USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Walpole > The story of Walpole, 1724-1924; a narrative history prepared under authority of the town and direction of the Historical Committee of Bi-Centennial > Part 10
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They sometimes took advantage of his old age by playing tricks upon him, the younger spirits not hesitating to carry jokes into meet- ing. There were those living a quarter century or more ago who remembered when the worthy minister, coming into the pulpit one Sunday (having previously preached a vigorous sermon against card-playing), opened his Bible only to have a pack of cards tumble out of it and shower themselves down upon the grave deacons in
1 Elizabeth Plimpton's Recollections. Mss. in collection of George A. Plimpton.
2 Original letter in collection of George A. Plimpton.
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their square box in front of and just under the pulpit. The older people were horrified at the sacrilege; but to the young folk in the galleries it was an occasion of irrepressible mirth.1 It was seldom that they had a chance to laugh over Rev. Mr. Morey's difficulties; for on his per- ambulations about the town he commonly carried a stout stick which he did not hesitate to use. Mr. Morey, disdaining the fashions of the 19th century, appeared until his death in knee breeches and pumps, a cocked hat, and with his hair in a beribboned queue.2
A majority of the townspeople finally decided that steps must be taken to bring Mr. Morey's active ministry to a close; and on March 6, 1826, it was voted in regular meeting (for there was still a union of the Congregational churches with the State in Massachusetts, and town meet- ings dealt with ecclesiastical matters) that Rev. Mr. Morey be conferred with "to ascertain if will [sic] dissolve his ministerial connection with the town and on what terms." 3 The venerable clergyman probably refused to discuss the mat- ter, for at the next meeting it was decided to find out just how far the town's contract with him was binding.4
In the following month, May, after voting that "it is the wish of the town to dissolve the
1 Mss. in collection of George A. Plimpton
? Lewis, 169. 3 Town Rec., II, 425. 4 Ibid., 427.
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ministeral connection with the Revd George Morey," 1 and appointing a committee to dis- cuss the matter with him, final disposition was made by granting him $600 in payment of all future claims. Rev. Mr. Morey signed an agreement to take no further active part in church affairs, though he was to continue as a settled minister of the gospel in Walpole.2 This settlement, we are informed, was brought about through the influence of the minister's son, George, who had graduated at Harvard and was then starting practice of law in Boston.3
No sooner was Mr. Morey out and a commit- tee appointed to find a successor, or, more properly, a colleague,4 than the inevitable con- flict between Congregational orthodoxy on the one hand and Unitarianism on the other became
an issue in the town. When it was voted to ex- tend a call to Rev. John Parker Boyd Storer to settle as their minister, matters came to a head.
Rev. Mr. Storer had had every opportunity for contact with the growing spirit of liberal thought within the established church. A na- tive of Portland, Me., son of Hon. Woodbury Storer by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of James Boyd of Bolton, he had studied at Bowdoin College, graduated with the class of
1 Town Rec., II, 429. 2 Town Rec., II, 432; Lewis, 147-153.
3 Mss. account in collection of Geo. A. Plimpton.
4 Town Rec., II, 431.
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1812, and had pursued his theological studies under President Jesse Appleton, D. D., in the years immediately following.1
Though the orthodoxy of Bowdoin College and of Dr. Appleton is not, I believe, to be ques- tioned, the distinguished president was notable as an advocate of independent thought. In talks to his students he discouraged "too great a regard to the practices and oppinions of others, when one's own judgement and convic- tions are on the other side"; 2 and we are in- formed by his contemporaries that in religious matters he was an advocate of inquiry. 3
In 1816, when a tutor at Bowdoin, Storer resigned to go to Europe with an uncle.4 On his return he enrolled at Harvard for advance theological study.
It was at Harvard that young Storer doubt- less was confirmed in his leanings to Unitarian- ism; for the college, long a centre of advanced thought, was now not only very definitely unitarian in the complexion of its faculty, but through the joint efforts of its Hollis Professor, Rev. Henry Ware, and a group of other uni- tarian clergymen, had organized a regular course of theological instruction, the beginnings of the present Divinity School. 5
It was young George Morey who recom-
1 Packard, 169.
? Addresses, 159. 3 Ibid., xxii.
4 Packard, 169. ' Unitarianism in America, 108-110.
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mended Storer to the committee appointed to find a successor to the aged pastor.1 The com- mittee reported favorably, and on July 31, 1826, a formal call was extended to him by the town.2
This choice of a Unitarian clergyman was far from pleasing to those who still believed in the Trinity and who held it to be their duty to profess it.3 Members of this minority group addressed a letter to the Church, praying that they might be dismissed to form a second church in the town. Before their request was acted upon,4 82 members associated themselves, Octo- ber 4, 1826, as the Orthodox Congregational Society of Walpole. In the evening of Novem- ber 13, 1826, "being desirous of enjoying the preaching and ordinances of the gospel in a man- ner that shall be for our better edification,"5 they organized the church at the house of Catherine Allen, at the corner of High Plain and Peach Streets.
Two days later Rev. Mr. Storer was ordained associate minister of the First Church. 6
1 Mss. Account in collection of George A. Plimpton.
2 Town Rec., II, 433.
3 James Hartshorn, in his mss. recollections owned by George A. Plimpton, says that no question of unitarianism or trinitarianism was at first raised, and that all the trouble was over Storer's salary, which the seceders thought was too high. All contemporary evi- dence, however, points to theological differences.
4 Mss. Account.
5 Lewis, 170-171; A Service Commemorating, p. 8.
" Town Rec., II, 435 to 438; Lewis, 150-153. .
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It is impossible, at this distance, to under- stand the feeling that was wrought in the little community over this secession from the old church. That it was but a part of a wide- spread movement within the church which had manifested itself in like manner in many other towns did not lessen its gravity in the eyes of the majority. In many places lifelong friend- ships were ended and business associations broken off. In Walpole members of the or- thodox society could not for many years muster votes enough to be elected to town office. 1
Though Congregational orthodoxy had in 1811 been so far disestablished as to allow mem- bers of other regularly organized churches to pay their proportion of the ministerial tax into the treasuries of their own churches, this ex- emption was not allowed to members of the new orthodox society in Walpole.
They continued to be taxed for the support of the old parish on the ground that they had not been properly organized .? Rev. Asahel Bigelow, first minister of the new church, was obliged to pay a tax to help support Rev. Mr. Storer. The latter came around and returned the amount of the tax, saying that he did not approve of such procedure.3
One of the members of the Orthodox Church, Nathaniel P. Fisher, refused to pay his tax, 1 Allen, 7.
: Ellis, 7. 3 Allen, 7.
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claiming that it was levied against him illegally. He was haled into court at Dedham. While he was on his way to trial one of his friends paid the tax, and the case was dismissed.1 Members of the Orthodox Church then brought suit for recovery of their money and won their case. It was in the course of this trial that Hon. Horace Mann, attorney for the town, an- nounced that the orthodox society was made up of a lot of "old women." He not only added bitterness to the situation, but lost many votes for himself when he later ran for Congress from the district which included Walpole.2
But the case was of more far-reaching im- portance than that. It can be counted one of the contributing causes of bringing the matter of church establishment in Massachusetts to a head. In 1833 the legislature, after warm debate, effected complete disestablishment of the Congregational Church, an act to which Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart points as the final step in the long process of establishing religious freedom in the United States.
The Orthodox Church held services in a hall over the store owned by Dr. Wild, at the corner of Main and East Streets. Henry Plimpton, who had been a deacon of the old church, was chosen first deacon of the new, and was instrumental in bringing here to preach such 1 Allen; also Mss. Account. 2 Allen, 8.
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noted clergymen as Dr. Lyman Beecher and Dr. Codman. He literally brought them, going into Boston every Saturday with his horse and chaise for the purpose, and carrying them back on Monday. 1
The meeting house of the society, erected on East. St., was remodeled and dedicated April 25, 1867.
At the raising, according to well authenti- cated accounts, in addition to a barrel of rum punch to stimulate the workers, who gathered from surrounding towns, 2 the day was closed when Warren Wild and Henry Allen brought out two pails of stiff punch. The drinks were passed out after Rev. Mr. Bigelow, standing between the brimming buckets, offered a prayer.3 The house was dedicated in September, 1827,4 and Mr. Bigelow, a graduate of Harvard Col- lege and Andover Seminary, was installed in the following year. 5
It must not be assumed that, up to this period, all residents of the town were deeply interested in church affairs. If Walpole was like the aver- age Massachusetts town, there were even in its earliest days many persons who did not bother to attend the appallingly long services. Compulsory attendance was a thing of the past when Walpole was set off as a town. Church 1 Mss. Account. 2 Allen, 10. 3 Mss. Account. 4 Lewis, 172. 5 Allen, 13.
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attendance elsewhere, and probably here as well, fell off. Some stayed away because of an irreligious turn of mind, some because of other affiliations. In 1741, for instance, a certificate was presented to the selectmen testifying that Obediah Morse, one of the townsmen, was a member of the Baptist Church in Boston. 1 This was perhaps an attempt on the part of Morse to free himself of the ministerial tax. The entry gives us our first record of dissent.
Yet it was not until 1818 that services were held in town in any other but the Congregational way.
In that year Methodism was introduced by Rev. Benjamin Haines, who held meetings in the home of Eliphalet Smith at South Walpole. The church was formally organized in 1822, and in 1830 the first church building was erected where the parsonage now stands. The present church was built in 1846.2 The Methodist Episcopal society at the Center was formed in 1874.3 First services were held in the old Hoop Skirt Factory, now the Mahoney building, on Main Street opposite Maple Street. It was then called Methodist Hall. Services were in charge of the South Walpole Church pastor, Rev. G. R. Bent. The first clergyman in charge. of the church here was Rev. John H. Vincent. When the town schoolhouse burned down, the 1 Town Rec., I, 79. ? Hist. Norfolk County, 718. 3 Ibid.
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site on Front Street was secured, and the present edifice was built. The formal dedication took place in the year 1886.
The first Catholic services in Walpole were held in a room at the old Union Mill by Rev. Francis Gouesse in 1873. After three years Fr. Gouesse purchased land on East St. and work was begun on a church in which the first mass was celebrated in June, 1878.1 The present Church of the Blessed Sacrament, the largest in town, was opened in 1913 on about the same site. The old church, which was moved back, and for a time served as a hall, was torn down about two years ago.
In 1877 a Congregational Society was formed .at East Walpole and services were held in F. W. Bird's small hall? by Rev. C. B. Smith of Ded- ham. Their first meeting house, on Union St. dedicated in 1883,3 is now the home of the Wednesday Club. The present meeting house of the society, built on land given by Mr. Charles Sumner Bird, was dedicated in April, 1915.4
The first Episcopal services in Walpole was held March 28, 1886, in Bacon Hall, now I. O. O. F. Hall, by Rev. Fr. W. S. Cheney of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Dedham. The
1 Catholic Church in N. E., 755 et seq.
? In the second story of one of the ells of the old Morse Tavern.
' Lewis, 178. " Boston Globe, April 19, 1915.
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first rector of the parish was Rev. Albert E. George. The present Epiphany Church, at the corner of Front and West Streets, was dedi- cated Nov. 30, 1904.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL WAR
O N Thursday, May 22, 1856, Charles Sum- ner, United States Senator from Massa- chusetts, was assaulted and beaten to insensi- bility as he sat working at his desk in the Senate Chamber. His assailant, a member of the House of Representatives from South Caro- lina, was infuriated by remarks about his uncle, Senator Brooks of South Carolina, made by Sumner in the course of a great two-day speech, "The Crime Against Kansas," a powerful plea for the admission of Kansas to the Union as a free state and an arraignment of the slave power in the South.
The assault upon Sumner aroused the North as it had not been aroused before. Meetings of protest were held in cities and towns all over the land, in which the assailant was condemned and the cause of freedom given new impetus that led to ultimate victory.
As in every forward-looking movement in the earlier years of her history, so now Walpole ranged herself with the leaders. At a meeting of citizens it was resolved that "we regard it as a
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matter of gratitude to God that He endowed Mr. Sumner with the ability and spirit to make this unqualified vindication of the principles of Liberty and the Rights of Free Men; and that we fully endorse and approve of every sentiment and every expression of his great speech, as pre-eminently worthy of the sons of the Puri- tans of Plymouth and the patriots of Lexington and Bunker Hill." 1
As this was only one of many resolutions adopted that night, we may with a reasonable degree of safety conclude from its tone that among the others was a ringing denunciation of the assailant and of the slave power which he represented.
There were, in those days, no slaves in Wal- pole. But the town had not been altogether free of them in its long history. In 1770 Jona- than Boyden gave notice that he had taken into his household "a Mollatto Child' named Benjamin Brown born in Attleborough." 2 In 1779 Ezekiel Needham informed the select- men that he had "put upon my Place in Walpole [torn]a Daniels his Wife and two Negroes last from Franklin." 3 And somewhere about 1797 Jonathan Wild announced that he had taken into his house "Soffa Ridgway a black Girl." ‘
1 Sumner Scrap Book, 38. 2 Town Rec., I, last page no number.
3 N. E. Genealogical Register, April, 1903, "Walpole Warnings." Ibid.
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Some of these were perhaps slaves. We know that Deacon Ezekiel Robbins had a slave. Jack and left him to the church.1 After the death of Jack, a negress who passed as his wife and who to her dying day was commonly called "Hannah Jack," became a town charge. In 1807 Samuel Guild was paid $21.83 for "keeping Hannah a black woman." At the same time it was de- cided "to make enquiry whither Sd Hannah belongs to this town to maintain or not." 2 More than a year later Hannah was still in Walpole, and in trouble; for the selectmen were instructed by the town to "Carry Hannah Jack to Jail at Dedham" unless she "behave well in their Opinion." 3
The protest by Walpole citizens after the assault upon Sumner was not the first expression of the anti-slavery feeling in the town.
Back in 1840 and 1844 about 30 Walpole citizens had voted the "Liberty" ticket, its presidential candidate having been James G. Birney. They had even put a local candidate for Representative in the field-Isaac Fisher, one of the highly respected men of the town.4
A few years later Francis W. Bird emerged as an outstanding figure in the great cause. A Whig by tradition, he promptly allied himself with the Free Soil Party when it came into exist-
1 Post, p. 209. 2 Town Rec., II, 279. 3 Ibid., 288.
" Reminiscences of Edwin Thompson, Gould Scrap Book, 38, 39.
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ence in 1848, organized the movement in his vicinity and attended as a delegate the party's first State and National Conventions.1 This was but a natural alignment for one who, 15 years before, had set tongues wagging when he politely showed the negro servant of his newly-acquired bride into the family pew at the South Dedham Congregational Church before he and his wife entered.2
It is told of Mr. Bird that on another occasion, hearing an announcement from the pulpit of a meeting at which a "Rev. Dr. Adams" was to speak, he arose in his pew to ask: "Do I under- stand that the Dr. Adams mentioned in this notice is the author of 'The South-side View of Slavery'? " Being assured that the man in question was not the pro-slavery writer in ques- tion, Mr. Bird exclaimed, "Then I am satisfied," and sat down.3
It was in those early Free-soil days that the famous Bird Club was born. Drawn together by common interests, a little group of men, including John A. Andrew, Henry L. Pierce, William S. Robinson and Mr. Bird, met for luncheon every Saturday afternoon at a Boston coffee house, and, in later years, at Young's and Parker's. Informal meetings they were -- "no president, no officers, no rules of organiza- tion, no conditions of membership, no nothing 1 Francis William Bird, 25. ' Ibid., 17. 3 Ibid., 30.
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TO THE
DEMOCRATS
OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT No. 3.
At a Freesoil Convention held at Dedham, October 15, 1850, CHARLES F. ADAMS in the Chair, made use of the following opprobrious language respecting the Democratic Party, viz :
" I beg leave to signify and pray that the fact may be communicated to all the Freesoil- ers, that I will never consent to be a candidate for an office which is the result of a COM. BINATION. I shall never forget the ATROCITIES of the Democratic party, and I can .never identify myself with any of their doings."
This is the man for whom F. W. BIRD in a private circular endeavors to induce Demo- erats to cast their votes.
We ask all Truc Democrats whether they will bestow their suffrages on Charles F. Adams, who spurns their support, and applies to them the above contemptuous lan- guage ? We call on them not only to refuse to vote for him, but to exert all such means as are most certain to PREVENT HIS ELECTION.
A RARE OLD POLITICAL BROADSIDE OF ANTE BELLUM DAYS (From the personal collection of John H. Edmonds, State Archivist of Massachusetts)
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to hold it together but similar political and social affinities, and a common need and love of good- fellowship," so Mr. Bird himself wrote-but out of them came worth-while things. Promi- nent men of the party were free to sit in on every occasion, and many availed themselves of the opportunity. The great John Brown of Ossawattomie once was seen there, we are told. Mr. Bird usually sat at the head of the table and by common consent acted as master of ceremonies. So as years went on, this gathering became the "Bird Club," though Mr. Bird himself did not so call it.1
Among the many close friendships formed in these early years of Mr. Bird's political activity was one with Charles Sumner-a friendship that lasted to the great statesman's death. They were kindred souls, those two-crusaders, both of them. Sumner, in allusion to the Walpole paper-maker's anti-slavery proclivities, once dubbed him jokingly "our Bird of Freedom."?
Knowing as they did of this friendship between Sumner and their fellow townsman, the people of Walpole must have been even more stirred by the news of the assault upon the Senator than they would have been had this tie not existed. We can well believe that the ringing approval of Sumner's plea for freedom, adopted at the Walpole protest meeting of 1856, was 1 Francis William Bird, 32-37. 2 Ibid., 43.
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from the intrepid "Frank" Bird's pen. We know for certain that Bird was there that night. 1 Later on, when Sumner had recovered his strength, he found time to come to Walpole. He spoke in the old Orthodox Church to an audience that filled every foot of space.2 From that day Walpole's position as a firm friend of the slave was assured.
Yet it must not be understood that feeling over slavery was unanimous in Walpole, for it was not. Neither was it so anywhere else.
On the one hand we find the Walpole repre- sentative in the legislature, Jeremiah Allen, voting for a resolution endorsing Sumner's stand and condemning the cowardly assault upon him.3 On the other we see Ira Gill, one of Bird's fellow townsmen, calling him "a damned, plaguey old fool."
"What do you care about things way down South?" Gill demanded. "Slavery don't harm us up here, does it?" 4 We can imagine what Bird's answer must have been.
The assault upon Sumner marked the begin- ning of the final phase of the great struggle that culminated in the Civil War and Emancipation. While Sumner was still suffering from the effects of the attack upon him, there was bloodshed in
1 Sumner Scrap Book. ? Lewis, 161.
3 Boston Daily Advertiser, May 27, 1856. Sumner Scrap Book,
19, 20.
4 Lewis, 196, 197.
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bleeding Kansas. John Brown and his fellow colonists defeated the slave forces at Ossawato- mie. Then in two years more came the seizure of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the arrest and condemnation of Brown on a charge of inciting insurrection.
While this brave soul lay in prison awaiting execution, election day came round in Massa- chusetts. And when the ballots cast in Walpole were counted it was found that one vote had been cast for "John Brown of Ossawatomie" for Governor. 1
If we may be permitted to guess, we will say that Frank Bird cast that vote. Bird did not care for Nathaniel P. Banks, the party standard- bearer that year,? who had been identified with Know Nothingism, a movement Bird could not stomach. A few weeks after the election, when poor old John Brown went to his glorious death, Bird draped his mill office at East Walpole in black, in testimony of his sorrow.3
It was a sign of the changing times. A year later the crisis was reached in the Presidential election. Walpole citizens cast 238 votes for Lincoln electors, against 73 for the Bell, 44 for the Douglass and one for the Breckinridge factions of the Democratic party.4 John A. Andrew, destined to become the great War
1 Town Rec., IV, 38.
? Francis William Bird, 48.
' Lewis, 160.
4 Town Rec., IV.
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Governor, who had been put into the fight by Mr. Bird,1 received 228 votes for Governor, against 125 for his opponents. Walpole, con- sonant with the whole North, had spoken for Freedom. One month later South Carolina answered by voting to secede from the Union.
When Lincoln, on April 15, 1861, called for volunteers to save the Union, and that call was echoed in Massachusetts by Governor Andrew, the Minute Men of '61 sprang to answer.
At least four Walpole men were among the first to serve. They were Sidney S. Hartshorn, Alexander McDonald and Nicholas H. F. Rich- ardson, members of Co. F (Warren Light Guards) of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, and Lowell E. Fales, of Co. C of the 5th, popu- larly called the Charlestown Artillery.
Orders to report at Boston were received by the captain of Co. F of the 6th at his home in Foxboro late in the evening of the 15th. The company left Foxboro at 11 the next morning,2 joined the regiment at Faneuil Hall, left by train in the late afternoon of the 17th for Fall River, and there boarded a steamer for Fortress Monroe. The regiment served in that area until July, participating in the engagement at Big Bethel, and then returned home and was mustered out.3 The Charlestown company of
1 Francis William Bird, 48 et seq.
' Minute Men of '61, p. 80.
3 Ibid.
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the 5th assembled at the Charlestown armory on the 17th, left Boston for Washington the 21st, and, remaining in service after its enlist- ments had expired, participated in the first Battle of Bull Run. 1
At a special town meeting, April 30, 1861, Walpole voted $5000 "for the support of the families and pay of Soldiers ... who shall volunteer & serve the United States in the present war." And a committee, made up of one man from each of the town's seven school districts, was named to assist the selectmen, Nathaniel Bird, M. B. Boyden and Calvin Hartshorn, to distribute relief.2 It was de- cided that each volunteer would be paid enough in addition to his army pay to make his total pay $25 a month. The committee consisted of Palmer Morey, N. B. Wilmarth, Francis W. Bird, Charles Hartshorn, Horace Guild, A. E. Stetson and J. P. Tisdale.3
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