USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Necrology, 1890-1900 (Andover Theological Seminary) > Part 22
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Prof. Francis B. Denio, D.D., of Bangor Seminary (Class of 1879), writes : "It fell to my lot to meet Professor Talcott in 1879, two years before his re- tirement from his work as teacher of Exegesis in this Seminary. From the first day that I met him to the last he was all kindness and helpfulness as well as courtesy. The thorough scholarship and candor of thought which he always manifested were a source of pleasure. There was ever a certain readiness to see the other side of subjects, which was, perhaps, due to the long balancing of evidence of difficult questions, and which prevented him from taking a par- tisan view of any question presented to him. No subject of thought within the domain of theology was without interest to him. Indeed, in his later years it would seem that the mental activities, which had been more or less confined to one channel, now took opportunity to follow freely in every direction in which the religious thought of our time has been moving. As he approached the end, these questions which are stirred by the near prospect of entrance into another life seemed to attract his especial attention, and when I last met him I could not but believe that the stress with which some of the problems pressed upon him would soon pass away. His death, in the fullness of age and nearly fifteen years after his active life had ceased, and at a time when physical feebleness had greatly circumscribed his enjoyment, did not bring the profound regret that it would have done had he still been in the fullness of vigor; rather it has brought a feeling of gratitude that he has passed from the limitations of this life to a life of clearer vision."
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The following is quoted from an article in the Bangor Whig and Courier by Rev. George W. Field, D.D., of Bangor : " Professor Talcott was not a mere scholar of words; he was a thinker also to an extent of which few have any idea. The writer of this heard from his lips more than forty years ago every important and essential truth of the New Theology of today. If the feeble health with which he always struggled, his excessive duties as a teacher of the two great languages of the religious world, his fastidious taste, never sat- isfied with his work, together with a natural reserve and shrinking from pub- licity, had not conspired to prevent it, he might have given to the public in his prime books which would not only have secured to him reputation, but which would have done no little (we cannot help thinking) towards molding the thought of his generation."
He was married, April 22, 1840, to Sophia Hammond Brown, of Bangor, daughter of Dea. George Washington Brown and Sophia Hammond. She died April 1, 1866. They had two sons, one dying in infancy and the other in 1888, and two daughters, who survive.
Professor Talcott died of acute bronchitis, in Bangor, Me., January 19, 1896, aged eighty-two years, ten months, and twelve days.
CLASS OF 1835.
William Chamberlain Jackson.
Son of Daniel Jackson and Abigail Merrill; born in Eaton, now Madison, N. H., February 17, 1808; prepared for college at the academies in Hebron, Me., and Haverhill, N. H. ; graduated at Dartmouth College, 1831 ; taught one year at the academy at Westminster, Mass .; took the full course in this Seminary, 1832-35. He was ordained at Lancaster, N. H., October 14, 1835, and was in the missionary service of the American Board among the Armenians at Trebi- zond and Erzroom in Turkey until 1845. He was pastor in Lincoln, Mass., 1848-58; Dunstable, Mass., 1858-67; without charge, South Acton, Mass., 1868-70; acting pastor, Brentwood, N. H., 1870-82; resided there, without charge, until 1891, and from 1891 in Newton, Mass.
Rev. George E. Street, of Exeter, N. H. (Class of 1863), writes of him : " Mr. Jackson was a scholar and thinker in his tastes and habit and a writer above the average; a critic of keen, analytical turn of mind, yet candid in his treatment of an opponent ; a devout spirit, who walked in the high places of religious communion while filling humblest spheres of duty. Often weighed down by protracted illness in his family, he kept sweet, and bore his heavy burdens without murmuring, with a gentleness and patience that showed the fineness of his nature and the strength of his faith."
He was married, September 9, 1835, to Mary Almira Sawyer, of West- minster, Mass., daughter of Jacob Sawyer and Mary Rice. She survives him, with two sons and four daughters, two children having died in infancy and a daughter after her graduation from Abbot Academy. One son is a master in the Boston Latin School, and one daughter the wife of Prof. James B. Taylor, of the Class of 1871.
Mr. Jackson died of pneumonia, in Newton, Mass., October 17, 1895, aged eighty-seven years and eight months.
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Ezekiel Russell, D.D.
Son of Benjamin Hills Russell and Lydia Tilden ; born in South Wilbraham, Mass., March 12, 1805; prepared for college at Monson (Mass.) Academy and under Rev. William S. Burt, of Amherst; entered the sophomore class at Amherst College, and graduated in 1829 ; teacher in Monson Academy, 1829-30; principal of Hopkins Academy, Hadley, Mass., 1830-31 ; tutor, Amherst Col- lege, 1831-32 ; took the full course in this Seminary, 1832-35; licensed to preach by the Andover Association, meeting with the Rev. Samuel C. Jackson, April 16, 1835. He was ordained pastor over the church in North Adams, Mass., June 22, 1836, and remained there until 1839; pastor of Olivet Church, Spring- field, Mass., 1839-49; pastor of church in East Randolph, Mass., 1850-57; pas- tor of Winthrop Church, East Randolph, now Holbrook, Mass., 1857-72; re- sided afterwards, without charge, in Holbrook, and from 1887 in Lynn, Mass., with his daughter, Mrs. Charles A. Coffin.
He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Amherst College in 1858. He was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and a scholarly contributor to religious periodicals. Rev. Dr. J. W. Wellman, of Malden (Class of 1850), sends this tribute : "Dr. Russell was by the very instincts and drift of his mind a scholar. He delighted in scholarly pursuits. His study and his library were his joy. He did not confine himself to any one department of study or learning. College presidents knew that he kept himself up in the college curriculum, and often sent students to him for a time, several of whom during his pastorate in Holbrook he took through all the required studies of a college year. He read habitually, for the mere pleasure of it, his favorite Latin and Greek classics up to within a few weeks of his death. Dr. Russell was an able theologian, and his theology was comprehensive, Scriptural, and Christian. He was pestered by no text that would not harmonize with his religious beliefs. He never boasted that he knew how to get rid of all Scrip- tures which contradicted his theology. Not for a moment would he hold any theological tenet that was in conflict with the plain declarations of God's Word. His faith in the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures was profound and im- movable. He was a great lover of righteousness. He dwelt much upon the absolute and eternal righteousness of God and, by way of contrast, upon the indescribable wickedness of sin. He was a great lover of the gospel of Christ, accepting with grateful wonder and joy the gospel revelation of the full and absolute reconciliation of God to penitent sinners, and preaching these glad tid- ings with such downright sincerity and passionate earnestness that many of his hearers were deeply convicted of sin and afterwards gave evidence that they were saved from their sins. He was not only an ardent lover of righteousness and of the gospel of Christ, but also and chiefly of Christ himself, the personal Christ. He loved greatly and tenderly his own family, his kindred, his friends, and with a pastor's love all the people in the three parishes in which he minis- tered; but above all he loved Christ, and it was his supreme joy to live for him and serve him in ' the ministry of reconciliation.' "
Dr. Russell was married, July 13, 1836, to Louisa Storrs Billings, of Con- way, Mass., daughter of Elisha Billings, Esq., and Mary Storrs. She died March 18, 1887. He had one son, who died in childhood, and two daughters.
Dr. Russell died of congestion of the brain, at Lynn, Mass., February 26, 1896, aged ninety years, eleven months, and fourteen days.
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CLASS OF 1836.
Nathaniel Beach.
Son of Dea. Samuel Beach and Lurana Axtell; born in Mendham, N. J., October 5, 1809; prepared for college at Bloomfield (N. J.) Academy ; gradu- ated at Williams College, 1832; taught one year in Pittsfield, Mass .; took the full course in this Seminary, 1833-36; licensed to preach by the Andover Asso- ciation, meeting with Rev. S. C. Jackson, Andover, April 5, 1836; ordained, November 22, 1837, as pastor of the church in Millbury, Mass., where he re- mained for twenty years ; pastor in Little Compton, R. I., 1857-67; without charge, although preaching several months in Princeton, Mass., 1867-68; act- ing pastor at Woodstock, Ct., 1868-78, and of Second Church, Mansfield, Ct., 1878-84; without charge, Chaplin, Ct., 1884-89, and from 1889, Norwich Town, Ct.
Mr. Beach published one sermon, Neglect of Parental Duty and Its Results. Rev. S. G. Buckingham, D.D., of Springfield, Mass., writes : "Mr. Beach was settled by my side in Millbury some ten years, during which time we had the principal charge of the public schools. He was a modest, wise, conscientious, Christian minister. He had the entire confidence and affection of his people and ministerial brethren, and had a very successful pastorate. He was one of those pastors to whom New England has been so much indebted, one who said to himself, 'This one thing I do,' following the ' lost sheep,' and always pretty sure to bring it home rejoicing- a brief memorial of a parish minister who was satisfied with this and has gone to receive his reward. Brother Beach was very dear to us. 'He served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers.'"
Mr. Beach was married, October 11, 1837, to Elizabeth Rogers Jackson, of Dorset, Vt., daughter of Rev. William Jackson, D.D., and Susanna Cram. She died January 9, 1870. He married, second, December 2, 1875, Mrs. Maria Lyman Haskell, daughter of Dr. Daniel Lyman and Frances Mary Eldredge, of Woodstock, Ct., and widow of Dea. George Haskell, of Rochester, Mass. She survived her husband but a few weeks, dying January 9, 1896. An only son died in 1872. An only daughter, Elizabeth Rogers Beach, a former student and teacher in Abbot Academy, was a devoted missionary worker in the McAll Mission, both in France and in America, and perished in the wreck of the City of Columbus in January, 1884.
Mr. Beach died of old age, at Norwich Town, Ct., November 3, 1895, aged eighty-six years and twenty-eight days.
OLASS OF 1837.
John Humphrey Avery.
Son of Elisha Avery and Sybil (Avery) Stiles (his mother being the widow of a son of President Stiles, of Yale College); born in Boston, July 22, 1807 ; fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, 1827-29, and was the valedic- torian of his class; studied one year at Yale College, two years at Amherst Col- lege, and graduated at Union College, 1834; took the full course in this Semi- nary, 1834-37, and remained as resident licentiate, 1837-38, having been licensed by the Andover Association, meeting with Professor Emerson, Andover, April II,
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1837. He was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Harwich, Mass., August 8, 1838, and remained there six months. He was installed over the Robinson Society in Plymouth, Mass., April 24, 1839, but after about a year he changed his views upon the subject of baptism, preached for a short time in the Baptist Church at Plymouth, was pastor of the Baptist Church at Danvers, Mass., 1841-43, and supplied a church of the same denomination at South Boston, 1843-44. Losing his voice, he resided, without charge, at Plymouth, 1844-46, and on a fruit farm in Freehold, N. J., 1846-49. He taught a select school in New Holland, Pa., 1849-50, preaching also in the Dutch Reformed Church, having become dissatisfied with " the close communion idea." He taught a short time in Ephrata, Pa., and supplied the Congregational Church at Austinburgh, Ohio, 1850-53, remaining there one more year, without charge. He then left the ministry and devoted himself to the study of anatomy and physiology, lecturing upon the " Laws of Life " in various schools and colleges, and having his residence at North East, Pa., Conneaut and Amboy, Ohio.
From 1890 he lived with his son at Cleveland, Ohio, but maintained a re- markable vigor of body and mind. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Brown University in IS41. Several of his sermons were published in early life, and a small volume of poems written after he was eighty years old. A gentleman who knew him well says: "Mr. Avery was a superior classical scholar, having a remarkably quick and retentive memory, possessed more than ordinary rhetorical and oratorical power, but was a radical in all his opinions, anti-slavery, evolution, vegetarianism, etc., occupying his attention, and not always well-balanced in judgment."
He was married, October 10, 1839, to Harriet Gray Whitmore, of Plym- outh, Mass., daughter of Rev. Benjamin Whitmore and Mary Gray. She died August 26, 1851, and he married, second, October, 1856, Emily Booth, of Hamptonburgh, N. Y., daughter of George Booth and Susan Tuthill. She died December 26, ISS3. Of seven children, two only are living, a son and a daugh- ter, the former a counselor at law in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Avery died of old age, in Cleveland, Ohio, May 25, 1895, aged eighty- seven years, ten months, and three days.
William Symmes Coggin, D.D.
Son of Rev. Jacob Coggin and Mary Symmes; grandson of Mr. Jacob Coggin, Harvard College, 1763, an unordained preacher ; born November 27, IS12, in Tewksbury, Mass., where his father was minister for forty-eight years ; prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, 1827-30; graduated at Dartmouth College, IS34; took the full course in this Seminary, 1834-37; licensed to preach by the Andover Association, meeting with Rev. Prof. Ralph Emerson, D.D., at Andover, April 11, 1837; ordained over the church in Box- ford, Mass., May 9, 1838, and continued in that relation for thirty years. He continued to reside afterwards in Boxford, but was acting pastor of the church in Byfield, Mass., 1869-75. He was for many years an efficient member of the School Board of the town and represented it in the legislature in 1879. He re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dartmouth College in 1894. A sermon preached on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his settlement was published.
Rev. Samuel H. Emery, D.D., of Taunton, Mass., a Seminary classmate,
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writes : " My remembrance of William S. Coggin runs back to the days of our boyhood in Phillips Academy, Andover. The son of a most excellent Congre- gational minister in the town of Tewksbury, he seemed to be one of the boys born and reared to prove the assertion false that ministers' sons are always wild and bad. Never was a better boy than this one - amiable, lovely, and in every way excellent, a favorite in the schoolroom and on the street. In Andover Seminary he was a faithful, conscientious student, beloved by professors and classmates. Unambitious, satisfied to serve the Master in smaller fields of labor, no doubt he has heard the Christ whom he loved say, ' Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'"
Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., of Auburndale (Class of 1876), said in the Congregationalist : " The denomination has lost one of the truest-hearted and most single-minded of our ministers. A singular sweetness and charm of his character was acknowledged by all of his friends. Kindly, gentle, courtly in his character, he won to himself and to the Master whom he served those who came within the circle of his influence. Under all circumstances and through- out his long life he was ever the ideal Christian gentleman."
Rev. Emery L. Bradford, of Boxford (Class of 1892), adds this tribute : " I knew Dr. Coggin only during the last years of his life. He left a deep im- press on the life of this community. Here, in this little place, he massed all his influence, and, as I have had occasion to say in another connection, ' He was a quick and tender conscience to every household in all this parish.' Every home is richer because he lived here. One characteristic thing was his constant helpfulness to his successors in the pastorate. To every one he was a tower of strength. I, as a young minister, owe him a debt of gratitude I can never re- pay. To the very end the church he loved and to which he gave his life filled a large part of his thought and influence. His last days were full of the great- est peace, and yet of eagerness to go home. He has left behind a blessed mem- ory, and being dead he speaks to us day by day."
Dr. Coggin was married, August 6, 1840, to Mary Clark, of Tewksbury, daughter of Dea. Oliver Clark and Nancy Huse.
He died of paralysis of the throat, at Boxford, Mass., September 10, 1895, aged eighty-two years, nine months, and thirteen days.
Josiah Bartlett Clark. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Levi Clark and Love Wiggin ; born in Stratham, N. H., January 10, 1808 ; prepared for college at Hampton (N. H.) Academy; studied two years at Dartmouth College, and graduated at Middlebury College, 1834; studied in this Seminary, 1834-35; graduated at Lane Seminary, 1837. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Cincinnati, January 22, 1839, and preached successively at Rising Sun, Ind., 1838-40; Sharon, Vt., 1840-42; Eliot, Me., 1842-45; West Randolph, Vt., 1846; Pittsfield, Vt., 1846-50; Clarendon, Vt., 1851-56; Rupert, Vt., 1857-69 ; Pittsfield, Vt., 1869-73; Weathersfield Centre, Vt., 1874-75; with- out charge, Ludlow, Vt., 1876-86, preaching there, 1880-81 ; afterwards residing in Islington and, from 1891, in Ellis, Mass.
Mr. Clark is described as having been a faithful minister in his various pastorates, and to have been a very devout and exemplary disciple of the Master whom he preached. Rev. Charles Beecher, of Georgetown, Mass., who was a
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classmate of Mr. Clark at Lane Seminary, sends a brief note about him, which looks forward as well as backward : " I remember Clark very well, especially as a genial friend and a good musician. We sung together a great deal, both sacred music and glees. The memory of those days is filled with a mournful pleasure, although mournful is hardly the right word. But all are gone that I knew - classmates, associates, professors. 'I feel like one who treads alone some banquet hall deserted.' But this ought not to be the feeling. Those teachers -father, Allen, Stowe- those classmates - Henry Ward, Hastings, Clark - those sweet songsters have all left this world, but they have entered on a higher, nobler, more glorious mode of being."
Mr. Clark was married in 1839 to Mary M. Linsley, of Middlebury, Vt., who died in April, 1840. He married, second, May 11, 1841, in Hanover, N. H., Louisa E. Stone, daughter of Mark and Mary Stone. She died January 19, 1852. He married, third, October 19, 1852, at West' Bloomfield, N. J., Sarah Stone, sister of his second wife. She died May 10, 1870, and he married, fourth, November 4, 1870, Mrs. Julia Delight Haye, of Rupert, Vt., daughter of Calvin and Delight Gookin. Of six children three are living.
Mr. Clark died of old age, at West Dedham, Mass., March 3, 1896, aged eighty-eight years, one month, and twenty-three days.
Thomas Douglas. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Robert Douglas and Abiah Douglas; born in Waterford, Ct., March 29, 1807 ; prepared for college at Hamilton (N. Y.) Academy ; gradu- ated at Yale College, 1831; studied in Yale Divinity School, 1833-34, and in this Seminary, 1834-36; licensed by the Andover Association, meeting with Prof. Ralph Emerson at Andover, April 11, 1837. Before commencing theo- logical study he had taught in Brooklyn and Norwich, Ct., and in 1836 resumed that work at New London, Ct., having charge of the " Union School " there until 1844. For the benefit of his health he then took a voyage on a whale ship, arriving at the Sandwich Islands in March, 1845. He remained there for about two years as assistant to Mr. Amos S. Cooke, of the American Board's Mission, in a school attended by the children of the royal family. In 1847 he landed on his return home in San Francisco, but not having strength for the horseback journey across the continent with General Kearny and others, he remained in San Francisco, and is said to have been the first American teacher in that city. When gold was discovered his scholars all went to the mines and he followed them, remaining there about one year. He then returned to San Francisco and was engaged in business for another year. In 1851 he went to San José, Cal., where he was engaged in farming and horticulture, and, with his brother, in real estate. In 1880 he came East to conduct a litigation in con- nection with an estate in New Jersey of which he had charge as residuary ex- ecutor, and never returned to California. He resided with a niece in New London from 1892.
Although never ordained, Mr. Douglas was always a useful Christian man as a teacher and a citizen, and an active promoter of religious enterprises dur- ing the years of his pioneer experience on the Pacific Coast. He was an early member and deacon of the First Congregational Church in San Francisco, and
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also of the First Presbyterian Church in San José. A memorial service in his honor was held in the latter church after the news of his death was received.
Mr. Douglas died, unmarried, of valvular disease of the heart, in New London, Ct., January 27, 1895, aged eighty-seven years, nine months, and twenty-eight days.
CLASS OF 1838.
Alfred Emerson. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Rev. Joseph Emerson and Rebecca Hasseltine; born in Beverly, Mass., April 5, 1812; prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover ; graduated at Yale College, 1834; studied in this Seminary, 1835-37 ; tutor, Yale College, 1837-40; in ill health at his mother's home in Bradford, Mass., IS40-45; licensed by the Hampshire Association, meeting at Northampton, Mass., May 1, 1844. He was ordained, October 15, 1845, as pastor of the church in South Reading, now Wakefield, Mass., where he remained until 1853; pro- fessor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy in Western Reserve College, 1853-56; pastor in South Berwick, Me., 1857-58; of the Calvinist Church, Fitchburg, Mass., 1858-70; resided, without charge, at Lancaster, Mass., 1870-77, and at Dorchester, Mass., afterwards until his death.
Mr. Emerson's ancestry was one of marked piety, culture, and usefulness. His father was eminent as the early promoter and founder of seminaries for young ladies at Byfield and Saugus, Mass., and Wethersfield, Ct., and author of Emerson's Watts on the Mind, and his mother was of the family that gave Ann Hasseltine to the early history of foreign missions and Abigail Hasseltine to Bradford Academy. He was a trustee of Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Mass., 1872-92, and treasurer of that institution, 1881-91. His only publications were two sermons.
Rev. Albert H. Plumb, D.D., of Roxbury, Mass. (Class of 1858), sends the following tribute : "The ministry of Mr. Emerson was an eminently judicious one; good judgment, a wise regard for the great aims of the ministerial office, subordination of minor questions whose undue prominence might interfere with success, a steady persistence in the performance of regular duties, and a calm reliance on the reasonableness of the Christian claims were among his ruling traits. Hence he had special influence over mature minds. While his affec- tionate nature and genial manner and his familiarity with the best educational methods of his time naturally attached to him the youth of his congregations, his powers of reasoning, his good sense in pressing continually and strongly for the main issues, doubtless constituted one reason why many of the strong men of the places where he preached were brought into the church under his minis- try. It has been thought that here was seen one natural result of the strongly mathematical turn of his mind. Demonstration rather than imagination seemed to give him content. In mathematics he always took delight, even turning for rest in his weariness from other studies to the solution of some difficult alge- braic problem. In the cares of rebuilding Wheaton Seminary, and in his serv- ice as treasurer, his accounts showed his passion for accuracy in details and his zeal in the minute performance of every duty involved in a scrupulous fidelity to his trust. The serenity of his years of retirement and decline conspicuously exhibited the ripe fruits of the gospel he had preached. His kind estimate of
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