USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 14
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They therefore determined to call a counter council, which met on the 10th of October, and consisted of pastors and delegates from the churches in Sheffield, Great Barrington and Richmond, Mass., Green River and Lebanon, N. Y., and Bennington, Vt., including among its clerical members the venerable Mr. Judson, the democratic minister of Sheffield, and Rev. David Perry of Richmond, Mr. Allen's personal friend, although political oppo- nent.
Statements were made to this council by both parties-although only the seceders had been heard by that of August. Both were found guilty of the irregularities mutually charged, and were mildly censured; although the council declared that they discov- ered in Mr. Allen and his church a commendable zeal to maintain the discipline of Christ's house, and intimate no objection except to the manner in which it was enforced. Their decision closes with the following exhortation :
When the walls of Zion are broken down, all her cordial friends mourn; and it is characteristic of all who love her prosperity to unite their exertions to build up her waste places ; and when the people have a mind to work, the ruins will be repaired, and God will appear in His glory.
Under these impressions, we exhort Mr. Allen and the church to excreise brotherly love and to let it continue; to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, unitedly seek the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, and be vigorously employed in bringing forth much good fruit, by which their Father who is in Heaven will be glorified and they prospered.
The decision of the council was not entirely what those who called it expected ; but they accepted it, complied with its advice, and placed it in full upon their records, adding, however, a long apology or explanation of their course in regard to their suspen- sion of the seceders, admitting that their process was irregular in form, but denying that it worked, or was intended to work, any
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deprivation of a hearing, or resulted in any injury to the delin- quents, who were supposed to know, although not from official sources, of the proceedings against them, and had in previous cases contemned the summons of the church, and proclaimed their intention of continuing to do so.
The second council had no practical effect upon the division of the Pittsfield Congregationalists. It did not assume to revise the action of its predecessor, nor to pronounce upon the status of the church established by it; but with propriety confined its action to the body which had asked its advice, including those mem- bers who, although they had seceded from it, had not taken the steps essential to a dissolution of their connection.
Its admonition to the latter was heeded in a few instances, but not in a manner to materially affect either the old parish or the new. The First church, having acknowledged the error of their mode of procedure at the February meeting, resolved that it " did not vacate the censure; and that, if it did, still said mem- bers were regularly under discipline, and complaints against them were regularly before the church; the first and second steps of discipline having been regularly taken with them, and complaints lodged in the church against them." And having passed this vote on the 16th of October, the church cited Charles Goodrich, Jr., Timothy Haskell and Jonathan Weston to appear for trial on the 24th.
Mr. Goodrich appeared, but refused to acknowledge any allegiance to the First church. The others disclaimed its jurisdic- tion by paying no attention to its citation. Whereupon it was " voted, that Mr. Charles Goodrich, Jr., a member of this church, has violated his covenant engagements to walk with us in a church state, and, as he confesseth, has used his influence to induce others to do the same; and the gospel-steps having been taken with him to no effect, he is hereby excluded from all Christian communion with us, without repentance, after three months." Similar votes were passed concerning Messrs. Weston and Has- kell. Proceedings were also instituted against other seceders, but not until important events had transpired in both parishes.
On the 22d of August, after the institution of Union church, the church and parish concurred in the choice of Rev. Thomas . Punderson, of New Haven, to be their pastor, and he was installed on the 25th of October, there being in the council convened for
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that purpose, besides the Berkshire members who took part in the council of August, Rev. Mr. Perry, of Richmond, and Rev. Moses Stuart, of New Haven, afterwards the distinguished theological professor of Andover. The latter preached the ordination ser- mon. Rev. Dr. Todd in his Historical sermon describes Mr. Punderson as "moderate in his mental movements, kind in his feelings, faithful and diligent in his duties, and, if he had not the magnetism to make warm personal friends, he certainly had no power to make enemies." He seems to have sustained himself well in the trying position in which he was placed, and to have given satisfaction to his parishioners.
Three months after Mr. Punderson's installation, an event occurred which might well have given pause to the angry passions that ruled the hour : an event no less solemn than the death of the pastor who had ministered to the town in holy things for almost forty-six years, and to the church from its foundation ; of a man who had been foremost in the secular, and prominent in the ecclesiastical, affairs of the county through its most trying years ; who indeed descended to the grave while yet the leader of an embittered strife, but whose genial and benign disposition, and evident sincerity of purpose, while they could not temper the vio- lence of his oppugnation to what he believed wrong, nor, in the heat of conflict, mitigate the odium incurred by that violence, yet in death, clothed his memory with associations which endeared it to many even of those who could not review his pastoral course with entire satisfaction.
When before the dawn of day, on the morning of February 11, 1810, the solemn tolling.of the bell whose silver tones had been so dear to him in life, stirred the frosty air of the Sabbath morn- ing, announcing to all within its sound that Thomas Allen had passed away ; it broke upon the ear of some, who in the fervor of youth had joined with him to form the first church of Christ in Pittsfield, of many whose youthful studies had been encouraged and aided by him, of many to whom he had ministered in the saddest, as well as in the most joyous events of their lives, of some whose pride it was that they had followed his leadership to victory in those stormy town-meetings which placed Pittsfield on the side of freedom in the revolution, had shared with him the glories of Bennington field, and suffered with him the toils, dangers and disasters of Ticonderoga and White Plains. And whether they
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had adhered to, or become estranged from, him in later conflicts, there were few in whose hearts that solemn knelling, as it came to them through the darkness did not waken the most tender and thrilling memories.
Mr. Allen had been in frail health for several years. At one of the most exciting of the church-meetings-that held in April, 1808 -" his infirmities," says his son, " were so great that in presiding, he desired to have the aid of his friend, Mr. Judson of Sheffield;" but the meeting refusing his request, he did not give way for the choice of a moderator pro tem. as he supposed his opponents desired, in order to render him powerless to prevent a council- " but encountered the whole burden and fatigue of the meeting while he could hardly, by the aid of a smelling-bottle, keep him- self from sinking to the floor."
The excitement and fatigue of this occasion left him much enfeebled ; still he visited Boston in May and preached a vigorous and well written "election-sermon" before the governor and legislature, which had, to his intense gratification, became demo- cratic. During the winter of 1808-9 his health began to decline more rapidly, and in the spring, "brought down to the very brink of the grave, he resolved on a visit to Boston for the bene- fit of the sea-air, although, on taking leave of his family he had little hope of ever seeing them again, and his friends had little hope that he could live to return. He reached Boston in a state which did not afford much prospect that his debilitated frame and enfeebled mind would be again invigorated."1
While in Boston he wrote the short pamphlet entitled " An Historical Sketch of the County of Berkshire and Town of Pitts- field" for which he was censured by the federal press. "It was written," says his son, "in a state of very great infirmity and without any labor or care in preparing it for the press. If the charge had been for a literary offense, perhaps the author would have plead guilty." It is nevertheless, although brief, a valuable contribution to the history of the town, in spite of some inaccura- cies and a shade of partiality in his statement of political mat- ters.
While at Boston "his mind seemed to be engrossed by but two subjects : Death, and the church of which he was pastor. He left it divided ; with a number of its members, who had with-
1 Rev. William Allen's account.
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drawn from his ministry, under censure ; yet these members, he understood, were to be formed into a new church and to be formed, too, by his Christian brethren. In apprehension of this event, and in his debilitated state of mind, he wrote several letters to ministers who were of the council, in which he censured them with plainness and pungeney. Considering the separation as originating in unworthy motives, he declared those who encour- aged it to be engaged in a wicked work."] Not being aware of the infirmities under which the writer was laboring, Messrs. Shepard and Jennings permitted the letters addressed to them to be published in a pamphlet-review of Mr. Allen's course, which appeared in the summer of 1809, and whose writer,2 it is to be hoped was also ignorant of Mr. Allen's condition ; reduced to the extremest state of debility, and with the danger which threat- ened his church continually preying upon his mind. It would seem that if this state of things had been known to the seceders, a little more forbearance might have been shown to the infirmi- ties of a dying pastor, and that there could have been no serious detriment to the cause of religion had the formation of a new church been postponed yet a little while.
Mr. Allen returned to Pittsfield about mid-summer, and a short time before the meeting of the council of August; having derived no permanent benefit from his brief and agitated trip. 'It was at this time that, in deference to the wishes of his alarmed family, he consented to resign his pastorate, if thereby peace could be restored to the church. The negotiation for this end fail- ing, he remained at his post. The record of a church-meeting held August 7, after his return from Boston, was made by him, and other entries up to the 12th of January, and his handwrit- ing appears fair and firm as at any previous time. But his decline is betrayed by the wording and orthography; points in which he had rarely failed before. A meeting of January 12, 1810, cited Zebediah Stiles and Isaac Tremaine, to answer on the 19th to a charge of having " joined the separation ; " and, following the transcript of the citation is an unfinished entry erased by lines drawn through it : "Friday, January 12th. Church-meet- ing was held, being opened by prayer. Proceeded to act on charges-" These are the last words in the records of the First
1 Rev. William Allen's statement.
2 Said to have been Hon. John Chandler Williams.
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church, written by its 'first pastor. His pen failed him before he could complete the sentence.
The next entry is as follows :
Friday, February 9, 1810. The church met at the house of Rev. Mr. Allen, and, as he was very dangerously sick, instead of attending to any business, " employed the meeting in prayer for him."
Then comes the following inscription : . THE REV. THOMAS ALLEN,
The first pastor of this church who was ordained, April 18, 1761, died in the peace, hope and triumph of the Christian, at 2 o'clock on the morning of the Lord's day, Feb. 11, 1810, aged 67 years.
Thus died Thomas Allen, the Christian, the philanthropist and the patriot ; his end hastened and embittered by the agitations and vexations in which his sense of duty had involved him, in spite of a natural disposition as kindly and benignant- as it was earnest and truthful.
His funeral-sermon was preached by his faithful personal and political friend, Rev. Mr. Judson, from the text : " And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." Genesis 47 : 9. It is said to have been a very pathetic and affecting discourse, well adapted to the occasion. The other clergymen who took part in the exercises were Rev. Mr. Marsh, of Bennington, and a Mr. Hall, who was preaching as a candidate for the pulpit left vacant by Mr. Allen.1
Many of the neighboring ministers were, however, present.
Nine years after the death of Mr. Allen, an article was inserted in the warrant for the annual town-meeting, " To see if the town will erect a marble monument with an appropriate inscription at the tomb, and to the memory, of their late beloved and lamented pastor, the Rev. Thomas Allen;" and the consideration of the subject was referred to Samuel Root, Jonathan Allen, 2d, Henry
1It would appear by the presence of a candidate of this kind on this occa- sion, that had Mr. Allen lived he was intending to resign his pastorate as soon, as a suitable successor should be found.
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H. Childs, Oren Goodrich and Simeon Brown, who made the fol- lowing report at the May meeting :
With respect to the propriety of public acts designed in commemora- tion of public benefactors, your committee are perfectly satisfied in consequence of the beneficial effects they are calculated to produce upon society.
In the character of our late beloved pastor, the Rev. Thomas Allen, we discover that strong attachment to the principles of our free gov- ernment, that love of country, that benevolence, that charity, that zeal for the temporal and eternal welfare of his fellowmen which are the true characteristics of the patriot, the philanthropist and the Christian ; and which eminently entitle him to some commemorative act of the citizens of this town.
And whereas, a free voluntary contribution will best comport with the object proposed, we would recommend the town the appointment of a committee whose duty it shall be to open a subscription-book for the purpose of raising a sufficient sum to defray the expense, which your committee have estimated at $175; and whenever such sum shall be subscribed, it shall be the duty of said committee to prepare and place, at the tomb of the late Rev. Thomas Allen, such monument together with suitable inscriptions.
This report was adopted and a committee consisting of John B. Root, Henry H. Childs and Phinehas Allen was appointed to carry it into effect ; but, for some unexplained reason, the monu- ment was never erected. On the erection of a new church in 1853, a handsome mural tablet of white marble was placed over the pulpit, and bears the following inscription :
IN MEMORY OF THOMAS ALLEN,
First Minister of Pittsfield, born at Northampton, January 7, 1743. Ordained First Minister of the Congregational Society of Pittsfield, April, 1764. Preached in this place forty-six years, and died February 11, 1810. Fortiter gerit crucem.
Mr. Allen's remains were first deposited in his tomb in the first burial-ground near the church. Afterwards they were removed to the grave-yard on First street, from which they were transferred to Pontoosuc Hill in the Pittsfield cemetery, upon which his grandson and namesake has erected a monumental obelisk.
CHAPTER VII.
THE METHODIST AND BAPTIST CHURCHES-CONGREGATIONAL ZEAL FOR THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE YOUNG.
[1800-1812.]
Inequality of the Massachusetts laws-Re-organization of the Baptist church-Rev. John Francis-Charter of the Methodist parish of Pittsfield and other towns-Secession of reformed Methodists-Dissenters from all churches-Philosophical religionists-Obstacles to the new churches- Rev. Mr. Hibbard-Congregational plan for the instruction of youth in religion.
W HILE the Congregational church and parish were rent by the political dissensions described in the last chapter, the Baptist and Methodist churches, composed mostly of substantial, well-to-do farmers, but comparatively few in numbers and inferior in wealth, grew and flourished; obtaining a foothold in the town which they have never lost. Both were deeply inspired with the zeal peculiar to early religious reformers, each believing undoubt- ingly that it held tenets essential to the full faith of the gospel, but which had long been lost sight of by the rest of the Christian world. Both, also, felt keenly the injustice done themselves and other dissenting denominations, by the laws of Massachusetts, and the members of both clung with the more ardent love to the church of their faith for the unequal burdens which they were compelled to bear for its sake, and the impediments thrown by the laws in the way of their mode of worship. We have already somewhat fully discussed the nature of these laws,1 but we quote a portion of a paragraph from a local work showing a Baptist view of some of the chief grievances complained of. 2
1 Vol. 1, chapter 25.
2 History of the Baptist churchi in Pittsfield, Mass., from its organization in 1772 to October, 1853. Prepared by its present pastor, Rev. Lemuel Porter, Pittsfield, 1853.
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After speaking of the original laws of the province and the ameliorations and exemptions, granted from time to time, by the General Court, Dr. Porter says :
All these exemptions were loaded with unjust and humiliating con- ditions. Look at some of them: The person wishing to attend and aid a Baptist church, of which he was a member, must pay taxes to the Congregationalists, unless he lived within five miles of his place of meeting. This, of course, to many, was impossible. Then every Bap- tist church must, yearly, give into the county-clerk a list of all who professed to be Ana-Baptists, and attended their meeting. Then this certificate would be good for nothing unless three other churches should each give a certificate that they esteemed this church to be of their denomination and conscientiously believed them to be Ana-Bap -. tists. Here insult was added to injury. You might as well demand that Congregationalists should call themselves Ana-Baptists. Then Baptists, etc., must pay their money into the treasury at any rate. On showing that their names were on the certificate, they might draw it out again-if they could. Then no one could draw out his money unless he belonged to a society incorporated by law. Baptists would not get incorporated for various reasons; among which was the very good one, that every incorporated society must always have a minister. If in any six months they were without a minister three months, they should pay, for the first offense, not more than $60 nor less than $30. For every succeeding offense, not over $100 nor less than $60.
With the exception of the misnomer of Ana-Baptist, applied by law to the Baptists, all denominations of Christians, who dis- sented from the Congregational faith were subject to the indig- nities and burdens named. Under these and other depressing influences, the Episcopalians, after the removal of their leader, Mr. Van Schaack, to Kinderhook, disappeared. But to the vig- orous young life of the Methodists and Baptists, they added new fire.
It will be remembered that the first Baptist church organized in Pittsfield, after an existence of twenty-six years, was by request of its pastor, Elder Valentine Rathbun, and his sole remaining deacon, dropped from the roll of the Shaftsbury Asso- ciation, and probably entirely dissolved, in 1798. But a brief interval elapsed, however, before, on the 27th of October, 1800, it found a successor, fifteen persons entering into a covenant to form and maintain a Baptist church. Their names, which are held in much veneration by their successors, are Josiah Francis,
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John Francis, Josiah Francis, Jr., Oliver Robbins, James Ham- mond, Daniel H. Francis, Mr. Beckwith, Backus Boardman (colored), Anna Francis (wife of John), Abigail Powers, Anna Chapman, Mahala Chapman, Mrs. Beckwith, Ruth Marvin and Polly Francis.
On the 22d of March, 1801, the body thus constituted was, after due examination of its members, recognized as a church in full fellowship with the Baptist denomination, by an ecclesiasti- cal council, consisting of Elders Ebenezer Smith of Partridge- ville-now Peru and Hinsdale-and James Barnes of Canaan, N. Y., with Brothers Jacob Moon and Allen Matterson of Stephentown, N. Y. Their first communion was administered Sunday, August 3, 1801, by Elder Barnes, and their first bap- tisni was on the 15th of August, in the same year, when Elder Smith went down into the waters of the pond at Parker's saw-mill on Churchill brook, with Reuben Brooks and his wife. This pond, situated in one of the most romantically-beautiful regions of the town, was for many years the baptismal font of the church in Pittsfield, and cannot even now be visited without reverential memories of the solemn scenes which it witnessed in the days when the name of North Woods was not a misnomer of the locality in which it lies. Near it stood the homes of Josiah Francis and his sons John and Josiah, Jr., of the Parkers, the Powers and other intelligent, thoughtful and prosperous families, in whose spacious, gambrel-roofed houses-most of which still stand, moss-covered and embrowned by time-the young church planted her most thrifty vines and gathered her richest fruitage. In one of them, that of John Francis, the church was organized, and the council of recognition was held. In it, on the 19th of September, 1801, occurred the first death in the little flock-that of Anna Francis, the wife of its owner.
For the first five years and four months of its existence, the church settled no pastor, but met regularly for united worship, at the houses of its members, the exercises being conducted by such of their own number as had gifts in that direction, except when they received an occasional visitation from the neighboring clergy ; of whom, be it remembered, John Leland was one-and one with a large missionary spirit. It is proof that the minis- trations of these early pastorless years were not without power, that. in them twenty-six members were admitted to the church by
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baptism, and three by letter, which-one being dismissed and two dying-left their number forty-two.
It seems certain, however, that, although nominally without a minister, the church, during, at least, the latter part of this time, had what may be called a pastoral leader ; for when they came to choose a pastor, he was taken from their own number, having doubtless already shown a special capacity for the office.
The member thus honored was John Francis, at whose house the church had been organized, and who, in accordance with the recommendation of a council of advice held a few days previous, was, on the 26th of June, 1806, ordained by a council called for that purpose. The services were held in the Congregational meeting-house, the use of which was granted by the selectmen, it being then town-property.1 Elder Lemuel Covell offered the introductory prayer and preached the sermon ; Elder Leland gave the right hand of fellowship; Elder Justus Hull delivered the charge ; Elder Joseph W. Sawyer offered the ordaining, and Elder Ebenezer Smith the concluding, prayers.
Mr. Francis was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in the year 1759. At what time he removed to Pittsfield is not certain, but it was probably early in 1780; for in that year he attained his majority, and we find his name enrolled in Capt. Rufus Allen's company of matross, which, in some alarm, " marched forty miles, and served from October 13 to October 17." We next find him mentioned in the town-records in 1789, as one of those whom an investigating committee reported to be unquestionably Baptists, and attendants upon Mr. Rathbun's preaching. In the same list appears the name of his father, Josiah Francis, who, according to the family tradition, came to Pittsfield two or three years after his son. These two were the only members of the new church, which the records indicate to have been members of the old. Josiah, Jr., who was probably also connected with it, is not
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