USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Antrim > Memorial sermon, and membership of the Presbyterian Church in Antrim, N. H > Part 1
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974.202 An&co
Gc 974.202 An8co 1241134
M.L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01095 8822
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/memorialsermonme00antr
MEMORIAL SERMON:
AND
Membership of the Presbyterian Church,
IN
ANTRIM, N. H.
W.R. Cochrane
BOSTON: NOYES, SNOW & COMPANY. 1877.
Press of the Publishers : Worcester, Mass.
1211134
CONTENTS.
SKETCH OF THE FORMATION OF THE CHURCH, . 5
SKETCH OF ITS PASTORS,
7
HISTORICAL SERMON,
ยท 9
NAMES OF PROPRIETORS OF THE NEW MEETING HOUSE,
1826, 37
CATALOGUE OF ALL MEMBERS FROM THE START,
38
SKETCH OF SABBATH SCHOOL, 58 LIST OF CHURCH OFFICERS, 1788 - 1877, 57
CATALOGUE OF PRESENT MEMBERS (JUNE 7, 1877),
61
..
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE CHURCH.
.
THE Presbyterian Church in Antrim was organ- ized Aug. 2, 1788. The old record calls it the "Church of Christ in Antrim." Rev. William Morrison came here by direction of the Presby- tery of Londonderry -organized the church, and ordained James Aiken, Isaac Cochran, and Jona- than Nesmith as "Ruling Elders and Deacons."
The first record is thus : "At a meeting of the session, August 2, 1788, voted, that Isaac Cochran be Clerk of the Session." On the following day, August 3, Mr. Morrison presided and members seem to have been received by the Session in the usual way. The Session seem to have been chosen August 2, by "voice of the congregation ;" and were ordained the same day. The original mem- bers of the church were 72, and their names will appear in the subjoined catalogue. Every year subsequently new members were received, though they had no minister. Mr. Morrison came here
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every year, baptized children, received members and preached to this church-over which he exercised a loving, fatherly care, and unto which he was greatly endeared. The people flocked together with great zeal to hear the word from his lips. He held "protracted meetings" and they were of great interest. This noble man died March 9, 1818. "Come, come, Lord Jesus !" were his last words.
The first minister of this church was Rev. Wal- ter Little, son of Thomas and Susanna (Wallace) Little, of Peterborough, and uncle of Deacon William Little, who recently died at the Branch. He was born 1766; graduated, Dartmouth Col- lege, 1796 ; settled here, 1800; left, 1804; died in Maryland, 1815.
The next minister was Rev. John M. Whiton, D. D., son of Dr. Israel Whiton; born in Win- chester, Mass., August 1, 1785 ; graduated, Yale College, 1805 ; came here, 1807; was pastor forty- five years ; settled, age of twenty-three ; died in Bennington, September 27, 1856. Dr. Whiton was a man universally loved-as pure and good as this world affords.
The next minister was Rev. John H. Bates, born in Colchester, Vt., 1814; graduated at Uni- versity of Vermont, 1840; came here, 1853; re- signed, July 1, 1866 ; died, Charleston, S. C., May
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10. 1870. Mr. Bates was a man of more than ordinary scholarship and ability, and did much for the church.
The next pastor was the present one, Rev. W. R. Cochrane, born in New Boston, 1835 ; gradua- ted, Dartmouth College, 1859; was tutor there, 1861 ; came here November, 1867 ; began service January 1, 1868.
No one of these ever had any other pastorate.
These pastoral changes may be brought under one view thus :
REV. WALTER LITTLE.
Born, 1766; graduated, Dartmouth College, 1796 ; ordained September 3, 1800 ; resigned Sept. 4, 1804 ; died, 1815.
REV. JOHN M. WHITON, D. D.
Born August 1, 1785 ; graduated, Yale, 1805 ; ordained September 28, 1808; resigned January 1, 1853 ; died September 27, 1856.
REV. JOHN H. BATES.
Born, 1824; graduated, Vermont University, 1840 ; ordained, March 16, 1853; resigned, July 1, 1866 ; died, May 10, 1870.
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REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
Born, 1835 ; graduated, Dartmouth College, 1859 ; began service, January 1, 1868 ; ordained, March 18, 1869.
HISTORICAL SERMON
DELIVERED IN THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
ANTRIM, N. H.
NOV. 5, 1876.
BY REV. W. R. COCHRANE, PASTOR
HISTORICAL SERMON. DUET. 6 : 6-7.
"And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children; and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
This text, taken in connection with the rest of the chapter in which it stands, indicates God's wish that we remember his commands and his mercies together. He would have what he wants us to do, pressed home by some tender recollection of what he has done for us. He wants a place in our hearts. We think of our human wishes to be remembered, when we see the Lord so many times and in so many ways urging us to keep familiar with what he bas done; and we feel softened and reverent as our thought follows this line of appeal to human gratitude, till we hear him saying last of all : " This do in remembrance of me!"
I have been touched with the tenderness, the spirit of solicitude and beseechment, which runs through these divine instructions given of old : "Beware, lest thou forget the Lord." " When thy
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son asketh thee in time to come saying, what mean the testimonies, and statutes and judgments ? * * Then shalt thou say unto thy son, We were Pharoah's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand."
And since the Lord is the same in his wishes and in his compassions in every age, it becomes us to take tenderly into consideration those words of his before us today, and to learn, (1.) The duty of a familiar knowledge of God's dealings with our fathers. We may get a practical view of duty from men's conduet and God's treatment of them. We see how he uses those who are trying to do his will. We get proofs that seem real and visi- ble and near to us. If you should go over the field of battle at its close, and see the torn ground, the scarred trees, the broken weapons, the dead horses, the fallen men, with every look of pain and hate, the wounded ones, mangled, moaning and dying in their blood, you would get a more just idea of the awful strife than by reading every thing that could be written about it. So in being familiar with what God has done to us and our kin, and our fathers ; we get, as it were, a close, direct look at his discipline. The whole conflict stands before us. We don't take it second-hand. It is not a matter of theory. It is not something that lan- guage has dressed up. It is not away off beyond
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our ken. But as it touches our inheritances, and has to do with those we love, and those whose memories we have been taught to revere, it brings the hand of God before our eyes and shows us an experiment of his will. Again, we must remember that Providence is one part of God's revelation. We have no more right to shut up the Book of his Works than we have to shut up the Book of his Words. Many a time one of these becomes the interpreter of the other. Oft with profound rev- erence we have read in what God has done the explanation of what he has said. Strange fulfill- ments have taken the mystery out of strange prophecies. The poor heathen get their only ideas of God from the wonderful and solemn things they see him do. It is ours to read the books of Prov- idence and grace alongside, and when we see how in them both the Lord reaches our families and our church and our land, it seems to bring him near, as one weaving silently about us the pre-announced fabric of human events.
And then, a familiar knowledge of God's deal- ings with our fathers will lead us to love him more. It is a good thing for us to study the faithfulness of the Lord. "No word he hath spoken was ever yet broken." The more we get familiar with the Master's care, the likelier we shall grow enamoured of his divine compassion. His dealings with our
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fathers are calculated to inspire our love. We feel as though we wanted to trust him ourselves. We see the river of his mercy flowing down wider and wider to us. It comes to be a joy to us, to know that God wants to be loved; 'and, out of hearts grown thankful by the study of his good- ness, we realize the tenderness and wisdom with which he speaks in our text: " These words which I commanded thee this day, shall be in thine heart."
(2). The text commands us to teach our chil- dren about the Love and Providence of God. Our Lord wants us to transmit from age to age the knowledge of his love. In old times he appeared visibly to men, he sent his angels, he inspired the prophets, he came himself as the great teacher of men, and last of all sent down the Holy Ghost up- on the Apostles to finish the revelation from heaven. But now he does not plan to make this revelation over and over and over, at such pains, but to have it handed down from one generation to another. And how can this be done effectually unless we teach our children about God. The les- sons of home last longest. The instructions at a mother's knee never fade from the mind. And God wants these first - these abiding impressions to contain the truth about him. "Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children." This must
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be our highest purpose for our little ones. By your lives before them, by explaining to them, by leading them to the house of God, by inculcating a becoming reverence for the Saviour, by making them feel that we care more for their standing with God than with men, by acknowledging his mercies, by telling in their young ears the story of a Saviour's love, we are to keep these things fresh and uppermost in our children's minds. Parents must preach Jesus at home. So long as our chil- dren are sinful, we must teach them of a Saviour from sin. So long as God is our Sovereign, we must impress his laws at the fireside. So long as he is a Being of Infinite Mercy, we must "abun- dantly utter the memory of his great goodness" in the ears of those we love.
(3). God requires that we make his mercies in the past a subject of frequent conversation. "Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." When the war was raging at the South, and disease and bat- tle were doing their deadliest work, men talked it over wherever they met. It was a matter of con- versation in every family ; tremendous issues were at stake. Safety, property, home, loved ones, life itself imperiled, who could help speaking of what concerned us all so much ? You can tell the en-
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grossing interest of a people by what they talk about. If, then, we be God's people, must we not speak often of divine things? Will not the mat- ters of the heavenly kingdom be on our minds? Is it not strange that Christians talk with each other so little about the prospects of the soul? If we truly appreciate the mercies by which we and our fathers have been preserved,-if we realize what God is doing for us every day, how can we help speaking of it one to another? Why should not our Lord wish to be spoken of by us, while we are enjoying the gifts of his hand? How can any people maintain a loving reverence for God, if, in their daily intercourse they make no mention of his care and his love? And how can we expect much of God if at the fireside or on the street we are afraid to speak of his holy will; and hav'n't gratitude enough to allude to his goodness in con- versation ! " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another ; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
(4). That which in particular at the present time we are to be familiar with - which we are to teach our children - and which we are to talk of
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by the way, is the goodness of God to this people during the last hundred years.
1n 1776 there were no roads in town. People traveled by footpaths and marked trees. The only bridge anywhere in town was the "Great Bridge," as it was called for many years, (now the Baldwin bridge), begun a hundred years ago this fall, and not finished for several seasons, though a very humble affair. There was no village, no store, no post-office, no meeting-house; people were few and scattered and poor, lived in log houses, and only their little clearings far apart dotted the boundless forests. Philip Riley (or Raleigh) was living with a large family where Reed P. Whittemore now lives: Deacon James Aiken, with six children and a hired man, lived in his " new log house " on the spot now occupied by Mr. Peaslee; William Smith lived in the field some thirty rods south of Thomas Poor's; John Gordon lived where Oliver Sweet now lives ; Mau- rice Lynch lived on William Stacy's hill ; Randall Alexander occupied the spot now Arthur Miller's ; "Captain John Duncan" lived on the very spot where now his great-grandson, John Moor Dun- can still holds the manor - this last being the only descendant in town of the families of 1776 that retains either the name or the place as then held; the widow of James Dickey, with three
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children, lived where the large brick house stands over east; Deacon Joseph Boyd was on the Good- ell farm; James Duncan occupied the Saltmarsh place; the eccentric Scotchman, Daniel McFar- land, lived where, N. W. C. Jameson now lives : John Warren lived at or near the spot now Sam- uel Sawyer's; James Moore, the miller, owned all the branch south of the river, and lived in a log cabin just back of Sylvester Preston's; Robert Burns lived on the "High Range," his nearest neighbor being at the branch; Thomas Stuart lived on the farm now John G. Flint's; John Mc- Clary, the weaver, was living where James Tuttle now lives; James McAllister had his log house a few rods north of the home now Miles Tuttle's ; Richard McAllister lived on the north-east slope of Meeting House Hill; Alexander Jameson was on the place now the residence of Gilman H. Cleaves ; Matthew Templeton was on the Deacon Cochran farm ; and Thomas Nichols, then a mere boy, had begun alone on the Deacon Shattuck place to clear the ground for his future home. These were all the people in town one hundred years ago. These twenty scattered families, with a few lads that worked for them, and the boy Thomas Nichols who had begun for himself, about one hundred persons, constituted the body whose religious history we are to trace to-day.
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For many years there was no religious meeting of any kind in town. Probably there was not even a prayer-meeting for thirty years after Riley began in 1744. The first sermon in Antrim was preached September, 1775, in Deacon Aiken's barn, which stood about half way between the old Aiken house and the barn now Mr. Gove's. Maybe some fu- ture generation will erect a monument there, mark- ing it as holy ground. What an audience it was. A picture of that scene and company would be worth a fortune now. The speaker, Rev. William Davidson of Londonderry, was a grey old divine, a dull and sleepy preacher, but an affectionate and holy man. He was personally acquainted with those to whom he was speaking, for they were the children that had grown up about him in his long ministry at home. The rough-clad settlers, -the hardy wives in their homespun, ribbonless as Eve was in Eden - and bare-footed children, made up the group. Seated on rough planks and bits of logs, or leaning against the hay-mow, listening hushed and reverent to the words of life,-fitly they worshipped him who was born in a manger "where the horned oxen fed."
In the two next years, 1776 and 1777, nothing was paid for preaching, so far as we can learn, but two or three times each summer they met to listen to some neighboring minister that came among
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them ; yet in these and preceding years they were not negligent religious things. They taught their children at home. The Bible and the Catechism were the chief literature in every house. They kept the Sabbath with great reverence. Nobody could even walk the rough paths of the forest without being liable to be called in question for breaking the day of God. Having no trash to read, or for their children to read, they studied over and over the Holy Book, and came to hold its great doctrines rigidly and intelligently. Yet they longed for a stated preaching of the word, and at their first March meeting, 1778, voted thir- ty-two dollars for that purpose, and in July of the same year voted one hundred dollars more. This, considering their feebleness and their poverty, was a very generous outlay. It would be about like nine thousand a year for Antrim now.
From this time till 1800-twenty-two years - they had no settled minister, but such supplies for a part of each year as they could get here and there; yet it seems that when they had no minis- ter they went on with the service without him, inas- much as the town voted, 1782, that Daniel Nichols, a smart young man on the place where George Tur- ner lives, should "read the Psalm on Sabbath days, and all other days when public service is attended." In 1780, eight years before there was any church
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organization, and five years before there was any church building, the town voted a call to Rev. James Miltimore, which he declined, though he preached here part of each summer for five years. Services were held in the settlers' houses, in barns and in the open air. In spring of 1785, the town voted that public worship for that year should be at Daniel Miltimore's -now Mr. Whiteley's ; and there it was that, when the little dwelling was crowded full, the flooring gave way, and dropped them, furniture, minister and all, into the cellar ! For some years previous to this they agitated the question of building a meeting house ; and in 1784, they chose Daniel Nichols, James Dinsmore and Samuel Dinsmore a "committee to estimate the timber ; voted to build forty by fifty feet; after- wards empowered the same committee to "Let the Building," and on the 28th of June, 1785, the frame was raised, and the house was completed near the close of 1792, it taking nearly eight years to struggle through it. Blessed old building ! What hands have lifted at its massive timbers! What memories are sealed in its silent walls ! May it be sacred for generations to come !
At the March meeting, 1788, the town chose Isaac Cochran and John Duncan a committee to go to Presbytary and ask them to organize a church here. The town record gives only the
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first of these names ; but the church record gives both, and it seems pretty certain that both went. On their petition, Rev. William Morrison, of Lon- donderry, was sent here, and he organized this church August 2, 1788. The number of original members was seventy-two. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was first administered in Antrim, August 24, 1788 ; and then, and for upwards of a generation afterwards, the preceding Thursday and Friday were kept as Fast days-more care- fully than we keep the Sabbath now; and Satur- day afternoon and all day Sunday, and Monday forenoon, were given to public religious services.
As these things were planned for ahead, and then came but once a year, it was so arranged that neighboring ministers for a long distance, came in to help, thus constituting a protracted meeting in connection with the communion, and often result- ing in precious revivals. Year by year some were added to the church ; forty-eight having been re- ceived from 1788 to 1800, so they must have had nearly one hundred members when their first min- ister came among them at this last date. The early records were said to have been kept on loose papers, and some of these were lost ; and what we have up to 1816 seems to be a brief abstract of the whole, put into the best shape possible under the circumstances, and at that date (1816) in the handwriting of Dr. Whiton.
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Efforts had been made continually to get a min- ister; but it was not till September 3, 1800, that this growing flock, pastorless for more than a quar- ter of a century, rejoiced in a settled teacher in the person of Rev. Walter Little. Under him the church prospered greatly ; but he was authorita- tive and severe in doctrine and manner, far too much to be at peace with the Scotchy elements of his charge ; and as the dissatisfaction grew about him-though ministers were settled for life in those days - he suddenly left at the end of four years, in which time sixty-nine were added to the church, and the wealth and population of the town greatly increased. The next year, 1805, the town voted a call to Thomas Cochran, of New Boston, which he declined. In 1806 they voted a call to Wm. Ritchie, of Peterboro', which he declined ; and in 1807 they voted a call to John M. Whiton, which he declined ; and by this time they must have felt a little discouraged in the matter of hunting up a minister. But the next spring the town renewed the call to Mr. Whiton, offering a salary of $450.00 - the same being counted large in those days. In addition, they voted $500.00 down, which they called a "settlement," from which twenty-five dollars a year was to be paid back for the time he was deficient, if he left within twenty years; except in case of sickness or death.
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With that $500.00 they wanted to help him start, and they wanted to hold him.
In consideration of these inducements, and of the earnest desire and great need of the people, Mr. Whiton accepted this second call, and was ordained September 28, 1808. And notwithstand- ing thirteen men entered on the town record their protest against his settlement - some of them very bitter-some on the ground that the salary was too much for the town to pay, though the popula- tion was greater than it is now, and no other church within its bounds ; some on the ground that money for preaching ought to be collected " only by subscription; " and some on the ground that Mr. Whiton "held the tenets of Hopkins," -apparently a very thin excuse for those men to make. Notwithstanding all this, Mr. Whiton con tinued pastor long after every one of these oppos ers was dead and gone, reaching almost the longest pastorate in the history of the New Hampshire churches. If it be argued from this that a small minority ought to drive the choice of the people away, it should be added that a minister must be prudent, able, charitable and godly, to live opposi- tion down. When Mr. Whiton settled, the church numbered one hundred and twenty-five. For the first seven years of his ministry very little occurred needing special mention here. Presbytery met
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for the first regular meeting in Antrim in 1810. About this time many of the first settlers passed away. The terrible scourge of the spotted fever passed over the town. The last war with the + British aroused, as never before or since, the pas- sions and fears of New England. These and other causes produced, as of old time, seven years of famine in the church, not enough being added to make good the losses by removal and death. This must have been very discouraging to Mr. Whiton, especially as these first are a minister's most hopeful and sanguine years. But in 1815 the church, by vote, established a stated week-day prayer meeting. It seems in those days to have been called usually a " conference " meeting. So far as the record goes, this was the first thing of the kind in town; and this looking to God for help was answered at once. A deep, religious in- terest, as inspired from on high, silently and slowly crept over the town; and, like the years of plenty after the years of famine, it lasted seven years, till 1823 ; in which time more than a hundred united with this church. We conclude that for many years, before and after this date, candidates for church membership were examined before the Ses- sion, and not before the whole church, since they were required to "give in their names " and pass examination, from time to time, several weeks pre- vious to the Preparatory Lecture.
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Then came the period of discussion about build- ing a new meeting house. Feeling ran strong ; selfishness argued and threatened ; town meetings were called and re-called in vain; and the best men doubted as to what it was wisest to do. The road from Mrs. Joy's to Luther Campbell's, called the Branch Road, having been built in 1821, and having taken all the travel from the old road over the hill, it was hard in summer, and next to im- possible in winter, to get up to the old church - and something must be done. Yet some didn't want a new house; some cried out against the ex- pense of building ; some wanted to move the old one ; some wanted to build in one place and some in another.
But after two years of excited talk, reference to committees, and so on, the great majority fixed on the spot now occupied, and decided to build at once. They chose as building committee Captain John Worthley, Thomas McCoy, Samuel Cum- mings, James Wallace, Jr., and Isaac Baldwin ; and in the fall of 1825 they began the foundation, quite a company assembling, and Mr. Whiton making a speech at the laying of the corner stone. In the following winter a row of shantees stood from Mr. Herrick's eastward along the road nearly to the old Jonas Parker house (opposite town house) ; and quite a company of men worked in
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