USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 18
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A sister of Roby Curtis Town related the following incident : " Curtis came home from school at noontime. He was asked to explain his untimely appearance at the family fireside; he arose to the occasion by saying, 'Priest Fairbank is coming into school this afternoon and they are going to have a terrible time, so I came home.'"
His appearance in the pulpit is thus described by F. W. Giles, of Topeka : " If you could see the tall form of Drury Fairbank standing in that lofty blue pulpit of wonderful architecture in the old meeting-house near my father's residence, as in childhood I saw him in cold winter days, you would have inspiration to a more graphic account of New England meeting-house worship than has ever been published."
Drury Fairbank studied theology with the famous theolo- gian, Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, Mass. In the month of May,
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1800, he entered upon that primeval arrangement, ordained by God in his great goodness, of taking to himself a helpmeet in the person and name of Lucretia Rockwood. With these two all-important decisions (which is the greater, let him tell that knoweth), to wit, the choice of an occupation and the selection of a wife, we find Mr. Fairbank well launched and sailing out over the sea of life.
Thus equipped for his chosen calling, he received and ac- cepted a call to the Congregational Church at Plymouth. A wide and important field of labor opened around him. Being one of the shire towns of the county and the seat of an academy, no ordinary effort was required to meet its wants. And then, as settled by the town, all the families must be visited - by a regular afternoon and evening visit. The demands from neighboring towns upon him in the way of funerals, weddings, and lectures were many. ;
He was ordained at Plymouth January 8, 1800. In this his first field he was comforted with the reflection that he had not labored in vain, nor spent his strength for naught. Souls were gathered into the fold of Christ, and good seed sown which in after years sprang up and bore fruit to the praise of God and the enlargement of the church. Dismissed from the church March 18, 1818, he spent two years in missionary work in the adjacent towns.
He was installed as the first settled pastor of Littleton May 3, 1820. On coming to Littleton he found himself in a far more destitute region than was that about Plymouth. The church here was small and able to support him but part of the time, and the neighboring towns all around were entirely destitute. He ex- tended his labors to these towns, at the same time giving consid- erable time to the management of his farm, - an effort rendered necessary by the limited support and the calls of a numerous family. He made serious inroads upon his already impaired health.
We judge that Mr. Fairbank was more than an ordinary man in intellect. Three of his sermonic efforts at least are in print and before me, - one bearing the date of April 9, 1804, belonging to the archives of Dartmouth College, a document ancient in looks and style, its text intermingling its f's and s's to an extent which puzzles the modern linguist to unravel. Another was printed in Concord in 1807, and delivered at Plymouth at the baptism by immersion of Mrs. Dorothy Johnson. This sermon has sixty-eight hundred and forty words. Still a third sermon
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delivered at Plymouth on Fast Day, April 12, 1810. This docu- ment has upwards of six thousand words, the reflections alone under five heads have twenty-one hundred and sixty words. Think, if you will, of a modern congregation listening to a ser- mon of such length, with the coachman at the door waiting for the benediction and interluding an occasional benediction of his own.
We introduce here a concise synopsis of the oldest literary pro- duction of Mr. Fairbank, delivered on Fast Day, 1804. Text : Prov. xxiv. 21 : " My son, fear thou the Lord and the King : and meddle not with them that are given to change." The first sentence is, " The proverbs of Solomon are worthy of our attention on all occasions " - a safe statement and a grand introduction. He proceeds, " Grant mne then your candid attention while I, I. Con- sider what is implied in fearing the Lord, II. Notice the respect due to rulers, III. Exhibit the unhappy effects connected with being too familiar with them given to change." May I call your attention to the studied euphony of the three verbs in the three heads, viz: "Consider, Notice, Exhibit." In I. he makes a distinction between servile and holy fear. The former arises from a sense of iniquity, the latter from a humble sense of the greatness and excellence of God. No. II. elaborates the respect due to rulers. He herein urges respect to the " powers that be." He would not, however, dissuade his hearers from examining the official conduct of rulers. The people should make themselves thoroughly acquainted with all the political questions that are of importance.
Singularly enough, this is the good citizenship idea that is being urged upon the young men and women of this generation. (See the late articles in the " Golden Rule " and other religious papers.) Under III. comes the body of the sermon. He speaks now of those whose volatile minds render them unprofitable in all their ways. The preacher now gives a description of one given to change, under five specifications : A. He who is given to change is, generally speaking, one without solid sentiments. B. A changer is one who is more than commonly pleased with new things. C. Another characteristic of changers is, they are often a set of displeased, disappointed men. D. Another characteristic of changers is, they are often seeking some place of profit or post of honor. E. Another characteristic of a man given to change is, he is greatly disposed to contrive and carry on his schemes in the dark.
Having given a description of changers, he proceeds to exhibit
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the unhappy consequences of being connected with them (see sermon, page 17). The "improvement" of this discourse is summed up as follows : -
" 1st. This subject prepares the way for us to view, more plainly, the great and awful neglects that prevail at the present day, by it we are called upon to fear the Lord, but how few regard the call. How many there are who are saying ' who is the Lord that we should obey his voice ? '
" 2nd. Do such great and aggravating sins prevail? then there is great cause for public humiliation, fasting and prayer. 3d. These things being true we need not wonder why so dark a cloud overspreads the sky.
" 4th. Though this subject is very proper for all ages and descrip- tions of men, yet it more practically speaks to the rising generation. Oh for the affection of Solomon to address you, young friends, on this solemn occasion.
" Great and interesting events now interest the world. That fear which is due to a Holy God is not paid Him. Licentious publications go on unrestrained ; the Blessed Redeemer and the religion which he established are ridiculed. Let me then call on you with all the affec- tion and eloquence of which I am master to avoid the errors of the times. It is now for you to walk worthy of your high and exalted station. For a pure religion and government have your fathers fought, and now it devolves on you to keep them ; - and O that I were capable of making you feel it, - Many of late have been lulled to sleep upon the brink of their own ruin. Take heed that you fall not into the same awful slumbers."
The "Congregational Journal," Concord, N. H., January 26, 1853, has the following : -
" He was an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile. Open, frank, social in his disposition. Perspicuity, brevity, directness, char- acterized his sermons. For many years his bodily indisposition was such as precluded his pulpit labors. But when his health at all altered he was a regular attendant on the ministry of his three successive suc- cessors and conducted the exercises of a bible class of aged men. Thus a solemn admonition is given to the few remaining fathers to improve their like fragment of time and prepare to render their account.".
The fifty-three years of his ministerial life saw many and great changes in the ministry and churches. None of the present benevolent organizations existed at the time of his first settle- ment, the Home Missionary being formed two years after and the Bible Society two, and other great missionary enterprises
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later. In them and all kindred societies he felt a deep interest, and gave them such support as his circumstances would allow. The General Association of the Congregational Churches of New Hampshire was organized after his settlement, in whose formation he aided and whose meetings he was proverbially constant in attending.
Prompt and active, he was not one to shrink from duty or labor, and was ever ready to help along its business and exercises at the sacrifice of personal comfort.
Mr. Albee C. Allen, of Honeoye Falls, N. Y., has in his posses- sion an old journal from which I quote :
" Aug. 28th, 1825. Mr. Fairbank preached very well. Text A. M. Hosea 10: 12. p. M. Zech. 1: 5. Sept. 5th Communion. Mr. Fairbanks has been very faithful to Xians all day. Text A. M. 1st Cor. 5:8. Sabbath 19th Mr. Fairbank much engaged. Text A. M. Luke 15: 14. P. M. P's 146: 6. Communion on New Years day. Preparatory lecture Friday previous. Mr. Fairbank more engaged than usual. Fast Day April 6th. June 11th 1826. Meeting in the village to-day. After meeting the Sabbath school was commenced, 15 to 20 in attendance."
Mr. Allen says: "About this time Mr. Fairbank purchased a number of testaments and at the close of morning service invited all to stay and study the scriptures during the intermission. A few stayed, mostly women." He thought himself too old to go to Sunday-school. In this respect he likens himself to many a foolish boy of the present age. He speaks of Mr. Fairbank as " our good old minister." The institution of this Sunday-school, which was without doubt the first Sunday-school ever held in Littleton, was organized at the meeting-house on the hill.1 The weekly prayer meeting was held at the minister's house on the Meadows. Mr. Fairbank's promptness and fidelity in attending to his duties seem to have extended even to his animals. Mr. Allen tells this story which illustrates the point: "The minister's horse ran in the road, and one Sunday morning failed to appear, and after looking for him as long as he could the minister walked to the meeting house on the hill, and when the meeting was out the horse was found standing in his accustomed place at the hitching-post without saddle or bridle." In this late letter from Mr. Allen he remarks that " as a citizen Mr. Fairbank was very much beloved, almost revered."
In a letter from Topeka, December 17, 1894, Mr. F. W. Giles has this : -
1 This is an error. Mrs. Hardy presided over the first Sunday-school held in town.
1
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"In writing the biography of that splendid old gentleman Drury Fairbank I want you should accept my testimony on a few points as follows : 1st. He was a keen student of character, seeming to read the thoughts and inmost purposes from expression of countenance. 2nd. He was remarkably free from religious bigotry and intolerance. Wherever there was a sincere disciple of Jesus Christ there was one cherished in the true spirit of the Xian brotherhood."
A writer in the " Granite Monthly " of September, 1894, says :
" Priest Fairbank was a character. His theology was of the most pronounced type, and it was doubtless owing to this influence that the church for some years was styled by the irreverent ' The Iron Works.' Priest Fairbank is reported to have been a noisy preacher. At any rate, an old worthy of the town one day met the parson and gravely informed him that his [the parishioner's ] wife thought Priest Fairbank one of the best men in the world, 'and so do I,' he added, ' but I'd rather hear a new saw-mill than listen to you preach.'"
In 1820, at the time of the settlement of Mr. Fairbank, the church numbered thirty-five members. The present membership is 274.1
Rev. J. E. Robins, of Keene, informed the writer of the follow- ing incident. The grandfather of Mr. Robins owned two pews in the old church on the hill. He was thoroughly opposed to remov- ing the church and services over to the village. Mr. Fairbank was in favor of the proposed plan, whereupon Mr. Robins said to Priest Fairbank, "You ought to oppose this movement. If you get a new church, they will get a new minister." Mr. Robins was a prophet. Mr. Fairbank remained pastor of the new church but a short time. A terrible warning then or now to ministers hold- ing progressive ideas, either with reference to church edifices, temperance, social reform, or any positive idea. A clergyman if he would not be approached by his deacons with the question, " How would you enjoy a frontier church or a trip abroad ?" must be innocent of everything save piety in solid contents.
In his financial affairs he must have been very successful, considering his limited salary and his large and growing family. It would seem that he owned his excellent and most productive farm without encumbrance until near the time of his decease. Here, too, his example might be considered worthy of the imita- tion of the clergy of later times.
Six children were born to Drury Fairbank: John Milton, Amanda, Mary, Timothy Rockwood, Lucretia, and Drury. Of these descendants the writer has no certain knowledge. One
1 1896.
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great-grandchild, Milo A. Jewett, has recently distinguished him- self in his outspoken position against the Turkish outrages in Armenia, he being the present United States Consul at Sivas, Turkey, and the successor in that office of his brother, Henry M. Jewett.
Mr. Fairbank was one of the oldest ministers in the State at the time of his decease, and belonged to a class that had nearly passed away. He died at his residence on the Meadows, at Littleton, January 11, 1853, at the ripe age of fourscore years.
" Much beloved, almost revered" would have been a fitting epitaph to have placed upon his tombstone.
Without boasting he may well have said, as he passed to the church of the redeemed, " O God, thou hast taught me from my youth : and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. . . . I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come."
As oft as we shall look upon his face 1 in this group of God- fearing men, shall we not say, Thy power, O God, is more manifest and more attractive to us through the life of Drury Fairbank ?
" Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime."
Mr. Fairbank continued to act as recording officer of the church until May, 1837, and his last entry notes the admission of " Edmund Carleton, Jun., Esq., and Mrs. Mary K. C. Carleton, wife of Edmund Carleton," to the church, by letters from the church at Haverhill.
Soon after Mr. Fairbank made known his purpose to retire from the active ministry, action was taken with a view of filling the impending vacancy. The records of the church are silent in re- gard to its part in the transaction ; but those of the society show that at a meeting held on the 10th day of February, 1836, it was " voted to choose a committee of seven to be authorized to give an invitation to Mr. Evarts Worcester to settle in the ministry in this place at a salary of five hundred dollars a year." The committee consisted of Aaron Brackett, Edmund Carleton, Jr., Adams Moore, Timothy Gile, William Brackett, Abijalı Allen, and Isaac Parker. On the 24th of February, at an adjourned meeting, the committee reported that it had received a letter from Mr. Worcester accept- ing the call to the pastorate, and " letters were sent to the churches in the vicinity, and the Council convened on Wednesday the 16th of March, which after due deliberation dissolved the connection
1 This memoir was read as an address on the occasion of the presentation of por- traits of the ministers of the church to be placed in the chapel.
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then existing between the Rev. Drury Fairbank and the church and society, and recommended Mr. Evarts Worcester as a suitable person to take the charge of the Religious interests of this people ; therefore on Thursday, March the 17th, 1836, he was regularly ordained as the Pastor of the First Congregational Society in Littleton."
Mr. Worcester had supplied the pulpit as a candidate on several occasions, and his matter and manner had strongly commended him to the people. He at once took pastoral charge of the church, and to all appearance was in the enjoyment of better health than for some months preceding. In May he was married to a daughter of Professor Shurtleff of Dartmouth College. In his very brief pastorate he greatly endeared himself to the members of his congregation, and his memory was held sacred by all who came within the influence of his lovable personality. His brother, John H. Worcester, has written sketches of Evarts and Isaac R. Worcester, both of whom were pastors of the church in this town, and which are given here, as they embody a just and discriminating estimate of the character of each.
Rev. Evarts Worcester, son of Rev. Leonard and Mrs. Elizabeth Worcester, was born at Peacham, Vt., March 24, 1807. On the father's side he was grandson of Noah Worcester, Esq., of Hollis, N. H .; on the mother's side, of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., of Hadley, Mass.
In his boyhood and until nineteen years of age he worked on his father's farm, attending school at the academy in his native town only at such times as his services were not wanted on the farm. In this way he fitted for college, entering at Dartmouth with the class which graduated in 1830, being at the time of his admission in his twentieth year. He was at that time tall of stature, of unusual physical strength and endurance, and of great earnestness of character. Through life, indeed, he seems to have acted on the maxim, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might."
Being thus earnest of purpose and of much more than ordinary intellectual ability, and beginning the study of Latin somewhat late in life, he was put in the academy, first in the one class, then in a more advanced, until he passed all his fellow students, and finally constituted a class by himself. In college, as the records of the faculty show, he stood at the head of his class. But he was too strenuous in effort for his health, and symptoms of the inherited disease of his family began to show themselves about the time of his graduation.
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He had taught district schools before and during his college course, and always with distinguished success, and after gradu- ating, in the fall of 1830, he took charge of the academy in his native town. Here, notwithstanding the symptoms of lung trouble already referred to, he threw himself into his work with the same strenuous energy which had always characterized him, working in his chemical laboratory after his six hours in school, often till ten o'clock, sometimes till later, then walking a mile to his father's house, and after supper preparing for the school duties of the morrow.
Of such a course there could be but one result. He won un- usual success and popularity, but his health, impaired at the be- ginning, broke down utterly, and he was obliged to leave his school the following spring, and take a long journey on horse- back, to Washington and elsewhere, to recruit. With health much improved he returned to his school in the fall, but for one term only, having accepted before its close an appointment as tutor in his Alma Mater. In this position he continued till the commencement in 1833, when he resigned. This closed his career, essentially, as a teacher, though he was afterward, while resident at Hanover, employed to teach some special branch occasionally in the college.
Having resigned his tutorship, he gave himself at once to pre- paring for his already chosen profession, the Christian ministry. During his college course Mr. Worcester had become sceptical on the subject of experimental religion, being led to this partly by his philosophical studies, but still more by the lives of certain professors of religion in college, who did not seem to him to be governed by any higher principles than others of their fellow students. On the other hand, lie was led to the faith of his fathers by worthy examples, especially by that of a sister who died during his college course, of whom he was constrained to confess that she was possessed of that to which he was himself a stranger. In this state of mental conflict he continued till the summer of 1831. In that season there was a somewhat remarkable revival of religion in his native town. Returning from the horseback journey to which reference has already been made, and seeing farmers leave their scythes in the unfinished swath and their unraked hay in the field that they might go for worship to the house of God, he felt, as he confessed, that here was a power at work which his philosophy could not account for. He became himself a convert, and united with the church in Peacham the following December. From this time his life was that of an
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carnest and consistent Christian, and before the close of his tutor- ship he had determined on studying for the Christian ministry.
His first purpose was to go to Andover, after a little preliminary study of Hebrew, but the state of his health and his finances com- pelled him to abandon this purpose and to content himself with such preparation as he could make by a more private course of study. His time was spent partly at Hanover, partly at his father's house at Peacham, and partly in travelling for his health on an agency for Dartmouth College, until he began preaching at Littleton. Meantime he was repeatedly solicited to accept profes- sorships in Western colleges, but after serious consideration he declined them all, intent on his purpose to preach the gospel.
Going from Peacham to Hanover in March, 1835, he found the evangelist Rev. Mr. Burchard preaching across the river at Nor- wich. Mr. Burchard soon after commenced preaching at Hanover. The pastor of the church at Hanover being in feeble health was obliged to be absent much of the time, and Mr. Worcester was urged to remain and assist in such labors as otherwise the pastor would have performed. He did so, and rendered important services to the church at Hanover. In May he was invited to supply the pulpit at Littleton for some months. This application he at first declined, but later reconsidered and accepted. The result was that early in 1836 he was invited to become the pastor; and feeling that, in the peculiar circumstances of the people at that time, no other could meet their wants so well as himself, he accepted, was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congregational Church in Littleton March 17, 1836.
But his career as pastor was destined to be brief. On the 10th of the following May he was married to Anne P., daughter of Roswell Shurtleff, D.D., of Dartmouth College, and before the month was through his labors were ended.
Mr. Worcester was fond of music. While yet at work on the home farm, his father had bought for him, at his solicitation, a clarionet, and many a summer evening, when the day's work was over, he would sit on the ridgepole of his father's house, fronting the east, and, while thus enjoying the magnificent prospect before him, would make the neighborhood ring with the notes of his new instrument. Entering on the work of the pastorate with that intense earnestness which always characterized him in whatever he undertook, and finding the church choir, as he thought, in need of training, he must needs add that also to his other duties. After an evening spent with the choir, partly in singing with them and partly in playing on his clarionet, he was taken with profuse
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bleeding at the lungs. It was about a week after his marriage. He recovered sufficiently to be removed to his father's house in Peacham, where he lingered through the summer, giving an im- pressive lesson of Christian resignation, patience, and cheerful- ness in his illness, and on the 21st of October his earthly life was ended.
Not many testimonials to Mr. Worcester's character as a man and to his merits as a preacher and pastor can be obtained so long after his decease, but a few are given below. Rev. Harry Brickett says that: -
" Some time in the year 1835 Evarts Worcester, A.M., not then ordained, was called to the pastorate of the First Congregational Church in Littleton, N. H. I was preparing to enter Dartmouth College at the beginning of the college year 1836, and recited to Mr. Worcester in Greek, this giving me a very pleasant acquaint- ance with him as a teacher. He came to the church in Littleton when it was in great need of an efficient pastor, and by his earnest- ness as a preacher and fidelity in pastoral work drew around him- self a large number of earnest workers. He was a man of winning manners but of great plainness and directness of speech. He used words to convey his meaning, not to hide it. He was a man of decided evangelical views, and as at the time some of his con- gregation were Unitarians, his plain, ungarnished statements of the doctrines of grace were unpalatable. So far as my memory goes, Mr. Worcester was highly esteemed as a man and respected for his high literary attainments and deep scholarship, while some of the doctrines he preached were disliked. Looking back through little less than half a century, I can recall him plainly as he ap- peared to me, then a youth, in the pulpit. He was tall, of very spare form, with light hair, and bright blue eyes that sometimes gleamed and emitted flashes of light.
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