USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Longmeadow > Proceedings at the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883 > Part 25
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From time to time the church deplores its remissness with respect to discipline ; it chooses committees to go and talk with delinquent members, and votes that no members be allowed to go to any dancing assembly. May 16, 1810, the church voted " to petition Enfield church to be set off by ourselves," and also "heard the report of E. Terry's conduct and accepted the same, and we got rid of him as easy as we could."
June 23 a council of neighboring churches was convened who gave the branch church fellowship as a separate church. In 1821 the ques- tion whether it was legally constituted gave occasion for another coun- cil, and the result is recorded that "the Brethren and Sisters in Longmeadow were legally constituted." February 10, 1820, it was voted that " the tax made out against Deacon Abial Pease be paid back to him with interest when he shall make a gift of $100 to the Society." January 4, 1821, it was voted to raise $150 to pay for preaching the ensuing year, and also to choose a collector and that the collecting business be put up at vendue. Daniel Billings bid it off for $4.50 and gave bonds to the satisfaction of the Society. The records show an interesting variety of changes in the methods of rais- ing money ; one year by voluntary assessment on polls and estates ; the next by subscription, and the next by "a tax of equality upon the polls and estates and to collect the same by a legal process of law." In 1824 the Society voted that their prudential committee serve with the church committee in hiring preaching for the year to come, and also that " the Committee report the precise sum annexed to each in-
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dividual name which he has paid, and expose the names of those who do not pay in our next annual meeting." The same year the church acknowledges the gift of two pewter tankards and five cups from .he First Church in the western part of the town by the hands of Dea. Ebenezer Burt.
After long and hard wrestling with the problem of how best to raise money, the church voted to pursue the method which the gospel points out, viz., " an equality among brethren of each his temporal substance as God hath prospered them." In 1831 the church voted to have nothing to do with speculative Free Masonry." In 1832 a warrant was issued by Seth 'Taylor, Justice of the Peace, warning the members to meet and see if the Society will build a Meeting-House, and adopt measures to carry the same into effect. The new Meeting-House was finished and occupied for the first time in February, 1833, and the "old, long School-house," low, weather-beaten, and' uncomfortable, was sold at auction for $22. In 1855 the Meeting-House was remod- eled and furnished with vestry, tower, and bell. In 1873 the "Soci- ety " was dissolved, and its records passed into the hands of the clerk of the church.
The church has been favored with several special seasons of revival and ingathering, and with a succession of faithful pastors in the fol- lowing order : George Atwell, Alvin Bennet, Buckley Waters, Henry Barrett, Elder Sawyer, Geo. B. Atwell, Elder Gage, Nicholas Branch, Henry Tonkin, John M. Hunt, Moses J. Kelley, James Squires, N. W. Miner, F. Bestor, A. S. Lovell, M. Kennie, L. H. Wakeman, T. O. Judd, H. G. Gay, W. S. Phillips, O. R. Hunt, and the present minis- ter, Rev. L. H. Copeland.
The "Second Congregational Church of Christ in Longmeadow," in the eastern part of the town, was organized April 22, 1829, at the house of Ezra Taylor, with a membership of forty-five persons, forty of whom were dismissed from the First Church. Ebenezer Burt was at the same time chosen a deacon. Five months afterwards, Septem- ber 29, a society connected with the church was organized with the title of " The Third Religious Society of Longmeadow." In 1828 a Meeting-House was built at a cost of $3,500, and in 1859 removed from its location on the hill, located in the center of the village, and remodeled.
The first pastor, Rev. Calvin Foote, was installed April 13, 1831, on a salary of $450. The installing council held a prayer meeting at
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the house of William Lathrop at 9 o'clock in the morning, with special reference to the success of the ininistry about to be established. An unusual solemnity pervaded the installation service. It was the be- ginning of a revival which continued through several months, and was fruitful in the addition of sixty-three converts to the church during that year. During Mr. Foote's successful ministry of four years and three months, ninety-nine were received into the church. He was a native of Colchester, Conn., a graduate of Middlebury College, Vt., and died in 1867 .- He was succeeded by Rev. Martyn Tupper, who was installed October 7, 1835, and during a ministry of fourteen years proved himself worthy of the tribute given in the commemorative dis- course by Rev. E. P. Blodgett : " An instructive, discriminating, and practical preacher ; a sympathizing, affectionate, and helpful pastor ; characterized by honesty, sincerity, and fidelity in all his conduct." He was a native of West Stafford, Conn., a graduate of Princeton College, and for two years in Yale Divinity School, and died in 1872 at the age of 72. During his ministry in East Longmeadow ninety- five were added to the church .- Rev. William E. Dixon, a native of Enfield, Conn., and a graduate of Williams College, was installed October 14, 1852, and dismissed May 30, 1854 .- He was succeeded by Rev. Joshua R. Brown, December 13, 1854, who after a faithful service of four years died September 7, 1858, of a fatal epidemic, to which several in the parish fell victims .- Rev. A. B. Peabody, a native of Boxford, and a graduate of Andover Theological Seminary, was installed May 24, 1860, and after a useful ministry of six years and ten months was dismissed March 26, 1867 .- Rev. A. J. Dutton, the present pastor, a native of Stowe, Vt., and a graduate of Middlebury College and Andover Theological Seminary, was installed December 8, 1869. His ministry of nearly fifteen years-the longest of any- has been eminently successful. The church is active, benevolent, and progressive ; has been blessed both recently and throughout it history with several revival seasons, and has received during the fifty-five years of its continuance about 290 by profession of their faith.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in East Longmeadow was organ- ized in June, 1853, Rev. David K. Merrill being the preacher in charge. A board of nine trustees was elected, Oliver Wolcott being Secretary, which office he has held to the present time. During the same year a church edifice was built and dedicated. In 1880 it was thoroughly renovated. In 1860 a commodious parsonage was erected, and the church property is free of all indebtedness. The pulpit has
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been favored from time to time with the continuous ministrations of such distinguished clergymen as Rev. Miner Raymond, D.D., and the professors of Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Rev. William Rice, D.D., and other resident clergymen of Springfield. The regular con- ference ministers have been : 1856-7, J. M. Clark; 1860-2, R. Mitch- ell ; 1862-4, T. C. Pratt ; 1866, A. T. Eddy, a young man of fine character and great promise who died after a few months of faithful labor; 1867-9, G. D. Brown ; 1869-71, J. Candlin ; 1871-2, J. W. Lee ; 1872-4, W. Wignall ; 1874-5, N. F. Stevens ; 1875, J. Cadwell, who died suddenly after a long ministry of much usefulness ; 1876-8, Joseph Scott ; 1878-9, J. W. Price ; 1879-82, J. Marcy ; 1882, J. H. Gaylord. The church, although not large in membership, is prosper- ous and hopeful.
The Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary, in the western part of the town, had its beginning in a cominittee of citizens constituted August 11, 1868, and consisting of Michael Quinn, Martin Hartigan, John S. Waters, Patrick Connors, and Peter Ward-Martin Hartigan being chosen Clerk and John S. Waters Treasurer. An appropriate building, formerly known as the Lawton School-house, was purchased and removed to a site on Williams Street, north of the Village Ceme- tery, on the basis of a subscription made by the Catholic citizens of $245, to which was added a donation of $77 by the congregation of St. Michael's Church, Springfield, and generous donations from inhab- itants of Longmeadow, including many from those of the Protestant faith. The Catholic citizens contributed also largely of their labor in preparing the site and remodeling the building, which was completed at a total expense of $1,119.25, and dedicated free from any debt October 2, 1870, by Rt. Rev. Joseph O'Reilly. The parish priests have been Rev. P. Healey, Vicar-General of the diocese, who gave much valuable counsel and oversight in the earlier stages of the church's history, Rev. J. J. McDermott, Charles E. Bourke, William H. Goggin, and Rev. E. Pelletier at present in charge. The parish- ioners of St. Mary's are good attendants on public worship as well as good supporters of it, and the church is in a prosperous condition.
In East Longmeadow a considerable congregation of Roman Cath- olics meet statedly for public worship in the Town Hall under the curacy of Rev. E. Pelletier, and contemplate the speedy organization of a church and the erection of a church edifice.
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After the death of Pastor Storrs in 1819, the First Church called Mr. Baxter Dickinson, who was ordained March 5, 1825, and dismissed October 20, 1829. He was a native of Amherst and graduated from Yale College in 1817, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, with high honors. His pastorate of six years in Longmeadow has been already characterized as one of singular ability and fidelity. Another highly useful ministry of six years as pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church at Newark was terminated by an appointment in 1835 to the Chair of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology in Lane Theological Seminary, Ohio. After four years' service there, he was called to the same department of instruction in Auburn Theological Seminary, New York. In 1839 he was honored with the moderator- ship of the Presbyterian General Assembly. After eight years of service at Auburn, he gave instruction for a time in Sacred Rhetoric at Andover in the chair made vacant by the transfer of Professor Park to the department of theology, and then labored for ten years in the service of the American and Foreign Christian Union. The last eight years of his active life was devoted to a family school for young ladies at Lake Forest, Illinois. His declining years were spent at Brooklyn, N. Y., in the beautiful home repose of a serene old age, well concluding a long life of laborious usefulness. That usefulness was perpetuated in the distinguished usefulness of his sons. The elder, Rev. Richard Salter Storrs Dickinson, became pastor of the Houston Street Presbyterian Church in New York City in 1848, and in 1852 associate pastor with Rev. Albert Barnes of Philadelphia, and was cut off in the midst of the highest promise by sudden death at Edinburgh, Scotland, while on a journey abroad. The younger son, Rev. William C. Dickinson, late of Lafayette, Ind., and now of College Hall, Cincin- nati, is still in honorable and active service as a minister of the Pres- byterian Church.
The successor of Baxter Dickinson was Jonathan Bailey Condit, ordained July 14, 1831, and dismissed October 4, 1835. He was a native of Hanover, N. J., a graduate of Princeton College and Theo- logical Seminary, and after his Longmeadow pastorate, character- ized not only by eminent usefulness but by the peculiar fasci- nation of his rare eloquence and personal attractions, he occupied the rhetorical chair of Amherst College for about three years, and after- wards became the successor of those distinguished preachers, Edward Payson at Portland, Me., and Edward Dorr Griffin at Newark, N. J. He was afterwards Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theol-
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ogy at Lane and Auburn Seminaries, and died at Auburn, N. Y., Jan- uary 1, 1876. He was honored with the moderatorship of the Pres- byterian General Assembly in 1861.
Dr. Condit was succeeded by Hubbard Beebe, a native of Rich- mond, and a graduate of Williams College and Andover Theological Seminary ; ordained October 18, 1837 ; dismissed March 21, 1843. He afterwards became the Principal of Westfield Academy and act- ing pastor at Chester Factories till 1848. He subsequently occupied successive pastorates at South Wilbraham, Sturbridge, and West Haven, Conn. For the last twenty-four years of his active life-1855- 79 he has been in the service of the American Sunday School Union, the American Bible Society, and the American Seaman's Friend Soci- ety, and now, laid aside by failing health, resides in New York City.
The successor of Rev. Hubbard Beebe was Samuel Wolcott, a native of South Windsor, Conn., and graduate of Yale College and Andover Theological Seminary. He was installed August 30, 1843, and dismissed December 27, 1847. After graduating at Andover he became for two years an assistant of the secretaries of the A. B. C. F. M. at Boston, and was ordained in 1839 as a missionary for Syria, where he remained till 1843. His labors in the Mount Lebanon re- gion, though assiduous, were much interrupted by the civil wars that. then prevailed, producing an unsettled condition of affairs. His archæological researches, published in various journals, for which his travels in Syria and Palestine gave opportunity, have placed his repu- tation high among oriental scholars, and his poetic skill has enriched our American hymnology. Since his Longmeadow ministry, he has occupied the pastorate of Belchertown, the High Street Church in Providence, R. I., the New England Church in Chicago, Ill., and the Plymouth Church in Cleveland, O. His recent years since 1874 have been devoted to the service of the American Home Missionary Society, as District Secretary for Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Having resigned that work he is about to remove from Cleveland, and take up his residence in Longmeadow amid the familiar scenes and still surviving friendships of his former pastorate.
The ministries of both Dr. Wolcott and Mr. Beebe were signalized by several seasons of revival and numerous accessions to the church.
The successor of Dr. Wolcott is John Wheeler Harding, the pres- ent pastor, a native of Waltham, and a graduate of Yale College and Andover Theological Seminary, who was ordained January 1, 1850.
-= " J " CONDIT D. 2-3 :- 1-3:
RE- BAXTER DICKINSON D.D 1-23-1529
RE .. . T. HARDING.
HET. SAMUEL WOLCOTT, D V. 1543-1517.
RET. HUBBARD SFERE 1837-1843.
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O .- LONGMEADOW WOMEN.
The history of the town cannot be fairly written without special mention of the true-hearted and noble women, who have, in every best sense, been always helpmeets to its men. And not alone as wives and mothers. The single women-the Eunices, the Hannahs, the Lucys, the Rhodas, and many more whom these familiar names represent, deserve their full measure of grateful and enduring praise. The portrait of Mary Raynolds Schauffler adorns these pages not only as a beautiful personality, but as a pictorial type of the great company among the living and the dead who shall be hailed as " blessed among women." Not, indeed, so tangible and evident their traces as those of masculine endeavor, nor recorded in town or pre- cinct books, in buildings and highways ; but theirs the gentler and moulding forces of the hidden kingdom of the heart, that builded the New England home without which the republic had never been. They were, too, every whit as strenuous workers as the men. Without for- mal suffrage their personality of character and influence was entwined with every important movement. At farthest remove from the play- things of the oriental harem, or the butterflies of luxurious society, or the rude peasantry of rural districts in other lands, they have been from the earliest times intelligent, self poised, well-bred women of affairs, the competent mistresses of well-ordered households, distin- guished not less for their solid virtues, than for that refinement which adds ladyhood to womanhood.
While every Longmeadow family might contribute its illustrations, a few must stand for all the rest. In the first American genealogy extant, so rare that only two copies exist, viz., of the family of Mr. Samuel Stebbins, and Mrs. Hannah Stebbins, from 1707 to 1771, and printed in the latter year at Hartford by Ebenezer Watson, Luke Steb- bins the compiler thus writes concerning his mother :
"Nor can I forget the mentioning our dear and honord Mother, by whofe mild, tender, and pious care we were fo gently nurfed up; the Labour and Travail of which, none but Mothers can tell. Her Piety, Faithfulnefs, Meeknefs and Patience make her memory precious to us all. True it is, that through a feeble Conftitution, together with the Concern and Burden that naturally lay upon her, the was brought into a low State of Health till by Degrees it terminated in almoft a confirmed State of Melancholly ; yet it never prevented her devout Attendance on all the outward Means of Grace, both public, private, and fecret. She daily read much in the Holy Scriptures, efpecially the New Teftament, the Pfalms, and thofe Prophets that wrote moft of Chrift. She never neglected any opportunity in partaking of the Holy Com- munion, for which fhe had a great affection and Reverence. But yet the gloom that
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fat upon her mind might very naturally prevent thofe clear views of the Virtue and Excellency of that all fufficient Sacrifice, which JESUS paid once for all, which the had in a better State of Health (as the expreffed it to me). One thing may not be improper to mention, which fhe told me, viz: When the Revd M' Whitefield (of precious memory) firft came to New England, who was fo famous, and whofe preach- ing had fo much fuccefs attending it, the was in great Diftrefs, knowing her bodily Health was fo impaired fhe could not attend on his preaching when he fhould come to Springfield. He preached at the old Parifh about four miles from Longmeadow, where the lived. Thus it continued for feveral Days before he came ; the fearing being left while others were taken, or Denied that Comfort which others enjoyed. She fought unto the LORD, and ipread her Caufe before him, who was pleafed to give an Anfwer of Peace ; for when the Day came, and all were gone to hear him ; (Stephen Williams led his flock in welcoming Whitefield) the had Views of the Glory of JESUS CHRIST, and a comfortable Hope of her faving Intereft in him ; and thofe bleffed Words came to her with animating and reviving Power, 'Daugh- ter, be of good Cheer, your Sins are forgiven you.'" It is a finithing touch to this sketch of his mother when he continues thus: " It was this weak State of her's that gave Occafion for that peculiar Tendernefs, Wifdom and Prudence exercifed by our honorª Father towards her. What Coft did he fpare ? What Pains did he not take to comfort and relieve, to counfel and advife ? A great Deal of Time he fpent in reading to her fome of the beft Authors, on fubjects mott adapted to her prefent Cafe ; among which was a Book of the Rev" and famous M' Baxter's, one of the moft fuitable in Cafes of Melancholy perhaps of any now extant."
It must be said that, so far as their letters and diaries testify-the only literature they have handed down-these excellent women were considerably given to somber views. And yet this impression may be owing in part to a fashion that prevailed in those days of interlarding all epistolary and even business documents with more or less of pious phraseology.
The following extracts are from a letter of twenty pages of closely- written manuscript, carefully covered and stitched in pamphlet form. and inscribed upon the title page in ornamented letters,
" NATHAN WILLIAMS, HIS PAPER & LETTER," 1746.
Various juvenile pictorial devices upon the same page show the tender age of the child, then only 11 years old, to whom these plead- ings of a mother's heart were addressed. Preserved, however, and pondered by him with filial reverence, they bore fruit in riper years, when the boy had become, as did several of his brothers, the reverend minister and Doctor of Divinity. The letter is a sample of many similar maternal wrestlings of New England foremothers with a cove- nant God in behalf of beloved children.
It is quoted at what might otherwise seem a disproportionate length because it also forcibly illustrates the burdens and heart-struggles laid on such a true mother heart by the unscriptural dogmas of the then
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current theology ; especially that terrible tenet that one should be con- sciously willing to be forever lost, and even to see one's dearest friends forever lost for the glory of God.
MY DEAR SON :
In what frame thefe lines may find you I Know not but I can affure you they are the overflowings of a heart full of motherly affections to you, and of tender con- cern for your beft Intereft of Soul and Body for Time and Eternity. I truft it is from God that I am Inclined to Get this Letter Writ and that his Bleffed Spirit will direct in the inditing of it and accompany the fame in his good Time to your Heart. if it fhould not make fo deep an Impreffion at prefent, yet the time may come when fome of the laft Counfels of your dying Mother will feem quite otherwife to you than they have hitherto done.
After admonishing her son of the danger of his own early death, and assuring him of her unspeakable joy if he should become early converted, and narrating to him some of her own experiences of God's supporting grace under severest trials, and of her sense of His good- ness to her in many family mercies, including His giving to her this latest son, she continues :
O, My dear Child. Can I Bear the thoughts that the Son that was given me in anfwer to my Prayers, that I bore with fo much pain, that I have nurfed and brought up with So much care and tendernefs night and day, The Son that I have fo many Thoufand Times prayed and wept over and counfelled and warned, That this beloved Son, I fay Should be the poffeffion and property of the devil, Should ferve him all his Days and be miferable as he is and be with him in hell fire forever. how can I bear to think of ye dreadful day when I fhall See my poor undone Child if he turn not Speedily and thoroughly, Stand trembling before the Judgment Seat of Chrift his face gathering blackness horror and anguifh, and defpair Staring through his Eyelids to hear ye Amazing Sentence pronounced on him depart ye curfed hence- forth to See him Seized by mighty Angels, bound hand and foot in everlafting Chains and caft Into ye dreadful lake of Fire, and the adamant Gates fhut and barred by him that Shuts and no man opens. Such thoughts as thefe are ready to tear my heart in pieces. . . I know if I be fo happy as to find mercy of the Lord in that day I fhall have no painful Sympathy with you but Shall rather rejoice that God's Juftice and power will be forever glorified in your Condemnation; but how will your heart Endure how can your hands be ftrong. I know you have often heard these things and had Them Set Forth before you in a far more affectionable manner than it is poffible for me to reprefent them. I know too if I had been in ye other world and feen the terrors and Glories of heaven and hell with my Bodily Eyes and were Come Back again with the tongue of an angel to fpeak of them to you it would have no Saving effect. If you hear not Mofes and the prophets neither will you be per- fuaded though one arofe from the dead. But I know, yt if the good Spirit of God is pleafed to accompany my words to your heart they will do you more good than all you have heard in your Life before. You know by Sad and Long experience how little all the beft of means Signify without the Powerful Co-operation of ye Spirit and you know too by Some Experiences how means work, how a perfon feels when ye word is Set home upon the Soul by the Spirit in a way of conviction and Terror ; oh that you knew alfo what this work of Regeneration is that I am aiming at fo as to make you fenfible how much your dependence Is on ye Sovereign and free Spirit of
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God. Ye Life and death of your Precious Soul is in his hand, and he Acts with Ab- folute Liberty Like the wind which bloweth where and whither it Lifteth. and fee- ing it thus I would fain have you think Solemnly how much it concerns you to take heed you don't provoke the Spirit finally to Forfake you for then your cafe is as bad you know as if you were already in hell. This I hope and truft is not yet; Alfo if I knew it were I fhould have nothing to fay to you About your Soul only to cau- tion you not to fill up a greater meafure of Sin and to Increafe your treafure of wrath Againft the day of wrath. but I hope better things Concerning you, and things that Accompany A Poffibility of Salvation. I truft your day of Grace is not over and that the Spirit of Grace has not yet finally left you and oh for your Soul's Sake do nothing to grieve him away. Lay afide every wait, and ye Sin that moft Eafily befets you. I need not tell you what it is. Confcience points it out while you are reading thefe lines, if it be not afleep. Do my dear Child, Stir up yourfelf, Shake off Sloth and difcouragement, and get up, and be doing. you don't know how foon A merciful God who delights not in the death of a Sinner but had rather he fhould turn and live, may appear to you and work Effectually on your Soul.
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