History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 190

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 190
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 190

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Mr. Lancaster held a prominent position among the ministers of New Hampshire, and in ecclesiastical affairs. For twelve years he was secretary of the New Hampshire Bible Society, and for nine years scribe of the Deerfield Congregational Association. For seven years he was secretary of the Strafford County Conference, and for six years its moderator. For many years also he was a trustee of the New Hamp- shire Missionary Society. In 1831 he was elected a trustee of Gilmanton Academy, and subsequently was the moving power in opening a department of theology which was contemplated at some date in the original charter. He was an officer in several other religious and educational institutions.

With all his cares upon him, he was an unwearied writer for the religious press, at the same time, in his pastoral visits and explorations in the length and breadth of the town, seeking out facts of interest with the marked taste of an antiquarian. In 1845 he published the "History of Gilmanton," already spoken of. After his dismission from his long-loved church in Gilmanton (which the church never should have permitted), Mr. Lancaster removed to Concord, where he served one session as chaplain of the Legis- lature, and was for three years chaplain of the New Hampshire Insane Asylum. He also preached three years at Fisherville, being at the same time principal of a school for young ladies in Concord, and the editor of a weekly temperance journal. In 1855 he accepted a call from the Congregational Church in Middletown, N. Y., where he remained in the pas-

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torate for five years. In 1860 he, with his family, removed to New York City, which was his home until his death. He did not assume the further cares of any "parish," but preaching frequently and most acceptably till about ten years before he retired from public labor. About this time he had the sad afflic- tion of the failure of sight, which gradually increased almost to blindness. In an obituary notice in the New York Evening Post, by Greenleaf Clarke, Esq., speaking of this and of the recent dead, he says,-

" He bore this hardship like all other triale in life-with a degree of cheerful Christian resignation which is rarely witnessed. 'His kindness of heart was unfailing ; and while rigorous in his sense of duty, he was always tolerant of all minor failings in others. Of dignified hearing, and in appearance the type of an old-school clergyman, he was without & tinge of austerity, and possessed a vein of quiet humor that gave a charm to his conversation. To the last he preserved a youthful freshness of mind and an interest in all passing events that are unusual in a man of his ad- vanced years and retired habits."

Rev. Lyman Abbott, of the New York Christian Union, said of him,-

"I had an active acquaintance with Mr. Lancaster for about three years previous to his, - death an acquaintance which, on my part, was one of uniform affection and esteem. The garrulity of old soldiers je proverbial. Mr. Lancaster was an exception to the proverb. He was already an old man then, retired without & pension from the army in which he had served faithfully and long. He was then seventy years of age. But, intimately as I knew him, it was not till after his death that I learned from others the brief story of his life and the positione of honor and influence he had occupied."

Mr. Lancaster, to the close of life, maintained the warmest interest and love for the college from which he was graduated, and in the autumn of 1863 he formed the idea that its welfare might be advanced by the formation of an Alumni Association in New York City. By personally visiting many of the grad- uates of Dartmouth, and expending much time and labor, he succeeded in inspiring them with his own enthusiasm in the project, and the result was the speedy formation of the Dartmouth College Alumni Association,-the pioneer of all the organizations of the kind in the city of New York. Until the last three years of life Mr. Lancaster attended regu- larly the annual dinners of the association as an honored guest. He was the last survivor of the Dart- mouth class of 1821.

Mr. Lancaster was twice married,-the first wife, Anne E. Lemist, daughter of John Lemist, of Dor- chester, Mass. ; he married August 29, 1827; she died August 27, 1829, aged twenty-eight years. He mar- ried, in Gilmanton, Eliza Gibbs Greeley, daughter of Daniel Greeley, Esq., of Foxcroft, Me., February 14, 1831. There were five children, two only of whom survive, and, with the mother, are highly esteemed and useful citizens in the great metropolis to-day. Rev. Mr. Lancaster died May 28, 1880.

HON. IRA ALLEN EASTMAN, son of Stephen and grandson of Lieutenant Ebenezer Eastman, was born in Gilmanton Jannary 1, 1809; fitted for college principally at Gilmanton Academy, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1829. He read law in Troy and Albany,

N. Y., and was admitted in the city of New York to the Supreme Court and Court of Chancery in May 1832. He commenced practice in Troy, and was married to Jane, daughter of John N. Quackenbush, Esq., of Albany, February 20, 1833. He returned to Gilmanton in the spring of 1834, and began his official career as clerk of the State Senate in 1835 ; he represented Gilmanton in the Legislature in 1836, 1837 and 1838, filling the Speaker's chair during the two latter years. He was register of Probate for Strafford County from 1836 to 1839, when (1839) he was elected to Congress for two years, and re-elected in March, 1841, for two years more, and, September 26, 1844, was appointed circuit judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the State of New Hampshire, which office he held until 1859. In 1863 he was the Democratic candidate for Governor, making a remark- able run and very narrowly escaping election. In 1851 he was elected a trustee of Gilmanton Academy, and from 1875 to 1879 was president of the board. In 1857 he was chosen a trustee of Dartmouth Col- lege, a position he held to the time of his death.

He ever retained a deep interest in his native town and the academy, and was seldom absent at the meet- ings of its trustees, and equally so after he had re- moved from the town and built his pleasant home in Manchester.

His death was after a very brief illness, and an obituary in one of the city papers said: " In the death of Hon. Ira A. Eastman the State has lost one of its most widely-known and honored citizens. Retiring from many years of public service, discharged with diligence for the past ten years, he has found sufficient employment in the management of his private affairs. He died at his home in Manchester March 21, 1881."

REV. HEMAN ROOD, D.D., was born in Jericho, Vt., January 29, 1795. He was one of eleven children of Thomas D. and Sarah (Bradley) Rood. His grand- father came from Scotland and settled in Lanes- borough, Mass., about the year 1730, where he lived until his removal to Jericho, some five or six years before the Revolutionary War. He was the first Christian, and his the third family that settled in that town. Having received a thorough common- school education, at the age of fifteen Heman Rood commenced teaching. In the spring of 1814 he began fitting for college at Shoreham Academy. At twenty years of age he entered Middlebury College, gradu- ating in 1819. Subsequently he was for two years principal of Montpelier Academy, and was then ap- pointed for one year tutor at Middlebury. In 1822 he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover. Completing the three years' course, he was licensed to preach by the Suffolk Association June, 1825. While in the seminary he received an invitation to preach at Gilmanton (N. H.) Centre village. Hither- to the people of that section had worshiped at "the Old Smith Meeting-House," three miles distant, and with the original "First Congregational Church" of

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the fathers. Mr. Rood commenced his labors at the Academy or Centre village, Sabbath, October 22, 1825. A church was soon formed and a house of worship erected. He was ordained and installed over this new church July 12, 1826. Dr. Justin Edwards preached the sermon from 1st Timothy iii. 15 : " That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy- self in the house of God," etc. During the ministry of Mr. Rood, of about four and a half years, there was one very interesting time of revival, in which over twenty prominent citizens were brought into the church. Receiving an unexpected call from New Milford, Conn., he was dismissed from his first pastor- ate March 3, 1830, and installed over the Congrega- tional Church in New Milford April 21, 1830. In later life he considered that his most important work was performed at this place. In the spring and sum- mer of 1832 there was a very general religious in- terest in the town resulting in the addition to the church of one hundred and twenty persons, ninety- nine of whom were received together, on the first Sabbath of 1833. On July 28, 1835, he was dismissed from this pastorate, and on September 9th accepted the appointment of professor of Hebrew and Biblical Literature in a new Theological Seminary at Gilman- ton, N. H., the field of his first public labors. He held that position a little more than eight years, when, on account of the general moneyed stringency and the decrease of students, he and Professor Aaron Warner tendered their resignations, November 22, 1843. The three following years he was principal of a High School in Haverhill, N. H., and was after- wards for five years acting pastor at Quebec, Vt., and for six following years at Hartland, Vt. At the age of seventy he gave up his regular work in the ministry and removed to Hanover, N. H., and there engaged in a private study of the Bible. As a result of that study, several interesting articles have appeared in religious periodicals. It has been understood also that he was preparing a critical and labored com- mentary on the Psalms. Mr. Rood married Frances Susan Moody, daughter of Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, November 29, 1827. A few years ago Middlebury College gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. He spent his last few years with his children, and after a gradual coming down to the close of life and labors-strong in faith and joyously confident in the truths he had preached for many years-at the home of a daughter in Westfield, N. Y., he died June 8, 1882. His remains were brought to Hanover and interred beside his wife, who had preceded him some seven years to "the better country."

NAHUM WIGHT, M. D1., died at his home in Gil-

manton on May 12, 1884. Born in Gilead, Me., No- vember 20, 1807; the eldest of a family of fifteen children ; acquired his education mainly by his own efforts; placed himself for medical instruction un- der the charge of Dr. John Grover, of Bethel, Me., father of United States Senator Grover, of Oregon, the latter being for a time a pupil of Dr. Wight; graduated from the medical school at Bowdoin Col- lege in the spring of 1832 and in November of the same year settled at the Academy village, in Gilman- ton, succeeding Dr. William Prescott, a man dis- tinguished as a medical man and scientist. His com- petitors, when he entered this field, were Dr. Dixie Crosby and Dr. John C. Page. After a few years Dr. Crosby was called to a professorship at the Dart- mouth Medical College, and Dr. Page entered the ministry, leaving to Dr. Wight the entire practice without competition.

Gilmanton village, though small, was at this time, in many respects, important. It was the business centre of a large and thrifty farming community in a town of nearly four thousand inhabitants. Here the highest court in New Hampshire held its stated sessions ; here, also, was one of the oldest and most flourishing academies in the State; and here was the seat of a theological seminary, conducted by pro- fessors eminent for learning and piety. The society of the place was noted for morality, intelligence and refinement. Into such a community the young physician entered, and rapidly won respect, confi- deuce and patronage.

Dr. Wight began early to take charge of medical students, and did so till near the close of his life More than forty young men were under his direction during the whole or a part of their course of profes- sional study. For several years he maintained a dis- secting-room, from which some dry preparations are still preserved, that for perfection of execution are not surpassed in any medical museum.

Dr. Wight continued earnest in his extending prac- tice and in teaching, studious and growing in knowl- edge and reputation, till, in 1846, he determined to go abroad for medical improvement. He was in Europe nearly twelve months, visiting the medical centres, studying and observing. He made the utmost of his opportunities. Having gained much practical knowl- edge and obtained a supply of excellent instruments, he returned to his professional work with renewed zeal. His letters from abroad were much enjoyed by such a scholar as the late Professor E. R. Peaslee, and his lectures after his return were received with great favor. This foreign travel and study from the savings of a moderate income was quite a bold un- dertaking for a country doctor forty years ago. Dr. Wight attained eminence in his profession. His practice was distinguished for definiteness in diagno- sis, in which he early began to excel. His faith in the use of drugs was reasonable, but limited. He was a good surgeon, often called by other physicians

1 In the above notice I draw largely from the excellent tribute read before the New Hampshire Medical Society by Dr. John Wheeler, of Pittsfield, president of the society, at an annual meeting, June 18, 1884 ; also from the sermon preached at the funeral of Dr. Wight, May 15, 1884.

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HISTORY OF BELKNAP COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

for consultation and operations; and by medical brethren and the people, in a wide field, his medical services and opinions were held in high estimation. Many difficult surgical operations were performed by him successfully. He loved the profession of his choice and strove to elevate it. Having been for many years a member of the Centre District Medical Society, in 1839 he was received a Fellow of the State organization. He took occasional part in its discus- sions, read papers before it and in 1874 was elected its president.

It has been a remarkable and unusual life,-fifty- two years of medical practice in one town, by night and day, in heat and cold, in sunshine and storm, in strength and in weariness.

In the civil and educational affairs of the town Dr. Wight has been called to fill important and honorable positions. In three successive years-1841, '42, '43- he was representative. In 1851 he was elected a trustee of the academy and held the office till his death,- thirty-three years. November 10, 1870, he was elected treasurer, which office he held nearly four- teen years.

Dr. Wight, though not in membership, was a warm and generous friend of the Congregational Church and a constant attendant on public worship, so far as professional services made it possible.

Dr. Wight was married, September 3, 1833, to Mary Ann Straw, daughter of Lieutenant Gideon Straw, a widely-known citizen of Newfield, Me. She was an excellent woman, wife and mother. Neither ostenta- tious nor spasmodic, the sincerity of her piety shone in her daily life.

Dr. Wight survived his wife and five of his eight children. It was his fate to meet with much af- fliction.

His first-born, a son who much resembled his father, and in whom his ambition and dearest hopes centred, with trunk packed for the journey to enter college, suddenly sickened and died. The father's grief at this loss was terrible. Its dark shadow rested on all his after life. He performed two surgical opera- tions, of a severe and hazardous character, upon his wife, by her requirement. The writer was called once to assist. An auæsthetic made the patient calm and comfortable-the surgeon suffered. The operation was well performed, and death was averted several years.

On the fiftieth anniversary of his coming to Gil- manton a large number of his friends gathered at his home and commemorated the event in an impressive and happy manner. A few weeks after this occasion be was warned suddenly by a mild apoplectic attack. From this he nearly recovered, till about two weeks before his death, when he was found in bed helpless, with signs of cerebral hemorrhage. Although he rallied for a little time, he gradually sank, and calmly passed away. At his funeral the church was filled by neigh- bors, patrons, physicians, clergymen and representa-

tives of the bar and hench, many of whom came from a distance, all friends of the good old physician. The religious services were conducted by the pastor, Rev. S. S. N. Greeley, who uttered an eloquent and tender eulogy on the pleasant acquaintance of his early life and the intimate friend of recent years. The remains were horne to the village cemetery, beau- tiful by nature. Physicians and chosen friends sadly and thoughtfully, with careful hands, lowered to his last resting-place all that was mortal of Nahum Wight. For more than half a century he honored our profession, and was a benefactor to his race.

Gilmanton Theological Seminary .- Some men- tion should be made of this institution, though its brief but useful history is widely known. It was con- templated by the fathers, and provided for by the terms of the original charter of Gilmanton Academy (as An- dover Seminary rests back to-day on the charter of Phillips Academy), and after many years a theological class was received. There were circumstances that led good men to believe that the time had at length come to open a department of theology. After the great revivals of religion in the years 1832-33 there was an unusual call for preachers, especially for home mis- sionary parishes and the sparse settlements of North- ern New England, and the existing seminaries were unable to supply the demand. In the State of New Hampshire alone there were more than a hundred towns without any Congregational minister, and over fifty Congregational Churches without a pastor.

At the same time, as another consequence of these revivals, there was quite a large class of men, partly educated, who earnestly desired to study for the min- istry without a previous college course, on account of their age or pecuniary inability, but men who, by practical knowledge of the world, by energy, physical strength and talents, were admirably adapted for these waiting fields. There were, however, even at the first, several graduates of colleges who studied at Gilman- ton with much pleasure and profit; and it is worthy of note that in late years the theological seminaries at. Andover and Chicago have made separate provision, by the endowments of professorships and special courses of instruction for just this class of men for whom the seminary at Gilmanton was first opened.

It was on August 15, 1835, at their annual meeting, having been maturing plans for two years, that the trustees of Gilmanton Academy called the Rev. He- man Rood, from New Milford, Conn., to open and con- duct a department of theology. He accepted the ap- pointment and was inaugurated professor of theology and Biblical literature on the 9th of September. The seminary commenced operations the following month, October, 1835. The course of instruction began with seven students.

Very soon, by the advice of men in whom the hoard had confidence (says the historian of Gilmanton, p. 170), both in New Hampshire and in Massachu- setts, the plan of the department was enlarged so as

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to include a more complete course of training for the ministry, and Rev. Aaron Warner, D.D., was appointed professor of sacred rhetoric. He was inaugurated on the first anniversary, August 25, 1836. There has been printed for the family and personal friends a very interesting life-sketch of Professor Warner, by Professor Crowell, of Amherst College (a son-in-law), in which, speaking of this appointment, he says : "Professor Warner was in full sympathy with the ob- ject for which the seminary was established. During the seven years and a half of his connection with it he untiringly devoted all his energies to its interests, and especially to the work of his own department,- the training of students in the art of pulpit discourse, -and, according to the testimony of competent ob- servers, and particularly of his pupils, with a large measure of success." Says his colleague, Rev. He- man Rood, D.D. : "Professor Warner was very useful and popular as a teacher in the seminary. The classes were well and thoroughly trained in his department. They learned to write correctly and to speak and preach impressively. He once afterwards said to me that he regarded the years spent in the seminary as the happiest and most useful years of his life." After closing these years of usefulness Professor Warner was appointed to the chair of rhetoric, oratory and English literature in Amherst College, upon the duties of which he entered in January, 1845. The college at that time was in circumstances that necessitated the performance of labor sufficient for three men.

It gradually undermined his strength, and a weak- ness of the eyes, which had long been a trial to him, increased almost to blindness, so that he resigned his severe toils in the autumn of 1853, having held his professorship through a term equaled at that date by only three out of seven instructors who had preceded him in that position. Professor Warner continued to reside in Amherst the years that were left him, till, in the full assurance of hope, he died May 14, 1876, in the middle of his eighty-second year.

In September, 1839, the institution, that had now taken on the form and offices of a distinct theologi- cal seminary, was increased in facilities by the call to a professorship of the Rev. Isaac Bird, late of the Sy- rian Mission of the A. B. C. F. M. Mr. Bird was ad- mitted to be one of the finest linguists in his day, among the entire regiment of the board's mission- aries. Lancaster ("History," p. 221) says of him : "He sailed as a missionary to Syria in December, 1822; resided at Beyroot the greater part of ten years, be- sides short residences in different villages in Mount Lebanon, at Jerusalem, Malta and Smyrna, four years more. He was in the constant conversational use of the Italian and Arabic languages for twelve years, and acquired a ready reading knowledge of the Syriac, French, Spanish and German, besides some acquain- tance with the Turkish and Persian. He returned to this country at the close of 1836, and was an instructor at Gilmanton in the department of theology from Sep-

tember, 1839, to December, 1843, and from that time was instructor in sacred literature, to which depart- ment he was elected professor July 9, 1844, and was inaugurated on the 11th of the same month."

In 1838, Dr. Dixie Crosby was appointed lecturer on anatomy, physiology and health, succeeded by Dr. Nahum Wight in 1844.

Ou the 23d of April, 1839, the ground was broken for the erection of a new building for the use of the seminary, of brick, eighty-eight feet long, fifty 'feet wide and three stories high above the basement. The plan of this building was drawn by Ami B. Young, Esq., architect of the custom-house in Boston, and was one of the most admirably adapted to the pur- poses intended of any college or seminary hall then known in the country. In November of 1839 the walls were up and covered by a roof. "Its location," says Professor Crowell ("Memorial of Professor War- ner," p. 40), " is on an elevation commanding a beauti- ful prospect, secured in 1837, and money to defray the cost of its erection gradually obtained, and on August 18, 1841, the completed building was dedicated with public services, Professor Warner delivering the dedicatory address."

At this time there had been donated by a multitude of friends and publishers in Boston, and more largely in New York, a library of nearly four thousand vol- umes. With its able teachers, the seminary greatly prospered, and visiting clergymen and friends from far and near gave their testimony that they found every- thing about it and pertaining to it on a vastly higher plane than they had anticipated.

Within three years from the first anniversary twenty-two of its graduates were settled in the pastor- ates of churches, most of them in New Hampshire, and for the first seven years the number of graduates averaged, yearly, ten. Each man was spoken for be- fore his term of study was completed. To meet the current expenses of the institution, it was obliged to rely chiefly on yearly donations. The embarrassed state of mercantile affairs throughout the country in the years 1841 and 1842 prevented the continuance of these gifts, and caused such a pressure in the finan- cial condition of the seminary that by the next year the support of the professors almost entirely failed, and there seemed to be no alternative but withdrawal. Accordingly, on the 22d of November, 1843, Professor Warner and Professor Rood both resigned.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 190

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