USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > Addresses and proceedings at the centennial anniversary of the Congregational Church, in Sanbornton, N.H., November 12 and 13, 1871 > Part 3
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So far as the records inform us, we are led to suppose that during these first years the care of the meeting-house was no expense to the town. But this could not be expected to last always, albeit no lighting and tending of fires was included, and accordingly we find it recorded that on the 5th day of April, 1790, the town " voted James Sanborn to keep key of the meeting-house, and to sweep said house, at one dollar per year."
For the next ten years after the pulpit was finished, reso-
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lutions were passed from time to time, for lathing and plas- tering, shingling, " painting the rough," and underpinning, till the last stone was placed under the heavy sill of the back or north side, in the year 1797. At the same time they voted not to " build a steeple and porch the present year," and that, as we know, was never done. That much good preaching and praying was done in that homely and unfin- ished meeting-house on the hill, it is impossible to doubt. We can as easily believe that the songs of Zion had no mean rendering in the trumpet tones of the men who leveled the forests, and the full rich treble of their wives and daughters, with the accompaniment of stringed instruments, which our fathers were skilled to play. Long slips were made for their special accommodation, running from east to west on the ground floor, and near the centre of the house. There, till the last year of the century, they stood up in the midst of the worshipping assembly, and, with heart and voice, poured forth Old Hundred and Hamburg, and Lenox, and North- field. On that last year of the century, the town decided to give them a place better suited to the valuable services they rendered. On the 7th of May, 1779, it was " voted to sell the singing pews on the floor in the town meeting-house, and build a singing pew in the gallery, the front seats in gal- lery to be used for a singing pew."
Some of us remember well those long pews in front of the pulpit on the floor of the house. One of them was occupied by Esq. Jeremiah Sanborn, another by Matthew Perkins, Esq.
Nothing farther appears on record in relation to finishing the meeting-house. We may reasonably conclude that it was completed about a quarter of a century from that troublous day on which some of our fathers hastily left the framing to join their comrades in arms at Lexington. The wonder is, that it was accomplished in so short a time as twenty-five years. For it must be remembered that they were battling with the wilderness all the while, and bearing their full share in the struggle for national existence ; and all the while they were making annual appropriations for the construction of
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roads and the building of bridges and pounds ; for the education of their children, and for bounties for the killing of wolves which destroyed their sheep.
There is a man still with us* who has lived eighty-seven years in Sanbornton from his birth, and who well remembers how he and his brother Chase used to dread to go only a little distance from the house to fetch the sheep home at eve- ning, and how the night was made hideous by the howling of the wolves congregated in packs near the spot where the bark mill and tan-pits afterward were.
It is interesting to note how generously our fathers taxed themselves for the education of their children in those stern and troublous times. They believed in the peculiar blessed- ness of having children, in great numbers, and so did their wives, and it was well for Sanbornton and for us that they did : for a nobler race of men and women we may not often see, than the children born in those days grew to be. It was a good day for Sanbornton, and many of us remember it well, when all these houses, large and small, were full of children, and all the school-houses in the town could hardly contain them in winter, when the large boys and girls could be spared to attend. Will it ever again be said of Sanbornton, as it was said of old Jerusalem, after the return from the long captivity, that the streets are " full of girls and boys play- ing in the streets thereof"?
Let us see what was done to educate our grandfathers and grandmothers when they were children. At the annual March meeting held twenty-four days before the first anniversary of the battle of Lexington, Thirty Dollars were raised " for to hier a school," and one hundred dollars for the roads. The year following, 1777, they voted " forty dollars, in addi- tion to what was raised last year for a school." Two years later they voted to raise three hundred dollars for a school, and four hundred days' works for the roads. In 1781 it was " 15 pounds old way so-called, for to hire schooling this year." No mention is made of school districts, or school masters. The whole town was one district, and Master Per- kins was teacher of the town. Having received his own edu-
John Perkins, grand-son of " Master Perkins."
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cation, which included reading and writing, nothing more, from Gen. Sullivan's father, an Irishman, Master Perkins taught the boys and girls of all the town to read and write, for the space of forty years. He went about keeping school, as some good men whom we remember went about cleaning our fath- ers' stately eight-day clocks. In the house of Daniel Sanborn, doubtless, where the town-meetings, as we have seen, were held : in the meeting-house on the hill, when it was in a very rude unfinished state, and in many a dwelling throughout the town, Master Perkins taught and governed ; and his gov- erning was of a high order. Of fine personal appearance, and of very pronounced magisterial bearing, he walked with a conscious dignity, to the movement of his large ivory- headed cane, and, in the reverent and admiring eyes of all his little subjects, was a fit representative of George III. Al- though of a stern make, and accounted severe in disci- pline, there was a dash of humor in " Master Perkins." At a considerably later day than his, as some of us remember, it was customary in the summer schools of Sanbornton, for the girls to bring their sewing and knitting, and when young brains were tired with severer labors, in reading and spelling and Colburn's arithmetic, these finger-crafts were taken up under the direction of the "school-marm." One of those mothers of the earlier period, who was evidently in advance of her times, sent her little girl one day with " knitting work," to Master Perkins' school. It was a stocking of goodly size, and well along toward the point at which the heel should be begun for the formation of the foot. The child plied her busy fingers for a time, under the watchful and twinkling eye of the master, and then, holding the thing in her tiny hand, went timidly up to him for instructions. With utmost gravity he examined the work, and told her to nar- row it. In a short time she came again, when the same di- rection was repeated. and many times, and the upshot was, as Master Perkins used to tell the story with great glee, that " she narrered it and narrered it, till she narrered it all away." Thus ended that particular stocking, and thus ended all " knitting work " in Master Perkins' school.
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His teaching and his useful life ended together in the year 1804, and he was laid to his rest very near to what was the original Sanbornton square. He ought to have had a grave in the burying-ground on the hill, by the side of the first min- ister : and the numerous scholars he had taught and governed, during that long period of forty years, ought to have erected a monument of granite over his remains.
Now we come to a fact in the carly history of this church and of Sanbornton, to which all we have been saying bears a very close relation, and which we must call a very remarka- ble fact. It is, that whereas the building of the first meet- ing-house was not begun till the year 1775, and took twenty- five years to the finishing, the first minister was settled four years before the frame of the meeting-house was raised. Therein was the wisdom of our fathers. They reckoned that a settled minister was better than a meeting-house, and they built their meeting-house as fast as they could pay for it; no faster. Now, the order is reversed ; the meeting-house is the first thing, built with elegance and expensiveness, whether paid for or not-most likely built with borrowed money- and then a minister is sought, first and chiefly, to be a popular attraction, like a brilliant lecturer, or a travelling circus, to draw a multitude and pay off the debt. If any sinners are converted, that is all very well, and it is, no doubt, very strange ; but it is not the end which the congregations of our day have in view when they choose a minister.
The first recorded action looking to the support of gospel ordinances, was at a meeting of the Proprietors held in Exe- ter, July 13, 1767. It was then and there voted, that " they wold raise a doler on each rite liabiel to pay taxes for to hier " a minister " this present year ; " and we read in that old re- cord the familiar names of Josiah Sanborn, Capt. Joseph Hoyt, and Ebenezer Sanborn, as a committee appointed for the purpose. A similar vote seems to have been passed at Exeter from year to year, till 1771, when our fathers, having been incorporated as a town the year previous, moved in good earnest for the settlement of a minister. In this they were encouraged by a vote of the Proprietors, passed on the 29th
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of July, " that $10 be raised on each right liable to be taxed, to assist and help the inhabitants of the town in supporting a gospel minister, if they settle one among them."
We have no record of the names of the men who preached here amid the giant forest-trees, and not improbably under their dense shadow, when Sanbornton was only a plantation. One thing we do know, which is, that they would not be satis- fied with casual, nor with stated supplies. They must have a settled minister, though they had no meeting-house, and could not have one for a long time to come. Just ten days after that on which the liberal offer of the Proprietors was made, a special town-meeting was held, for the sole purpose of con- sidering the proposition to settle a minister.
I must ask you to consider well the manifold difficulties our fathers were in when they held that special town-meeting in the house of Daniel Sanborn, for the purpose of securing a settled minister. It is not much to say, that those brave Christian men were struggling with all the terrors of the wilderness, to found a home for themselves and their families, working very hard, living on the plainest food-bean por- ridge, and coarse bannocks, and potato bread entering largely into their cuisine : clothing themselves in garments spun, and wove, and cut, and made up, in their own most humble cots. The country, small and feeble as it was, made up of thirteen colonies, of which New Hampshire was one, was already in- volved in that fearful death-struggle with the mightiest and the haughtiest military power on the earth. The odious stamp- act had been passed six years before. Benjamin Franklin had written home from London that the sun of liberty was set, and the torch of industry must be lighted in every cot- tage. The indignant and burning eloquence of Patrick Henry had raised the spirit of patriotism to blood-heat in the Assembly of Virginia : blood had been shed in Boston in an affray between armed British soldiers and unarmed citizens ; ladies of fashion in all sections of the country, were carding, spinning, and weaving the fabrics for their own dresses, and mutton was forbidden to be eaten, lest the supply of wool should fail.
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It was at such a time that our fathers, pressed with bur- dens and difficulties all but intolerable, and expecting still worse, met in special town-meeting, in the house near by, for the sole purpose of securing the settlement of a minister. What was the result ? They voted, those great-hearted Christian men of Sanbornton, " to give Mr. Joseph Woodman a call to settle in ye gospel ministry in this town." Mr. Jo- seph Woodman was a young man of fine talents and educa- tion, a graduate of Nassau Hall, and at that time twenty- three years of age. They meant to have him, and so they also voted, at the same meeting, to give him a " sallery " of two hundred dollars, of which one hundred and eighty dol- lars was to be in money, and twenty dollars in labor, at money price, for the first two years ; and afterward, one hundred and twenty dollars in money and eighty dollars in labor. This was not all. Twenty cords of good fire-wood, cut into cord-wood length, were to be hauled yearly to Mr. Woodman's door. What huge logs of curly rock-maple were rolled, without split- ting, into that gracious pile of twenty cords, some of us who are old enough to remember similar things, can believe. Still further, Mr. Woodman was to receive, " if he settles in ye gospel ministry here, the vallue of 100 dollars in labor and stuff, for to build him a house, to be paid, so much as will set him up a house frame, next spring, and the remainder in boards, shingle, and clapboards, in ye fall of ye year fol- lowing." Two months later, having, no doubt, conferred freely with Mr. Woodman in the meantime, and found out the state of his health, and how much he was willing to undertake, the town very kindly voted, that " Mr. Woodman, if he settles in ye gospel ministry in this town, shall have liberty to preach old sermons when his health will not admit of his making new ones ; " also, that he " shall have liberty to be absent three Sabbaths in a year, yearly, to visit his friends." In ad- dition to all the rest, Mr. Woodman, as the first settled min- ister, received of the town the present of a farm, not that which we all know as the Woodman farm, but another which he exchanged for that with Esquire Harper, a business trans- action in which the people of his congregation-that is to say,
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all the town-were pleased to see that their minister was not entirely lacking in worldly wisdom.
The town, at a very early period in its history, set apart for- ever, for the support of the gospel ministry, a tract of land called the parsonage, the income of which seems to have been given to Mr. Woodman. For at a town-meeting held May 26, 1795, William Harper, Esq., having been chosen agent at a previous meeting, " to lay a copy of the records before our attorney and take his advice in writing," reported that accord- ing to Mr. Bradbury's opinion, " the income of the parsonage belongs to Mr. Woodman."
The people, no doubt, knew Mr. Woodman's mind in re- lation to the business in hand, well enough to be sure they were not acting precipitately in fixing the day for his or- dination, and making a list of the churches to be invited, before he had signified his acceptance of the call. This was done by the same town-meeting which voted the call, and the " sallery," and the " twenty cord of good fire-wood." " Wed- nesday, the thirteenth of November next for the day of Mr. Woodman's ordination," in case he should accept the call, was the action recorded : also " to send to ye churches of Can- terbury, Concord, Pembroke, Epping, ye first in Rowley, ye second, third, and fourth in Newbury, to assist in ye ordination."
All this is from the records of the town, and shows the ac- tion of the town. The church had not yet been organized. At the time appointed, one hundred years ago to-day, the or- dination of Mr. Joseph Woodman took place in the house of Daniel Sanborn.
We suppose that the church was first organized, and that he was installed as the pastor, at the same time and place. This, our centennial service, is, therefore, to commemorate the formation of the church and the settlement of its first pastor. There are some here present who remember, that just sixty- five years ago to-day the second pastor of the church was ordained in the meeting-house on the hill.
Of that solemn service of ordination one hundred years ago, no record remains to us. The first entry in the first Book of Church Records, is the covenant of the church, in
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the hand-writing of Mr. Woodman, signed by seven men, whose names are as follows : James Cates, Nathaniel Tilton, Daniel Sanborn, Benjamin Darling, Josiah Sanborn, Aaron Sanborn, Abijah Sanborn.
Directly after these names is a brief form of admission, and on the two pages following, the Confession of Faith.
The record of what seems to have been the first regular church-meeting follows immediately after the Confession of Faith, and is dated, "Jan'y ye 2nd, 1772." The first business taken in hand is thus recorded : "This day, the church being met, agreeable to previous warning, after Sol- emn prayer to the great Head of the Church, for direction and acceptance, unanimously voted the above written as a Standing Confession of Faith in this Church." This confes- sion is remarkably full and clear, and would seem to show that the original members and their pastor, Mr. Woodman, were well established on the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Other matters attended to at the same meet- ing are entered thus:
" 2. Voted, that Benjamin Darling be chosen first deacon.
3. Voted, that Nathaniel Tilton be chosen the second deacon.
4. Voted, that the Lord's Supper be administered upon the second Lord's Day in each month, omitting the months of Dec'r, Jan'y, Feb'y and March.
5. Voted, To receive Lucy, Mary, and Anna Sanborn by letter of dismission and recommendation from the church of Christ in Northampton."
More than a year seems to have passed before another reg- ular church-meeting was held. This was on the fourth of March, 1773. The business at this meeting was of very grave importance. You are aware that, in the early period of the his- tory of New England, there was, in the churches generally, what was called the half-way covenant; the meaning of which was, that any members of the congregation, not being " in full communion with the church," as it was expressed, were yet per- mitted and urged to " recognize the covenant," (which meant no more than that they acknowledged that they ought to be
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Christians,) and to bring their children for baptism. Thus we find the record, " Jacob Smith, Jr., and his wife, recog- nized their baptismal covenant," and a little onward, " Bap- tized a child of Jacob Smith, Jr., by the name of Oliver." A year or two later another child of Jacob Smith, Jr., was bap- tized by the name of " Molly," but neither father nor mother was at any time a member of the church.
The working of so unscriptural a usage as the half-way cov- enant was most disastrous here as elsewhere, as the record of the proceedings at this second regular church-meeting shows. " After prayer to ye great head of ye church for direction, They, considering the great remissness which is at this day so common in regard to those who recognize their cov't, agreed :
1. That they esteemed Immorality a Sufficient bar to per- sons being admitted to Baptism for themselves or children.
2. That they would regard those who were Baptized in In- fancy and those who have recognized their baptismal covenant, as members of the visible Church, or persons visibly in cove- nant, and as Such, Subject to the watch and discipline of the church and would treat them as such.
3. That those who have recognized the covenant in other places be required to get a dismission or certificate of their having recognized the covenant in those places, and of their regular Standing there, in order to their having their children baptized in this church.
4. That -- , on account of Some Immorality alledged against him be debarred from having his child baptized, until he shall make satisfaction to the church."
At what time and in what way this usage was discontinued does not appear. The latest record of such a proceeding is as follows : " Sept. 10, 1780. William Taylor and wife re- newed covenant, and had their child baptized by the name of " Chase."
The records show that church discipline was maintained, and that in March, 1794, the pastor and Deacon Tilton were appointed " a committee to make a prudent enquiry with respect to their performance of family worship by those who are mem-
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bers in full communion, and also those who have recognized their covenant in this church."
The ministry of Mr. Woodman, beginning on the 13th of November, 1771, one hundred years ago to-day, was termin- ated by his dismission Nov. 13, 1806, the same day on which his successor was ordained. He was a man of commanding personal appearance and dignified bearing, and for talent and education took rank with the foremost ministers of New Hampshire. He was of medium height, of a broad, com- pact frame, with large head well set on ample shoulders, and decidedly marked features. I have heard it said, by men who knew him, and who have passed away, that he had nat- ural endowments which would have fitted him admirably for the courts of law or the halls of legislation, if such had been his choice. The estimation in which he was held by the town may be gathered from the fact that, at a special meeting held January 17, 1775, it was " voted that the Rev. Joseph Woodman be a deputy for this town to join the deputies of the other towns in this province, at a meeting to be held at Exeter on the 25th day of this instant, to choose delegates for the Continental Congress, and to choose a committee to proportion each town's part of ye charge of sending delegates June 3, 1802."
That he was held in high respect beyond the limits of his own town it is evident, for we find that on the third day of June, 1802, he preached to the Governor of the State and his Council, with the Senate and House of Representatives, in Concord, then a pleasant village, and the discourse was pub- lished.
It was in the appointed duties of the Christian ministry, however, that he was chiefly occupied during the thirty-five years of his pastorate, preaching the gospel, visiting the sick, and from house to house, uniting the young in the bonds of matrimony, baptizing the children, and officiating at the bur- ial of the dead.
In less than a year from the day on which Mr. Woodman was dismissed, God called him to his reward, at the compara- tively early age of fifty-nine, and his frame, wasted by suf-
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fering, was laid by that of Esther, the much loved wife, whose death four years earlier had filled him with deepest grief. Very touching and beautiful is the allusion made to the afflictions, whose effect had been to unfit him, in a great measure, for his work, in a letter addressed to the town about a year before his dismission. It begins thus :
" Friends and Brethren :- An all-wise, holy, and sovereign God, in whose hands our times are, was pleased, more than two years since, to visit me with the epidemic sickness which that season prevailed among us. This was succeeded by bilious and rheumatic complaints, from which I am not fully recovered, but still remain in an infirm and debilitated state, so that I am not able at present to attend to all the duties of the ministerial office at all seasons. And especially does this, together with the sore bereavement with which God was pleased, just before, to visit myself and family, afford me in particular abundant cause for deep humiliation and repent- ance, and humble enquiry wherefore He contendeth with me. And while they give me a claim to your candour, your sympa- thy, and compassion, I earnestly request the prayers of all who have an interest at the throne of grace, that God would sanctify those heavy and long-continued afflictions, support me under them, and grant an happy issue of them in his own time."
The happy issue came : God's time was not long delayed, and he passed, on the 28th day of September, 1807, from un- der the dark cloud which cast so distressing a shadow over his last days, into the world of which Christ is the everlast- ing light.
His retirement from the ministerial office in order that a younger man might take his place, when he became convinced of his inability any longer to perform its duties, was a grace- ful and generous act, which could hardly have failed to com- mend him to the admiration and sympathy of the whole com- munity. He sent to that community (for he looked upon them all as, in a sense, his flock) a long letter, and worthy to
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be the last of all his labors of love among them, as we may suppose it was. A copy lies before me, well preserved. He addresses it " To the Inhabitants of Sandbornton, more espec- ially to the Congregational Church and Society," and then proceeds :
" Men and Brethren :- In the wise, righteous, and sovereign providence of God, my health has been greatly impaired since the severe sickness with which He has been pleased to visit me ; and for nine months past I have been unable to supply the desk. There appears but little prospect of my being able to discharge the duties of the ministry among you for the future." After alluding to an unsuccessful effort which had been made to settle the contract between him and the town, he goes on to say : " Your present situation is alarming, affecting, and, to me, very distressing-destitute of the stated administration of God's word and ordinances-the meeting- house unopened-the desk unoccupied on the Holy Sabbath."
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