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The Story of the Old White Church
Plymouth New Hampshire
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01823 2865
GENEALOGY 974.202 P74SPA
L
1836-1957
The Story of the Old White Church
Plymouth New Hampshire
Published by Mrs. George H. Bowles
1957
PRINTED IN U. S. A. BY COURIER PRINTING CO., INC. LITTLETON, NEW HAMPSHIRE
HI 11
Congregational Church, Plymouth, N. H. Built 1764
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POST CARD
No. 766A
THIS SIDE FOR CORRESPONDENCE
THIS SIDE FOR ADDRESS
INTRODUCTION
At the suggestion of Rev. Deane L. Hodges, pastor of the Congregational Church in Plymouth, New Hampshire, a series of historical articles were compiled by Mrs. Guy E. Speare for the "Church Family News" that were mimeographed from month to month, beginning in 1953.
The intention was to acquaint the congregation with the story of this church from the beginning in Hollis, New Hamp- shire in 1764 to the present time, since many who participate in the services of the life of the church are too recent arrivals in the town to have acquired but little knowledge about the many years of influence that this church has exerted among the inhabitants of Plymouth.
After many readers had expressed a desire that these articles might appear in printed form, Mrs. George H. Bowles requested that Mrs. Speare prepare a copy for the printer. Since space in the News was limited, explanations were often omitted that are now included within these pages.
Illustrations increase the pleasure of possession of an histor- ical story. A few of the prominent persons and landmarks that are mentioned have been included.
To Mrs. Bowles the gratitude of all readers is due for her generous desire to bear the expense of publication of these historical incidents that have been collected from books about Plymouth and from the lips of aged citizens, many now beyond recall. Whatever amount accrues from the sale of these books will be used to purchase worth while books for readers who patronize the Book Table that stands in the rear of the pews within the church.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 5
CONTENTS
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ILLUSTRATIONS 7
CHAPTERS
I THE ORIGINAL CHURCH 9
II THE WARD FAMILY 15
III THE SECOND MEETINGHOUSE 24
IV THE PRESENT CHURCH BUILDING 31
V THE ANCIENT TRUNK 50
VI THE STORY OF THE PEWS 53
VII WOMEN'S SOCIETIES 71
VIII THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 86
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ILLUSTRATIONS
The Old White Church, 1836-1957 Frontispiece
The Meetinghouse at Hollis-1746
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A Typical Log Meetinghouse of 1768 13
Rev. Nathan Ward from a self-portrait 18
The Oldest Headstone in Plymouth 21
King George's Barn at Hatch Dairy 26
The Second Meetinghouse on Ward Hill 27
Original Stone at Head of Mayhew Turnpike 32
The Church, Court House, Academy in 1851 36
The Belfry of 1893 42
The Sandown Pupit of 1774 44
The Lectern in present Chancel 45
The Lyre Table and Colonial Chairs 46
The Original Pewter Communion Set 47
A Paul Revere and Sons Bell 48
The Chancel of 1926 52
Deacon William Wallace Russell 54
Mrs. William Wallace Russell 72
The Chancel of 1872 79
The Court House of 1774 80
The Centennial Group 88
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THE MEETINGHOUSE AT HOLLIS-1746
Here the organization of the church of Plymouth was formed on April 16, 1764. The horse block on the left was used by women to mount and be seated on the pommel of a saddle.
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Chapter I THE ORIGINAL CHURCH
Viewed through a perspective of years, the date of April 16, 1764, when our church was organized, is of primary impor- tance to the Town of Plymouth, New Hampshire.
It should be emphasized that two hundred years ago the "church" was an organization of people. The word did not apply to a religious service or to a building dedicated to religi- ous functions. At that period the term, orthodox, distinguished the Congregationalists from the Unitarian or Universalist faith. The Plymouth faith was designated as Trinitarian Congrega- tional doctrine.
Such churches were independent of any ecclesiastical con- trol; each determined its own policy and democratic govern- ment. The members pledged themselves with a "Covenant" with God and with one another which bound them to certain religious principles.
A Council had been established among the Congregational churches of New England that consisted of representatives who would offer advice about the ordination of a candidate for the ministry, or in some cases for discipline of wayward members, and would assist in the solemn ceremony of install- ing a minister in a town.
The organization of our church was constituted at Hollis, New Hampshire, where many of the heads of families were preparing to remove to a grant between the Pemigewasset River and Newfound Pond to be named, Plymouth.
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The menace of raids by hostile Indians was near the end and men with money to invest were organizing corporations to which Benning Wentworth, Governor of the Province of New Hampshire, was granting tracts of unsettled wilderness which the grantees hoped to sell for a profit. The Charter for the Grant of Plymouth was issued to sixty-two men on July 15, 1763.
The grantees were obligated to clear a road from the mouth of the Smith River to their grant, to set up saw and grist mills, to build highways and bridges within their grant and to erect a meetinghouse and provide a salary for a settled minister. This last obligation indicates that the town, not the church, was responsible for the maintenance of religion not only in Plymouth but every town in New Hampshire. When a grantee sold his property, the purchaser assumed the taxes for the obligations.
About one third of these grantees were living in Hollis. Several if them scouted in the grant in 1762. A surveyor had already laid out the limits of the lots on the intervale meadows and preparations for the settlement were advancing rapidly in 1764. In the spring of that year, men in Hollis who were mem- bers of the church there, decided upon a plan of action that proved both wise and strategic. On the sixteenth of April, they organized a church composed of members in Hollis who were intending to remove to Plymouth. Note that men, not women, were responsible, for women were not supposed to be capable of voting, although the wives were admitted to membership and even honorable, unmarried women were accepted.
As often came to pass, the written records of this early church were destroyed by fire and no list of the members has been preserved. John Willoughby was deacon from 1766 to 1834; Stephen Webster, from 1767 to 1798; and Francis Worcester, from 1770 to 1792.
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John Willoughby was a young man, had served three years in the French and Indian War, was one of the grantees and explorers of the grant in 1762. He shouldered his musket in 1776, fought at Bennington and was a captain of a company at Saratoga. His home was about where the Starr King Elm was then growing, where he raised twelve children. He died at the age of ninety-eight with a reputation that "every remembrance of him was blameless and loveable" to quote from the eulogy at his funeral.
Stephen Webster was said to have been educated "beyond the measure of his time" and opened his home for a school as he was a teacher by profession. Also, he filled the offices of moderator and clerk for the early settlement.
Francis Worcester should be especially remembered for his efforts in conjunction with Samuel Livermore, to change the opinions of the Grafton County representatives to the Consti- tutional convention who were opposed to ratification of the Federal Constitution.
In a paper before Asquamchumauke Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Miss Caroline W. Mudgett described how Mr. Worcester traveled on horseback from delegate to delegate, not only in Grafton County but to other counties, to explain away the objections to ratification. When the final con- vention assembled, the vote was 57 to 47 on June 21, 1788 and thus New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify and made the Constitution operative.
A highly educated, cultured leader, Mr. Worcester held office in the Council and the State Senate during many years and served on committees at the same time in both county and town.
The above biographical sketches testify to the caliber of the men who were most influential in the beginning of our church, two hundred years ago.
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On the day that the church was organized, the proprietors of the grant announced that Rev. Nathan Ward of Newton, Massachusetts was to become the minister for the new town- ship. Mr. Ward was forty-three years of age and his family consisted of a wife and ten children. From the extant records of the Proprietors the fact is gleaned that Mr. Ward went to Hollis and Abel Webster was paid twenty pounds, old tenor, for his board for ten days. The Proprietors engaged him to preach four times and doubtless these sermons were delivered in Hollis.
Mr. Ward had been ordained to the ministry in Newton where he was pastor of a so-called "independent" church for several years after he was thirty years of age. The ceremony of installing a Congregational minister was considered important and only if a Council of Churches from the county voted its approval, was a minister properly inducted into his position in a town. Here was a dilemma, because no church or county then existed in this part of New Hampshire. Accordingly, "Parson" Ward was installed in a ceremony at the Congregational meet- inghouse at Newburyport, Massachusetts on July 11, 1765. He then came to Plymouth and remained as minister over both church and town until 1798. He died in 1804.
The Proprietors did not erect a meetinghouse for several years. Public worship was observed at the tavern of Captain David Webster. By a law of the Colony of New Hampshire, every township must provide a tavern for the entertainment of strangers. David Webster began his log house in the summer of 1763, it is said, and enlarged it to tavern size the following year. This stood on the site of the present railroad station, probably beside a brook that flowed off the hill through the Common and into the river, says a tradition.
The oldest street in town is Webster Street, beside the Plymouth Inn. It probably was a section of a pathway that wound its way to the foot of Ward Hill. On the north side of
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this path, about where the house of Dr. Learned stands, number ninety-seven Highland Street, the first log meetinghouse was begun in 1768, but was not "comfortably" furnished until 1770. This meant that a pulpit was constructed and backless benches of split logs with angled legs were supplied, for the men on one side of the room and for the women on the other side of the center aisle. There were no windows, but openings covered with oiled material, and no heat was available.
A TYPICAL LOG MEETINGHOUSE OF 1768
Around this log house, the dead were buried in forgotten graves. Field stones marked their graves and the roadway of Highland Street now covers their dust. When excavations were made some years ago for the concrete road, the workmen un- covered stones that were so placed that they probably marked unknown graves.
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That the organization of our church was timely may be proved by the fact that this and the Congregational Church at Blair were the only two of the denomination in this vicinity. In Campton a meetinghouse was erected on either side of the Pemigewasset River. About 1840, the frame of the building at Blair was moved across the river and is now the frame of the present Congregational Church near the townhouse at Campton.
Religious controversies were rife in 1764. The doctrines of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, most influential Congregational preacher, and the sermons of Rev. George Whitefield who founded the Methodist denomination in New England, were then arousing religious factions. A number of the grantees who settled in Plymouth were Baptists and in the surrounding grants in Rumney, Campton, New Hampton, and that section of Holderness which became Ashland, Baptist churches were established. In Holderness, the Episcopal denomination con- trolled through the influence of Mrs. Samuel Livermore, the daughter of the first rector of Queen's Chapel in Portsmouth, the first Church of England in the Colony in 1732. Opposite the Village of Plymouth in Holderness is an ancient cemetery on "Church Hill" where there are graves of the Cox and Shep- ard Families who were of the orthodox faith. There they planned to erect their meetinghouse, but Samuel Livermore was the owner of many miles of the lots in the town and held control of the greater amount of the taxes. Thus the Town of Holder- ness built no meetinghouse until 1797 and then the Episcopal Chapel, now standing by Trinity Church Yard, was erected and the taxpayers were compelled to contribute to the expense.
The conclusion is certain that April 16, 1764, was a most important date for our church and its religious influence in the Town of Plymouth. That this date was strategic may be accep- ted, since the men in Hollis decisively established the denomin- ational pattern for their township.
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Chapter II THE WARD FAMILY
Fortunately the name of the first minister, Rev. Nathan Ward, will long be honored whenever Ward Hill is mentioned, the site of his home in Plymouth. He was of the fourth gener- ation from the Yorkshire Englishman, William, who settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Nathan was born in Newton, Massa- chusetts on April 11, 1721. How he became the educated, cul- tured theologian is unknown, for in his youth he practiced farming and possibly carpentry. The two story house that he erected on Ward Hill was an example of skilled workmanship.
At the age of thirty years, Mr. Ward listened to the in- spiring preaching of Rev. George Whitefield, and determined to devote his life to the Church. Two years previously, he married Tamasin Ireland of Charlestown, Massachusetts.
He was forty-three when he arrived with his wife and ten children in a pathless wilderness. Mr. George G. Clark, a man whose mind was saturated with historical facts about early Plymouth, is authority about the forest that covered the hills. Hardwood trees of immense height shaded the soil that was composted with the leafmould of ages. Many pioneers preferred this rich soil to the lowlands and for this reason, the trend was toward West Plymouth.
Mr. Ward was allotted four fifty-acre lots, two on Ward Hill, also another tract in the undivided section toward New- found Pond which he exchanged for a lot in the Baker River
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Range. He was paid thirty-six pounds for the settlement, prob- ably to build his log cabin and move his family, and an annual salary of fifty pounds, about one hundred fifty dollars.
Mrs. Ernest C. Hunt, a great-granddaughter who resides at sixty Highland Street during the summer, kindly loaned the diary of Enoch, the second son, in which he stated, "Sir" (his title for his father) "brother Nathan and I first came to Plym- outh on May 4, 1766." No doubt these two sons, eighteen and sixteen years of age, helped to roll up the cabin at the foot of Ward Hill and the family arrived when this primitive habita- tion was ready for occupancy. Three years later, this cabin burned. Enoch wrote, "House raised on October 1, 1770, moved into house February 22, 1771." Probably this was the house that Mr. Roy Deming razed on the top of Ward Hill, one hun- dred twenty-two Highland Street.
Ministers were usually the most prosperous men in the early towns, and prosperity followed Parson Ward. The tax on this minister-farmer in 1778 listed buildings, a horse, four oxen, five cows, and eight young cattle. A son, Jonathan was born in 1769, perchance the most distinguished in due time of the twelve children.
The year 1776 was tragic. Nathan, the oldest son, and two of his younger brothers and two sisters died in November or December. The following August, their Mother died leaving her husband with four sons from seven to eighteen years of age. No trace of the spot where Mrs. Ward was buried has been discovered. Possibly her dust lies at the foot of Ward Hill or in the cemetery on the bank of the Baker River on the farm of Mr. Arnold Spencer.
With four motherless boys to care for, naturally Mr. Ward found a second wife the next year, Miss Lydia Clough, daugh- ter of Joseph Clough of Salem, Massachusetts. The History of Plymouth states that Miss Lydia was from Canterbury, and it
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is possible that Rev. Ward met her at the home of her brother, Nehemiah who was a prominent Congregationalist in that town- ship in later years.
Parson Ward, as he was called by his title, was a busy man. To understand the strenuous task of clearing his farm one has only to walk along the road by the present reservoir and notice the boulders in the uncleared woodlots. In her book, Elizabeth Wilson, Mrs. Henry Blair has given a description of the duties that fell to the minister. She tells that he taught the children of the parish to read and to memorize the Catechism. He was both religious and legal advisor in the parish, a dignified, kindly friend to everyone. Without doubt, the influence of Parson Ward largely determined the religious and educational stan- dards of early Plymouth.
In 1782, a daughter was born to Lydia and this sixty-one- year-old father, who became the comfort of their old age. She married Isaac Stafford who built the house now owned by Mrs. Frank H. Foster at one hundred fifty Highland Street. There Nathan died in 1804 and Lydia survived him until 1823. The records of the Pleasant Valley Cemetery near the Smith cov- ered bridge, begin about 1816, but this God's Acre must have been set apart for a cemetery at an earlier date. Near the gate in the granite wall along the highway is the Ward Lot in which the graves of both Nathan and Lydia are marked by marble headstones. Other members of the Ward Family are buried beside their parents.
The descendants of Nathan Ward were remarkable citizens. Enoch, the oldest surviving son, was a carpenter. He built the "Emerson House" at fifty Highland Street. His son, Enoch, Jr. built the Hunt residence at sixty Highland Street and one of these men probably built the "1820 House." The skill for car- pentry followed on, for the house at one hundred fifty-two Highland Street belonged to a grandson, Arthur Ward.
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REV. NATHAN WARD, FROM A SELF-PORTRAIT
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Sons and grandsons graduated from Dartmouth, Amherst, Bowdoin, Union Theological Seminary and Andover, to be- come physicians, dentists, missionaries, clergymen, musicians or merchants. One was President of Rollins College, several were authors or editors of note.
The daughters were no less notable. Many married minis- ters or missionaries, others were able teachers, one at Perkins Institute for the Blind. There was an artist at the Salon in Paris, another in New York. A granddaughter was Principal of Mount Holyoke Seminary from 1872-1883.
A grandson married Elizabeth Stewart Phelps, the famous author, himself a well known writer. Mrs. Hunt is the daugh- ter of Cornelius Ward, son of Enoch, Jr., a broker in New York City.
Many descendants of this family were owners of farms in Plymouth, Rumney and Campton. Others established mercan- tile industries in this vicinity and in the Middle West.
Readers will agree that a kind Providence guided the Church in Hollis in 1764 when Parson Ward was chosen to become the first pastor of our church.
Fortunately, Mrs. Hunt possesses many mementos of her ancestors, among them, likenesses of Parson Ward and his son, Rev. Jonathan Ward who served as pastor of the Plymouth church from 1818 to 1829. At the centennial of our church building in 1936, Mr. George G. Clark was permitted by Mrs. Hunt to copy the picture of Parson Ward that is reproduced for this chapter. The diary of Enoch Ward, mentioned previ- ously, is an account of the business transactions that were re- corded while the American Revolution was fought, when Enoch went to Boston to purchase supplies. The few pages reveal the customs of that period and prices of commodities.
There are other names of families who settled in the section of West Plymouth that are worthy of remembrance. Two an-
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cient cemeteries contain headstones that bear these memorials. A drive on a Sabbath afternoon up the Baker River Valley to visit these God's Acres is suggested.
At a bar-way immediately south of the home of Selectman Arnold Spencer, the first stop is recommended. An elm will be the guide as one walks toward the river's bank where beneath its shade are a number of headstones from which time has al- most erased the inscriptions. There a Revolutionary soldier sleeps. There is the oldest headstone in Plymouth at the grave of Bridget Snow. Beneath a crude "Death's Head" the inscrip- tion reads: "Here lies the Body of the Widow Bridget Snow (formerly the wife of Mr. Joseph Snow) who departed this life the 3 day of December 1773, in the 73 year of her Age."
The History of Plymouth states that Bridget was the wife of Joseph Snow who died in 1747 in the town now known as Hudson in southern New Hampshire. After 1764, their son Henry with his wife and five children came to Plymouth and is said to have lived on Huckins Hill. Evidently, Bridget and her two daughters followed this family hither and two older, married daughters arrived about the same year.
Mrs. Hattie Harriman Trow, who was born in 1857, whose uncle married a grandson of Bridget Snow, related these tradi- tions. Bridget received a considerable amount of wealth at the death of her husband. When she arrived in Plymouth, she and her two daughters lived in a "Dug-out" that was excavated in the bank at the site of the Spencer homestead. It was custom- ary for many pioneer families to roof an excavation with logs, chinked with sods, to provide shelter until a permanent house could be constructed.
The two daughters married before 1770 and Bridget may have lived with her son, Henry. The Dartmouth College Road was cut over Huckins Hill in 1771, the year that the eldest daughter of Bridget came to Hebron from Munson, N. H. The
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re let the Body
of the Wicker Bridgety Scow (formerly tha
Wife of ME Jdeph
Snow) who departed the life the 2day of December 1773; in
the 70 bær d' her Age
THE OLDEST HEADSTONE IN PLYMOUTH MEMENTO MORI ABOVE THE DEATHHEAD WAS A LATIN PROVERB, "REMEMBER TO DIE," THAT IS, ONE MUST DIE.
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tale is related that Bridget followed this pathway, either on foot or horseback, to visit this daughter although the forest was so dense in Hebron that the wolves howled there even in daytime.
Bridget died in 1773 and was buried on land that doubtless she owned. During the floods that have inundated the meadows along the Baker River, there is a probability that burial lots in the ancient cemetery have been swept away. Today the ancient headstone, the oldest in Plymouth, that marks the grave of Bridget Snow stands on a precarious spot at the edge of the bank of the flood plain. These traditions illustrate the courage and endurance of a widow who dared to follow her children into an unsettled region. Her reputation should not fade from the Baker River Valley.
Mrs. Blanche Brackett Smith, who died in 1956, kindly told some facts about "The Pleasant Valley Cemetery," located near the Smith covered bridge, so-named for Jacob Smith who came to Plymouth in 1780. Mr. Clark loaned a plan that was dated 1815, yellowed with age yet legible. The tablet upon the gate states that the cemetery was established in 1814 and this original plan shows two lines of narrow lots on either side of an "alley" that was eleven feet wide. Here is a burying ground that is worthy of historical mention, especially in this story about the Congregational Church. The marble headstones are specimens of the skill of the handicraft of stone cutters before the present machine age.
As one enters the gate, the name of Deacon James Morrison is first noted. He was born in Windham, New Hampshire in 1783, came to Plymouth when a young man, became a deacon in the church and continued in office for twenty-five years. Our church was erected soon after he assumed this honored position.
The next lot belonged to Daniel Eaton, a lieutenant and a selectman for several years. His brother, Asa, was a pastor of the North Church in Boston, an interesting fact to note, after
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Hurricane Edna destroyed the steeple in 1955.
The lots numbered five and seven bear stones that com- memorate Isaac Ward and Rev. Nathan Ward and other mem- bers of his family. Here we pause to question, for the date on the stone reads that Rev. Nathan died June 15, 1804, some years before the cemetery was established. Probably this grave was here before others were laid to rest in this ground. Yet, according to the History of Plymouth, the first school teacher was Stephen Webster who died in 1798. On the original plan of the cemetery, a lot was owned by Mr. Webster. No stone marks his lot, number 22, although his dust may be lying under the grass of an unmarked grave.
The next date on a stone is 1809, previous to the date on the gate, for Ruth, the wife of William George, Esq. Pleasant Valley Cemetery contains the graves of many prominent citi- zens of a century and a half ago. Among them is Peter Flanders, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Blanche Smith, who was a potter in West Plymouth; also the lots belonging to the Cummings, Clark, Wells and George Families, all names in early Plymouth.
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