USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume II > Part 2
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Mr. Walker would not exchange pulpits with the "new lights," as they were called, for nothing could induce him to hazard the hap- piness of the people who had so long dwelt in peace under his minis- try. Coming with them into the wilderness, sharing with them the trials and privations of frontier life, comforting them in sorrow, mak- ing valiant and successful defense of their civil rights, welcome in every household, regarded their secular as well as religious leader, his warnings were seldom questioned. In following his advice the settlers undoubtedly escaped many of those local dissensions which so frequently disturb the peace and menace the prosperity of young communities.
The population of Concord at the time of Elder Smith's coming was less than a thousand, hardly enough to support more than one church. They comprised a regularly organized parish, of which the minister was the executive head. They were exhausted by continued Indian wars and their long controversies with Bow, and were at the beginning of the Revolutionary War when Elder Smith appeared.
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The preaching of Parson Walker was not theological but practical, and there was no dissent from his religious views. Other settle- ments had been disturbed by religious agitations and the progress of these communities retarded. It is not strange, therefore, that Parson Walker looked with no favor upon the advent of those whose teach- ing would result in nothing less than a division of the parish and for whose coming there was no local demand. His sermons that are still extant show that he drew no fast and hard lines on theological ques- tions, for the ecclesiastical teaching and metaphysical refinement which afterwards divided churches was of a growth later than his day. Throughout New England, Congregational churches had just succeeded, after great effort, in securing the discipline and effective- ness which comes of organization, and the ministers were naturally sensitive to anything tending to produce discord and division. If Parson Walker had lived a century later, when Concord's population was several thousand, its permanency as a settlement established, the habits and thoughts of its people changed from those of the original settlers and their immediate descendants by the additions that had come to it, there is little doubt that a man of his liberal mind would have met the "new lights " in an entirely different spirit. His oppo- sition to their coming was not that of a sectarian, but of a leader who was apprehensive of anything which threatened to disturb the peace and harmony of a settlement still weak in numbers and exhausted by long years of controversies with the Indians and the troublesome proprietors of Bow.
In providing for Mr. Walker's salary the people had in view the custom of the time of settling a minister for life, or until he should voluntarily retire by reason of the infirmities of age. As Mr. Walker was but twenty-five when he settled in Concord, the community looked forward to a long pastorate, and such it proved to be, for it continued fifty-two years.
So it was provided in Mr. Walker's settlement that if he, "by reason of extreme old age, shall be disabled from carrying on the whole work of the ministry, he shall abate so much of his salary as shall be rational." His salary was fixed at one hundred pounds a year, to be increased forty shillings annually until it amounted to one hundred and twenty pounds. The use of the parsonage was also granted, and one hundred pounds given to him to enable him to build a house, besides the lot which fell to the right of the first min- ister. Mr. John Farmer estimates Mr. Walker's salary at the date of his settlement at one hundred and thirty dollars and sixty-seven cents of our currency. While the purchasing power of coin money in those days was several fold greater than it is to-day, the pay of min-
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isters at that time was in general very meagre. Being, for the most part, in a depreciated and depreciating currency, which many parishes were tardy in making up, the governor of Massachusetts informed the general court that it seemed probable that many of them would be necessitated to betake themselves to secular employment for a livelihood.
The church, or meeting-house, as it was then called, was the meet- ing place of the inhabitants for secular as well as religious purposes. The gatherings there represented in the early period of the settlement the larger part of the social intercourse of the people. During the noon hour between the sermons were exchanged the bits of household news and gossip, and there the affairs of state and of the settlement were gravely discussed and considered. There, also, all public no- tices were given for many years. In mild weather the noon hour was spent in or about the church, but in the inclement or winter season there was a speedy exodus to some neighboring house, for it was not until 1821 that any means of warming the church were introduced. The first three pastors preached in the winter season to a congregation which had no other method of keeping warm than the foot stoves provided for the more delicate of the people who attended. For nearly one hundred years the people of Concord met in the win- ter in an unwarmed church for two services a day. Mr. Asa McFar- land, in his Recollections of the latter part of this period, says : " As I can never forget the faces within, so I never can the furious winds which howled about the ancient pile, the cold by which it was pene- trated, and the stamping of the men and women when within the porches as they came from afar and went direct from their sleighs to an immense apartment in which there was no fire except that carried thither in foot stoves. The rattling of a multitude of loose windows, my tingling feet, the breath of the people seen across the house, as the smoke of chimneys is discerned on frosty mornings, the impatience of the congregation, and the rapidity of their dispersion-are they not all upon the memory of those who worshiped in that house pre- vious to the year 1821? Then my father suggested that in winter there be only one service, which led to the purchase of a moderate sized box-stove, and its erection half way up the center aisle. This, strange as it may seem, was a departure from old custom which encountered some opposition."
The building of the first frame church was undertaken by a num- ber of citizens of Concord, who furnished the means for its construc- tion, and were hence called proprietors of the meeting-house. They were three days in raising it, being aided by the women, who prepared food and other refreshments on the spot. Owing to the interruptions
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and embarrassments occasioned by the wars in which the country was involved, the proprietors were not able to completely finish the house, although it was occupied for worship at various times from 1769 to 1782. In the latter year the proprietors, in consideration of ten pounds lawful money, conveyed to a committee, " legally chosen by the parish of Concord, all their right and property in a certain meet- ing-house in said Concord and a lot of land containing one acre and a half, upon which the greatest part of said meeting-house stand- eth."
In 1784 there was added to the house porches on both the east and west ends, and a belfry and spire one hundred and twenty-three feet high. An attempt was made to get a bell in 1785, and one hundred and twenty-five dollars was sub- scribed for this purpose. The subscription pa- per, still in exist- ence, shows that some of the sub- scribers doubled their original subscriptions, but nothing came of the effort. There were forty- seven pews on the lower floor and twenty-six in the gallery, be- sides a number The Second Meeting-house. of free seats on each side of the broad aisle. In 1802 the meeting-house was enlarged by the addition of a semicircle projecting thirty feet in front, divided into seven angles. This was done by individuals without any expense to the town. In 1809 two front pews on the lower floor of the house were altered into four pews and sold at public auction for the sum of three hundred and seven dollars and fifty cents, which sum was appropri- ated by a vote of the town towards the purchase of a bell, the addi- tional sum necessary for the purpose being raised by subscription. In 1828 the town disposed of its right and interest in said house, in the land on which the same stood, and the bell, to the First Congre-
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gational society, which had been organized under the provisions of the Toleration Act above referred to. The same year the floor pews in the meeting-house were altered into slips, by which alteration eleven slips were gained. The number of seats in the meeting-house in 1830 were reported by Dr. Bouton to be " ninety-nine on the lower floor ; in the gallery, around the wall, and others, forty-one; all of which, together with seats occupied by singers and those which are free, will comfortably seat about twelve hundred persons." At that time the number of persons who worshiped regularly at this church was on the average about seven hundred. The building continued to be used as a church until November 23, 1842, when the third meeting-house of this society was dedicated.
A few years after the abandonment of this second church the structure was sought by the trustees of the Methodist General Bibli- cal Institute, which institution was removed from Newbury, Vermont, to Concord. The society and pewholders conveyed to the Methodist Institute their several interests in the building and lot, and public-spirited citizens of Concord subscribed some three thousand dollars, so to remodel the house as to fit it for the new purpose to which it was to be devoted. The pulpit, pew, and galleries were removed, a second floor was introduced, and the two stories thereby secured were divided into dor- mitories and lecture rooms. A portion of the old pulpit and the communion table are in the pos- session of the New Hampshire Historical Society. The building continued the seat of this institution until the Institute was removed to Boston, when, in accordance with the terms of its conveyance twenty years before, it reverted, with the land upon which it stood, to the First Congregational society of Concord. It was subsequently sold to private parties, and the proceeds of its sale were devoted to the purchase of the society's parsonage. On the night of Monday, November 28, 1870, the building was destroyed by fire.
Third North Church.
During Mr. Walker's long ministry he enjoyed remarkable health. Tradition says that he was able to preach every Sabbath, except one, previous to his death. Whether this was literally true or not, there was evident apprehension on the part of his parishioners four years before his death that Mr. Walker might not be able to continue the full duties of his ministry, and the town voted to hire preaching in case of his disability; for in the warning of a town-meeting for March 3, 1778, there was an article, "To see if the parish will vote to hire
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In Mumy
TRI TIMOTHY
The Walker Monument.
preaching, if the Rev. Mr. Walker remains unable." The article was not acted upon, and Mr. Walker resumed and continued to perform the duties of his office until near his death. On the morning of the Sabbath, September 1, 1782, he rose early, and while walking across the room received, as is supposed, a stroke of apoplexy, and fell. Before medical aid could arrive he expired, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and the fifty-second of his ministry. Appropriate tribute to the life and character of Mr. Walker is given in another part of this work. It may not be out of place, however, to add that to the influence he exerted on the early settlers is due in a large degree the broad religious toleration which has ever been a marked characteristic of Concord. Mr. Walker would have been a leader in any community, and his natural breadth of vision was extended by his three trips to England, where he met leading men and scholars of the old country. Concord reaped the ben- efit of his travels and intercourse with these men, and the faith of the people in his leadership made his sway among them an easy one. His will shows that he accumulated little of this world's goods, for beyond his farm he had not much to give in legacies to his children. He had accepted the modest stipend voted him by the parish, pro- vided for his family by agricultural pursuits, and contributed his share to the public expense in the trying period in which he lived.
After Mr. Walker's death the town was without a settled minister for nearly seven years. Several preached as candidates, among them Mr. David Story and Deacon Jonathan Wilkins. The latter declined a call because the salary was inadequate, and the Rev. Dr. Wood, of Boscawen, said that Mr. Story did not receive a call on account of his Arminian sentiments. The salary offered Mr. Wilkins was one hundred pounds and the use of the parsonage, with the exception of the meadow lot, besides two hundred pounds as a settlement. He afterwards gave up preaching, settled in Concord, was made clerk and deacon of the church, and died here March 9, 1830, aged seventy- five years.
The Reverend Israel Evans, a native of Pennsylvania, received a call September 1, 1788, from both the church and the town, to set- tle, which he accepted March 17, 1789, and was installed July 1 following. He was not wholly satisfied with the salary voted him at the time of his call, although it appears from his answer that he hoped their annual contributions to his support would be more than was held out in the call. In this reply he says among other things : " Let me, therefore, hope that you will not continue to deviate from the honorable and generous customs and manners of our pious and
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worthy forefathers. I hope you will think it of infinitely more im- portance to encourage the ministers of the gospel in their arduous work than to give your sanction to a method of settling ministers which in the very entrance of their labors does in a manner tell them that after twenty, thirty, forty, or even fifty years of a most faithful service they may be the most miserable beggars."
Mr. Evans was a graduate of Princeton of the class of 1772. Four- teen of its twenty-two members entered the ministry, and six became chaplains in the Revolutionary army. In this class were Aaron Burr, afterwards vice-president, and William Bradford, attorney-general in Washington's administration. Mr. Evans was licensed to preach in 1775 by the First Philadelphia Presbytery, and by the same body ordained as chaplain. He went at once to the field and served throughout the Revolutionary War. He was with Montgomery at the attack on Quebec, with Gates at Saratoga, with Washington at Valley Forge, with Sullivan in the expedition against the "Five Nations," and at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. In 1777 he was made brigade chaplain of the New Hampshire troops, and it was undoubtedly this association which led to his coming to Concord. It is said that he enjoyed the distinction of being the only one hold- ing the office of chaplain who served continuously during the War of the Revolution. J. T. Headley, the historian, says: "The one who stood as prominently in history as a representative chaplain, and who with a clear head, a strong mind, and a patriotic zeal, assisted in sustaining the cause of the colonies, was the Reverend Israel Evans."
Mr. Evans's pastorate lasted eight years, during which time he served as chaplain of the New Hampshire legislature some five years, and chaplain of the constitutional convention of 1791-'92. No rec- ords of the church during his ministry can be found. One hundred and twenty-three baptisms have been ascertained, and the church at the time of his death had about one hundred and twenty-four members. He was considered a popular preacher in his day, but as Mr. Headley remarks, "He was by nature better fitted for the stern duties of a military life, its strict subordination and exact method, and for the battle-field, than for the quiet routine of a pastor's calling. Humility was not a prominent trait of his character, and military experience did not make him yielding and tractable." Dr. Bouton says of him: "With the feelings and habits acquired in a seven years' service in the United States army, Mr. Evans entered upon the duties of a pastor among this quiet, industrious, and unostentatious people. His manners were in perfect contrast to those of his predecessor. His sentiments and style of preaching were also different. Mr. Evans was a ready, fluent, and earnest preacher. . The minister was
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a man of distinction, too, in the town, for it is related, that although a chaise [two-wheeled vehicle ] was used some in Concord, Mr. Evans had a four-wheeled carriage, drawn by two horses, in which he rode, wearing a tri-cornered hat and wig upon public occasions."
Mr. John C. Thorne, in his excellent monograph of Mr. Evans, says : " The same question which delayed his acceptance as pastor, that of proper financial support, appeared once and again. It did not accord with his ideas and feelings as to the way ministers supposed to be supported by the town should be treated." This was undoubt- edly the cause of his bringing his pastorate to a close. April 21, 1797, he announced his determination of resigning, and July 1 fol- lowing he closed his work in the ministry in Concord. His resigna- tion was accepted, and he was regularly dismissed by an ecclesiastical council. He continued to reside in town until his death, March 9, 1807. He was a trustee of Dartmouth college from 1793 until his death, and he left a liberal bequest to that institution.
After the dismissal of Mr. Evans immediate efforts were made to secure a successor. On December 28, 1797, both church and town gave a call to the Reverend Asa McFarland to settle with them in the ministry. The call from the church was unanimous. To the call from the town twenty-two persons entered their dissent upon the town records to the salary. This was but three hundred and fifty dollars a year, and the use of the improved land belonging to the parsonage right, and liberty to cut wood and timber on the outlands, as much as he might need for his own use. This dissent was not owing to any dislike of Mr. McFarland or to his sentiments, for Dr. Bouton says that without exception all of the twenty-two paid their proportion to his support while he was pastor, and most of them became his warm friends, while five united with the church under his ministry.
Mr. McFarland was a great-grandson of Daniel McFarland, a Scotch Presbyterian colonist, who came to this country in 1718, and settled on a farm in what is now the city of Worcester, in a delight- ful situation recently given the name of Richmond Heights. Born on April 19, 1769, he was the youngest in a group of nine children. At the age of twenty years he became a Dartmouth student, and was graduated in the class of 1793, the pecuniary necessities of his col- lege life having been met by his own exertions. After graduation he was for two years principal of Moor's Charity School in Hanover, and for two other years a tutor in Dartmouth, and during those years he studied divinity. His first call was to the pastorate of the First Congregational church. He was ordained and installed pastor at the old North meeting-house on March 7, 1798. That being a period when days of recreation were few, the ordination was an event which
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brought into Concord a multitude of people from adjacent towns, and there was a notable increase to the stir of the street.
Dr. McFarland (he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Yale college in 1812) became a householder in Concord in 1799, having built that year the residence now numbered 196 North Main street, which is still occupied by his descendants. The deed of the lot shows three hundred dollars to have been paid for it. He was thrice married,-first to Clarissa Dwight of Belchertown, Mass .; sec- ond to her cousin, Nancy Dwight of the same town; and third to Elizabeth Kneeland of Boston, September 5, 1803.
All the years of Dr. McFarland's pastorate (twenty-seven) being prior to the disestablishment in 1825, he was the minister of the town. Beside preaching two written discourses each Sunday, he usually had an extemporaneous third service at the town hall, or some convenient schoolhouse. In seasons of more than ordinary spiritual interest, he preached frequently in outlying districts, some- times spending days as a religious teacher, visiting from house to house without returning home. He left in manuscript two thousand and fifty-four sermons, and eighteen printed publications ; the chief of the latter being "An Historical View of Heresies and Vindication of the Primitive Faith," two hundred and seventy-six pages, printed in 1806. Being a man of methodical habits, he inducted the North church into the keeping of records, which bear the names of four hundred and twenty-eight persons added during his ministry.
The pastoral cares of a parish covering forty-nine square miles would naturally be many. Other duties fell upon him. During the whole of his pastorate he was clerk of the ecclesiastical convention of the state. He performed some missionary service away in the north country at Conway and Fryeburg, and was often gone from home as a participant in councils and ordinations. He was chaplain of the state prison for three years and a half, preaching there once each Sunday. In 1809 he was chosen a trustee of Dartmouth college: in 1811 president of the New Hampshire Home Missionary Society. He was at times a member of the town school committee, and it is known that he had at one time a private pupil afterward distinguished in the literary world,-Nathaniel Parker Willis. This was probably about 1820, and, according to the recollections of Willis himself, as stated in one of his biographies, the term of instruction was one or two years.
Mrs. Elizabeth McFarland, the wife of the pastor, founder of the New Hampshire Female Cent Institution and the Concord Female Charitable Society, was also earnest in religious ways. The home of the twain was the abode of hospitality when that expression meant
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much more than it now does. It was a custom of their time for cler- gymen journeying with or without their families to make practical use of that verse of scripture which says, " Into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence," and the parsonage was often full to overflowing with expected and unexpected guests. The pastor's salary was never more than five hundred dollars a year, but he was always free from debt. His wife had inherited a small patrimony, which did them good ser- vice. He was a landowner in several localities in town.
The trusteeship in the college, already mentioned, brought with it new and strange obligations, for there came, in 1816-'19, a prolonged excitement, when Dartmouth was threatened with forfeiture of its charter. The question had political, social, and religious, as well as legal, phases ; there was a newspaper war in Concord in regard to it, and the pastor was constrained to use his pen in defense of the college and its chartered rights. It is the testimony of his eldest son that he wrote with rapidity and correctness, and that in the pulpit he had a powerful and musical voice. His style was simple and his manner earnest.
There are in existence two portraits of Dr. McFarland,-one painted at the parsonage, in 1818, by Samuel F. B. Morse, who was fresh from study in London with Benjamin West, and came to Concord with an introduction to the pastor; the other probably by one of the itinerant knights of the brush who then wandered from town to town. One is much smaller than life, the other is of life size; botlı depict a man of character and purpose. He was of commanding per- son and handsome countenance; in stature nearly six feet, and of square and erect form until his health became impaired by paralysis.
As the story of the pastor's life is gathered, he seems to have had none of those vacations and recreations now deemed essential by men of his calling. He was fond of music and was a singer, but neither gun nor fishing-rod hung in his hall. He bought in 1815 a farm not very far from the existing Penacook railway station, where he found pleasure in those pursuits that recalled his early youth. Although he was born of a hardy and long-lived people, who went pretty easily to threescore and ten, failure of health led him to obtain a dismissal from the pulpit in March, 1825, and he died February 18, 1827, being then somewhat under the age of fifty-eight years.
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