USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 30
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Rev. Hiram L. Kelsey, son of Hiram and Hannah Robinson Kelsey, was born in North Danville, Vt., August 31, 1835; worked on a farm until twenty-two years of age; fitted for college at St. Johnsbury Academy ; graduated from Wesleyan University, 1861 ; was ordained deacon at Haverhill, Mass., April 12, 1863, by Bishop Baker; elder at Dover, April 16, 1865, by Bishop Ames; paid his way through college by teaching a
1 According to quite recent advices Mr. Barnes was in the superannuated class and a resident of Petoski on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
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district school and giving private instruction. In 1861 he taught a preparatory school in Middletown, Conn. In 1862 he was pastor of a Methodist Church in Union Village, also in 1863 ; at Littleton, in 1864 ; afterward he was stationed at Plymouth, Man- chester, Portsmouth, Claremont, Nashua (Chestnut Street). He was pastor of the Congregational Church in Hollis three years ; at Brockton, Mass., five years ; at Suffield three years. For several years he supplied different Congregational pulpits. In 1896 he engaged in the practice of law and in the insurance business in Worcester, Mass. He married Sara E. Lummis July 13, 1861 (deceased October 19, 1877; buried at Littleton) ; mar- ried Mrs. N. M. S. Moore June 3, 1879; has had nine children, several deceased. Mr. Kelsey is tall, of light complexion, and fine address, a pulpit orator, a man of pronounced views and tena- cious opinions, a radical in politics, and an advanced thinker in theology.
Upon the retirement of Mr. Kelsey there came to this station a man cast in an entirely different mental mould. Rev. Truman Carter was a native of the town, a scion of the family which settled late in the eighteenth century at the west end. It mul- tiplied and increased in obedience to the Biblical command to an extent that would have given ample satisfaction to our President. Truman was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Thomas, the son of Moses, born in Kingston in 1739. Thomas came to Littleton in 1798, and in 1818 removed to Peacham, Vt. His son Enoch was born in this town in 1807 or 1808 ; in 1830 he married Mary Carter, who was probably of kin to him, and two of their children were born in this town. When Truman was in his twentieth year, he was converted and joined the Methodist Church ; in 1855 he was given a local preacher's license, and seeking an education that would qualify him for a wider field of usefulness, attended Newbury Seminary in 1855-56; in 1857 he entered the Biblical Institute at Concord and completed his course in 1860. During this period he preached as supply nearly every Sabbath. He was stationed in Littleton from 1865 to April, 1867. This pastorate was eminently successful both from a spiritual and a business point of view, and the church prospered in an unusual degree under his administration. Mr. Carter was not blessed with a strong constitution, but was endowed with a spirit that conquered this infirmity and enabled him to accomplish much for the cause to which he devoted his strength and his days. He strove with all his miglit to do good to his fellow-men, and the results were an
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ample reward for his labors. He was a pleasing and instructive preacher and a pulpit orator of no mean endowments. Like all who know they have a message to deliver to dying men, he worked and pleaded with zeal and pathos, and his plain and direct words found lodgment in the hearts of hundreds and bore fruit meet for repentance.
Mr. Carter joined this conference after finishing the course at the Biblical Institute in 1860, and was located first at Rumney, then at Whitefield, Jefferson, Littleton, Lisbon, Lawrence (Gar- den Street), Nashua (Chestnut Street). In 1872 he was for a season engaged in evangelistic work; he then went to Cole- brook and afterward to Laconia and East Kingston. The last eighteen active years of his life were passed in Kansas, where he worked, chiefly as supply, at Centralia, Seneca, Osborn, Bloom- ington, and Marysville ; at these places many were converted under his ministry.
In 1896 he returned East to pass the closing years of his life among friends of his earlier days. On May 13, 1898, while attending church service at Ipswich, Mass., he was stricken and on the 19th passed to his reward. Of him his conference biographer said : " Brother Carter had a rich and happy experi- ence. He was a very instructive and unctuous preacher. His glowing heart trembled in the pathos of his resonant voice. In pulpit, altar, and pastoral work he did with his might what his hands found to do. . . . If any man wrought to the utmost of his ability, Truman Carter was that man."
Rev. Alfred E. Drew, son of Aaron and Marion Drew, was born at Fairfax, Vt., September 14, 1841, and educated at New- bury Seminary, Vt., and Concord Biblical Institute, graduating June 14, 1866, completing a three years' course in two years ; ordained elder at Lisbon April 11, 1869, by Bishop Clark. Stationed at Littleton, 1867-68, and subsequently at Bristol, Concord, Haverhill, Mass. (Grace Church), at Lawrence, Mass. (Garden Street), and Manchester. He then was transferred to the New England Southern Conference and located at New Bedford, Mass. (Pleasant Street), in 1883-85. Mr. Drew is not at this time connected with any conference. He has been engaged in business in New Hampshire and Florida, preaching part of the time, living in the winter in Boston. Mr. Drew married Anna E. Atwood, of Newbury, Vt., July 17, 1867, bringing his bride to Littleton ; he has one child, Katie A. Drew. Mr. Drew was a good musician, and would sometimes sing rather than speak a quotation from a hymn which was used to illustrate
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a point in a sermon ; he was also a diligent student and graceful pulpit orator. He pushed his work with great energy and was held in high esteem by all. If the promise of his youth- ful pastorate in this town was fulfilled in his after assign- ments, the pulpit was deprived of a preacher of more than usual accomplishments when he entered the crowded marts of trade.
The youngest pastor was followed successively by two of the oldest who have been appointed by the Methodist Conference to this town. The first of these was James Moers Bean, who, owing to broken health and a desire to try a change of climate, remained but one year. He was born in Sandwich in 1827, and his early youth and manhood were passed in the midst of some privations and constant work upon a farm. In these years not the least of his efforts were those put forth to acquire an education. He became a member of the church in 1847, and in 1851 was licensed to preach by Rev. Elisha Adams. During his preparatory studies his health failed, and it was not until 1858 that he was able to resume necessary work at the Institute at Concord. He united with the conference in 1861, having been ordained a deacon in 1858. His first charge was at Rumney in 1861; this was followed by appointments to Landaff in 1863, Haverhill in 1865, London in 1868, and Littleton in 1869. In the hope that a change might improve his health, in the early summer of 1870 he went to Illinois, where he labored two years at Savanna, and three at Prairie Centre,
La Salle County. Closing his ministerial career, he made his home at Lanark in that State, and from thence was called to his eternal home in April, 1895. One who knew him well 1 writes that he was " a dignified Christian gentleman ; modest, faithful, and zealous. He was an able preacher and a very successful pastor. He had ‘ gifts, grace, and usefulness.' With all he had the rare tact of administering all the affairs of the church, the happy art of keeping his people united and interested. He was wise to win souls and to train them to Christian usefulness."
The other and eldest of the clergymen of this denomination assigned to Littleton was John Currier, who was born at Walden, - Vt., July 23, 1805, and entered into his heavenly heritage April 25, 1891.
Brought up on a farm in a region where the marks of the axe of the pioneer were still everywhere visible, his educational advan- tages were meagre; but his thirst for knowledge was such that he overcame the conditions of his environment, and soon became a
1 New Hampshire Conference Official Journal, 1896, pp. 179-181.
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teacher as well as a student, and in this useful art he was eminently successful. It should be said that he continued through life to be a diligent student, not only of theology, but of history, litera- ture, art, and the useful sciences. Converted in 1828, the following year he was received into the Methodist Episcopal Church in his native town, and the succeeding year was licensed to preach, and soon after joined the Annual Conference ; was ordained deacon in 1832, and elder in 1834. He was three times married, -first to Martha Foster, who died in May, 1852. In June, 1854, he married Mary L. Howard, who died in 1863, and in 1864 he was married to Mrs. Sarah M. Wheeler, of Newport. He had three children, one son and two daughters.
His first appointment was to the Lyndon and St. Johnsbury circuit (six towns), 1830-31; then followed Danville, Mont- pelier, Danville, Chelsea, Rochester, Barre, Northfield ; super- annuated, 1844-45 ; Presiding Elder on Montpelier District, 1846-50 ; Presiding Elder on Danville District, 1850-54; Lebanon, N. H., 1854-55 ; then at Sanbornton Bridge, Newport, Manchester, Bristol, Sandwich, Salem (Pleasant Street), Salisbury, Mass., Littleton, 1870-71, and North Haverhill, 1872-74 ; supernumerary, 1875-83 (residence, North Haverhill) ; superannuated, 1884-91 (residence, Montpelier, Vt.). In 1845 he was agent for the Ver- mont Bible Society. In 1848 he was a delegate to the General Conference at Pittsburg.
It will be noted that his appointment to this town was the last but one he received, and that he was sixty-five years of age at the time, - an age when the mental powers are supposed to have passed their prime, but he was seemingly as alert and vigorous of mind as a young man with his future filled with ambitious projects before him. His labors met with gratifying success. His was the power that reached all classes and conditions with the word he was commissioned by the Master to preach. He appealed alike to the head and the heart with persuasive force. His ministry of more than fifty years was attended through its en- tire course with spiritual awakenings that bore eloquent testi- mony to his power. He believed the Methodist Church to have been established as a revival church, and he never relaxed his zeal to keep alive in the hearts of his people the consecrated spirit of John Wesley.
During his pastorate at North Haverhill he served a term as Chaplain of the New Hampshire Legislature. At the conclusion of that pastorate he was placed on the supernumerary list, and continued to reside at that place and act as chaplain of the
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county almshouse until 1884, when he retired to the superan- nuated list, making his home with his only surviving child, Mrs. Hinckley, at Montpelier, Vt.
The closing scene in his ministerial life is thus related by Rev. J. W. Adams. When the veterans' list was called at the confer- ence held at Newport in April, 1891, "no one," he says, "who heard his farewell address can ever forget it. Heaven's sunshine was upon him, and his soul was aflame. As he congratulated himself upon the grace that had saved him, and upon having shared in so blessed a ministerial work and fellowship, and upon the soul-rapture of this border-land of his eternal inheritance, it seemed as if we could see the stakes and cords of his weather- beaten tabernacle loosen, and as if he was about to make his trium- phant ascension before our eyes. All hearts were melted. Bishop, ministers, laymen, all wept as they beheld his shining face and heard his victorious shout. It was a wonderful testimony. We did not know it, but it was his dying message, and it could not have been more beautiful, fitting and complete."
At the close of the conference he went to Manchester to visit his sister, and there was soon stricken with pneumonia, and expired on the last day of the week, April 25, 1891. It can truly be said of this saintly man that he possessed the confidence and respect of all who made his acquaintance.
In 1872-73 the church was in charge of the Rev. George Beebe, a full record of whose life would read like a romance rather than a plain tale of the progress through this life of one whose self- appointed mission was to do good, to promote the welfare of his fellows, and to serve the land of his adoption.
Mr. Beebe was born in Bascomb, Somersetshire, England, June 9, 1828. When eleven years old his mother died, and he came to America, and for some years lived in Brooklyn, N. Y. He attended the schools of that city.
At the outbreak of the war with Mexico he joined the army under the command of General Scott, and participated in six of the seven engagments that marked the progress of the army from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico. He received several promotions in the minor grades of the service for meritorious conduct, held a sergeant's warrant, and was awarded a silver medal for bravery in action.
Returning to New York, he entered the University of that city, and pursued his studies in the Medical school, at the same time taking a special course in the Academic department of the Univer- sity. Having been graduated, he began practice as a physician in
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Brooklyn. He married, in 1853, Minerva Hunt, who was born in Gilford. She was a most devoted Christian and helpmate in her husband's work, both as minister and physician. They had eight children, three of whom died at Newcastle in the spring or early summer of 1863. Mrs. Beebe died at Chichester in March, 1871. He married, in 1874, Ardelle, daughter of Charles C. Knapp, formerly of this town. Since Mr. Beebe's death she has become the wife of Samuel J. Meade, and they are located as missionaries at Melange, South Africa.
At the time Mr. Beebe received his university degree he was almost persuaded to forego the practice of his profession and study for the ministry, and after some months devoted to ministering to the bodily ills of his patients in Brooklyn, who patronized him in sufficient numbers to give promise of a successful career, he came to regard the call to preach the Gospel so distinct that it was not to be denied. Accordingly he applied to the agent of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," and under the auspices of that organization was given a missionary appointment to the Isles of Shoals, where he was located until the country when in sore need called for the services of every available man, and in 1863 he ac- cepted a contract surgeon's warrant and was successively stationed in the hospitals at Manchester, Concord, and at the theatre of war. In 1865 he resumed his duties at the Shoals, and for five years served the people of the islands as their pastor, physician, school- master, justice of the peace, and for four terms (1866 to 1869, in- clusive) represented the ancient town of Gosport in the Legislature of the State, -a multiplicity of duties such as fall to the lot of few men, - and he discharged each in a spirit of entire self-abnegation, and it is safe to assume to the material and moral welfare of the people among whom his lot was cast. In 1867, having been ex- cused by the conference from the regular course of study, he joined the New Hampshire Conference, and was ordained elder, and under its jurisdiction returned to the Shoals annually until 1870, when he received an appointment to Chichester, where he remained two years. In 1872-73 he was stationed in this town; in 1874- 75 at Lisbon, and in April, 1876, he received his last conference assignment, it being to Bethlehem, where he passed away in March, 1877. He had long been a sufferer from a disease of the heart. His remains rest in Glenwood Cemetery.
Mr. Beebe was a man of strong personality ; tall and angular, slow of motion and of speech, thoughtful, serious, and determined, he was always about his business; if conditions did not seem to favor his purposes, lie had a way of so shaping matters as to gain
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his end. One who knew him well while he was stationed here gives this estimate of the character and attainments of Mr. Beebe, and relates an incident illustrating his skill in dialectics : 1-
" He was a man of incisive intellectual powers and original intel- lectual methods. He found the people of this community entirely complacent on the subject of religion. They agreed with him in doc- trines, approved of his preaching, and treated him socially with marked consideration. But as to concerning themselves in regard to the sub- ject of his Sunday discourse after the pronouncement of the benediction, they disclosed only a polite species of indifference.
' The sermon now ended, Each turned and descended. The eels went on eeling, The pikes went on stealing ; Much delighted were they, But preferred the old way.'
On the problem thus presented by the parish Mr. Beebe deliberated. His reflections resulted in the conclusion that his sermons lacked the pene- trating quality ; that his admonitions and arguments rolled off the in- different consciences of his auditors as water runs over the duck's back. He discovered that they never discussed his sermons, and never paused in the prosecution of their worldly concerns to comment on any occur- rence in the house of worship, unless it might be some incident out of the due course of ecclesiastical conduct in connection with the service. He addressed himself to this particular aspect of the case. He deter- mined to make people talk about the sermons. From that time every sermon contained statements, illustrations, and invectives of the most startling, not to say extravagant, character. People did talk about the sermons ; curiosity led those not accustomed to church-going to attend his services. Indifference was changed to interest, interest to solici- tude, solicitude to a religious awakening such as had not been known in this town for years.
" Mr. Beebe and Harry Bingham developed a sort of intellectual affinity, though in their occupations and active personal pursuits they were seldom on common ground or in close relations.
" On one occasion they fell into conversation on the subject of fatal- ism. Mr. Bingham adverted to the doctrines of Jonathan Edwards with quite marked manifestations of approval. He inquired of Mr. Beebe how it could be otherwise than that the foreknowledge of God concerning all coming events, the most important and the most trivial, presupposed, indeed made inevitable, a sequence of occurrences exactly in conformity to that prescience ; and if the Creator's plans were or-
1 Albert Stillman Batchellor.
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dered from the beginning, how could there be any divergence from that plan in the progress of events ?
" Mr. Beebe replied at once that he had never failed to appreciate the force of that logic. If, however, the plans and orderings of the Creator are to be sought in the Scriptures ; if it be concluded that Christ is to be regarded as the oracle of God above all others, he pre- ferred to accept, even against the inexorable arguments of Edwards, the plain command of the Bible, 'Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,' with all its implications, and with its absolute elimination of the doc- trine of election and foreordination as valid and tenable tenets of the Christian doctrine.'
" He said further, ' that he could not believe that the Son of God would command his children to attempt a moral and intellectual im- possibility; to choose what it would not be possible for them to choose.'
" Mr. Bingham was in a ' brown study' for some minutes, and when he recovered himself, the minister had gone. He remarked, however, in a sort of soliloquy, ' The parson is an adroit old cuss (probably mean- ing customer) in dialectics.'"
As a result of Mr. Beebe's pastoral work the membership of his own and other evangelical churches of the town was largely increased. He first awakened the people and gained the sympa- thy and co-operation of pastors and members of other religious societies in the movement that was carried on by the Rev. Charles J. Fowler, evangelist in the revival of 1873, which brought within the folds of the several churches a larger number of converts than any other religious awakening in the history of the town, with the possible exception of that conducted by Rev. James Gallaher in 1856.
As a Representative in the Legislature, he was diligent in the discharge of the special duties assigned to his charge, constant in his attendance upon the sessions of the House, and popular with his associates. He was not a frequent speaker, and never occu- pied the attention of the body of which he was a member except in explanation of some measure reported from his committee. At his first session he was a member of the committee on educa- tion ; in 1867 he was chairman of the committee on mileage ; in 1868 was a member of the important special committee on the establishment of a state constabulary, with special reference to the enforcement of the prohibitory liquor laws, and at the session of 1869 was, at his own request, excused from committee work. During his second and third terms among his fellow legislators was George Abbott of this town, one of the most prominent mem- bers of the church over which Mr. Beebe was subsequently to pre-
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side for two years, and it was as Representatives that a warm and lasting friendship was formed between these gentlemen. Mr. Beebe was elected as a Republican, but it sometimes happened that he could not indorse the political action of that party. He took great interest in all measures calculated to promote the cause of education, and was especially interested in temperance matters, using his best efforts to strengthen the laws in that behalf.
The career of Mr. Beebe was like that of many another friendless youth who, born in another land, made his way to honor and usefulness in this, where opportunity is open to all to rise above the dead level of common things. He accepted all the obligations imposed by Christian citizenship and led the way for others to follow. He served his adopted country with credit in two wars, and when his professional career was full of promise abandoned the paths that led to material success and for many years devoted himself to the spiritual and human interests of the fishermen on a lonely isle in the sea, where the rewards were such as are only bestowed by a consciousness that something has been accomplished to ameliorate the condition of one's fellow-men.
Rev. George W. Ruland, son of George and Eliza Ruland, was born in Brookhaven, N. Y., April 29, 1840; took an academic course in Bellport Military and Classical Institute, and a theologi- cal course at Concord, graduating in 1867. He was a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows Societies ; a corporal in the One Hundred and Second Regiment N. Y. Volunteers, 1861-62, Banks' Army Corps in the Shenandoah valley army. He was ordained by Bishop Janes in Rochester, April 16, 1871. His appointments were Raymond, 1866-68 ; then at Hampton, Laconia, Amherst, and Milford, Littleton, 1874-76 ; then to Greenland, Suncook, and Milford. He joined the Congregational Church, and has been settled at Greenfield, Westmoreland, and Dublin, and is now preaching at Stoddard.
He married, in June, 1867, Mary E. Weeks, of Patchogue, N. Y. Children : Laura W., and Elliott C., deceased. During Mr. Ru- land's ministry in Littleton the church debt was paid, the old horse-sheds removed, a chapel built in the rear of the church, and a camp-meeting house erected at the Weirs.
The Rev. Nelson McDonald Granger,1 son of Rev. P. N. and Laura S. Granger, of the Vermont Annual Conference, was born at Granville, Vt., August 10, 1840, and died at Lisbon, N. H., April 23, 1880, aged forty years, eight months, and thirteen days.
· 1 From Memoir of Nelson M. D. Granger appearing in the Minutes of the New Hampshire Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1881, p. 41. VOL. II .- 19
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His early training in a truly Christian home bore its appropri- ate fruit. At the age of fourteen years, at the Brookfield Camp- Meeting, Vt., September 1, 1854, he gave his heart to God and received renewing grace. In 1857 he entered Newbury Seminary, where he studied four years, thus fitting himself for the profession to which he subsequently felt himself called. At Corinth, Vt., under the pastorate of his father, February 10, 1861, he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the same year, June 12, at Lyndon, Vt., he received a local preacher's license. Soon after, he entered the Methodist General Biblical Institute at Concord, N. H., where he remained two years. In 1862 he became a pro- bationer in the Vermont Annual Conference. He was ordained deacon by Bishop E. S. Janes, and received into full connection in that conference in 1864.
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