USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > Needham's bicentennial celebration; a record of the exercises and a memorial of the celebration at Needham, Massachusetts, on the two hundredth anniversary of it's incorporation. Pub. by the Celebration committee; > Part 2
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TUESDAY, SEPT. 19
9.00 A. M. Civic and Trades Parade will form in Needham Square at 9 with E. G. Pond as marshal, and proceed over the following route : Highland avenue to May street, to Webster street, to Highland avenue, to Alfreton road, to Conant street, to Hunnewell street, to Hillside avenue, to West street, to Highland avenue, to Great Plain avenue, to Warren street, to School street, to Chestnut street, to Oak street, to Maple street, to Great Plain avenue and disband at Needham Square.
4.00 P. M. Banquet in Town Hall. Congressman Weeks, Governor Foss, Mayor Fitzgerald, Rev. Edward L. Horton. Rev. George Whitaker, Mayor Charles E. Hatfield, Hon. B. B. Johnson and others have been invited and are expected to speak. Dress informal.
8.00 P M. Town Hall. Exercises closing with ball. Grand March led by Henry T. Childs, Chairman of Selectmen.
Historic and Art Loan Exhibition
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in High School Hall in charge of New Century Club.
The First Parish Meeting House will be open to visitors during the three days of the Bicentennial. Reception to former members and old- time residents. On Monday and Tuesday from 3 to 5, tea will be served.
An exhibit of curios collected by Chas. H. Mitchell will be shown at the Pumping Station during the three days.
Incorporat
1711
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
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EXERCISES IN OUR CHURCHES
REV. STEPHEN PALMER
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THE SECOND MEETING HOUSE
MEETING HOUSE AND MINISTER OF 1811
OUR CHURCHES
One hundred years ago there was but one church (The First Parish) in the territory now comprising the town of Needham; and the only celebration of which we have any information, was a notable historical sermon by the pastor of that church, Rev. Stephen Palmer, which has been preserved and has recently been printed in full in the local paper, The Needham Chronicle.
There are now seven churches, all well housed and prosperous. The following pages contain an account of their contributions to this Bicentennial celebration. It is to be regretted that in several the addresses were not reported, but they were nevertheless full of en- thusiasm and helpful in adding interest to the occasion.
FIRST PARISH CHURCH (Unitarian)
OUR CHURCHES-FIRST PARISH EXERCISES
1711
1911
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN NEEDHAM (Unitarian)
Sunday September 17, 1911
REV. J. ADAMS PUFFER, Pastor
10.45 a. m. HISTORICAL CHURCH SERVICE -Extracts from the Century Sermon of 1811
SERMON BY THE PASTOR
ANTHEM BY THE PARISH QUARTET
MISS MARY A. TISDALE HERBERT N. MITCHELL MISS FLORENCE E. EATON JAMES E. TISDALE
SOPRANO SOLOS by Miss Tisdale
12.00 m. SUNDAY SCHOOL march to cemetery and decorate graves of past ministers and Sunday School officers
4.00 p. m. VESPER SERVICES
ANTHEM BY DOUBLE QUARTET
CONTRALTO SOLO, Miss Adah G. Fuller
VIOLIN SOLOS, Mrs. F. C. Peabody
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ADDRESS OF REV. WILLIAM H. WALKER MINISTER FIRST CHURCH AND PARISH DEDHAM (MOTHER TOWN)
"Friends, it is indeed a pleasure as minister of the parent First Parish Church of Dedham, to congratu- late this daughter church upon her two hundredth birthday. It is a pleasure too, to hear that old text: 'Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths.'
The tendency to belittle the past is altogether too prevalent. We are most of us given to commiserating the colonists. That the few score families who settled along the Charles never scratched a match, baked with gas, read by electric light, used a telephone, trav- elled by steam or electric power, telegraphed their hurried messages, or decimated distance with an auto- mobile. That they lacked these conveniences usually arouses our pity. But has not life been well lived and can it not be even comfortably and happily lived with- out all our modern inventions ? The natural sweet- ness of life was mainly soured then as it always has been and will be soured by misunderstandings, jeal- ousies and illwill, and not by lack of steam, electric or gasolene power. If the quickness of transportation did not make homecoming so frequent, neither did it make leavetaking so inviting.
Both the temporary and the enduring satisfactions existed in colonial times. Such temporary satisfac-
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tions as the exhilaration of sunshine after cloud and of cool bracing weather after a torrid week belonged to them as much as to any generation that ever came and went. The deeper satisfactions such as the joy of working, the success of one's efforts, a cellar filled for winter, fuel enough, and the restoration to health of those near to us-such satisfactions were theirs. The still deeper satisfactions like the sense of filling a place in the working world and the sense of filling a niche in someone's affection so that one feels neither useless nor unloved,-such satisfactions belonged as much to the earlier as to the present inhabitants of this river basin. That they should have called this plantation Contentment before naming it Dedham, is proof that they needed not that cheap commiseration a progres- sive present usually showers upon the past.
Another factor which hinders us in seeing the old ways and walking in the old paths is the forgetfulness of the world as we now know it. I dare to believe that there is nothing hid which shall not be finally mani- fested and that the minds of those gone before are keep- ing their memories. I believe, too, that our hidden helpers will be revealed and that the fog of obscurity and ignorance which envelops us here will be lifted that we may know as we are known by the All Known above. That is my faith, yet time has almost obliter- ated traces of seventeenth century life in this imme- diate locality. How meagre the records. They can be read in a few hours, and after much reading how little we glean of what was for those people the most interesting drama ever played. We are not an histori- cally minded people. Even the prominent are soon forgotten. Our great grandfathers may be known to us through a recorded will or through an early census so that we know the number of their acres, slaves, cattle and horses, and the amount of taxes they paid.
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It is hard to imagine very clearly the daily life, the ruling ideas, the principal interests of one who may have given us our disposition and our name and yet it is almost wholly obscured by the forgetful years.
If we know little of individuals in whom we are interested through lineage, we know more of the earlier generations as a whole. What were their character- istics? Ease, Independence, Seriousness and Neigh- borliness.
Ease is the mood of the old paintings. A com- posite picture of a hundred old paintings would show a restfulness not so often found today. It is not a stolidity resulting from indifference, ignorance and laziness. It is the peaceful temper of those who are not being pushed and driven and harried through life. There was ease not only in their faces but in their architecture. There was very very little of the strained, the fanciful and the trivial in their construction. Their houses looked easy, natural and dignified. They were not intent as many seem to be, upon innovation. The discipline of waiting until money was earned gave time to study plans. They built few houses that seemed like half thoughts or second thoughts.
The old manuscripts reveal less nervousness, less triviality; greater grace and greater ease in hand writing. They lived before life had been artifically speeded up to its present pace. Piece workers in our factories complain that strong-bodied, quick-minded, and nimble-fingered operators set a pace for the ma- chinery and a standard for pay, that the less strong and skilful can only with over exertion maintain. The same thing has taken place in every line of work today. Life has been speeded up until ease of manner and serenity of mind are not the American characteristics.
Independence was also a trait of the older time. It was not the security our time has attained through
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surgery, medicine, insurance and modern interest in health. The records as kept by the ministers of the parent church at Dedham show that contagion claimed many a life that modern medicine could save. Sum- mer took a fearful toll of babies as precious then as now. We have reached some measure of security in these respects. But they, upon their farms and gardens were more secure in their work. No change of fashion or introduction of machinery or lapse of years made their work precarious. Frugal habits warded off disease. Saving was a security against want and a heritage for the generation following. They made this a prosperous locality.
Neighborliness filled a place in colonial times well nigh unimaginable today. Neighbors helped raise the frame of house or barn, built stone fences, exchanged work at harvests, held bees for the needy, reaped the crops when the farmer was ill, supplied the chairs at party, funeral or wedding, logged, quilted, and watched the sick. Men's interests were not divisive. Beyond the boundary stone wall was very likely a man doing precisely the same thing in the same season. It was a companionable life, a community of men who under- stood one another's cares and difficulties. We go far to associate with men of the same professions and problems. They had a companionship of similar workers in their neighbors.
The element of seriousness in the colonial mind is very easily overdrawn. We must not give too great weight to the testimony of the cavaliers that the Puri- tan mind had no lighter moods. The destructive testimony of another class or an opposing party is poor testimony, for one party or class can never understand another. That the Puritan was without humor is im- possible. That there are few evidences of their lighter vein we all know. It is hardly to be expected that
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public records or wills or deeds would be written in joking mood. Games and sports, wit and jest had currency then as now. It was a serious life the col- onists faced. The maker of geegaws, puzzles, trinkets and silly useless wares has some excuse for a trivial view of life. It is a trivial business that he is in. One's business inevitably colors his philosophy and our re- ligion. The man of illegitimate business creates for himself a lawless world and a lawless God. The usual seriousness of the forefathers was a resultant of the serious situation they faced, the transformation of a wilderness, the organization of a government, pro- tection from Indians, the stamping out of contagions, the erection of school houses and meeting houses. New England seriousness has its fibre running directly into the tissue of stout hearts.
The family nowhere meant more than in these old Charles River towns. The emphasis was on the family almost as much as in patriarchal times. Families worked together and played together and worshipped together. And they were real families in size. The number of sons exhausted the names of favorite dis- ciples and made a good start on the list of the prophets. There were not enough well known women's names in the Bible for the daughters. The old occupations were family occupations. The son had a better start when he grew up in the business of his father. Skill is not unknown when it is learned in the multiple industries of the colonial farm. The family occupation had a cementing tendency largely gone today when varied work leads us into various outside circles. Family games and family worship seem far distant in these days of the family hotel and the thousand amusements that take the hundreds of thousands out of their homes and attempt for them a recreation they cannot pro- vide for themselves. The home and family bulk far
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smaller in these latter days. A generation of mothers is needed wise enough, skilful enough and determined enough to bring the home back to its central place.
And finally, much as we like to view again the old ways and travel the old paths, they are gone and gone forever so far as this present existence is concerned. We would not bring them back, and yet in our absorp- tion in the new we would not belittle the virtues of the elders. They had ease. Their busy lives were spent in ways of quietness and in paths of peace. Theirs was the security they themselves won through in- dustry, frugality and thrift-a security like ours is only partial, for the salvation, the continuance and the consummation of all our lives rests with Him who alone is secure and eternal. They were neighborly then as befits those who have discovered that our origin, our hopes, our ills, our satisfactions and our destinies are one. They were serious because they had work to do and were in an earnest world. They lived the family life and glorified it. They made it mean so much for later generations that the older men and women among us say with deep regret, 'I am the last of my name.'
The older life is not wholly gone and it certainly is not without influence. There are many in this showy, nervous, speeded-up age leading the easy, con- tented, serious, neighborly family life which had God's favor two centuries ago and receives it today."
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ADDRESS OF REV. WILLIAM W. SLEEPER
PASTOR OF THE WELLESLEY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
"Members and Friends of The First Parish Church of Needham:
I am here this afternoon to bring you greetings from your daughter!
If the Town of Needham were celebrating its sesquicentennial, and the daughter church were present by a representative, that representative would have been introduced as coming, not from Wellesley, but from West Needham; and had it been the centennial instead of the bicentennial, then the representative would have hailed from the "West Parish" merely.
The citizens of Wellesley remember today the story of the origin of their beautiful and thriving town, and they are not ashamed to confess that their civic independence spans a period of only thirty years, while for almost one hundred years previously the mother- town sheltered under her protecting wings her children who chose their homes West of the Great Plain and North of the Highlands.
Many in this audience well remember the years when the Town Hall in the forest was the rallying spot for the clans who gathered from east and west, and strove together-in brotherly fashion-over matters of communal interest. Now each town has its stately
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civic building, and the old wooden forum, after hous- ing in luxury the meagre company of the elect poor of both towns for a number of years, now offers hospitality under another and more inviting form.
It is not my task to speak to you regarding town affairs. I come simply as the mouthpiece of the daughter church. And yet my story begins in a town meeting, which none of you-not even the oldest citi- zen of the older town-can possibly remember, since it took place in the year 1774. It was the conclusion of a series of stormy meetings that followed one another at frequent intervals for nine months. The all im- portant question under debate was, where a new meeting-house should be located. Fancy such a ques- tion disturbing a modern town meeting! Our fathers made religion the principal thing, and they were con- sumed by zeal for the Lord's House. Let their sons and grandsons and great grandsons sit up and take notice!
In October of the previous year-1773-the old historic structure that had served the entire population of Needham as their only and sufficient house of wor- ship, was burned to the ground. And already the families living toward the West were complaining bit- terly because they had to travel so far to attend church. These heroic people of the olden days did not make the distance an excuse for staying away from public worship; but it seemed to them sufficient reason for making a vigorous effort to rebuild the edifice at the center of the town. Hence the repeated town meet- ings. But the eloquent voters of the West failed to convince the stalwart men of the East that they ought to pitch their tabernacle in the wilderness, remote from the settlements on either side, and we are very glad indeed that your church fathers stood manfully by the original location, and brought out a majority vote in
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favor of rebuilding on the old site. And now I must go on and tell of something which occurred outside of town meeting, and which shows that the men of Needham were early risers, and that determined minor- ities were not easily discouraged when their heart was fixed.
It was a morning in August, 1774. The scene was the great social function of the olden time, called "a raising." The solid frame of the new meeting house had been hewn out and put together, and now it was to be raised and placed on the massive sills- tenon fitting mortise, and the whole jointed together very much as the Apostle Paul describes the Living Church in one of his epistles. To lift one of these huge structures was no easy work. The entire male population of the town was summoned. But the men of the East were suspicious of their western brethren -and with reason, I regret to say. So at half-past five o'clock in the morning, the men of Needham got at the work, quite in the spirit of Hezekiah's men as they raised the walls of Jerusalem. At nine o'clock an army of sturdy volunteers from the West appeared on the scene-too late to help-or to hinder! In the journal of the Rev. Samuel West where this incident is recorded, it is said,-' When they found the work in such forward- ness, they were discouraged, and prudently withdrew, although with much resentment and many threats.'
And yet, not discouraged! For in June of that very year, an agreement had been drawn up stating that if the new meeting-house should be erected on the old site, the subscribers would contribute the sums opposite their names toward the building of a separate church, 'on or as near as conveniently may be to the center of the westwardly part' of the town.
As it proved impossible to prevent, by vote or by artifice, the rebuilding on the old location, the result
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was the division of the Parish, and the two new meet- ing-houses instead of one. The good pastor protested, as he had the right to do, against the 'division of towns into little and generally poor parishes,' pronoun- cing this policy extremely injurious to society. 'But it is better,' he generously adds in his journal, 'than to live in continual contention, and it often happens that there is no other alternative.'
In October, following the "raising," the town voted to exempt the inhabitants of the westerly part of the town from all charges on account of the new church, ' provided they do proceed in building a meeting- house, and maintain preaching among them.' And the men of the West Parish at once began to collect material for the new structure, choosing for its location the extremely favorable spot where the Wellesley Con- gregational Church now stands, a commanding ele- vation in the very heart of the village.
But no one should think that all this ecclesiastical earnestness engendered chronic bitterness between the two halves of the goodly, and Godly, town of Need- ham. Within a year after the famous church war, another war broke out which cemented together the men of Needham in a friendship that has remained unbroken to this day. On the 19th of April, 1775, three companies of volunteers from Needham marched to Lexington and took part in the opening battle of the Revolution. One of these companies was from the West Parish; and on the 4th of July, of this present year, a tablet to their memory was erected, through the generosity of Mrs. Durant, at the East College Gate, where this company assembled, at Bullard's Tavern, then standing on that spot. Shoulder to shoulder, like good townsmen, the men of Needham fought for Liberty and for God. Fifty-nine of the eighty-two men who signed the agreement to build the new meet-
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ing house were in that first Revolutionary battle, and the war made the work of church erection very slow indeed. For a score of years services were con- ducted in a bare structure with benches for pews, and much of the time with unglazed windows.
In 1778, the Legislature set off the West Precinct, as a legal basis for the collection of church taxes, and the West Parish-not yet a regularly organized 'Church' - was duly legalized. Twenty years later- in 1798-'The Church of Christ in the West Parish in Needham' was formally 'embodied,' as the record quaintly says, and although eighty-two men had signed the original agreement for building, only seven men enrolled themselves as charter members of the new church,-seven men and three women.
But after this long and painful parturition, the infant daughter was born. I cannot take time to tell you the story of her life. To us, of the old West Parish, that life has been eventful, significant and blessed with a good degree of prosperity. A few matters may be briefly summarized as possessing interest for you of the older church.
Your daughter church has erected and dedicated, since 1798, three substantial edifices, the second of which is today an integral part of the Dana Hall School building. The present structure was designed by the original architects of Wellesley College, and with addi- tions and improvements, external and internal, most comfortably accommodates the congregation, Sunday- school and various organizations of a church that has enrolled since its beginning, eleven hundred and thirty- five members, and has today a resident membership of three hundred and twenty souls. The daughter church became a mother-and the First Parish Church a grandmother- in 1847, when the Congregational Church in North Needham, or Grantville, now Wellesley
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Hills, was organized. Ten pastors in succession have ministered to this church during its hundred and thir- teen years of existence. Of these pastorates, the longest-thirty-four years-was the first, that of the Rev. Thomas Noyes, whose stipulated salary was £100 and 12 cords of wood per annum. The Rev. Stephen Palmer of Needham was present at the ordination, and commended the West Parish for the peaceable and orderly manner in which the settlement had been made. It is recorded of our first pastor, that some of his ser- mons, still preserved, were divided into two parts, for the morning and afternoon services respectively, and that each part would occupy at least an hour in the delivery. Our fathers believed in sermons Sundays. It would take a modern minister an entire month to preach one of those double barreled sermons! It is pleasant to record that a hymn-book compiled by the Rev. Mr. Palmer, was being used in 1812, by the large chorus choir of the West Parish Church. So the Mother Church supplied both life and breath to the Daughter Church.
Our records do not exhibit a large number of par- ticularly distinguished persons. We are proud rather of a high average in the membership of ability and character. One of our members, Calvin Ellis Stowe, enjoyed a brilliant career as theological professor, and earned a still wider fame by his marriage with Harriet Beecher, whose pen has immortalized some of the fam- ilies of the old West Parish and the neighboring section of Natick. On the old Communion Table in Wellesley Church there ever rests the great Bible, presented to the church by the "Lady Lothrop" of Mrs. Stowe's "Old Town Folks." Two of Wellesley's pastors are voluminous authors,-the Rev. Harvey Newcomb and the Rev. Dr. Abijah Richardson Baker. And Mrs. Baker was the "Madeleine Leslie" whose religious tales
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attained very wide popularity-notably "Tim the Scissors Grinder."
But my time is nearly gone, and I will only add, regarding the welfare of the Daughter Church, that for all these years since she left the maternal roof, she has striven to fulfil worthily her sacred mission of ministry, and worthily to illustrate and to transmit the best traditions handed down from reverent ancestors.
In October 1898, the Wellesley Congregational Church celebrated its Centennial, one of the principal addresses being made by the Rev. P. S. Thacher of this First Parish Church. And I can find no better, no more Christian sentiment with which to close my paper, than a sentence from the masterly address of Dr. Wm. Hayes Ward, delivered on that occasion. He had been speaking of the influence of the church in the making of New England, and the spirit of prophecy stirring within him, he added these words:
'I seem to see rising up before me in the coming century, in no indistinct and misty outline, a fairer form of truth than the world has yet seen, the dissevered fragments of the Church of Christ drawn together by that love which every joint supplieth, into one dear fellowship, one Bride of Christ.'
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