USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Northfield > History of Northfield, New Hampshire 1780-1905: In Two Parts with Many Biographical Sketches and. > Part 5
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after several other pastorates, in 1868. Dr. Bouton said at his funeral that "he entered most heartily into all the great missionary, charitable and reformatory measures of the day, was a powerful advocate of temperance and that his sympathies were with the colored race in their bonds and with his country in her mighty conflict with re- bellion."
REV. CORBAN CURTICE.
He was not a college graduate, but added to a good common school education a four-years' academic course and three of theological train- ing. His choice of the ministry as a profession was due to a painful misfortune when 21 years old. He was obliged for the rest of his life to go upon crutches. He gave his whole heart and life to his calling. so much so that we never thought but he was one of us, though neither his home nor church were within our borders.
His frank, open face, as he rode through our byways and highways, smiling and bowing to all he met, was like a benediction, while the ardent clasp of his hand was a thing to be remembered. He was a temperance reformer and in full sympathy with the antislavery move- ment and intensely loyal to the republic during the rebellion and, as all advanced leaders of human thought, had to suffer for his loyalty to truth, to humanity and to God.
He was accused of political preaching; many disaffected became identified with a new church then being formed, while others with- drew and withheld their support. His salary was in arrears and he resigned his charge. A council called to dismiss him refused to do so, alleging, as the report on the church records shows, that there had been no evidence presented that he had ever preached in the interest of any political party or for the advancements of its objects; that the imputation was really the result of an intolerant spirit entirely op- posed to the free and charitable spirit of the gospel of our divine Lord. He remained, many returned and confessed their error and seven more years were added to his term of service, making 27 years in all.
He filled other pulpits for long or short intervals, but remained among his people until his death, February 19, 1881, aged 81 years.
REV. THEODORE PRATT.
On Mr. Curtice's retirement, May 1, 1870, Rev. Mr. Pratt followed with a pastorate of five years. He was emphatically a man of peace and by his preaching and work turned men's thoughts away from their contentions to things of higher import.
The church was never in so good condition for special work as when Rev. Mr. Potter, the evangelist, came to assist the churches in a series of meetings which were productive of great good and brought many workers into the church. The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the church occurred during his pastorate, to which in all its details he gave the most loving care and, though a stranger to the returning
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sons and daughters, they will ever remember the cordiality with which he welcomed them back. He removed to Orfordville in 1875. He, of all the past pastors, was present at the seventy-fifth anniversary.
REV. FREDERIC T. PERKINS.
He was a graduate of Yale and had taken an extended theological course. He was fully abreast of the times, simple and earnest in style, and by his genuine courtesy won the love and confidence of everyone he met. It was during the second year of his pastorate that the after- noon service was discontinued after some debate and opposition.
He never quite enjoyed the practice of the congregation rising and facing about during the singing of the first and last hymns, and made several futile attempts at its discontinuance. One communion service, in the absence of the choir, they all smiled to find themselves solemnly regarding the organist's back. A little later, on a similar occasion, both choir and organist being absent, he very facetiously told them they could turn around and look at the organ if they wished. This settled the matter, and soon both choir and organ came to the front.
After a service of nine years he removed to Burlington, Vt., in 1884, where he died nine years later. Mr. Perkins resided in Northfield a large part of the time.
REV. C. B. STRONG.
Mr. Strong was a graduate of Amherst College and later of Hartford Theological Seminary. He now resides in Harwinton, Conn. He re- sided in the newly-purchased parsonage on Park Street. His pastorate did not cover quite the year of 1885. He and his wife were fine singers and their love of sacred song rendered the weekly prayer-meetings greatly attractive. He also supplied the desk at Union Church often during his stay.
REV. CASSANDER C. SAMPSON.
Mr. Sampson came to the church from Pembroke. He was a grad- uate of Bowdoin College in 1873 and of Andover Theological Seminary in 1878. He, with the church, have just celebrated the twentieth anni- versary of his settlement and the good feeling and outspoken expres- sions of love and appreciation of his earnest efforts through so long a term of years are his best eulogy. Members and pastors of other churches united to do him honor. His influence over the young men and boys has been very salutary.
In 1872 during the pastorate of Rev. Theodore Pratt, the church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with appropriate ser- vices and ceremonies lasting three days, the other churches join- ing with it in the delightful festivities. Dr. Hoyt, then of
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Framingham, Mass., to whom more than any one else is ascribed . the founding of the church, delivered an able address, full of tender reminiscences. At its close he presented the church with the sum of $300. He was then the only living charter member. (See portrait and sketch in Physicians of Northfield.)
Again, on July 17 and 18, 1897, the seventy-fifth anniversary was celebrated no less joyfully than the previous one. Arrange- ments were carefully made by the pastor, Rev. C. C. Sampson, and an able committee of the church, and the services will long be remembered. Mrs. Lucy R. H. Cross, who united with the church in 1853, gave the historical address, which, with the other reports and papers, was issued in pamphlet form. Old-time hymns were sung, old friendships renewed and tender memories of those gone before recalled.
THE LADIES' CIRCLE.
The Orthodox Female Charitable and Reading Society of Northfield and Sanbornton Bridge, now the Ladies' Circle, was organized in 1840 with Mrs. Abagail Hall, Mrs. Myra Tilton, Mrs. Grace R. Hoyt, Mrs. Fanny Whittier, Mrs. Nancy Tilton, Mrs. Persis Bodwell, Mrs. Mehitable Atkinson, Mrs. Sally H. Clisby, Mrs. Eliza Wingate, Miss Jane Corser, Mrs. Martha S. Baker, Miss Sarah Tilton, Miss S. Coleman and Miss E. A. Holmes as charter members.
For many years it was the custom of the society to meet twice each month at the homes of its members in turn and, after de- votional exercises, while some younger members read aloud, the others were engaged in sewing, knitting and braiding hats.
Work was often taken into the circle to be done at a fair price, and, with the money thus obtained, materials were purchased, from which garments were made and given to the needy or sold, the proceeds being used for improvements or repairs on the church building, or in assisting in the payment of the minister's salary, or for further missionary work.
While its methods have changed with the years and a well- organized missionary society carries on this feature of the earlier work of the society, the policy of its founders is in the main maintained, and it is still the especial delight of the circle to make efficient and beautiful their church home.
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The records of this society bear the names of scores of godly women who have faithfully labored for this church of God and for those "other sheep which are not of this fold."
As, one by one, in the years gone by, these mothers in Israel have rested from their labors, they have bequeathed to the daughters the priceless legacy of unselfish devotion to the cause of Christ and humanity, and they, in turn, have zealously en- tered into their inheritance.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN NORTHFIELD. BY REV. LUCIUS WATERMAN, D. D. (See picture.)
The coming of the Episcopal Church into this town requires an introductory comment, and the comment may be illustrated by a story. In the year of grace, 1904, a certain judge in North Carolina was lamenting his lack of religious opportunity. "I can't go to the Episcopal Church," he said, "because it is full of - radicals, and I can't go to the Presbyterian Church because it is full of - rascals. The fact is, I haven't any religious privileges whatever." Of his honor's testimony as to the Presbyterian Church, it is not for the present writer to judge. Of the Episcopal Church it may certainly be said that it has always been a refuge for the oppressed from what may be fairly enough described as "pulpit persecution." Its preachers have generally proclaimed the general principles of the gospel as they understood them, and left the practical application of those principles to burning questions of the day to the individual conscience. In Protestant pulpits pretty generally there has been a habit of making such burning questions a chief subject of preaching, assuming (somewhat roundly and roughly) that the people who did not take the preacher's side in those questions were utterly and inexcusably wrong, and then denouncing all those persons as either conscienceless knaves or pitiful cowards.
The unfortunates so denounced don't like it and they get into a habit of not going to church at all as the easiest refuge from the storm, or (and this has happened many, many times) they take shelter in going to the Episcopal Church, which thus, by its absolute avoidance of party, comes to be unduly identified in the public eye with the party that is least in fashion. Thus in
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North Carolina today, it is men who are trying forlornly to be Republicans or who are at any rate critics of the dominant policies of their state, who make the Episcopal Church conspic- nous by their large resort to it. Thus, on the other hand, in many a New England town, 45 or 50 years ago, it was Democrats, or men who, whatever their personal views about the right and wrong of slave-holding, really believed that it was not the duty of Northern men to break up a Southern institution at the cost of a great civil war, and also really believed (what their op- ponents were then loud in denying) that from a triumph of the more radical elements in the new Republican party, disruption or war would come,-it was such who conspicuously gave in their · adhesion to the Episcopal Church, as "the church which did not take sides," or even founded new societies of that body.
It was this last that happened in Northfield. There were no communicant members of the Episcopal Church living in the town, and only two, Mr. and Mrs. James Earnshaw, English people, in the town of Sanbornton. Samuel B. Rogers had spent some years in a Michigan town, where there was an Episcopal church, and had come to like its services and ways. He was the only man in the community that owned a prayer book when the subject began to be discussed. Asa P. Cate had had some books sent him, inviting his attention to the claims of the Episcopal Church. From these two men the movement had its beginning. The book containing the records of the parish for its first 25 years has, most unhapply, been lost. Of the wicked carelessness that is responsible for such losses it is hard to speak in measured terms. Tradition preserves two curious stories. (1) At a meet- ing, held to consider the forming of a new ecclesiastical society, one man asked whether it was going to be quite fair to ask their wives and daughters-he seems to have assumed that the men would not be church members-to join a body so much spoken against. The one answer that really turned the scale was, "If it's good enough for Mrs. - - and Miss - - in Concord, it's good enough for any of our folks." The company present knew but little of the Episcopal Church, but what they knew of those two good Christian women was enough. Their church would do. (2) There must be a place for services and the brick building owned by the Methodists was to be sold at auction.
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These bold dissenters chose out two of their number to go and bid it in, carefully selecting two who would be least likely to be suspected of wanting it for a church. The ruse was success- ful, and the new society acquired a desirable property for its start. But when the Methodist brethren found that their church was to be a church again and not a blacksmith's shop or such like, they were very wroth and one of their leading men said that he wished that the old church had been burned down, rather than to come to such a fate.
In Bishop Chase's official journal for 1860-'61, we find the following entry: "December 6. I scarcely remember a more in- teresting visit than one I made, in company with the Rev. Mr. Eames, to Sanbornton Bridge. We were hospitably entertained at the mansion of the Hon. Samuel Tilton, to whom, and his ex- cellent lady, I feel greatly indebted. In the evening Mr. Eames read service and I preached to a large and attentive congregation. Responses exceedingly good; music very admirable indeed, even to chanting. Here is a most remarkable movement for the Church. Fifty families belonging to that beautiful village, which is partly in Sanbornton and partly in Northfield, had at the time of my visit decided for the Church, and twenty of the gentlemen had joined means and purchased of the Methodists a good and substantial building of brick, which they proposed to remodel on a liberal scale, and in all respects adapt to our ser- vice. On the 5th of January, 1861, I received notice, through the Clerk, of the organization of a Parish, under the name of the Parish of Trinity Church, Sanbornton Bridge. Three days after this I was informed that the Rev. Marcellus A. Herrick, of Woodstock, Vt., had been chosen Rector, and in due time I had the pleasure to learn that he had decided to accept the interesting charge."
The Rev. Dr. Herrick was rector of the parish for nearly 15 years, to his death on October 31, 1875. He was a man eminent in good learning and high character. In 1872 the parish bought land on the Tilton side of the river and erected the present church building of brick, which was first occupied on Easter Day, April 13, 1873, and consecrated on Tuesday, May 25, 1875, the annual convention of the diocese being held in the church on the next day.
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The old building was sold to the town of North ield for a. town hall.
. Rectors of the parish, since Dr. Herrick's death, have been the Rev. Henry H. Haynes, a Tilton boy, 1877-'78 and 1883 -- '84; Lucius Waterman, 1878-'83; Isaac Peck, 1884-'85; W. B. T. Smith, 1886-'88; John D. Gilliland, 1889-1900; and W. Stanley Emery, the present holder of the office.
· The parish now owns a rectory, the gift of the late Mrs. Hamil- ton Tilton, and though "the little one" has not exactly "become a thousand," yet it is a substantial advance that Trinity Church has now (1904) 99 communicants, besides having given off a branch, St. Jude's Mission, Franklin, which reckons 60 more, and the energy and devotion of the present rector have created "the Tilton circuit," in which he reaches the astonishing num- ber of 25 towns with his pastoral ministrations.
The first wardens were James Earnshaw and Jonathan W. Butterfield; the first clerk, C. C. Rogers; first treasurer, J. F. Taylor. Later wardens have been Asa P. Cate, Bradbury T. Brown, Arthur Smythe, Alfred A. Gile, William Fletcher, Amos H. Jones, Moses Garland, F. W. Fletcher, Simeon W. Smythe, Fred A. Clement, I. N. Boucher, John Fletcher and Frank A. Ross.
REV. M. A. HERRICK, D. D. (See portrait.)
Marcellus Aurelius Herrick the fifth of seven children of Ebenezer and Mary (Nye) Herrick, and their first and only son who survived infancy, was born August 27, 1822, at Reading, Vt., and died November 30, 1875, at Northfield. He was the sixth in descent from Joseph Her- rick of Salem, Mass., the son of Henry Herrick, who emigrated from Leicestershire, England, to Virginia early in the seventeenth century, and later settled at Salem. His father, a farmer and captain of the local militia, finally settled at Reading, where his children were born and where he died after a long illness when his son was a boy of 10.
In his early home on a small isolated farm the boy grew up with a love for the soil and for nature which lasted all his life. The family physician, who had named him after two distinguished generals of the Roman state, early put before him the idea of becoming a doctor. He had a bright mind and great eagerness to learn, but necessity kept him on the farm, where he worked with characteristic energy. In fact, while trying to compete with one of the farm hands in the hay fleld he overtaxed his strength in such a way as to handicap him for life. His love of learning was unusual and seemed to be ingrained. ID
Fillon Sept. 21 1871
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MRS. M. A. HERRICK.
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those days, when there were no village libraries and cheap editions were scarce, it was a rare treat when a book found its way to his hands, and he was ever too ready to sacrifice his dinner in order to read a coveted volume. Later, some of these cherished books, like Rollin's "Ancient History," formed his first literary purchases, and the nucleus of his own library.
In course of time this library, his pride and never-failing resource, became an unusual collection, consisting of the great classics of the world, mostly in the original, and of many rare works in theology, philosophy and history. It may be doubted if a larger or better selec- tion of books for such a purpose was ever made on smaller resources.
From the farm, at the age of 15, he went to work in a broadcloth factory, and while thus engaged the wife of the superintendent earned his lifelong gratitude by her kindly interest and by giving him the intellectual food he craved. It may have been at this factory that he acquired a taste for mechanics which was shown later in his skill with tools. He even learned the rudiments of the art of bookbinding and never allowed his beloved folios to become a "ragged regiment." Some of the bookcases in his study and some of the woodwork in the interior of his church at Tilton were the work of his own hands.
In spite of discouragements, he still cherished the idea of becoming a doctor of medicine and, with this in view, he followed the usual course at that time of studying in the office of a physician, and was thus engaged for two years at Newburg, N. Y. Later, when a min- ister at Woodstock, Vt., he attended lectures at its medical college, and many outside of his own family had reason to be grateful for his prac- tical knowledge of medicine, his fearlessness in contagious disease and his skill and sympathy in nursing.
His strong religious temperament soon outweighed all other interests and he resolved to devote himself to the Christian ministry, his early associations naturally leading him to the Methodist communion. Upon entering his first ministerial charge, he was married on June 4, 1844, to Hannah Andrews Putnam, daughter of Israel and Hannah (Andrews) Putnam, of Newbury, Vt., and later of Claremont, N. H. She proved a helpmeet, indeed, at a time when the life of a striving young minister of the gospel was specially hard, when food and clothing were prepared in the home, when comforts were few and the salaries of the country clergy did not exceed the wages of the day laborer. If frail in body, she was strong in spirit and equal to every task. Ever cheerful, thoughtful of others and given to hospitality, she was a rare type of the unselfish Christian, whose watchword, "Love is stronger than death," never failed. Devoted to the last breath to her family, for whom no sacrifice was too great, she outlived her husband 24 years, dying at the advanced age of 82, November 12, 1899.
After much study and reflection, the Rev. Mr. Herrick decided to enter the ministry of the Episcopal Church, and on June 16, 1847, he was ordained a deacon, and the following year a priest, by the Rt.
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Rev. Carlton Chase, bishop of New Hampshire. He soon became rector of St. James' parish, Woodstock, Vt., where his three surviving children were born. The fourteen years spent in this place formed a period of large acquisition. The boy who had longed for a higher training in the schools became, through his own efforts in the school of life, a scholar of unusual attainments. He was especially proficient in Latin, acquiring what is rare even in these days of endowed universities, libraries and fellowships, the ability to read the language with ease and freedom. He was not a stranger in the literatures of six languages and, besides an extensive acquaintance with the classics of the English tongue, he had read most widely in the Latin and French authors; at the time of the Franco-Prussian War he took up with his accustomed persistence the study of German.
In 1861 Mr. Herrick left Woodstock, Vt., with his family, in mid- winter, a season long remembered for its deep snows and unusual severity, and proceeded by stage and rail to Northfield, where he had been invited to undertake the foundation of the parish, since known as Trinity Church. The present town hall of Northfield, formerly the Methodist house of worship, but then unused, was purchased and remodelled. In spite of the hard times, the parish attracted a number of devoted men and women. After the close of the Civil War plans were made to erect a new building in the village of Tilton. In this larger undertaking money, time and skill were generously contributed. The rector exercised a constant general supervision of the work, ob- tained gifts from outside and gave the half of his salary upon which he was dependent. The consecration of the new church on Easter Day, 1873, was a great event in the history of the parish. Dr. Herrick, who had borne the brunt of the burden and who felt keenly the 1088 of the late Judge Cate, who had ever been to this parish as a "tower of strength," was near the close of his earthly labors. After a long imprisonment in a darkened room, which a painful affection of the eyes had compelled him to undergo, he was suddenly attacked by acute peritonitis and on Sunday morning, November 30, 1875, just after his own church bell had sounded its summons, he entered into rest.
Dr. Herrick served the diocese of New Hampshire as a member of its standing committee, as delegate to the general convention and as chaplain to the bishop. The degree of doctor of divinity was conferred on him by Hobart College of Geneva, N. Y. His sermons were thought out carefully and usually written at high speed, often at night. His .congregations were always sure to hear some well-considered problem of religious life and thought treated in an original and convincing manner. He was a thinker,-upon many subjects in advance of his time,-to whom the intellectual life was bread and meat. He always spoke well, but hardly a scrap of his writing has been published and nothing in permanent form. This would have suited his own modest opinion of his talents, for it is doubtful if he ever considered himself a scholar at all. It may be said with truth that he lived a simple life
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NORTHFIELD UNION CHURCH.
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on the highest plane and that in the comparatively short period of 54 years he achieved his chief ambitions of acquiring learning and of devoting himself to the good of his fellows.
NORTHFIELD UNION CHURCH. (See picture.)
For many years the people in the lower part of the town had no place but their schoolrooms for social and other meetings.
In 1882 a movement was started by O. L. Cross, Esq., to erect a building for a hall and church purposes, and an association was formed and solicitors for funds sent out.
Mr. C. E. Tilton, on being asked to assist, offered on certain conditions to erect the house and asked that the sums pledged be made payable to him.
His offer was at once accepted by the association, which voted to adjourn sine die, and a new subscription list was started.
He asked that $700 in cash be placed to his credit and $200 in labor be pledged, and then issued the following circular to the town :
COPY OF CIRCULAR.
"Conditions on which it is proposed by Mr. C. E. Tilton to convey to the Town of Northfield the grounds, and a proposed Church at Northfield Depot :
"Said Tilton proposes to convey to said Town the Lot and Church to be erected thereon with such other grounds in the im- mediate vicinity as may be included in said conveyance in trust and for the uses and purposes and upon the conditions as herein set forth and specified.
"Said property shall be held by said Town forever in trust and as church property exempt forever from taxation and not liable in any event for any indebtedness of said town.
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