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 57
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Joseph Bradley collected a small party for defence in the northerly part of the town, who captured the medicine-box and packs of the enemy, which were left about three miles in the rear. Cant. Samuel Ayer, a powerful and valorous man, gathered a company of twenty, who pursued the retreating foe, overtaking thein near the woods, when a sharp battle took place. The gallant men were soon re-en- forced by another company, under the lead of Cant. Ayer's son, and a smart skirmish ensued, which lasted ahout an hour, in which some of the prisoners were retaken, and nine of the enemy killed, when the invaders commenced a hurried retreat, though they numbered thir- teen to one in the contest.
The sufferings of the French and Indians in their retreat were very great, owing to the loss of their baggage and medicine-box, in conse- quence of which many of the Frenchmen returned and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Some of the eantives were released and sent back with the message that if further pursued, the remaining ones would be put to death. The evening left thirty of their number dead on the field, and many who eseaned were wounded ; but on their return to Canada, they made the lying report, that " the Euglish, be- ing astonished, were all but ten or twelve killed or taken prisoners."
The burial of the dead was the next sad office, and the day being somewhat advanced before being prepared for the service, active movements were called for, especially as the weather was too hot to admit of delay. Coffins could not be made for all, and a large pit was dng in the burying-ground, where the uncoffined were laid side by side. The slain of the enemy were also buried by the inhabitants, and doubtless many were iuterred on the spots where they fell.
The names of the slain, so far as they have heen preserved, are as follows : the Rev. Benjamin Rolfe, his wife and one child, Mrs. Smith, Thomas Hartshorne and three sons, Lieut. John Johnson and his wife Catherine, Capt. Samuel Wainwright, Capt. Samuel Ayer,
John Dalton, Ruth Ayer, wife of Thomas Ayer, and one daughter, and Ruth Johnson, wife of Thomas Johnson, numbering in all sixteen. No correct list of the prisoners taken at this time is in existence, and but few of their names have heen preserved. Of the number was Mary Wainwright, for whose redemption an effort was made in 1710; Joseph Bartlett, a soldier stationed in Capt. Wainwright's house ; a soldier named Newmarsh, and another named Lindal, of Salem, were of the number, and beyond this the names of the captives are not known. In Pike's journal it is recorded that the enemy " killed and carried away 33 persons, and burned several houses." Hutchinson gives the number as "about forty." Pike also states that many sol- diers from Salem were here slain, among the number William Coffin, who distinguished himself for his bravery, and his widow was allowed £5 by the General Court, " on account of the remarkable forwardness and courage which her husband William Coffin distinguished himself by, in the action at Haverhill where he was slain."
After the return of Joseph Bartlett from his captivity, he published a narrative of his experience, and the sufferings and fate of the cap- tives, which supplies a thrilling record of the inhumanity and cruelty which distinguished both the French and Indians in the treatment of their prisoners, some of whom they murdered, and others they most inhumanly tortured. Bartlett was paid £20 15s. by the General Court on his return from captivity.
Chase says, " Mr. Rolfe, his wife and child were buried in oue grave near the south end of the burial-ground. A single monument was erected to their memory, on which was chiselled au inscription for each ; but the hand of time has been rough with them - they are overgrown with moss, and the epitaphs are almost illegible." In 1847-48, the ladies of Haverhill erected a granite monument over the grave of Mr. Rolfe, upon which are inscriptions to the memory of Mr. Rolfe. Mrs. Rolfe and her child, Capt. Samuel Ayer, Cant. Simon Wainwright, and Lieut. John Johnson, all of whom were slain on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 29, 1708.
Capt. Wainwright came from Ipswich, and his father from Chelms- ford, Eng. He was prominent in the Pequot war, in which he had a hand to hand fight with two Indians, in his defence breaking the stock of his gun, but afterwards using the barrel as a bludgeon, finally killing them both. He was a high-minded and influential citi- zen, generally supposed to be very rich. There was a tradition that he had a large chest filled with dollars, and that all were once offered to a man if he would extract one of them with his fingers. The trial was a vain one, and he was obliged to go away with only a look at the shining coin. The remainder of the tradition is, that the money was buried, and the field south of Nehemiah Emerson's honse was dug over, and a large oak tree near Little River twice dug around to find the buried treasure. hut all in vain. The field alluded to is now entirely covered with dwellings, and is the portion of the town located between Emerson Street, Winter Street, and Little River.
The events here narrated were chiefly embraced in an early morn- ing attack on the Sunday of August 29th, and hefore the sun arose the massacre was fully completed. This was the most formidable, and about the last attack made upon the town during the long period of two generations, in which the inhabitants had been subjected to an almost constant baptism of fear, attaek, torture, and death. The events supply the material for a remarkable page of colonial history, and have also been immortalized in verse, by John G. Whittier, the gifted and much honored sou of this ancient towu, of which the following is a verse : -
" The morning sun looked brightly throngh The river willows, wet with dew. No sound of combat tilled the air, No shout was heard, - no gunshot there : Yet still the thick and sullen smoke From smouldering ruins slowly broke ; And on the greensward many a slain, Told how the midnight bolt had sped Pentucket, on thy fated head !"
On the 25th of the following September, a party of thirty skulking Indians approached the town ; but by the vigilance of Col. Salton- stall, in ordering a company of soldiers for the defence, they were driven back without suffering or loss. The garrisons and houses of refuge, together with the parsonage house, were for long years kent in a perfect state of fortification, and a large company of soldiers were also kept constantly armed and equipped, under the command of Lieut. Col. Saltonstall. For full preparation for any emergency, these men were ordered, by the General Court, to be supplied with snowshoes, and fifty-six men were thus equipped. The massaere of 1708 could not be forgotteu ; and, on the breaking out of the Indian
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
War, in 1722, vigilanee in defence was renewed ; and the parsonage, then occupied by the Rev. John Brown, was ordered to be surrounded by a fort. No attack was made on the town, however, and the great massacre substantially closed the Indian invasion. During the whole frontier war, sixty inhabitants were killed, and between fifty and sixty captured ; but most of them were ransomed, or escaped and returned home.
The only evidenees remaining of what constituted the defences of the perilous times of which the preceding pages are a record, are por- tions of one of the garrisons on Winter Street, known as "the Lan- caster house," and the " Bradley house," on Hilldale Avenue, now owned by Augustus H. Adams. The third, which was located in the easterly part of the town, not far from the Groveland bridge, was de- molished a few years since ; and the fourth, which stood on the Dun- can estate, near the " Buttonwoods," was removed at a quite carly day. The residence of Mr. J. B. Spiller, in that neighborhood, has been supposed by many to have been a garrison ; but that is a mistake. The house was erected in 1724, and possesses architectural features belong- ing to that early time. It was the residence of " Clark Eaton," so called, who was the town clerk from 1711 to 1774, a period of fifty- seven years.
CHAPTER VIII.
DIVISION OF TIIE FIRST PARISH - WITHDRAWAL OF A PORTION - OR- GANIZING THE PARISHES - SHARP CONFLICTS - UNIVERSALISTS- BAPTISTS - METHODISTS.
The defeat of the friends of the Rev. Dudley Phelps, at the First Parish meeting, in the autumn of 1832, led to their withdrawal, and the formation of the Independent Congregational Society, the name of which was changed to the " Centre Congregational Society," in 1840. This movement opened a new era in the history of the First Parish, which was originally gathered around the Rev. John Ward, the leader and master-spirit among the little band of settlers here, in 1640. For nearly two hundred years, the religious interest had largely been in the hands of the First Parish, and exclusively so for about a hundred years, and until the separation, at first reluctantly consented to, of the outlying parishes from the central religious teaching and influence.
For many years, the way had been opening for that schism, by the expansion and liberalizing of religious opinions by both ministers and laymen, and the time at length arrived when the First Parish should cease to be the " established church " in the town. From the position of maintaining the Orthodox Congregational church as the only form of religious faith, as was the case for over a century, change had al- ready long since taken place ; for, since 1765, the Baptists had been established here, and successfully maintained their position, although they were not willingly tolerated.
The change in religious opinions was not then fully represented by the varying organizations in existence ; the revolution was deeper than that, and what was considered strictly evangelical in doctrine, was not only rejected by some of the clergymen, nominally of the established and Orthodox order, but was discarded by many more of the laymen and supporters of the ministry. As early as 1765, the Rev. Edward. Barnard was thought, by the strictly evangelieal, to be heretical in doctrine, being, in theological views, ranked with the Arminians, a designating term in those days; and Bradford, the historian, says of this class, " they gradually departed from the Calvinistic system, and forebore to urge or profess its peculiar tenets, although they did not so expressly and zealously oppose them as many have done in later times " The Rev. Abiel Abbot, who was the minister of the First Parish in 1794 and on, though settled as a Trinitarian, subsequently embraced the Unitarian view, which, without doubt, had much to do in modifying the opinions of those who sat under his preaching. His immediate successors, the Rev. Joshua Dodge and the Rev. Dudley Phelps, were, without doubt, squarely enough Orthodox to suit the more conservative. It was the period when the extreme doetrines of future discipline and destiny would once in a while find utterance in that pulpit, but chiefly from the lips of itinerants, only to stimulate the reasoning and doubting to deeper thought. Mr. Phelps had pro- nounced theological opinions, the utterance of which led to much men- tal debate in the minds of many of his parishioners, and when the hour for action arrived, the society became suddenly revolutionized from Orthodox to Unitarian, and its affairs placed in the hands of a Unitarian committee. The first Unitarian pastor was the Rev. Nath-
aniel Gage, in 1835 ; he was followed by the Rev. Nathaniel P. Fol- som, in 1840, and his successors have been the Rev. James Richardson, in 1847, the Rev. Frederic Hinckley, in 1850, the Rev. Robert Has- sall, in 1858, the Rev. William T. Clarke, in 1859; and since then, the Rev. J. Vila Blake, the Rev. William H. Spencer, the Rev. Mr. Patten, and by Mr. Spencer in a second settlement, who is now in pastoral charge of the society. Since 1858, the society has given its most cordial support to what is usually known as the radical preach- ing of that denomination. As is usually the case in society changes, the early movements of the contending parties for the control of the destinies and the sentiments of the First Parish pulpit, were attended at times by some warmth of feeling, but nothing has occurred to in- terfere permanently with the amenities which belong to social life.
The first Sunday school in Haverhill was gathered in July, 1817, by the instrumentality of two religious young ladies, Miss Gibson and Miss Paget, of Charleston, S. C. They were spending the summer here with Mrs. Atwood, mother of Harriet Newell, of missionary memory. There had been no teaching for children before that, except catechising out of the "Westminster Assembly's Catechism," a well- remembered theological document. The Rev. Mr. Dodge, the First Parish pastor, together with ladies and gentlemen of that church, co-operated. The master of the town school also joined in the work. Mr. James Bates, Mr. Isaac R. Howe, Miss Sarah Atwood, the Misses Elizabeth, Harriet and Rebecca Marsh, and Miss Elizabeth Ayer were also active in the work.
During that summer, ninety girls and fifty boys were gathered in; but the schools were separate, the boys being gathered in the meeting- house, and the girls in the town school-house on the common. The boys were taught by the minister, and the girls by the ladies. The exer- eiscs were singing, repeating the catechism and verses from the Bible, elosing with a recitation of the Lord's Prayer. Out of this carly movement grew the various organizations of classes and associations which have since existed. In 1833, the school numbered 115; and in 1835, 168. The organization appears to have followed those who withdrew from the First Parish, to organize the Centre Congregational Church, and, from its successful results there, the institution beeame at length adopted by all others.
At an early day the inhabitants of the outskirts became impatient for better opportunities for religious worship, and earnestly petitioned the town, which then took the direction of religious matters, to provide them with suitable places of worship, which was refused. The north portion of the town led off in this movement ; and these convenienecs being denied, they next petitioned to be set off in a distinet precinct or parish, which request was finally granted, on conditions that they should " decide within a month where their meeting-house should be, and settle an Orthodox minister as soon as possible." It was formally erected into a parish by the General Court, and the bounds established, including what is now a part of Hampstead, Plaistow, and Atkinson. The location of the meeting-house placed it in New Hampshire, when, in 1740, the State line was finally established, and it was then declared by the General Court that the territory remaining in Haverhill should be, to all intents and purposes, the North Parish, though two-thirds of the original parish was in New Hampshire, including the meeting- house, but the parsonage was in Massachusetts. The church still remains the same, and for long years the attendanee has been about equal from Plaistow and Haverhill.
The North Parish society has a fund of something over ten thousand dollars, the interest of which is alone to be applied for the support of preaching ; and in addition, a sum amounting to something like three thousand dollars, which may be applied to other parochial purposes. This fund has been controlled by the Universalists for many years. A seven years' struggle in law, by the Plaistow Congregational Society, euded in defeat. An attempt to seeure the interposition of the Legis- lature in their behalf was equally unsuccessful, and the question appears now to be settled. The Universalists are now contemplating the build- ing of a church, an enterprise they might, with eminent propriety, have entered into many years ago.
The church was organized two years later, and the Rev. James Cushing became its first pastor in 1730. His immediate successors were the Revs. Gyles Merrill in 1765, Moses Welch in 1826, and Samuel H. Peckham in 1831. After the death of the Rev. Gyles Merrill, in 1801, the church was without a settled preacher twenty- five years. The later ministers have been men of ability and good repute.
In 1734 the westerly part of the town was set off, and erected into a separate parish, under the name of the West Parish of Haverhill. The first meeting-house was immediately erected, near the present
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
residence of Timothy J. Goodrich, and the Rev. Samuel Bachellor became the pastor, in response to the following parish vote, providing him with "a sotishant hons the Bigness of Mr. Nathan Webster's well fineshed and a Barn of thurty feet long and twenty feet wid and con- venancy in land partsin for ceeping three cows on hos and ten sheep sumer and winter"; also. "one hundred and thirty pounds in pasabil money or Bils of creedit and value, annually." The depreciation in paper money led to trouble in the parish, which ultimately assumed alarming proportions, running into theological matters. Mr. Bach- ellor was accused of heresy, in saying that the work of redemption was declared finished, when Christ uttered the words, "It is fin- ished."
A long and bitter controversy grew out of this, led by Joseph Haynes, a talented, well-informed, shrewd, and fearless man, which resulted in the retirement of Mr. Bachellor by the recommendation of a council, which sustained his theological views. This result was not reached till the controversy had continued for several years, terribly stirring up the elements of conflict and contention. Nine years elapsed before another minister was settled, when the Rev. Phineas Adams assumed the pastorate, remaining in charge about thirty years, and the society was prosperous under hin. "He was a graduate of Cam- bridge in 1762 ; a man of mild and conciliatory manners, amiable dis- position. sound sense, excellent understanding, and extensive reading. He was not bigoted, and seemed well calculated to quiet a turbulent society." He died in 1801, after which there was no pastor of the society for twenty-five years, during which time its religions affairs were in a very disturbed condition.
Within this time an effort was made to join with the North Parish, in the support of preaching, half the time in each parish, but that did not succeed. As time passed, there came to be conflicting religious opinions among the members of the parish, which were pressing to be represented. At the annual parish meeting, March 17, 1806, the fol- lowing important vote was passed : "That the Baptists, Methodists. or Universalists, who belong to the West Parish, shall have a right and privilege to draw out of the parish treasurer's hands as much money as they pay in by taxes, after allowing or dedueting for levying and collecting for the same, for to hire such minister or ministers as they choose, provided they are of good standing or character, when there is not a minister employed by the parish committee, as has been usual in times past."
Under this arrangement the money continued to be divided, and a mixed gospel preached till 1818, when an attempt was made to break up the arrangement to hire "the Baptists, Methodists, and Universal preachers as usual," the aim being to reinstate exclusively Congrega- tional preaching. This was not successful till 1826, when the church and parish joined in settling the Rev. Moses G. Grosvenor, a Congre- gationalist, as the pastor. Soon after this David Webster, by will, bequeathed to the parish, land, money, and personal property, on condition that it was to be "applied exclusively for the support and maintenance of an ordained gospel minister of the Congregational or Presbyterian denomination, who is Orthodox or Calvinistie in his sen- timents, in the west or second parish in said Haverhill." The trustees of this fund were John Marsh, Brickett Bradley, of Haverhill, the Rev. Gardner B. Perry, the Rev. Ira Ingraham, and David C. Kim- ball, of Bradford.
Mr. Grosvenor was ordained in December, 1826, and dismissed in March, 1828, which showed the Congregationalists to be in the minor- ity in the parish, and they soon withdrew, forming a new society, and built a brick meeting-house a mile west of the other house. The Rev. Abijah Cross was invited to the pastorate of the new organiza- tion by a unanimous vote of the church, which was Congregational, and a parish meeting was called to concur in the same, Aug. 3, 1829. The next day the Universalists called a parish meeting, to be held at the same time, to see if the parish would vote to call the Rev. Daniel D. Smith to become its pastor, which they voted to do. The church had invited Mr. Cross and the parish Mr. Smith, the result of which was Mr. Cross remained the pastor of the church and society till Jan. 23, 1853, when he was dismissed at his own request. Mr. Smith continued the minister of the parish till 1831, and it was then without a pastor till 1834, when the Rev. Thomas G. Farnsworth was called and remained till 1837, when the Rev. Henry M. Nichols was his successor, continuing till his death, which occurred in 1842. From this time till 1852, there does not appear to have been any settled minister in the parish, though preaching was sustained most of the time, the officiating elergymen being the Revs. Josiah Gilman, Cyrus Bradley, W. W. Wilson, Willard Spalding, James E. Pomfret, Lemuel Willis, and Martin J. Steere.
The Universalists were in full control of the parish property and i the parish taxes, but neither the Congregationalists nor Universalists could control the Webster fund, as neither could comply with the terms upon which the bequest was made, and it continued to accu- mulate till the two thousand dollars amounted to several thousand dollars more, not a dollar of which had been or could be used. The Universalists had not the right kind of theology, and the Congrega- tionalists were not in possession of the parish, the two essentials to secure the control and use of that fund. The power of money, the glitter and fascination of a fund, would not admit of longer quietude, and it became the topic of parish discussion and the subject for nego- tiations for many years. The proposals made by the two parties surrounding the " bone" were numerous, but none proved mutually satisfactory till March 29, 1851, when the Congregational society offered the parish, or Universalists. $2,400 for the privilege of be- coming themselves the parish, which offer was accepted. The terms were, that the Universalists, or old parish, were to retain all the parish property they were in possession of, and were to relinquish to the Congregationalists all right and elaim to the old parish, in its organization, and all claims to the Webster fund. April 27, 1852, the legislature granted leave to the parish society to make the trans- fer, which was accepted June 17th thereafter, and on the 6th of October following, forty-five members of the Congregational Society were admitted members of the parish, and on the 16th of the same month thirty members of the parish withdrew, leaving the ancient parish in the hands of the Congregationalists, where it still remains. The disposal of this question was followed by the settlement of the Rev. Asa Farwell as pastor of the West Parish Society, and Aug. 30, 1852. those who had relinquished the control of the parish organized themselves into the First Universalist Society of the West Parish of Haverhill, which was rendered necessary by reason of the transfer of the parish to the Congregationalists.
During this time of conflict for supremacy and control, many changes had taken place. In 1834, the old church had been taken down and moved a mile and a quarter west, which was more central. There were a few Methodists there, but they had no church organ- ization in the parish, and they received little favor from the original controllers of the parish. In 1818, they held a communion, in which service they solicited the use of the communion vessels belonging to the parish church, which were refused, and in their place they sub- stituted decanters and common tumblers. Chase records that " even their use of the 'Sacrament Table' was thought to have been 'an unchristian encroachment on the ecclesiastical rights of the church' in the parish, and ' highly reprehensible.""
The first allusion to singing in church was in 1770, when the parish voted " to continue to sing Dr. Watts' Psalms & Hymns in the Con- gregation," and in 1771 an article was in the warrant for the annual meeting "To see if the Parish will vote a part of the Frunt Galary for those to sit in who Have Larnt or are Larning to Sing by Rule. Either to Build a Pew or otherwise as shall be most proper." The men of the West Parish were strong in their purposes, and tenacious in their adherence to convictions ; hence the severity of the religious contest which for many years raged there. The long war- fare with the Indians had deprived two generations in large measure of educational advantages, and though deficient in education, as their records show, they were men of thought and purpose, and the wonder is that they were so well qualified for the transaction of business as their records indicate. It was the day for religious bigotry and sectarian control, and it is not strange to find what was the " established church" tenacious of their rights, and exacting in their rule. As they grad- ually divided in opinion, however, a more liberal spirit crept in, which made them better citizens, better neighbors, and better Christians. The historic period of this parish is covered by these years, through all of which time a worthy ministry was sustained, which has been continued down to the present hour. In 1859 a Universalist church was built at Ayer's Village by the "Ayer's Village Associates," a corporate body, but preaching is now only sustained a portion of the time. During the last twenty-five years the events and interests of the West Parish have been only such as ordinarily pertain to com- munities similarly situated. Within a few years the Methodists have somewhat increased at Ayer's Village, and have had occasional preaching.
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