Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 45

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 45

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One of the most important and interesting events that occurred dur- ing the later years of the war, was the formation of the State Consti- tution. The delegates from Gloucester to the Convention which as- sembled for this purpose, were Winthrop Sargent, Joseph Foster, Peter Coffin, Samuel Whittcmore, and Epes Sargent. The Constitu- tion was submitted to the people, and accepted, at a town-meeting in Gloucester, March 22, 1780, by a vote of forty-eight in its favor. No negative votes are recorded, but Capt. Sargent and Col. Foster said that they objected to it.

The surrender at Yorktown, at last brought to the people of

Gloucester a happy release from the burden which had weighed most heavily upon it for the last two years, - the furnishing of its quota of soldiers for the army. It was a welcome relief; for it had at last be- come so difficult to hire men for it, that the town was obliged to peti- tion the General Court to accept a partial compliance with its last requirement.

This event was soon followed by efforts, on both sides, to end the war. Besides the great question, -the acknowledgment of inde- pendence, - the people of Gloucester were interested to preserve their ancient privileges on the fishing grounds ; and, at a meeting on the 28th of January, 1782, declared that, in any treaty of peace, an article to secure these privileges, was " of the utmost consequence, not only to this town, but to the State in general."

The welcome intelligence that a treaty of pcace had been concluded and signed, was received in Gloucester on the 22d of October, 1783, by the arrival of the ship " Robin Hood," Capt. Smith, from London. No record of any public rejoicings on the occasion, is preserved ; but the men of that time have handed down an account of the celebration of the joyful event, on a low hill which rises from the sea-shore, at Duncan's Point. On that spot, at the close of the Revolution, stood a solitary and venerable oak-tree, twenty-three feet in circumference. It had long been a cherished object, and a favorite resort for the peo- ple ; and thither the happy citizens of the town now hastened, to ex- change congratulations that the war was ended, and the great blessing of independence secured. In the evening, the hollow trunk and leaf- less branches of the ancient oak were brilliantly illuminated ; and, though no living person could remember the grandeur of its maturity, all agreed that it could not have surpassed the splendor which it now exhibited in its decay.

CHAPTER XI.

INDEPENDENT CHRISTIAN SOCIETY.

JOHN MURRAY - HIS FIRST VISIT TO GLOUCESTER - COMES AGAIN AND IS PERSECUTED - HIS FRIENDS FORM A RELIGIOUS SOCIETY AND BUILD A HOUSE OF WORSHIP - ORDINATION OF MR. MURRAY OVER THE SOCIETY - HIS REMOVAL TO BOSTON, AND DEATH - SUCCESSION OF PASTORS - INDEPENDENT UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY AND ITS MINISTERS.

This society, the first organized religious body in America, pro- fessing the doctrine of universal salvation, owes its origin to John Mur- ray, who was born in the town of Alton, in Hampshire, England, Dec. 10, 1741. After a somewhat remarkable religious experience, as a follower of Wesley and Whitefield, in his native country, he became converted to the sentiments of James Relly, who had gathercd a so- ciety in London, to which he proclaimed the final salvation of man- kind. Arriving in America, at the age of twenty-nine, he was led to appear as a public preacher of the doctrine he had embraced, and had preached in several of the large cities and towns amidst great oppo- sition, when, while on a visit to Boston, in November, 1774, he was invited to come to Gloucester. In compliance with the invitation, he came down immediately, and was received with much kindness, and hospitably entertained by members of the Sargent family, then occu- pying the highest rank in social standing and religious character. He obtained permission to preach in Mr. Chandler's pulpit. He was a fluent and agreeable speaker in extemporaneous discourse, and he had the faculty of a happy choice of language. With these gifts, it is not strange that he made a deep impression upon the minds of many of his hearers, considering that several of them had already perused the writings of Mr. Relly. More than a century has passed away, since this memorable visit, and all personal recollections of the excite- ment it produced, and the deep impression it left, long since ceased to exist ; but the writer of these lines may add, that he has himself heard, from the lips of one of Mr. Murray's first hearers, that his ser- mons, on this visit, were not of a doctrinal or controversial charac- ter, but were designed to draw his hcarers to the love and service of God, by a touching and vivid portrayal of the divine benignity.

In the next month, Mr. Murray made another visit to the town ; but the parish meeting-house was now closed against him, and its dying pastor issued a warning address to his people. His followers therefore assembled, at stated times, at the house of Winthrop Sar- gent, where their religious worship was held. From this time he made Gloucester his home, but he occasionally visited other towns,

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and was. for some time, a chaplain in the army. He was, of course, regarded by a great majority of the people of the town as the promnl- gator of a monstrous and dangerous heresy ; and though the small circle of admiring friends which he drew around him included some of the most respectable families, they could not shield him from the effects of that "exquisite rancor of religious hatred" which stops not short of insult, abuse, and even personal violence. The latter was threatened, and a mob was collected ; but the wise advice of Gamaliel to the first enemies of our religion was timely suggested by an elder of the church as a proper guide for the present occasion, whereupon the mob disperscd.

On the 1st of January, 1779, Mr. Murray's friends adopted a cove- nant, in which they professed themselves an independent church of Christ, and received him as their minister; and on Christmas Day, 1780, they first assembled for publie worship, in a small building without belfry or other architectural ornament, which they had erected for that purpose, on the spot which is now the westerly corner of Spring and Water streets. The society was as vet only an associa- tion of individuals. In 1785, they organized themselves under a " compact." containing a few regulations for their future government. This was signed by upwards of eighty males, who were probably all of the supporters of Mr. Murray at that time. Finding, however, no form of association they had yet tried suited to their wants, they obtained from the Legislature, in 1792, an Act of Incorporation under the name they at first adopted.

The supporters of Mr. Murray believed that the covenant they had entered into, in 1779, constituted then a religious society, in a sense that entitled them to the protection of the State Constitution as such ; but the parish authorities thought differently, and assessed taxes upon the Universalists for the support of their minister. Upon the refusal of the latter to pay these taxes, their goods were seized and sold at auction, whereupon they instituted an action for the recovery of this property, which, after a protracted trial of three years, resulted in their favor.

After various persecutions, both of pastor and people, out of which they came at last triumphant, Mr. Murray was publicly ordained as minister of this society on Christmas Day, 1788. In 1793, he was installed as pastor of a society of Universalists in Boston, and con- tinued in that office till his death, which, preceded by six years of helplessness, took place Sept. 3, 1815, at the age of seventy-four. He came to America a widower, and so remained till his return from a visit which he made to his native land in 1788, when he married Mrs. Judith, widow of John Stevens, and danghter of his early and constant friend, Winthrop Sargent. She was a lady of great personal attractions, and of literary accomplishments that secured her tempo- rary distinction as an authoress. She died in Natchez, Miss., June 6. 1820, aged sixty-nine ; and she and a daughter, and a granddaugh- ter, lie buried side by side in that distant State.

After Mr. Murray's removal, the society remained several years without a settled minister, but their pulpit was supplied most of the time by itinerant preachers. a few of whom remained several months. Finally, on the 26th of September, 1804, the Rev. Thomas Jones was installed for life. at a salary of $600 per annum. Mr. Jones was born at Narbath, Wales. April 5, 1763, and was educated in the doc- trines of the Calvinistic Methodists at the seminary established by Lady Huntingdon, at Trevecca. In 1785, he was ordained as a preacher, and was. for about five years, a sincere and earnest advocate of the sentiments of his sect. About the end of that time. while settled over a society of this sect in Reading, England, he became a convert to the doctrine of universal salvation, and, strange to say. carried his society with him ; at least so much may be inferred from the fact that its members severed their connection with Lady Hunting- don's sect and attended his ministry till 1796, when, at the solicita- tion of the Rev. John Murray, he came to America, and, not long after his arrival, was settled over a society in Lombard Street, Philadel- phia, where he preached till his removal to Gloucester. The ministry upon which he then entered was undisturbed by any important event for the long period of thirty-four years; at the end of which, his advanced age and impaired health induced the society to relieve him of a portion of its duties by providing him a colleague. The Rev. Daniel D. Smith was the minister chosen, and very unfortunate results followed the act. The peace and harmony of the society were soon destroyed by dissensions among its members, concerning the conduct and character of the junior pastor ; and the venerable senior, although in no way blamable for the quarrel. acceded to an arrangement by which, in 1841, his pastoral connection with it was dissolved. Suita- ble provision was made by the society for the declining years of both himself and his wife.

The aged pastor was now, apparently without any confirmed disease, sinking by slow and gradual decay ; but during several years of bodily infirmity, and a long confinement to his house, his mental faculties rc- mained unimpaired, and, in the last hours of his life, enabled him to give assurance that his faith in the universal and impartial goodness of God was sustaining him through the valley of the shadow of death. About seven o'clock on Thursday evening, Aug. 20, 1846. he called his family and friends to his bedside, and took a solemn and affection- ate leave of all; and, soon after, drew his last breath. He died in his eighty-fourth year.

Mr. Jones was not a popular preacher, in the common meaning of that term ; and he was not endowed by nature with those gifts of con- versation and manners which attract in social life ; but he possessed all the qualities necessary to secure to him, both as a preacher and a man, during the whole of the long period of his ministry, the affec- tionate regard of his flock and a high place in publie esteem.

Before the death of Mr. Jones, the dissensions already mentioned, had rent the society in twain. Half of its members had left, in com- pany with the junior pastor, whose labors with it ceased in April, 1841 ; but, notwithstanding this loss, and the pecuniary embarrassment grow- ing out of its troubles, the society maintained its existence, and, finally, by the return of most of the seceders, recovered its former prosperity. Able ministers have in succession, for many years, occupied its pulpit as pastors ; and it is now one of the strongest societies of the denomi- nation to which it belongs. The following have been its ministers since the resignation of Mr. Jones, in 1841 : Frederick F. Thayer, H. B. Sonle, Amory D. Mayo, W. R. G. Mellen, George W. Skinner, Elmer H. Capen, Richard Eddy. The society is now without a pastor.

The meeting-house in which the society now worship, on Middle Street, was erected in 1805, at a cost of about $10,000. The avenne by which its front is approached is bordered on each side by a row of noble elms.

The friends of Mr. Smith, after their withdrawal from the Inde- pendent Christian Society, proceeded to form a new religious body, and took the name of the Independent Universalist Society. It con- sisted of seventy-seven members, who, April 13, 1843, signed a sub- scription paper for the support of preaching. Mr. Smith was then preaching in Virginia ; but, upon the invitation of the new society. he returned the next year and became their pastor. He was succceded by the Rev. David H. Plumb, in 1849, who was himself succeeded by the Rev. G. J. Sanger, in 1853. Mr. Sanger preached his farewell seimon, March 2, 1856, and no pastor succeeded him. The dissolution of the society soon followed, and a large portion of its members returned to the parent body. The meeting-house which they occupied, on Elm Street, built in 1845, was sold to the Methodists in 1858, and is now their place of public worship.

CHAPTER XII.

RE-OPENING OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS - SAD ACCIDENT -- SHAYS' REBELLION - CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES - GENERAL TRAINING - CUSTOM-HOUSE - POST-OFFICE - FIRST STAGE LINE TO BOSTON - RAILROAD TO BOSTON - FIRE-ENGINE - FORT - SHIP- WRECKS -GLOUCESTER BANK - GLOUCESTER SOCIAL LIBRARY - GLOUCESTER LYCEUM - SAWYER FREE LIBRARY - DEATH OF A PROMINENT CITIZEN - DEATH OF WASHINGTON.

During the Revolutionary War the public schools had been sus- pended. but. upon the return of peace, the town took measures to re-establish a grammar school. and schools were again opened in the several parishes and maintained. from this time, during a portion of each year, npon the system in use before the war. One of the most earnest friends of the public schools, at this time, was the Rev. Eli Forbes. In accordance with his recommendation a building was erected for the use of the grammar school, and dedicated March 5. 1795. on which occasion he preached a sermon from these words of the Psalmist : "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children. whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." This building was the second school-house erected by the town. and cost about one thousand dollars. It was square, of two stories. and was furnished with a belfry and bell. Besides occasional nse as a school-room. the upper part served as a place of meeting for the different boards of town officers. and the lower room was often used for elections and other town-meet- ings. The annual town-meeting continued to be held in one of the

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meeting-houses till 1840, when a town house, with a hall suitable for snch purposes, was erected. The teacher of the grammar school at this time, and during several subsequent years, was Obadiah Parsons, whose salary was one hundred and thirty pounds per annum.

No change was made in the system upon which the public schools were conducted, till 1804, when the town availed itself of a law of the Commonwealth, which permitted the division of its territory into school districts. Eleven districts were established, among which the school money, after deducting the salary of the grammar-school mas- ter, was divided according to the number of polls in cach district. The whole amount raised for the support of schools was two thousand dollars.

The permanent location of the Town Grammar School in the Harbor Parish gave great dissatisfaction to the people of the other parishes, who complained that they were excluded by distance from its bene- fits, and who finally succeeded, in 1826, in making it a circulating school. Tired at last of dissensions about it, the town practically abolished the school, by voting yearly that the money appropriated for its support should be divided among the several districts. This evasion or violation of law was continued till 1839, when, by the efforts of Robert Rantoul, Jr., a town grammar school was again opened, but was again discontinned in 1845, and was never but once afterwards (in 1849) revived upon the old plan and with its ancient name. Since 1849, under another name, the town has supported the permanent school of this kind required by the law of the State.

One of the evils of the district system was a constant tendency to the division of sparsely settled territory into small districts. It failed also to furnish good and equal advantages of education to all the children of the town. The latter defeet was enough to aronse the people to the necessity of a reform, and the school committee for 1849 addressed themselves to this work, and in their annual report brought before the town a plan for a re-organization of the public schools, which was adopted with remarkable unanimity. By this act the distriet system was abolished, and the town, in its corporate capacity, assumed the management of the schools. It involved the necessity for a considerable increase of taxation, and, in all its aspects, may be contemplated with the highest satisfaction, as the beginning of a creditable state of public feeling in regard to the cause of education, which has continued to the present time.

The number of children between five and fifteen years of age in Gloucester, May, 1877, was 3,843 ; the number in all the schools, in the summer term of that year, including those over fifteen, probably about two hundred, was 3,596. Considering that a few of the chil- dren attend private schools, and that many cease to attend school at all before the age of fifteen, these figures authorize the pleasant reflection that very few, if any, are growing up in ignorance. The total expenditures for the schools in the same year were $54,701.20. In the percentage of its taxable property appropriated for the sup- port of public schools, Gloucester then stood thirty-first in a numer- ical arrangement of all the towns in the State. It heads the list of the citics.

In the fall of 1786 occurred the insurrcetion generally known as Shays' Rebellion. It found neither advocates nor apologists in Gloucester. On the call for troops, the town responded instantly by raising a company, which was placed under the command of John Rowe, a Bunker Hill soldier. Having reached the scene of dis- turbance, he was appointed to head a column, which attacked the rebels, and drove them from a strong fort, where they threatened defiance. The speedy dispersion of the rebels relieved the company of the necessity of a long service ; and, at the end of forty-five days, it was disbanded.

In the next year a more pleasing duty devolved upon the people. On the 18th of December, 1787, they chose delegates to the State Convention for "assenting to and ratifying" the Constitution of the United States, recently adopted by delegates from the States, at Philadelphia. The persons chosen were Daniel Rogers, John Low, and William Pearson, wise and prudent men, who gave their votes for the ratification, and on their return home received the plaudits of their constituents at " a generous entertainment " provided for them at Capt. Somes' tavern, by the principal citizens of the town.

This Constitution declared that a well-regulated militia was neces- sary to the security of a free State. The Gloucester companies com- posed the third Essex regiment. No general muster had taken place in town for more than twenty years, when, on the 3d of November, 1788, this regiment was ordered out for exercise and review. Up- wards of three hundred and fifty men appeared under arms, well equipped, and went through their exercises to general satisfaction.

In the afternoon they were reviewed by Col. Pearce, the officers of the artillery company, and several gentlemen of the town, and the even- ing, it is said, " was closed with convivial cheer, good fellowship, and a seasonable return home, after drinking several patriotic sentiments, with a discharge of a field-piece to each." The Gloucester artillery had been recently organized under the command of James Pearson, and had, on the 11th of September, received a " very elegant stand of colors " from Capt. David Pearce. The flag was presented at Capt. Pearce's house, where the company partook of an ample and generous refreshment at his invitation.

The annual " general training " was continued for about forty years from this time, and the day on which it occurred was the greatest holiday of the year, - men, women, and children all mingling in its enjoyments. A vacant space in the rear of Back Street was sometimes used as a training field, but the Meeting-house Green was generally resorted to on these occasions ; and it was there that the aged men of to-day beheld in their boyhood the expiring glory of the old militia.

Upon the organization of the Federal Government in 1789, a eus- tom-house was established in Gloucester, and, under its acts for regulating commerce, upwards of seven thousand tons of shipping are found in the registered and enrolled tonnage of the district. Part of this was engaged in the fishery, and the rest in a profitable foreign trade.

About this time a post-office was also established in town. The chief means of intercourse with the metropolis, enjoyed by the people during the first century after its settlement, were those afforded by the fishing shallops and wood-coasters ; but concerning their arrange- ments at that time for sending and receiving letters we have no knowledge. It is certain, however, that long before the establish- ment of a post-office in Gloucester, the people received their letters from abroad by a messenger who went twice a week to Beverly to get them. They were probably brought by mail to Salem, and thence across the ferry to Beverly with the letters for that place. The first postmaster in Gloucester was Henry Phelps, probably appointed in 1792.

The first regular communication between Gloucester and Boston by land was established in 1788 by Jonathan Lowe. On the 25th of April in that year, he commenced running a two-horse open carriage between the two places, leaving Gloucester twice a week in the morning and returning the next day. Tradition reports that the first arrival of this vehicle in town created a great sensation, and that several of the principal people were treated to a ride in it before it was used for public travel. The stage accommodations were in- creased from time to time as public convenience required, till at last passengers were enabled to visit Boston and return the same day. By railroad they can now do it twice a day, and transact a large amount of business besides. On the 2d of November, 1847, the Eastern Railroad Company commenced running regular trips on the Gloucester Branch, having, on the previous day, following the exam- ple of Jonathan Lowe, with his two-horse carriage, treated a party of citizens to a free ride.

In 1793, we first find fire-engines in the town, thirty pounds having been granted at a meeting in that year towards paying for them.

In May, 1794, the town ceded to the United States the land on Watch-house Neck, where a breastwork had been thrown up in the early part of the Revolutionary War. The Government immediately commenced to ercet a fort upon it for the protection of the town, and there soon arose upon the site of the old layers of turf a fortress, of which we now see only the ruined embankments. Early in January, 1796, a distressing shipwreck occurred at Little-Good-Harbor Beach. The ship "Industry," Capt. Miles Barnes, from London, bound to Boston, was lost on that beach, ncar Salt Island, in a violent snow- storm. All hands perished. Several of the bodies were found, and buried from the First Parish Church, with the usual religions solem- nities.

A noteworthy event of this year was the establishment of the Gloucester Bank, with a capital of forty thousand dollars. It was organized under a "covenant," which was made void by an Act of Incorporation obtained from the Legislature about three years after- wards ; but it now exists as a national institution. A few opposed its establishment, on account of their aversion to paper moncy ; but it has proved a public convenience and a private benefit. Three other banking institutions are now in operation in the town.

Another useful institution, which came into existence about this time, was the Gloucester Social Library, -an association of sixty individuals, which had already made a considerable collection of books, when, in the spring of 1796, the town gave its consent that they should

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be kept in the grammar school-house building, then just erected. The annual assessment was small, and its increase, consequently, slow ; but nearly two thousand volumes had been accumulated in 1830, when almost the whole of them were destroyed by the great fire of that year. The only resource for literary gratification and improvement now left was found in the inadequate means furnished by parish libraries and a small circulating library ; but the demand for a larger and more varied amount of reading matter led the members of the Gloucester Lyceum. and other public-spirited citizens of the town, acting under the stim- ulus of a generous offer by one of its natives, Samuel E. Sawyer. then of Boston, to establish a new library, which was placed under the management of the Lyceum. This institution was established in 1830, and existed several years as a vehicle for the entertainment and instruction of its members, through the medium of popular publie lectures ; but this, one of the objects of its formation, has been aban- doned, and the control of the excellent library committed to its care in 1854 is the only purpose for which it now has a useful existence. By the liberality of its early and constant friend, Mr. Sawyer. it has heen made "forever free to the inhabitants of the town." He has been its chief benefactor ; though a recent donation of a handsome sum for the purchase of books. by another native of the town, not resident in it, encourages. the indulgence of a hope that the good example of both its early and its later friend may induce others to do likewise. The library now contains five thousand volumes, and its vearly issue is about fifty thousand.

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Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 45

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett Number of Pages: 450

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450