USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Kingston > Report of the proceedings and exercises at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Kingston, Mass. : June 27, 1876 > Part 7
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Before I proceed, Mr. President, to fulfil the main object of your call, will you allow me to add a few words more, personal to myself? Having been born almost under the shadow of Forefathers' Rock, it is natural enough that I should claim a relationship to the forefathers themselves and cherish a filial respect for the principles which governed them and which are the foundation of the civil and religious liberties of the New World. Though I do not subscribe to all the "five points" in their creed, I do believe that the religion of the Puritans was the "purest" which the Christian world has seen since the days of the apostles of Christ, and that it is to the departure from the strictness of that religion that there is at the present day such a decadence in public virtue and private morals as must sooner or later subvert the glory of our republican institutions. If there is a spot on earth where that religion should be revived and extended in its " purity," it is on what Mrs. Hemans calls this "holy ground" of the Pilgrim Fathers on which we now stand.
I said I could claim relationship to the forefathers. The
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blood of Elder Brewster circulates in my veins, and it is, per- haps, this hereditary instinet that has inspired my veneration for his religion, and made me, what he was, a minister of the gospel of Christ. Though I claim no other blood relation to the Pilgrims, I think I can say what no other person present or elsewhere can say, viz., that there is but one life between me and the poop-deck of the "Mayflower" that brought the Pil- grims here, having myself been with a man who had enjoyed the caresses of Thomas Clark, the supposed mate of that ship. If the descendants of the centenarian, "Grand'ther Cobb," of Rocky Nook do not challenge a sohition of this enigma, perhaps my friend, Dr. Drew, who is the genealogist of our family, may be able to explain how a guest at this table, two hundred and fifty-six year's after the landing of the Pilgrims, can be reck- oned, in matters of time rather than of blood, as a child of the second generation from the cabin of the Mayflower, - a mere grandson of the foreparents of New England. * He will have, however, to credit tradition for one of the links in the chain of facts.
And now a little more about the Maine State and the Kings- ton families in it. Half a century ago it was a common idea in Beacon Street, that "Down East" was the very jumping-off place of creation, to which, if a Bostonian should go in the darkness which always rested upon it like a cloud, he would be in dan- ger of pitching off into nowhere, as the Pope told Columbus he would if he ventured ten leagues west of the Pillars of Hercules. The land, which had little or no agricultural valne, was sup- posed to be bound in almost perpetual ice ; the people but half civilized. in constant dread of tigers and bears, and subsisting on wild meats and rye johnny-cake. Why, even since I have
* E. Cobb, born 1594; T. Clark, died 1697; W. A. Drew, born 1798; E. Cobb, di :d 1801.
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lived there, I have been inquired of by people in Massachusetts, when I have revisited my native State, to know whether corn, one of our surest crops, could grow in Maine, and how the inhabitants contrived to survive the rigors of our Aretie winters. Why, dear souls ! don't you know that the Dirigo State is as large as all the rest of New England ; that her soil is, on the average, better than that of the parent State, many parts of it being not inferior to the boasted prairies of the West ; that our farmers can raise all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life ; that she has more sea-coast, more safe harbors, more navigable rivers, more water-power, and builds more ships than any other State in the Union ; that her mineral wealth in gramite, lime, feldspar, slate, and iron is inexhaustible, and that her shipments of lumber and iec bring wealth to her very doors ; that her people are intelligent, industrious, temperate (to the great sorrow of distillers and rumsellers), and as highly - educated and loyal as any people in the Union? Why, sir, as to that being a benighted region, don't you know that all the light you have comes first from us ; and that some unseen power Down East has to pry up the sun every morning to bless the people of Massachusetts with his smiles after we have break- fasted in his light ?
And then as to scholars and statesmen : Have you never heard of that Kingston grandson, Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow, the poet, whom the Emperor of Brazil came all the way from Rio Janeiro to see and dine with last week ? And Grenville Mellen and B. B. Thatcher, hardly inferior to Prof. Longfellow ? If the Maine nom de plume " Florence Perey " is not the equal of Mrs. Hemans, no American lady is. Who, too, has not heard of Rev. S. F. Smith, author of the National Hymn, " America," sung already at this table ? of the celebrated song- stress, Alice Cary, and the Peakes family? of the historical
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Abbotts and Williamsons? of the scholarly acquirements of Pres. Woods and Dr. Jenks, and of Profs. Cleaveland, Upham, Newman, and Smyth? of George D. Prentiss and Seba Smith, the veritable "Jack Downing of Downingville "? One of Kingston's sons, Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, and two of her grand- sons, C. L. Stetson, Esq., of Auburn, and Ilon. William P. Drew, of Augusta, have been professors in colleges. Where will you hear of better jurists than Chief Justice Parker, who adorned the Supreme Court of Massachusetts so long; and of Mellen, Wilde, Whitman, and of Greenleaf in the law chair of Cambridge? Where of more distinguished divines than Payson, Appleton, Pond, Nichols, Boardman, Bishop Soule, Bishop Burgess, and Dyke? Where of abler statesmen than King, Parris, Evans, the two Fessendens, Hohnes (one of Kingston's most distinguished sons), Gov. Andrew (your own Jolin A.), a whole family of Washburns, Gen. and Gov. Chamberlain, to whom the rebel Gen. Lee surrendered the " lost cause," and, though last not least, James G. Blaine, who came as near the presidency as Webster or Clay, and failed for the same reason ?
. By the Kingston families in Maine I suppose it is not only proper to represent those who still bear the patronymie of the first settlers, but also those who, by intermarriage, have become fawful members thereof; and of these it is respectful to remember not only the first generation, but also the grand and even the great-grandsons and daughters now upon the stage. All this, indeed, would embrace a list too numerous to be detailed here.
Within the family circle thus described, I take pleasure, in honor to old Kingston, to say she has given to the country one senator in the Congress of the United States, Hon. John Hohes, who was the author of the Constitution of Maine ;
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four representatives in the National Legislature, viz., Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, who represented Cumberland District both in the Continental and Federal Congress ; Hon. Joshua Cush- man, a lineal descendant of Elder Thomas Cushman ; Hon. John Holmes, afterwards transferred to the Senate already mentioned, and Hon. T. J. D. Fuller, of Washington County, who, as I have been assured, originated in one of the Fuller families in Kingston ; one governor, and one regular candidate for governor, who failed only for the want of an actual major- ity of votes, viz., Dr. E. Holmes, the founder and editor of the " Maine Farmer"; one United States Minister to a foreign Court, viz., Hon. John Holmes Goodenow, grandson of Sen- ator Holmes ; three judges, Hon. Job Prince, of Turner, Hon. Bezar Bryant, of Anson, and Hon. H. C. Goodenow, of. Bangor, brother of the minister at Constantinople ; one Scere- tary of State, Col. F. M. Drew, of Augusta ; one adjutant- general, J. P. Cilley, of Thomaston ; six State Senators, Hon. Joshua Cushman, of Winslow, Hon. Job Prince, of Turner, and his brother, Hon. Noah Prince, of Buckfield, both of whom were presidents of that Board, Hon. L. L. Wadsworth, of Pembroke, Washington County, and one whom I am happy to see here to-day, Hon. Henry HI: Burgess, of Portland. who "escaped a great mercy " by the Jack of two votes to make him president of the Senate and thus lieutenant-governor of the State; a large number of local representatives, one of whom was speaker of the House, and two members of the Executive Council, viz., Hon. Benj. Bradford, of Livermore, and Hon. L. L. Wadsworth, of Pembroke.
To this list, by a pardonable license, might be added three adopted sons of Kingston families, viz., Gov. Albion Keith Parris, though born in Maine after his father, Judge Samuel Parris, removed thither, was in early youth educated by his
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and my uncle, Rev. Martin Parris, of Kingston, and was married to the daughter of Rev. Levi Whitman, also of this town. This gentleman, a lawyer by profession, had advanced to more official honors than any man in Maine, having been Senator with Hon. John Holmes, in the Massachusetts Legisla- ture, before the separation, representative in Congress, Gov- ernor of the State several years, Judge of Probate, Judge of the Supreme Court, Judge of the District Court of the United States, Senator in Congress, and second Auditor of the treasury in Washington, where he died in office. His was the remark- able case of a successful office-seeker, honest and faithful in every post of duty. Till death he retained his early love of Kingston by constant visits to his uncle and father-in-law, whom he greatly comforted and supported in his needy old age. Hon. Ezekiel Whitman, of Portland, was the adopted son of the same Rev. Levi Whitman, who reared him to man- hood and gave him a college education. The relation of father and son was always sacredly respected between them. He was a very distinguished lawyer, twice a representative in Congress from Cumberland County, afterwards an eminent judge and chief-justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Hon. Jonathan Cilley, of Thomaston, a lawyer of note, married the daughter of Hezekiah Prince, Esq., of that town, - a Kingston emigrant, - by whom he had a son who was colonel of a Maine regiment of cavalry in the late Rebellion, and who is now adjutant-general of the State. He, therefore, is one of Kingston's grandsons. His father, whilst in Con- gress, fell in a duel with Graves, of Kentucky.
" No farther seek his merits to disclose. Or draw his frailties from their dread abode. There they alike in trembling hope repose,- The bosom of his Father and his God."
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Though the names I have mentioned had acquired official distinction, I would not have it understood that those in more humble life, past and present, have not done as much in their spheres of duty, to confer honor upon the land of their nativity. They constitute now a large and highly useful and respectable portion of the citizens of our State.
" Honor and shame from no condition rise, Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
The beautifully executed card of invitation issued by your committee, which has brought us together to a celebration just fifty per cent more timeworthy than the National Centennial now in progress in Philadelphia (a show which, great as it is, has Jess attractions for me to-day than the present joyous festival, since my curiosity in such exhibitions was gratified to satiety at the World's Fair in London), gave us the assurance that " the occasion will be one for many pleasant reminiscences and reunions." The " reminiscences," indeed, are fresh and replete with interest, but in the matter of "reunions" there are few who have come here in their second childhood, like myself and my dearly venerated foster-brother from Philadelphia, Ilox. JOSEPH RIPLEY CHANDLER, and even the senior of us both, the respected nonagenarian, REV. JOB WASHBURN of Camden, Maine, that can participate in that part of the promised pleasure. The "reunion " can, to the most of us, be only in spirit with the spirits of the departed, whose graves we must visit ere we bid this, our last adieu, to our native borough.
Of our cotemporary schoolmates, I am privileged to-day to find but three of my ancient associates, viz., two boys and one girl, or to speak more deferentially, two old men and one old woman ; and as we are brought together late in the evening of life, dozing for a final repose, I need not say that Mrs. Caudle's
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Curtain Lecture must be short, and take its inspirations chiefly from the land. of " Pleasant Dreams."
" When shall we " four " meet again?" " When shall we " all " meet again? ". ยท " When the dreams of life are fled, When its wasting lamp is dead, When in cold oblivion's shade, Beauty, fame, and power are laid; Where immortal spirits reign, "There may we " all " meet again."
In parting, now, from these companions of a blithesome boy- hood, I may be permitted to recall the memory of one of our schoolmates, now no more on earth, who was, I think, the most precocious scholar, and a thorough one too, of which American history gives a record. I allude to my cousin, SAM- UEL B. PARRIS, son of Rev. Martin Parris, our old schoolmaster, who was born in Kingston, Jan. 30, 1806. Before he was eighteen months old he had learned the Hebrew alphabet, and became the master of that sacred language before he studied the English grammar. At the age of six he commenced a diary or journal, in which he recorded the experiences of every day, confessing all his faults in Latin. He entered college when only nine years old, being so childlike that he sat in the Jap of his professor whilst undergoing a successful examination in the classical languages and the higher mathematics. " Whom the gods love, die young." He died at the age of twenty-one. An interesting volume, entitled " Parris's Remains," was pub- lished after his death, containing specimens of his writings both in prose and poetry, alluding, as I also do to-day, to the scenes of our carly pleasures. I add only a brief quotation from his poem on " Anticipations and Recollections."
" Scenes of carly pleasure! years may pass, In life's united tragedy and farce; But, with oblivion's besom, ne'er shall they Sweep thy remembrance from my thoughts away."
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Only once more : Not only can Kingston claim to have given birth to that remarkable scholar just mentioned, but it is a subject of pride to all her sons that this small but ancient town has contributed more than an average share to the ele- ments of a national reputation.
On this shore the forefathers of New England laid the foun- dations of our national glory. Then Jones River was as much Plymouth as Town Brook. Here Gov. Bradford, his son, the Deputy-Governor, William Jr., Gov. Prence, Dr. Fuller, and Elder Cushman had estates and homes. Here the captain in King Philip's War, Major W. Bradford, led the forces which conquered and killed that powerful Indian monarch. In time of the Revolution, Kingston furnished two distinguished major- generals of the army, the companions of Washington, - Thomas and Wadsworth. Here. in Drew's ship-yard, the first armed brigantines of the Continental Navy, the " Independence " and - the " Mars " were built, and were successively commanded by Simcon Sampson, the first naval captain commissioned by the Provincial Congress. Here, in time of the Adams-Franco War Commodore James Sever commanded the frigate "Congress." Here Deacon Jed. Holmes made the first anchors for the navy. Here Jesse Reed invented the first nail and tack machines. Here John- Washburn's genius gave the world the benefit of the first and all succeeding screw augers. Here Samuel Adams invented and patented the first mowing machine. In mechani- cal as well as in patriotic and literary history, therefore, Kingston is entitled to a reputation not to be overlooked on this anniversary, and in which we all may take an honest pride. Esto perpetua!
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, -Thanking you very respectfully for the indulgence by which you have allowed me to trespass so long upon your time and patience, I will only
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add my parting benediction, GOD BLESS OLD KINGSTON FOR- EVER ! Farewell.
7. The public schools of Kingston, - best known by their products, - MEN and WOMEN.
RESPONDED TO BY LETTERS.
NORMAL, ILLINOIS, June 24, 1876. MR. W. R. ELLIS,
Toastmaster, Kingston Anniversary Celebration:
Dear Sir, -Finding it impossible to be present at your cel- ebration and respond to a toast at your public dinner, I venture to send the following sentiment :
Illinois sends cordial greeting to the Old Colony; the Father of Waters to Jones River; Lake Michigan to Smelt Pond ; the luxuriant prairie to the sandy sca-shore ; the home of Abraham Lincoln to Abraham's Hill.
May the cable forever remain unbroken which moors the fair Valley of the Mississippi to Plymouth Rock !
Trusting that your celebration will prove eminently success- ful, I am
Very truly yours, ALBERT STETSON.
SOUTH DARTMOUTH, June 16, 1876.
MESSRS. STETSON & FAUNCE,
Of the Committee of Invitations, etc.
My dear Sirs, - Please accept my grateful thanks for your very polite and courteous invitation to be present and partici- pate in the " proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of Kingston."
It will be a sad occurrence which can prevent me from avail- ing myself of the opportunity of visiting the home of my child-
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hood on the 27th inst., and participating in the exercises of the day.
Yours very truly,
FRANCIS D. BARTLETT.
NEW YORK, June 20, 1876.
MESSRS. STETSON, PECKHAM, SAMPSON, FAUNCE, ETC.,
Committee of Invitations, etc.
Gentlemen, - Your very cordial invitation to revisit my old home and join the present citizens in celebrating the one hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of Kingston was duly received ..
I regret that I cannot enjoy the occasion with you, but allow me to thank you' for your kind invitation and the honorable mention you give me in this connection. It would afford me rare pleasure to join you and others on the 27th inst. I fancy that I am not the less patriotic though a non-resident.
Kingston as a part of the old Plymouth town has certainly a rightful claim to most honorable mention as a constituent factor of this republic in this centennial year.
If the sky be now "HAYES-Y," the guiding star of our national destiny shall so clarify the atmosphere that, as a planet of the first magnitude, this great republic shall lead the nations onward to a purer national life.
Again thanking you,
I remain fraternally yours,
GEO. B. ROBBINS.
WALTHAM, MASS., June 19, 1876.
KIMBALL W. STETSON, EsQ.
Dear Sir, - A few days ago I received from your committee a circular of invitation, extended to natives of Kingston, to par-
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ticipate in the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anni- versary of the incorporation of the town.
Of course my absence would not be noticed, yet I cannot let the occasion pass without expressing my sincere regrets that other engagements will keep me away from the celebration ; examinations and exhibition of my school coming on the 28th or 29th.
The new settlers of the West used to say with virtuous pride that Massachusetts was an excellent State to emigrate from. So we can truly say that no firmer foundation could one wish than old Plymouth Rock and the principles which the good Puritan fathers brought to America, and which have descended in such large measure to their descendants in Kingston.
Thanking you for remembering me, and hoping that the event will be in every way a success,
I remain very sincerely yours, JOHN T. PRINCE.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 14, 1876.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF INVITATION AND CORRESPONDENCE,
Of the Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Kingston.
Gentlemen, - Allow me, at this late day, to tender my regrets that I could not be with you all at your grand celebra- tion. It was an opportunity that occurs not this once in many men's lifetime ; and if the most extraordinary exertions could have availed, rest assured I should not have been long in making them. We " natives " who have adopted California for a home never meet but we inquire for the latest news from Kingston, and one and all look back with a more than ordinary clinging to the scenes of our boyhood.
The latest files of Plymouth County papers have not yet
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come to hand, and we are not fully informed as to the stage of glory you were able to reach ; but I trust you did not fail to make it a full centennial and a half.
Yours very truly,
FRANK J. SYMMES.
8. The early ministers of Kingston.
REMARKS OF ELLIS AMES, ESQ., OF CANTON, MASS.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, - The announcement by way of reminiscence of the " early ministers of Kingston," with the posting conspicuously of the names of Stacey, Maccarty, Rand, and Willis upon the sides of this tent in which we assem- ble to hear the orator, poet, and historian, seems to justify as much of a response as the time will allow.
On November 8, 1717, a tract of land inhabited by John Bradford, Jacob Cook, and thirty-nine others, inhabitants of the part of Plymouth near Jones River, the northeast part of Plympton and the southeast part of Pembroke, was, by an Act of the General Court, set off and incorporated as a precinct, that is, as a parish or religious society, according to the bounds set out in the report of the committee of the General Court, to whom the matter had been referred, and the territory of that parish was subsequently, one hundred and fifty years ago this day, incorporated into the town of Kingston.
Rev. Joseph Stacey, a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1719, and a native of Cambridge, was ordained the first minister of the parish, Nov. 2, 1720. Rev. Daniel Lewis, the first minister of Pembroke, preached the ordination sermon, which was printed and published by the unanimous request of the parishioners. That the setting off of the new parish from the first parish of Plymouth was with the approbation of the
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latter, is manifest by a full preface to that ordination sermon, written and subscribed by Rev. Ephraim Little, then minister of the first parish, in which he greets the rising and develop- ment of the new parish, and addresses Mr. Stacey by all the endearing appellations with which one Christian minister can call another.
Of the pedigree of Mr. Stacey and of his connections except at college, before his settlement at Kingston, I am wholly unin- formed. Though very abstemious, and taking abundant exer- cise in fishing and fowling, he died of a fever Aug. 25, 1741.
He left no sermon nor anything else in print by which we may be able to judge of his intellectual powers ; and how much of a man he really was can only be inferred from the general character of the clergymen of his age and from his connection with this parish in particular.
Ilis parishioners, on settling here, were nine grandsons and one great-grandson of Gov. Bradford (all men of high per- sonal character), with their families, namely : Major John Bradford, Gershom Bradford, Israel Bradford, Hezekiah Brad- ford, Perez Bradford, Ephraim Bradford, William Bradford, David Bradford, Elisha Bradford, and John Bradford, Jr. Among his parishioners were Wrestling Brewster, a great- grandson of Elder Brewster, and Francis Cook, a great-grand- son of him of the same name, a passenger in the Mayflower with the Cushmans, the Eatons, and more than thirty others with their families, grandsons, and great-grandsons of the forefathers and first-comers in the Mayflower, the Aun, and the Fortune, reminding one of the names upon the roll in iron in front of Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth. At Mr. Stacey's settlement, Samuel Adams, " the last of the Puritans," had not been born, and the very eldest of Mr. Stacey's parishioners in their youth had attended church at Plymouth with Gov. Brad-
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ford himself in his old age, and with Miles Standish and others of the Mayflower, and with others of the second generation, such as Elder Faunce, every way equal to the forefathers themselves.
On Jan. 5, 1721, Mr. Stacey's parishioner, Major John Bradford, son of Major William Bradford, deputy governor, and grandson of Gov. Bradford, who had been before a mem- ber of the Council Board of the Province, made a deed of gift to Mr. Stacey of two acres of land for his house lot, being the three-cornered lot where the road in the centre of the vil- lage branches off' one way to Boston and the other to Bridge- water, on which Mr. Stacey built his house, which we saw this day on our march to this place elegantly labelled as the house of the first mimster, Mr. Stacey.
A learned historian says, How very able must the ministry have been at Plymouth when Gov. Bradford and Elder Brew- ster, the founders of civil and religious liberty, were among the parishioners ! Applying the same test to Mr. Stacey at the time and during the continuance of his settlement here with the grandsons and great-grandsons of the forefathers, we may justly infer that he was possessed of all the learning and talents that this Puritan parish, an offshoot of the great Puri- tan parish of Plymouth, could desire.
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