USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Memorial history of the First Baptist Church : Watertown, Massachusetts. 1830-1930. > Part 7
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David Downie was received twice by letter, January 3, 1862 and November 5, 1869. During these years, with the endorsement of the Watertown church, he was a student at Brown University and Newton Theo- logical Institution.
On graduation he became a representative of the American Baptist Missionary Union at Nellore, India, from December, 1873 - January, 1915, and at Coonoor, Nilgiri Hills, South India, from February, 1915, until the close of his earthly career.
As Missionary, Editor, Translator, and Historian his intellectual output won for him and the church he rep- resented high honors at the dawn of the Twentieth Century.
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John T. Blodgett was the oldest child of William A. Blodgett. His father served the church with great fidelity as clerk and S. S. Superintendent in the early 70's, and is one of the members of the "Old Folk's Party" photographed during Pastor Abbott's Ministry.
John was baptized, February 12, 1871, by Rev. G. S. Abbott. After a careful and thorough preparation he was admitted to the bar. He rose to a position of emin- ence in his profession, was known widely for his high moral character and, at the time of his death, he was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island.
William E. Farwell was born in Watertown at the Farwell Homestead opposite the Governor Gore Es- tate. He died at the family residence on Summer Street, his home for many years, December 13, 1928, at the advanced age of ninety-two years. At the time of his death he was the oldest male member of the Water- town church. The funeral services at the house were conducted by Pastor Seasholes and the Committal Serv- ice by his nephew, Rev. James E. Norcross.
Deacon Farwell was twice married. His first wife, Agnes Norcross, was a sister of James H. Norcross. She was a direct descendant of Richard Norcross who settled in Watertown in 1642.
Their three daughters Clara, Abby and Emma, the latter a present member of the Clarendon Street Bap- tist Church, Boston, were baptized by Pastor Capen during his fruitful ministry. The descendants of Clara and Abby are all identified with churches at Hancock, New Hampshire, and Winchester, West Roxbury, and
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Watertown, Massachusetts. Deacon Farwell was twice chosen clerk of the Watertown church in 1858 and 1865. In 1878 he was elected to the Board of Deacons where he served for a half century.
Deacon Farwell was active in Public Life and won a host of friends by his life of integrity and square dealing. For various terms he was Assistant Chief of the Watertown Fire Department, Tax Collector for the town of Watertown, Cashier of the Watertown Savings Bank, Treasurer of the Masonic Fraternity and Chap- lain and Chaplain Emeritus of Newton Royal Arch Chapter.
During its entire history the Watertown church has been noted for the character and steadfastness of its leaders.
Whittier might have had William E. Farwell in mind when he wrote:
"No duty could over task him, No need his will outrun ;
Or ever our lips could ask him, His hands the work had done."
William H. Pevear must be placed in a special class as a representative moulder of life. He was born on Irving Street, Watertown, in 1850, and has held an unbroken residence in the Old Homestead for eighty full years.
He was educated in the Watertown schools, began his business career with a Watertown firm, later be- came the Senior Partner of a Watertown firm, and is still interested in promoting, in Watertown, the sale of
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fuel that is both reasonable in price and reliable in quality.
With a goodly company of laymen, among whom were S. Henry Coombs, Howard Russell, Newell Tainter, Stillman March, and Herbert Bent, he was baptized, by Pastor Stubbert, into the membership of the Watertown Baptist Church and he has never be- longed to any other church. He is a permanent and not a flitting Baptist.
He was elected Deacon in 1899 and has served the church with rare fidelity for thirty-one consecutive years. On the death of S. Henry Coombs he was elected Treasurer, in succession, and for eleven years, through a period that made insistent and difficult demands, he served the church with such ability, that on his resigna- tion he received the cordial thanks of the membership and was presented with a fine Victrola as a tangible token of the esteem in which he was held. When Pastor Capen first came to Watertown he was William Pevear's right hand neighbor. Irving Street then might have been called Baptist Boulevard as a Baptist family lived in every house on the street.
It is interesting to record that Mrs. Nicholas Med- bury, the efficient partner of her husband in the out- standing pastorate of the first half century of the Watertown church, was a cousin of Mr. Pevear's mother. William Pevear was a member of the Build- ing Committee that supervised the erection of the pre- sent church edifice and gave, without stint, his best to that assignment.
He was one of the donors of the Parcel of Land deeded to the church in 1926 and thereby showed his
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faith in Watertown and in the future of the Baptist Church. For many years he has been a Watertown member of the Boston Baptist Social Union and a regu- lar attendant of its notable functions.
He is young at eighty, wears the same smile with which he always faced life's changes - enjoys with his talented wife the good will of the people they have served, and maintains a keen interest in the prosperity of the Watertown Baptist Church. Deacon Pevear might well say with Samuel: "I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord, and before his annointed".
Such men leave an indelible impress on a commun- ity; consciously and unconsciously they mould char- acter that abides.
Rev. James H. Earle was twice a member of the Watertown church and enriched its life for almost a quarter of a century. As a graduate of Amherst Col- lege he received a fine intellectual training and this was supplemented to a most productive degree through fellowship with Jesus Christ.
While a member at Watertown he served on the Boards of the Gordon Training School and the New England Evangelistic Association, was President of the New England Chinese Mission and Treasurer of the John Howard Industrial Home.
He was ordained in the Mesa Baptist Church, Pueblo, Colorado in 1909 and later, at Victor, Colora- do, occupied one of the most eminent pulpits in the world-altitude 10,000 feet.
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From Colorado he went to Pomona, California, where he supplied the Calvary Baptist Church during an extended absence of the Pastor. This was followed by a pastorate in El Monte, California, a four years residence in San Bernardino, California, and a final resting place in the Pomona Cemetery.
He died an honored representative of a Kingdom that recognizes neither latitude nor longitude in its boundaries of good will.
Mrs. Lydia B. Earle was the author of several relig- ious books and tracts and with her pen reached count- less hearts.
A single illustration will emphasize the extent of her influence. When she was eighteen she wrote the tract : "How I found Jesus" and asked God to bless its use. A friend to whom it was sent loaned it to a visit- ing missionary who asked permission to send it to a publishing house. The Dutch Reformed Church in New York published it and thousands of copies were sent to Soldier's Camps during the Civil War.
Later it was published by other houses on both sides of the sea. Seventy years after it was written, on the day of Mrs. Earle's funeral, her family received a let- ter from Assam stating that "How I found Jesus" had just been translated into Assamese for use in evange- listic work.
She lies in Pomona Cemetery by the side of her husband, but according to the Moffatt Translation of Hebrews: "By her faith she is speaking to us still".
Daisy G. Earle joined the Watertown church with her parents, on experience in 1891, and her young as-
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JUDSON AND HERBERT BENT in 1885
Watertown Baptist Church
sociates in the church will never forget her ability and consecration.
Removing to the Far West her talents found con- genial religious soil. She served Pacific Baptists as Secretary of the South Pacific District Woman's Bap- tist Home and Foreign Mission Society and became an expert in the use of Pageantry in Religious Education.
From one to five seasons she taught in the following schools of Religious Education : Asilomar, California, in Southern California Summer School of Missions, Ocean Park School of Methods, Chambersburg, Penn- sylvania, Northfield and Silver Bay.
She married Rev. Milton E. Fish, a son of the West Somerville Baptist Church, and a graduate of Newton Class of 1901. Rev. and Mrs. Fish are now leading the Baptist Church at North Uxbridge, Massachusetts, with rare success and devoting the generous overflow of their lives to the promotion of up-to-date religious programs in the Old Bay State. The North Uxbridge Church has just granted their Pastor and wife a leave of absence and May, June, and July of this Centennial Year will be spent in Europe and Palestine.
Eva Maud Earle was baptized by Pastor Capen, January 3, 1892, and was one of the notable group of young people who helped to spread the world influence of this historic church. For a time she was a teacher in the Congregational School at Matsuyama, Japan, where she was ever loyal to her best religious traditions. She was married in 1928 to Stephen L. Taylor, M. D., of Sherill, New York.
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The Rice Family shared in the Visions and Victories of several pastorates. Mr. F. H. Rice joined by letter during the ministry of Granville S. Abbott and for several years was the successful teacher of an Adult Bible Class. His wife was deeply interested in Mis- sions and on the death of her husband joined the teach- ing staff at Spelman University, Atlanta.
Jessie Rice was baptized in Charles River, June 3, 1877, by Rev. Herman Lincoln, D. D., an Interim Supply from Newton Theological Institution. Jessie became a second representative from the Watertown church to work for the uplift of the Colored Race, joined her mother at Spelman, and passed to her reward on her way home from the South, August 3, 1889. Lucy was received on profession of faith by Pastor Capen and in course of time became a third representative in the South. Virginia Union University has felt the uplift of her devotion to a great cause and, in Richmond, the church has a living exponent of the religion of Jesus Christ. Such families enrich the story of One Hundred Years.
W. E. Macurda. The ministry of four pastors, Capen, Grant, Day and Seasholes has been blessed and strengthened by the presence on official boards of Dea- con W. E. Macurda. On more than one occasion he has proved himself God's chosen vessel for leadership when critical hours have loomed in church and denom- inational life. The example of his unfailing courtesy, resourcefulness and faith, when new adventures chal- lenged religious attention, forms one of the high lights in a century's record.
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REV. GRANVILLE S. ABBOTT Pastor 1869 - 1877
Watertown Baptist Church
The recital of his attitude cannot be kept in a nar- row grove; his reactions were uniformly: "Lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes." That is why his name is found among the Trustees of the New England Baptist Hospital, on the Board of Managers of the Baptist Home, Vice President of the Boston Baptist Bethel City Mission Society, Trustee of Newton Theo- logical Institution, Ex-President of Baptist Social Union and State Campaign Director for Massachusetts for the New World Movement in 1920.
Deacon Macurda always wears a "Smiling Morning Face" where there are loads to lift and lives to save.
Miss Jennie Kinsman. In the old church a Chinese class was formed by Miss Ruth Macurda but the task proving too difficult, Miss Kinsman, with others, took over the work. Soon after moving into the new church three Armenians came to the morning service and were invited to remain for Sunday School by Supt. W. W. Rugg. Each was given a teacher, the plan pursued with Chinese pupils. The class grew and became entirely Armenian. From this small begin- ning an Armenian service was held at East Water- town, then a Sunday School was formed, meeting in a barber shop, a tent, a barn, and a home.
Miss Kinsman was appointed church visitor to the Armenians. At the genesis of her work there were thirteen homes, later one hundred and fifty. She con- tinued to visit the homes and attend the Sunday School under the auspices of the Federation of Churches. Now the Armenian work is flourishing under the Congrega- tional Board and carried on almost entirely by Ar- menians under Miss Riggs.
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In 1923 Miss Kinsman accepted a position as matron of a girls' cottage and in 1926 Mrs. Jennie Huckins became matron of a boys' cottage in the kindergarten of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Still doing with their might whatsoever their hands find to do.
Miss Lizzie Kinsman is one of the church repre- sentatives who has touched humanity at several vital points. In 1895, an urgent call came from Allendale, S. C., for a teacher in the Baptist Mission School, but no funds were available for passage. True to their original covenant the Baptists of Watertown appropri- ated fifty dollars and sent Miss Kinsman to meet this S. O. S. call.
After two and a half years that school was abandoned and Miss Kinsman was transferred to Beaufort, S. C., to help Mrs. R. C. Mather. Here she did a fine piece of constructive, pioneer work among colored folk.
From small beginnings she built up a profitable sale of clothing from barrels, from which profit fund some of the teachers' salaries are now paid. Two buildings were also erected from the proceeds of these barrel sales during the fifteen years Miss Kinsman was on the field.
The Mather School has grown and its standards have been raised each year and the Watertown Church, with its generous donations of clothing, has become a vital ally in the training of a race.
In 1914 Miss Kinsman went to the Perkins Institu- tion for the Blind, as a teacher, and she is daily mak- ing her influence felt on behalf of needy humanity.
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Frank S. Tolman was baptized March 6, 1887, by Pastor Capen. Later the church expressed its approval of his desire to study for the ministry. He entered Newton Theological Institution but did not finish his course, leaving to take up the study of medicine. After completing his medical course, he was ordained at the Baptist church in New Ipswich, N. H., and, on remov- al to Vermont, served with real leadership the Baptist Churches at St. Johnsbury and Randolph, Vermont.
At present he is a resident of New York and deeply interested in psychopathology and has become a con- sulting expert for an ever enlarging group of clients.
James E. Norcross is a direct descendant of Richard Norcross, who settled in Watertown in 1642, and was the village school master for forty-nine years.
He was born only a short distance from the Town Landing on the river Charles and here, in 1877, he was baptized by Prof. Heman Lincoln, D. D., of Newton Theological Institution.
He was graduated from the Watertown High School, Magna Cum Laude, and entered business in Boston where he spent eleven profitable years.
In 1890 he was elected General Secretary of the Y. M. C. A., and served the Watertown and Waltham Associations until called to become Pastor Capen's as- sistant in the First Baptist Church, Watertown.
During this period of service he took the prescribed courses in the Newton Theological Institution, was graduated in the Class of 1897, and ordained the same year in the First Baptist Church, Watertown. Fruit- ful pastorates followed at Marblehead, Amesbury,
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Jamaica Plain and Arlington, in Massachusetts, and in Pittsburgh, Pa.
For twelve years he was District Secretary in New England and New York of our National Societies and Field Secretary of the General Board of Promotion. During these years of secretarial activity he acquired a wide reputation as an enthusiastic and successful ad- vocate of Baptist enterprises. He became a life mem- ber of several fraternal orders and was a cordial and active promoter of business organizations in each place of residence.
On his retirement in 1929, after forty years of un- broken religious service, he was honored with an in- vitation to put in permanent form the historic facts that shine, like beacon lights, in the record of one hundred years of Baptist development in Watertown.
Mary Ella Norcross, née Sherman, was born in Al- bany, New York, and is a direct descendant of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence. She received her education in the Water- town Schools and was graduated with honor from the high school in the Class of 1880. For many years she was an assistant in the Watertown Public Library where she won a large circle of friends by her courte- ous attention to students' needs.
On June 4, 1888, she was married to James E. Nor- cross, in the old Sherman Homestead on Church Street, Watertown. The officiating clergymen were J. F. Lovering of the South Congregational Church, Worcester, her former pastor, and Rev. Edward A. Capen, of the First Baptist Church, Water-
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town. In 1890 she was baptized by Pastor Capen and has shared with her husband, in loyal and loving co- operation, his forty years of public, religious activity.
Mrs. Norcross has always been deeply interested in Woman's Mission Circles and Woman's Bible Classes and both of these vital departments of church organi- zation, because of her leadership, have flourished in the churches served by her husband. Mrs. Norcross has served with great acceptance on several of the Woman's Missionary Boards. She is also Past Presi- dent of the Boston Ministers' Wives Association, and the Woman's Baptist Social Union. In a constructive way she has helped to mould the life of womanhood during the last half century.
An only daughter, Miss Mildred Norcross, a mem- ber of the Teaching Staff of Mt. Holyoke College, her Alma Mater, is making her life count in the enrich- ment and guidance of the character forces of modern young womanhood.
The Crawford Brothers. Vermont made a notable contribution to Watertown citizenship when she sent two sons of Oramel and Catherine (Rothwell) Craw- ford to live with their uncle, Calvin Crawford, on the bank of the river Charles. The graceful tower of the Perkins Institution for the Blind marks the site of the old farm house on the Stickney Estate. The Crawford Brothers are direct descendants of Alexander Craw- ford, of Kilbirny, Scotland, one of the Scotch settlers of Donegal, after the Ulster confiscations of 1610. Their nearer ancestor, James Crawford, came to this country in 1726.
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Harry Alden Crawford was born in Guildhall, Vermont, June 28, 1852. In 1875 he came to Water- town and identified himself with his uncle in the lucra- tive business of market gardening and the sale of produce. Here he laid the foundations of business acumen and rugged honesty which later were trans- ferred to the promotion of other forms of business ac- tivity. About 1900 he engaged in the coal business in Somerville, in association with W. E. Macurda, and built up a large and successful business. Those who had dealings with him found him a man whose word was as good as a bond and whose works were pre-emi- nently chirstian.
He was baptized by Pastor Capen in 1878 and from 1919-1923 he honored the diaconate of the First Baptist Church. For forty-five years, in every elective capa- city he served the church with rare fidelity. He was one of the donors of a parcel of land presented to the church at the annual meeting in 1926.
September 25, 1923, Deacon Crawford "fell on sleep," leaving a widow, Katherine (Cummings) Crawford, and a daughter, Mrs. Catherine Wheeler, of Springfield.
"His works follow him" and his memory, in the church he loved, is as green and beautiful as the hills where he first saw the light of day.
Fred E. Crawford was baptized by Pastor Capen in 1878, and, through a long series of diversified serv- ices, he has kept in the van as an able son of the church.
On arrival in Watertown he devoted his powers to preparation for a professional career. On graduation
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from the Watertown High School and the Allen School, Newton, he entered Harvard University where he received his B. A. degree. After legal study he opened a law office in Boston and has practiced his pro- fession for a long term of years. On more than one occasion he has been honored by the courts with an ap- pointment as master auditor and commissioner.
February 15, 1888, he married Mattie Sturtevant Coolidge, a lineal descendent of John Coolidge, the 1830 Baptist whose generosity and devotion made pos- sible the first Baptist Meeting House.
Three sons, Calvin, Frederick and Ward Crawford are all members of the church that is facing the new century. Calvin and Frederick are proud to have won their degrees from their father's Alma Mater, and both are leaving a constructive impress on the develop- ment of their generation.
The Watertown Church has never had a more versa- tile and unwavering supporter of its varied activities. The association of Christian Workmen, later merged in the Y. M. C. A., the Men's Bible Class and the Bible School superintendency during Pastor Capen's régime found him in the van with new ideas and ag- gressive leadership.
There is no record of his membership in the choir, but he helped to write the libretto of the Cantata of Moses, a composition that has become historic, and good music has appealed ever to his aesthetic taste.
His historical notes, the out growth of an absorbing love for the facts of the past, have been of real value in the preparation of this centennial volume and he has
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given generously of his time and thought to a full reali- zation, in tangible form, of the story of one hundred years.
Mr. Crawford has been honored by the Town of Watertown with election as Moderator for many terms, with elections to the Mass. Legislature in 1878 and 1879 and, as Chairman of its Ter-Centenary Com- mittee, he presided with rare charm at the recent re- ception given the Massachusetts State Legislature, at which Ex-President Coolidge, Governor Allen and other officials were honored guests of the town.
Mr. Crawford was chairman of the Building Com- mittee when so much was at stake in the transition from the old to the new, and, in the "Contribution of the Church to the Century," he and his associates are given grateful, historic recognition. At present Mr. Crawford and his wife are deeply interested in the Foreign Mis- sion movement born in the heart of Mrs. Henry Pea- body and receiving her liberal patronage.
Christian manhood at its best, on parade and hard at work, aptly describes this promoter of the Baptist cause in Watertown.
The historian has erected an achievement frame work in this sketch to which much unwritten history could be added and, to an inner circle of friends, these unwrit- ten data would be as fragrant and fascinating as a rose garden in June.
Mrs. Henry W. Peabody.
George Eliot: in Book II, of the Spanish Gypsy, wrote this fine estimate of character :
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"A woman mixed of such fine elements
That were all virtue and religion dead
She'd make them newly, being what she was."
Mrs. Henry W. Peabody fits this happy phrasing to those who have met her casually, to those who have tested the hospitality of her inner home circle, and to those who have shared with her the perils of public, moral leadership.
With her magic wand of far-seeing consecration to Jesus Christ she has touched the open sores of the heathen world and there are signs of health in the sloughing tissues. With the same wand she is meeting the challenge of civilization's wickedness in "high places" and is watching it manoeuvre to reach cover before the storm of outraged suffrage breaks.
Being, "What She is," is no puerile masquerade, but an incarnation of constructive reality.
The First Baptist Church lists among its member- ship of one hundred years this noble exemplar of womanhood acceptable to God and feels a new sense of security, as to virtue and religion, while Mrs. Pea- body is among the leaders of this new century.
Hermon S. Pinkham finished his divine assignment as a "Moulder of Life" at high noon of a notable career. From boyhood he lived a triumphant and successful life. He met each fresh opportunity to do good con- fident and smiling. His life investments were uniform- ly profitable because he always took the tide "at the flood." He was ready for the call to assume the ruler- ship of "many things" because he had stressed so dili- gently the mastery of "few things".
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