USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 29
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In 1882 George M. Curl was sent here. He increased the membership to one hundred and seventy-nine. Hard work and devotion to duties yielded their beneficent results. On the 9th of February, 1885, Mark Tisdale was granted exhorter's license, and April 14 a local preacher's license. Since then he has been used as a successful supply at various points in the conference. The platform and steps of the church were repaired at a cost of about $60. About New Year, 1884, a new cabinet organ for use in the prayer-meetings and Sunday-school was secured. In 1884 Rev.
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Alba B. Carter died on his charge at Main Street, Great Falls, N. H. He was born in Littleton in 1844. The Quarterly Con- ference voted an invitation to the Annual Conference to meet here in 1885, which was accepted. Henry C. Libby was sent from this church to the Lay Conference. Some steps were taken toward building a new parsonage, but no result was reached.
In 1885 the conference met here for the second time in the history of this church. The people without respect to denomi- nations gladly welcomed the members of the conference to their homes. Bishop Cyrus D. Foss presided. It was a rare treat to the people of the town to gain thus a view of the great evangel- ical forces and projects of Methodism. For Sunday night, April 19, a service was held in Union Hall at which J. W. Adams preached, and was followed in an altar service conducted by C. U. Dunning, when about forty came forward for prayers, a number of whom later became members of this church and of others in this town and elsewhere. At the close of the con- ference session M. V. B. Knox was appointed to the church. The revival spirit continued, so that large additions were made to the church and Sunday-school. Clarence W. Williams was Sunday-school Superintendent for 1885-1886, when, leaving town, Henry O. Jackson was elected in his place. A project to buy or build a new parsonage was set on foot during the summer of 1885 ; the pastor moved to the Evarts W. Farr House, on Pleas- ant Street ; the old parsonage on South Street was sold for $1,000 ; a lot with an old set of buildings on Pleasant Street, No. 15, left to her heirs by Laura Sargent, of precious memory in the church, was bought for $1,500. Simpson Brothers of this town were the contractors. The work was pushed during the summer and autumn of 1886, and the pastor's family occupied the house January 6, 1887. It has a two-story front and an L of a story and a half, with wood-house, carriage-room, horse-barn, and hay- loft. A fine double-walled cellar is under the whole house. Running water from the Apthorp system is supplied. There are twelve ample rooms, all the lower story being finished with brown ash. The whole cost of the house has been $2,320. Again Ira Parker, as chairman of the trustees, did much toward raising the money and planning the work. The Ladies' Aid Society, under Mrs. Knox's presidency, pledged and raised $500 toward the build- ing and land. A " Young People's Literary, Musical, and Social Society " was organized in 1887 with Belle Abbott President. Their object is to help in furnishing the parsonage. During the winter of each year the pastor had a course of free lectures in
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the church, being aided by Mrs. Knox and contiguous preachers. These were largely attended. During the summer of 1886 the people made up a purse of $100, and voting a vacation to their pastor, sent him to the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic at San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Libby of this church, with the Department Commander, George Farr and wife, and Adjutant-General H. J. Kenney and wife from this town, were also of the party. During Mr. Knox's absence the pulpit was supplied by George W. Anderson and others.
Of the pastors named, several have taken other denominational connections. In this list are the names of Loveland, Stinchfield; Kelsey, Applebee, and Ruland.
In 1886 a liberal benefactor of the Sunday-school presented its library with a hundred new volumes, and in 1887 the church made an addition of two hundred and forty more. In the spring of 1887 Moses K. Wilcomb died. He resided on Gilmanton Hill, and was born'in 1821. His father's family was connected with the Methodist Church at Bethlehem until some time after the new church was organized at Littleton, though the name of Daniel W. Wilcomb appears as one of the trustees to whom Levi F. Ranlet submitted his report of building the church. Before the church was erected, while services were held in Brackett's Hall and other places, Moses K. Wilcomb attended the services here, and was one of those who subscribed for a pew at the time of building. In 1854 his name appears in the list of stewards, from which time till his death he was on the Official Board. Bethlehem, in which town his farm was situated, elected him Selectman for 1867-1868, and sent him to the Legislature for 1885-1887. He and his family were constant attendants on the services of the church. Mrs. Wilcomb served some time as President of the Ladies'Society.
The first Woman's Foreign Missionary Society auxiliary started here was organized the third year of Mr. Ruland's pastorate, with Mrs. Ruland President. In more or less active state it has since continued, with the following elect ladies as Presidents : Mrs. George Gile, Mrs. George A. Mclaughlin, Mrs. George M. Curl, Mrs. John T. Simpson, Mrs. P. M. Frost, Mrs. Maria Mann, Mrs. R. Sanderson, Mrs. C. M. Howard, Mrs. M. H. Moody, and Mrs. Mary W. Clapp.
A Woman's Home Missionary Society was organized here in 1886, with Mrs. Silas Hatch President, Mrs. Elbridge Flint Re- cording Secretary, Mrs. A. E. Watson Corresponding Secretary, . and Mrs. Jennie Belknap Treasurer.
The last Quarterly Conference of the conference year of 1887-
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1888, held March 7, 1888, granted a local preacher's license to Clarence W. Williams.
Not alone those whose death enables us fully to write of their deeds have nobly striven to build up this strong, successful church. Some still living have wrought just as nobly. Through the whole history of the church George Abbott was until his death connected with it in one or another official relation, sometimes with two or three offices and their attendant burden at the same time. Side by side with him stood Calvin J. Wallace through it all, never shirking duty as leader, steward, or Sunday-school super- intendent. Gilman K. Morrison helped draw the timber to make the church, and with his heart thus mortised into the framework, could not help coming to it in membership after a few years, from a sister church, with his whole family. Nor have men alone toiled and sacrificed, but women have won a place beside those true yoke-fellows of Paul. Among early toilers were Mrs. Lucy Burt, Mrs. James Gordon, and Catherine Clark. The feeble, struggling society of 1850 in less than forty years gained a commanding place in the town and the conference, with its three hundred communi- cants ! Besides these spoken of, many whose toil and money and faith and prayers have helped to make this church what it is, have moved to other parts. And what a fair body remains ! Parents have seen their children here converted, husband and wife have knelt together for the first time at the altar, their hearts, by this consecration to God, having been more than ever made one. The older men and women are passing to their eter- nal reward, and others are arising to receive their mantle. A strong group of younger men and women have come into the church, who are duplicating the sacrifices and faith of the fathers and mothers. Every department of the church is well sustained.1
In compliance with the general plan of this work, something concerning the personality as well as the achievements of clergy- men connected with Methodism is added to the full and clear sketch prepared by Dr. Knox.
The first authentic knowledge we have concerning the planting of that sect in this town is connected with the advent of Josiah Newhall in 1791 or 1792. Its growth was not rapid during the first half-century of our corporate existence, though it is evident that from the spiritual awakening that characterized the first years of the nineteenth century the Methodists gathered their full
1 The foregoing history of the Methodist Episcopal Church was prepared by the Rev. M. V. B. Knox in the last year of his pastorate in 1887.
VOL. II. - 18
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share of the harvest, and from that time on, though they have left no recorded history of their transactions, we know they were an important element in the religious development of our people.
The Methodist Church, as a rule, evinced great wisdom in the selection of agents for the accomplishment of its purposes, and this attribute was manifested when it assigned Sullivan Holman to this town in 1850. He possessed energy, devotion, knowledge of human nature, and a democratic spirit that made him a con- genial companion with all sorts and conditions of men. These qualities enabled him to clearly discern the conditions prevailing in this town and to gather up the unorganized and to some extent diverse elements that failed to find a satisfactory religious home within the fold of the Congregational Society. The task assigned him was difficult, but he succeeded in accomplishing it to the satis- faction of all concerned, - to none more so than to the large body of citizens who were not associated with Methodism but who were interested in the highest welfare of this community.
Mr. Holman was of a family that had four sons proclaiming from the pulpit the doctrines taught by the Wesleys. These sons were among the influential members of the New Hampshire Conference, and each possessed a dominant trait that was in a measure denied the others. Sullivan, as has been said, was an energetic man, with a persuasive business instinct, and was noted among his clerical associates as a church builder. It has been said by one of his biographers that he began and closed his active ministerial career by building a church. " When but twenty years of age he supervised the building of a church at Putney, Vt., . . . and in his sixty-seventh year raised up a society at Centralville near Lowell, and erected a church, a beautiful brick structure."
In personal appearance Mr. Holman was attractive. His form was slight, but every movement nervous and indicative of physical and mental strength ; his features were somewhat irregular ; the fore- head, broad and high, protruded over the dark cavernous eyes, and the face narrowed to the chin ; his hair, light brown in color, gathered about his well-formed head in abundant curling locks; his voice was resonant and clear. The general character of his ser- mons was that of appeal reinforced by abundant illustrations, with a sufficient theological basis for the framework, and these were so mingled and delivered with a sincerity and force that led each individual in his audience to believe that the sermon was intended for his personal consideration. It was doubtless this power of personal application that led to the very successful revival that crowned his work in this town. An incident connected with his
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pastorate here which he always recalled with pleasure was an invitation he received from a number of the young men, some of whom were not regular members of his congregation, to deliver an address specially prepared for their instruction. This sermon was delivered on the evening of March 30, 1851, to a large audi- ence that filled the new church. It was an appropriate and eloquent discourse and received the approbation of all who heard it.1
Mr. Holman was united in marriage in 1840 with Aseneth Stevens ; they had one child who, when resident here, was a beautiful boy of some eight or nine years, who united in his person the sweetness and grace of his mother and the nervous force of his father. He was destined to an early grave and passed away soon after they removed from town. The mother died in 1865, and in 1868 Mr. Holman married Harriet F. Ayer, of Concord. Mr. Holman died at Nashua, April 16, 1896, aged nearly seventy- six years.
The successor of Mr. Holman at this station was Rev. Dudley Prescott Leavitt, a quiet, refined, scholarly man of fine ability and great dignity of character. In some respects he was a strong con- trast to his predecessor. Mr. Holman was of light complexion, ardent temperament, rapid in action and speech. Mr. Leavitt was dark-skinned, cool, and moderate in action, and spoke with deliberation. As a preacher, he was given to logical methods, and sought to convince the judgment rather than to awaken the emotional nature of his hearers. Bothi were successful preachers and much liked in this town. Mr. Leavitt was regarded as one of the strong men of the conference and as one of its ablest preach- ers. This was his third assignment; his first was at Walpole, his second at Chesterfield, for one year eachı. He remained here the then usual time, two years, and was successively stationed at Whitefield and Bethlehem, Nashua, Newport, East Salisbury, Mass., Portsmouth, Dover, and Concord. In 1866 he was for a year Presiding Elder of the Florida District of the South Carolina Mission Conference, and was assigned to Tilton (then Sanbornton Bridge) in 1867 ; in 1868 he was transferred to the Providence Conference, and was for two years stationed at New Bedford ;
1 " As a token of gratitude " the young men who extended the invitation presented Mr. Holman with a gold-headed cane. The presenters were Albert Balch, Horace Davenport, Hiram Eastman, L. A. Felton, E. F. Green, Matthew Hale, James K. Hatch, B. W. Kilburn, Edward Kilburn, Willis Martin, Aaron Brackett Miner, Robert Harvey Nelson, George K. Paddleford, Charles C. Smith, Alpheus Sawyer, Henry L. Tilton, Thomas S. Underwood, William C. Woolson, George S. Woolson, Henry Bolton, and Levi W. Sanborn. It is believed that all but Benjamin W. Kilburn, Henry L. Tilton, and T. S. Underwood have passed to their final reward.
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from 1871 to 1873 he labored in Newport, R. I .; he was then for six years in Providence, three years each at Chestnut Street and Trinity churches ; two years at East Weymouth, Mass., and two at Willimantic, Conn. He was a delegate to the General Conference. in 1876 and again in 1884. At the close of his pastorate in Con- necticut he retired to Melrose, Mass., where he passed to his re- ward in October, 1893. In the Methodist Church the character of a clergyman's appointments is not always a reliable indication of his ability and power as a teacher or preacher, but no one could have been uniformly placed in charge of such important churches who was not among the first in these respects in his · conference.
Mr. Leavitt was twice married, first to Caroline Frances Howe, May 1, 1850. She died in 1852. He married, second, while stationed here, Elvira, daughter of James Clark, of Landaff.
Rev. Larned L. Eastman, son of James and Polly French Eastman, was born in Canaan, near Hanover, March 12, 1813. The Eastman family were industrious, frugal, enterprising, devout, typical New Hampshire farmers of the first order. Mr. Eastman was a worthy son. His soul, like that of David, was full of music. Educated in the common school, with a good stock of common sense, with a gift of song and marked genial qualities, assisted by an energetic wife, he did good work for two years in Littleton. The outline of his life work is as follows: Ordained deacon by Bishop Morris in Newmarket, May 12, 1850; elder by Bishop Baker at Nashua, June 13, 1852; preached in Alexandria and Hebron, 1848-49; Warren and Wentworth, 1850-51; Lancaster, 1852-53; Littleton, 1854-55; Winchester, 1856-57; Raymond, 1858-59; Amesbury, Mass., 1860-61; Peterborough, 1862-63; Sunapee, 1864-65 ; Methuen, Mass., 1866-68; Warren, 1869; without appointment, 1870 ; Moultonborough, 1871-72 ; Groveton, 1875; without appointment, 1873-74, 1876-96. His permanent home was in Methuen, Mass. For many years he was a trustee and a liberal patron of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary. He married, April 3, 1839, Lucy A. Currier, of Enfield, and had two children, James Henry and Mary Ann.
The following incident related by himself is of personal, local, and general interest : -
" Mrs. Eastman and myself drove to the White Mountain House, left our team, and with guide rode on horseback to the top of Mount Washington, where we were to stop some days with old friends who kept the hotel on the summit. There came on a terrible storm, lasting two days and three nights. On that last awful night the unfortunate
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Miss Lizzie Bourne, of Kennebunk, Me., perished but a short dis- tance from the Tip Top House, where we were comfortably sleeping. How painful the fact was to us, I can never describe. We were the only company present on that beautiful yet very sad morning. I helped to carry in the dead girl. After making every possible effort to revive the dear girl without success, and to comfort and make comfort- able the uncle and his daughter who did but just survive the terrible night, our guide having returned, we proposed to descend. The view from the top of the mountain was glorious. The storm had thor- oughly cleared the atmosphere. We could distinctly see the sun emerge from the silver bosom of the sea. Then the mighty mountains, the hills, lakes, rivers, with the milky-white clouds floating far below, here and there giving glimpses of country and village, furnished a scene transcending description. Toward the west the Green Mountains, with intervening country, lay in beautiful quiet at our feet. North and south the view was limited only by the ability of the eye to see. We safely made the descent, found our team awaiting us at the White Mountain House, and returned to our home and work in Littleton, with impressions sad and beautiful, never to be forgotten."
Rev. Josiah Prescott Stinchfield, son of Nathan Morse and Ca- linda White Stinchfield, was born in Phillips, Franklin County, Me., October 21, 1828; was educated in Farmington, Me., and the Biblical Institute, Concord, N. H., from which he gradu- ated in 1855. He was ordained elder in the New Hampshire Conference at Manchester, April 8, 1860, by Bishop Simpson. His fields of labor were as follows: Hillsboro', Antrim, Little- ton, Piermont, Southwick, Manchester First Church, Deerfield, London ; and in Maine, Lowell, Raymond, and Bath.
Mr. Stinchfield was appointed to the church in Littleton at the session of the conference held in this town. He was a man of light complexion, nervous temperament, gentlemanly address. His sermons were short, crisp, and attractive. He remained but one year, but took from our town for a wife one of Littleton's finest daughters, Sarah M., daughter of Ebenezer Eastman. There were four children : Belle, Charles Eben, Frank Eastman, and Bertha L.
Mr. Stinchfield died at Brunswick, Me., in December, 1887, and lies buried in Glenwood Cemetery.
In 1857 and 1858 the Rev. George Nelson Bryant was stationed here. He was born in New Boston, May 21, 1824, and was edu- cated at Newbury Seminary, Vt. He married Ann Maria George, of Newbury, May 16, 1851. Their only child, Arthur P. Bryant, was born at Newfields in 1868. Mr. Bryant has been connected
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with the New Hampshire Conference from the beginning of his ministry. He preached for a time at Brookline. Since 1893 he has been living in a quiet way at Newbury, Vt., where he died May 9, 1901.
Mr. Bryant was a good preacher, clear, quaint, honest in expression, withal a little blunt, but a good worker and faithful man. His sermons were often listened to with impatience at the beginning of his several pastorates, but interest was sure to be awakened before many Sundays passed, and in the end his strong logical methods and sincerity of purpose accomplished much good where others who were considered eloquent preachers would have left behind nothing but a memory to mark their pastorate.
He was succeeded by Rev. Lewis Putnam Cushman, who was the son of Ezra and Catherine Cushman, and was born at Middle- sex, Vt., November 22, 1825. He united with the church at Middlesex in 1843, and was soon after licensed to preach. He joined the Vermont Methodist Conference in 1849, at Peacham, Vt. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Janes in 1851, and elder by Bishop Waugh in 1853.
He married Miss C. A. Newell at Winchester, N. H., Novem- ber 12, 1849, Rev. Jared Perkins performing the ceremony. He has had seven children, four of whom are dead. His eldest daugh- ter, Clara, an accomplished Christian lady, had been in 1889 five years a missionary in China, and was soon to return to that field of labor.
Mr. Cushman was a member of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1862 for Landaff.
His ministerial work has been in the following fields: 1849, Derby, Holland Margin, and Charleston Circuit ; 1850-51, Walden ; 1852, Guildhall Circuit, embracing Guildhall, Middleton, Bruns- wick, Bromfield, Limington, Canaan, Hereford ; 1853-54, Marsh- field, Vt .; 1855, transferred to the New Hampshire Conference and stationed two years at Bristol ; 1857-58, Lancaster ; 1859- 60, Littleton ; 1861-62, Landaff ; 1863-65, Bethlehem and White- field ; 1866, transferred to the Vermont Conference and stationed at Shelburn ; 1867, Franklin. Being again transferred to the New Hampshire Conference, he was stationed, 1868-70, at Rochester ; 1871-73, Lawrence (Garden Street) ; 1874, Tilton ; 1875-77, Nashua (Chestnut Street); 1878, Fisherville ; 1879, transferred to Texas, since which time in Texas and Louisiana he has been Presiding Elder, and some of the time editor of the "South Western Christian Advocate." He was a man of giant frame and robust health. During the first twenty-two years of his
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ministry he lost but three Sabbaths on account of sickness. He was an opportunist, yet a man of character. Though not a pol- ished speaker, he was original and often eloquent. Mr. Cushman was transferred to the New England Conference in 1885, and filled important church appointments in Massachusetts. He died in Newton, Mass., in March, 1904. He came of a hardy stock, being a nephew of Park Cushman, who lived to almost reach the century mark.
Rev. George Seymour Barnes succeeded Mr. Cushman in 1861, and delivered his first sermon when the people were mightily stirred by war and rumors of war and the masses were more concerned for the salvation of their country than for their souls. The new minister was an ardent patriot and divided his time fairly between the interests of the church and those of the nation. In the course of time he came to believe that duty demanded that his personal services should be given to the cause of his country, and while considering the question of enlistment he received an appointment as Chaplain of the Seventeenth Regiment New Hamp- shire Volunteer Infantry, and a few days after was tendered the same position in the Second Regiment, which he declined. In November, 1864, he was commissioned Chaplain of the Twenty- ninth United States Colored Troops, with which he served until after the close of the war. He received his discharge at Browns- ville, Tex., November 6, 1865. He left the service with a high reputation for such soldierly and ministerial qualities as his posi- tion required, and more; for his interest in the men often lured him to points of peril that he might minister to their wants, and once, at Bermuda Hundred, he was wounded in the groin by a fragment of a shell and was compelled to pass several weeks in the hospital.
On his return he was assigned to Greenland, and at the close of this pastorate removed to the West, where his clerical duties were prosecuted under the authority of a Michigan conference.
Mr. Barnes is a Green Mountain boy, born at Charlotte, May 24, 1829. He was educated in the common schools, Bakersfield Acad- emy, and the Biblical Institute at Concord ; married Miss Sarah L. Lamb in 1854, who died in 1880; in 1881 he married Miss Emma Lamb. He had three daughters who are married and reside in Michigan.
The pastorate of Mr. Barnes in this town was cast in perilous times and was broken by his services in the war. He is remem- bered as an earnest preacher possessing many attractive qualities both in and out of the pulpit. Few residents of the town gave
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more of their time and energies to raising troops than he did, and if the growth of his church in his time was less than normal, the fact may be attributed to what he regarded as the supreme call of his country.1
The conference in 1863 assigned to this station Rev. Silas Everard Quimby, then a young man who had been graduated from Wesleyan University with the class of 1859, studied divinity, and for a time taught Greek and Mathematics at Newbury Seminary. He came from Newbury to this, his first charge. Both he and his wife were of Methodist stock that had been tried for years in the fire of itineracy and not found wanting, he being the son of Rev. Silas Quimby, a zealous laborer in the Lord's vineyard for more than fifty years, while Mrs. Quimby was a daughter of Rev. Orange Scott, whose service in the same cause covered an equal period. She too was a teacher at Newbury Seminary previous to her mar- riage and an accomplished Christian woman. She departed this life at Tilton in 1901. The pastorate of Mr. Quimby covered the conference years of 1863 and 1864. He served his people during those years with great acceptance ; he was diligent, studious, com- panionable, and a most instructive and helpful preacher of the Divine Word. At the close of his pastorate he resumed his labors as a professor at the Seminary at Newbury, where he remained until 1867 ; during the last year he was principal of that institu- tion. Upon leaving the Seminary he was located in succession at Lebanon, Plymouth, Exeter, Sunapee, Whitefield, Laconia, New- market, Exeter again, Rochester, Penacook; Salem Depot, 1897- 1900; conference evangelist, 1901; supplied the church in this town during the absence of the Rev. Mr. Cramer for study from October, 1901, to March, 1902; Milton Mills, 1902-03. He was a delegate to the General Conference in 1885 and in 1896, and has been Conference Secretary continuously since 1877 ; President of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary from 1878 to 1885. This enumeration indicates to some extent how laborious his life has been for forty years.
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