed in Action Joseph U. Thompson
The following prayer, written in a little psalm book, was found on the body of Joseph Thompson, at Hau- mont, France, a wonderful supplication of a Water- town Baptist boy: "I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within. This is my most earnest prayer. Most of us, I believe, will see home and friends again. If we do, how many will curse every drink they have taken, every oath they have uttered, every shameful thing they have committed here. Such things threaten my stripes, my discipline, my popularity, and my ad- vancement. These four things are temporary, "The Clean Within" is permanent and is greater than all of
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these temporal things ... anyway after, before, pre- sent, or at any time, I despise all ungodly things. My real inner self resents them. For the love of father, mother, relatives and many friends, I despise them. Again for the love of God ... I despise what God despises."
Joseph Thompson was not the only "Knight of the Beautiful Within" that America sowed in Flanders Field.
Called to render varied service during the World War, your historian, facing the corruption that Thomp- son faced keenly on the battle front, wrote these lines as he brooded over the cost of war.
The chalice of unrealized affection,
The unborn babies waiting for their call. Unwritten poems, a marvelous collection, Orations that could stir a bugle call, Can never form an asset of our life, Mars, took such treasures, when he started strife.
J. E. N.
Out of the waste and welter of destruction comes an insistent demand for a warless world and the Water- town church, May 21, 1921, placed itself on record, by a unanimous vote, in favor of the limitation and reduction of armament.
Here is a creed to which we do well to pledge our allegiance, as a nation, as with blood stained garments we face a new century.
I. We believe in a sweeping reduction of arma- ments.
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II. We believe in international law, courts of jus- tice and boards of arbitration.
III. We believe in a world-wide association of nations for world peace.
IV. We believe in equality of race treatment.
V. We believe that Christian patriotism demands the practice of good will between nations.
VI. We believe that nations, no less than individu- als, are subject to God's immutable, moral laws.
VII. We believe that people achieve true welfare, greatness and honor through just dealing and unselfish service.
VIII. We believe that nations that are Christian have special international obligations.
IX. We believe that the spirit of Christian brother- hood can conquer every barrier of trade, color, creed and race.
X. We believe in a Warless World and dedicate ourselves to its achievement.
The Dead in France challenge the Living in America to complete, in the unselfish dedication of our powers to the cause of World Peace, what they dedicated with their blood amid the smoking trenches of No Man's Land.
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CHAPTER VII
SOME MOULDERS OF LIFE IN THE CENTURY
D EACON JOHN COOLIDGE, a farmer, and the son of a farmer, was grandson of that Coolidge who was the only representa- tive of Watertown among the dead at Lex- ington. He was a man of marked ability, making his tilled land fruitful above the average. He was a man of sterling qualities, a good father and a good citizen. He had a strong religious nature; he was anxious to assist in building up the Baptist faith; he was the largest giver to the erection of the first meet- ing-house.
Here is a pen sketch of an eye witness in 1870: “On a very warm Sunday morning Deacon Coolidge came into church, carrying his coat on one arm, and in the other hand a wooden container, like a peck measure, in which was the Communion loaf for that day." The artist adds: "That tall, gaunt, severe, puritan figure was never forgotten."
His characteristics are still regnant in the lives of his descendants, some of whom, Mrs. Annie Davenport, Mrs. Mattie Crawford, Mrs. Emma Rugg, and Deacon Calvin Crawford are still members of the Watertown church.
Deacon Josiah Stone, was a cousin of David Stone, grandfather of the Stones so well known in Watertown.
He lived in the house, afterwards called the Dudley House (his daughter having married a Dudley), on Grove Street adjoining the old grave yard.
Deacon Stone was a middle aged man of a mild and sunny disposition but a man of ability and good
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judgment. By occupation he was a shoemaker and all the children thought his little shop was the best place to visit and they were always welcome. He loved the children and was much loved in return and they came to him with the same trust and readiness that the chil- dren in Palestine came to Christ.
Deacon Stone was never absent from his place in the prayer meeting, or church. He served the church faithfully for twenty-eight years. There is a striking similarity between his life and that of the central fig- ure in the charming story : "Hiram Golf's Religion".
Over his grave might fitly be raised a monument like Golf's. "Josiah Stone Shoemaker by the Grace of God".
Deacon Jesse Wheeler was a dissenter from the Uni- tarian Church and a man of ability and character. In his stores in Newton and Watertown business was trans- acted on the level. He refused to stultify his con- science by selling rum a trade asset of his day. When he retired from business he had amassed a competency for his generation. His business successors were the Otis Brothers and that firm maintained a record of masterful integrity. It was at Deacon Wheeler's store that the early Baptists discussed many of the vital ques- tions of their day.
Deacon Wheeler at first resided in the old house erected in 1650, once a manse of the village church, and later built and lived in a new home built on ad- joining land. Both houses were later torn down to provide sites for St. John's Methodist Church and the block of residences adjoining.
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He was the first male baptized into the membership of the Watertown Baptist Church and was elected one of the first deacons.
John Tucker was a man of vigorous intellect who discussed, pro and con, the ripening Unitarian belief which was creeping into the early church, till he could no longer see his way clear to stay with them.
He went to Father Grafton at Newton Centre, with his sisters Martha and Eliza; here he helped the early Baptists in their first struggles.
Later himself, his son John, and his brother's son William, three generations, all in one day, were bap- tized in the river Charles and joined the Baptist Church. The sisters Martha and Eliza were faithful through sunshine and storm.
Several times their little Sunday School was bom- barded with stones yet the Tuckers were never daunted. They were cast in an heroic mould and to falter would be cowardice. Many of the sets of resolutions and pro- tests, written in our early church records, sprang from the deep convictions of these defenders of the evange- lical faith.
William Hadley Eaton was received by letter December 15, 1840, during the ministry of Rev. Nicho- las Medbury. January 16, 1843, the church voted to approve of his desire to fit himself for the gospel min- istry. After careful preparation he was ordained in Salem, served churches at Nashua and Keene, New Hampshire, and was Special Financial Agent for New-
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ton Theological Institution, New London Literary and Scientific Institution and Colby Academy.
His services were very effective both in the pastor- ate and on the field.
Luther Gustavus Barrett was born in Watertown December 5, 1838. The Watertown church voted to approve of his desire to fit himself for Christian work. September 12, 1865, he was ordained in the Watertown church. After serving a number of churches in the North, he was elected Professor at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, and later was made Presi- dent of Jackson College, Jackson, Mississippi, where he served with honor from 1894-1911. His labors on behalf of Negro education were very fruitful and the Watertown church is justly proud of her representa- tive in the Southern States.
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