History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 184

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520

USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 184
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 184

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).

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been built three years, and the inevitable enlarge- ment in that quarter expected was taken into ac- count when they were devising ways and means for having a settled ministry. Yet, evidently, some fore- saw two parishes in their laying out and defining the First Parish, but doubtless did not forecast two faiths. In deciding the question of the location of the first church, as well as in the selection of the minister, there was developed a decided opposition ; and this opposition was found to be not altogether as to the question of convenience and accommodation, but involved matters of belief and special interest. Hence, in 1774, about the time Stephen Gale was locating and building his mills at Meredith Bridge, the people were building their churches in the Lower Parish. The Baptist element proved to be strong and persistent. They felt able to rival the Congrega- tionalists, and succeeded in raising their church building the same day that the other party did theirs. Their church was existing, as the first in the State, on November 16, 1773. The Congregationalists' interests and affairs were managed townwise. Hence, no action churchwise antedates the Baptist records. Mr. Smith preached preliminary to a stated engage- ment in the fall of 1773 and regularly after May 18, 1774, and was inducted into the pastorate November 30th of the same year, at which date the history of the church, as an organization, may be considered to begin, prior doings being not organic action.

The Baptist Church, though already organized, with moderator, clerk and deacon, was without a regular minister installed. Ministers of that order from other places supplied them occasionally and administered baptism. Deacon Thomas Edgerly and Samuel Weeks, as clerk, officiated in public service in the interval and a few years later, in 1777, Samuel Weeks and Edward Locke were licensed to preach in the church, and go forth on all the field as preachers of the gospel and hold meetings anywhere. These going forth accordingly, and Mr. Smith as well, visited places beyond the First Parish lines, in what was beginning to be called the Upper Parish, includ- ing what was afterwards called the Gunstock Parish, and also what was in later years denominated the Upper Parish of Gilmanton, the former being now Gilford and the latter Belmont. The sowing of this seed of dissent and independency yielded its first harvest in 1779 and 1780, when it was seen to be a game at which more than one could play. Edward Locke, the licensed preacher, had become tinctured with Arminian sentiments, and dissented from the articles of faith adopted by that church three years previous. Samuel Weeks was then ordained, but soon took the same course and left the church and town, leaving thus the church unsupplied.

Four years later Dudley Young was appointed to officiate in public services ; and soon after this Elder Powers was called, who was constituted pastor of the church by ordination and installation, which took

place on the 14th of June, 1776. The town took ac- tion, in which the words "Upper Parish " are used, as early as 1777. In 1780 the two ministerial lots were designated as No. 13 in the seventh range and No. 10 in the thirteenth range. These were situated outside of the First Parish, the latter in Gunstock Par- ish, and which was afterwards known as the minis- terial lot appropriated to the benefit of that parish in particular; and the former in the Tioga Parish, or Upper Parish, Gilmanton, and hence, presumably, designated for the special benefit of that parish. Thus there was at this early date a recognition of the pros- pect of three parishes. There were issues made on the taxation of all citizens to support the Congrega- tional, or the town's, meeting-house service, and the decision was that they should be exempt who should file a certificate from the wardens of the Baptist Church that they had paid to the support of preach- ing at their church. But in regard to the inhabitants of the Upper Parish, it was voted by the town in 1787, that they be taxed to either the Congregational or the Baptist support, and that the money so levied be appropriated to supply preaching in that part of the town, and given to the two regular ministers, Powers and Smith, who should render service there, each according to the amount so raised and desig- nated. The place of holding their services was left to the judgment and choice of the adherents, or their preachers, respectively, as there were no churches yet built in the Upper Parish, or parishes more properly. The same action was taken in 1788 also, and thus it appears that Mr. Smith and Mr. Powers were the first authorized preachers in this part of the town, or in Gilford. The people now began to provide for the building of another church to accommodate that part of the town. The same rivalry and contention on the question of location, or of division, took place here as had been encountered in the Lower Parish, and the result was the same, viz .: two houses built the same year, 1792. One was located on the Province road, two or three miles south of Meredith Bridge, and the other on Gunstock Hill, now in Gilford; and these were some four or five miles apart. These became centres of two distinct parishes, Gunstock and Upper Gilmanton. The Congregationalist interests more largely centred in this lower, or now middle house, and the Baptist influence predominated in the upper, or Gunstock house, and in that vicinity ; though that house, being built by the people in common partici- pation, was open to each society, or to preachers of any denomination who might be invited by any con- siderable party of citizens, and to these each for a time in proportion to the number of citizens inclin- ing and allying themselves to each such order or preacher.

In 1792, before the completion of these houses, the town voted to tax the Congregationalist Society in the Upper Parish the same as in the Lower Parish, and that the society (implying that one had been already

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formed) in the Upper Parish may lay out their money as they see fit. In 1794, after the houses were built, the town granted leave to Mr. Smith to preach in the Upper Parish, if an agreement could be made between him and the people there. They evidently were sup- porting a separate interest, and yet not united nor strong enough to support entirely a separate minister, and much less one for each of the two or more parties. It is understood that Mr. Smith's preaching in the Upper Parish was mainly at the Province road house, and that on that service the Congregationalists resi- dent in the Gunstock region generally attended.

The Baptists, who had established themselves in Meredith in 1782, controlled affairs largely in the north part of the town, and had the principal occu- pancy of the Gunstock meeting-house for several years. The defection of Weeks and Locke had checked their fervor, and put the Baptist cause into a serious disadvantage. Nor were they alone in the de- parture. John Shepard, Esq., afterward most popular and prominent in public civil affairs, who had been a member of that church almost from its beginning, was in sympathy with Locke and in connection with him, and Elder Tozer Lord, of Barrington, laid the foundation of an extensive and organized secession from the Baptist order and denomination, and the founding of the order of Free-Will Baptists, which was an anti-Calvinistic movement and successful in many parts. He professed afterwards to have re- ceived these views by a special Divine unfolding or revelation before they were known to Locke and Lord, and that he communicated the same to them, and with them founded the order.

These three men, voluntarily shutting themselves up in the untenanted house of Esquire Piper, on Clough's Hill, over the Gilmanton border, in Loudon, fasted and prayed for a week, as they said, and then wrote out their articles of faith, mutually ordained themselves, Locke and Lord as preaching elders and Shepard as ruling elder, and went forth as a new church. The genius of the new order was zealous propagan- dism, and the immediate action was to go, the 1st of April, 1780, to New Durham, and ordain one Ben- jamin Randall, who became the apostle and reputed originator of the new faith. This doctrinal faith thenceforward was advocated in various places ; and when the Baptists sought a man to occupy the Gun- stock field, and had united on Richard Martin, of Lee, who had been ordained in 1795 and came to labor here the following year, they found that he held like views.

The project to form a Second Baptist Church at the Gunstock meeting-house, by a council called October 12, 1797, was therefore abandoned, and the next year a Free-Will Baptist Church was organized there, and Richard Martin became its pastor and continued such a little more than a quarter of a century, and until his death, by apoplexy, October 17, 1824.

The Baptist cause was thus checked, or super-

seded, and but little effort was made to sustain meetings regularly in Gunstock Parish until 1811. At this time the Second Baptist Church was formed by a territorial division of the First Church, and Elder Uriah Morrison was placed in care of it, and it was convened part of the time at the church and the greatest part of the time at other places, till 1817, when Mr. Morrison died. He was succeeded by Elder Strong, who preached at the school-house and at various other places.

Soon after this the Baptists built a house of wor- ship at Lake village and concentrated their interests and held their meetings there. A large and flourish- ing church has been gathered there under the labors of Elders A. M. Swain, L. Chase, H. D. Hodge, Mr. Huntley, J. M. Coburn, A. Brown, W. A. Horn, King Solomon Hall (who has been twice in the pastorate and once State commissioner of education) and several others, as J. B. Damon, J. M. Chick and A. R. Wilson. Kelley Rowe improved his gift as lay preacher with this church and elsewhere. Deacon Eliphlet Blaisdell has been a life-long, active and de- voted member.

The church building has been rebuilt and enlarged and rededicated in 1871, and is an elegant and spacious edifice.

For a few years after the death of Richard Martin his church continued to occupy the Gunstock meet- ing-house the major part of the time and was minis- tered to by various ministers from abroad, one of whom was John Rollins. The other denominations claimed its use their share of the time, and there was no little contention for its occupancy and com- plaint for too frequent occupancy by others. The Baptists, too, complained of exclusion. The Univer- salists demanded it a part of the time; William Blaisdell occupied it part of the time in the interest of the Christians, or Christian Baptists, whose tenets and faith he indorsed and advocated at that time. The Congregationalists claimed its use a fourth part of the time. Under the force of these existing circumstances and conditions, and these discordant and jealous sentiments, the several parties success- ively relinquished their claims, and, for peace and prosperity's sake, located themselves in different quarters; and so the old church was abandoned. And for several years it served only for a place to hold the town-meetings, till the building of the new town hall, about 1840.

It was finally sold to Captain Benjamin Weeks and others, and taken down. It was a stately edifice, two stories in height, steepleless, with two porches for entries to the end-doors and for stairways to the gal- leries ; a broad door in front, leading to the broad aisle ; galleries on three sides, the east, west and south ; a sounding-board suspended over the high and uarrow pulpit, and the singers' seats opposite, in the left ; square (and a few oblong) pews, above and be- low, built in panel-work, with rail and banisters ; and

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double rows of small and thickly-set windows, thus making a grand appearance, and commanding admi- ration in the beholder, and wonder and pride to the townsman. Its timbers were massive and frame strong, and should have endured ages, and yet it stood scarcely fifty years. It sat on the very summit of a hill, about six hundred feet above the lake-level, and commanding one of the finest prospects and scenery of New England, and itself a conspicuous landmark and object of veneration and beauty in all this region ; but its glory was despoiled by discord and strife, alienation and division; its beanty had departed. Soon after the close of Elder Martin's pastorate, or bishopric (for he was not confined to labor in this church, but superintended, or oversaw, churches or enterprises in Gilmanton Upper and Lower Parishes, and Sanbornton and elsewhere), the church was reconstructed, and they built a house at the village. This had a large congregation in attend- ance, coming from all parts of the town. The church has been ministered to by Elders John L. Sin- clair, Abel Glidden, John D. Knowles, John Knowles, Elbridge Knowles, John Pinkham, Ezekiel True, Maxy Burlingame, D. C. Frost, Seth Perkins, G. Sanborn, G. A. Park, I. C. Kimball, J. W. Rich, F. E. Wiley, Mr. Emery, Mr. Hyatt and some others. It was reorganized about 1855.

The Second Free-Will Baptist Church was organ- ized November 6, 1816, in the southern part of the town and northern part of Gilmanton. It was not to be considered as distinctively a church of the Upper Parish of Gilmanton, though it used the Province road meeting-house most of the time. The church at Fellows' Mills, under Peter Clark, was the regular church of this order in Upper Gilmanton, and this church, whose members mostly lived in Gilford, was considered, as appropriately classed, a church of Gilford, and it was under the care of Elder John Knowles, Sr., while sometimes supplied and superin- tended by Elder Martin. It had about fifty members, and continued till the death of Elder Knowles, in 1837. After that time the major part of the members joined the First Church, at Gilford village, and a new church was organized at the Province road house, and became distinctively a church of Upper Gilman- ton, and is not, in a proper sense, the successor of the Second Church, though some of its members are res- idents of Gilford, and a large part of the Second Church was incorporated into it. Elbridge Knowles, son of John, Sr., was its pastor, and it has had a con- tinued line of succession since then.

A Third Free-Will Baptist Church was gathered at Lake village in 1838. Meetings were at first held some four years, in a room in the upper story of the woolen-mill, by I. L. Sinclair and others. Suhse- quently a chapel was built on the main street, north of the Baptist Church, in 1842, and Elder Waldron (T. N. H.), Nahum Brooks, John Pettingale, William Johnson and Uriah Chase supplied the congregation.

At length a commodious house was built on the Commons Hill, in 1852, and has been occupied since. I. L. Sinclair and Elders H. S. Kimbal, Smith Fair- field, Kinsman R. Davis, Ezekiel True, I. N. Knowles, S. D. Church, Hosea Quimby, C. B. Peckham and others have supplied it ; also, M. C. Henderson, I. W. Scribner, C. E. Cate, E. W. Ricker, E. W. Porter and a few others more temporarily.

A Fourth Free-Will Baptist Church was gathered at Meredith Bridge, which worshiped awhile in the conrt-house, and afterwards built a commodious house, which has been rebuilt, then burnt and rebuilt again. The church has prospered, and the congrega- tion has been one of the largest of the place. It has had for its supply Revs. Nahum Brooks, I. D. Stewart, Ebenezer Fisk, A. D. Smith, Elders F. Lyford, F. Locke, Lewis Malvern, Granville Waterman, F. George and others. Its sanctuary is elegant and spacious.

The Universalists built a church at Gilford village at the time of abandoning the old Gunstock house, and held services in it a few years, with intervals of discontinuance. Josiah Gilman and Robert Bartlett supplied the society some years, and lived on Liberty Hill, the latter on the Osgood estate and the former at his father's, Antipas Gilman, and, later, at the vil- lage. William Blaisdell preached for the Christians. Other preachers occupied the pulpit at times, and, in later years, the Second Methodist Church have used the building and held service regularly.

The Universalist society that was gathered at Mer- edith Bridge built a house and held services there many years, but subsequently sold the house to the Methodist society, who now occupy it. The Univer- salist society was supplied by Elders Atchinson, Prince and others. The society was not large, but was prosperous for a number of years, and then was given up, and has now no open existence.

The people of Unitarian sentiments, not being numerous and wealthy enough to maintain a separate church and services, and being well pleased with the Rev. Dr. Young and his preaching, united in the congregation worshiping in the North Church, and only in later years have had a church and supply. Their church was located on the Laconia side, but. some of the principal adherents lived in Gilford.

The Congregationalists, who at first held services in the Gunstock and Province road meeting-houses, having but limited privileges in those houses, by rea- son of the claimed rights of other sects, began to cen- tre their interests at Meredith Bridge, and built a church in the south part of the village, which was about midway between the Gunstock and Province road meeting-houses. Here a church was organized iu 1824, the year in which Elder Martin died, and the current began to run in favor of relinquishing claims to, and occupancy of, the old church. They enjoyed the services of Mr. Jotham Sewell Norwood for five years, and in 1832 settled Rev. J. K. Young.

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HISTORY OF BELKNAP COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Soon after the beginning of his pastorate the church, together with the dwelling-house of Esquire L. B. Walker, was burnt. It stood south of the Lawrence tavern (since the Tilton and the Willard). The so- ciety decided to rebuild on the Meredith side, and thenceforward the church is no longer called a church of Gilford, though a large part of its communicants and attendants have belonged to this town; and they are the only representatives of the orthodox faith in the town, and are citizens of good standing and of financial ability. Some of that religious be- lief mingled in the Free-Will Baptist congregations at Gilford village and Lake village, as a matter of convenience, there being no Congregational Church near in either direction. This church has had pros- perity, and enjoyed distinction among other churches, under the long pastorate and able services of Dr. Young and his successors, the Revs. Stone, Bacon, Fullerton and Thurston; and it supplies an impor- tant place in the religious interests and moral power of Gilford society.

The two Methodist Churches, already alluded to, one located at Gilford village, and the other at La- conia village, are of recent origin, and yet hold some prominence in the religious elements and forces of society. They are neither of them strong, but jealous of their interests and zealous in their work. Their growth has not been rapid, nor yet quite limited. The succession of appointments, by Conference, has been, to the Gilford Church,-Rev. A. R. Lunt, - Knott, James Morrison, - Hardy, - Berry and - Tisdale; and in the Laconia Church, the ap- pointments have been well-chosen and good.

The Catholic portion of the community have had church privileges at Laconia, where a church was built about 1850. It was afterwards burned by light- ning, and rebuilt. It is a large and well-built edi- fice, and has a numerous constituency and attendants from both Gilford and Laconia.

The Adventists have had a chapel at Lake village, and for several years maintained regular services there. Likewise, the same people held services at Governor's Island, or vicinity. Nathaniel Davis preached that doctrine, and arranged for its procla- mation by Miller himself and other leading advo- cates, at the island and vicinity, in camp-meetings and other assemblies. The faith was held by many in the east part of the town, and preached by Stephen Mooney, Abel Glidden (2d) and others. Their chapel is in Alton. Rev. J. Knowles, Jr., also embraced and advocated the doctrine.

Nathaniel Davis, in earlier times, embraced and propagated a peculiar faith of one Osgood, who re- jected and discountenanced all forms of church gov- ernment, or covenant, and holding a free religion.

There have been a few inhabitants holding the tenets of the Friends, Elder Robert Carr being per- haps the best known among them. There was no regular meeting of their adherants maintained in

town, and the nearest Quaker meeting-houses were that near Gilmanton Academy and that near Wolf- borough Bridge. These were not so distant as to be inaccessible at the times of their Yearly and Quarterly meetings. Their numbers have decreased and their Meetings are not regularly held at Gilmanton.

A few from Gilford have adopted the Shaker faith and joined the Canterbury Family, or colony of them, particularly a Knowles family, in the south part of the town, and related to the family of Elder John Knowles. The community at Canterbury was in good favor in these parts prior to the years 1840 or 1845, and were adjudged to be sincere and upright, honorably industrious and enviably ingenious, pros- perous and pure. Attendance on their public Sab- bath service, for recreation and curiosity, was one while quite common by young people of this and other towns. Their public services were discon- tinued and the attendance ceased.

To complete the list of special religionists, which, as will be seen by a careful observer, has already reached no inconsiderable breadth, there must be added the Deist and Atheist, which were not unrep- resented among our sober and thoughtful popula- tion. Dr. Josiah Sawyer secured, from some source, ordination for the propagation of sentiments which he professed to hold, and which he represented and endeavored to inculcate or proclaim. These seemed to be deistical or, later, atheistical, seemingly in- cluded a certain type of annihilationism, or, at least, the non-immortality, and perhaps, more correctly, the non-existence of the soul and a future state. He was not without some following, and that on the part of per- sons in good intellectual and social standing, who, when elected to positions of public trust and responsibility, and consequently were required to take oath, declined to do so in the usual form on grounds of disbelief in either the Divine interposition or of the actual Divine existence.

These remarks perhaps sufficiently cover the vari- ous phases of religious life and sentiment, unless we include witchcraft and necromany. It was once widely believed that a Mrs. Roggers and a Mrs. Clark were representatives of the world of mystery, or witch- dom. Jugglery, not of the modern spiritualistic type, was indeed exercised by some, though not claiming for it any religious nature or relation. Many mar- velous facts and peculiar features of ecclesiastical history might be added, which have diversified the fields of church as well as state, without exhausting the reservoirs of memory or the store-house of the common annals and tradition, but these may suffice. A word, however, may be due in regard to Sabbath- schools. In the time of Mr. Nathaniel Goodhue's re- sidence a school was opened at the Mill-House and then at the Potter's shop about the year 1820. The Baptists, and notably Miss Sally Sleeper, afterward missionary to Siam, were enthusiastic in the new type of Christian work. During the following half-cen-

Banj James Cole

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tury this means of religious instruction and moral culture has been made a prominent feature of church labor in all of the evangelical churches of the town.

Military History .- The matter and the facts em- braced in the military history of the town are worthy of mention, and no less important and interesting than those of other departments. The Revolutionary War began, but was not ended, before there were any settlers occupying seats on the soil of the present town of Gilford, and hence we may not expect to find men from this place in the Revolutionary army. Yet there were men there who afterwards were some of our own citizens, as, for example, Thomas Fro- hock, one of the men in the battle of Bunker Hill (one of the three-months' men, serving from April 23d to August 1, 1775). He knew no fatigue, and would accept no relief while the redoubt on Breed's Hill was being constructed in the night of preparation before that eventful day, June 17, 1775. He was one of one hundred and fifty-one men in Gilmanton be- tween the ages of sixteen and fifty, according to the military census taken in that year, twelve of whom went to the front at the first call of the American cause. He also re-enlisted in 1776 and served three months and eight days under Washington at New York, and was one of the thirty-six men enlisted in that year; and the family name was originally Spar- Hawk, or Sparrow-Hawk, but to escape British ap- prehension and execution for deserting the British cause before this, the changed name Frohock was taken and has been ever since retained. Before the close of the war Gilmanton had furnished one hun- dred and twenty-five enlisted men, among whom are other names of Gilford inhabitants, as Major Jahez James, John Cotton, Benjamin Libbie, Lieutenant Samuel Ladd, David Clough, Abel Hunt, Enoch Hunt, Mr. Page, Ichabod Buzzell, Jacob Jewett, Jeremiah Bartlett and others. A part of the militia was called into service in 1781 and ten men went. The afterwards-organized militia called for two com- panies of infantry from Gilford proper ; also a rifle company and light infantry company and some artil- lerymen and cavalrymen.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 184

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1520

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520