USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Necrology, 1890-1900 (Andover Theological Seminary) > Part 43
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President McClure, of Lake Forest University, wrote of him in the Interior : " Dr. Dickinson's character was remarkably pure, strong, gentle, and winning. He was possessed of rare modesty and blamelessness. He was a man of God whose life was hid with God; he did his work faithfully ; he carried a high
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sense of his obligation to God and the church, and he answered to them devotedly. His death was like a translation. Ill for only a few hours, and not supposed to be seriously ill, he rose from the sofa to walk across the room, felt badly, lay down, and almost in an instant ceased to breathe. It was very natural for Dr. Dickinson to go to God."
Dr. Dickinson was married, March 16, 1854, to Annis Dougherty, of Aurora, N. Y., daughter of Edward Dougherty and Annis Lake. She survives him, with four children : Mrs. Bond, of Kankakee, Ill .; Miss Dickinson, of the John Crerar Library, Chicago; Richard Baxter Dickinson, of Los Angeles, Cal .; and Clarence Dickinson, a professional musician and composer, now studying abroad. Two children died in childhood.
He died of angina pectoris, at Evanston, Ill., March 12, 1899, aged seventy- two years, one month, and fourteen days.
George Henry Gould, D. D. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Rufus Gould and Mary Henry; born in Oakham, Mass., February 20, 1827; prepared for college at Monson (Mass.) Academy; graduated at Amherst College, 1850; studied in Union Theological Seminary, 1850-51, and 1852-53, spending the intervening year, 1851-52, in this Seminary. Suffering in health, he engaged for a time in engineering in the West, but supplied the churches at Waukegan and Kenosha, Wis., in 1853-4, besides delivering lec- tures in various lyceum courses in the Northwest. He went abroad in 1856, and spent two years and a half in European travel. Returning, he preached occasionally as his health permitted, and was ordained in Springfield, Mass., November 13, 1862 (Rev. Dr. Seth Sweetser of Worcester preaching the ser- mon), was acting pastor of Olivet Church, Springfield, 1863-64, and pastor of the First Church, Hartford, Ct., 1864-70; resided afterwards at Worcester, Mass .; acting pastor of Piedmont Church, 1872-76, and of Union Church, 1878-80. During the intervals between these pastorates he supplied important churches in Boston, Providence, and other cities, his health forbidding full pas- toral service.
He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Amherst College in 1870. He was a special friend of Mr. John B. Gough, whose estimate of him as a preacher and a man is given in his volumes of autobiographical reminis- cence : " In 1856 I first met Rev. George H. Gould, D. D., and was fascinated by his preaching. He is emotional with no sensationalism ; he speaks with an earnestness that convinces you he really believes all he utters, with a deep pathos revealing the tenderness of his own nature, an eloquence perfectly natu- ral, a face radiant at times when he utters some lofty thought. He has no monotonous repetitions; there is nothing stale or conventional in his preaching. He reaches the intellect and the heart, and were it not for his health he would have been one of the widely-known popular preachers of the day. . .. Among the ministers who came to preach for us [at Boylston] was the Rev. George Gould, and from our first meeting we became friends-not in the ordinary acceptation of that term, but we loved each other at first sight. There was a rare tenderness in our friendship. Our souls were knit together ; we were so drawn together that we seemed to fuse into one -it is a holiday when we meet ; the grasp of his hand does me good 'like a medicine.' I number him and his
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wife among my dearest and best loved friends; our friendship strengthens as we grow older; we have been together in dark days and sunny days, but neither clouds nor sunshine affect the stability of our love for each other."
Rev. Amos H. Coolidge, of Worcester (Class of 1856), sends this tribute to his long-time friend : "The activities of Dr. Gould have been from the first much circumscribed by physical limitations and depressions. He at different times received urgent and flattering invitations to the pastorate of important churches in Philadelphia, Boston, and other cities, which he declined on account of his health. His only settlement as installed pastor was in Hartford. He was acting pastor of Piedmont Church in the first five years of its existence, and left upon it the permanent influence of his evangelical, devout, and earnest spiritu- ality. Although his ministerial aspirations were disappointed, he held, notwith- standing his limitations, a place of honor and influence alike among ministers and churches. In his later years of comparative retirement he was especially helpful to the small and more dependent churches, to which he contributed liberally, both pecuniarily and by personal service. In conversation and occa- sional addresses he was witty, sprightly, and impressive. Warm-hearted, sympathetic, and faithful, he was a man greatly beloved. His funeral in Pied- mont Church was largely attended by sincere mourners. Dr. Gould regarded the Christian ministry as a preeminently grand and responsible profession. His standard of preaching was high. In his estimation the pulpit was the throne of ministerial power. He was fearless and outspoken, and expressed his convictions and judgments in terms and tones clear, incisive, forceful, ring- ing. In his thinking and preaching Mr. Gould was intelligently and earnestly evangelical. He cared little for the subtleties or speculations of theological polemics, but to the end he firmly clung to the great central, vital, saving truths of the gospel. The last time I sat by his bed, not long before his death, he said, ' I have been reconstructing my theology. I don't know whether it is old or new. It is mostly condensed into two hymns :
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride ;
and that other beautiful hymn :
There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.'"
Dr. Gould was married, October 15, 1862, to Ellen Mandeville Grout, of Worcester, daughter of Jonathan Grout and Mary J. Smith. She survives hin. His brother, Rev. Edwin S. Gould, of Providence, R. I., was in this Seminary in 1873.
Dr. Gould died as the result of grip, at Worcester, Mass., May 8, 1899, aged seventy-two years, two months, and eighteen days.
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Alfred Loring Skinner. (Resident Licentiate.)
Son of Loring Skinner and Hannah Darling ; born in Bucksport, Me., Novem- ber 22, 1824 ; fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and at Bucksport High School; graduated at Yale College, 1849; took the full course in Bangor Seminary, 1849-52 ; licensed to preach by the Penobscot Association in December, 1851 ; preached for a few months at Frankfort, Me., and studied in this Semi- nary as resident licentiate, 1853; ordained at Bucksport, Me., January 27, 1854 ; acting pastor, Frankfort, Me., 1854-55; afterwards preached for a short time at Saccarappa, Me. His health forbidding a continuance in the ministry, he engaged in clerical work in the U. S. Engineer's office at Fort Knox, Rockport, and at Fort Preble, Portland; in 1861 removed to Bucksport, where he resided until his death.
He was postmaster of Bucksport for twenty-six years, 1861-87. He had the care of the Bucksport library for several years, and attended to the settle- ment of estates. Prof. E. Y. Hincks, D.D., of Andover (Class of 1870), a native of Bucksport, writes: "Mr. Skinner was a very interesting and lovable man. Refined in person and manner, with unusual powers of expression, thoughtful and studious, hospitable to new Christian thought, devout and thoroughly consistent, he was a valued citizen, and a church member highly esteemed and beloved. For many years his thoughtful and stimulating words were a delightful and helpful feature of the social meetings of the church. He was in all Christian and social relations unobtrusive and amiable; in family relations a rare example of unselfishness, a devoted son and brother Confined by delicate health to the layman's sphere, his culture and abilities did much to raise the level of thought and life in the community, and made no small contribution to the purity and power of the church."
Rev. Edwin A. Buck, of Fall River, Mass. (Class of 1852), writes : " Mr. Skinner and I were intimate friends from our boyhood. We began the religious life when young, and were in very close touch with each other in our religious experience to the end. We were room-mates in college and in Bangor Semi- nary. Our correspondence was kept up till within a few days of his departure. I extract the following from recent letters : 'God has been very good to me; in sunshine and in shade, in sickness and health, in success and in disappointment, He has still led me on. I trust my life has not been all a failure. I do hope for eternal life and shall be glad to rest.' President Timothy Dwight, our classmate, on receiving tidings of his death, wrote : ' He was, indeed, a gentle, loving, sweet Christian soul, and was fitted for the kingdom of purity and love. He lived quietly, but had a blessed and blessing influence upon all who knew him.' His popularity in his native place was shown in the fact that on the day of his funeral the flags of the village were hung at half mast, and places of business were closed."
Mr. Skinner was married, June 5, 1856, to Ruth Avery Chick, of Frankfort, Me., daughter of Elisha Chick and Ruth Avery. She died May 22, 1884. They had two children, Rev. Charles L. Skinner, of Haverhill, N. H., and Mrs. Frances C. S. Homer, of Bucksport.
Mr. Skinner died of apoplexy, at Bucksport, Me., March 25, 1899, aged seventy-four years, four months, and three days.
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CLASS.OF 1854.
James Ormsbee Murray, D.D., LL.D.
Son of James Syng Murray (of Philadelphia) and Aurelia Pearce (of Reho- both, Mass.); born in Camden, S. C., November 27, 1827; in 1836 the father, who was a merchant in Camden, having freed or provided for the emancipation of his slaves, removed first to Ohio, then to Ottawa, Ill .; fitted for college at Springfield, O .; graduated (as valedictorian of his class) at Brown University, 1850; studied in this Seminary, 1850-51 ; was instructor in Greek, Brown Uni- versity, 1851-52 ; returned and completed his theological course, 1852-54, graduating, August 2, 1854, with an address upon "Sacred Eloquence, the Ideal Eloquence." He was licensed to preach by the Rhode Island Conference of Congregational Ministers at Providence, January 31, 1854, and was ordained pastor of the South Congregational Church in South Parish of Danvers (now Peabody), Mass., October 24, 1854, remaining there until 1861 ; was then pastor of the Prospect Street Church, Cambridgeport, Mass., 1861-65; and associate pastor (with Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D., Class of 1810) of the Brick Presbyte- rian Church, New York City, 1865-75; was Holmes Professor of Belles Lettres and English Language and Literature in the College of New Jersey (now Prince- ton University) from 1875; from 1883 was also Dean of the Faculty and as such, until recently, the college preacher for half the Sundays of the academic year.
He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the College of New Jersey in 1867, and that of Doctor of Laws from Brown University in 1886. He was a director of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1869-82 ; trustee of Princeton Seminary, 1867-74 and 1883-99 (being also Vice-President of the Board since 1889), and from 1874 one of its directors. Dr. Murray pub- lished the Sacrifice of Praise (compiler), with Notes on the Origin of Hymns, 1869 ; Prof. J. Lewis Diman's Orations and Essays (editor), with Commemora- tive Discourse, 18S2 ; Memorial of George Ide Chace, LL.D., 1886; Biographical Sketch of William Gammell, LL. D., with Selections from his Writings, 1890; Francis Wayland (American Religious Leaders Series), 1891 ; William Cow. per : Selections from Poetical Works, with Introduction and Notes, 1898. Among his published sermons and addresses are the following : Loyalty to Country and its Duties, 1861; The Missionary and the Martyr, Commemorative of Rev. Wil- liam W. Meriam [Class of 1858], 1862 ; Christian Hymnology, 1869; Memorial of Gardiner Spring, with Funeral Address, 1873; The Sorrow of a Nation (on death of President Garfield), 1881 ; Debt of Civilization to Literature, 1883, and Quarter-Centennial of Presidency of James B. Angell, LL.D., 1896 (both at University of Michigan) ; Address at Funeral of President McCosh, 1894; Christ as a Man of Prayer, and Transfiguration of Life by Christ (Princeton sermons). He contributed many articles and book reviews to the Presbyterian Review, the Presbyterian and Reformed Review, and the Homiletic Review. His two courses of lectures at Princeton, on the Stone Foundation, upon Skepticism in Litera- ture, and Religious Belief in Literature, in 1893 and 1895, were productions of great ability and value, but have not been published.
Prof. William A. Packard, Ph.D., of Princeton University (Class of 1857), sends a full and appreciative tribute : " I came first to know Dr. Murray near the close of his Seminary course, when I was an instructor in Phillips Academy.
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I was then admitted to his cordial friendship and to that also of that nearer circle about him of those who gave full promise, as did he, of future eminence in professional life. His successive pastorates show how he fulfilled in his ministerial career that promise of his preparatory stage until he came, in ripe middle age, to his professorship. Of his services in that I can speak from per- sonal knowledge. His life in Princeton has been one of ever widening activity and influence. He inspired from the first in all his official and personal rela- tions that esteem, confidence, and affectionate regard which have been ever growing in degree until, for years past, they have been given him n the fullest measure. No one in this community could be so missed and mourned as he. To his professorship he brought a mature culture and a thorough knowledge of the best English literature, and the value of his lectures and instructions was at once recognized. In these, as in his published writings, he fulfilled the claims of a high ideal, and showed himself to possess the fine literary taste and insight which eminently fitted him to train his students in the best literary appreciation and culture.
Throughout his ministerial life Dr. Murray's literary studies and spirit had been maintained in a way to enrich his sermons with such qualities of thought and style as made him an ideal University preacher. His sermons were also distinctly marked by their impressive and winning presentation of evangelical truth and by a peculiarly felicitous and forcible treatment of ethical and practi- cal themes. His prayers, especially at the daily service in chapel, and his more familiar addresses to students there and in their social meetings, will be held in most tender and grateful memory. They were marked by a spirituality, fervor and richness of Christian thought and experience, to which very many trace the beginning or the quickening and growth of their spiritual life. In his office as Dean of the University, entrusted with the guidance and execution of its disci- pline, Dr. Murray met, perhaps, the severest personal tests. But he gave the office - which was first created for him, with a wider sphere than usual in our colleges - its best character and success by the unfailing tact and kindliness which never impaired the justness and impartiality and integrity of discipline, but only added to the benignant effect of these essential qualities, and won, with rare exceptions, the gratitude and confidence, and most often the amendment of those who thus came under his influence. The inner history of character and of subsequent life could alone exhibit the full value and happy fruits of such a deanship in such hands as his. . Besides his absorbing official engagements, Dr. Murray was in constant demand in connection with various organizations of citizens in Princeton, giving his counsels freely and usually serving as their president. His lectures on literature were given to classes of ladies in Princeton and in connection with the University Extension movement in various places. He was a frequent preacher in the chapels of our leading universities, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Ann Arbor. . . ยท But if his offices may be supplied, how wholly irreparable our bereavement of such a man! His friendliness, his personal charm, his subtle and not easily explicable power to win affection, were as distinctive of him as his other gifts. One who has had his friendship for more than forty years, and has been in com- pletest intimacy with him during all his life in Princeton, can only simply testify how truly and completely he deserved the confidence and love he so abundantly won. He was, through and through, what he seemed to be. All was genuine,
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unselfish, spontaneous outflow of the real inner, genial, Christian, consecrated man."
Dr. Murray was married, September 22, 1856, to Julia Richards Haughton, of Boston, daughter of James Haughton and Eliza Richards. She survives him, with four sons : one a physician in Plainfield, N. J .; one, assistant to the treasurer of Princeton Seminary ; two in business in New York; and one daugh- ter, wife of Prof. A. C. Armstrong, of Wesleyan University. A son died in childhood and a daughter in youth.
Dr. Murray died of disease of the liver, in Princeton, N. J., March 27, 1899, aged seventy-one years and four months.
OLASS OF 1855.
Spencer Marsh .*
Son of Thomas Spencer Marsh and Phebe Cutter Mitchell (his mother being a daughter of Hon. Ammi R. Mitchell, M.D., of North Yarmouth, Me.) ; born in Bath, Me., January 20, 1830 ; his father died in his early childhood ; fitted for college at Gorham, Me., at Woodman Sanbornton (N. H.) Academy, of which his mother was at that time preceptress, and at Moor's Charity School, Hanover (where his mother, as wife of Dr. Thomas P. Hill, had removed from Sanbornton in 1844); graduated at Dartmouth College, 1849; attended one course of medical lectures at Hanover ; taught in Landaff, N. H., as a private tutor in the family of Hon. Edward Colston, Berkeley County, Va. (1850-51), and in Norwich, Ct .; took the full course in this Seminary, 1852-55, his gradu- ating address, August 2, 1855, being upon " Metaphysical Talent of the Fathers and Schoolmen Compared." He was licensed to preach by the Andover Asso- ciation, meeting with Rev. Henry M. Storrs at Lawrence, February 13, 1855, and was ordained as pastor of the First Congregational Church, Burlington, Vt., November 6, 1856, remaining there until 1860. He was pastor of the Presbyte- rian Church at Haverstraw, N. Y., 1862-68 ; traveled and studied in Europe, 1869 ; resided in Burlington, Vt .; was Professor, pro tempore, of English Litera- ture in the University of Vermont, 1872 ; after another year of travel and study in Europe, was Professor of Modern Languages in the same institution, 1872- 75; was an assistant in the Congressional Library at Washington, 1882-91. Between 1891 and 1895 he visited Europe twice, being much of the time an invalid and under medical treatment in Paris. In 1895 he settled up his affairs in America, and after his second marriage in London and a few months' sojourn in Denmark, took up his residence in Trefriew, a secluded but beautiful health resort in North Wales, where he remained in feeble health until his death.
Rev. Davis Foster, D.D., of Winchendon, Mass., his college and Seminary classmate, says of Mr. Marsh : " His classmates both in the college and Semi- nary remember him with the deepest respect and affection. He abhorred all shams. His piety was simple and unaffected. In his later years he was abroad and separated from his early friends, but we have no reason to doubt the depth and the sincerity of his affection for those who have loved him, and who will cherish his memory to the end."
*Caleb Spencer Marsh until 1855, his name appearing on the Commencement programme as Spencer Marsh, by which name he has since been known.
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From a memorial sketch in The Dartmouth, written by Josiah W. Barstow, M. D., of New York City, who has known him from their college days, the fol- lowing is quoted : " While in the Seminary and afterwards he displayed such unusual talent as a writer, both of sermons and of critical essays, that he gave promise of a clerical career of the highest eminence. But his love of literature and his growing fondness for art study, as well as his exceptional talent as a linguist, gradually led him to drift from his pastoral work into more distinctly literary pursuits. . . Mr. Marsh was a man of gentle and sensitive nature, of frail physique, a thorough scholar, a master of delicate humor, an able critic, and not only a diligent student of art, but also an artist of much ability. His rarest talent, however, was in the exercise of his pen, both in prose and verse, while as a letter writer and friendly correspondent he was almost without a peer."
Mr. Marsh was married, May 11, 1859, to Sarah Anna Hopkins Wheeler, of Burlington, Vt., daughter of Rev. President John Wheeler, D.D., and Sarah Ann Wait Hopkins. She died at Burlington, Vt., November 4, 1878. They had one daughter who died in infancy. He married, second, in London, July 10, 1895, Christine Nielsen, of Sigersted, Denmark, daughter of Christen Niel- sen and Anna Svendsen.
Mr. Marsh died of Bright's disease at Trefriew, North Wales, February 3, 1899, aged sixty-nine years and fourteen days.
CLASS OF 1857.
Roswell Davenport Parker.
Son of Rev. Roswell Parker and Mary Batcheller; born in Homer, N. Y., October 31, 1826; his father, who was a Methodist minister " of great force of character and unlimited endurance," removed to Michigan in 1836, became a Congregationalist, and founded the church in North Adams, Hillsdale County ; the son prepared for college at Jonesville, nine miles from his father's home, whither he rode on horseback every morning, all one winter, for a half-hour's instruction in Latin and Greek - all the time the principal of the school could give him; finished his preparation with his classmate, Richard Cordley, at Ann Arbor; graduated at the University of Michigan, 1854; took the full course in this Seminary, 1854-57, his graduating address, August 6, 1857, being upon " The Theology of Swedenborg; " licensed to preach by the Andover Associa- tion, meeting with Rev. Caleb E. Fisher, Andover, February 10, 1857. As one of the four original members of the "Kansas Band " in Andover Seminary, he went immediately to that State, and organized a Congregational church in Leavenworth, where he was ordained, March 31, 1858. In 1859 he went to Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas, remaining in the church there until 1867; was pastor in Manhattan, 1867-81; compelled then by ill health to resign his pastoral charge, he continued to reside at Manhattan until his death.
Mr. Parker published at Manhattan for fourteen years the Telephone, which, though established first as a church paper, was adopted as the denom- inational paper of the State. For seven years he also published the county newspaper, The Nationalist. He continued his editorial labors until long after his health had given out. He was an early promoter and one of the trustees
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of Washburn College at Topeka, and secretary of the Board of Regents of the State Agricultural College at Manhattan.
Rev. Richard Cordley, D. D., of Lawrence, Kansas, his classmate both at Ann Arbor and at Andover, his roommate through all his Seminary course, and his co-worker in Kansas in all these years, sends this tribute : " Parker was hearty and whole-souled in all he did. He was loyal to his convictions and loyal to his friends. His most marked mental characteristic was his keen and accurate observation. When he looked at a scene or witnessed an event he saw all there was in it. His mind was like a photograph plate; it took in everything just as it was, and he held onto it. When he described a scene you could fancy you were right in it. looking on. His pictures in his sermons were wonderfully real. Had he taken to writing stories he might have made his fortune. His faith in the gospel was robust and unfailing. He believed and therefore he spoke. Personally his going is a great sorrow. We were class- mates in academy and college, and roommates in the Seminary. We took many a tramp together over mountain, through the wood, across the prairie."
From a sketch of Mr. Parker contributed by Dr. Cordley to the Advance and the Kansas Church Calendar, the following is quoted, descriptive of one phase of the pioneer minister's experience in Kansas : " During the war Wyandotte was in considerable peril, being on the border of Missouri. Three miles away began the thickets and ravines which the bushwhackers made their home. It was an ideal hiding place. The bushwhackers could come within an hour's ride of Wyandotte without their presence being suspected. The whole country was alive with them. Almost every night the heavens were lighted by burning houses, sometimes ten miles away, sometimes less than three miles away. The people had to be continually on their guard doing picket duty, as if they had been in a military camp. Mr. Parker took his place with the rest, standing guard at night, or shouldering his musket for defense, as the case might be. Every few nights some alarm would call him from his bed to the place of ren- dezvous. His church bell was rung as the signal of danger, and his church used as a rallying point for the citizens. Often the sick and wounded soldiers from the camps and battlefields of the Southwest were sent to Wyandotte to be cared for, and the town was turned into a hospital. At these times Mr. Parker did the work of a chaplain, without the name or the pay. He visited the sick, buried the dead, wrote letters for the boys, and in general looked after their comfort."
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