USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > A history of the town of Hanover, N.H. > Part 12
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This plan involved no change in doctrine or procedure on the part of either church, but merely harmonious action in certain matters essential to a vigorous church life. They were to unite in the choice of a minister, who was to perform pastoral duties in both parishes, and to preach to both congregations according to an arrangement of mutual accommodation. There were to be annual fellowship meetings and annual reports on the work of the churches. Pastors were to be chosen alternately from the two denominations, unless the church, whose turn it was to have the pastor from its denomination, requested that such provision should be disregarded. The pastoral relation was to be in charge of a joint committee, and the two churches were to contribute to the support of the minister according to a definite plan. His salary was then fixed at $850 a year and the use of the parsonage, of which the Etna church was to furnish $450 and the parsonage, and the Center church was to furnish $300 (each to furnish more, if possible), and the balance was expected from the missionary societies.
On the ratification of the plan a call was given to the Rev. Mr. Jean C. Heald of Waterford, Vt., who did not accept, and another call was given to the Rev. Edward C. Sargent of Union, N. H., which resulted more happily, and he became the pastor of the federated churches in October, 1911. The first joint communion of the two churches was held in the following February. Mr. Sargent's pastorate was highly successful, commending itself to both churches, which had in an unusual degree the continuous enjoyment of their separate and joint services under the opera- tion of the federation and received many additions. He resigned in September, 1918, to accept a call to Deerfield, Mass.
His successor, the Rev. Charles L. Chamberlin, began his work immediately. He was the pastor of the Baptist Church in Leba- non and he held services in Hanover in the afternoon, alternating after the first between the two churches. His connection lasted four years, until October, 1922, when he retired and, according to the system of rotation provided in the federation, a Congrega- tional minister, the Rev. Addison P. Gifford of Brentwood, N. H., was called to the joint service, who began his labors in Novem-
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The Baptists
ber. His pastorate came to an end in August, 1924, through the discontinuance of the federation. This came about through the acceptance by the Baptist Church of the terms of a bequest made to it by John L. Bridgman of Hanover, whose wife was long an active member of the church and of its choir. Mr. Bridgman devised to that church a business block in the village of Hanover, the income from which was to be "used to maintain preaching of the Baptist denomination at the Brick Church in Etna or any other place in said Hanover or Etna approved by the said Baptist Church," one hundred dollars of the income, however, being for the use of the choir. The terms of the bequest were judged by the church, in accepting the gift, to necessitate the abandonment of the federation, as a "definition" of the phrase, "preaching of the Baptist denomination" implied an emphasis on immersion that could not be secured under the federation, and though for thirteen years the two churches had listened to the preaching of ministers of both denominations to the strengthening of their joint life and without injury to their denominational standards, the deci- sion was made at a meeting of the Baptist Church held in Feb- ruary, 1924, to dissolve the federation, and, in accordance with the notice duly given to the other church, the federation came to an end August 31st of that year, and the two churches returned to their previous state of single weakness. On that date Mr. Gifford ended his relation to the churches and the Baptist Church secured the services of the Rev. Howard H. White, pastor of the Baptist Church in Lebanon, who, beginning in the next Septem- ber, has since conducted an afternoon service at Etna.
For some quaint reminiscences of former times in Hanover we are indebted to a rare little book, published in 1847, by one of the early members of this church, Elder Ariel Kendrick. Among other things he tells us that although the Baptists were never violently persecuted here, they were yet strongly opposed, and shut out from all public buildings, so that they held their meet- ings wherever they could find a place, sometimes being forced into barns. He does not wholly acquit the people of the College Plain.
"When I was a youth (he says) attending Moor's Charity School at Dartmouth College, Mr. Baldwin was invited to give an evening lecture at the College Plain. A Baptist brother, Mr. (Roswell) Fenton, endeavored to obtain a public room for the occasion, but without success. As a last resort he opened his own dwelling house, though small, and had a good attendance
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History of Hanover
from students and others, though the Rev. Professor Smith appointed a lecture or conference the same evening, a thing which I was told he had never done before."
Below is a list of the pastors of the church and of those who have been more than occasional supplies in the intervals of the pastorate, as far as it can be gathered from the records. In some cases the records do not give the first names or the length of time during which the different men ministered to the church. The names of those who were temporary supplies are printed in italics, and their times were between the times of the pastors between whose names they stand. A list of licentiates and of those ordained from the church is also given.
MINISTERS AND SUPPLIES
LICENTIATES
Abel Bridgman
1793-1796
Abel Bridgman
Isaac Bridgman
1796-1815
Isaac Bridgman
Thomas Whipple
Clark Kendrick
Joseph Wheat Lamson
Thomas Whipple
John Saunders
1820-1821
Wetterel Hough Lovejoy
Jesse Coburn
1822-1832
Benjamin Swazey
Nathan Frizzle
Huntington
Asaph Merrian
Merchant
1834-1835
Harvy Dodge
Jarius E. Strong
1836-1837
George W. Gordon
Wiggins
1837-1838 (winter)
Isaac Bridgman
Levi Walker
1838-1839
Ransom M. Sawyer
1840-1841
ORDAINED
Jonathan R. Green
1841-1844
Abel Bridgman
Jonathan R. Green
1846-1847
Isaac Bridgman
Daniel Mead
1845
Benjamin Swazey
Daniel F. Richardson
1848-1850
Edward Mitchell
George W. Cutting
1851-1852
Ransom M. Sawyer
Chandler Newhall
1852-1855
S. W. Miles
1856
Edward Ashton
1857
J. S. Herrick
1858-1863
Samuel Bell
1864-1865
Franklin Merriam
1865-1872
Samuel Hale
J. S. Small
C. J. Wilson
1874-1875
E. H. Smith
1875-1879
N. F. Tilden
1879-1898
J. F. Pride
1898-1902
Samuel Bartlett
William Bowen
Benjamin Swazey
Edward Mitchell
Phineas Lovejoy
Nathan Chapman
Ariel Kendrick
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The Baptists
MINISTERS AND SUPPLIES
Alfred J. Chick
1903-1909
Edward C. Sargent
1911-1918
Charles L. Chamberlin
Oct., 1918-Oct. 8, 1922
Addison F. Gifford
Nov., 1922-Aug., 1924
Howard H. White
Sept., 1924-
CHAPTER IX
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
I N March, 1773, the Rev. Ranna Cossit, who came from Farm- ington, Conn., and who received Holy Orders from the Bishop of London, for which purpose he had sailed for England in December, 1772, was appointed by the London "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" as itinerant missionary, at a salary of £30 sterling a year, to labor in New Hampshire on the Connecticut river, in what was styled the "Haverhill parish," extending at least as far as Claremont.1
From a letter written by Mr. Cossit about this time 2 we learn that there were church people scattered for a distance of about 150 miles along the Connecticut river, though there was no clergy- man nearer Hanover than 130 miles, and that meetings had been held steadily by them during the preceding summer in Alstead, Claremont and Springfield, and also at Haverhill, where Governor Wentworth intended Mr. Cossit to settle. "Twenty-four miles above Springfield (adds Mr. Cossit) Dr. Wheelock hath a college and informs the Church people that he will supply them with ministers. There is a considerable number of Church people opposite Dr. Wheelock on N. York side of the river and some on the same side with him who constantly meet and read prayers among themselves."
In Haverhill the church people were quite numerous and influential, headed by Colonel Porter and Colonel Hurd, but the ministerial right of lands, and it would seem the church glebe, had been taken up by the Rev. Peter Powers, whose parish (though he lived in Newbury) included also the town of Haverhill. Governor Wentworth was very indignant at this illegal act of Mr. Powers, as he viewed it, and expressed his feeling to President Wheelock in a letter written Aug. 4, 1773 :
I find a very ungenerous difficulty has arisen at Haverhill about the minis- terial lot wh Mr. Powers scandalously, & highly to the injury of his pro- fession, has presumd illegally to enter upon, with a view to defraud &
1 An account of Mr. Cossit's work is to be found in a History of the Eastern Diocese, by Calvin R. Batchelder, vol. I, pp. 180-196.
2 Belknap's History of New Hampshire, Farmer's edition, p. 324, note.
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The Episcopal Church
insult the Church of England, which I can never quietly permit. The can- dor and equity observd by the Establish'd Church in acquiescing with pleasure in many lots being taken up by others where they were actually and bona fide settled, ought to have securd us in an equal return from them; but Mr. Powers has rather set us an example of persecution, wh tho' it will not be followd, shall not succeed or be endured. I am sure ev'ry can- did, benevolent Christian must disapprove of such hasty, unadvised, & unworthy conduct.
Owing, perhaps, to these difficulties, Claremont was preferred for Mr. Cossit's residence and he was collated to the church in that place by Governor Wentworth June 28, 1773. The vestry was organized in the following November, at their "first meeting after the Rev. Ranna Cossit returned from England with Holy Orders."
One quarter of Mr. Cossit's time was nevertheless given to Haverhill, with occasional visits to Hanover and other parishes in the valley. He persisted in his claim to the lands in Haver- hill, as appears from a "covenant" signed January 28, 1775, by certain citizens of Haverhill and Newbury, declaring Colonels Porter and Hurd on this account "public enemies to the good of the community," and pledging themselves "not to have any com- munication with either of them: not so much as to trade, lend, borrow or labor with them, till they should make public satis- faction." The town also thought it necessary to interfere in behalf of Mr. Powers.1 It is not unreasonable to suppose that the ani- mosities bred by this affair may have had something to do with Colonel Hurd's removal to Boston in 1778, and with the fact that Colonel Hurd cuts so small a figure in the "History of the Coos County," written by Mr. Powers' son. There can be no doubt that Mr. Cossit held services from time to time at Hanover. Governor Wentworth desired to have him elected into the College Board,2 but the atmosphere of the College was not at that period congenial.
Mr. Cossit's salary from the London Society ceased at the beginning of the war and although it was made up to him after he left the country, he was reduced to straits. In November, 1775, he and others of his church in Claremont were arrested and tried before the united Committees of Claremont, Cornish, Lebanon and Hanover, and condemned as Tories.3 The Exeter Congress
1 Bittinger, History of Haverhill, p. 154.
2 Chase, History of Dartmouth College, I, p. 288.
3 Hanover sent Capt. Edmund Freeman, Lt. David Woodward and Lt. John Wright. Deacon Estabrook was chairman and Judah Hebard was clerk, both of Lebanon. Col. Porter was treated to a similar prescription in August, 1776, through active intervention of his brother churchman, Col. Hurd. History of the Eastern Diocese, pp. 180-194.
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History of Hanover
approved the conclusions, and Mr. Cossit and the others were restricted to the limits of Claremont, but with full liberty for Mr. Cossit to officiate in his ministerial office, wherein he did not fail to keep his colors flying. He wrote to the London Society, January 6, 1779: "I have constantly kept up public service with- out any omissions, for the King and royal family .
. . for the high court of parliament, and the prayer used in time of war and tumults." In Claremont he reports his parishioners increas- ing, but "in sundry places where I used to officiate the church people are all dwindled away. Some have fled to the King's army for protection ; some were banished; many are dead." Mr. Cossit left Claremont in 1785, and in 1794 he went to Cape Breton as a missionary of the London Society. He died in Yar- mouth, N. S., 1815, aet. seventy-five.1 His son, Ranna, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1798.
From 1775 to 1787 no Episcopal services were held in Han- over, so far as known. In October, 1787, the Rev. Tillotson Bronson of Connecticut, then a deacon in orders, was sent to officiate in Hanover and Strafford. In February, 1778, he was ordained a priest and continued in charge of the same territory until the October following.2 In 1793 and 1794 the Rev. John Ogden itinerated through the towns in the valley, including Han- over. Mr. Ogden was a graduate of Princeton College in 1770, and from 1786 to 1793 he was rector of St. John's Church in Portsmouth.
There is no record of any subsequent attempt to gain a footing for this denomination here, until about 1820, when the Rev. Benjamin Hale, professor of chemistry in the College, began holding services according to the Episcopalian form, first in his own house, then in the Medical Building and later in other places in this and neighboring towns. He organized a church in Nor- wich, and a plan was contemplated to erect a church edifice in Hanover, on the lot now covered by the building of the Thayer School, contiguous to Professor Hale's residence. The activity ceased on his removal in 1835.
In 1850 Rev. Edward Bourns, LL. D., then President and professor of languages of Norwich University, was secured to conduct a stated Episcopalian service in Hanover each Sunday afternoon. The services were held at first in the parlor of Mrs. Brewster's house, at the southeast corner of Wheelock and
1 History of the Eastern Diocese, pp. 180-194.
2 History of the Eastern Diocese, pp. 217-272.
)
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The Episcopal Church
School Streets, now the chapter house of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. The use of the Methodist meeting house was very soon obtained, and the house itself was purchased in 1851. Dur- ing five months in 1854, Dr. Bourns was assisted by Rev. George T. Chapman of the class of 1804, who preached every Sabbath.1 In 1855 a society was organized under the name of "St. Thomas' Church," many of the Methodists joining it. Dr. Bourns offi- ciated regularly till 1866, and at much personal inconvenience. He was accustomed to make frequent trips between Norwich and Hanover on foot, undeterred by inclement weather, or the heat of summer, which, as he was heavy and asthmatic, occasioned him much suffering.
Although never a resident of Hanover, Dr. Bourns, from his peculiar relation to the beginning of this church and from his long, faithful and disinterested service in it, was well known to all and much esteemed. He was modest to excess and corres- pondingly reticent concerning himself, so that our knowledge of him is somewhat meager. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, October 29, 1801. After studying under Dr. Miller of Armagh, he was graduated B. A. at Trinity College, Dublin, July 9, 1833 and passed theological examinations in June, 1834. Before and after this he was employed as a writer and reviewer by a well- known publishing house in London, and from time to time as a tutor in a private family. In 1837 he came to this country and opened an English and Classical School in Philadelphia. In 1839 he became adjunct professor of Latin and Greek in Geneva College, N. Y., from which he received the degree of A. M. in 1839 and of LL. D. in 1841. He was ordained deacon in Epis- copal orders in Trinity Church at Geneva, March 7, 1841, and priest in Zion Church, Palmyra, N. Y., March 12, 1842. From 1845 he taught the languages in Brooklyn, N. Y., and in 1850 became President of Norwich University and professor of Latin and Greek. He resigned the presidency in 1865 but retained his professorship until his death. The University, greatly reduced by the loss of students in the war, received a fatal blow by the burning of the South Barracks in March, 1866, and in the next autumn (under promise of aid) was removed to Northfield, Vt. Dr. Bourns, following its fortunes, left Norwich with it and died in Northfield of paralysis, July 14, 1871.2
1 Chapman's Alumni of Dartmouth College, p. 116.
2 Bartlett's History of St. Mary's Church, Northfield, Vt. Northfield Town History.
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History of Hanover
After the departure of Dr. Bourns the Rev. A. B. Flanders was the rector in charge for a few months, but in October, 1868, the church was entrusted to the charge of a resident rector, the Rev. James Haughton, as a missionary of the diocese. Under his incumbency there were erected the fine stone church edifice on Wheelock Street and a parsonage and a parish school house on the site of the old homestead of Professor John Smith on Main Street. The parish school was not long lived and soon was dis- continued. The church was not built all at one time; first, the foundation was laid, and after waiting a year the nave was erected, the funds for this purpose being raised in Boston, Providence, New York and elsewhere. It was completed in 1876, with the exception of the tower, which was designed to rise one hundred and fifty feet, but whose foundations of solid masonry, eleven feet deep, are awaiting future donations. It was designed by Frederick C. Withers of New York, and the whole cost thus far has been upward of $50,000. The fine chancel, built a year after the nave, at a cost of $10,000, is twenty-six feet deep and twenty- four feet wide. The nave is ninety-nine feet long and thirty-six wide, and has a seating capacity of about 300. The chancel and eastern window were given in 1876 by Mrs. Caroline A. Harris of New York in memory of her daughter, Jennie Tracy Harris. In memory of this giver, who by a second marriage had become Mrs. McConnell, the chancel was improved and a beautiful altar of white marble was built in 1887 by her husband. A memorial window to Mrs. Sarah Olcott Duncan, given in 1883 by the will of her husband, William H. Duncan, enriches the southern side of the nave, and there is a fine organ from the same donor. The parish has an endowment of about $40,000.
Mr. Haughton left the church in September, 1876, and was succeeded in 1877 by the Rev. William C. Dawson, who continued in charge of the parish until early in 1882. On July 1st of that year the Rev. Robert Berkeley came from Charlestown, N. H., and remained over the church through 1889. For two years after his departure the Rev. William L. Hines, the general missionary of the diocese, was priest in charge with the assistance of a student, William P. Ladd, later the Dean of Berkeley Divinity School. From 1891 to July, 1904, the Rev. George P. Huntington was the rector and he was followed in the same year by the Rev. Lucius Waterman of Charlestown, N. H., who for fifteen years remained as rector of the parish, a man of scholarly tastes, deeply interested in church history and active in the interests of the
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The Episcopal Church
church, but not an inspiring or effective preacher. He was suc- ceeded in February, 1920, by the Rev. John T. Dallas, who in a service of over five years gained an extraordinary hold upon the church and the community by the strength of his personality and the directness and earnestness of his Christian appeal individually and in the pulpit. Greatly to the regret of the church and the community he gave up his charge of the church in the fall of 1925 to become Assistant Dean in St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, only to be advanced within a few months to be Bishop of New Hampshire. Mr. Dallas was followed in February of 1926 by the Rev. Allen Williams Clark, who had been a member of the staff of St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston.
CHAPTER X
METHODISTS
M ETHODISM began to get a foothold in western New Hampshire by the labors of itinerants about 1795.1 Late in that year the first Methodist Society in the State was formed at Chesterfield, the extreme southwestern town, and the "Chester- field Circuit" was organized by the conference of 1796 at Thompson, Connecticut, and put in charge of Philip Wager.2 Methodism, however, progressed but slowly in New Hampshire, as in 1799 there were reported no more than 131 members in the whole State. The itinerants were not everywhere well received. At Lancaster, in the year 1800, one of them, Rosebrook Craw- ford, was ducked in the river and driven out of the State, not without the connivance, it was suggested, of the minister in charge of a rival church.
The denomination prospered better in eastern Vermont. In 1796, on solicitation of John Langdon of Vershire, the "Vershire Circuit," the first one in Vermont, was established under the charge of Nicholas Sneathen, who was the first Methodist minister regularly assigned to duty in the State, and who, in a few years, gained many converts.3 The influences from this center reached across the river into Hanover and neighboring towns. The cele- brated Lorenzo Dow,4 beginning his work at his home in Coventry, Connecticut, in January, 1796, came in the course of his wander- ings to Hanover to visit his uncle and cousins who lived here, and he preached here and in the neighboring towns on both sides of the river, taking his journey soon to the northern towns, among which he made an extensive circuit.
1 Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism in the Eastern States, by Abel Stevens, p. 359.
2 Ditto, p. 462.
3 Memorials of the Progress of Methodism in the Eastern States, by Abel Stevens, p. 139.
4 When Dow first appeared in Woodstock, Vermont, he was an "uncouth, uncombed" youth of nineteen, "in habit and appearance (so his opponents said) more filthy than a savage Indian," with a harsh voice and a style of delivery rude and illiterate, and much that he said was to a critical ear no better than rhapsody. Yet he produced a great impression, although refused permission to return to preach at the time, and in the course of his life had a great influence. See Dana's History of Woodstock, Vermont, pp. 408-410.
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Methodists
A Hanover Circuit was established, probably in 1800; at least we find it in 1801 regularly enrolled, with fifty-nine members, and connected with the New York Conference in the New London District under John Brodhead as presiding elder, Reuben Jones and Joshua Crowell being in immediate charge. Elders Brodhead and Bostwick, writing from Dartmouth College in 1801, speak hopefully of the prospects in many of the circuits on both sides of the river. They are significantly silent as to Hanover, whence they wrote, but at the end of the next year Reuben Jones reported a gain of nearly two hundred. It will be readily conceived that the strength of the Presbyterian interest under the influence of the College made it more difficult for Methodism here. The circuit was, however, maintained until 1809, when it disappears from the list of appointments, the Canaan Circuit taking its place. The Hanover Circuit included Enfield on the southeast, but how far it extended in other directions we do not know.
Its appointments in the early years are as follows :
1801 Reuben Jones and Joshua Crowell 1802 Oliver Beale and Thomas Steele 1803 John Brodhead and Andrew Kernegan 1804 Elijah Hedding
Vershire District Vershire District
Vermont District
New Hampshire District and New England Confer- ence
1805 Dyer Burge 1806 Joseph Baker 1807 Dan Young 1808 David Carr
1809 (No appointment)
Mr. Young published in 1860 a volume of autobiographical reminiscences, in which he speaks very pleasantly of the people of the Hanover Circuit. He tells of having interested and attentive audiences and of being uniformly well treated. At the College he met with Professors Shurtleff and Smith, and under the latter's instruction he devoted himself to the study of Hebrew. "He treated me (he says) with much politeness, scraped up an old relationship between us and assured me that he would pay every attention to instruct me." Mr. Young recites at length a courteous theological discussion which he had with those gentlemen, in which he congratulated himself that he had the better of the argument.
After 1808 Hanover is, for many years, lost sight of in the records of the denomination, though it is understood to have been visited with considerable regularity by the preachers of the Canaan Circuit. A Norwich Circuit was established in 1825 under
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History of Hanover
the charge of Zerah Colburn,1 who had services also in Hanover, and in 1834 a circuit was established at Lebanon. The influence of these two circuits and doubtless of the missionary work done in Hanover showed itself in 1840 by the revival of the old Methodist Church. On the 12th of October of that year there appeared in a small local paper, the Experiment, an advertisement of the new movement :
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