USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > The history of the town of Royalston, Massachusetts > Part 6
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The day appointed was October 13, 1766, and on this day the Church of Christ in Royalston was embodied into a distinct, particular and visible Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. The council convened consisted of the Pastors and Delegates of the First Church of Christ in Sutton, the Church in Acton, the Church in Northfield, the Church in Warwick, and the Church in Winchendon. The solemn Church Covenant was signed by twelve men and four women, representing twelve famil- ies. The names of these first church members are: Timothy Richardson and his wife Alice; Samuel Barton and his wife Hannah; William Pierce and his wife Mary; Nathan Wheeler and his wife Mary; William Towne, John Fry, Isaac Nichols, Nathan Cutting, Abraham Stockwell, Jonas Allen, Silas Cutting and Benjamin Woodbury. The church being thus constituted, the next thing was to secure a pastor. Several candidates were heard, and finally, August 10, 1767, the town extended a call to Mr. Theophilus Chamberlin; offering him a settlement of £40 and the land (431 acres) originally appropriated for this purpose by the proprietors; and an annual salary of £40. Mr.
54
HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
Chamberlain not being satisfied with these proposals, made others of his own, which the town declined.
In the following December, Joseph Lee, in response to an invitation of the town, came to Royalston to preach four Sab- baths. The committee were instructed Jan. 4, 1768. to employ Mr. Lee six Sabbaths longer; and on March 22d the church unanimously voted him a call. With this call the town unani- mously concurred April 11th; offering him as settlement, the minister's land and £400, old tenor; an annual salary of "forty- six pounds, six shillings and eight pence a year for the three next following years; and sixty pounds, lawful money a year as long as he remains our minister after that date." The call was ac- cepted and Mr. Lee's ordination took place October 19, 1768. The Church Records give the following minutes:
Royalston, October 19, 1768: This day Joseph Lee was ordained to the pastoral office over the Church of Christ in this place ; his relation to the Church of Christ in Concord having been previously removed to the Church here. The churches convened in council, and who assisted on the occasion, were the following: The Rev. Aaron Whitney, pastor of the church in Petersham, began the exercises with prayer: The Rev. John Swift, pastor of the church in Acton delivered a discourse from 1 Tim. IV. 16. The Rev. David Hall, pastor of the first church in Sutton, made the prayer at the imposition of hands, and gave the charge.
The Rev. Lemuel Hedge, pastor of the church in Warwick prayed after the charge, and The Rev. James Humphrey, pastor of the church in Athol, gave the Right Hand of Fellowship." Prior to the settlement of Mr. Lee, five persons including the pastor elect, had been added to the church-all by letter- constituting a membership of 21; 15 males and 6 females.
Mr. Lee was born in Concord, May 12, 1742, graduated at Harvard College in 1765, and preached to this people fifty years, his half century sermon being his last.
Governor Bullock in his Centennial address gives this tribute to Mr. Lee: "I count it the most fortunate of all the events of your history that a man of good qualities by nature, and of university education took his lot with the early settlers and directed the conscience and judgment of the first two genera- tions of the town. To the steadiness and unity of the influence of that long and patient pastorate I ascribe largely the exemption
REV. JOSEPH LEE
.
55
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
from violent tendencies which has marked the community-the uninterrupted, straight forwardp, lacid career of Royalston." Three months before his death, being feeble and infirm, Mr. Lee turned his attention to the thought of a colleague and suc- cessor. On the last day of November, 1818, he called his church around him, under his own roof. A day of public fasting and prayer was appointed in which the congregation united in Dec- cember when ministers Sabin and Estabrook, conducted the services; immediately after which the church made unanimous choice of Ebenezer Perkins as associate pastor. The invitation was accepted, and the Council for ordination assembled on the 17th day of February, 1819, at the house of Joseph Estabrook, but the venerable senior pastor had expired only a few hours before, in the 77th year of his age, and the 51st of his ministry.
The church which began with 16 members, and had but 21 at the date of Mr. Lee's settlement, had now received into its fellowship 399, of whom 134 were males and 265 females, and of living members, whose names were still inscribed on its rolls "about 200."
The death of Mr. Lee vacated the pastoral office scarcely for a single day, for Mr. Perkins having accepted the unanimous call extended him by the church and town was ordained February 17, 1819, the day after the death of the first pastor. Rev. Cyrus Mann of Westminster preached the sermon. Five days later occurred the funeral of Mr. Lee.
Rev. Joseph Estabrook of Athol, at his special request before he died preached the funeral sermom, from these words, found in the last chapter and verse of Genesis-"So Joseph Died."
Rev. Ebenezer Perkins, the second pastor, was born in Tops- field, Essex County, and was a graduate of Dartmouth College. He came to this church a young man, to succeed one who left behind the veneration belonging to an official life of half a century and Governor Bullock says of him "it is but justice to his memory to say that not one out of a thousand men would have succeeded so well and left a better record in the town." He is described as of fine personal form, with a free and dignified delivery of voice; a gravity of demeanor was his rule in public appearance, but in private he was one of the most social and agreeable of gentlemen. Mr. Perkins' pastorate
56
HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
continued through twenty-seven years. During this period the parish separated from the town, having organized as a distinct legal body, under the provisions of law, May 19, 1831, and assumed the title which it still retains, "The First Parish, or Congregational Society of the town of Royalston." Mr. Perkins at his own request was dismissed in 1846, but continued to reside in town till his death, which occurred suddenly Nov. 26, 1861, at the age of sixty-eight. Under his ministry 254 were added to the church. The membership as reported in the minutes of the General Association of Massachusetts for Jan. 1, 1847, was 148-45 males and 103 females.
The third minister, Rev. Norman Hazen, was settled in June, 1847, and died Feb. 13, 1852, having preached on the Sunday previous to his death, although quite feeble at the time. He was born in Hartford, Vt., Sept 7, 1814, and was the son of Solomon and Deborah (Fuller) Hazen of that place. The first of that name, and his ancestor, came to this country in 1649 and settled in Rowley, Mass. About 130 years later a descendant of his settled in Hartford, Vt., and established the family name in that place. Norman Hazen graduated from Dartmouth College in 1840. He then entered Andover Theo- logical Seminary, graduating in 1844. His first charge was at East Haverhill, Mass., and later at Ludlow, Vt., from which place he came to Royalston. He married Martha Vose of Atkinson, N. H., Sept. 14, 1845. They had three children, two of whom died in Royalston, and the youngest, John Vose Hazen, was born in Royalston Nov. 22, 1850.
Norman Hazen was a young man of superior education, but of a slender body laboring under disease. Governor Bullock in his centennial address says of him: "I knew him somewhat, and can freely say that his term here seemed a constant triumph of the spiritual over the mortal."
Rev. Mr. Hazen was succeeded by Rev. Ebenezer Bullard, who was installed Sept. 2, 1852. He came to the Royalston Church from Fitchburg, where he had been pastor of the Cal- vinistic Congregational Church from July, 1838, to June, 1852. He was pastor of the Royalston Church for sixteen years. In his historical address in commemoration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Church, delivered Oct. 14, 1866, he says, in regard to the fourteen years which he had then served as
57
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
pastor: "During these years one hundred and thirteen have been added to the church, and the membership at the present time is one hundred and thirty-one-thirty-nine males and ninety- two females. The addition in these fourteen years, have equaled wanting five, the whole membership at the beginning of this period; and yet the gain is only thirteen-so nearly have our losses, by death and removals, kept pace with our accessions." Mr. Bullard was popular in the civic and political life of the town, represented the town in the Legislature of 1864, and was chair- man of the Committee of fifteen, who had charge of the celebra- tion of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the town, held Aug. 22, 1865. He was also a member of the school com- mittee for a number of years. After leaving Royalston, he was pastor of the Church in Hampstead, N. H., for five years com- pleting forty years in the ministry. After retiring from active service he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Charles S. Bullock of Kill Buck, N. Y., where he died in 1898, and was buried in Fitchburg. He was a brother of Rev. Asa Bullard, long president of the Mass. Sunday School Society, and of Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher. He was dismissed from the Royalston Church Nov. 9, 1865; thus for the first century of its existence this church had only four pastors. The fifth pastor of the Church was Rev. John P. Cushman who was installed Nov. 30, 1870, and dismissed Dec. 4, 1872. His successor was Rev. Wilbur Johnson who was installed June 3, 1874, when Rev. Dr. Perkins of Ware delivered the sermon, Rev. Dr. Coolidge of Leicester, the installing Prayer, Rev. Davis Foster of Winchendon the charge to the Pastor, and Rev. Temple Cutler of Athol the Address to the People.
The Seventh pastor of the Church was Rev. Milton G. Pond, who was installed Oct. 2, 1884, Rev. G. R. W. Scott of Fitchburg preaching the sermon. He had been pastor less than a year when he died Sept. 23, 1885, of typhoid fever. This was his first pastorate, he having just completed his studies at Union Theological Seminary. He was a young man of high and noble character, and entered upon his duties with a zeal and devotion that made him speedily beloved and trusted. No pastor in Royalston ever won in so short a time the confidence and affec- tion of the people.
The next pastor to be ordained and installed as pastor of the First Congregational Church was Rev. Judson Wade Shaw,
.
58
HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
the event taking place on June 30, 1887. This was the first pastorate of Mr. Shaw, he having formerly been an agent for school books. Soon after the commencement of his pastorate it was claimed that he was preaching doctrines contradictory to the creed and belief of the Orthodox church, and a division arose in the church. On June 16, 1889, Mr. Shaw read his resignation to take effect July 30, and on July 8 a council was held which had been called by the church and parish, which granted Mr. Shaw a dismissal, after a pastorate of about two years.
Rev. Augustus M. Rice who succeeded Rev. Mr. Shaw, was born in Granby, Oswego County, N. Y., Dec. 2, 1842. His father removed to the territory of Minnesota in 1854. In Nov., 1862, he enlisted in the First Minnesota Cavalry and served as corporal until Dec., 1863, when he was mustered out. He was graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1870, and from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1873. He was ordained for the ministry at Little Campton, R. I., where he remained seven years. In 1875 he married Anna T. Cowen of Little Campton, who died in 1895. He held short pastorates at West Tisbury and Dover, Mass., and came to Royalston in 1890, and served as pastor of the 1st Congregational Church until 1893. He was called to the Congregational church in Sturbridge, Mass., the same year, where he remained nine years. He was married to Isabelle E. Brown of Royalston, then a teacher in Everett, Aug. 17, 1898, and in 1903 became pastor of the church in Dunstable, Mass., remaining there seven years. In Feb., 1911, he returned to Royalston where he still resides.
The tenth pastor was Rev. Francis J. Fairbanks, who had recently closed a several years pastorate in Amherst, Mass. He commenced to preach for the Church in Royalston on the last Sunday in September, 1893, and closed his labors the last Sunday in September, 1909, a period of sixteen years, this pastorate being the longest since that of Rev. Mr. Bullard. The installa- tion services were held Dec. 20, 1893, and the council for dis- mission Sept. 20, 1909. During this period forty persons were received nto the Church, twenty-six were dismissed and thirty- six removed by death.
Mr. Fairbanks is a graduate of Amherst College, class of 1862, and his theological studies were pursued at Princeton
REV. NORMAN HAZEN
-
-
REV. FRANCIS J. FAIRBANKS
DEA. JOSEPH WALKER
.
GEORGE WOODBURY Singer in the choir for forty years
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FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
and Union Seminaries. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Church in Westminster, Vt., Aug. 31, 1864, and has been in the pastorate fifty years. His pastorates are: Westminster, Vt., 7 years; Ayer, Mass., 2 years; Paxton, 3 1-2 years; West Boylston, nearly 8 years; Seymour, Conn., 1 year; Amherst, Mass., 7 years; Royalston 1st Church, 16 years; 2d Church 6 years. Among his published works are an historical sketch of Westminster, Vt., in the Vermont Gazetter, 1885, and a number of special sermons, together with numerous reports of School Committee and Library trustees, and a large amount of correspondence for the public press. Before entering college he took the course in the State Normal School at Westfield and taught for a number of years in the public schools of Massa- chusetts, in Ashby Academy, Young Ladies Institute, Jersey City, and has aided several young men in their preparation for college. He served many years on the School Board and as Supervisor of public schools in Paxton and West Boylston, Mass., and on the School Board in Royalston, and during his residence in this town has served continuously as trustee of the public library. He was the first president of the "Royalston Old Home Week Association," and also the first president of "The Fair- banks Family in America." Mr. Fairbanks is a native of Ash- burnham, son of Emory and Eunice (Hayward) Fairbanks, and a lineal descendant of Jonathan Fairbanks who settled in Dedham 1636, and of William White, one of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower. He married May 1, 1865, Abbie Smith Russell, and to them have been born four sons and one daughter; of the two sons now living, Ernest Hayward is a patent lawyer, a graduate of Worcester Academy, Worcester Polytechnic In- stitute and Columbia University Law School, Washington, D. C., and is a member of the firm Wiedersheim and Fairbanks, Solicitors of Patents, Patent Attorneys, Philadelphia. Herbert Stockwell Fairbanks is a graduate of the Mass. Agricultural College, Amherst, is a patent attorney and connected with the above firm. The daughter, Alice Russell, received her education at Amherst High School and Smith College, Northampton, and is the wife of Willliam A. Frye, Royalston.
Rev. Charles G. Fogg, pastor of the church from 1910 to 1915, was born in Westbrook, Maine, June 28, 1868, and re- ceived his early education in the public graded schools of Bridg-
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
ton Centre, Me. He graduated from Bridgton Academy in 1886, and then entered the employment of Simons, Hatch & Whitten, wholesale men's furnishers of Boston, and later was engaged in other business in Boston. He entered Bangor Semi- nary in the fall of 1891, graduating in 1894, and then entered the junior class in Bowdoin College from which he graduated in 1896. In December of the same year, he became pastor of the Congregational churches of Port Mills and West Fairlee, Vt., for three years, and was then pastor of the Congregational church of Union, Conn., for three and one-half years. In 1903 with his wife he took up special Home Missionary work under the Maine Missionary Society at Outer Long Island in Penobscot Bay. From 1905 to 1908, he was pastor of the Congregational church of Staffordville, Conn., going from there to West Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard and to Royalston in 1910.
Jan. 12, 1898, he married Nellie Marie Burnham of Somer- ville, Mass. They have one son, Edwin Willard Fogg.
Rev. Clarence Pike, the present pastor, commenced his duties. as pastor July 4, 1915. He was born in North Waterford, Maine. Dec. 16, a son of E. B. Pike, M. D., who afterwards became a Congregational minister. His home until nineteen years of age was in several towns of Maine and after that in New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1880, and attended Union Theological Seminary in New York one year, and then went to Andover, Mass., Theological Seminary where he gradu- uated in 1883, and also took a fourth year of study in that Institution. From 1884 to 1891, he was pastor of the Union Church in Amesbury, Mass. From 1891 to 1895, was pastor of a double charge in Underhill and Jericho, Vt. For twelve years commencing with 1895, he was pastor of the First Church of Mansfield, Conn., and for seven of these years was Acting Visitor in the schools of that town. From 1907 to 1911, he was pastor of the Church in Ashland, Mass., going from there to Milton, N. H., where he served from 1911 to 1915, and came to Royalston July 4, 1915. He was married July 6, 1887, to Caroline E. Thompson of Durham, N. H., and has one daughter who graduated from Wellesley College in 1912, and since then has been a teacher in the High Schools of Salem and Delphi, N. Y.
It is a remarkable coincidence that the two old churches of Royalston, the First Congregational at the Centre and the Bap- tist at West Royalston, both being organized within a year or
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SOUTH ROYALSTON BAPTIST CHURCH, WEST ROYALSTON FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ROYALSTON CENTRE
61
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
two of each other, are also both occupying their fourth House of Worship, and the third meeting house of each Society was also destroyed by fire.
The third meeting house of the First Congregational Society after being in use only about ten years was burned to the ground on the morning of Jan. 15, 1851, the origin of the fire having always remained a mystery. But the people rallied at once, and addressed themselves with enthusiasm to the erection of this their fourth sanctuary.
Regarding this church building, Rev. E. W. Bullard in his Historical Discourse, delivered on the One Hundredth Anni- versary of the church says: "On Jan. 15, 1852, the first anniver- sary of the destruction of their former house, this edifice, excelling all the others, stood complete, and its dedication was kept with joy. Amateurs have admired it as a model of what a rural sanctuary should be-beautiful for situation, beautiful in itself, and sustained in all its parts and appointments. It certainly is the feature of this comely village; an honor to our town, and a witness to the good taste and liberality of its proprietors."
During the pastorate of Rev. Wilbur Johnson the old parson- age which was the residence of Mr. Lee was moved away in 1874, and a fine house was erected on the site.
The old house and one acre of land was purchased for one thousand dollars by Miss Candace Bullock and presented to the Society. She also gave six hundred dollars towards the new building. The cost of the new parsonage was five thousand five hundred dollars. Among those who contributed largely towards the erection of the building were:
Mrs. Candace Bullock . $1600
Mr. and Mrs. William D. Ripley 791
Mrs. D. P. Clark. 691
Joseph Estabrook 291
Chauncey Chase
500
Barnet Bullock.
200
Joseph Raymond
100
George Whitney
491
George Chase. 100
Maynard Partridge 85
Phinehas S. Newton 75
Elmer Newton . 50
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
The parsonage is overshadowed by a magnificent old elm set out by Rev. Joseph Lee.
In 1858, under the will of Hon. Rufus Bullock, then lately deceased, the Society received the liberal legacy of five thousand dollars, the interest of which shall be forever paid and applied annually or semi-annually, for the support of preaching in said society.
THE CHURCH BELL
The securing of a bell for the Meeting House was an important event to the people of Royalston, and we find the following on the Town Records regarding it:
"An invitation to the benevolent Inhabitants of the Town of Royalston to subscribe money for procuring a Bell for the East meeting house in said Town. We the Subscribers, Inhabi- tants of Royalston believing it would be of great convenience and utility to the Inhabitants of said Town, and would in a degree add to its respectability, to procure a bell and attach it to the East meeting house, do cheerfully subscribe and promise to pay the several sums affixed to our names for the purpose above mentioned; provided the bell be purchased in the following manner and of the size hereafter mentioned-1st. We are desir- ous to procure a bell of medium size with Bells in common Country towns, and one that can be warranted good if possible- 2d. We desire that every Subscriber be notified to meet at Joseph Estabrook, Esq's, as soon as there is money enough subscribed for the purpose intended and then and there to choose some suitable person or persons to carry this subscription into effect-and for the present this subscription is to remain in the hands of Joseph Estabrook, Esq.
Royalston, May 22, 1811.
This paper was headed by Joseph Estabrook who subscribed $50, followed by 44 names the subscription amounting to $453.
At a meeting of the Subscribers it was voted that there should be a record made on this Book of the Subscription paper -the names of those who subscribed and the sums-as there were a few who did not pay at the time it has been deferred to the present time.
RUFUS BULLOCK ,Town Clg k.
63
STATUETTE OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL
Royalston, February 17, 1814.
In the warrant for the annual town meeting of that year there was an article "To let the ringing of the bell or act there- on," when it was voted to raise $15 for Ringing the Bell.
STATUETTE OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL
In 1797 the primitive church building which had comfortably served the people from the incorporation of the town was removed and an edifice more commodious and of a higher type of archi- tecture was erected in its place. When the structure was completed it was found that a balance of around sixty-five dollars, according to tradition, remained in the treasury. The
STATUETTE OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL
good people pondered over the matter, and wishing no doubt to beautify their church edifice and give it at the same time a striking pre-eminence, placed an order for the statuette illus- trated in this article. It was not chiselled from marble or moulded from plaster but beautifully carved by a skilful artist
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
from a huge block of first growth pine, and is all in one piece with the exception of the slender trumpet in the right hand. It is thirty-three inches high and nineteen inches in breadth across the wings. A niche was made high up in the wall back of the pulpit and in this recess the Angel Garbiel was placed and rested in security for nearly half a century, the cynosure of all eyes and the wonder of the rising generation.
The church building of 1797, stood on the Common near the present highway and facing south, but in 1840 the good people either having once more outgrown their edifice or wishing a longer and broader sweep of common land, decided after much deliberation to take down the house of 1797, and erect a new one "in good modern stile" according to the old record on a site further west where the present church building now stands.
After the old building had been completely dismantled, the Angel Gabriel was discovered one day by the good Deacon Seth Holman, according to his son's statement, "on a pile of waste". The Deacon rescued the discarded relic and carried it tenderly to his own home. Meanwhile the parish had waxed indifferent toward their former idol. They either considered that it smacked of graven images or distracted the attention of the congregation from the preacher and his message and no move was made to have the image reinstated in its former honored position. This attitude of the parish was fortunate for the perpetuity of the statuette, for the building then erected was destroyed by fire only eleven years later. Gabriel, therefore, became a permanent member of the household of Deacon Holman and his posterity and accompanied them when the family re- moved from Royalston in the late sixties. In 1903, on the occa- sion of Royalston's first "Old Home Day," Mr. George W. Holman of Fitchburg, thinking that the statuette, after its exile of more than sixty years, had now become a historical relic of great value, restored it to the old Parish and the unveiling of it before the large audience at that reunion was one of the in- teresting features of the day. The photograph of this work of art, connected so intimately with the history of the local church, has therfore been awarded what it has so richly deserved, a place in the history of Royalston.
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