USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Amherst > Celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of Amherst, New Hampshire June 17, 1910, including the proceedings of the committee, addresses and other exercises of the occasion > Part 8
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Does this make clear what my part is today? Far be it from me to attempt the part of historian of this church, when on my desk and many of yours there lies the splendid history of this town, with its inclusions of church history, written by a son of , this church. Even greater is the inhibition upon me when I take
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up that store-house of information regarding this church and its building, in the published address of my distinguished predecessor in this pulpit, Doctor Davis, delivered at the one hundredth anni- versary of the dedication of this house of worship.
But at this time when, by addresses and observances, we have been so finely reminded of the nniqne history of our town, there seems a task imposed on me to supplement those exercises in a brief recountal of the particular influence of this church upon our town's life.
To force a figure, Amherst, N. H., was born in Salem Village. (now Danvers), Mass. Its parents were God-fearing, godly peo- ple. If they did not magnify the love of God, they did not minimize the honor and reverence due Him. Affairs of state no less than affairs of individuals were concerns of His, To parents
REV, WILL,IS D. LELAND
of such antecedents was this child given. It was really a year old before it was brought up here, and twenty-six years old before it received the name it now bears.
It was on this wise, (to give facts not so new as necessary ) : "The General Assembly of the Massachusetts-Bay," in the words of a historian of 1746, "was in the Humor of distributing the property of much vacant province land." This was to be granted to descendants of veterans of the great Indian wars with King Phillip in 1675-'76. In 1733 representatives of a number of groups of would-be colonists met on "ye Boston common," and there this general province, Narragansett No. 3, or Sonhegan West, was assigned to Richard Mower ( Moore?). With him were associated some one hundred and twenty other "proprietors" from that gen
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eral section of Danvers. Their first meeting was held July 17, 1734, at Salem Village, and the records of their proceedings from time to time are among the most valuable treasures of our library. A committee was sent up to investigate the land assigned to Mr. Mower, and brought back a good report of the region. Each pro- prietor was then assigned sixty acres as a home lot, and urged to build upon it immediately. By 1735 two of them, at least, Samuel Walton and Samuel Lampson, had settled on the site of the old Melendy house, situated on what was later the Boston turn-pike.
In imagination we can picture those hardy, God-fearing men and women pushing up through almost virgin wood-land, up from old Dunstable, (now Nashua), until they reached the banks of the Souhegan River. If the land was "a howling wilderness," theirs
REV. ALFRED J. MCGOWN
was a God who could lead them through it, even as He had led that other chosen people in Biblical days.
The same year they voted to take a view of the township, and "in the most commodious place therefor Lay out a place whereon to erect the Public Meeting House for the worship of God." Further, a lot was assigned "for the first settled Minister." Two years later (1737) they decided it was time to build a house, and they agreed upon the size, 45 x 22, with 22 foot posts, also voting to finish the outside and build a pulpit. It was not until May 16. 1739, apparently, that the building was raised. The stone marker yonder, placed this last week, indicates the place where, under Capt. Ebenezer Raymond, they erected it. Getting the frame up, however, was but a small part of the task; the "finishing of it" seems to have been a constant source of discussion and action at
DEA. EDWARD D BOYLSTON
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meetings of the proprietors for many years. Four years and half later a connmittee was set to the task of getting "the meeting- house boarded, the flower laid, the body seets made up, the pulpit made, and the Doors made and hung as soon as can be."
The good old compound word, meeting-house, is impressive. Young and old of those early days had no difficulty in recognizing the difference between the church as a building and the church as an organization, a distinction many in our day fail to note. It was the meeting house of all that highest and best in the life of the community, where religion was kept human by its close asso ciation with the general interest of the people, and where the gen- eral life was kept religious by its continual association with the wor- ship of God.
DEA. AARON LAWRENCE
The fathers were more expeditions about securing a minister than a meeting-honse. A year before the house was raised. they voted to have "the word of God Preached among them for the next six months." At the expiration of that time they voted that the practice should be continued, with slight addition to the compensation for the preaching. In 1740 they voted to have "Preching amonths them till it is altered by a voat of the pro- prietors." Where they secured their preacher we do not know, although it was probably some college graduate of their munber, or possibly the young man himself whom they later called to be their minister. At any rate. April 30. 1741, they agreed upon Daniel Wilkins, a Harvard graduate of 1736, as their minister. A
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committee was appointed to "treet" with him regarding "Sallary and Settlement." Six months were consumed in making satis- factory arrangements, and then a committee on ordination was chosen, the first two members being Samuel Walton and Samuel Lampson, the first known settlers. They were allowed forty pounds, for the ordination expenses, but urged to use as much less as they could, frugality being a necessity in those days.
With a meeting-house in process of completion, and a prosper- tive minister, the fathers still lacked a church organization. So a call was sent forth, and Sept. 22, 1741, nineteen ministers and delegates assembled here. Distances meant little to them. From as far as Lynn came Rev. Nathaniel Henchman, (whose son was
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DEA. BARNABAS B. DAVID
one of our earliest physicians), who acted as moderator of the council; and Rev. Stephen Chase, who was the preacher of the sermon. There, probably near or in their rude and yet unfinished meeting-house, they organized that little church, from which we descend, and which has been from those days to the present the great source of vigor and virility of our town's life.
All honor to those first members, six in number, who were or- ganized that day into the church of Christ in Amherst: Daniel Wilkins, pastor-elect, Samuel Leman, Israel Towne, Samuel Lamp- son, Caleb Stiles and Humphrey Hobbs.
The next day the council ordained and installed Mr. Wilkins as minister; and his wife with five other women were added to the roll of members. So began the ministry of forty-three years of
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this leader of the people, a ministry which made possible the strong years of Amherst in another half century. He was a man of wise and vigorous utterance when he spoke in behalf of his parish. Governor Wentworth of the Province of New Hampshire, on more than one occasion listened with great respect to the com- munication from this leader. Through his appeal largely the newly made town of Amherst became the shire town in 1771 of the newly formed county. No estimate of the development of this little community and its great influence hereabouts can leave out the heroic labors of this learned and faithful leader of the people. No finer tribute to his long ministry and great worth to town and
THE LORD HOMESTEAD ON MONT VERNON ROAD
church than that fine epitaph on the stone in vonder old cemetery. -- a shrine we of this later day ought to visit and venerate far more than we do.
Three years before the death of Mr. Wilkins the church and town called Jeremiah Barnard, of Bolton, Mass., to come and share the pastoral responsibilities. He was also a graduate of Harvard. in 1773. It may be interesting to note that the present minister ministered in a sense to the same church in Massachusetts from which Mr. Barnard came, the church in Berlin having been a part of the Bolton church, which separated from the mother church six years after Mr. Barnard left there.
llis ministry of thirty-five years here was fruitful in the large
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number of those who united with the church, and the still larger number who felt the impress of his strong, solid ministry. During his ministry, also, two companies went forth from this parish to found new parishes, with accompanying church organizations: the northwest parish was organized at Mont Vernon, September, 1780, with Rev. John Bruce as first pastor; the southwest parish being organized at Milford, November, 17SS, although it was four- teen years before they secured a minister in the person of the noteworthy Rev. Humphry Moore.
Mr. Barnard's preaching must have been attractive and im- pressive. The diary of John Farmer fell into my hands recently, -one of the ablest of the many able young men who were asso-
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TOMBSTONE OF REV. DANIEL, WILKINS, FIRST PASTOR
ciated with the "Cabinet" in its earliest days. Those young men were moving elements in that time, and much of their direction and impulse to the finest things must have been gained from the ministry of this man of God, Jeremiah Barnard. Mr. Farmer's many references to these sermons from time to time attest strongly to this force and fact.
A lover of peace, Mr. Barnard was strong in his opposition to the movement which led to the war of 1812 against the mother country. Nothing flaccid was there about his convictions, and great in his heart was his fear of the Lord, and the Weight and influence he exerted in the civic affairs of our town has been egnalled by none of on ministers.
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The third minister called by the town and church was Nathan Lord, of South Berwick, Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin in 1809. He was ordained and installed as colleague with Mr. Barnard, May 22, 1816, and never served as full pastor. Keen, orthodox, perhaps, to excess, cultured and eloquent, he was easily one of the first rank of ministers in the state. A marked contrast to his predecessor and father-associate in spirit, he did not com- fortably accept opposition, and as a result of controversies center- ing around the person of Christ a slight movement from the church resulted in the formation of a Unitarian church in 1825. After a ministry of a dozen years, which left deep impressions npon many of the leading men of his day, and which shaped much of the
DEA. A. MILTON WILKINS
policy of the time, he was called to the presidency of Dartmonth college, an honor which testified to his marked ability as a leader aud administrator, in a position which he filled for forty years.
With the departure of Mr. Lord, the so-called town ministry ceased, the society now assuming the financial obligations. Under the new arrangements the fourth pastor was called, Silas Aiken, born in Bedford, a graduate of Dartmouth in 1825, and intor there for three years following his gradnation. He was ordained March 4, 1829, and installed as was Mr. Lord, as colleague with Mr. Barnard, then an honored servant of the Lord nearly font score years old. In a ministry of eight years Dr. Aiken made probably the deepest spiritual influence on this connuunity of any minister
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serving here. In 1831 sixty persons united with the church, while four years later the town was stirred from the very depths by an arousement which even closed the places of business for a season that there might be full opportunity for the voice of the Lord through this servant to be heard. Over a hundred men and women added to the church were but a small part of the apparent results of this wave of religious awakening coming in Mr. Bar- nard's ministry. His departure to the Park Street Church, Boston, was a serious loss to the church and community.
Need one pause to lay emphasis upon the influence of this ministry upon all the life of Amherst in those days?
CAPT. GEORGE W. BOSWORTH Long a Sunday-School Superintendent
The fifth and sixth pastorates were brief as pastorates in this church have gone. Rev. Frederick A. Adams, Ph. D., of New Ipswich, was settled November 15, 1837, continuing until Septem- ber 24, 1840. He was a man of scholarly accomplishments, an able preacher, whose words had weight, whose ministry was in- pressive. A teacher by heart he afterwards gave himself to that labor, and so continued, in the deep esteem of all who came under the sway of his personality. His successor was Rev. William T. Savage, D. D., of Bangor, and was installed February 24, 1840. During his ministry of three years the churches of New England were beginning to be disturbed regarding the rightfulness of slavery, and Amherst did not lack in warm advocates of both
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sides. To steer not only church but public opinion through such troubled water in safety was no small task given to Doctor Savage. He also saw an ingathering of sixty-seven to the church in 1812. His ministry though brief was valuable and lasting.
Josiah G. Davis, of Concord, Mass., a Yale graduate of 1836, was invited to become the seventh minister in the noble succession. During his ministry of thirty-five years and more, Amherst was in its most thriving condition, a town of importance and a center
DEA. WILLIAM A. MACK
of large interests. Socially, economically and politically it was prominent, and in all these realms the influence of Doctor Davis was felt markedly. Publie-mindedness, fine judgment and sound discrimination were the principles of his action. His preaching was of that high type that edneates and inspires, his ministry was as wide as the needs of his people. Few, if any, of this line of ministers, have made so deep and enduring an impression upon this town as Doctor Davis. Let me read to you the words of this beautiful bronze tablet beside me, which so fittingly and concisely phrase the esteem in which he was and is held :
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IN MEMORY OF JOSIAH GARDNER DAAVIS PASTOR OF THIS CHURCH FOR 35 YEARS; 1 GOOD CITIZEN; A WISE COUN- SELLOR; A FAITHFUL SERVANT OF GOD; AND A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL OF HIS DEAR SON BORN 1815 - DUSD 1894 PRAISE YE THE LORD
The pastorate following this notable one was brief, but memor- able, and many recall with gratitude the varied ministrations of
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INTERIOR OF CHURCH BEFORE BEING REMODELLED BY MR. TOWNE
Willis D. Leland, who was settled January 22, 1880, and dis- missed May 16, 1883.
The ninth pastorate returned to the line old custom of a long term of service, and was fruitful of great and permanent good to the town. Alfred J. MeGown. of Mt. Desert, Maine, was settled December 1, 1885, and for two decades ministered faithfully in season and out to the necessities of the parish and town. Generous in his strength, sincere in his spirit, warm-hearted in his devotion, broad-minded in his interests, the town and all its interests owes much to his constant and loyal service.
The present pastorate, the tenth in a period of nearly 170 years,
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began January 19, 1906, Mr. White being a native of Vermont and a graduate of Brown University in 1897.
Here then, we have reviewed in the briefest way, the list of leaders of this old church, who in their ministries of varied dura- tion and varying stress have shaped the life of this community through the people to whom they have ministered. And what is true of the ministry has been in large measure true of the noble line of leaders in the pew, in the honored roll of deacons, from Humphry Hobbs, the first, to Aaron M. Wilkins, whom the Lord has but recently called to Himself. Women of exceptional ability, too, have contributed to the higher life of this town, among whom not to mention more, one might place Miss Lucy W. Blunt, the Misses Bolston, and the Misses Lawrence.
JAMES W. TOWNE, ESQ.
Fortunate is the people whose forbears made such pursuits their constant aim. The record of their lives is most valuable; the recounting of their ventures into this higher life are of great interest and worth; the treasuring of their traditions is one of on most urgent tasks. The rich man counts his treasures and covets more. The true man cherishes his traditions, and knows none better. With such figures in the tapestry of the past, with such facts in the storehouse of treasures, with such forces in all the affairs of the days gone by, the final word to you this morning is the word of Paul with which we began, "So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which we were taught, whether by word or by epistle of ours." And may the God of the past be ours for all the days, to whom be all the honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
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