USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > West Bridgewater > Proceedings of the 250th anniversary of Old Bridgewater, Mass. at West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, June 13, 1906 > Part 7
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They enter by the great door, which is covered with announcements to the public. Opposite the door is the pulpit, high and formidable. There is a window behind it, a sounding board above it, and a steep staircase leading up into it. When the minister has entered and shut the door he is entirely lost to sight. At the foot of the pulpit facing the congregation are seated the deacons. The pews are square, topped by balus- trades, and when the congregation is seated a few heads only are visible. The first prayer is thirty minutes long, all standing, a psalm is then announced, the deacon standing on the pulpit stairs, lines off the hymn, the congregation joining in the singing of it, until all the verses have been sung off. The congregation rises for the next prayer. This has a systematic beginning, middle and ending, taking in most of the ancient prophets as well as the king and all high officials, but the long drawn end is finally reached, and the congregation again settles into the seats. The tall brass-bound hour glass is turned and the minister will preach until the sands have run through it, and it may be necessary to turn it for another run before he reaches twelfthly of his discourse, and when the last amen is reached we can sympathize with the young people when a rush is made for the door and a hurried escape into the open air.
The credit of originating free schools is due to our Pilgrim fathers. At the time they landed on these shores two ideas pervaded their minds, viz. : freedom in religion, and the educa- tion of the young. From earliest times the policy was to develop the minds of the people, and to implant the principles of duty. The schools at first were held in the dwellings of the settlers, each section of the precinct having the service of the master two or three months in the year.
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The schoolmaster boarded "round the rick," as it was called. He was paid his salary sometimes in money and often in mer- chandise. There was no standard to test his skill as a teacher, but generally the one whose price was the lowest was neces- sarily esteemed the most skillful, but in spite of all this, our ancestors grew up, with an educated common sense, and with principles of the right sort.
The first houses were built of logs, but after the introduc tion of saw mills came the one-story frame house, then the two- story houses, slanting to one in the rear, with large cellar for the storage of the products of the farm.
The windows were of mica or diamond shaped glass, set in tin or lead. It is said that after a site for a home had been selected, a flat stone was chosen for the hearth, a chimney erected and the house built around it so that the hearth stone was literally the center of the home. The chimneys were built of stone often occupying the entire side of the house. Fire- places were so big that the children could sit inside them beside the roaring fires and see the stars shining in the heavens above. A pole and later an iron crane, on which kettles were suspended, was used in the fireplaces for culinary purposes ; pitch pine knots for lighting, splinters for candles, and the tinder box for matches. The breakfast was usually of bean or pea porridge, with rye or Indian meal bread ; dinner of boiled salt meat or pork, with vegetables, and baked or boiled puddings, made of Indian meal. The dishes were first wooden, then pewter and later came crockery and earthenware. Rising and retiring early were universal, and the boys and girls were early taught to work, to make the most of life and to apply it to some useful purpose, none being allowed to waste it in idleness or dissipa- tion.
I will mention a few distinguished sons of Old Bridgewater (not exhaustive by any means.) First comes one with a national reputation, William Cullen Bryant, the poet, whose great grand- father, Ichabod Bryant, and his wife Ruth, came to West Bridgewater in 1745. Later he removed to North Bridgewater, where his son Philip married Silence Howard ; their son Peter was a physician, who settled in Cummington, and married a
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daughter of Ebenzer Snell, and their son was William Cullen Bryant, of whom the Bridgewaters are justly proud.
Of governors we have three descendants of John Wash- burn (an original proprietor,) who have been governors of three different states, also Gov. Marcus Morton and others, besides many lieutenant-governors. Many clergymen have called Bridgewater their native town. Among those best known to us are Rev. Jonas Perkins, Rev. David Brigham, Rev. Thomas, Rev. Bailes Sanford Crafts, Rev. Abel Packard, Rev. Ebenezer Gay and many others. It is recorded that between the years of 1745 and 1838 one hundred and thirty-six young men from Bridgewater graduated from the different colleges, of whom fifty-one were clergymen. Of senators there is a long list, which includes among many others Hon. B. W. Harris, his son, Hon. Robert, Hon. and Judge J. R. Perkins, Hon. and Judge Marcus Morton, Hon. Jesse Perkins, Hon. Eliot Whitman and Hon. Oliver Ames, besides Hon. Nahum Mitchell, and Bradford Kingman, our historians, of whom we are indebted for Mitchell's history of Bridgewater and Kingman's history of North Bridgewater, besides other contributions. The military record is interesting. We find in the Revolutionary War Major Eliphalet Cary, Maj. James Allen, Col. Edward Mitchell, Col. Abram Washburn, Col. Simeon Cary, Gen. Sylvanus Lazell, Capt. Ezra Kingman, Israel Keith, Adjt .- Gen. of Massa- chusetts, and scores of others. I would like to see compiled a full list of the prominent and influential descendants of the old settlers of Bridgewater.
In these days of the bustling present, when the old is fast vanishing before the new, and when much of the history and romance of the past is being covered beneath modern changes and improvements, such a day as this we are celebrating, brings back the descendants of the old settlers to their native heath, and giving pause in their busy life, takes them back to the simple and unpretentious past with its homely belongings, that they may recognize once again, the spirit of self-sacrifice and self-denial, underlying the characters of those who have made of us a great nation.
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The Clergy.
The Cause of Religion was the early, as it has been the later care, of the people of this ancient town. The distinguished divines : The two Angiers of the East; Keith, Perkins and Reed of the West; Allen, Shaw and Sanger of the South ; Porter, Meach and Huntington of the North, who were the earliest ministers of God in their respective parishes, cast their lot with the poor people of their communities, receiving only the most meagre compensation for their pious services. They have been succeeded by a long line of distinguished and earnest preachers, who have advanced the cause of piety as much by the purity of their lives as by their words of exhortation.
Responded to by Rev. Howard Cary Dunham of West Bridgewater.
Mr. President :- The sentiment just read suggests a similar one made nearly two hundred years ago : "The New English Bridgewater has been a town favored of God; yea, and some favors of heaven unto it have indeed been distinguishing." So wrote those famous old Puritan divines Increase and Cotton Mather, in their preface to "Bridgewater's Monitor," a sermon by the Rev. James Keith, and we who have gathered here today to thank God for those favors, echo and re-echo their lofty sentiments.
Among those "distinguishing" favors from on High none will gainsay that some of the most splendid have been the character and service of the clergy. Here in the First Parish of the ancient town is one of the most remarkable and magni- ficent records to be found anywhere in all history. The first three ministers settled here served the astonishingly long period of over one hundred and sixty-eight years.
Each was a man of lofty commanding character.
Each was earnestly devoted to the service of God.
Each was highly respected and beloved.
Each was a college graduate.
Each began and continued his ministry here.
Each died here in harness at a ripe old age.
The first served some fifty-six years.
The second nearly sixty-two years.
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And the third over fifty years, nearly ten of which he was entirely blind.
James Keith, Daniel Perkins and John Reed form a golden trio of historic names which no lover of Old Bridgewater will ever let die.
Picture to the mind's eye the striking scene at the very beginning of the history, when that young Scotch student, a lad fresh from Aberdeen, barely twenty years of age, came up this river, and on yon famous rock by the river's bank preached to these people in the wilderness from the text, "Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child," (Jeremiah i, 6.) And yet this James Keith did speak so well and ably, and continued so to speak in behalf of God, justice, mercy and temperance, that they kept him here till that tongue could speak no more, and he left a name and reputation that would do honor to any minister that ever lived.
The Rev. Daniel Perkins, the second minister of this parish, who lived to be 86 years of age, was likewise a man cast in the grand, heroic, Puritan mold.
The news of the fall of Louisburg reached here late one night. Those who heard it deemed it their duty to inform Minister Perkins at once, and arrange for a religious service of thanksgiving. The doughty Daniel told them that if they could furnish him that night with tallow dips he would have the sermon ready by next morning. A splendid great hall honors his memory at Harvard University.
Of the third minister of this parish, the Rev. John Reed, you all know something. A broad-minded man of all-round ability, the honored member of Congress from this district, the friend of Washington, at whose Sunday table he was wont to be asked by that great man to invoke the divine blessing, the courageous minister who, for years, read service, prayer book in hand, though totally blind. My venerable mother sat under his preaching for years and remembers when he was led into church for the first time after losing his sight. At this dinner fifty years ago, the Hon. William Baylies, Dr. Reed's friend and parishioner, paid to his memory a beautiful and touching tribute, while one of the most marked passages of the youthful poet of
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that day alluded to his honored grandfather as having gone to those happy realms
Where the blind receive their sight.
In addition to the remarkable clergy of the First Parish, each of the other parishes, which were in time set off, was blessed with a worthy ministry. The Rev. John Shaw, the second minister of the Second or South Parish, a Harvard graduate, and a much respected and beloved man, preached for them nearly sixty years. His grandson, the Hon. John A. Shaw, presided here fifty years ago.
Rev. John Angier, the first minister of the Third or East Parish, another Harvard graduate, gave them a devoted service of sixty-two and one-half years.
Rev. John Porter, the first minister of the Fourth or North Parish, preached more than sixty-one years. Bridgewater has indeed been blessed in her clergy. They have been, as a rule, noble, enlightened and progressive men. Experience soon taught them, and through them our fathers here in Bridge- water, that-
Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are broadened with the process of the sons. And now for long years there has been welcomed and respected in the territory of Old Bridgewater the ministers and people of every religious creed and belief, provided only that their faith was honest and reverent, and their lives true and faithful.
There is one religious feature that is unique in the territory of Old Bridgewater, and unlike any other town in the world, unless it be the city of London. Of this I will speak briefly and then leave the rest of this great subject to my distinguished colleagues.
The territory purchased from Massasoit on Sachem's Rock has had six societies of the Church of the New Jerusalem, commonly known as Swedenborgian, four of which are now in active and successful service. The question is often asked. "How came this about ?" It is to be directly accounted for by a famous heresy trial which was held on the hill at Abington in 1820, where an able, respected and beloved clergyman, the Rev. Holland Weeks, was dismissed from the Congregational church
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for holding the views taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. The interest aroused by that trial, and the high character of the man tried, led many earnest minds in all this section to investigate for themselves the teachings of Swedenborg, with the result which you all know.
Permit me to say that I remember well the celebration of fifty years ago, and many of those who participated therein. Also that I count it a rare pleasure that while last year it was given me to have to do with the erection here of a monument to John Cary, an ancestor of mine, who was the first officer of Old Bridgewater, it has been given me today to speak of the ancient clergy, and so of another ancestor, the Rev. James Keith, the first minister.
Responded to by Rev. Julian S. Wadsworth of Brockton.
We are today with becoming humility in the presence of our ecclesiastical forefathers. Whatever has been gained in our descent from them, as clergymen, we have lost somewhat.
Those were the days when the people gave deference to the minister. His voice was heard with authority not only in the meeting house, but in the town meeting as well. As we have heard today, a very large part of the foundations of our town was laid by the venerable James Keith, the scholarly Zedekiah Sanger and the beloved John Porter. Nor was it thought that they were "meddling" with things which did not belong to them. We as clergymen today are happy in living here where they were so highly revered. A faint trace of the prestige which they enjoyed is still discerned here in New Eng- land. As was remarked by a Westerner, "The minister in New England is as good as anybody, while in other parts of the country anybody is as good as the minister." This accounts for so many western ministers liking to come to New England.
But truly, it must have been with a consciousness of their power that the ministers felt the support of the town meeting. In the matter of salary, it was then a vote of the town, and not dependent upon the voluntary contribution of a few. Think of
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the settlement which the town made with its first minister. "A double houselot, including twelve acres of land, with a good house built on it. A whole share in the original proprietorship of the land of the town with forty pounds as annual salary and other provisions."
About twenty years later the salary was increased to fifty pounds with thirty cords of wood added. The town as such was generous in those days. Thoreau speaks of spending some time in Bridgewater, and in his reminiscences of Cape Cod, speaks of one town which voted in 1662 to set apart for the support of the ministry a portion of every whale which should be cast upon the shore. There was sage propriety in thus leaving the support of the ministers to Providence, since God was the sole ruler of the
. storms, and they were His servants, surely He would provide for His own. But think of the ministers, notwithstanding this generous vote of the town, sitting on the cliffs, during the storm, watching the shore anxiously for these providential per- quisites. Then, too, the town in those days of the "Old Lights" aided the ministers further by enforcing with law their teachings of orthodoxy.
In 1665 a law was passed inflicting corporal punishment on "all persons residing in the towns of this government who deny Scripture." Think of the confidence with which a minister of those days might speak, knowing that his hearers would be whipped until they were constrained to confess that they believed his interpretation of the Bible.
The town also aided in keeping up the attendance at church. A law was passed that "all persons who stood outside the meeting house during the time of service should sit in the stocks." Think of what an assistance this must have been in keeping the pews filled, since the minister had only to make his sermon less uncomfortable to the one sitting in the meeting house on Sunday to sitting in the public stocks on the morrow. The clergyman's nightmare of empty pews need never have troubled our forefathers in the ministry.
True, sometimes it happened that his authority was ques- tioned. This was in the time of the waning of the "Old Lights" and the coming of the "New." The New England
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Chronicler in 1723 gives an account of a disorder in the church in South Braintree, in which Rev. Mr. Miles suspended eight of his members because they insisted upon singing by note and not by rote as had been ordered by the council. But the embarrassment of this minister, who had presumed upon his authority, was great when these suspended members were rein- stated and it was voted "that the congregation hereafter would sing by note and by rote alternately, for the satisfaction of both parties."
Think of one of us attempting to suspend a member because he will persist in singing in the meeting by note, or with any other new style of inflection of the voice. Yes, we have lost in the descent some of the ecclesiastic authority which inherited in our forefathers. The gains have been more than the losses. The onerous support which the town is giving today to the moral teaching of the clergy is far better than that which any statute would give. As the people of God today are upholding the hands of the clergy, we may be assured that the Amaleks of sin will not prevail against the forces of righteous- ness. Never in the story of our land has the church of the living God been more firmly held in the intelligent and loving hearts of the people than it is at the present time. Personally I would rather be a minister of the gospel in Old North Bridgewater, in this year of grace 1906, than be an angel.
Responded to by Rev. George B. Titus of Brockton.
Two hundred and fifty years ago two words were empha- sized as they are not today ; these two words are Distance and Difference.
Men spoke of the distances between countries, cities and localities as being thousands, hundreds or scores of miles : today these distances are measured by ticks of the clock-New York we find to be so many minutes from London or other foreign center. Chicago is no longer "away out West," but we take down the receiver of our telephone and in answer to the "Hello !" of somebody we find that city at our elbow. We whisper our
OLD BRIDGEWATER
message of business, friendship or love, as the case may be, to one who is in a far away place and the answer is immediate.
The treaty of Ghent was signed December 24, 1824, but so far away then was Belgium that no word of the peace treaty came to this country until very late in the following month ; thus it came that the battle of New Orleans was fought twenty- two days after peace was declared.
The difference between then and now is fitly illustrated by the fact that two weeks ago my daughter wrote a message to me in her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the forenoon, and I read it just after noon of the same day, in Brockton.
I sat in the cars one Monday morning, bought the morning paper and read a sermon that was preached in London the day before-it had been preached, reported, despatched, printed, read in America and forgotten, probably, all within twenty four hours. To the question "Where is my Neighbor ?" We answer, he is everywhere, and everywhere is here.
Distance now has not the meaning that it had when Bridge- water was a baby and when sailing vessels and stage coaches were the swiftest conveyances of commerce and communication.
But if distances have been robbed of their terror, differ- ences have been deprived very largely of their sting.
Two hundred and fifty years ago the clergy and the church seemed to think that Theology was far more important than Christianity.
Great thorny hedges of Calvinism and Arminianism separated men, but did not hinder the interchange of fiery missiles between the enclosures.
To differ with the Puritan power meant persecution, prison and even, in some instances, death. Religious liberty was long in reaching these regions ; toleration even was tardy in coming. But when toleration came it opened the way for liberty, the liberty that leaves every man free to think and to worship as he will, or to leave worship altogether alone.
Were some of the old clergy of North Bridgewater per- mitted to come back and study the present condition of religious and irreligious bodies in this region, and were they to report their observations and opinions, I am sure the report would be
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very interesting reading.
But while they might be expected to note some differences as to faith and practice in the churches, I am sure they would be obliged to mention this, that their successors are magnifying points of agreement.
We do not agree as to some doctrines and teachings but we will not quarrel about them, and we will have fellowship on some ground of Christian doctrines and on the broad platforms of human brotherhood.
Ten thousand charities bind Christians together in fellow- ship and in a worship that glorifies God while they feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give shelter to the homeless.
We may differ as to great doctrines and little dogmas, but we heartily agree in work for young and providing homes for old people and hospitals and sanitariums for sick people.
Truth never changes, but men change in their understand- ing of it and consequently in their attitude towards it and appreciation of it.
The old clergy of early days stood for the church and the school house, all honor to them ; their successors are loyal to both and to the Book of Books, the Bible. But they have changed their creeds and their Hymn Books. They still love doctrine, but they preach duty ; they may have lost the art and power of excommunication, but they know how to say "Whoso- ever will."
Looking to the past they exclaim "Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord," but facing the future they pray, "Let there be light."
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Education.
The Cause of Free Education in the Bridgewaters has always been liberally supported by their people. In common with the rest of the country they have discarded the crude methods of instruction of the past and adopted those of a progressive age.
Responded to by Albert G. Boyden, Principal of State Normal School, Bridgewater.
Mr. Chairman :- Education, the theme upon which you ask me to speak, is the broadest of all subjects. It includes the unfolding and perfecting of the life of the individual, the family, the community, the State, the nation, the race. There is time on this occasion to offer only a few seed thoughts without elaboration.
A laboring man was asked, "When is a man educated ?" He replied, "A man is educated when he knows how to get on to his job." To know the aim of life and how to compass it is the essential thing in education.
It is pertinent to ask, what is every man's job in life and how shall he get onto it? Living is the one great business of every human being in every vocation and in every condition. Getting a living is only one element of living. Living is the conscious exertion and control of all our powers, to the full measure of our ability, under the laws of our being. Obedience to the laws of our being brings perfection of character ; disobe- dience to these laws brings degradation of the soul. Every law of God finds its reason in the highest well-being of man. Every man's power to serve himself, his fellows, and his Creator is conditional upon his power of Self-control, upon his ability to know and use the truth concerning himself and his environ- ment.
Education as an end is the state in which the person wills to make the best use of himself. Education as a means is the influence which the educator exerts upon the child to bring him up into the state in which he will make the best use of all his power, physical and rational. Education in the widest meaning
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includes all the influences which act upon a person to determine his character. It includes all his environment, natural, human, and divine. Nature educates the child, his fellowmen educate him, God educates him. Education begins with the life and continues through life. The child depends upon his parent and teacher until he becomes master of himself and directs his own education. We are all pupils in the great world school. We are educated by living.
The individual must be educated as a whole. He is so constituted that he must think, feel, choose and act. Thinking, feeling, choosing and acting are co-existent co-operative elements in all our mental activity. They cannot be separated in education. The whole boy lives at home, goes to school, goes into his games, and the whole man goes into all his indivi- dual, social, political, business and religious life. If a man has any religion it pervades his whole life. We educate, or fail to educate, the whole man. Training in the acquisition of know- ledge, which is often considered the whole of education, is only a part of education. The feelings are to be disciplined, the passions are to be restrained ; true and worthy motives are to be inspired ; profound religious feeling is to be instilled ; and pure morality inculcated under all circumstances. The sound body, the vigorous intellect, the refined taste, the regnant con- science, and the robust will make the educated man.
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