USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Barnstable > Report of proceedings of the tercentenary anniversary of the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts > Part 13
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Friday, August 25-Attendance at Barnstable Fair; visit with Governor Saltonstall; tea with Mrs. Robert Bacon at the Bacon farm.
Saturday, August 26-Preparations for departure; after- noon, the Tercentenary banquet; farewells and departure ; evening, sailed from Boston.
OPENING OF TERCENTENARY FAIR
Mayor Dart and the Selectmen of Barnstable formally opened the Tercentenary Fair on Thursday morning, Aug- ust 24th. The procession into the grounds was headed by Sheriff Lauchlan M. Crocker and four deputies, in full re- galia of office; following came the Barnstable band direct- ed by Benjamin F. Teel, and Major Samuel T. Stewart, the parade marshal. Mayor Dart and Mrs. Dart rode in an auto- mobile with Judge Paul M. Swift, while the Selectmen, Messrs. Crocker, Adams and Kenney followed in another automobile. The procession moved around the running track to the grandstand, and in the line of march were the pic- turesque old fire apparatus from the display of the Barn- stable Fire Department, carriages, tractors, and other auto- mobiles. At the grandstand Mayor Dart spoke briefly. Rock- ets were fired high and from them floated to earth, attached to parachutes, the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. Thus the Fair was officially opened.
THE TERCENTENARY BANQUET-DEPARTURE OF THE MAYOR AND MAYORESS FOR BARNSTABLE
Mayor Dart and Mrs. Dart were guests of the Inhabitants of Barnstable at the Tercentenary banquet Saturday after-
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a
AT THE TERCENTENARY FAIR-Sheriff Lauchlan M. Crocker, center, with Mayor Dart and Mrs. Dart.
noon, August 26th. They sat at the head table, at the right of the Toastmaster. Behind the center portion of the table hung the Union Jack and the Star Spangled banner. Mayor Dart as guest of honor was called upon last rather than first as is English custom. In his address he said his fare- well to the Inhabitants of Barnstable. (See transcript of banquet addresses. )
At the close of the banquet the Mayor and Mayoress re- turned to Oyster Harbors Club and completed preparations for their return journey. There farewells were said by Chairman Mclaughlin, on behalf of the Tercentenary Com- mittee. Judge Otis and Mrs. Otis drove the Mayor and May- oress to Boston, with Selectman Crocker and Adams and their wives accompanying the party. At 9 p.m. the Barnsta- ble delegation and their guests reached the Cunard docks at South Boston; farewells were again exchanged. At 10 p.m.
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our English guests sailed on the Laconia. And thus ended the happy visit of the Mayor and Mayoress of Barnstaple, England, to Barnstable, Massachusetts, U. S. A. With them on their homeward voyage went the well wishes, the God- speed of the Inhabitants of Barnstable.
PART V Church Observance and Pageant
ONE WOULD EXPECT the churches of Barnstable to play an important role in our Tercentenary observance, and they did. The church has ever been important in our town. When John Lothrop and his Scituate flock prepared to remove to the Great Marshes in 1639 they observed a Day of Humilia- tion, and prayed, "Ffor the presence of God in mercy to goe with us to Mattakeese." Scarcely had they arrived but they observed another Day of Humiliation and prayed, "Ffor the grace of God to Settle us here in Church Estate, and to unite us togeather in holy Walkeing, and to make us Faithfull in keeping Covenaunt with God, & one to an- other."
When Barnstable reached its 100th birthday in 1739 its inhabitants still worshipped in what was essentially the first church, then divided for convenience into East and West Parishes. When our Second Centennial was observed in 1839 the inhabitants worshipped in seven meetinghouses of four denominations. In the Tercentenary year our people, of seven denominations, gathered to worship in a score of houses of God. Thus for three hundred years a unity of pur- pose, the will "to unite us togeather in holy Walkeing" has lived and grown. In place of unity of creed and faith, down through the years has come a priceless inheritance of free- dom of worship, each according to his conscience.
The Committee is happy to report that services of wor- ship and thanksgiving opened each of the village Tercen- tenary weeks, and that the United Church Committee ar-
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ranged impressive church services in the two old parishes for all the townspeople, as well as an historical pageant. Under the simple topic of "Church Observance and Pag- eant" we append the report of the Church Committee, the Proclamation of Tercentenary Sunday, the program of the Communion Service, and both program and participants in that especially inspiring Tercentenary offering, the pageant.
A SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED CHURCH TERCENTENARY COMMITTEE
In preparation for the Tercentenary observance in the summer of 1939 the Town of Barnstable Tercentenary Com- mittee delegated Miss Elizabeth C. Jenkins as chairman to form a committee representing the churches of the town, to plan the especial part to be played by the churches in the celebration.
The members of the committee were : Miss Jenkins, Mrs. Ruth Gilman and the Rev. John A. Douglas from the West Parish, Mrs. Nelson Bearse and Mr. Douglas from the South Congregational Society in Centerville, Mrs. David E. Sea- bury (Carrie Lothrop), Mrs. Sydney T. Knott (Margaret Crocker), Bruce K. Jerauld and the Rev. Donald C. McMil- lan of the East Parish. The other clergymen of the town were invited to represent their churches. The committee meetings were open to all interested. Among those who showed a steady and helpful interest were Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cobb, Mrs. Bruce K. Jerauld, Miss Louisa Cobb, Mrs. John A. Douglas and Mrs. Ora A. Hinckley.
At the first meeting, on June 13th, 1938, at the Unitarian Parish House in Barnstable, Mr. Jerauld was chosen modera- tor and Mr. McMillan, secretary. A general program of his- torical study as a background for the Tercentenary cele- bration, was agreed upon. The Rev. Anita T. Pickett, minis- ter to the Unitarian Church of Bedford, Mass., former pas- tor (1930-35) of the East Parish, who on a recent visit to England searched the records of the Independent Church gathered in Southwark, London, in 1616 by the Rev. Henry Jacob, told the group what she had found. She recommend- ed reading, "John Robinson" by Walter Burgess, published in London in 1920, especially the chapter devoted to the friendship of John Robinson and Henry Jacob. She spoke of the mystery surrounding Mr. Jacob's last days. The rec- ords of the Southwark Church seem to make it clear that
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he left London for America, and some formalities about publishing his will seem to show that he did not die in Eng- land. In Holland he had been a friend of men who came to Plymouth and it seems reasonable that on leaving Eng- land he would plan to join them here. But no record has been found of his entering Plymouth Colony.
At the second meeting of the committee, on July 11th, three papers were read : the first by Mrs. David E. Seabury on the life of her ancestor, the Rev. John Lothrop; the sec- ond by Richard Cobb on the Diary of John Lothrop, with a running commentary on the early history of the town; the third by the Rev. John M. Trout, pastor of the Feder- ated Church in Sandwich, dealing with the relations be- tween Lothrop's church and the Quakers who appeared on Cape Cod in 1657.
At the meeting of the committee on August 8th the Rev. Thomas Pardue of the First Baptist Church of Hyannis explained that very early in the Independent or Congrega- tional Church, rose a conviction that baptism should be ad- ministered only to men and women who felt conviction of sin and desire for salvation; that the term "Antipedobap- tists," full of meaning 300 years ago, though so strange to modern ears, signified men opposed to infant baptism. A small but remarkably meaty book, "Baptist and Congrega- tional Pioneers" by J. H. Shakespeare revealed that even before John Lothrop left the Southwark Church two groups had departed in friendly withdrawal to form Baptist con- gregations and that under the Rev. Henry Jessup, who gathered the remnant of the congregation together after Lothrop and his followers came to America, that church it- self became in belief a Baptist congregation. Miss Jenkins added some valuable comments on Joseph Hull, one of the founders of the town.
The meeting of the committee on September 12th con- sidered the life of Thomas Walley, our last minister out of England. Miss Jenkins gave a summary of his Election Day sermon, preached at Plymouth Oct. 26th, 1669, from the text, "Is there no balm in Gilead." It had surprising interest in the light thrown on "divers maladies in the Civil and Ecclesiastical State-and suitable Remedies for the Cure of them." Out of this meeting came a correspondence with Miss Abigail Walley, 93 years old, member of the Old South Church which Mrs. Walley had joined when she moved to Boston in 1678 after her husband's death in Barn- stable. From this correspondence we learned the epitaph on
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the tablet that disappeared long since from the flat stone, which we believe marks Mr. Walley's grave in the Lothrop Hill graveyard: "Here Lyeth the body of that blessed son of peace, a pastor of ye Church of Christ, Mr. Thomas Wal- ley who ended his labors and fell asleep in the Lord, Mar. 24, 1677." Mr. McMillan read from the earliest records of the East Parish and Mr. Jerauld read the photostatic copy of their original covenant, and from "Extracts of Early Church Records."
At the meeting on October 10th Mr. Douglas reported on the two Jonathan Russells, father and son, on the separa- tion of the Town and of the church into East and West Parishes, and of the long and successful ministry of the son in the West Parish.
Subsequent meetings of the committee were held during the winter and spring of 1938-39 at the home of Miss Jen- kins, which was the parsonage of the Rev. Oakes Shaw. The house which Mr. Shaw bought in 1760 and lived in un- til his death in 1807, a few heirlooms, and the reading of a part of the sermon preached at his funeral, as well as en- tries that he made in the old Church Records, brought the years of his ministry closer.
From this time on the meetings were necessarily given over to planning the religious program of the Tercentenary Week in August. From the stimulus of the study in earlier meetings resulted the chapters on "Beginnings of Barnsta- ble" and on other early church history printed in the Ter- centenary volume, "Barnstable-Three Centuries of a Cape . Cod Town."
The possibility of a service on Sunday morning, August 20th, in which all churches of the town would unite was dis- cussed. The Committee decided a wiser plan was to ask the Selectmen to issue a Proclamation calling on the people of the Town to meet for morning service in their accustomed places of worship. It was suggested that according to the old time custom, the church bells in all the villages should ring at nine o'clock in the morning. It was then decided to plan for a union out-of-door Communion Service in the late afternoon, on the hillside below the home of Marcus Harris, which is built on the site of Rev. Joseph Hull's house and close to the site of the first little log meeting- house of 1646. Members of the Committee chosen to arrange for the Sunday services were Mr. Douglas, Mr. McMillan, Mr. Schultz, Mr. Jerauld and Miss Jenkins. The ministers
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of the town with Mr. Douglas as chairman were asked to make all arrangements for the Communion Service.
It was decided to select scenes suggested by our study of of the early Church records to be presented in a pageant on Saturday afternoon, August 19th, on the shore of Cog- gins Pond, the site of the first settlement. The committee chosen to plan the pageant was: Mrs. Nelson Bearse, chair- man, Mrs. Ruth Gilman, Mr. Henry Kittredge, Mrs. Sydney T. Knott and Miss Jenkins. Mr. Jerauld suggested that we ask the Barnstable Comedy Club to present the pageant. It may be noted here that the pageant had the good fortune of beautiful weather and was delightfully presented to an audience of some 1200 persons, gathered on the hillside above the pond.
A meeting of the committee on March 14th was held at the home of Mrs. Nelson Bearse in Centerville, where all the plans were informally discussed. Since the East Parish (Barnstable Unitarian), the West Parish (West Barnsta- ble), and the South Parish (Centerville), are all daughters of the original Church, it was decided that the West Parish hold its annual Henry Jacob Memorial Service on August 6th, with Rev. John W. Suter, rector of the Church of the Epiphany, New York City, as preacher. Mr. Suter is a de- scendant in the ninth generation of John Jenkins, an early settler who built "The Old Parsonage," still standing. The South Parish would hold its usual morning service on August 20th with a guest preacher, but Mr. Douglas and all parish members who wished would join the East and West Parishes in the union service to be held in the East Parish Church. A committee from the East Parish, consist- ing of Mrs. David E. Seabury, Mrs. Conrad Wesselhoeft, Mrs. Stephen S. Bartlett, Mrs. Alfred P. Lowell, Mrs. Har- old Daggett, Rev. Alfred R. Hussey and Rev. and Mrs. Mc- Millan, invited the Rev. Donald Lothrop, a tenth generation descendant of the Rev. John Lothrop, and pastor of the Community Church in Boston, to preach at this service. A special invitation was prepared and sent to churches in Fal- mouth, Plymouth and Scituate because of the close ties be- tween them and our original parish, and to many friends. The committee was fortunate in persuading Professor George Lyman Kittredge, descendant of Rev. John Lothrop and noted Shakespearean scholar, to speak at the closing Tercentenary service on August 27th, in the Barnstable church. This church was filled at both these services.
On August 20th (see program), the Rev. Lewis Sanford,
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pastor of the Scituate Unitarian Church, with several of his parish, made a modern pilgrimage to Barnstable to com- memorate the journey made by John Lothrop and his fol- lowers in October, 1639. Mr. Sanford assisted in the service.
It was a disappointment when heavy rain earlier in the day brought to naught the cherished plans for the out-of- door Communion Service on Lothrop Hill. This service was held in the old West Parish Meetinghouse. The Rev. Alfred R. Hussey, pastor emeritus of the First Church in Plymouth and long a summer resident of Barnstable, led the Communion meditation. Ministers and deacons from the churches of the town prepared and dispensed the bread and wine. It was a service of deep feeling, of loving memory, of great beauty.
The Tercentenary Church Committee held its final meet- ing in the Old Shaw Parsonage on November 20th, 1939, and voted to send a copy of this record to the Clerks of the East, West and South Parishes with the request that they incorporate it in their church records.
ELIZABETH C. JENKINS, Chairman DONALD C. McMILLAN, Recording Secretary
PROCLAMATION CALLING ON THE TOWNSPEOPLE TO OB- SERVE A DAY OF "THANKSGIVING AND REMEMBRANCE"
The Selectmen on request of the United Church Commit- tee issued a public proclamation calling on all the inhabi- tants to observe Sunday, August 20th, as a "day of remem- brance and thanksgiving
THE PROCLAMATION
In 1616 Henry Jacob petitioned James I of England in behalf of the independent church he had gathered at Lon- don, saying, "To meet for worship in public places with peace and protection would be in this world the greatest blessing our hearts desire. But we dare not expect, neither do we ask so great a favor at your Majesty's hand; only that in private we might serve God with clear and quiet conscience we in all lowliness crave but your toleration." He petitioned in vain.
In the following reign of Charles I, John Lothrop, Ja-
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cob's successor, was imprisoned and his congregation dis- persed May 9, 1632.
In September, 1634, Lothrop, after two years' imprison- ment, rejoined members of his congregation who had sever- ally fled from England to the wilderness of America. Only there did he and they find liberty to unite openly in church estate.
At long last on Jan. 18, 1635, Lothrop and twelve others, eight men and four women, established a church at Scituate.
Since the church established at Scituate was the nucleus of that brought to Barnstable in October, 1639, we, the Se- lectmen of Barnstable, in the 300th anniversary of the town's settlement, do recommend that Sunday, the 20th of August, be observed as a day of remembrance and thanks- giving and do further recommend that all our townspeople assemble in our public places of worship to honor the faith and the courage that is our inheritance and to give thanks that today we can worship, individually and unitedly, each church according to its conscience in a free country.
May the one Almighty God of All maintain us in brother- hood and peace.
CHESTER A. CROCKER JAMES F. KENNEY VICTOR F. ADAMS Selectmen of Barnstable.
THE TERCENTENARY COMMUNION SERVICE
"It was a service of deep feeling, of loving memory, of great beauty."-From the Report of the United Church Committee. The service was held Sunday, August 20th, at 5 p.m., in the West Parish Meetinghouse.
ORDER OF THE SERVICE
(Service preceded by roll of distant drums)
Call to Worship: Psalm One Hundred - - William Kethe, 1561 Invocation and Lord's Prayer Rev. Donald McMillan
Hymn: Our God Our Help In Ages Past - Isaac Watts, 1719 Preparatory Sermon - Rev. Alfred R. Hussey
The Communion Service - Mr. Hussey, assisted by the pastors and deacons of the churches of the villages of Barnstable
Hymn : Dear Lord and Father of Mankind - J. G. Whittier, 1872 Benediction
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PREPARATORY SERMON
Following is the text of Dr. Hussey's Preparatory Ser- mon :
Communion means togetherness. Folk of many families, representatives of sundry households of faith, dwellers in various regions of the earth, cherishing a variety of con- victions, we come together not as forsaking our particular creeds but moved by a common impulse, as members of one community, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, for the moment ignoring the things that keep us apart as we remind ourselves of those better things that make us truly one, members of the universal church of Jesus Christ, sons and daughters of one Heavenly Father, who is the God and Father of us all, we here unite in this act of worship. Noth- ing we could do could bring us closer in spirit to the first settlers of this countryside. For tradition has it that when the half-hundred men and women who followed their shep- herd into the wilderness arrived here three hundred years ago one of the first things they did, even before they began to build their houses or organize their government, gather- ing out of doors, in the bright October weather they took communion together, thus giving thanks to Almighty God for having protected them during their long trek hither, reminding themselves of His unfailing mercies, and solemn- ly pledging their lives to His service, while they confessed their independence upon His loving kindness, and invoked His aid.
For them it was an action entirely characteristic. Dissent- ers and non-conformists, religion was a dominant motive in their lives. Plain folk, farmers and working people, existence for them was "a trembling walk with God." Their souls gripped by a single mighty purpose, obedient to a radiant vision, "as seeing Him who is invisible," for conscience's sake they had left their homes in the old world, enduring untold hardships as they crossed grey Atlantic surges to set up their homes in a new land. They believed that throughout their wanderings they had been led, not by mere chance, but by God himself. It was, therefore, for the purpose of acknowledging this leadership, their debt to Him, and of invoking His protecting care through the perils and diffi- culties that lay ahead, that humbly, fervently, they united in this service.
Because, for these people, long ago, Cummunion was what it always had been, and must be, a Eucharist, that is, thanks-
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giving. What they then and there joined in observing was a festival of gratitude, springing, moreover, from a three- fold motive, or rather emphasizing a triple aim. For them it was a rite of memory, fellowship, and above all of dedica- tion. It connected them up with past, present, and future. Primarily it took them back to their former existence in the mother land. How often in the past had these English men and women, fugitives from royal and ecclesiastical tyranny, meeting in secret places, received fresh courage, a stronger faith, as their minister broke the bread and poured the wine, the ordinance not only confirming their zeal as sep- aratists, independents, but driving home the realization that nonetheless were they heirs of the Christian heritage, members of the church universal, soldiers in the noble army of martyrs, fellow citizens with the saints, who, through the centuries, had borne unflinching witness to the truth as they saw it, giving to their faith the last full measure of devotion.
Yet even more vividly to these devout souls the rite brought back the Founder of the Feast. Once again they were in a moonlit upper chamber in an ancient city, where twelve young workingmen were gathered with their leader, looking into those eyes, hearing the tones of that wondrous voice, as he said : "Brothers, in the years that are coming, when my visible presence will no longer be with you, this do in remembrance of me." So that, feeling themselves one with him in spirit, conscious of that mysterious presence in their midst, they felt themselves likewise one in spirit with their loved ones who had died to live again forever- more. Thus, conscious of this oneness with God, with Jesus Christ, with eternal truth and everlasting life, dwelling for the moment in heavenly places, more valiantly they faced the days that lay ahead, more eager to bear one an- other's burdens, their sympathies more catholic, their faith clarified, in a new and stronger spirit of comradeship, re- solved more faithfully and unselfishly to live and work together, to serve the common good.
Such was the three-fold meaning which the rite had for the first settlers on these shores. Since then, many changes have come to pass. A whole Niagara of water has flowed under the bridges. We live in an America they could not have pictured in their fondest dreams. Externally, marked contrasts separate them from us. Looking back, they seem like dim, almost unreal figures in the distant past. We of today wear different clothes, face different problems, live
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under different circumstances, subscribe to different creeds. Yet, in reality, with our ancestors, we have much in com- mon. The differences between us and them so far as moral and spiritual duties and responsibilities are concerned are more apparent than real. Like them, for us existence is a great, a glorious adventure. We have to cope with the selfsame sorrows, temptations, difficulties. Our souls are stirred by the same dreams, aspirations, longings, hopes. Like them, also, we are not sufficient unto ourselves. You and I need every help, every source of inspiration we can lay hold of. Such a help is offered us in this service which we share today.
Like every other religious ordinance this communion is a challenge to our better selves, to the hero in all our na- tures, sleeping but never dead, to the God-life latent in our hearts and minds and souls. We come here this afternoon led by sundry motives, our theologies differing widely, ac- knowledging a myriad ecclesiastical loyalties, by our pres- ence manifesting that unity which underlies all differences, the vastness and majesty of that universal Life and Love which surpasses all human interpretations, and which in- cludes them all. To us, indeed, this rite ought to have the same significance it had for our ancestors. Still as always, its meaning in threefold.
Communion means togetherness. Together, one in spirit, we are bidden to look back, look around us, and then look forward, with indomitable faith and high resolve. That it, this simple, historic, ceremony, stands above everything else, for Commemoration, Communion and Consecration. It speaks to us of past, present and future, of what has been, what is, and what is yet to come. First, it reminds us of the glorious cost of Christian living. Doing this in remem- brance of Him, the dead past lives again. We remember Jesus Christ, with Him walk the lily-bordered roads of Gali- lee, with Him and His disciples share their final supper, hear His great language, catch His clear accents, watch Him go out from that quiet chamber serenely to meet His death. We remember also the innumerable multitudes of faithful witnesses who through the centuries fought the good fight of faith,
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