USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Necrology, 1890-1900 (Andover Theological Seminary) > Part 23
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other ministers, his tender and prayerful interest in the progress of God's king- dom in all lands, his grateful appreciation of the presence and ministrations of his family, and his satisfaction in the quiet communion of his Christian home furnished abundant evidence that he was peculiarly refined in spirit and made ' meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.'"
Mr. Emerson was married, October 18, 1847, to Martha Eliza Waldo Vose, of Lancaster, Mass., daughter of Peter Thacher Vose and Ann Austin Sprague, who survives him, with their two daughters.
He died of apoplexy, at Dorchester, Mass., February 7, 1896, aged eighty- three years, ten months, and two days.
Harvey Denison Kitchel, D.D. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Rev. Jonathan Kitchel and Caroline Holley; born in Whitehall, N. Y., February 3, 1812; prepared for college at Middlebury (Vt.) Academy ; graduated at Middlebury College, 1835; studied in this Seminary, 1835-36; tutor, Middlebury College, 1836-37 ; graduated at Yale Divinty School, 1838. He was ordained, February 20, 1839, as pastor of the church in Plymouth Hol- low, now Thomaston, Ct., and remained there until 1848; pastor of the First Congregational Church, Detroit, Mich., 1848-64; acting pastor, Plymouth Church, Chicago, 1864-66; president of Middlebury College, 1866-73, acting, also, as pastor of church in Weybridge, Vt., 1867-74; without charge, after 1874, residing chiefly in East Liverpool, Ohio, and in the Jackson Sanatorium, Dansville, N. Y. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middle- bury College in 1858. He published several ordination and dedication sermons besides his inaugural discourse at Middlebury College, a prize essay on the suppression of the liquor traffic, and a genealogical account of Robert Kitchel and His Descendants. He was an early and zealous advocate of the anti-slavery movement, and for many years a corporate member of the American Board. His influence in the West was largely felt in the upbuilding of Congregation- alism and in the founding of Chicago Theological Seminary.
Rev. Rufus C. Flagg, D.D., president of Ripon College (Class of 1872), who was one of his pupils at Middlebury, writes of him : "Dr. Kitchel came into the presidency of Middlebury College immediately from the pastorate, and he therefore naturally brought with him the pastorly spirit. It was this chiefly, I think, which at first impressed the minds of his pupils. Here was a man who was not greatly concerned to sustain the dignity of his position, who preferred not to use the authority vested in him as president, but who would, if possible, guide and mold the young men over whom he was placed by becoming their friend and counselor. None of us who came under the instruction of President Kitchel can doubt the sincerity and depth of his affection for us all. After the discipline of years, with the readjustments which time brings, we look back with brimming hearts to that noble instructor whose most noticeable characteristic was that he loved his pupils.
" Dr. Kitchel commanded attention also as a master of thought and ex- pression. He grasped his themes clearly, thoroughly searched out their vari- ous aspects and relations, and then set them forth in a diction which for rich- ness, stateliness, and magnificence could hardly be matched by any of his contemporaries. No one who heard his inaugural address can ever forget the
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impression of grandeur which it made. Dr. Kitchel was doubtless more at home in the pulpit and on the platform than in the recitation room, but even in the recitation room his genius of clear thought and illuminating expression did not forsake him. The pupils remember him as a good instructor and a faithful administrator, but among preachers a prince. The essential goodness of his heart found fullest expression in his home. It was there that we saw the man in his strength and simplicity of character. His long and useful life, ended so peacefully and beautifully, is an object of contemplation which one loves to retain long in his thoughts. Certainly he commands the gratitude of his old pupils."
Dr. Kitchel was married, August 20, 1838, to Ann Smith Sheldon, of Ru- pert, Vt., daughter of David Sheldon and Jerusha Smith. She died June I, 1858. He married, second, June 25, 1863, Mrs. Ophelia Geer Sayre, of Am- herst, Mass., daughter of Thompson Kimberly and Deborah Griffin, and widow of Ezekiel Sanford Sayre. She died June 21, 1864. He married, third, June 20, 1866, Mrs. Harriet Smith, of Milwaukee, Wis., daughter of Truman Tyrrell and Aurelia Morse, of Lanesboro, Mass., and widow of William Riley Smith. She survives him. Two daughters died in infancy. Of his six sons, two are law- yers, one is a physician, and one, Rev. Cornelius L. Kitchel, a Connecticut minister, now instructor in Yale College.
Dr. Kitchel died of heart failure, while speaking in a prayer meeting in the chapel of the Sanatorium at Dansville, N. Y., September II, 1895, aged eighty- three years, seven months, and eight days.
CLASS OF 1840.
Daniel Wight.
Son of Daniel Wight and Zillah Goulding ; born in Natick, Mass., Septem- ber 18, 1808 ; before beginning his preparation for college taught school sev- eral seasons in Sherborn, Millbury, and Natick; fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover; graduated at Harvard College, 1837; took the full course in this Seminary, 1837-40; licensed to preach by the Andover Association, meeting with Rev. Samuel C. Jackson, at Andover, April 7, 1840; continued study here, as Abbot Resident, 1840-41. He was ordained over the church in Scituate, Mass., September 28, 1842, and remained there until 1858; supplied the churches in East Randolph, Dover, and South Natick, Mass., several months each in 1858 and 1859; acting pastor, Boylston, Mass., 1860-61 ; missionary of the American Board among the Seneca Indians on the Cattaraugus Reserva- tion, N. Y., 1862-63; pastor, Second Church, Ashburnham, Mass., 1863-71; without charge afterwards at Natick, Mass.
Mr. Wight received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Williams College in 1850. He was the librarian of Morse Institute Library in Natick, 1875-83. He published three ecclesiastical pamphlets while at Scituate and a steel engraving of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with a Key. He taught for many years at Natick a Bible class, the numbers of which reached nearly a hundred.
Rev. James D. Butler, LL.D., of Madison, Wis. (Class of 1840), sends the following tribute : "Daniel Wight, the last survivor but one of my classmates, was one of the three oldest members of the class and the only graduate of Har-
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vard. His forte in college was said to be mathematics. In the Seminary he seemed somewhat slow to learn, but was steadily studious; rather reserved, and a man of few words. His sixteen years in Scituate enlarged a crippled church and left it independent. His subsequent labors among New York Indians were suited to his desires and aptitudes. They would have lasted longer but for the failing health of his wife.
" Some years ago, seeing how thin our ranks had become, I endeavored to draw them closer by linking all survivors in an epistolary chain. My proposal was welcomed by Daniel Wight, who persevered in writing me with his own hand, even after his partial paralysis. Though my home is distant, I was able to see him in his own on May Day, 1894. Thus I learned how he still brought forth fruit in old age. His mural map, illustrating Pilgrim's Progress, his monthly articles for a score of years in Popular Science News, his bibliothecal services, his magnificent Bible class, and his elaborate manuscript on the Psy- chology of the Bible came to my knowledge.
"The Sabbath of his years abounded in the peace of God. His garden made him self-supporting to the last, while affording him even more pleasure than profit. He loved a maple he had planted before his door and other old contemporary trees. His vines yearly yielded four hundred bottles of tirosh, each with its Hebrew label, to the Congregational House. At the evening time there was light, for he, an Israelite in whom there was no guile, walked with God in an earthly paradise that had not lost all its original brightness."
Mr. Wight was married four times -first, September 26, 1842, to Lucy Flint, of North Reading, Mass., daughter of Dea. Addison Flint and Sarah Upton, who died August 5, 1846 ; second, September 7, 1847, to Julia Russell, of Kingston, Mass., daughter of Dea. George Russell and Amelia Drew, who died August 8, 1849; third, April 28, 1851, to Mary Ann Perkins, of Braintree, Mass., daughter of Rev. Jonas Perkins and Rhoda Keith, who died October 26, 1853; fourth, October 4, 1855, to Mary Sewall Briggs, of Marblehead, Mass., daughter of Dr. Calvin Briggs and Rebecca Monroe, who survives him, with one daughter by the first marriage.
Mr. Wight died of heart failure, following angina pectoris, in Natick, Mass., December 21, 1895, aged eighty-seven years, three months, and three days.
CLASS OF 1841.
Charles Peabody.
Son of John Peabody and Lucy Goodrich ; born in Peterboro, N. H., July 1, 1810; prepared for college at the Strong School, South Hadley, Mass., and Hopkins Academy, Hadley, Mass .; graduated at Williams College, 1838; took the full course in this Seminary, 1838-41; licensed by the Andover Association, meeting with the Rev. Samuel C. Jackson, Andover, April 13, 1841. He was ordained, December 8, 1841, as pastor of the First Church, Biddeford, Me., and remained there until 1843; acting pastor, Barrington, R. I., 1843-46; pastor, Ashford, Ct., 1846-50; acting pastor, Windham, Mass., 1850-54, and in North Pownal, Vt., 1854-57; First Church, Biddeford, Me., 1857-66; Eliot, Me., 1866-69; Epsom, N. H., 1869-72; Ashburnham, Mass., 1872-75; resided after- wards in Longmeadow, Mass.
His Seminary classmate, Rev. Theodore J. Clark, of Springfield, Mass.,
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writes thus : "Rev. Charles Peabody was among the oldest men of his classes both in college and in Seminary. He always felt and sometimes spoke of the limitations under which he labored from the lack of early educational oppor- tunities and from beginning his preparation for the ministry so late in life. But by conscientious and diligent study he became a very useful and diligent worker in the kingdom of Christ, 'a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.' In his views of religious truth he was very con- servative, a minister of the old school, holding fast the form of sound words and keeping the faith once delivered to the saints. He was a man of kind and genial disposition, of sound judgment, and of sincere and earnest piety. He held pastorates of different length in each of the New England States, but it is worthy of note as indicating the hold which he gained upon the affections of his people that after an absence of twenty years from the place of his first pastorate he was invited back and remained there nine years. He manifested a deep and practical interest in the cause of missions. Inheriting some property by the death of a brother, he was able to give generous support to that cause while he lived and by his will to leave it substantial legacies. Retiring from active serv- ice in 1875 to Longmeadow, he carried thither and manifested to the last the same love and zeal for good things which had animated him through his long ministry. He was held in high esteem in that community, and, like the father of the faithful, 'died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his fathers.'"
Mr. Peabody was married, November 13, 1841, to Almena Porter, of Wil- liamstown, Mass., daughter of Daniel Porter and Mary Badger. She died in September, 1856. He married, second, December 10, 1857, Emily Sophia Ball, of Lee, Mass., daughter of Nathan Ball and Fear Chadwick, who survives him.
Mr. Peabody died of dropsy of the heart, at Longmeadow, Mass., February 9, 1896, aged eighty-five years, seven months, and eight days.
Ephraim Williams Allen. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Ephraim Williams Allen (editor of the Newburyport Herald) and Dorothy Stickney; born in Newburyport, Mass., October 9, 1813; fitted for college at Hampton (N. H.) Academy; graduated at Amherst College, 1838 ; studied in this Seminary, 1838-39, and graduated at Yale Divinity School, 1841 ; licensed to preach by the Litchfield South Association in 1842. He was ordained, May 17, 1843, as pastor of the church in North Reading, Mass., and remained there until 1852; pastor of Howard Street Church, Salem, Mass., 1852-57 ; of church in South Berwick, Me., 1858-66; of West Church, Haverhill, Mass., 1866-76; acting pastor, North Middleboro, Mass., 1877-83; North Falmouth, Mass., 1883-85; East Taunton, Mass., 1885-90; without charge afterwards, residing with his daughter in Brooklyn, N. Y., and from May 1, 1896, in Newark, N. J.
Mr. Allen was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. His long life was a useful and fruitful one, his pastoral service con- tinuing until he was seventy-seven years old. Rev. Moses K. Cross (Class of 1841) writes from Waterloo, Io., just as this sketch goes to press, to speak of his college classmate, whom he had known little of " since our college days till within the past few years, when we were both approaching fourscore. Since
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then I have had a most charming correspondence with him, a specimen of which I inclose to show his marvelous penmanship and his bright and genial nature, especially when you remember that his writing was done by steadying his right hand with his left, very slowly and with pain, in consequence of paralysis. It is plain that the disease did not reach his mind nor his heart." One extract is made from Mr. Allen's letter : " Well, I may live a little longer. I am not anxious to live or die. The idea of immortality has for me what I may truly style an awful fascination, and I am not seldom moved to cry out with a pas- sionate longing :
Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time, And bring the welcome day."
Mr. Allen was married, October 9, 1844, to Anne Emily Ham, of Ports- mouth, N. H., daughter of Timothy Ham and Zoah Hilliard. She survives him, with two sons, who are business men in the West, and two daughters. One son and one daughter died in early childhood.
Mr. Allen died of cerebral apoplexy, in Newark, N. J., May 17, 1896, aged eighty-two years, seven months, and eight days.
David Greene Haskins, D.D. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Ralph Haskins and Rebecca Greene ; born in Boston, May 1, 1818; prepared for college at Charles W. Greene's school for boys, Jamaica Plain, Mass .; graduated at Harvard College, 1837; taught in Mr. Greene's school, 1838-39; studied in this Seminary, 1838-39; preceptor of Portland (Me.) Acad- emy, 1841-44; continued theological study under Rev. Mark Anthony De Wolfe Howe (afterwards Bishop of Central Pennsylvania) at Roxbury, teaching at the same time a school for girls, 1844-46; ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Henshaw, in Providence, R. I., April 29, 1847 ; preached as supply in Christ Church, Gardiner, Me., 1847; ordained priest by Bishop Eastburn, in Roxbury, Mass., June 26, 1848; first rector of Grace Church, Medford, Mass., 1847-52; principal of school for girls in Lowell, 1852-53; established and con- ducted the Concord Hall School for young ladies in Boston (often preaching, and supplying one year in Hyde Park), 1852-62; first rector of Church of the Epiphany, Brighton, Mass., 1862-66; agent of the Executive Committee of Missions, 1867 ; chaplain of McLean Asylum for the Insane, Somerville, 1868- 1869; traveled in Europe, 1873-74 ; first rector of St. John's Church, Arlington, 1875-80; minister of St. Bartholomew's Mission, Cambridgeport, 1889-96; re- sided in Cambridge from 1862.
Mr. Haskins received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Columbia College, 1877. He was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He served as treasurer of the Diocese of Massachusetts, 1850-51, and was chosen General Commissioner of Education of the University of the South, 1877. In addition to the churches organized by Dr. Haskins as indicated above, he was largely instrumental in establishing others at North Conway, N. H., Bar Harbor and Prout's Neck, Me. In later years he had devoted special attention to the application of the force of air waves, had written extensively on the sub- ject, and had secured several patents for inventions. He published Selections from the Old and New Testaments ; French and English First Book ; Study of the Larger Dictionaries ; What Is Confirmation ? Religious Education of Chil-
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dren in New England ; Requisites for a Church School ; Brief Account of the University of the South ; Maternal Ancestors of Ralph Waldo Emerson (his cousin) ; Story of St. Bartholomew's Church.
Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, D.D., of Boston, registrar of the Diocese of Massachusetts (Class of 1844), writes of Dr. Haskins : " He was a man of scholarly habits, of great industry, perseverance, and modesty. He discharged his duties with fidelity and thoroughness, and was self-consecrated in the service of Christ and his Church. He was abundant in good works, and in social life was always a true, sincere, and sympathizing friend."
He was married, December 20, 1842, to Mary Cogswell Daveis, of Portland, Me., daughter of Hon. Charles Stewart Daveis, LL.D., and Elizabeth Taylor Gilman. She survives him, with one son, David Greene Haskins, Jr., Harvard College, 1866, and two daughters. A son and a daughter died in childhood.
Dr. Haskins died of old age and general debility, at Cambridge, Mass., May 11, 1896, aged seventy-eight years and ten days.
CLASS OF 1842.
Edward Phelps Blodgett.
Son of Cephas Blodgett and Huldah Gaylord; born in East Windsor, Ct., August 23, 1815; the family removing in his infancy to Amherst, Mass., he was prepared for college at Amherst Academy ; graduated at Amherst College, 1838; taught one year in Hatfield Academy; took the full course in this Semi- nary, 1839-42 ; licensed to preach by the Andover Association, meeting with Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., at Andover, April 12, 1842; ordained over the church in Greenwich, Mass., July 5, 1843, and remained there until 1894, re- siding afterwards in Roslindale, Mass.
Mr. Blodgett's half century of service in the quiet parish of Greenwich was one of faithful, devoted usefulness, not only as a pastor, but in connection with the schools of the town, of which he was superintendent for thirty years. The fiftieth anniversary of this pastorate in 1893 was appropriately observed, one of the participants being Rev. Edmund Dowse, D.D., of Sherborn, Mass., the only minister of the denomination in the United States who had been settled in the same place for a longer period. His only publications were a memorial sermon on Rev. Henry Martyn Tupper and discourses at the fortieth and fiftieth anni- versaries of his settlement in Greenwich.
Rev. Lyman Whiting, D.D., of East Charlemont, Mass., a seminary class- mate and a lifelong friend, before and after, writes of Mr. Blodgett: “ When five years old he went with his father to see laid the corner stone of South Col- lege, the first building of the Amherst College group. For seventy-five years . he has looked each year upon the building of whose beginning he was no doubt the last surviving witness. In the old Amherst Academy we first met and tugged together over the antique Latin Reader. Threescore years in compan- ionship in study and blessed ministry had been ours. Steadfast industry had given him a fair rank as a scholar. A faithful, devout spirit had kept him from the distortions of theological empiricisms, and a gospel vitality, winning lucid- ity and fervor of manner kept his messages in a feeling contact with his hear- ers. A strenuous moderation - so to call it - made him a daily reader of the
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Greek Testament for years, and a visitor to his college for forty-eight out of fifty commencements, and kept him in his pulpit on every Sabbath but one in forty-three years. He knew about every one of his nearly four thousand ser- mons and of every communion season, marriage, and burial in his parish. Scarce a leakage could be found in the 'golden censer ' holding the offerings of his life. A wholeness and entirety enrich his record seldom seen in poor mortal life."
Mr. Blodgett was married, at Andover, July 12, 1843, to Mary Sutton Webb, daughter of Thomas Webb and Susan Grimsby, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, Eng- land, and sister of Rev. Edward Webb, of the Class of 1845. She died Octo- ber 29, 1874. They had two sons and three daughters; the sons died in child- hood; two of the daughters are connected with the Young Women's Christian Association in Boston.
Mr. Blodgett died of pneumonia, after an illness of but one day, at Roslin- dale, Mass., December 28, 1895, aged eighty years, four months, and five days.
OLASS OF 1843.
Edwin Bela Turner.
Son of Timothy Turner and Abigail Grant; born in Great Barrington, Mass., October 2, 1812. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, fighting at Ticonderoga and Bennington, and his father a famous temperance lecturer in the early days of that reform. He worked on his father's farm until he was sixteen years old, and then as an apprentice at the trade of machine manufac- turing. While thus engaged, he attended religious meetings held in a woolen mill by Rev. Horatio Foote, and decided to change his plan of life and fit for the ministry. He fitted for college at Kinderhook (N. Y.) Academy, and, re- moving to Illinois with his father's family, entered the sophomore class of Illi- nois College, graduating in 1840 at the age of twenty-eight. He took the full course in this Seminary, 1840-43, and was licensed to preach by the Andover Association, meeting with Rev. Samuel C. Jackson, April 11, 1843. He was ordained at Denmark, Io., November 5, 1843, and was home missionary pastor at Cascade, Io., until 1847, and at Colesburg, Io., until 1854. He was then pastor at Morris, Ill., for ten years and superintendent of the American Home Missionary Society for Missouri, residing at Hannibal, from 1864 to 1876. Re- moving to New York, he was acting pastor at Owego, 1876-77, at Columbus, 1878-80, and at Chenango Forks, 1880-83, residing afterwards, without charge, at Owego.
Mr. Turner was one of the famous "Iowa Band " of eleven men, of the Class of 1843, having had as a Western man an early part in the movement by writing (while a junior in 1841) a letter of inquiry to " Father Turner," of Iowa, whom he had known at Illinois College. Great interest was taken in the going of so large a number to that distant territory, and a special service was held at the South Church, Andover, on the Sunday before the anniversary, in Septem- ber, 1843, Dr. Leonard Bacon (Class of 1823) preaching the sermon, Dr. Milton Badger (Class of 1827) giving them the charge, and President George E. Pierce, of Western Reserve College (Class of 1821), offering prayer. Their long jour- ney was made by way of the Lakes and the Mississippi to Burlington, thence
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by wagons to Denmark, whence, after prayer and consultation by the few breth- ren already in the field, they separated, going to different parts of the territory.
Of Mr. Turner's part in the great work accomplished in the then new West, Rev. William Salter, D.D., of Burlington, Io., a classmate and one of the " Band," writes : " As his nearest neighbor in the first field that he occupied in the territory, which was then in the farthest settlements to the northwest in the United States, I recall the hardships and privations of his situation, the howling winds of the long and desolate prairies that he traversed in meeting his appointments from settlement to settlement, and the howling wolves which frequently broke the slumbers of the night. Gradually the wild prairie was subdued and brought under the plow, and the log cabin gave way to a more comfortable home, but for several years he shared an extreme measure of ex- posure and hardness. Through such services the Iowa wilderness was made to blossom with schools and churches and Christian homes. . .. His labors in Missouri involved much long and dangerous travel, and were attended with many embarrassments from the social repellences and distractions of the Civil War and the antagonisms of an old and a new civilization. Bravely and per- sistently he stood to his work, evolving order out of chaos, preparing the way for the better times that have since dawned. He found in that State only four Congregational churches, and when he resigned the superintendency left a roll of seventy-one churches."
Mr. Turner married, July 17, 1845, Jane Brush, of Buffalo, N. Y., daughter of Edmund H. Brush and Hannah Stone, and she survives him, with three adopted daughters, their two children having died in infancy.
He died of old age, at Owego, N. Y., July 6, 1895, aged eighty-two years, nine months, and four days.
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