USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > Memorial of the bi-centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, June, 1900 > Part 6
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Among the venerable men of my parish a generation since were MR. NATHAN STONE and COL. JAMES BROWN. I remember Col. Brown as a particularly young old man. He had served in the War of 1812 and had been commander of the Framingham Artillery Company. In all that was going on in the Town he felt a lively interest. He was ninety years old when he died in 1872 ; and I recollect that he was present in the Town Hall on the evening of that winter when I gave my first public lecture. It troubled him to learn that the 5
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lecture was a "labor of love " ; and he insisted on giving me fifty dollars for having delivered it. This was my first step to fame on the Lyceum platform, Fame being as Dr. E. H. Chapin once said, a word, the letters of which spell Fifty and My Expenses. The incident shows how much this very old man was interested in his pastor and in the work our village Lyceum was doing for the intellectual culture of the community.
Col. Brown's son, MR. JAMES W. BROWN is remembered here as a faithful public servant, having been school-teacher, selectman, representative and superintendent of schools. He was also Senior Warden of St. John's (Episcopal) Church.
The Second Warden of this Church was MR. ALEXANDER R. EsTY, a man of truly catholic spirit, beloved and honored by his neighbors and his fellow townsmen. We who knew him well prized him most for his attractive personal traits and for his noble character. His fame as an architect was widely extended and he rose to the very front rank of his profession.
Framingham has had other sons who have been lovers of art, distinguished as painters and as musicians. Among the latter I recall MR. W. FRANK HURD who departed from us so recently, and MR. JAMES O. FREEMAN. Mr. Freeman had won distinction in the musical profession; but for his friends the melodies of his deeds of kindness and his acts of thoughtful love were sweeter than any which he drew from the instruments he played so well.
Two other figures come at this moment from out the fading Past and stand very clearly before my mind ; an aged mother and the brilliant son of whom she was justly proud. That son was a Major General of the United States Army, MAJ. GEN. GEORGE H. GORDON; the mother, Madam Gordon as we called her, a venerable lady of the old school whom it was a privilege no less than a pleasure to meet. Her discourse was always as wise as it was affable. Of Gen. Gordon as a soldier and a contributor to the literature of our Civil War it is unnecessary to speak in this presence. His is certainly one of the most illustrious names in the annals of the Town, a brave and able officer, a devoted patriot, a just man. At the dinner given to welcome me to Framingham
Michael H. Simpson
Hon. and Rev. Peter Parker, M.D Maj. Gen. George H. Gordon
Former Distinguished Citizens of Framingham
Moses Edgell
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when I was ordained as Pastor of the First Parish Church Gen. Gordon was one of the speakers; and I remember his saying that if he should ever see anyone of my congregation asleep under my preaching he should certainly shy his hymn- book at him. The catastrophe never came; for, after such a warning both minister and people were sure to keep awake.
In connection with Gen. Gordon I may be permitted to say a word of his brother-in-law and my college classmate COL. HARRY B. SCOTT ( although I am not expected to speak of those who are still living). In the War of the Rebellion Col. Scott served as regimental and staff officer for four years, a gallant and distinguished soldier. Since the war his record as a railroad manager has been equally brilliant and honorable.
Another of my college mates who is now living is the REV. FREDERIC L. HOSMER, a native of Framingham, who has sent an original hymn to be sung at the Celebration on Wed- nesday. Mr. Hosmer is one of the most highly esteemed of our Unitarian ministers. As a writer of religious poetry he takes high rank; and his sacred songs are found in the Hymnals of all the churches.
If for a moment I may drop into verse let me say of him :
One of your number, less a priest than seer, Shines bright with those whose radiant names appear Among the lyric singers of the " Thought Of God "; and Christians of all names have sought Your Hosmer's hymns of love and hope and faith, The soul's sweet solace, both in life and death.
So long as the holy Church of God shall endure, such a singer of men's deepest trusts and longings is sure of an immortality of fame.
When I opened this gallery of verbal portraits I showed you first the picture of the venerable Col. Edgell. As I close let me give you two word pictures of men who were among the younger members of my parish in those days which I am calling to remembrance. These men are MR. E. FRANK BOWDITCH and Mr. George B. Brown. Mr. Bowditch belonged to a family of distinction and was himself
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a most attractive man. His greeting was always kindly and cordial. You felt that he was every inch a gentleman, one who bore without abuse that grand old name. His vigorous bodily health was but the sign and token of his clear mind and his earnest spirit. Both he and Mr. Brown were Presi- dents of the Middlesex South Agricultural Society.
MR. GEORGE B. BROWN came to Framingham in 1858 and was a resident of the Town until his death in 1897, a period of nearly forty years. In 1880 he represented the Town in the State Legislature. He was always a good citizen, a man of public spirit and of progressive ideas. In private life he was " one who loved his fellow-men." As some men have a passion for knowledge and some a passion for art so he had the passion for brotherly love. "He looked out and not in," and was ever ready to lend the helping hand. More than this : he sought out those whose lives he could gladden. His kind deeds were acts of a thoughtful good will. There was the beautiful adaptation of the gift to the special con- dition and need of the recipient. With the alms he gave himself, his personal thought, feeling and regard.
Had he lived he would have been deeply interested in this Anniversary Celebration. Some of you may recall the oration which he wrote for the dedication of the Memorial Library Building. These sentences from that address describe its author : "The true citizen is he who throws out by a genial glow some holy warmth that starts again the smouldering embers on many a desolate hearth; . he who stops, always stops to feed and succor the faint and exhausted. " There is a Memorial Hall whose walls age shall not crumble, nor time deface. In it are tablets whose chiselled letters are the names of
EARTH'S PAST NOBILITY."
An old German mystic believed that all human souls may be classified as belonging to one or another of four elemental temperaments. They are souls of fire, or of water, or of air, or of earth. The men and women whom I have summoned from the shadowy Past were not souls of fire - village Crom- wells, or Napoleons, or Joans of Arc, nor were they souls of
The Edwards Congregational Church
Saxonville Methodist Episcopal Church.
Erected 1879
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water, elusive and unstable as the billows of the sea. Nor yet were they souls of air among the mystics who have sung to the world the music of the ideal. Rather were they souls of earth, "Dear, steadfast, firm of root and sure of stay." Such souls are the jewels in the crown of the free Republic. They constitute the glory of the State and are the hope of the Church. They are also the pledge that "the human heart by which we live" can be trusted to build up, story upon story, as the generations pass, the fair structure of a noble civilization.
A SEER'S VISION OF THE FUTURE.
Rev. Dr. Emrich in his address on "A Seer's Vision of the Future " depicted with great interest and power what, in his view, would be the results effected in the coming century by the religious forces now working in the world, as shown in the light of the progress made during the past two hundred years. The address was not written out and so cannot be here given, but his closing words were : - " I would like to live a hundred years from now and see the unity as the out- growth of the Divine Spirit in men. Unity will become the spirit of the age. God has been wonderfully good to this dear old town and Framingham in the future will be pros- perous as in the past."
MINISTERS OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH.
REV. JOHN SWIFT,
Ordained Oct. 8, 1701 - Died April 24, 1745. REV. MATTHEW BRIDGE,
Ordained Feb. 19, 1746- Died Sept. 2, 1775.
REV. DAVID KELLOGG, D.D., Ordained Jan. 10, 1781 - Died Aug. 13, 1843. REV. GEORGE TRASK, .
Ordained Sept. 15, 1830- Dis. April 6, 1836. REV. DAVID BRIGHAM,
Installed Dec. 29, 1836- Dis. May 9, 1844.
.
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REV. INCREASE NILES TARBOX, D.D.,
Ordained Nov. 22, 1844 - Dis. July 2, 1851. REV. JOSEPH CONNOR BODWELL, D.D., Installed June 30, 1852 - Dis. Nov. 5, 1862. REV. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D.D.,
Installed Feb. 19, 1863-Dis. Sept. 1, 1867.
REV. MINOT JUDSON SAVAGE, D.D., Installed Jan. 23, 1868 - Dis. April 8, 1870.
REV. LUCIUS ROOT EASTMAN, Installed June 8, 1871.
GRACE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
Members of the Sunday Schools of South Framingham gathered here in large numbers for a Union Service.
The following is the
ORDER OF SERVICE.
1. SERVICE PRELUDE. Grand Chorus. Th. Dubois.
2. ADDRESS OF WELCOME. E. W. Lamson, Supt. of Grace Church Sunday School.
3. HYMN. "America."
4. RESPONSIVE READING. Psalm 1xvii, led by Supt. Carpenter of the Presbyterian Sunday School.
5. HYMN. " There's a Hope That is Fairer than Day."
6. PRAYER. Supt. Murphy of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School.
7. HYMN. "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
8. ADDRESS. Mrs. John M. Merriam, Supt. of Beth- any Universalist Sunday School.
9. ADDRESS. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe of Boston.
10. PRAYER. Supt. Hastings of Park Street Baptist Sunday School.
11. HYMN. "To Thee, O Country."
12. BENEDICTION. Rev. Frank H. Bigelow, Pastor St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church.
13. SERVICE POSTLUDE. March Pontificale. Tombelle.
Grace Congregational Church. Erected, 1884. Enlarged, 1892
-
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SUNDAY EVENING.
GRACE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
REV. FREDERICK E. EMRICH, D. D., Pastor.
This service fitly completed the exercises of a memorable day. Every seat and all standing room in the large audience room and chapel adjoining was occupied and many listened outside the building or turned away unable to gain admission. The music rendered by a chorus choir of nearly two hundred voices from the Framingham Musical Association, in charge of its Musical Director, Dr. Jules Jordan of Providence, Rhode Island, was a beautiful and inspiring feature of the occasion.
ERVICE OF WORSHIP OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES S OF SOUTH FRAMINGHAM IN GRACE CONGREGA- TIONAL CHURCH, SUNDAY, JUNE TENTH, NINETEEN HUN- DRED.
"We petition neither for silver nor gold, nor any such world- ly interest, but that we may have the worship of God upheld among us & our children ; for this we do humbly repair to His Right Honorable Lordship & Most Excellent Governour, under the shaddow of whose wings we rejoice that we may rest for Patronage & Protection ; and all of the Honoured Court now sitting, the fathers of our land, to whome we humbly Petition to consider and do for the enlargement of the Kingdome of our Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ, for the good of our souls & the souls of our Children, that we may not be like the Heathen - & be pleased to grant us to be either a Township or Congregation."
Extract from the petition sent to the Governor and Gen- eral Court in 1700 by the people of Framingham.
In the varied tapestry which pictures our national life, the richest spots are those where gleam the golden threads of conscience, courage and faith, set in the web by that little band. May God in his mercy grant that the moral impulse which founded this nation may never cease to control its destiny; that no act of any future generation may put in peril the fundamental principles on which it is based,-of
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equal rights in a free state, equal privileges in a free church and equal opportunities in a free school.
Gov. Roger Wolcott in his address accepting, in behalf of Massachusetts, the original manuscript of Bradford's History of " Plimoth Plantation."
ORDER OF SERVICE.
REV. F. T. WHITMAN, Pastor of the Park Street Baptist Church, presiding.
DR. JULES JORDAN, Musical Director.
SERVICE PRELUDE. Horatio Parker.
CALL TO WORSHIP. The Pastor of Grace Church.
ANTHEM. Festival Hymn. Words and Music by Dudley Buck.
O Peace, on thine up-soaring pinion, Thro' the world thine onward flight taking, Teach the nations their turmoil forsaking, To seek thine eternal dominion.
BI-CENTENNIAL CHORUS.
INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER. The Pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church.
RESPONSIVE READING. Psalm cxlv. Led by the Pastor of St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church.
GLORIA PATRI.
SCRIPTURE LESSON. Deut. viii. Read by the Pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
SOLO. My Native Land. Mr. Fred L. Martin of Boston. THE PRAYER. The Pastor of Bethany Universalist Church. ORGAN RESPONSE.
HYMN. By Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., at New Haven, 1838. O God, beneath thy guiding hand, Our exiled fathers crossed the sea, And when they trod the wintry strand, With prayer and psalm they worshiped thee.
Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer - Thy blessing came; and still its power Shall onward through all ages bear The memory of that holy hour.
1
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What change ! through pathless wilds no more The fierce and naked savage roams ; Sweet praise, along the cultured shore, Breaks from ten thousand happy homes.
Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God Came with those exiles o'er the waves, And where their pilgrim feet have trod, The God they trusted guards their graves.
And here thy name, O God of love, Their children's children shall adore, Till these eternal hills remove, And spring adorns the earth no more.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. By the Pastor of Park Street Baptist Church.
ADDRESS. The Rev. L. R. Eastman, Pastor of Plymouth Church, Framingham.
ANTHEM.
Dr. Jules Jordan. Recessional. Rudyard Kipling. God of our fathers, known of old - Lord of our far-flung battle line - Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine - Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget !
The tumult and the shouting dies - The captains and the kings depart ; Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget !
Far-called our navies melt away - On dune and headland sinks the fire - Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre - Judge of the nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget ! If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not thee in awe, Such boasting as the Gentiles use Or lesser breeds without the law - Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget !
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For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard - All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding calls not thee to guard - For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy mercy on thy people, Lord ! Amen. BI - CENTENNIAL CHORUS.
ADDRESS. The Rev. Adolph A. Berle, D.D., of Boston. HYMN. "O God, our help in ages past."
BENEDICTION. By the Pastor of St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church.
ORGAN POSTLUDE, "Hosanna." Wachs
THE RELIGIOUS FORCES OF SOUTH FRAMINGHAM. .
PARK STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, Rev. F. T. Whitman, Pastor. Organized March 17, 1854.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Rev. Leo A. Nies, Pastor. Organized November 5 1869.
GRACE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Rev. F. E. Emrich, D.D., Pastor. Organized January 2, 1873.
ST. STEPHEN'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Rev. J. F. Heffernan, Pastor. Services began in June, 1876.
BETHANY UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, Rev. G. E. Huntley, Pastor. Organized April 28, 1878.
ST. ANDREW'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
Rev. Frank H. Bigelow, Pastor. Organized in 1884.
HOPE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Rev. W. H. Tower, Pastor. Organized December, 1886.
ADDRESS.
BY REV. LUCIUS R. EASTMAN, Pastor of Plymouth Church.
The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places ; Yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalm xvi; 6.
"Inasmuch as that for a long time we have lain under a heavy burden as to our attendance on the public worship of God ; so that for the most part our going to meeting to other places on the Sabbath is our hardest days' work of the week,
St. Andrew's Episcopal Chapel. Erected 1897-98
St. John's Episcopal Church. Erected 1870-7|
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and by reason of those difficulties that attend us therein, we are forced to leave many at home, especially our children, where to our grief the Sabbath is too much profaned, and being desirous to sanctify the Sabbath as to the duty of rest required as far as we can with conveniency; These motives moving us, we have unanimously built a meeting-house, and have a minister among us, and we now humbly petition to your honours to countenance our present proceedings. We contain in the plot we have taken, above three hundred and fifty souls, whereof not above a quarter part can constantly attend the worship of God in other places by reason of the length and badness of the ways. Those families specified in the Plot are not in the bounds of any other town, and are some four, some five, some six, and some seven miles from any other meeting, and very few of them above two miles distant from the Meeting-house which we have built among ourselves."
Such are the brave earnest words which the Founders of this good old Town use in their petition to the Legislature for their incorporation as a distinct municipality. It is no vainglory that would rank our town among the most beauti- ful of New England. Whether we consider its natural scenery, beautiful for situation, or the great moral purpose which moved its first inhabitants to petition the Legislature for their incorporation, or the record of the pastors and laymen which from generation to generation have composed its christian citizenship, or the attitude of those men and women toward the great questions of Education and public weal, surely the history wrought out by them is calculated to inspire us with reverence for the past and a worthy am- bition for the future. Those were indeed christian men and women who were the first settlers. It was a great christian motive, a grand moral impulse which urged them on to the incorporation of the Town. Nothing is more prominent in the early settlers of New England than their anxiety for the intelligent education of their children and the maintenance of their religious worship. So those first inhabitants of Framingham show their concern for the future of their chil- dren when they say in their petition to the Legislature ;
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" We petition neither for silver and gold, nor such worldly interest, but that we may have the worship of God upheld among us and our children, for the enlargement of the king- dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the good of souls and the souls of our children, that they may not be like the heathen." Golden words indeed, worthy to be inscribed upon all our institutions of worship and education and to be treasured in the memory of all succeeding generations. So they say they have built a meeting-house and have a minister, and in a very few years they build a schoolhouse nearby.
The adjoining towns, which were " five, six, and seven miles " away, were Sherborn, Natick, Sudbury ( now Way- land), and "Marlbury," as the old documents spell it. The Meeting-house they had built stood at the easterly end of the Old Burying Ground. It was a small unpretentious affair, 40 feet long and 30 feet wide, boarded and shingled, not painted, plain benches for seats, a door and windows in the front ; but those who wished might cut windows in the sides near where they sat. A few years later ten feet were added to the rear, moving back the pulpit. That structure lasted them for thirty-five years, until in 1735, after ten years of heated discussion and even bitter wrangling, they built the second house at the northeasterly end of what is now the Centre Common. By vote of the Town, "one barrel of rum, three barrels of cyder, six barrels of beer, with suitable provision of meat, bread, etc., were provided for such, and only such, as labour in raising the meeting-house."
The third Meeting- house was erected in 1807. It re- sembled the present house of the First Baptist Church at the Centre and stood on the spot now occupied by the meeting- house of the First Parish, by which it was replaced in 1846- 1847. The materials of the Second Meeting-house were used in 1808 in erecting the first Town House, between where now stand the house of Mr. George B. Sawyer and Plymouth Church. After the building of the present Town Hall in 1834, Mr. Hollis Hastings bought the old Town House and it formed the rear of his shop which was burned last winter.
The Minister they had among them was Rev. John Swift of Milton. He was ordained by Council in 1701. His
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pastorate lasted till his death in 1745, a period of forty-five years. At his settlement he was given a large farm of 140 acres, including all the southerly slope of what is now Normal Hill, reaching down to the river from Church Hill Cemetery around to the railroad. The remains of his old cellar is to be found in Mr. Barber's pasture. His ministry was marked by a faithful steady discharge of his duties as a preacher and pastor, every Autumn catechizing the children. A contem- porary describes him as a man of considerable natural powers, excelling in oratory, in classical learning ; patient under injuries, held in high esteem by his ministerial associates. In 1724 he records a day of fasting at Westboro, at which he preached in connection with the organization of the West- boro Church. Similarly at Holliston and Hopkinton. He kept a diary for a number of years, recording in a quaint style various events of interest ; e. g. a great deluge; the deep snows of one winter which prevented holding the Sabbath Service. The last four years of his ministry he was incapacitated from preaching by sickness. He died in 1745.
After several attempts to secure a pastor, Rev. Matthew Bridge was ordained pastor in February, 1746; a man of dignified and imposing presence, over six feet in height, of erect and bony figure, resembling Washington, with whom he served at Cambridge as chaplain in the siege of Boston. Before the death of Mr. Swift, New England had been pro- foundly stirred by the preaching of George Whitfield, and the Tennants. Jonathan Edwards had done his great work in the Connecticut Valley. Mr. Whitfield landed in Boston September 18, 1740 and preached in Brattle Street Church the next day. He travelled as far east as York, Maine, and then west to Northampton, the home of Edwards, in 74 days going over 800 miles and preaching 175 times. The effect of his labors is described as an upheaving like an earthquake. The churches were replenished with fifty thousand converts and new life and power breathed into the Pastors and Teachers. It was closely in connection with this awakening that Mr. Bridge was settled over the Framingham Church. Quite a number of the people felt that he was not in full sympathy with the results of the Edwards-Whitfield preach-
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ing. Emphatic protest was entered at the meeting of the ordaining council by a strong minority of the church, who felt that his preaching was not sufficiently pronounced on certain points of theology. The signers of this protest were in hearty sympathy with the Great Revival. After his ordination they seceded and formed the Second Congrega- tional Church and built a meeting-house in the west part of the Town, near the present town farm. Rev. Solomon Reed was chosen their Pastor. The church continued for about twelve years, when, in 1759, a part removed to the church in Hopkinton, a part returned to the old church, and the remainder united in forming the First Baptist Society, which purchased the meeting-house and moved it to Park's Corner. This Society continued in that location until they built the Baptist Church at the Center, which was dedicated January 1, 1827. The First Baptist Society was incorporated June 22, 1812. Rev. Charles Train was the honored Pastor from January 30, 1811, until September 1839. He continued to live among his people until his death in 1849. His portrait hangs over the front door of Memorial Hall by the side of that of Dr. Kellogg who was so many years his contemporary in the pastorate of the Congregational Church.
Mr. Bridge continued in his pastorate of the old church until 1775, when he died of a disease contracted in service as chaplain in the Revolutionary Army before Boston. His genial, benevolent disposition, attractive manners, and faith- ful service won the love and confidence of the whole people, and the opposition, which at the beginning was so strong, gradually disappeared and during the last half of his pastor- ate he had the full respect and confidence of the entire community.
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