USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > Proceedings 1892 at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Woburn, Massachusetts > Part 7
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tists with unsparing hand, and would have made way with Zwingli, the great Swiss reformer, a man of far finer mould than himself, as eagerly as he drank his beer, if he could have got him into his hands. His treatment of this noble soul was insolent and un- christian in the extreme. But he did believe in free-thinking for himself, and his example was contagious.
It was this way somewhat with the Puritans. They believed in the right of judging for themselves, and in maintaining their own ideas. Thus unconsciously they sowed the seed which, taking root in the New England soil, sprung up and, nourished by these many years of sunshine and shower, is just beginning to present us with the ripened fruit. A free govern- ment and a free church are the natural outcome of what they did rather than of any principles or doctrines which they taught. It may still be questioned, however, whether any church, springing from the seed of the Puritans, has yet the spirit of toleration in such abundant measure that it would not if it could suppress all who do not think in accord with its traditions. I do not think there is a single denomination in Christendom to-day that it would be safe to trust the arm of the State with. I would not trust even the Unitarians with it. I would not trust myself with it. I very much fear lest, when I hear those who profess to have a call from the Infinite God to preach his eternal commandments preaching instead the silly doctrines of men, talking about ancient myths as if they were historical facts, consigning all who do not accept a scheme of salvation based on an oriental snake story to the dungeon of eternal despair, were power given me, I should be tempted to say to such, as did Cromwell to the papist priest who persisted in chanting the choral worship of the cathedral against his orders, " Leave off your fooling and come down, sir." I do not know that I blame the Puritans altogether for their attitude towards dissenters. My feelings, at times, at. least, run with him who said, " Next to Servetus, who was willing to be burned for his religion, I honor John Calvin who was willing to burn him." I sometimes think that, as a corrective for reli- gious flabbiness, flippancy, and indifference of this age, nothing would be better than a little infection of the Puritan spirit. I certainly honor the man who is so dead in earnest about his reli- gious convictions and places such high value upon them that he is
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1892
CHARLESTOWNE VILLAGE IS CALLED "ODBORNE
SODANIGAN
THE ARCH - EAST VIEW.
October 2.]
ready to exterminate all who differ from him, above one who does not know that he has any religion to speak of, no princi- ples that he deems worth defending or making any sacrifices for, and is as much at home in one church or party as another.
The one thing admirable in the fathers was their earnestness, their steadfastness of purpose, their loyalty to their ideas. In all the religions of the world, from the lowest savages to the most advanced civilization, there can be found no form of faith more grim, bald, and terrible than the religion which they professed. It was as cold, bleak, and repellent as a boulder in a frozen sea. It was Calvinism in its sternest form. And when we think of it and the kind of life and character it fostered we feel tempted to say with Hawthorne, "Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors, and let each successive generation thank him not less fervently for being one step further from them in the march of ages." But grim and terrible as that religion was, rigid in doctrine, barren in sentiment, severe in practice, there were in it elements of strength which gave a certain dignity and power to its worshippers, and lifted them to performances which made their lives heroic and at times sublime. It gave them courage to meet the perils of the deep, when the deep was more of a terror than it is to-day, and brave the dangers which beset them on every hand in their wilderness home. The task of colonizing America was, under all the circumstances of the time, very far from an easy one. It was menaced by almost every form of danger, slow at the best, and full of awe for stout hearts. It required a powerful incentive for its achievement, and this the fathers found in their religion. They could not afford to be indifferent to anything that touched their welfare. Life was a grim battle which they hoped not to lose ; a sacred opportunity which they would not throw away. With them there was no such thing as playing fast and loose with the oracles of God, crying good God or good devil as best served their turn. What they believed they believed with all the mind, heart, and soul, and were ready to defend their creed with their lives and all that they held dear. Never since the world begun was there a more earnest and devoted body of men and women than these who sundered themselves from home and native land and went out seeking a city that hath foundations whose maker and builder
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is God. And when I contrast the spirit of loyalty and devotion which was characteristic of the New England life two hundred and fifty years ago with the religious indifference and a lack-a- daisical piety so characteristic of our time, I feel like setting up a prayer for the spirit of the fathers to descend upon us in all the plentitude of its power.
It is said by some that there has been a marked decline in the intellectual life in New England since the fathers fell asleep. Of this I am not entirely convinced. Yet how many men and women are there in Woburn to-day, think you, who could sit, not in a well cushioned pew, but on a hard bench, and listen during two services of four or five hours each, of nearly solid prayer and preaching, not going to sleep nor letting their thoughts wander off to other subjects, and when the services were over, say without falsity or fiction, "I wish I could have more of the same thing ? " How many, think you, are equal to such an intellectual effort, to say nothing of the piety? We read that when the first church was organized in Woburn, the Rev. Mr. Symmes continued in prayer and preaching for about the space of five hours, and still the people were hungry for more. Mr. Sewall, in his history of Woburn, gives the plan of a sermon by Rev. Mr. Fox, the second pastor of the church here, that contains over forty heads and subdivisions, the subject being, " Redeeming the time." Evi- dently, there was not much time left that day after the services to be redeemed.
A Harvard student of the seventeenth century wrote, "Mr. Torrey stood up and prayed nearly two hours, but time obliged him to close, to our regret ; we could have heard him gladly na hour longer." Contrast that with the present students of Harvard who complain of attending prayers of an half-hour service. Gov. Winthrop mentions a discourse preached at Cambridge, by Rev. Thomas Hooker, when he was ill : " the minister at first preached in his sermon for fifteen minutes, then stopped and rested half an hour, then resumed and preached for two hours."
In truth it must be said that not all were desirous of such lon- gitudinal services. When Gov. Hancock presented the Lexington church with a Bible on condition that it should be read from in the pulpit on Sunday, the members of the church, after much discussion, finally decided to receive it and allow it to be read
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with the understanding that the reading should not add to the length of the service.
The Rev: Nathaniel Ward was, perhaps, not so godly as some of the other ministers, and in his whimsical satire he makes a confession that is more than half in earnest. "We have a strong weakness in New England that, when we are speaking we know not how to conclude. We make many ends before we make an end. We cannot help it, though we can, which is the arch infirmity of all our morality. We are so near the West pole that our longitudes are as long as any wise man would wish - and somewhat longer. I scarce know any adage more grateful than, ' grata brevitas.' "
This confession shows that the long services were not relished by all; but the intellectual ability of a people that could listen to a two-hour prayer and a four or five hour sermon, and the still greater power of the man who could deliver the same, command my unbounded admiration.
When these ministers of the olden time prayed, they verily believed that they moved the hand that moved the world; and there was such authority and power in their utterance that it was easy for their hearers to believe that the Lord in heaven would require even the forces of nature to pay considerable deference to such wonderful men. It was said of one that when he was doing his Master's work he put a king into his pocket. The Puritan elder was verily more than a king and swayed his people with a power that was more than regal. He spoke for the Great King of kings and Lord of lords; and to disobey this vice- gerent of the Almighty was to resist the ordinance of God. To speak aught against them was the very gravest of crimes. A certain woman, for " reproaching" one of them, had a cleft stick put on her tongue for half an hour. The Puritan minister rivalled the angels in being but little lower than God himself. Capt. Johnson said of John Cotton, "He hath the mind of God I do believe." And as for that "holy, heavenly, sweetly-affecting, soul-ravishing minister, Thomas Shepard," he could find no words adequate to set forth his praise.
But alas for the clergy ! their day of supernatural authority is done ; the spell is dispelled, the elder is but a man. Puritanism, in doctrine and in ecclesiastical and political authority, has gone
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for good and all. It has been shorn of its glory as completely as the Pope of his temporal power. But as there are those still in our city who have in their veins the blood of those who planted the town two hundred and fifty years ago, so we may believe that while the outer shell or form of that faith which colonized New England has passed away never to return, what was vital in it still abides, and is an upward moving force in the better life of our time.
" No accent of the Holy Ghost
Hath the heedless world ever lost."
We are glad and grateful for the courage of the fathers, for their loyalty, their devotion, their earnestness, their zeal, their mental robustness. We are glad that they lived ; glad, too, that they are all snugly folded away in their graves, that they may not molest us with their awful presence ; but above all do we rejoice in that broad stream of moral and religious purpose that has come down to us from their time, and which, if we are faithful to our heritage and our opportunity, we shall still further deepen and purify, as we send it down to the generations that shall come after us. God grant that we may be as faithful, earnest, and attentive to the divine meanings of life in our day as they were in theirs.
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FRANCIS P. CURRAN, Chairman of Committee on Sports.
THURSDAY.
ATHLETIC SPORTS.
1
At ten o'clock, Thursday morning, a large crowd had gathered at the Park to witness the final ball game that should decide to which ward the champion- ship belonged. A series of games had been previously played by nines representing the seven wards, and the contestants narrowed down to Ward I and Ward 3. The game between these two was full of inter- est, but Ward I was decidedly outclassed, and their opponents won by the score of 19 to 4. The inter- vals of the game were enlivened by music, and the audience was large and enthusiastic.
At two o'clock in the afternoon the programme was continued at St. Charles grounds near the Wal- nut Hill station. The following is a list of events and winners : -
One-mile bicycle race, open to all comers-Edward C. Leathe, first ; M. J. McCormick, second. One-mile bicycle race, open to wheelmen of Woburn only - Walter L. Dodge, first ; Edward C. Leathe, second. Five-mile bicycle race-W. L. Dodge, first ; James Haggerty, second. 220-yard dash- James McCarthy, first ; Patrick McLaughlin, second. Ball-throwing - Joseph Larkin, first ; Owen Reddy, second. Putting 16-pound shot - Samuel Hooper. Throwing 16-pound hammer - Patrick Feeney, first ; E. F. Young, second. One-mile run -J. H. Young, first ; M. McDonough, second. Running broad jump -
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Peter Weafer, first; Patrick McLaughlin, second. Standing broad jump - P. Weafer, first; J. McCarthy, second. Running high jump-J. McCarthy, first; P. Weafer, second. Hop, step and jump-P. Weafer, first ; T. Beatty, second. Three-legged race-M. J. McCormick and T. Beatty, first ; J. Queenen and G. Dwyer, second.
Such of the games as were not completed on Thursday, Oct. 6, were contested on the following Saturday, under the supervision of the Committee on Sports. These embraced the distinctive boys' sports and the winners were : -
Potato race - Michael Murray, first; George Munroe, sec- ond. Sack race - Edward McQuillan, first; Daniel Foley, second. Doughnut race - George Munroe, first ; Thomas Dun- nigan, second. 100-yard dash -William Queenan, first ; Charles Kelley, second ; John Holland, third.
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JOHN W. JOHNSON, Chairman of Committee on Literary Exercises.
October 6.]
LITERARY EXERCISES.
I.
OVERTURE.
BY BALDWIN'S ORCHESTRA.
II.
PRAYER.
BY REV. FRANKLIN CARTER, D. D., LL. D.
Almighty and everlasting God, who seest the end from the beginning and dost guide the movements of human history for the good of man ; with whom " a thousand years are but as one day and one day as a thousand years," we come into thy holy presence this morning to bless thee for thy gracious provision for the race, for the incarnation, life, and death of our divine Lord, for the descent of the Holy Ghost, and the inspiration of his presence that has never failed from the hearts of men. We bless thee that in all ages thou hast been with this race and that our fathers knew thy presence and listened to thy voice, and in the face of discouragements, trials, and persecutions "endured as seeing thee who art invisible," and overcame and at last entered into the full joy of fellowship with thy Divine Son.
We bless thee for the inheritance which they who are gathered here this day have received; for the patience, the faith, the learning, the godly life of those who laid the foundations of the settlements in this Commonwealth, and thus gave quickenings of wisdom and light to all the generations that have succeeded. We bless Thee for the purity and sweetness of the New England home, and for the joyful assurance that thou hast "mercy upon thousands of descendants of them that love thee and keep thy commandments."
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But, our Father, we would confess before thee this morning our shortcomings as a people ; we would acknowledge that we have, in the abundant blessings that thou hast bestowed upon us, grasped the gifts and forgotten the giver ; that in the wonderful march of our progress we too often undervalue " the things that are unseen and eternal," and put our trust in "the things that are seen and temporal." We acknowledge our neglect of thy holy law, and come now to beseech thee for forgiveness, and to ask that as thou wast a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to our fathers so thou wilt be to us, and wilt so deepen in all our rulers and in all the people the sense of responsibility to thee that, with faithful allegiance to first principles and in loving obedience to thy commandments, we may continue to be and may become more fully than we have ever been "that happy people whose God is the Lord."
Almighty God, we commend unto thee the president of these United States and all his counsellors, the judges of the republic and of the separate States, the governor and all the officers of this Commonwealth, and beseech thee that all these may walk humbly and righteously before thee, discharging the great duties that have been committed to their trust with a single eye to the welfare of all the people, and with the self-sacrifice and sim- plicity that should mark the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ask for thy continued blessing upon all the institutions of learning in this State and in this land, that all who teach may be taught of him " in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge "; and that all who learn may consecrate their learning to the spread of sound doctrine and to the uplifting of the downtrodden, and to the faithful observance of law, to the end that these schools which thou hast so greatly blessed may con- duce by all their influence to the harmony of all classes and to the permanence of this republic.
We beseech thee, our Father, to bless this ancient town; to keep its magistrates loyal to every manly virtue, and its citizens true to the obligations which their inheritance lays upon them ; to purify and ennoble the life of every home, and to strengthen and uphold here every church that recognizes the sympathy and perfections of thy Son, and thus to cause streams of influence to go forth from this source even richer and fuller than in the past,
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1
1
Rev. FRANKLIN CARTER, D. D., LL. D.
October 6.]
to help establish that kingdom which is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
To this end let thy presence be in all the exercises of these days, that reverence for thy holiness and gratitude for thy love and superintending providence may be increased in all our hearts, that we may consecrate anew all our powers to the honor of thy name and to the redemption and blessing of our fellow-men.
Thus may we run with greater patience the race that is set before us, and an abundant entrance be ministered unto us into thine everlasting kingdom through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil : for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.
III.
SINGING.
BY THE TEMPLE QUARTETTE.
IV.
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDING OFFICER.
HON. EDWARD EVERETT THOMPSON.
Ladies and Gentlemen, -I am both honored and happy in discharging the duty devolved upon me to-day of extending to this assembly a hearty welcome.
You all know for what purpose we have convened. Beyond a doubt the founders of our now ancient town were rare men and well deserve a grateful remembrance. The better we become acquainted with their character and career the less we wonder at the success of their enterprise. Such men as Edward Converse,
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Edward Johnson, and their hardly less noted associates, were rare men even in their own day of moral heroism.
As we read the simple story of their lives we are impressed by their lofty aims, their fearless adventure, their unswerving principle, their unflinching faith, and their sublime superiority to all external difficulties and trials. Evidently they meant to suc- ceed and with one accord they recognized their dependence upon God for the needed wisdom and strength in the great achievement of success.
As, then, we rehearse the history of our town to-day, let us begin with fresh courage and zeal to make a history for the com- ing generations, which they may gratefully recount in the distant future.
I think that we may say that Woburn has thus far proved her right to exist, and, in a good degree, has fulfilled her mission. If, indeed, the men and events that have marked our history as a town in the past could be reviewed here in detail, I doubt not we should all feel that they compare at least favorably with those of any other of our oldest municipalities. However this may be, two hundred and fifty years ago our town, originally a part of Charlestown, was incorporated and received the name it still bears. Nearly two years before the date of this act, thirty-two of the leading men of Charlestown formally signed what were known as " Town Orders of Woburn "; but it was not till 1642 that the seven men were actually appointed by the church in Charlestown as commissioners to " erect," in the quaint phrase of the time, a town and church, and thus prepared the way for the consummation which we celebrate to-day.
Of the towns then embraced in the old Massachusetts colony, our town was the twentieth to be thus honored, and it was decided to adopt the name of an old and well-known town in Bedfordshire, England, which had been specially endeared to . some of the fathers.
From that small beginning of history till now it is safe to say that the town has had a steady, though at no time abnormally rapid, growth.
In the main we have pursued the even tenor of our way and have enjoyed a full average of prosperity in our commercial, our moral, and our educational career. In the sphere of education,
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ARMORY.
October 6.]
Woburn has always, in one way or another, manifested a warm, and for many of the more recent years a prominent, interest.
Even before she had a regularly organized and settled plan for schools in her settlement, she contributed in aid of Harvard College, whose first class graduated the very year of her own incorporation, a larger amount of money than was given by any town in Middlesex County save two ; larger even than was given by Cambridge itself, and larger with only five exceptions than any town in the entire colony.
In subsequent years, two natives of our town became presi- dents of this ancient college, and many scores of our sons have, from time to time, received a collegiate education there or else- where, and have been prominent in all departments of profes- sional life as well as in commercial enterprise. In the domain of science, Benjamin Thompson, better known as Count Rum- ford, was long without a superior, if, indeed, he had an equal, either in this country or Europe, and his intimate and life-long friend, Col. Loammi Baldwin, held high rank in various spheres, - patriotic, military, and industrial, as well as scientific.
In the less noted avocations of life, it gives us pleasure to say that the youths of our own schools have for many years been very efficient, and these schools have long held an honorable rank even when compared with much larger towns and cities. And of our public library it is perhaps enough to say that strangers and friends from all parts of our country often assure us that it has no equal outside our older and larger cities, and rarely even in them.
We hope and mean, with God's blessing, to go on in the future improving and rising in whatever can uplift society and ennoble individual character.
We deem it proper to say that though we cannot congratulate our town as the actual birthplace of a president of the United States, no less than three of the chief magistrates of our nation have descended from an ancestry well known to us as prominent through several generations of our citizens. I refer to President Harrison, Ex-President Cleveland, and the late Ex-President Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire. We had hoped and expected to have present with us on this occasion, President Harrison and Ex-President Cleveland, but owing to sickness in
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the family of the President and the pressing call of duties of Ex-President Cleveland in other directions we are debarred the pleasure we had anticipated. I am happy to state, however, that the President has kindly consented to be represented by sending to us his Secretary of State, the Hon. J. W. Foster, who we expect will be with us on the morrow, and we shall gladly extend to him our cordial greeting and welcome, as we shall also to His Excellency, the Governor, and to His Honor, the Lieu- tenant-Governor of our Commonwealth.
It is somewhat remarkable that we have among our people so many family names in the direct line of descendants from the original settlers of the town, such names as Converse, Johnson, Richardson, Carter, Thompson, Wyman, and others.
And now, as the representative of the Woburn of to-day and in behalf of our city, I sincerely desire to extend warmest greetings to all, - to the old English Municipality to which we owe our name ; to the dear old mother, Charlestown, who loved her chil- dren so well that she parted with them with reluctance, but, we are glad to add, with her blessing at last ; to our three daughters, Wilmington, Burlington, and Winchester, who though they have set up housekeeping for themselves have never ceased to be dear to us and to be welcome to the old home; to our invited guests from every quarter, from President and Governor to all numerous officers, civic, military, professional and educational; and to friends in every honorable organization, position, and calling. We welcome all alike to our new city and to our homes that they may share in the enjoyments, the grateful memories, and the stirring scenes of this rare occasion. You will find our people a cordial, hospitable people, and I trust your stay among us will be as enjoyable to you as it will be an honor to us.
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