USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Necrology, 1890-1900 (Andover Theological Seminary) > Part 52
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" ' Somewhere, out of human view, Whate'er thy hands are set to do Is wrought with tumult of acclaim.' "
Principal C. F. P. Bancroft, of Phillips Academy (Class of 1867), an inti- mate friend from the time of their school-boy days at New Ipswich in 1855, writes : "Any record of Professor Churchill's service in ' the trinity of Andover schools,' as he liked to phrase it, must make large mention of his loyalty to the religious, educational, and literary traditions of the place. His residence, except for his four years at Harvard, was here for over forty years - practically for all his professional life. The large amount of work he did elsewhere was incidental. Here were his interests and his affections. The whole community claimed him. He made it a primary end to be a good citizen. A graduate of both Academy and Seminary, a teacher in both, a teacher and trustee in Abbot Academy, a benefactor of the three, the pride and ornament of each, all his honors and promotions were shared with them and this community. In his special position as an instructor, he was always a considerate, generous, and cooperative colleague. His energetic and enterprising mind was always adding to its attainments and power. Nature seemed to have prescribed to him his departments, but he would have done excellent work in many others. He could teach large classes wonderfully well, but his work for individual pupils was even more characteristic and fruitful. In personal instruction and criticism he was supreme. He was an inspiring and creative force in the lives of thousands of pupils, and gave them such a pattern of adherence to the highest standards of excellence, and of unfailing courtesy and charity, that they became his life-long, personal friends. His work was more than elocution; it was the interpretation of literature. To teach homiletics and the pastoral care was the natural outcome of his taste, temperament, and training. All his studies led up to this, the crowning work of his life.
"Only those who lived side by side with Professor Churchill could have knowledge of his marvelous industry. He was always at work, and a hard worker. Fragments of time, the early morning, the late night, hours of travel
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and seeming recreation, were all put to use. The poise and repose he so fault- lessly exhibited in the pulpit and on the platform, his patience under interrup- tions, his lavish use of time for others, his swift appropriation of an author's thought, his almost intuitive acquaintance with the current movements in society, literature, and theology, might easily foster an impression that his life was one of scholarly ease, rather than of strenuous labor. A finished culture such as his is inseparably associated in our minds with leisure. To such a degree was he an artist in all his lines of work, that his own discipline, his writing, whether for oral delivery or for the press, his slightest public service, all were done with a careful preparation which made his precepts eloquent with example. 'Trifles make up perfection, and perfection is no trifle,' was a motto often on his lips. I have often seen him spend hour after hour upon the crude composition of his pupils or their unformed habits of speaking, till the diffuse became compact, the turbid clear, the inelegant refined, and the powerless effective. Most of this work went down out of the sight of men. It was lost to view in strong but stubborn soil, which under his incessant hand smiled presently with a golden harvest. But at what cost! So little did he think of it himself, that even his closest friends underestimated the multiplicity and urgency of his activities.
"The thoroughness and severity of his work was always dignified by an exceptional magnanimity. In his teaching he was never cynical, sarcastic, or petulant. In unpromising men and unpromising material he always discerned some goodness. When he rebuked and criticised, it was always with apprecia- tion and sympathy. He could correct a fault or an offender without causing humiliation or irritation -'Still pleased to praise, but not afraid to blame.' In times of divided feeling and opinion, he kept a sweet charity which refused to break with old friends, and-what is more difficult -refused to let old friends break with him. It was a principle and a habit with him to construe another's views and conduct in the most favorable light, and to assign the best possible motives for what he was obliged to disapprove. His strongest convic- tions never led him into partisanship. He lived peaceably with all men in a most generous largeness of mind and friendliness of feeling. His character in these respects made itself felt throughout these institutions, and through them in countless colleges, churches, and communities, at home and abroad."
The widely-scattered alumni of Andover reached by this sketch will be interested to know that the funeral of their beloved teacher was held in the Seminary Church, which was completely filled with citizens and old students. The service was conducted by Rev. Dr. Mckenzie of the Board of Trustees. The music of the processional, as well as the two hymns afterwards sung, tenderly recalled to all present the voice which in that place had so often read "Lead, kindly light," " Peace, perfect peace," and " Abide with me." The nephews of Professor Churchill -with the members of the Seminary Faculty and his former associates, Presidents Tucker and Harris, and Prof. J. Henry Thayer, as honorary bearers-bore him to his burial in the sacred spot where already sleep so many of the past teachers and friends of the Andover schools. Dr. Bancroft read the commitment service and Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar," again recalling "the sound of a voice that is still."
Professor Churchill was married, July 27, 1869, to Mary Donald, of Andover, daughter of Dea. William Cooper Donald and Agnes Bain Smart,
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who survives him. Their children are Donald Churchill (Harvard College, 1893, Harvard Medical School, 1899, house officer in Rhode Island Hos- pital, Providence), and Marlborough Churchill (Harvard College, 1900).
Professor Churchill died of heart failure, following grip, at Andover, Mass., April 13, 1900, aged sixty years, ten months, and eighteen days.
CLASS OF 1869.
Willard Deming Brown.
Son of Ira Brown and Elitha D. Bogue; born in New Haven, Vt., November 10, 1838 ; fitted for college at New Haven (now Beeman) Academy and Fairfax (Vt.) Seminary; graduated at Middlebury College, 1866; took the full course in this Seminary, 1866-69; was licensed by the Addison Association, at New Haven, Vt., December 7, 1868. Immediately after his graduation he began pastoral service at Gilbertville (in the town of Hardwick), Mass., and was ordained there December 6, 1870, Rev. Calvin Hulbert, of Newark, N. J., preaching the sermon. This pastorate continued eighteen years, to the close of 1887, and his second, at Interlachen, Fla., began January 1, 1888, and was terminated only with his death.
Mr. Brown was a member of the Interlachen School Board, and a trustee of Rollins College, at Winter Park, Fla., from 1889. His only publication was the sermon on the tenth anniversary of his settlement at Gilbertville. Rev. Calvin B. Hulbert, D. D., of Rome, N. Y. (Class of 1859), Mr. Brown's early pastor, writes thus of him: "He surpassed the expectations of those who knew him. He was a modest, sincere, and true man ; a faithful student, a careful thinker, a persistent worker, and a good sermonizer and preacher."
Rev. Nathan R. Nichols, of Norwich, Vt. (Class of 1870), who was a classmate of Mr. Brown at Middlebury, writes: " He often urged a religious life on my attention, and, with others, was instrumental in leading me to the Saviour and afterward into the ministry. He was firm in his convictions of right, a wise counsellor, and a true friend. I considered him a devoted Christian in college, but early in his theological course deep heart-searching led him first to question the reality of his conversion, then to fresh consecra- tion and more self-denying labor. The few days it was my privilege to spend in his home during his pastorate at Gilbertville, showed me that he did not mistake his calling in entering the ministry. My heart prompts me to say much more in praise of my very dear friend, Mr. Brown, whose friendship seems to me more valuable as the years go by." It may be added, as a char- acteristic incident, that during the prevalence of yellow fever in Florida some years ago, when many were fleeing from the pestilence, Mr. Brown remained with his people, saying that they never needed his pastoral service as much as when they were sick and dying.
Mr. Brown was married, May 10, 1870, to Martha Jane Page, of Johnson, Vt., daughter of Elial Todd Page and Mary Ann Nye. She died December 7, 1886. He married, second, January 5, 1888, Mary Lee Brown, of Jewett City, Ct., daughter of Hon. Asher Palmer Brown and Louisa Ames, who survives him. The oldest daughter died at the age of eighteen. The second daughter graduated as a nurse from the Washburn Memorial Hospital in Worcester,
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and resides at Winchendon, Mass. The only son, educated at Rollins College and at Oberlin, is a business man at Atlanta, Ga.
Mr. Brown died of cerebral hemorrhage, at Interlachen, Fla., Septem- ber 25, 1899, aged sixty years, ten months, and fifteen days.
CLASS OF 1870.
Charles Russell Treat. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Rev. Selah Burr Treat (Class of 1835), Secretary of the American Board, and Abigail Thompson Peters ; born in Newark, N. J., October 2, 1842; fitted for college at the Boston Latin School; graduated at Williams College, 1863; studied in Lane Theological Seminary, 1863-64; and in this Seminary, 1864-65; Goodrich professor of Physiology, and of Vocal and Physical Cul- ture, Williams College, 1866-69; licensed by the Berkshire North Association at Pittsfield, March 5, 1866; acting pastor at Pownal, Vt., 1867, and at South Williamstown, Mass., 1868 ; reentered the Seminary, in Senior Class, 1869-70. He was ordained pastor of the church in Marlborough, Mass., March 30, 1870, and remained there until 1873; after a European trip was pastor of Second Church, Greenwich, Ct., 1874-80; Chaplain of the American Seaman's Friend Society, at Antwerp, Belgium, 1880-81; traveling abroad and residing at Greenwich, Ct., 1881-82. He was ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church, by Bishop Williams of Connecticut, December 23, 1882, and priest, by Bishop Clark of Rhode Island, August 2, 1883; in charge of St. Peter's-by-the-Sea, Narragansett Pier, R. I., 1882 ; assistant rector, St. John's Church, Stamford, Ct., 1882-83; rector, Church of the Redeemer, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1883-87 ; assistant rector, St. Thomas's Church, New York, 1887-88; rector, Church of the Archangel, New York, 1888-92; rector, St. Stephen's Church, New York, 1892-99.
Mr. Treat was one of the founders and the first president of the Greenwich (Ct.) Public Library, was an officer of the New York School of Expression, and gave instruction in Hygiene of the Voice in the School of Oratory, Boston Uni- versity, 1873-75. Rev. John P. Peters, D. D., of St. Michael's Church, New York, sends the following tribute: " Rev. Charles Russell Treat was for some years one of my nearest neighbors among the New York clergy. I had known him very slightly in years gone by, and a distant connection helped to establish an intimate personal relation. I was, therefore, in a condition to note, better than most, the character of the man and effect of his work. He was essentially a pastor. Sympathetic with the needs and wants of those with whom he came in contact, he won, in a peculiar degree, the confidence and affection of the people whom he shepherded. This, I think, was his especial strength in the ministry. His brethren of the clergy knew and appreciated him as an educated, thoughtful, and capable companion, and loved him for his Christian graces and his sweetness of character. He was an efficient parish priest, with a capacity for business and organization, and the work which he did in the Episcopal Church was a good work; but the clergy and his own congregation will remember him most of all for the sweet Christian grace of sympathy which he possessed in a singular degree."
Mr. Treat was married, April 17, 1867, to Julia Jackson Hubbell, of Newark, N. J., daughter of Algernon Sidney Hubbell and Julia Jackson. She
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survives him, with two sons, Rev. Sidney Hubbell Treat, assistant rector of St. Paul's Church, Stockbridge, Mass., and Hugh Peters Treat, student in Trinity School, New York.
Mr. Treat died of heart disease, in New York, October 3, 1899, aged fifty-seven years, and one day.
Thomas Jefferson Volentine. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Jackson Oliver Volentine and Jane Armstrong; born at Cotton- wood Grove, Ill., December 10, 1841 ; prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover; graduated at Brown University, 1867; studied in this Seminary, 1867-68; graduated at Chicago Seminary, 1870. He was licensed to preach by the Elgin (Ill.) Association, May 3, 1870, and was ordained as pastor of the Congregational Church at Champaign, Ill., October 13, 1870, remaining there until 1872. He attended lectures at Yale Divinity School, 1872-73, and was acting pastor in Glencoe, Ill., 1879-80. From 1881 to 1885 he resided mostly in St. Louis, Mo., attending several courses of medical lectures there, and preaching for a time at Webster Groves, Mo., also one year, 1883-84, at Gettysburg, Dakota. In 1885 he returned East, resided in Boston and Dorchester for two years, helping forward in Dorchester the enterprise out of which was organized later the Central Church. Having transferred his ecclesiastical relations to the Unitarian Church, he removed to Brighton, Mass., late in 1887; was pastor there until 1890; at Duluth, Minn., 1890-91 ; at Mead- ville, Pa., 1891-93; at Waterville, Me., 1894-97. He had not held a pastorate afterward, but preached for several months, in 1898, at Memphis, Tenn. He returned to his Congregational connections in the last year of his life, by join- ing the Mendon (Mass.) Association.
Rev. Charles M. Southgate, of Auburndale, Mass. (Class of 1870), writes of his friend : "From the time we first met on the Academy play- ground at Andover to the last time I saw him, on Boston Common, already smitten with his last illness and cowering from the chill wind, it was always a delight to catch his smile, grip his hand, and receive his quaint greet- ing. At the first acquaintance, he seemed a man; the last letter from his hospital bed was fresh with a breezy youthfulness, closing, 'Thankfully, hope- fully, joyfully.' In the Seminary we became classmates, and roommates for most of the junior year. From that time we were really but little together, but the friendship deepened rather than weakened, and each meeting became a fresh advance. He was a man loving, and to be loved; a gentleman by instinct and habit; of a delicate chivalry, most appreciative, trusting, and loyal. He delighted to show kindnesses. A gift from him might not be expensive, but it was always fit and choice of its kind. How devoted he was to his ministry, and how true to his Master, those who knew him thoroughly can testify. These personal characteristics have been dwelt upon, for my acquaintance with his work is meagre. I know of his strong churches in Illinois, and of his large- hearted effort in Dorchester to reach by a winsome and helpful Christianity, those who stood off from the church. Just twice I heard him preach, once at the beginning, then close to the end of his work. Both sermons I remember distinctly -the vigor, the elegance, the close, practical spirit. An orphan, with ten years of study before him, he spent his little wealth in getting through
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Phillips Academy, and afterward he won his way through- won it rather than fought it, for the most part. Friends were drawn to him with help, but neither his manhood nor his trust were tarnished thereby. He was sound of heart and brave; how brave, only those could tell who knew of experiences with which he would not burden the world, but kept mostly between himself and the God he so solemnly and beautifully trusted. His was a life of various and striking experiences, with large blessings enjoyed to the full, and the end is peace."
Mr. Volentine was married, September 28, 1870, to Alice Electa Pickard, of Chicago, Ill., daughter of Josiah L. Pickard, LL. D., and Cornelia Wood- hull. She died February 11, 1872. He married, June 12, 1888, Mary Leg- gett Foster, of Brooklyn, N. Y., daughter of Prof. Robert Foster, Ph.D., and Augusta Swain. She survives him, with one son, and is an instructor in Adelphi College, Brooklyn.
Mr. Volentine died of acute heart disease, in the Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, February 22, 1900, aged fifty-eight years, two months, and twelve days.
OLASS OF 1873.
Walter Manning Barrows, D. D.
Son of Rev. John Manning Barrows and Catherine Paine Moore; born in Franklin, Mich., April 12, 1846; fitted for college at the preparatory department of Olivet College ; graduated at Olivet College, 1867 ; studied in Yale Divinity School, 1867-68; and in Union Theological Seminary, 1868-69; preached at Arvonia, Kan., 1869-70, and at North Topeka, Kan., 1870-71. He was licensed to preach by the Eastern Association of Kansas, March 9, 1871, was ordained at Marshall, Mich., November 1, 1871, and was acting pastor there, 1871-72. He then took his senior year of theological study in this Seminary, 1872-73, his graduating address, July 3, 1873, being upon "Socrates and Christ." After a few months of study as resident licentiate, in Chicago Theological Seminary, he began service in Salt Lake City, Utah, in December, 1874, organizing a Congregational church and remaining as its pastor until 1881. He was afterward one of the secretaries of the American Home Missionary Society, New York City, 1882-88; acting pastor of the Second Church, Rockford, Ill., 1888-98; and pastor of the Second Church, Greenwich, Ct., from 1898 to the time of his death.
He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Olivet College in 1883. He was a trustee of Beloit College, 1891-98, and of Rockford College, 1889-99. He was a delegate to the London International Council in 1891, and chairman of the Missionary Congress at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Dr. Barrows's parents were both Oberlin graduates in the very first years of that college, and were strongly imbued with the anti-slavery zeal and spiritual earnestness of that time and place, doing effective home missionary and edu- cational work on the frontier, and having a part in the beginnings of Olivet College, where the father was for ten years a professor of the natural sciences. In such parentage and nurture it is easy to find the springs of the enthusiastic, virile nature, intellectual and moral, to which strong and affectionate testimony is paid in the memorial sermon of his brother, President John H. Barrows
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(Class of 1875), and in the following tribute of his friend, Rev. James L. Hill, D. D., of Salem, Mass. (Class of 1875) :
" As I sit here, I can look out upon the campus on Andover Hill, although many miles and twenty-eight years intervene, and see the tall, lithe figure of Walter M. Barrows, as book in hand he strode rapidly along the embowered paths that center at the old chapel and lecture-room door. There was a sort of an indefinable, distinguished air about him, the effect of which was height- ened in winter by his military cloak, with its expansive and most becoming cape. He was the prince of good fellows, easily approachable, affable, and full of spiritual intensity. Inevitably, even as a young man, he was pushing his way right up to the front. We expected that he would do something adven- turous, aggressive, and noble. It was just like him to ask the Home Mission- ary Society to give him their hardest field. The primitive times and unique conditions, combined in the offer of an arena for the unfolding of his splendid powers, which can never be repeated. Full of vitality, faith, and a certain enthu- siastic Americanism, he starts off for his home missionary parish among the mountains, 'with his martial cloak around him!' He gathers in Salt Lake City a congregation in the midst of abounding Mormonism, not then as now on the defensive, but sensual, ignorant, and defiant. By the mysterious elec- tion of Providence he seems to have been advanced as just the right man to undertake a great work. He became a feature in Salt Lake City. Railroad men and miners said, 'Let's go over and hear Barrows.' In seven years he not only placed his impression upon the community and the church, but laid the foundations of the New West Education Commission, with its thirty schools and three academies, out of one of which has evolved Salt Lake College.
" He had the capacity of friendship. He always kept himself surrounded with devoted helpers. He was a master of men, who always attended his services in uncommon numbers. Leadership was natural to him. He had an instinct to see the strong points in any situation. The discovery of a strategic point seemed to stir him all up. Like a skillful general, he could not look upon an unoccupied position without thinking of it as a vantage ground for the forces of the Captain of our salvation. The secret of his success lay in the fact that he never frittered away his strength on unimportant matters. Andover never graduated a man better fitted for a representative frontier post. He seemed to have a calling to build up society. In such stimulating environ- ment the young home missionary evolved his powers as a man of affairs. People liked the man who succeeded in doing the thing to be done. He had physical vigor, gentlemanliness, practical judgment, hopefulness, tolerance, and amazing generosity. He always interested his audiences. He abounded in metaphors and illustrations dug out of every quarry. It is easy to see why he was often summoned East to make addresses upon home missions ; why those addresses, with the winsome personality behind them, made him home missionary secre- tary ; and why the years of his administration marked perhaps the most aggres- sive era in the history of the American Home Missionary Society.
" All the annals of our churches scarcely supply such tokens of affection for a deceased minister as were shown in the generous and unfailing thoughtful- ness of his loyal and united church at Greenwich. The action of his earlier church at Rockford, too, and the comments of the press upon his resignation there, abound with the highest praise, especially of the heroism that reared
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from its ashes a one hundred thousand dollar church as his monument; of his instrumentality in adding one thousand members to the visible church, his success in originating a second Sabbath service-which was not only the pride of the city, but the emulation of the land - and the inevitableness with which he stamped himself upon every community in which he lived and loved and labored. As for conscience, self-control, courtesy, and unselfishness, he was their very incarnation."
Dr. Barrows was married, September 16, 1884, to Mary Dewey Jones, of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., daughter of Rev. Thomas W. Jones, D. D., and Frances Griswold. She survives him, with two sons and three daughters.
Dr. Barrows died, after several weeks' illness (the disease not being determined), at Mackinac Island, Mich., August 10, 1899, aged fifty-three years, three months, and twenty-nine days.
CLASS OF 1874.
Henry Marsh. (Resident licentiate.)
Son of Joel Marsh and Eliza Ingersoll; born in Eckford, Mich., Septem- ber 17, 1842; fitted for college in the schools of his own town and in the pre- paratory department at Olivet; graduated at Olivet College, 1870; studied in Yale Divinity School, 1870-71, and graduated at Oberlin Seminary, 1873; licensed by the Cleveland Conference at Wellington, O., October 16, 1872; took a post-graduate year in this Seminary, as resident licentiate, 1873-74. He was ordained, April 23, 1875, at Somerset, Mich., where he had preached from 1874, and where he remained until 1877. His subsequent pastorates were all in Michigan : at Kalamo, 1877-80 ; at Edmore, 1880-95 (supplying also the church at Six Lakes, 1886-91), and at Vestaburg, 1891-94. In 1895 he removed to Olivet, and resided there afterward, without charge, except two periods of sojourning on the Pacific Coast for the sake of his failing health.
From a minute prepared for the Lansing Association by Rev. John P. Sanderson (Class of 1874), registrar of the Michigan Congregational Associa- tion, the following quotation is made : Mr. Marsh was "one of the charter members of this Association, and held a large place in the affection and esteem of his brethren. His affiliation with the brethren and churches of this Associa- tion from its birth was most intimate and helpful. For much of the time he was its faithful and efficient registrar and was one of its best counsellors. A gentle nature, a faithful worker, a manly man, honest, faithful, true, pure- hearted, self-forgetful ; given to service, kindly to all, gracious in word and deed ; a gospel pioneer, a missionary who wrought out his own problem on the ยท foundation of his own making ; assiduous in labor, patient, persuasive, modest, and unassuming, but bold for every righteous cause; a warm advocate of temperance and prohibition. and of every moral reform; a public servant, giving his best energies to the town in which his life-work was accomplished ; an efficient pastor, a wise counsellor, a friend to the poor, entrenching himself in the affections of his people ; alive and active in the fellowship of the churches and diligent in their service ; a true and loving husband, a kind and gentle father ; patient in sickness, faithful unto death - Henry Marsh has gone from us as one beloved, and his memory is revered as one who always endeavored to walk with fidelity in the footsteps of his Master."
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