USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 39
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Joseph Emerson Robins was born in 1843, and is of the fourth generation of the Robins family that have been residents of Little- ton.2 On his mother's side he represents the fourth generation of the Farr family in the town. It does not matter where he happens temporarily to reside, he is always a Littleton man. He was a member and graduate of the class of 1868 at Wesleyan University. After graduation he became a teacher, occupying the chair of Latin and Greek at the Conference Seminary at
1 He completed the course at the Boston University School of Theology in 1878, but was not accorded a degree, as he was not a college graduate.
2 Including the son and grandson of the Rev. Mr. Robins, representatives of six generations have been of Littleton. Since 1703 every generation has had a Joseph.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROBINS, D.D.
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Tilton. At the same time he held a license to preach, supplying at Moultonborough each Sunday. In 1869 he was professor of mathematics and science in the Daniel Drew Ladies' College at Carmel, N. Y. He remained there until 1872, when he returned to his native State and entered upon the regular work of the ministry, preaching at Landaff for about a year. He became a deacon in 1869, and an elder in 1873. He has never had a con- ference connection other than that which is geographically termed the New Hampshire Conference, though the conference and State lines are not identical, and his services cover the long period from 1864, when he secured his preacher's license, to the present time (1903). In all these years he has been a working member of the conference. A man of sound judgment and penetrating mind, he has had a large influence in the administration of affairs in this jurisdiction. He was presiding elder of the Claremont District, with a residence in this town, from 1885 to 1889, and then of the Dover district from 1897 to 1903. Resuming parish work, he was appointed to Keene, where he is now stationed. In scholar- ship, in earnest devotion, and in capacity for work, Mr. Robins is one of the foremost clergymen in the conference. As a preacher, he is biblical, instructive, logical, and convincing. He aims to reach the judgment as well as the heart, and keeps close to the plain common-sense level of those to whom his appeal is directed. As an administrator, he is among the first in the con- nection in the State, and his present assignment to this prominent parish is regarded as a temporary stage in his progress in the larger field of usefulness, along the lines necessitated by the regulations and governed by the polity of the church. He held the offices of delegate in the General Conference in 1888 and chaplain of the House of Representatives in 1899. He was ac- corded the degree of D.D. by Norwich University in 1899. At the age of sixty he is as zealous for the cause and as capable of protracted labor as at any time in the past, with no thought of retirement to the leisure which years filled with incessant labor would frequently if not generally seem to suggest.
Mr. Robins has been for many years a trustee of Tilton Semi- nary, is vice-president of the New Hampshire Bible Society, is connected with the management of the Weirs Camp Ground, and was for six years president of the Hedding Camp Meeting Asso- ciation. He is a Mason of the thirty-second degree, prelate of the Grand Commandery, chaplain of the Grand Lodge, and chap- lain of the Grand Council. He is also president of the inter- denominational Preachers' Meeting of Cheshire County.
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By special invitation Mr. Robins gave the address for the churches at the Littleton centennial in 1884. He addressed the public schools on the occasion of the Columbian Celebration in 1892. He was one of the orators of the day at the dedication of the new Opera House, and the celebration in 1895 of the one hun- dred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of the townl.
The youngest and last of the trio of 1859 is Charles Watson Millen, born in 1844 on a farm on Mt. Eustis, and educated in the common and select schools and at Newbury Seminary ; he taught winters for several years, and attended the Methodist General Biblical Institute at Concord, where he was instructed in theology by such eminent teachers as Stephen M. Vail, D.D., John W. Mer- rill, D.D., and David Patten, D.D. He was graduated from this Institute in 1867, and ordained deacon in the same year, and elder two years later. He was connected with the New Hampshire Conference until 1877, holding important appointments. In this period he was very active in the advocacy of prohibition, being for a considerable time editor of the " Prohibition Herald." He then was transferred to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he was pastor of the De Kalb Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church until 1880, in which year he was appointed to the church at Southampton, L. I. In 1881 he was sent to the Embury Church in Brooklyn, and remained three years. In April, 1884, he took a supernumerary relation from the New York East Conference, and supplied during the summer months Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in Brook- lyn. In the winter of 1884-1885, he occupied the pulpit of the Congregational Church in this town. At this time he lectured on subjects drawn from observations and historical studies incident to a European trip made in 1883. He retired from the active ministry some years since, and is leading a quiet life in Brooklyn, where his sons are in business.
The Rev. Mr. Millen is an unusually interesting and effective preacher. Of commanding presence and democratic manner, his personality at once creates a favorable impression. His delivery is forceful and eloquent, his rhetoric graceful ; he respects the intelligence of his hearers, and always thoroughly prepares his sermons ; he selects his subjects with care, giving consideration to topics of immediate moment. As a rule, he combines in his sermons the practical and experimental, leaving the purely scien- tific and philosophical to investigators who have made a study of such themes.
Mr. Millen has published several sermons, and in 1887 prepared a work entitled " Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver," which was
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published by the Methodist Publishing House of New York and had an extensive sale. He often drops into poetry, and some of his productions have attracted attention for their smoothness of versification, charm of fancy, and descriptive power.
In the same year that Charles W. Millen first saw the light there was born on a farm, not far from Partridge Lake, one who, like him, was destined for a few brief years to bear the message of the Galilean to people who were not averse to duty, but only careless in regard to its performance, and to the necessity of put- ting their house in order for the day of the transcendent change. Alba Briggs Carter, born September 1, 1844, made his way in the world with slender assistance from others, but he possessed a rugged will in a feeble frame and went forward, securing a fair education and a respected position as a minister of the gospel. He was converted at the Bath Camp Meeting in September, 1868, and began his work of proselyting at once, holding meetings in the neighborhood where he lived and constantly winning souls to Christ. He joined the conference in 1873, and died in April, 1885. During his brief career he held appointments at Derry, Milton Mills, Hampton, Raymond, and Great Falls, where he preached his last sermon.
He was a man who inspired confidence largely for the reason that his sincerity was never doubted, while his sympathetic rela- tions with his people endeared him to all. He was a preacher far above the average, if we may judge his capacity in this respect by . the results of his ministry. While a young convert without the training and polish of the schools, and relying wholly upon native force of intellect directed by a sympathetic nature, he gained many converts, and his ministry in each of his appointments was attended by revivals that wrought great good, and the churches were stronger to combat irreligion and vice. His early death was widely deplored.
Joseph Waite Presby, son of Samuel B. and Rhoda Waite Presby, was born March 9, 1850, on the farm on the west side of Blueberry Mountain, adjoining Lisbon, where his grand- father was the first settler. Both father and mother were early converted to Methodism through the ministrations of the circuit riders referred to by Daniel Wise, and were ever after active in the cause of this church. In a farmhouse owned by Deacon Allen Day, near the slate ledge, on a June evening in 1860, the Rev. Hugh Montgomery was holding a revival meeting. Mr. Presby, then a lad of ten years, was present with his parents and was converted thus early in life, though he did not unite with the
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Methodist Church in Littleton until he was eighteen years of age.
The ambition to acquire an education was early aroused, and without faltering he pressed on toward the goal of his desires. He attended the High Schools at Lisbon and Littleton, teaching part of each year, but still pursuing his studies that he might keep up with his class. He at first intended to be a civil engineer, but a sense of duty induced a change of plan, and he decided to become a Methodist preacher. He fitted for college at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary in 1874, where he remained but one year owing to financial stress. He however continued the course by borrowing books and abstracts of the lectures from classmates, but could not graduate, as the presence of the student through the entire course was necessary to obtain a diploma.
His studious habits led him to join the "Pioneer Chautauqua Class," from which both he and his wife were graduated in 1882, and in 1890 Mr. Presby was graduated from the Chautauqua School of Theology. He afterward took special studies in the post-graduate department of Illinois Wesleyan University.
He began to preach in 1872, and has since been an earnest laborer in the vineyard, organizing churches and Sunday-schools, and caring for important charges in New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Kansas, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
He gives much care to the preparation of his sermons, which are never put in manuscript form except a mere outline as a guide to the expression of his train of thought, and delivers them in a dignified and impressive manner. Though a great student, Mr. Presby is not neglectful of any of the duties of the parish committed to his charge, but labors unceasingly to fulfil every ministerial duty.
The Liberal Christian denominations have not been strong in members in this town. In the years extending from 1820 to 1840 the Universalists had prosperous congregations at Con- cord, Vt., and maintained public worship there, also at Water- ford, Vt., a part of the time, and at Bath in some of these years. We cannot find that any effort was made to establish a society in this town, nor that there were any families resident here of that particular faith prior to 1836, when, through the efforts of a young man not then twenty years of age, there were several conversions to the doctrines of that denomination.
The youth who thus early gave evidence of his power was Enoch Merrill Pingree, who subsequently became famous as one of the great controversialists of his time. He was born on the old Pin-
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gree place, near Cow Brook at North Littleton, where his grand- father had settled in 1788. His father operated a saw-mill situated on the brook below the road, kept a small store, and was for a time postmaster, and gave to that hamlet the name of Pingreeville. The family was of uncommon intelligence, and on the paternal side traced its lineage back to men who had borne an active part in the French and Indian wars ; one ancestor, Job, was a captain and a deacon, and was killed in King Philip's War. The grand- father of Enoch M., and his mentor in childhood, was a Revolu- tionary soldier. On the maternal side he was a grandson of Elder Ozias Savage, one of the pioneers of Methodism in this region, and an uncle was also a minister of that denomination ; his mother's sister was the wife of E. S. Woolson. Enoch M. was the first born of the family, and his brother, Capt. George Ely Pingree, a gallant soldier in the war of 1861-1865, was the last born of their father's family.
Enoch Merrill Pingree was born May 9, 1817. He attended the school in No. 2, near his father's house. He early evinced his love of knowledge, read all the books and papers that came in his way, and investigated all problems in which he felt an interest. When a lad of fourteen he accompanied his grand- father, Ebenezer Pingree, on his last visit to his old home in Methuen, Mass. It was on this journey that the boy became interested in theological questions, with the result that he be- came an advocate of the creed of the Universalists, and soon after resolved to acquire an education with a view to becom- ing a preacher of the Word. To this end he sought and ob- tained permission to attend Newbury Seminary, beginning with the academic year in 1836 and remaining two years at that institution. During winters he taught school in Lisbon, and Bradford, Vt. He was always in search of the truth, and his inquiring mind led him to ask many questions of a doctrinal character, which sometimes disturbed the placid flow of the cur- rent of events at the Methodist institution. He completed his course and returned to his home, where he assisted on the farm during the busy season of August, 1838. He had made arrange- ments to go South for the purpose of teaching, in the hope that a mild climate might be advantageous to his health, which was not robust.
In this vacation he delivered his first address from a pulpit at the Universalist Church in Bath, Sunday evening, August 20, 1837, from the words found in Romans xii. 1. The following Sunday, August 27, by request of many friends, he delivered in
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the old meeting-house the only sermon he ever preached in Little- ton. His manner was quiet and subdued, indicating a natural diffidence ; his matter argumentative ; he stated his position clearly and supported it strongly. There was nothing of the ornate in this discourse, nor, so far as we know, in his later methods as a preacher. This was the only sermon of his that his parents ever heard. On the 11th of September following, he set out on his long journey to the Southwest.
Through a combination of what were then regarded as disap- pointing incidents, his destination was changed from Mississippi to Ohio. He first visited Akron, then Middlebury, and attended a convention of his denomination at Fredericktown, but failed to find employment as a teacher. He was induced to commence preaching immediately, and filled appointments in nearly a dozen towns. At Springfield he taught school for six months. He was there received into membership in the Universalist Church, and delivered one or more sermons nearly every Sunday. At Worth- ington, O., on the 2d of September, 1838, he received from the Central Association a letter of fellowship as a "preacher of the Gospel of God our Saviour," and thenceforth his life was devoted with unfailing ardor to the work he thus assumed.
For a season he supplied the pulpit of the First Universalist Church of Cincinnati during the absence of its pastor in Europe. In this church, on the evening of October 9, 1839, when he was twenty-two years of age, he was ordained to the ministry. He was first located at Montgomery, Ohio.
In the summer of 1840 he made a short visit to his native town, and returning to Ohio was married on the 12th of October to Mary Ann Halley, of Cincinnati, who died on the 11th of Decem- ber following. It appears that, while supplying the church at Cincinnati, he made many friends. His admirers felt that there was a place for him in that city ; the First Church having a large congregation, they were warranted in establishing another. Accordingly the Second Society was formed, and he became its first pastor in 1842.
The Western custom of joint debates of religious and political questions was then in full force, and any unfamiliar doctrine or policy could not make its way without passing this ordeal. The controversial ability of the Rev. Mr. Pingree was established in a contest of this character during his first pastorate at Mont- gomery, when a discussion, conducted in the usual form, was continued five days. His opponent was the Rev. J. B. Walker, of the Presbyterian Church. Near the close of his life, in referring
REV. ENOCH M. PINGREE.
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to this event, Mr. Pingree wrote that he regarded his adversary on this occasion as the most formidable disputant he had ever met. Other debates of this character were one in Bethel, Ohio, of four days, with the Rev. David Fisher, Methodist ; one in Rising Sun, Ia., of five days, with the Rev. B. U. Watkins, Campbellite ; one in Warsaw, Ky., of two days, with the Rev. N. Short, Camp- bellite, and another at the same place with the Rev. Mr. Waller as opponent ; one in Madison, Ia., of seven days and a half, with the Rev. John O'Kane, Campbellite ; in all, twenty-four days of discussion. He also conducted discussions of this character with the Rev. Mr. Blackwell at Memphis, Tenn., and with Dr. Rice in Cincinnati, Ohio.
His controversial debates were not confined to oral disputa- tions. He entered the lists in newspaper discussions on many occasions, beginning in the " Watchman," a Universalist organ. . published in Vermont, and continued in journals printed in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In these he displayed the same gen- eral characteristics manifested on the platform ; taking the most direct course both in refuting the arguments of his opponent, and in stating his own. This directness was sometimes considered a fault by his friends who thought a more copious vocabulary and ornate diction would have been more effective. His judgment, however, was correct and approved by results.
His brief life was crowded with the exacting labor and wellnigh perpetual conflicts in regard to theological questions, and through them all he won a reputation throughout the country that was claimed by his friends to be second to that of no other person and he was unquestionably the ablest controversialist of his denom- ination. His plainness of speech would lead to the conclusion that he was not a pulpit orator, yet a eulogist in speaking of him in this respect says : " The difference between tlie pulpit de- claimer and orator is this : the former preaches for himself, the latter for God. One seeks the applause of his hearers : the other their salvation. If this be true, he was a great orator."
In March, 1843, he received an invitation to the pastorate over the Universalist Society of Louisville, Ky., which he accepted, and on the third Sunday in the month preached his first sermon there. This church was neither strong nor wealthy, but it opened to him a large field of usefulness which he could not refuse to enter. Here the few remaining years of his life were passed, but his activities were not confined to his charge. It was to him a base for widely extended operations through that State and in Ohio and Tennessee. He travelled by steamboat and on horseback,
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preaching and delivering addresses and building up the church of which he was the most brilliant preacher, as long as his health would permit. It was while making a journey on horseback through Ohio that he was stricken down. His family had the consumptive tendency, which he had inherited, and against which he contended through all his active life. The end, anticipated for six years, finally came on January 8, 1849. His obsequies oc- curred on the following day (Sunday), and were attended by a large concourse. The services were in charge of the Masonic Lodge of the city, and attended by the lodges of Odd Fellows and Sons of Temperance, of which organizations he was a member.
After the death of his first wife he married again and had two children.
In personal appearance the Rev. Mr. Pingree was of medium height and slight form. He never weighed above one hundred and forty pounds. While his body was frail from the wasting influence of disease, his mind was strong and alert. His coun- tenance was remarkably handsome and strongly intellectual in cast; the features were regular, the eyes large, full, and brilliant, especially when animated in debate ; his head was crowned with a mass of dark hair, which was not the least of the attractive features of his personality.
His social qualities were of a high order. He possessed that indefinable faculty which impressed one with the idea that his interest in the welfare of others was personal, as it was in fact, and could be relied upon in any emergency. He never manifested any interest in public matters not connected with the profession to which he gave his energy and strength.1
As a preacher he took high rank. He selected his subject with care and studied it thoroughly. At first he was somewhat care- less in his manner of presenting his thought, but in the joint de- bate with the Rev. Mr. Walker he found that method of delivery sometimes made more impression on an audience than did the matter of the discourse. After this event he gave attention to forensic art, much to the advantage of the impression made on the audience. His mind was analytical, and his power of statement could not easily be excelled ; his style, precise and pointed, was a model of perspicuity ; his language plain, simple words being in- variably selected when they adequately conveyed the thought ; there was no redundancy of speech, no meaningless phrases ; his illustrations were drawn from the Bible and fitted the argument
1 A life of Mr. Pingree, with abstracts of some of his sermons, written by the Rev. Henry Jewell, was published soon after his death.
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with exactness. He was not a rhetorician in the generally ac- cepted meaning of the word, but he had something to say and said it in a direct and forceful way that left no doubt of his meaning. After the debate before alluded to, his delivery was energetic, his gestures natural and graceful. His eloquence was that of a sincere man whose one aim was to benefit mankind by bringing home to the people a realization of what he regarded as the truths of the Bible. In this, few ministers in the West in his day approached him as a successful expounder of the Word.
The sketch of John A. Bellows, another minister who is a na- tive of Littleton, will be found in Volume I. of this work, following that of his father, Chief Justice Bellows. He is now engaged in educational work, being principal and proprietor of an important private school on Beacon Street in Boston.
As a whole, the men who have gone out from our town to labor in the Master's vineyard have proved by their character and works that they were worthy of their high and holy mission. They have been devoted, self-sacrificing servants of the church, and " their labors do praise them."
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XLI.
MEN AND WOMEN OF PROMINENCE ABROAD.
TT has been the fortune of many of the sons and daughters of Littleton to leave the old heartlistone and win success and a name in other fields. The story of the career of some of this class has been told in the annals. There are others whose con- nection with the place of their nativity has been slight but whose achievements are a part of the history of the town.
Among those who passed their years abroad but never forgot their birthplace was Moses Arnold Dow, a son of Joseph E. Dow, the first attorney to engage in the practice of the law in the town. The son was born on the farm known to the present generation as the Fuller place at the North End. A few years after his birth the family moved to Franconia, where the lad attended the village school. When still a youth in his early teens, he entered the office of the " Democratic Republican " at Haverhill to learn the printer's trade and before attaining his majority was employed at his trade in Boston, Mass. He was an excellent com- positor, industrious, and free from the vices so common at the time. .. In a few years he saved from his wages a sum sufficient to enable him to set up a printing establishment of his own. At the time the Millerite excitement was running its course in 1841 and 1842 he did the printing for Miller and his associates, and when their prophecies failed to come true and the bubble burst, Mr. Dow found himself in possession of a considerable sum and regarded him- self as firmly established in a business career.
He was always something of a visionary. One of his dreams that was destined to take a material form was the publication of a paper for popular reading. This enterprise attained some suc- cess, but want of financial aid at a critical period caused it to pass into the possession of the mortgagees. Then came a period of distress when the necessaries of life were sometimes wanting, but the idea of founding a paper on the lines of his previous venture was always with him. The late George H. Munroe, who made
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