USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Ipswich > The celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, August 16, 1844 > Part 7
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Though the antiquarian demurs when we suggest that they built their original house of worship on yonder rock, I am sure that the founders of the early church did rear on a spiritual foundation that was as strong as the solid rock; for all the years that have passed have never shaken it, and the storms have passed over it in vain. I offer you as the next sentiment,
" The Founders of the First Church in Ipswich,"
and will call for a response from the worthy pastor, the Rev. E. B. PALMER.
ADDRESS OF REV. E. B. PALMER.
MR. PRESIDENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, - When a member of the committee general, to whom was assigned the business of designating those who should make responses to individual toasts, asked me to respond to this sentiment, I said, " Yes," with an interrogation-point after it. I have been shivering in my shoes from the time these exercises began, only regretting that I had not written an interrogation-point
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FIRST MEETING-HOUSE, SOUTH PARISH, 1747-1838.
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THE MEETING-HOUSE OF THE FIRST PARISH, IPSWICH, 1749-1846. (See page 147.)
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ADDRESS OF REV. E. B. PALMER.
as long as yonder tent-pole. For, if the distinguished gentle- man at my right found nothing to say after what had been said by the orator of the morning and by his Excellency the Chief Magistrate of the State, what shall I have to say ? And if this gentleman [Mr. Saltonstall] who has so interestingly and profitably addressed us could run an intended speech of five minutes into one of twenty minutes, and make us think they were only five, what shall I do with a whole church full of Winthrops ? I want from now until the time the old Tro- jan traveller spoke of, " When the sinking stars would invite to slumber," to treat worthily a theme like this. If I were to be put under oath, in the presence of the representative of the legal element of the State, "to tell the truth, the whole truth," and stop there, when would you get to bed ? At the last Commencement dinner at Bowdoin College, Senator Frye related an anecdote of a member of Congress who had been making a very long speech, and who was called to order by the presiding officer, and notified that he was not speaking to the point. "Gentlemen," he said, "I am not speaking to the point: I am speaking to posterity." -" Very well," said a friend, "go on. Speak five minutes longer, and your audience will be here." You are running a risk in call- ing upon me this afternoon, a fearful risk, of waiting for your posterity before you get out of this place. You run another risk, sir, if a name is to be considered, in the character of the man you call up. If I read the record aright, it runs like this : " Cheating got its meed in Edward Palmer, who, for his extortion in taking two pounds thirteen shillings and four- pence for the wood-work of Boston stocks, was fined five pounds, and ordered to be set one hour in the stocks." You see whom you get up here - not Edward, but Edwin.
My theme is "The Founders:" I wish it had been the planters. True, the fathers founded where the early naviga- tors found and the Almighty confounded their enemies. Here, too, they planted as well as builded, - planted for after-time the seeds of a moral harvest ; and we are receiving the rich reward of their early work. We often heard in our school- 6
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THIE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
boy days the quotation from Webster: "I shall enter upon no encomium upon Massachusetts." It is hardly necessary for me to enter upon any encomium upon these distinguished men. They are here in their representatives. Shall I call them up to the minds of those who have been getting hold of all the copies of Felt's "Early Ipswich " so that I have not been able to see one for six weeks ? Shall I call the names of these illustrious men in this presence, - the Wards, the Winthrops (worthy sons of worthy sires, and worthy sires of honored sons), the Thorndikes, the Kinsmans, the Cogswells, the Paynes, the Shatswells, the Burnhams, -a list almost innumerable ? No, this gathering tells its own story. But this is not all. The old Christopher Wren motto is inapt here : "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (" If you seek his monument, behold it here"). You must stretch the radius of your circum far beyond this if you would know what these men did who planted here when they founded.
Shall I tell you a missionary story ? I venture to say it will be the only one that will be told here to-day. I will try to make it short. In 1852 missionaries from the Sandwich Islands went to the Islands of Marquesas, taking with them a converted native. In 1864 an American whale-ship went into the Marquesas Islands for supplies. Immediately the mate, who was the first officer to go on shore, was seized by the king, whose wrath had been provoked by the unkind treatment received at the hands of a Peruvian vessel that had formerly visited the island and taken away as a captive, for enslavement, the son of the king. The king seized upon this mate, who was the first white man to visit the island afterwards, and took him away to eat him alive - to cut him in pieces, and eat him. The life of that mate of that whale- ship was saved by that converted native, Kekela, who had been left as a missionary on the island. He rescued him at great expense on his own part. I will not enter into the detail of it; but I will simply say that President Lincoln recognized the worthy conduct of the man, and nearly a year after, in the latter part of the year 1864, sent out of his own
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ADDRESS OF REV. E. B. PALMER.
pocket a gift amounting to five hundred dollars to that mis- sionary. What has that to do with the case ? It has simply this to do with it, that the radius of our circle reaches as far, at least, as the Sandwich Islands. Kekela was the product of the spirit that grew on this soil, that found an early home here in Ipswich. President Lincoln was in the presidential chair at the time as the outcome of the spirit that took carly root on the spot where we stand. I do not claim this spirit for ourselves exclusively : I speak of the Puritan spirit which was the ruling spirit in the men who founded this early church.
Limiting now our radius, and looking about us here, I am well aware that neither Ward nor Winthrop nor Wise would have had very much to do in erecting, for example, the Meth- odist church that stands just over the way, or the Episcopal church that lies just down under the hill, a little farther away. But Wesleyanism has entered in, and the life of the Church of England is enriched among us because of what was done on this spot by our fathers; and I am sure that to-day Ward and Wise and Wesley, and the late lamented and sainted Simpson, rejoice, as they walk together the golden streets, over what has been wrought through their mutual labor under a Providence kind and wise and good.
We must honor the founders of this church. We must honor them for their devotion to God and to humanity. We must measure and honor their deeds, not by the number who flock to the sanctuary here, not by the many or few of those who gather at the sacramental board, so dear to many of us, not by the number who answer to the prayer-meeting roll-call, nor by the splendor of church edifices and outward show, but by the long procession of faithful witnesses gone higher, by the refining and loving influences they have left behind in our social and civil life, by the unseen forces that are, i will not say spending themselves, but rather multiplying themselves, in neighboring towns, and cities far remote, - lives broader, lives purer, lives more helpful towards God, more fruitful in good, because in this place instructed, and in these homes nur- tured, in the truths of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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TIIE TOWN OF IPSWICHI.
THE TOAST-MASTER. - We have heard with swell- ing hearts of that glorious roll of departed worthies who have shed lustre on the history of this town. I propose as the next sentiment,
" The Distinguished Men who have illustrated the Annals of Ipswich."
" The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns."
A response will be made by Dr. DANIEL DENISON SLADE.
ADDRESS OF DR. DANIEL DENISON SLADE.
MR. PRESIDENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, - You will all agree with me, that an after-dinner speech should be short and pithy. It would be very unwise in me to undertake to portray the character and services of such a man as General Daniel Denison in an after-dinner speech in so very brief a time. But there are many of his townsmen here, and undoubtedly many others, who know nothing of this distin- guished man. You will therefore have patience with me while I give some few details of the life of this man to whom we all owe so much of good.
Daniel Denison came, at the age of nineteen, from England, to these shores, together with his parents and his two brothers, George and Edward. They settled first in Roxbury. How- ever, he did not remain there more than a year, when he moved to Newtown, now Cambridge. There he falls in love with and marries Patience, the daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley. Although he associated himself with the affairs of the plantation at Newtown, he does not seem to have remained there, but following in the footsteps of his father-in-law, Governor Dudley, he comes to Ipswich. Bringing his young bride to this settlement, he builds a small house, near the mill, in 1634-35. Pursuing the plan which has been adopted by so many of his descendants, he stays but a very short
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ADDRESS OF DR. SLADE.
time in his humble home ; sells it in the course of two years, and moves to Meeting-house Hill, where land has been given him, and where he erects a larger and better house. There he remains for the space of twenty-five years ; and he prob- ably would have remained there the remainder of his life, if his house had not been destroyed by incendiarism, which was undoubtedly the act of a servant-woman, who was taken before the court, convicted of stealing from Denison, and sentenced to be whipped with ten stripes for lying about it.
From the moment that Denison entered Agawam, or Ip- swich, his fellowmen found that they had with them a man of great power, of great intelligence, and a man who was destined to be one of the first among them. He commenced his civil life with the humble office of town-clerk, followed soon after by that of an assistant at the Quarterly Court held at Ipswich. He was in the following year chosen one of the deputies. He continued to be a representative for eleven years. Then he became an assistant, to which office he was chosen for twenty-nine years ; after that, one of the general commissioners of the Confederacy.
In the town of Ipswich he took particular interest, not only in its education, but also in its religious matters. To him we are indebted in a great measure for the foundation of the grammar-school of Ipswich. He was one of the trus- tees, and also gave very much towards its support.
Next Denison appears in all the political events of the day. There was no great event of this character with which he was not concerned. We find him engaged in the court that tried Mrs. Hutchinson. We find him also one of the commissioners chosen to treat with the French Governor, D'Aulnay, of Acadia. He was sent as a commissioner to treat with Gorges about the northern boundaries of Massa- chusetts. He was also one of the correspondents with Cromwell, who desired to send from this part some of the hardy New England settlers, that they might assist him in taking care of Ireland. In Denison's letter to Cromwell, he says, " We shall take care of ourselves there; but we
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THE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
want that no Irish shall inhabit among us, except such as we like of."
It was in the military affairs of the Colony, however, that General Denison became, perhaps, the most distinguished. Commencing with the same year that he was clerk, he was chosen captain of a military company in Ipswich. He was very soon afterward considered as the leader in our times of trouble. Soon after, he was chosen sergeant-major, and then for the remainder of his life, from 1654, he was major-general of the entire military force of Massachusetts. IIe joined the Ancients and Honorables in 1660, and was one of the few instances where a man was made commander the same year that he joined. In his military capacity he was called upon, at the time when there was supposed to be a conspiracy of all the Indians against the Colonies, to defend the country, and put it in position of defence. Then, again, at the time of the threatened invasion of the Dutch against the Colonies, he was called upon to do the same. In King Philip's war he was one of the greatest and most distinguished leaders, especially at the eastward, where he remained throughout the whole war, and even long after the principal sachem had been sent as a prisoner to Boston.
Such, my friends, is a brief outline of the life and services of Daniel Denison. I wish I could portray to you what his personal appearance was; but it is impossible : I leave that for imagination to conjecture. No portrait, no description, of him, has come down. That he was a man of martial mien there can be no question, from the fact that he was a military commander for over fifty years. That he was a Christian soldier there is no doubt, since we have the evidence of all his associates, and also of a sermon preached at his funeral by his pastor, William Hubbard, as well as of a peculiar treatise which he left behind, which was called "Irenicon ; or, Salve for New England's Sore."
From all this we may conceive that General Denison was a most remarkable and honorable man. He died at the age of seventy, and sleeps on yonder hillside. It is now more
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REMARKS OF HON. C. A. SAYWARD.
than two hundred years since he was laid to rest; but old Ipswich will always keep his memory green.
THE TOAST-MASTER .- A further brief response will be made by IIon. C. A. SAYWARD.
REMARKS OF HON. C. A. SAYWARD.
MR. PRESIDENT, - I suppose there are few New England towns which cannot refer with pride to able and distinguished men who have been identified in all their interests, and aided materially in their growth and general welfare, or have gone out from them to make their inark in broader spheres of action, and by their noble lives have reflected honor upon the places of their nativity or adoption.
New England has obtained her world-wide reputation through the labors of this class of men. They wrought well in their day, and their memories should be kept fresh, and held up as an example to the coming generations.
Ipswich has been blessed with a long line of strong, able men, who not only managed hier municipal and ecclesiastical affairs well, but became strong factors in moulding and shap- ing our colonial, provincial, and constitutional governments. There are the names of many men upon our records who became distinguished in their day, and who were real bene- factors of the town and colony ; but time forbids an enumera- tion, and I can only give a passing notice of a few.
The first work of clearing the wilderness for a permanent settlement was done under the supervision of one, who, though but a sojourner here, laid well the foundations upon which his successors reared the structure of the town.
Soon following this pioneer came his brother-in-law, Samuel Symonds, whose abilities were soon recognized; and the honors of office were heaped upon him by his appreciative townsmen. He was a deputy, an assistant, a justice of the Quarterly Court, and finally deputy-governor. He was an
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THE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
able and efficient man, well versed in public affairs, and had much influence in the concerns of the government.
Contemporaneous with him was Richard Saltonstall, who was here in 1635, setting up the first corn-mill in the town. And we find him filling various offices, both civil and mili- tary, writing books, defending the enslaved, aiding the cause of education, and contributing towards the support of the regicides. A broad, liberal-spirited man, it was truly said of him that he was " a succorer of the distressed, a defender of the wronged, and a benefactor to his fellowmen."
Among our military men were Daniel Denison, who was the first major-general of the Colony, and for a long time the main dependence of the colonists as a military leader; and Major Samuel Appleton, the courageous and dashing Indian warrior, who won renown in the bloody battle with the Narragansetts.
And later, when the struggle of the Revolution was in progress, Major-General Michael Farley became a power in advancing the cause of Independence, and aiding the govern- ment in furnishing men, provisions, and clothing to carry on the war. Another of Ipswich's sons was the distinguished Colonel Nathaniel Wade, who commanded the Ipswich minute-men at Bunker Hill, fought bravely at Long Island, Haarlem Heights, and White Plains, and won the confidence and esteem of the commander-in-chief of the colonial forces. Colonel Joseph Hodgkins also won distinction on many well- fought battlefields of the Revolution, and deserves to be held in remembrance.
In the professions we find Dr. Samuel Rogers and Dr. John Manning, both of whom were the most skilful physicians of their day ; Nathan Dane, the eminent jurist; Rufus Choate, the brilliant orator and able advocate, whose voice fifty years ago this day thrilled the thousands then assembled on this spot to celebrate our two hundredth anniversary ; and later still, and within the memory of all, that able and fearless judge, Otis P. Lord, the echo of whose voice has scarcely died away among us.
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COLONEL NATHANIEL WADE.
COLONEL JOSEPH HODGKINS
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REMARKS OF HON. C. A. SAYWARD.
Among the scholars and literary men were Thomas Cobbett, who is said to have written more books in his time than any man in New England ; William Hubbard, the celebrated historian of the Indian wars ; Nathaniel Rogers, who was president of Harvard College ; and, later, Joseph Green Cogswell, the teacher and founder of Round Hill School, and afterwards the noted Astor librarian.
Then we have Professor Treadwell, the great mechanical genius and inventor; William Oakes, the learned naturalist ; and, contemporaneous with them, that generous philanthro- pist, Augustine Heard, whose interest in his native town is perpetuated in a noble institution for educating and benefit- ing his townsmen. Besides these, many more might be named who have adorned and illustrated our annals, like the Wainwrights, the Whipples, the Paines, the Bradstreets, the Cogswells, and the Eppes.
It is to such men as these that we are indebted for our present form of government, our public school system, our in- stitutions of learning, and our marvellous growth and prosper- ity as a nation. Who, therefore, can be deemed more worthy of remembrance on this occasion than those who labored so untiringly to advance the general welfare of the people ?
It becomes, then, not only our duty, but our pleasure, to recall their names, and recount their manly virtues, their sterling character, their political sagacity, their faithful de- votion to principles, and to thus gather inspiration from their example to perform well and with unflinching fidelity the duties which devolve upon us, citizens of the government which they assisted in founding.
THE TOAST-MASTER. - On the programme of the morning there was a poem by Mrs. HARRIET PRES- COTT SPOFFORD, which was omitted in its place. In order that the exercises may be slightly varied, that poem will now be read by RICHARD S. SPOFFORD, Esq.
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THE TOWN OF IPSWICHI.
REMARKS OF RICHARD S. SPOFFORD, ESQ.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, - Appearing here solely in a representative capacity, I can assure you that you will not be detained with any prolonged remarks. Knowing the late- ness of the hour, and that there are many others present from whom you expect to hear, I content myself by saying that I have felt an unusual degree of interest in this occasion and in all the incidents by which it has been rendered so agreeable and instructive. From my earliest youth, this honored town of Ipswich has been to me a locality of great attraction, and among her citizens I have numbered some of my warmest friends. Nor have I been unfamiliar with her history, or with their names and deeds by whom that history has been made so brilliant and impressive. Whenever and wherever I hear her name spoken, and recall the picturesque charms of wave and wood, of field and sky, which greets the eye at every turn of her beautiful river, I am touched by some such sentiment as that expressed by old Izaak Walton in these gentle words : "When I last sat on this primrose bank, and looked down these meadows, I thought of them, as Charles the Emperor did of the city of Florence, that they were too pleasant to be looked on but only on holidays."
With these prefatory remarks, I trust I may now entertain you with the verses which it has been the great pleasure of my wife to contribute to this occasion.
THE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
GLAD that two centuries and a half Have closed your happy labor, From all her rivers Newbury sends A greeting to her neighbor.
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POEM BY HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
And zoned with spray-swept lights, the grief Of many storms upon her, Old Gloucester calls, and Boston bends Her triple crown in honor.
While Strawberry Bank cries o'er her reefs, Wiscasset hears the voicing ; Great towns and hamlets up and down The windy coast rejoicing.
Nor these alone, but they whose sires Left fair Acadia weeping, Remembering warm and welcoming hearths, Your festival are keeping.
Songs, too, far over summer seas, Should swell your birthday paan,
From children of the Cape de Verde, From isles of the Agean.
For where gaunt Famine stalked in rear Of battle's fell disorder ;
Where stout hearts sank as harvests failed, And fire swept through the border, -
Wide have you spread your generous hand With fond repeated action, And dropped, as showers drop out of heaven, Your gracious benefaction.
Sweet Ipswich, throned upon your rock, And at your feet your river, Uncounted birthdays be your share, Forever and forever !
Forever may your civic heart Thrill, as in days long vanished, Responsive to the anguished cry Of houseless and of banished !
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THE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
And never may the hearts you bless To grateful impulse deaden, But stir, as blossoming clover-fields To rain and sunshine redden !
Forever may your river flow In long, bewildering reaches, To lose itself in foaming bars, And surfs on silver beaches !
And dusk in reds and purples, bright In green and golden shadows, Fresh as the morning, ever keep Unchanged your sea-born meadows !
Still may the flashing sea-gulls wheel And scream beyond Bar Island,
As when they saw the " Mayflower" hang Beneath old Winthrop's Highland !
And ever on your Hundreds may The herds browse, and the swallows
Pursue the sails that mount and dip To seek your dim sea-hollows !
Oh, blest may be the storied lands, The Hills of Beulah dearer ; But to our hearts your sylvan charm Must yet be something nearer.
And still the singer of the song Finds no enchantment rarer, And Ipswich shores so fair, that heaven Itself can scarce be fairer.
THE TOAST-MASTER. - Our old Mother, in cele- brating her two hundred and fiftieth birthday, does not selfishly confine herself to her own sons and
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REMARKS OF MAJOR BEN : PERLEY POORE.
daughters, but has sent her invitation far and wide, that all might come who are interested, or in any wise connected with our ancient town. I offer as the next sentiment,
" Our Guests."
A response will be made by Hon. BEN : PERLEY POORE of our sister town, West Newbury.
REMARKS OF MAJOR BEN: PERLEY POORE OF WEST NEWBURY.
MR. PRESIDENT, - Is there a society with a long name here at Ipswich, whose protection I can claim against the cruelty of calling upon me - a reporter, and not a speaker - to address this brilliant audience ? I find, too, upon refer- ence to the programme, that I am one of two respondents to this toast, - a pilot balloon, as it were, sent off in advance of the larger and imposing one which is to follow. It was per- haps well, however, that a resident of Old Newbury should be selected to respond to the toast of " Our Guests ; " for during the past two centuries and a half the men, women, and chil- dren of Old Newbury have often been welcomed here. A convenient resting-place, in the old days of horse-power, for those who journeyed between Newbury and Salem, Ipswich was noted for the hospitality of her citizens and the reasona- ble charges of her tavern-keepers. Why, Mr. President, the men of Newbury have drunk enough punch and flip here in Ipswich to fill the channel beneath Choate's Stone Bridge ; and I doubt whether there was a headache in the whole of it.
Newbury, sir, was once a part of Ipswich, which was origi- nally bounded on the north by the Merrimack River, on the east by Gloucester, and on the south by the Salem villages now known as Manchester, Wenham, and Gloucester. It was an In- dian sagamoreship, or earldom, of which Masconnomet was the last sachem, and he sold his territory to Mr. John Winthrop, afterward the governor of Connecticut, for twenty pounds.
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