USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > West Brookfield > Quabaug, 1660-1910 : an account of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration held at West Brookfield, Mass., September 21, 1910 ; > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
"said church-it passed in the negative." The leaders of Brookfield were men of affairs, not ecclesiastics. And it is to the credit of the ministry there that its incumbents seem, in most cases, to have cheerfully acquiesced in that situation. As to others of the Puritans, the rites and sym- bols-even the words-that had been used in the exercise of Christianity for centuries, were repugnant to them as savoring of Romanism and the Church of England. The place of worship was a meeting-house, not a church. A church consisted only of the organized body of believers. A crucifix, or even a cross, would have been no more suffered there than in a mosque of the Mohammedans. Many even refused to kneel during prayer; genuflexion was an attitude
2 The silentius vote was exercised in Worcester County as late as 1771 by Mr. Goss, pastor of the Church of Bolton, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent his dismissal for drunkenness; and by Mellen, pastor of the Second Parish in Sterling, who thus pre- vented members of the church which had dismissed Goss, from taking of communion at his meeting-house. (See a sermon by Dr. Aaron Bancroft, delivered in Worcester on January 31st, 1836, published at Worcester by Clarendon Harris in 1836, pp. 7, 10; and an unpublished article entitled "Illustrations of Ecclesiastical Usages in Mass- achusetts, " by Samuel Swett Green.)
69
HON. ROGER FOSTER
that seemed inconsistent with the character of a free Pro- testant. He stood when speaking to the Almighty. The ancient appellations of ecclesiastics were so eschewed that by long disuse they became incomprehensible to the inhabi- tants. At the end of the Eighteenth Century, Captain John Potter of the Lower Village was the watch-maker and the only skilled mechanic. A traveller asked the landlady of the tavern: "Who is your clergyman?" She did not know the meaning of the word; but as the watchmaker was the jack of all trades, she thought he must be the clergyman if they had any, and answered: "Captain Potter." The franchise was not confined to members of the church. With- in eight years after the organization of the town, it was voted "that all persons that are freeholders and of age to "act for themselves shall or may be voters in the town "meeting." Although as late as the early part of the Nineteenth Century, there was a reputed witch in Brook- field, no prosecutions for witchcraft disgrace our annals. They are free also from punishment for heresy or blasphemy. The only two attempts in that direction were inspired by the warmth of politics rather than religious bigotry. Such were the indictment of Thomas Wilson "for cursing Samuel Warner," which was never tried, and that which caused Captain Baker to leave the community. In September, 1727, he was tried at the Court of Assizes in Springfield upon the following charge: "There being a discourse of God's "having in his Providence, put in Joseph Jennings, Esq., "of Brookfield, a Justice of the Peace, Captain Baker "used the following words-'If I had been with the Al- "mighty, I would have taught him better.'" Jennings, who was a deacon, during the previous spring, procured an accusation against Baker of blasphemy and compelled him to give bail to the amount of £200. The accused petitioned the governor, saying "however the evidences might strain "and misconstrue his words, yet in conscience he really "had no design to reproach the Deity"; and prayed that
70
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
"he might be 'discharged from his recognizance, or ad- "mitted to a trial." The jury found a verdict of not guilty.
Only one case of religious cruelty is recorded. From the beginning of the settlement, it was the custom of the inhabitants to begin the weekly day of rest at sun-down. They followed the Hebraic custom, as well as the words of Holy Writ, which say that the evening and the morning were the first day. All work of man and beast upon the farm ceased Saturday afternoon, an hour before sunset. The men then shaved and made the other necessary prepara- tions for the sacred time and the women finished making ready the Sunday food before the sun went down. No other work, except that of absolute necessity and indispensable mercy-not even bed-making or sweeping-was permitted. The resource of a hired Gentile from without the house, which the later Rabbis allow to the Jews for the supply of ordinary comforts upon the day sacred to the Creator of the good things of this life, was denied them. Until 1818, there was no stove in the meeting-house. A few hot stones brought in by the more luxurious pewholders were the sole means of artificial warmth. The winter temperature of the meeting-house at North Brookfield in 1798 is well described by the Reverend Thomas Snell, who preached there for more than fifty years, to the great satisfaction of the parish: "The age and infirmities and consequent coldness of your "former house of worship, without any means of warming "it in severe weather, together with the distance of dwell- "ing houses (except two or three) rendered the condition "of the people on a cold Sabbath, every thing but toler- "able; and the labors of the minister wholly useless, unless "to afflict his hearers with a long discourse for not pro- "viding a warmer house. When almost every one was "anxiously looking for the close of service that he might "thaw out from his morning's freeze, and that desire was "to be read in the countenance without danger of mistake,
71
HON. ROGER FOSTER
"you may well imagine that the feelings of the speaker "could not be of the most pleasant sort, especially when "he had spent half the week, day and night, in preparing "his discourse." Yet men in the saddle and women on the pillion rode miles to attend the two Sunday services, allowing themselves an intermission of not more than an hour in winter and in the summer months an hour and a half. As the Lord's Day in their opinion, based upon the language of the Bible, ceased with sunset, they thought it not wrong to have a little mild social recreation during the ensuing evening. On October 23rd, 1816, the Reverend Eliakin Phelps was ordained as associate pastor of the church in West Brookfield. He thus describes what he inflicted upon his parishoners: "The people of Brookfield when I went "among them, were in the habit of observing Saturday "evening as holy time, or rather not observing Sabbath "evening. Their custom was, as they were dressed in their "go-to-meeting suit, to spend Sabbath evening in social "chat among the neighbors. It was easy to see that what- "ever of seriousness might have been impressed on their "minds by the services of the day, was almost sure to be "banished and destroyed by the gossip of the evening. "To meet this state of things, I determined to try the "effect of a third service for the evening. It worked well. "It finally grew into a custom, and for the greater portion "of my ministry I had three services on each Sabbath."
The congregation submitted; but within a few years stoves were put in the meeting-house and the pastorate of Mr. Phelps lasted a single decade, when he became a school- master at the head of what was then known as a female seminary. Let us rejoice that in this Twentieth Century, it is understood that religion can exist apart from melan- choly.
Upon the unfortunate dispute which resulted in the formation of the third parish; the riotous destruction of the old meeting-house; the remonstrance and appeals to the
72
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
General Court, which ordered a stay of proceedings in the construction of the new house of worship on Seth Banister's Hill, and the retirement of the Reverend Elisha Harding, the benefit of whose services each of two parishes sought to sur- render to the other; we need not dwell. It is more refreshing to quote the Reverend Daniel Foster for seventeen years pastor at New Braintree. Some of the older members of his congregation objected to his preaching, because he avoided subtle points of technical theology; approved cheerfulness, rather than spiritual penance by ordinary sinners, and was believed to be too liberal in his doctrinal views. Having failed in their attempt at his removal, they left his congre- gation, and some of them requested a recommendation to another church. He said at the church meeting: "Breth- ren, two of us desire to go to Heaven by way of North Brook- field. Is there any objection?" It is not surprising that when he died, after a pastorate of seventeen years, he was buried at the expense of the town and the younger men wore badges of mourning for thirty days. His successor was the Reverend John Fiske. It was thought not indecorous to close the services upon his installation with a ball. It is possible that this aided the church quite as much as a fast would have done.
Those who believed that the sacrament of baptism should be administered in the form in which it was received by Christ and in accordance with the practice of the original apostolic churches and of that sect whose other rites most closely conform to those of the primitive Christians, had the benefit of the ministrations of travelling ministers as early as 1748; but it was not until November 14th, 1786, that the first Baptist Society was formed in Brookfield. They worshipped in barns and private dwellings for nine years. In 1795, a meeting-house was erected by them.
In spite of the impression made by Whitefield, the first mention of a regular Methodist exhorter that I can find in Brookfield concerns the Reverend Elijah Bachelor, who
High School
Merrick Public Library Banister Memorial Hall
BANISTER COMMON, BROOKFIELD
73
HON. ROGER FOSTER
preached on circuit in the house of the Widow Crowell on Ragged Hill. He converted her son Joshua, who preached Methodism for fifty-seven years, but not in Brookfield. In 1829, Erastus Otis was appointed to the Brookfield Circuit by the Conference. In May, 1830, Nathaniel Smith, for- merly a free-will Baptist, obtained a license and exhorted a class gathered in his own house. Other preachers were later appointed to the Circuit and at first held services during the summer at five o'clock on Sunday afternoons at the old Congregational Meeting-House, which they had bought.
Those whose intellects refused to accept the doctrine that a benevolent Almighty could condemn his creatures to everlasting punishment for yielding to the temptations that he had placed about them were incorporated in a Uni- versalist Church in 1812. Upon the schism that was caused by the converts to the Unitarian doctrines and the bitterness that it occasioned, this is not the time to dwell. It is not our function to compose such quarrels. It seems, however, proper to refer to the fact that the right of the Unitarians to use the old meeting-house and church property when they constituted a majority of the parish was adjudicated in a case that arose in the year 1827 in the Third Church of Brookfield. Samuel M. Burnside of Worcester was one of the counsel for the successful Unitarians. His wife was born in Brookfield. It is pleasant to remember that, although her brother, Alfred Dwight Foster, was strongly opposed to the new doctrines, no odium theologicum disturbed the harmony of that family.
The oldest and the most powerful of all Christian churches, which has since founded an institution of learning that is one of the ornaments of Worcester County, held no service in North Brookfield until June, 1851. The sacra- ments were at first administered to the Catholics here in a mission by priests from Webster and afterwards by those attached to the church at Ware. St. Joseph's Church was not finished until July, 1867.
74
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
But Brookfield acquired more renown in military affairs than in those which were ecclesiastical. It was always known as the fighting town of Massachusetts. And when- ever their country was in danger, Brookfield men and Brook- field boys shouldered the musket. Great service to the colony and to England was rendered by its citizens during the war with France, declared in 1744. Although the town was no longer on the frontier and not attacked by the enemy, there were many Indians in its neighborhood, and at least one new fort was built for its protection. This was after- wards known as the "old French fort," standing at the top of Coy's Hill on the "Rich Land" north of Power's place. It was connected with Rich's Tavern and was what was then called a mount; a heavily timbered building about twenty feet square, two stories high, with a covered lookout on the roof surrounded by a balustrade.
The leading citizen of the community, to whom all look- ed for the protection and assertion of their rights, was then Colonel Joseph Dwight. He was a son of Captain Henry Dwight of Hatfield and Dedham; a judge of the Common Pleas in Hampshire County, and a member of the com- mittee that ruled Brookfield before it was incorporated as a town, who had bought 1400 acres there. He was graduated from Harvard in 1722 at the age of nineteen, and four years later married Mary Pynchon, the granddaughter of the former patron of the town. In order to protect the land belonging to the two families, he moved from Springfield to Brookfield in 1722 and settled on Foster's Hill, where, in 1735, he built the old Foster House, destroyed by fire November 11th, 1901, a landmark in this county for more than a century. Within two years of his settlement, he was placed on one of the important committees in charge of the town's lands. A year later, when twenty-eight, he was elected representative in the General Court and thus served the town for eleven years, during one of which he was speaker of the house. He was admitted to the bar when thirty and
75
HON. ROGER FOSTER
six years later was made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
The only triumph of the British cause in the War of the Austrian Succession was the capture of Louisburg by the New Englanders. The recommendation of Governor Shirley to attempt the siege was disapproved at a secret session of the House. But one of the representatives at his family prayers beseeched divine guidance as to his vote and the secret leaked out through a servant or member of his family present at his devotions. Since the commerce and fisheries seemed to be at the mercy of the fortress, public opinion strongly sustained the governor and petitions sent to the legislators from the coast towns obtained a reconsideration and the approval of this recommendation by a majority of one. There was great enthusiasm in support of the expedi- tion. Whitefield furnished a legend for the regimental colors, "Nil desperandum, Christo duce." At least one of his disciples among the soldiers carried a hatchet, in order that he might have the pious pleasure of using it in destroy- ing the works of art in the churches of Cape Breton. William Pepperell, who received a baronetcy for his services, was commander-in-chief. The success was largely due, however, to two citizens of Worcester County, one of them from Brook- field. Joseph Dwight volunteered and was commissioned colonel of the Ninth Regiment. Several citizens of Brook- field were officers as well as privates. They and the other soldiers were thus described by a contemporary, who is cor- roborated by the diary of a soldier, which has been preserved:
"They were not the scum of the land, idle, worthless crea- "tures, given to profaneness and intemperance, and de- "bauched in their manners, but, for the generality, they "were men who had upon their minds an awe of God, and "who feared an oath; they were men industrious in their "callings, and well able to provide for themselves and "families; in a word, they were men of life and spirit, "animated with love to their King and country, and will-
76
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
"ing to venture their lives, not so much to serve themselves "as to promote the public good. 'T is a rare thing for so "many men of such a character to be employed in such an "enterprise." This describes the soldiers of New Eng- land in every war.
Before the siege began, Colonel Dwight3 was promoted to the office of Brigadier-General and placed in command of the artillery.4 To the successful management of this the capture of the fort was due. In order to bring the cannon of the New Englanders within range, they had to be dragged, in plain view and within gunshot of the walls of the fortress, over a swamp where oxen and horses could not be used. He led his men across, by night and in fogs, harnessed to their guns with straps across their hearts, sinking up to their knees in the mud. The ancient and honorable artillery of Boston then did yeomen's service. During the siege, which lasted forty-nine days, fifteen hundred shot and shell were thrown into the town, leaving not a single house uninjured and not
3 Brigadier Joseph Dwight was described by a contemporary as "a man of com- manding, dignified deportment and of singular veracity. All who knew him speak of this virtue with enthusiasm."
" "Brigadier Dwight here stands in Honour high, Col'nel o're Train of the Artillery. Expert in use of Arms, and martial skill, Directs each hostile Posture to Fulfill. Col'nel also Commissioner is, and stands, Ready to Act, in Regimental Bands. He with's Lieutenant Thomas, grace the Plain,
In hostile Fields, the Gallic's do disdain: With Courage Bold, undauntedly Pursue, The Conquest great, which then was hiad in View.
With them, their Major Gardner acts his part, From warlike mind and Country's good at heart."
A brief and Plain Essay on God's Wonder-working Providence For New England, In the Reduction of Louisburg, and Fortress thereto belonging on Cape Breton. With a short hint in the Beginning on the French Taking and plundering the People of Canso, which led the several Governments to unite and Pursue that Expedition. With the names of the Leading Officers in the Army and the Several Regiments to which they belonged. By Samuel Niles. "Non Magis est quaerere, quam Tueri." If ye forsake the Lord, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. Josh. XXIV 20. The victory that day was turned into Mourning, unto all the People. 2 Sam. XIX 2. N. London. Printed and sold by T. Green, 1747.
77
HON. ROGER FOSTER
more than three or four fit for habitation. The service of Brigadier Dwight received special commendation from Gen- eral Pepperell, who three days after the surrender of the town appointed him Judge of the Court of Admiralty. During the war, a number of cannon had been deserted by the French, who spiked them in the belief that they would thus be rendered useless; but the besieged were circumvented by the Yankee ingenuity. Lieutenant Edmund Bemis of Spencer, one of the armorers, built wood-fires around the breeches of the guns, so dilating the metal about the touch holes that the spikes could be driven in without injury and the cannon used with telling effect against their former owners. For this he received a bounty.
Later service was performed by the citizens of Brook- field upon the frontier of Massachusetts. This is illustrated by the following letter from General Dwight, written July 16th, 1748: "We have constant accounts of the enemy "their lying upon our borders in great numbers, killing "and captivating our people; and we suffer ourselves to be "a prey to them and through cowardice or covetousness, "or I know not what bad spirit in officers and men we can't "so much as bury the slain. It appears to me high time "for the Government to exert its Power and give more " effectual directions to officers posted on our frontiers; "and if need be to raise half the militia of the Province: "But I beg we may have 1000 men to drive the woods and "pursue the enemy even to Crown Point. If it be worth "while to send parties into the enemy's country, and give "at the rate of £1000 per scalp-Why when they are so "numerous on our borders should we lie intirely still and "do nothing-Can't some troops of horse be sent and many "riot commissions be given to such as will inlist a number "of Volunteers and by one way or other so many men "raised as will a little discourage our enemy-I doubt not "I can find many who would undertake (even without "pay) for the Honor of the Country and do good service."
78
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
He thus procured orders that a sufficient guard be raised to protect the exposed garrison. The brigadier himself raised one hundred men, at the head of which he marched against the Indians. Forty-eight Brookfield men, headed by Cap- tain Thomas Buckminister, were placed in Fort Dummer, above Northfield, which had previously been under the command of Captain Joseph Kellog, also of this town. The treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle providing for peace was signed October 7th of that year, but the news did not reach Boston for sixth months.
In the last French and Indian War, which began six years later, Brookfield again furnished soldiers and supplies. In their marches through the wilderness, nine of them ate noth- ing for many days but berries, beech buds and beech nuts; some were obliged to boil their belts, powder horns and ball pouches for food; others, like Jonathan, appeased the pangs of hunger by sucking the end of a rod dipped in honey, and when that was exhausted ate the flesh of their only dog. General Dwight, then more than fifty-three, raised a regi- ment and took part in an expedition against Crown Point. Captain Jeduthan Baldwin, who was later a member of the Provincial Congress and colonel in the Continental Army, served throughout this war. General Rufus Putnam served as a private; part of the time with a company of rangers, who wore Indian dress, with bare thighs, defenseless against the insects of the woods. He has left a journal containing an intersting account of his experiences. In that war also fought five of the seven famous Waite brothers, sons of the tavern-keeper, all of whom later served in the Revolution, when four of them were officers and two, Joseph and Thomas, were killed. They sprang from a race of Indian fighters. Some were at Bunker Hill; others at Bennington. Waite's River in Vermont is named after Joseph, who was an ensign and later a captain in this last French and Indian War: because after his company had fed upon a deer which he had killed, they hung the remains upon a tree, carving his name
79
HON. ROGER FOSTER
upon the bark, for the relief of their starving friends who followed. Three of them were at "Rogers's Slide." Ben- jamin enlisted when he was only eighteen. He was taken prisoner two years later and was made to run the gauntlet; but he snatched a gun from the nearest Indian and laid about right and left with such force that he opened the lines of the savages and escaped without injury, applauded by the old men, who enjoyed the confusion of those who were younger, and at the end of the race he was invited to her house by a French woman who protected him until his escape.5 Before he was twenty-four, he had engaged in for- ty battles without a serious wound. He boasted that when he was twenty-three, in a winter's march, when other men were so exhausted by the cold that they begged to be shot for relief, he revived them by flogging, and at icy fords he would shoulder a couple of the little fellows and carry them across. When colonel of the Vermont Militia, he received a wound in the suppression of Shay's rebellion. From him Waitefield is named. Richard enlisted in 1762, when he was only seventeen, with the consent of his guardian, Jedediah Foster. He and two others were Green Mountain boys. The experience the men of Brookfield thus acquired was of great value to their country during the Revolutionary War.
Brookfield soldiers took part in the capture of Quebec, and at least one of them there lost his life. Preparations to take that city had long before been made here and snow- shoes, gathered for that purpose, were stored in the old Foster House then occupied by General Dwight, whence some years after the fort was captured they were borrowed for use at a funeral. Eighteen of the unhappy Acadians were quartered in Brookfield for support. They belonged to two families, which were not divided.
After the conquest of Canada, General Dwight moved to Stockbridge, in 1752. He was there, for several years,
5 His story is reminiscent of the tale of Captain John Smith and Pocohontas. It is not impossible that he was as skillful with the long bow as with the Queen Anne musket.
80
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
trustee of Indian schools, and from 1753 to 1761 was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Hampshire Coun- ty. He moved to Great Barrington in 1758; and on the formation of the new County of Berkshire, in 1761, he be- came Judge of Probate and Judge of the Berkshire County Court, holding these offices until his death there in 1765.
As he had succeeded to the influence held by his father- in-law, Pynchon, so did the leadership of the town pass from him to his own son-in-law. Jedediah Foster was born Oc- tober 10th, 1726 at Andover, the son of Ephraim, a black- smith; the descendant of Reginald Foster, who emigrated from Exeter, England, in 1636, upon one of the embargoed ships. He was graduated at Harvard in 1744, at the age of seventeen; and he then removed to Brookfield in order to assist General Dwight, and married Dorothy Dwight in 1749. From him Foster's Hill was named and he occupied during the greater part of his life the house built there by Brigadier Dwight, which was known to posterity by his name. Fifty years ago, the Reverend Doctor Whiting said of him:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.