USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > New Boston > History of New Boston, New Hampshire > Part 10
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EPHRAIM P. BRADFORD.
Upon the reception of this favorable response, the town " Voted, to have the ordination the last Wednesday [the 26th] of February instant," and appointed Capt. Ephraim Jones, Dea. Robert Clark, and Lt. Samuel Gregg a committee "to notify the Presbytery, and provide for the same." At the same time it was " Voted, to have six Congregational ministers to join the Presbytery as Council ; " and Mr. Bradford chose one and the town one alternately. And the ministers thus chosen were, Harris of Dunbarton, Barnard of Amherst, Bradford of Fran- cestown, Bruce of Mount Vernon, Moor of Milford, and Miles of Temple, "to act as Council with the Presbytery." And then, with a big heart, the town " Voted, to give all the neigh- boring ministers an invitation to attend, and the Selectmen to notify them." Maj. William Crombie, Dr. Luke Lincoln, and James Willson, Esq., were appointed " a committee to arrange and marshal the day ; " and Alexander McCollom, Capt. Rob- ert Christy, Daniel Clark, Capt. John Cochran, and Wm. Clark
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were " to prop the galleries, and keep the doors shut, and keep order in the house ; " while Wm. B. Dodge, Capt. Robert War- ren, and Nathan Marden were required " to superintend the singers, and provide for the same."
All this was characteristic of the men of New Boston fifty years ago. They had souls, and, if they undertook a thing, they accomplished it manfully. They attached a value to " a good name," and resolved that their posterity should never rise up and call them mean men. The men of later days who con- tend that the town has no right to do anything for religion and the morals of the people, but to repudiate its financial indebt- edness to the church, have no sentiment in common with the men of fifty or a hundred years ago. They consult to break down churches and the ministry, while the fathers saw that the highest interest of the community required that the sanctuary and the ministry should be liberally sustained. Therefore the occasion of the settlement of a minister inspired them to devise liberally and to execute magnanimously. Nothing was wanting on the part of the town to render the ordination of their chosen pastor impressive and profitable. And the 26th of February was cherished by that generation as the most delightful in all their lives. The assembly was large, and the services were worthy the men and the occasion. The Rev. Jesse Appleton of Hampton, pastor of a Congregational church, afterwards president of Bowdoin College, preached the sermon, from 1 Cor. i. 20: " Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment." Why Dr. Appleton was chosen by Mr. Brad- ford to preach the sermon, may be seen in the fact that Dr. Appleton was a native of New Ipswich, studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Lathrop, married the daughter of the Hon. Robert Means, of Amherst, and was fast rising in the public estimation as a preacher of the gospel, being the next year inaugurated president of Bowdoin College.
The hand of fellowship was given by the Rev. Mr. McGregor, of Bedford ; and the charge to the pastor by the Rev. William Morrison, of Londonderry. Characteristically, the church, after giving thanks to these gentlemen for their services in the
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Bufford's Lithography. Boston.
RESIDENCE OF THE LATE REV EPHRAIM P. BRADFORD.
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ordination, requested copies of the sermon, fellowship, and charge, for publication ; and the town, at a legal meeting, chose a committee to superintend the printing, and to give a copy to every family in the town. Accordingly the sermon and charge were printed and circulated at the expense of the town.
It is not quite apparent who all the elders of the church were at Mr. Bradford's ordination. The records from 1805 to 1826 are very incomplete and unsatisfactory. When the church voted, in 1805, that the clerk should make a catalogue of the names of members, he was also instructed " to record the old Deacons first ;" and these seem to have been Jesse Cristy and Robert White. And the young deacons we may sup- pose to have been those chosen by the town Nov. 11, 1805, only a part of whom ever served. There is no record to show that any were ever consecrated to the holy office by any appropriate religious ceremony ; yet it is remembered by some aged persons to have been done. Nine years after Mr. Bradford's ordination the elders were Robert Patterson, Jr., Wmn. McNeil, Thomas Cochran, Thomas Smith, Joseph Cochran, Robert Crombie, and Robert Clark. As several of these were not chosen by the town in 1805, it is reasonable to suppose that the church disregarded the action of the town, and chose their own deacons, as there is no evidence that the town ever afterwards interfered with the officers of the church. At first the Presbyterianism of the church seems of a doubtful character, - a mixture of Presby- terianism and Congregationalism. Gradually it became more distinctive, though never rigid.
To prepare himself more effectually to labor for the good of his people, Mr. Bradford purchased a small farm upon one of the loftiest hills in New Boston, now known as " Bradford's Hill," whence he could survey vast regions of country, and, witness such glorious risings and settings of the sun as are seen from but few localities. Here he provided a home, and, Sept. 1, 1806, married Miss Mary Manning, daughter of Dea. Ephraim Barker, of Amherst, with whom he lived here nearly forty years, greatly given to hospitality, with a growing family, loving his people, and greatly beloved by them. His labors were highly profitable to his people, and the church received additions from time to time. No considerable revival seems to
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have been enjoyed until some nine years after his ordination, when some forty persons were added to the church; in 1826, some twenty or thirty were added, and in 1831 and 1835 a wide-spread religious interest existed, when nearly a hundred persons were received to the church. But while his labors were greatly blessed to the salvation of his flock, Mr. Bradford, like other good men, had his trials. His salary proved insuffi- cient for the support of his family and the extension of hospi- tality to the many claimants. In 1819, the town increased his salary to six hundred dollars. In some instances he was re- lieved by generous donations of money from his people, and thus he was able to turn away from more tempting fields and larger salaries often tendered him. His people considered him a poor financier because he did not grow rich on his salary, and were pleased to think he was careless about his pecuniary mat- ters. Most people would have deemed this a defect. But the people of New Boston looked upon it as a great excellence, and enjoyed repeating anecdotes respecting his habits of care- lessness, and frequently took great pleasure in relieving his embarrassments. We have reason to believe most of these anecdotes are apocryphal. Mr. Bradford was a man of great good sense ; he understood human nature far better than most men, and he had been reared to habits of economy on a farm during his minority. He may sometimes have been forgetful and seemingly oblivious in some financial matters. But we doubt if many men to whom he preached could, with his income, rear so large a family as Mr. Bradford's, and so effect- ually, and maintain such a reputation for generous hospitality, without embarrassments equal or greater than he realized. The minister who, in such a location as New Boston, could live, - could keep soul and body together, - and feed, clothe, and ed- ucate a family of ten children, and keep such a " free tavern " as his people would think ought to be kept, on a salary of six hundred dollars a year, must have been the greatest financier the world ever saw. All anecdotes told with such good nature of his obliviousness to worldly interests, strangely conflict with the fearful burden that often well-nigh crushed that generous heart, and cast down that lofty mind. The people saw a shin- ing face, but saw not the corroding cares and dispiriting fore-
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bodings which were within, and which no man of his sensibili- ties could avoid. He endured without complaint, and kept up appearances of competence and satisfaction, that his people might enjoy the pleasure of believing that their minister was well cared for, and their reputation was safe; while his noble wife bore her full share of sacrifice and labor, and by prudence and skill contrived to perpetuate the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil.
One of the most interesting events in Mr. Bradford's history occurred in the year 1823. The meeting-house, built in 1767 and 1768, had " waxed old." It stood in a bleak place, and was never furnished with means of warming. In 1769, the town built a " session-house," near the meeting-house. This was a small building, of one room, furnished with a large fire- place ; and here in cold weather many resorted to warm them- selves at the close of the morning services, and from that glowing fire coals were removed to the foot-stoves which ren- dered their stay in the fireless meeting-house endurable to the female portion of the congregation. Not a few went further than the session-house, to Capt. John McLaughlen's tavern, where they warmed the inner as well as the outer man, and often lingered longer than became devout worshippers - longer than the proprieties of the sanctuary justified. And good Mr. Moor often complained that they could spend two hours at John McLaughlen's easier than one under his preaching. And, though Mr. Bradford was less annoyed, because of changes that had taken place, yet with all the hallowed associations cluster- ing around the old house, he looked forward with lively interest to the time when a new temple on an improved plan should be reared for the honor of Christ. The town refusing to build a meeting-house, individuals undertook the enterprise. Agreca- bly to a call of Joseph Cochran, Jr., at the request of others, a meeting was convened at the meeting-house, October 24, 1822. The call for this meeting thus sets forth the necessity of the movement : --
" The undersigned is desired to give public notice that a number of respect- able citizens in this town have taken into serious consideration the very inconvenient situation of the Presbyterian meeting-house, the rapid decay of the house itself, and the inexpediency of expending a sum in repairing it,
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which would make it comfortable and decent as a place of public worship,. even for a few years ; that while they are convinced that extravagant expense in the erection and support of an earthly sanctuary would be neither pleasing to God nor useful to the cause of religion, they are no less convinced that it is their duty to contribute to the building of a house for divine worship which may embrace the advantages of commodious situation, decency of appearance, and protection from the inclemency of the seasons."
This meeting was large and harmonious. "Mr. Bradford delivered a discourse," says the record, " suited to the occa- sion ; " and then it was organized by the choice of Rev. E. P. Bradford, Moderator, and Robert Wason, Scribe. Here it was " Voted, unanimously, to build a meeting-house ; " and Capt. John Cochran, John Crombie, Samuel Gregg, Esq., John Fair- field, Esq., Dea. Thomas Smith, Moses Cristy, Samuel Dodge, Esq., Dea. Thomas Cochran, Dea. Robert Clark, and Robert Wason, were appointed a committee " to look out a suitable piece of ground to set it on, and to make some estimate of the probable expense." " The following persons agreed to become undertakers in building a new meeting-house, viz: Robert Wason, Andrew Beard, James Sloan, James Cochran, 3d, John Linch, William Clark, Peter McNeil, Joseph Cochran, Jr., Joseph Leach, John Dalton, Thomas Smith, John Cochran, Jr., John Crombie, Luther Richards, John Fairfield, Samuel Dodge, Jonathan Marden, Peter Cochran, Jr., Moses Cristy, John Lamson, Thomas Campbell, Francis Peabody, Asa Lamson, Robert Clark, John Gage, Clark Crombie, James Moor, Joseph Cochran, Nathan Merrill, Hiram Perkins, Jacob Hooper, Jr., Greenough Marden, Francis Lynch."
These gentlemen organized themselves into an association to be known as " Proprietors for building a new Presbyterian Meeting-house in New Boston." Dea. Robert Wason was chosen Moderator ; Joseph Cochran, Jr., Clerk; and Dea. Rob- ert Clark, Treasurer. Being a joint stock company, they voted that it should consist of one hundred shares, and each share should be entitled to one vote. John Crombie, Samuel Dodge, Esq., and Thomas Campbell were appointed a committee to present plans for the house ; and John Crombie, Dea. Thomas Smith, Jacob Hooper, Jr., Capt. John Cochran, and Dea. Rob- ert Wason were appointed a committee to purchase a building
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lot, and take the deed. After examining several lots, and receiving many propositions, the committee purchased two acres of land of Mr. Ammi Dodge, for $420. The plan pre- sented by tlre committee and adopted, was as follows as to dimensions, viz : - " The body of the House to be 60 feet square, with a projection of 53 feet by 36; the Post of the house to be 30 feet long." Jacob Hooper, Jr., Samuel Dodge, Esq., and Lt. John Lamson were appointed a committee " to superintend the stone work, the procuring the Lime and Mason work ; " while John Crombie, Dea. Robert Wason, and Joseph Cochran, Jr. were the committee "to superintend the building of the House." Mr. John Leach was employed by the commit- tee to build the House for the proprietors.
The meetings of the proprietors were held in the hall of Mr. James Sloan, and were characterized for great harmony and dignity, and the work was urged forward with great earnest- ness, and the frame was raised in June, 1823, men being boarded at the expense of the proprietors ; and one barrel of West India rum, three gallons of brandy, and a half-box of lemons being provided for the occasion; but it was wisely " Voted, that Dea. Robert Clark, Capt. John Cochran, and Luther Richards be a committee to superintend the spirit on raising days, and that no persons be treated but Proprietors and Raisers ; " while an efficient committee were authorized " to keep the Common round the meeting-house clear of boys and spectators." The frame was raised without any serious acei- dent, and the structure was completed by the first of the following December, to the entire satisfaction of the proprietors, as appears from the following vote, passed Dec. 22, 1823 : - " Voted unanimously, that the Superintending Committee com- municate to Mr. John Leach the thanks of the Proprietors of the new Presbyterian Meeting-house, for the manly deportment and gentlemanly manner in which he and the young men employed by him have treated them while employed in building and finishing said house ; and to Mr. Leach for the elegance, taste, and good workmanship manner in which he has finished the same." No wonder the proprictors were treated respect- fully by the workmen, and that the work was well done ; for the committee who superintended the work and the proprietors
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were noble, princely men. They treated the workmen gentle- manly ; they knew when the work was done well, and were willing to give an honorable compensation. They had large hearts, - did things on a generous scale ; and when their house was finished they " saw that it was good," and it did not repent them that they had reared a temple for God's worship, which was surpassed by no other similar structure in the State for symmetry of proportion, elegance of finish, and liberal expend- iture. The house to-day, after the lapse of forty years, without change and without repair, is a grand monument to the great and good men that reared it, and proves that no mean race inhabited these hills and worshipped at these altars. On the 4th of December, 1823, the pews were sold, after reserving one for the minister's family and three for the poor, for the sum of $6,721.75 ; more than enough to defray all the expenses of the house. Out of the surplus, $300 were appropriated towards the purchase of a bell, and the remainder was devoted to the procuring " communion tables and other articles necessary for the same." Thus the anticipations of the proprietors were more than realized. One hundred and three pews were sold ; the greatest sum paid for one pew was $154, by Mr. John Crombie ; and the lowest, $20, it being in the gallery.
At a meeting of proprietors, Oct. 13, 1823, it was voted that the Rev. E. P. Bradford preach the sermon of dedication ; and Nov. 15, it was voted that the meeting-house be dedicated Dec. 25; and Joseph Cochran, Jr., Dr. John Dalton, Dea. R. Wason, Col. Samuel Dane, and Lt. John Lamson were appointed " Marshals of the day," and all neighboring clergymen and churches were invited to be present. The day came, with its blue sky above and its snow carpet beneath. The house was. crowded to its utmost capacity, and Mr. Bradford preached one of his most glowing discourses from the text, 2 Chron. vi. 41 : "Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength ; let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness." And the congregation dispersed, not weeping that their second temple was inferior to their first, but rejoicing in its far greater glory.
It is not a little singular that, after suffering so much from June 5.1887. Examined this bill to day.
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H. bears the inscription : -
" Heure + Sou, Boston."
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1124
PRESBYTERIAN MEETING HOUSE
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the cold in the old house, they should fail to warm the new : yet no means were provided until 1835.
The congregation had taken leave of the old house with appropriate services, Mr. Bradford preaching an affecting ser- mon from text, Matt. iv. 20: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain."
In 1839, the town refused to assess and collect the taxes of those who desired to pay the salary of Mr. Bradford, as had been done since his settlement. But a society was organized, March 21, 1839, consisting of one hundred and sixteen mem- bers. The salary was at once assumed by the society, and cheerfully and promptly paid ; and the pastor had a fresh evidence of the strength of the attachment of his people, and he " thanked God and took courage." Subsequent years passed amid evident tokens of Divine favor. The congregation was large, and the church was composed of liberal-minded persons, not captious and fault-finding, but willing that their minister should give utterance to what he believed to be the teachings of God's Word. Mr. Bradford was a decided Whig, while a majority of his hearers belonged to the Republican party. And though warm discussions often took place between him and them, no alienation of feeling was suffered, and no disaffection was occasioned by his being repeatedly chosen Mod- erator at the annual meetings of the town, nor by his election to other important offices.
In 1826, the elders of the church were Robert Patterson, Thomas Cochran, Joseph Cochran, Robert Crombie, Isaac Pea- body, Robert Wason, Peter McNeil, Elzaphan Dodge, Marshall Adams.
In 1850, the elders were Thomas Cochran, Thomas Smith, Samuel Dane, Abraham Cochran, S. L. Cristy, and Marshall Adams.
To the last year of Mr. Bradford's ministry, his health was firm. Sickness interrupted his public services not more than five or six Sabbaths for a period of thirty-nine years. During the last year of his life, he was admonished by a sickness in the early part of it, that his days might soon be numbered. " His last illness was short, a severe cold, terminating in croup," of which he died Dec. 14, 1845, being almost seventy years old,
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after a ministry of nearly forty years, his birth being Dec. 27, 1776, and his ordination Feb. 26, 1806.
" After Mr. Bradford's settlement in the ministry," says tlie Rev. Dr. Whiton, " he rose rapidly into distinction. Few men in the State were equally acceptable in the desk. In the con- troversy relative to Dartmouth College, from 1815 to 1819, he was one of a committee of three, appointed by the legislature to investigate its condition. A vacancy occurring in the pres- idency of the college, his was among the names before the public as candidates for the office."
The publications of Mr. Bradford are few ; an address before the Handellian Musical Society ; an Election Sermon before tlie Legislature of the State ; a Discourse before the People of Fran- cestown, commemorative of the character of Rev. Moses Bradford, and a Sermon at the funeral of Rev. Dr. Harris, of Dunbarton."
Mr. Bradford had a commanding person, a rich voice, com- bined with a high order of intellect and great suavity of man- ners. He had the faculty of making people feel well, and to believe that he highly esteemed them. And this love for them begat love towards himself. Every crumb of bread was sweet, wherever eaten, and every home and every locality was pleas- ant and attractive. And thus he was welcomed at every door by gladdened hearts ; not that some spirits never chafed and found fault, and became alienated, but to an unusual degree he bound all reasonable men to his heart, and met their highest conceptions of ministerial and Christian excellence.
Mr. Bradford was a fine classical scholar ; he read much, and in conversation drew from rich stores, which a retentive mem- ory always commanded. His fund of wit and anecdotes, and. elegant historic and classic allusions, seemed never exhausted. Able readily to read character and motives, he seemed always prepared for all occasions, and to meet all persons, knowing how to order his conversation aright. With a heart always expanding with the mountain air he inhaled, watching from his " tent door" the ever-varying aspects of nature, and brought into contact with gigantic minds within the circle of his min- isterial exchanges, we may well believe his expositions of Scrip- ture were rich and varied ; and that few men have ever excel-
J.H.Bufford's Lith.
MM Bradford.
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led him in pulpit services. Rev. Dr. Aiken, once pastor of the Congregational Church in Amherst, and later pastor of Park Street Church, Boston, remarks, " Mr. Bradford was literally one of nature's noblemen : of princely person, with a sonorous, commanding voice, exceedingly fluent . and accurate in speech, modelled somewhat after Johnson's style ; so richly gifted in mind and heart, that, with little preparation for his Sabbath services, he stood among the first preachers in the State. I have often thought that, if Ephraim P. Bradford had given his mind thoroughly to the study and delivery of sermons, he might have stood, in the ministry of this country, where Robert Hall stands in that of England."
It is not strange that the people of New Boston became proud of their minister, since he gave character to them, and dis- tinction to the whole town. Had the providence of God cast his lot amid incentives to intellectual greatness, he would doubtless have shone as one of the great lights in the galaxy of great men in the church. As it was, he made his mark, and blessed a generation and more, who grew up under his min- istry, by inspiring in them a laudable ambition to excel in vari- ous departments of activity.
Mr. Bradford was greatly aided in his ministry by her who still survives him as his widow, at the venerable age of seventy- eight years. It not unfrequently transpires that a minister's success is as much attributable to the good sense and holy in- fluence of his wife, as to his own endeavors, though the credit may never be given her. Mrs. Bradford had twelve children. ten of whom survived their father, two dying in childhood of spotted fever, during the prevalence of that disease in New Boston, 1814. Always limited in her resources, she made what she had to contribute to the comfort of the household, while she arranged for generous hospitality. She relieved her husband of all care for the interior of the house, and of much anxiety for that which was without. His comfort and usefulness were always first consulted, and by her good sense and sound judg- ment she was able to safely counsel and encourage the heart of her husband. " Many daughters have done virtuously," but Mrs. Bradford excelled not a few, in her calm and dignified deportment ; in her patient endurance of hardship; in her care
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fulness for her household, and the happiness and success of her husband as a minister of Christ. " The heart of her husband did safely trust in her, and he did often praise her." And her children now " rise up and call her blessed." With such a wife, Mr. Bradford could not fail to be happy in his home ; and it was here, as well as among his people, that he found incen- tives to piety, and consecration to his Master's service. Relig- iously inclined from his early youth, his life was eminently free from defects ; his piety was cheerful, yet humble and consistent. And, as years multiplied, there was evident maturing for his heavenly rest ; and, when the summons was heard, he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, leaning on the Staff, leaving behind him precious recollections and influences that are yet blessing the church and the world.
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