History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II, Part 19

Author: Jackson, James R. (James Robert), b. 1838; Furber, George C. (George Clarence), b. 1847; Stearns, Ezra S
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Pub. for the town by the University Press
Number of Pages: 918

USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 19

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" He held the close and undivided attention of his congregation. In choice of subjects he selected such as while to an extent doc- trinal yet bore directly upon the practical. He rarely chose a text that did not in some way show the way out of sin into holi- ness. If I remember rightly, he had a strictly logical mind, - logical rather than rhetorical. He rarely indulged in flights of fancy, sometimes evidently restraining himself and keeping in- tentionally on solid ground. He was remarkable, so it seemed to me, for continuity of thought, and easily led his hearers to follow him to safe conclusions. As a rule he did not so much attempt to excite the feelings as to convince the judgment and reason, and thereby persuade his hearers. His manner was un-

176

History of Littleton.

affectedly solemn, his style of sermon plain, concise, energetic, and sparkling with thought. He was in the habit, when I knew him, of preaching a sermon in the forenoon written in full ; in the afternoon an extemporaneous sermon, with sometimes a few brief notes. His extemporaneous sermons were very acceptable, for he never hesitated for the right word to come. There was nothing declamatory in his manner of speaking or reading from a manu- script. He made no attempts at oratory; he charmed and led his hearers by plain, simple, connected truths woven into a chain which could not easily be broken. It was a sad blow to Little- ton when their pastor was stricken down by hemorrhage of the lungs."

A letter from John Merrill, dated Littleton, April 6, 1885, encloses the following testimony of John Farr: -

" John Farr says in regard to Evarts Worcester, that he possessed those faculties of mind and heart that attached his friends to him with a remarkable tenacity, no one having stronger friends who would stand by him on all occasions. There is nothing that reflects his character more accurately than what was said of him by Dr. Lord in a sermon preached here some time after the death of Mr. Worcester, that ' when he had canvassed a subject and had come to a conclusion as to the right or wrong involved therein, he had no further inquiries to make. His course was settled.' This was eminently true of him. A firm adherence to the truth, the right, on all occasions was one of his characteristics. My attachment to him was very strong, stronger than to any other man, which caused me to name a son for him, Evarts Worcester Farr, born in 1840. He died in 1880 and was a member of Congress at the time."

Mr. Merrill writes : " We have but about three or four members who were here when your brother was with us. Mr. John Farr has written his recollections, which will cover all that can be had, unless it be what Mr. Farr calls the "Dog Sermon.'" In reference to this, Mr. Merrill writes as follows : -

" When your brother came here I have the impression that he sup- posed he was to be the sole pastor and teacher, but before long the Unitarian element started up and obtained the house for one half of the time, and that brought out the said sermon. The idea was about this. A farmer with a lot of boys had decided to have a dog, but they soon found they were divided. The one part wanted the good old watch- dog order, the other wanted a nice little white dog that would n't hurt anybody."

The application of the story to the local theological controversy of the time is obvious.

177

Ecclesiastical History.

At the time of the death of the Rev. Evarts Worcester the finances of the society were in a prosperous condition. The sub- scriptions to the salary fund were sufficient for its payment. The first organized movement for the choice of his successor was held by the society August 1, 1836, when action was taken providing for the payment of the salary due the late Mr. Worcester, and instructing the executive committee to take measures to secure a preacher. It appears that soon after the Rev. William With- ington became acting pastor, and probably remained with the church until the following March, as at a meeting of the society on the 8th of February, 1837, it was voted "to choose a com- mittee to obtain subscriptions to pay Rev. William Withington for preaching from the time he commenced to the first day of March next," and at an adjourned meeting held a week after, a com- mittee was appointed " to obtain subscriptions for the support of preaching for the year ensuing."

The Rev. Mr. Withington was from Massachusetts, a Harvard graduate, and a man of considerable culture. Much of his sub- sequent life was passed near Boston, and he at one time held a pastorate in Illinois.

After the termination of Mr. Withington's contract several ministers came to the church on trial, but the congregation with unanimity approved the choice that was finally made in the selec- tion of the Rev. Isaac R., a brother of the recent pastor, Evarts Worcester, who had occupied the pulpit most of the time during the summer.

Rev. Isaac R. Worcester was the successor of his lamented brother in the pastorate. He was installed on the 27th of September, 1837. He too, like each of his predecessors, was not a man of sound bodily health. It seems that each of his father's children had to combat that dread disease, consumption. During his pastorate, beside this ever-present cloud, he had to meet the storm created by Edmund Carleton and other anti-slavery agita- tors, which was marked by the Allen-Brown episode. This contro- versy continued through his ministration, and on his part was conducted with admirable judgment.1

Another element of strife in his time grew out of the action of the Unitarian minority of pew-holders, who, acting within their rights, secured the assent of a number of indifferent pew-owners to use the building for their allotted time under the conditions prescribed in the agreement of the subscribers to the fund for

1 This controversy is not discussed in this connection, as it has been treated a some length in the chapter entitled " Anti-Slavery," in Vol I. pp. 370-386.

VOL. II .- 12

178

History of Littleton.

building the house. This action gave a denomination with an ownership of about one tenth the use of the church nearly half of the time. While this arrangement was clearly within the letter of the law, it was claimed to be a violation of its spirit, and much ill-feeling was created. At the close of the year a large share of the non-sectarian pew-holders refused to renew the as- signment, and matters soon assumed their normal condition.

The period covered by the pastorate of Isaac R. Worcester was stormy, but he was a man of strong and lovable character, and possessed sufficient tact to guide the church safely through difficulties that would have wrecked it under the command of a less wise and resolute leader.

Rev. Isaac Redington Worcester,1 son of Rev. Leonard and Elizabeth (Hopkins) Worcester, was born at Peacham, Vt., October 30, 1808. He attended in his early boyhood the common school and later the academy in his native town, but had no other advan- tages of public education, ill health, especially in the form of severe headache, frequent at all seasons and constant in warm weather, compelling him to forego the advantages of a collegiate education. Early in the year 1826, being then seventeen years of age, he entered as clerk a store in his native town, thinking to prepare himself for a business life ; and in the fall of the same year entered, in the same capacity, the drug store of Mr. Seaver, of Walpole, N. H. While there his attention was naturally directed to the study of medicine, which he resolved to pursue, and, with that in view, returned to Peacham at the end of his year and began the study of medicine with Dr. Josiah Shedd. He attended medical lectures at Dartmouth College, and received his degree of M.D. from that college in the fall of 1831.

He, as well as his brother Evarts, was a subject of the revival in his native town the same year, and, with that brother and many others, united with the Congregational Church in Peacham in December, 1831.

In October, 1834, being then a resident in Leicester, Mass., Dr. Worcester, in compliance with the desire of the secretaries of the American Board, went to the Theological Seminary at Andover, with a view to joining the mission to the Nestorians in Persia, attending chiefly, while there, the lectures of Dr. Woods, Professor of Theology. His purpose of going on a foreign mission was subsequently abandoned, but he was licensed to preach by the Caledonia association at Danville, Vt., August 5, 1835.

On the death, in the same month, of his older brother, Leonard,

1 This memoir is from the pen of his brother, Rev. J. H. Worcester.

REV. ERASMUS I. CARPENTER.

REV. GEORGE W. OSGOOD.

REV. ISAAC R. WORCESTER.

REV. CHARLES E. MILLIKEN.

REV. JOHN H. HOFFMAN.

CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS.

179

Ecclesiastical History.

leaving no family, Mr. Worcester went to Newark, N. J., to settle the estate. His brother had been principal of the Young Ladies' Newark Academy, and, at the request of the trustees, Mr. Worcester took, for the time being, his brother's place and continued the school till the spring of 1837. Meanwhile he was married, November 16, 1835, to Mary S. Sargent, daughter of Col. Henry Sargent, of Leicester, Mass., who proved in all respects a help- meet of most unusual merit.

In April, 1837, Mr. Worcester began preaching at Littleton, and was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church September 27 of the same year.

During his pastorate at Littleton occurred the Graves-Cilley duel, which led Mr. Worcester to preach a Fast Day sermon from the text, " The leaders of this people cause them to err," which was published by request. Its leading topic was the per- nicious influence of such outrageous violation of the laws of God and man by the law-makers of the nation.

During this pastorate occurred also disturbing features of the anti-slavery excitement, which ran so high at last that certain persons felt it their duty to interrupt the regular course of public worship by interjecting, unbidden, anti-slavery harangues, and so persistent were they in this that it became necessary to enforce against them the laws of the State against the disturbers of public worship.

The following is an extract from a letter of Mrs. Worcester, giving some information concerning the times : -

" Mr. Carleton, a lawyer of Littleton and a member of our church, was a very warm friend of Mr. Worcester, but he was in sympathy with these men on the anti-slavery question ; but when Mr. Allen was in jail he sent a note to the pulpit on Sunday asking that prayer be offered for him and his family, 'suffering from persecution,' etc. I presume many thought he would not read it, but he did, and prayed most fervently for him without casting any reflection on him. He was much commended for his wisdom and discretion."

But it was not wisdom and discretion only. It was the out- come of that sincere respect which Mr. Worcester ever felt and manifested for the opinions and feelings of those who honestly differed with him. This was a chief secret of the hold he had upon the esteem and affections of his people, and, as will be seen farther on, of those afterwards connected with him in the man- agement of the affairs of the American Board.

That Mr. Worcester was himself a strong anti-slavery man is

179

Ecclesiastical History.

In April, 1837, Mr. Worcester began preaching at Littleton, and was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church September 27 of the same year.

During his pastorate at Littleton occurred the Graves-Cilley duel, which led Mr. Worcester to preach a Fast Day sermon from the text, "The leaders of this people cause them to err," which was published by request. Its leading topic was the per- nicious influence of such outrageous violation of the laws of God and man by the law-makers of the nation.

The following is an extract from a letter of Mrs. Worcester, giving some information concerning the times : -

That Mr. Worcester was himself a strong anti-slavery man is

180

History of Littleton.

sufficiently evident from the following extract from the sermon above alluded to, published in 1838 before the rise of the more special anti-slavery excitement. Its being a Fast Day sermon ren- dered such allusion to other national sins not inappropriate : -

" And, my friends, is there not another class of our fellow beings whose wrongs have been yet far greater than those of the poor Indian, and whose sufferings have all been witnessed by a righteous God ; whose agonizing cries and groans have all been heard by Him, - a class of our fellow beings toward whom our injustice and cruelty have been, all things considered, nearly if not quite unparalleled in the whole history of the world? Oh, my hearers, when we look upon the millions of poor Africans who have been so long deprived of all the rights of men, - so long subjected to the most cruel bondage, and in many cases surely to the most inhuman treatment in this land of Christian light and this land of boasted liberty, - have we not the most abundant cause to tremble for our country when we reflect that there is a God of justice ?" :

But, notwithstanding the strength of his anti-slavery feelings, the measures of the abolitionists were at times so inconsiderate - witness the interruption of public worship above referred to - and their denunciations, not only of all slaveholders alike, but of all ministers and others who could not approve their methods, so wanting, as it seemed to them, in Christian charity and in strict regard to truth, that neither Mr. Worcester nor his aged father, who during the last years of his ministry resided with him, could consistently with their views of duty unite with them. In this Mr. Worcester seems to have been sustained by his people, whose respect and affection he does not seem to have forfeited by his steadfast adherence to his own views of what was right in this matter.

After preaching three years Mr. Worcester's health failed. The family disease, consumption, seemed about to demand an- other victim. To avert this issue he spent the winter of 1840- 1841 at and near Augusta, Ga. Before going South he had requested dismission, but the request was not granted, his people still hoping for his recovery. Returning in the spring of 1841 with health improved but by no means fully restored, and his people being still reluctant to part with him, it was arranged that he should spend a year on a farm to try the effect of an outdoor life, but still continuing his pastorate and preaching one sermon a week only, and that not new. This was continued until October, 1842, when, his health being still insufficient for the duties of the pastorate, he accepted the office of secretary of the Vermont

181

Ecclesiastical History.

Domestic Missionary Society, and removed to Montpelier, Vt. He was formally dismissed December 13 of the same year.

Mr. Worcester continued to discharge with much acceptance the duties of his new office, under the influence of his new mode of life gradually improving, until September, 1846, when he ac- cepted the appointment of district secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for Massachusetts, and removed to Leicester in that State, and in 1849 to Auburn- dale, in Newton, near Boston, a place not then thought worthy of a post-office.

This last removal was in part to meet the wishes of the secretaries of the board, who desired to have him near at hand to render assistance at the missionary rooms as occasion might arise. His time was, however, mainly devoted to the duties of his agency till the fall of 1856, when, in the absence of Secretary Treat to visit the foreign missionary stations of the board, he was put in charge of the " Missionary Herald," of which he was the following year appointed editor, an office which he held with slight intermission till his final resignation at the age of seventy, at the close of 1878.

Mr. Worcester was also appointed acting foreign secretary of the board to supply the place of Secretary Clark in his absence in 1861 to visit foreign mission stations, and on Mr. Clark's return was appointed assistant foreign secretary, to which office, as well as that of editor of the " Missionary Herald," he was annually re-elected till his final resignation in 1878.

The editor of the " Missionary Herald " being necessarily kept in close acquaintance with all the missions of the board, it had been customary to expect his attendance at the meetings of the prudential committee, and Mr. Worcester had been accustomed to attend in this capacity the meetings of this committee and to take part in its deliberations for many years. In 1878, in view of his expected retirement from the editorship, the committee, un- willing to be deprived of his counsels, recommended his appoint- ment by the board as a member of the prudential committee, and he was so appointed, and held this position until the failure of lis health in 1882 compelled him to decline a re-election.

In March, 1882, being then with his son-in-law, Professor D'Ooge, in Ann Arbor, Mich., Mr. Worcester had an attack of congestion of the brain. From this he never fully recovered, but was restored so far that he enjoyed riding about the country, enjoyed his friends and was enjoyed by them, enjoyed books and religious conversation and contemplation. He was stricken down

182

History of Littleton.

again in the spring of 1892, lingered through the summer till October 23, when he passed away, being within a week of eighty- five years of age.

Mr. Worcester had five children, of whom the oldest and the youngest only survive him. The former is the wife of Rev. George N. Clark, D.D., LL.D., late secretary of the American Board; the latter is the wife of Martin Luther D'Ooge, LL.D., Professor of Greek in the University of Michigan.

During the whole course of his life Mr. Worcester would seem to have secured in an unusual degree the respect, confidence, and affection of those with whom and for whom he labored. In his boyhood in his native town he was noted as a hard-working, faith- ful, trusty boy, and was ever highly esteemed. But it is especially of his life and labors since he entered the ministry that we are able to produce testimonials of the esteem in which he was held and of the value of his labors.

Of his pastorate at Littleton the late John Farr wrote in 1885 :

" For myself I can truly say that I know of no man living, or that has passed away, that has a stronger hold on my esteem and love ; and he had the esteem and affection, not only of his own church and society, but of the people of the town to an unusual degree, and they all regretted that his health was such as to require him to sever his pastorate here ; for he was catholic in spirit, sound in doctrine, earnest and thorough in all his duties, an able preacher, and his talents were altogether above the average of his ministerial brethren."

Of his services as secretary of the Vermont Domestic Mis- sionary Society Rev. J. H. Woodward, late of Milton, Vt., writes in 1885 : -

" The only capacity in which I knew Mr. Worcester personally was as agent and secretary of our board of missions, and I always felt that he was a model man in that position. . . . As I call up my memories and impressions of the man, there was nothing weak or fanciful about him, but, as was said of Paul, his words were weighty. In short, looking at him in all his bearings on the strong and feeble churches of Vermont, I think it very questionable whether this State, favored as it has been in this respect, has ever had his superior in the conduct of its missions."

The Rev. Dr. Stevens, late of Westminster, Vt., writing also in the same year, in a letter quite too long to be quoted in full here, says : -

" My recollections are that the society was at a low ebb when he became its secretary. I recall this remark in one of his addresses.

183

Ecclesiastical History.

He had been asked by one of the pastors of the State if he expected to raise enough to pay his salary. . . . How long he was in the work I do not know, but I know that the society has had a large place in the estimation of the churches ever since."

Of his services as agent of the American Board, Mr. C. C. Chase, of Lowell, Mass., writes also in 1885 : -

" His public addresses before our people of High Street Church were distinguished for candor, earnestness, precision, and force. He stood completely behind his subject and never seemed to think of himself, but spoke as one who profoundly believed that his message was one of serious and solemn importance, and demanded the immediate, earnest, and devout attention of every Christian man. He was eminently a wise, prudent, and fit representative of the American Board, doing honor to his commission, and leaving behind him a deep respect for the board and its noble work."

That in his connection with the American Board Mr. Worcester had in an unusual degree the confidence and esteem of the secretaries and prudential committee is evident from what has already been stated. It was very strongly expressed in a minute adopted by the prudential committee on occasion of his letter declining re-election as a member of that body. Secretary Alden, in a note communicating the minute to Mr. Worcester, says : " This is a very cold and inadequate way of expressing our sense of an irreparable loss."

The resolution referred to is as follows : -

" In view of the letter dated the 11th inst. of Rev. I. R. Worcester, declining re-election as a member of this body, the Prudential Com- mittee would record their special regret that the state of his health renders such a step necessary. We recall with great satisfaction his former labors as District Secretary of the American Board, his editorial labors of twenty years in connection with the 'Missionary Herald,' and his services of four years as a member of this committee. During the two periods last named, amounting in all to nearly a quarter of a cen- tury, Mr. Worcester's presence in our meetings has been of the highest value by virtue of the extent and accuracy of his acquaintance with the Missions of the Board and his calmness and wisdom in counsel. We would also record our deep personal respect and attachment to him as a Christian man and an associate under responsibilities which the God of Missions has placed upon us."

This resolution was passed September 13, 1882, and at a special meeting two days afterward the members of the committee present requested the privilege, as an expression of their own personal

184

History of Littleton.

respect and affection, of affixing their own names to the minute adopted in relation to Mr. Worcester, and, the other officers of the board making a similar request, the minute was signed by the members of the prudential committee, the secretaries of the board, the treasurer, and the editor of the "Missionary Herald."

Secretary Clark informs the writer of this sketch that " when- ever any important question was up in the prudential committee they always waited with much deference to hear what Mr. Worcester would say, and some of the strongest men would almost always say ' I agree with Mr. Worcester,' so that it be- came a byword."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II, Part 19

Author: Jackson, James R. (James Robert), b. 1838; Furber, George C. (George Clarence), b. 1847; Stearns, Ezra S Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Pub. for the town by the University Press Number of Pages: 918

Author: Jackson, James R. (James Robert), b. 1838; Furber, George C. (George Clarence), b. 1847; Stearns, Ezra S
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Pub. for the town by the University Press
Number of Pages: 918