USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Dunstable > History of the first church in Dunstable-Nashua, N.H. : and of later churches there > Part 2
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the first church in Dunstable-Nashua, N.H. : and of later churches there > Part 2
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Old Mortality, the wandering religious enthusiast so vividly described by Sir Walter Scott, induced by motives of the most sincere but fanciful devotion, dedicated thirty years of his existence to clearing the moss from the gray tomb-stones, and renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions on the simple monuments of the deceased warriors of his church, who had fought, fallen and suffered for their religion in their struggles against the cruel tyranny of the Stuarts. On anniversary days like these, we con- sider, with Old Mortality, that we are " fulfilling a sacred duty while renewing to the eyes of posterity the decaying emblems of the zeal and sufferings of our ancestors." We brush the ancient dust from their names, we tear away the moss from the record of their deeds, and retrace the fading lines. In imagination we roll away the stone from their sepulchres and bid their revered forms to pass before us.
In paying this tribute to their memory, I am deeply sensible that grayer heads than mine should bend over the work; hands more skillful than mine should chisel deeper the inscriptions that shall render their memory fresher and more abiding. Sincere as is my self-distrust, there is en- couragement in the thought that the occasion itself carries its own enjoyment in the quickening thoughts of kindred and ancestry, and in the realization of our connection with the achievements of the past.
I
2
Puritan Ancestry.
Commemoration days like these, my fellow-citizens, are not only full of interest, they are exceedingly significant and instructive; we cherish them as we would the blossoms of Century Plants. We stand to-day on the verge of one of those great periods by which the age of states and nations is counted. We take a look backward that we may gather wisdom for the Unexplored that lies before us. Time, in his advance of two centuries, has thrown behind him a deep shadow, covering many a name, many a scene, and many an event inseparably intermingled with the for- tunes of the present and the hopes of the future. You bid me take the antiquarian's torch and penetrate the dark corners, and seek for the hidden things of our history that you may have a distincter knowledge and a closer appre- ciation of the beginnings of our goodly heritage. We but discharge a debt of common gratitude in calling up to grateful recollection the men by whom our precious joint- inheritance was acquired, preserved and bequeathed. They ought not to be forgotten. We should be recreant sons of worthy sires if we displayed such an insensibility to our lineage from a brave and godly ancestry as to suffer this centennial season to pass unnoticed and unhonored.
The pious office to the Past, assigned me by the com- mittee at whose invitation I occupy this place, has been limited to a distinct province in the history of our muni- cipality. In discharging the honorable trust, I am anxious that this holy day should be occupied with thoughts and memories belonging to us, not merely as fellow-citizens and friends, as a band of brothers and sisters, but as members of a Christian community, as a Christian brotherhood, gathered around the ancestral hearthstone for praises and thanksgiving at Family Worship.
We are not without justification in our meeting to-day. True, our ancestors were not the Pilgrims themselves. The
3
· First Dunstable Families.
era of the Puritans had just terminated when our own charter was granted. Half a century and more had passed since Carver and Bradford landed on Plymouth Rock. Old Simon Bradstreet, the " last of the Puritans," and the last Puritan Governor of Massachusetts, entered upon his office only four years after our First church was organized. Puritan severity was gradually softening. English habits, tastes and prejudices were modified in the Anglo-American society of the second generation in Massachusetts.
To the early settlers of Dunstable, portrayals of the deeds and sufferings of the Puritans in England and America were like tales of other times. No: we have no forefathers' rock to boast of; no charter oak; no cellar that concealed royal judges. Nevertheless, Puritan blood flows in our veins. Our ancestors helped to plant inesti- mable civil and religious institutions. The character of Old Dunstable as a town was sustained in early days upon the solid basis on which the Fathers of Massachusetts con- structed their commonwealth - the eternal principles of the Bible. We may affirm of our ancestors, as we speak of the Pilgrims, that they were pre-eminently religious men.
Many of the first families of Dunstable came from Boston and the Old Massachusetts Bay Colony. We are within 40 years of being as old as the venerable city of Boston. With confidence and pride, then, may we claim our direct descent in character and in principles from the Pilgrim settlers of New England. Like the men of Plym- outh, our fathers found the elements out of which they built their political system in God's written Revelation. The Bible furnished them with the forms and institutions of the State as well as of the Church. The Biblical prin- ciples for the formation of civil society, they organized and transmitted to us. "Freedom in the Church, and Freedom in the State, " a " Free Church in a Free State " were still
4
Spiritual Democracy.
the rallying points of the fathers of Dunstable, as in the days when the domination of the English hierarchy was so galling, and hereditary ecclesiastical privileges were so oppressive and hateful to Robinson, Carver, and Bradford.
It was not the purely political part of the English Government that the Puritans objected to. They did not seek to dissever the Church from the State. They were " reformers within the Establishment." But when Queen Elizabeth demanded in her arbitrary way that absolute uniformity of worship must be observed according to the rubric of the Established Church the Non-conformists re- fused compliance in respect to certain portions, considering them to be relics of Popery. They waited patiently for the coming of better days. Waiting in vain, they finally withdrew from the Mother Church. They went to the Bible for counsel, and discovered the two fundamental principles of their Congregationalism, viz .:
I. The several churches are altogether independent of one another.
2. Evidence of the requisite qualifications of church- membership is required by the church before admission to the Lord's Supper.
These Christians asked the State-Church of England the privilege of worshipping on these two principles; and it being denied them, they took refuge from their persecu- tions in Holland and in America. I need not repeat the oft-told tale of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. The Plymouth Colonists then endeavored to realize the old dream of Plato - to create a government of ideal per- fection, which, he said, " could not come into being until kings are philosophers, or philosophers are kings." They founded their Spiritual Democracy. The Church was to be entirely independent of the dictation of the civil power; and the purity of the Church itself must be maintained
5
Church Government.
as a spiritual body. Upon both these points the " Pilgrim Fathers " were beyond the Massachusetts Bay Colony (chartered afew years after the settlement of Plymouth) from which Colony the settlers of Old Dunstable sprung. They were mostly Puritans; but in their organization of church and state, they departed somewhat from the Spiritual Democracy of Plymouth, and fell into the Theocratic system. Realizing that good government depended pri- marily on good and able men, and wishing also to preserve the Church order in which they so devoutly believed, they decreed by a vote of the First General Court " that, for the time to come, no persons shall be admitted to the Freedom of this body politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the same." It was also made the duty of each town in the Province to " take due care from time to time to be constantly provided of an able and learned orthodox minister who should be suitably main- tained by the inhabitants of the town."
Afterwards, when mere commercial adventurers joined the Colonies, laws were passed compelling attendance upon public worship, forbidding the formation of churches of diverse doctrine and government, punishing blasphemy, profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, and heresy, as crimes, - requiring that a " free-man," or voter in the town meeting, should be " of good personal character " and " Orthodox in the fundamentals of religion," and thereby restricting civil offices and privileges to members of the church. Any person to whom " Religion was as twelve and the world as thirteen " was reckoned as unworthy of citizenship in the Christian Commonwealth. Such a Church-State was in reality an Established Church. It was the principle of the English Establishment adapted to their new circum- stances. The Congregational Church was the Established Church of New England. There was to be no Episcopal
6
Public Support of Churches.
hierarchy. They wanted a Church without a Bishop, a State without a King; but the State was to unfold within the Church. This union of Church and State was the fundamental error of the Colonists. While their deep religious spirit was the source of their virtues, their appli- cation of it to the civil government was the source of their errors and their faults. The theocratic system produced bigotry in the State and hypocrisy in the Church. But as time went on, this theory of Government was happily exploded. The church in convention declared that "it is not in the power of magistrates to compel their subjects to become church members, and, as it is unlawful for church officers to meddle with the sword of the magistrate, so it is unlawful for the magistrate to meddle with the work proper to church officers." The fires of the Revolution " which welded the Colonies together, consumed the dross of establishment, of patronage, and of theocracy, and left the pure gold of Religious liberty to be wrought into the National Constitution."
I have digressed into antecedent history in order that we may get out of our own age into the times in which our early church was organized, so that we may better comprehend their existing beliefs and their existing re- ligious and political condition. In this way we can see that many outward things which were right and wrong to our fathers are not our right and wrong in similar matters; and that many of their laws and measures were not the outgrowth of their spirit or their faith, but sprung from the spirit of their age and the political necessities of the hour.
In accordance with the laws of the General Court concerning the providing of an " able and orthodox min- ister," Edward Tyng, Peter Bulkley, Elisha Hutchinson, and the other proprietors of the Township of Dunstable,
NASCIT 1501 0BIT 1690
JOHN ELIOT
7
Dealings with Indians.
stipulated with the settlers of the town for the erection of a " meeting-house " and the support of a minister. At the very beginning of the settlement they erected the new social fabric on the two pillars of Religion and Liberty. A few months after the charter was granted, the proprietors met the settlers at Lieut. Joseph Wheeler's and drew up a written agreement. Among other conditions readily sub- scribed to, it was provided that " the meeting-house which is to be erected shall stand between Salmon Brook and the house of Lieut. Wheeler, as convenient as may be for the accommodation of both." During the next summer, in 1675, before the meeting-house was completed, occurred the outbreak of the dreadful conflict so well known in New England history by the name of King Philip's War. Dun- stable had been one of the " six places " where the " praying Indians" held their religious meetings. Hither came Eliot, the noble and self-sacrificing Apostle of the Indians, who had vainly endeavored to convert the fierce, proud Philip to the Christian faith. The settlers of Dunstable were placed in such peril, from the active enmity of the hostile Indians and the suspected treachery of the Christian Indians, that by mid-winter not a family remained in the settlement, with one conspicuous and praiseworthy ex- ception. The resolute Jonathan Tyng determined to fortify his house and defend it to the last extremity. On this account he may rightfully be considered as the earliest permanent settler of the old township. In August, 1676, the war was terminated by the death of King Philip. One by one the scattered families returned to their homes from their temporary residences in the larger towns whence they had fled as to cities of refuge. They found their cabins comparatively unmolested. A town meeting of the pro- prietors and settlers was held as soon as possible, in Woburn, in 1677: and it was agreed upon and voted " that, as soon
8
First Church of Christ in Dunstable.
as may be, a minister be settled in the town of Dunstable, - his pay to be in money or, if in other pay, the rate being to be made as money to add a third part more."
" It was also voted that the minister the first year shall have fifty pounds [equal to about $300 now], and the over- plus of the farmes, are never to be abated." The Meeting- house, so hastily left unfinished, was completed in 1678. Are we to think, as we sit beneath this ample pavilion, adorned by the hand of taste, that, merely because 'tis spread on the soil of old Dunstable, we see the place as Jonathan Tyng and his fellow-settlers saw it? Do we suppose that the comfort and elegance of the churches in which we worshipped, this morning, suggest to us the first church ever erected in Nashua? Instead of "going to church " to-day at the First Church, and enjoying the cushioned seats, the carpeted aisles, the delicately fres- coed walls, the softened light streaming through stained- glass windows, the brief discourse of half an hour, and the inspiring anthem from cultivated voices, or joining in the hymn to a tune adapted from some operatic air, though possibly all the better for that, - instead of going to church, I say, under these delightful circumstances, let us "go to meeting " this afternoon at the First Church, with Jona- than Tyng and his friends and neighbors. Do not forget your trusty fowling-piece; for you may hear the click of a gun-lock, from some thicket, that shall make your flesh creep with terror. These paved and well-trodden streets are obliterated. The elms and maples that adorn them in orderly regularity are straggling forest trees of oak and pine. These fair marks of trade are annihilated. Not a building interrupts the desolation of the broad, unfenced, white- pine forest of " Dunstable Plains " from the Nashua to Salmon Brook, nor will it for a hundred years to come. If you pick your way along the narrow path that we can
3
-
SKETCH OF FIRST MEETING-HOUSE, ETC., AS DESCRIBED IN DUNSTABLE-NASHUA.
9
The Old First Church.
barely call a road, you will do well to watch narrowly the falling leaves in the shadows of the wood; for what appears to be a leaf, which October has touched with her autumnal tints, may be the red feather of a stealthy savage lurking behind that rugged oak. A walk of an hour or less through the forest, with minds solemnized by the mournful sighing of the " melancholy pines," will bring us to Salmon Brook. We cross no iron rails; we see no warning flag of red, and hear no whistle's piercing scream; nor shall we for a cen- tury and a half to come; they are yet undreamed of. As you cross the rude bridge of logs, fail not to carefully notice that gleam of sunlight, which seems to be the reflection from the rippling water; for it may be the flash of a scalping- knife. The rapid current of the brook is unchecked by a mill-wheel, and ripples on against the rocks and amongst the hazel thickets that overhang its banks, till it gleefully leaps into the bosom of the Merrimack.
A few low cabins are ranged along the north and south sides of the brook. On the southerly side, half way be- tween the brook and Lieut. Wheeler's, we come upon a log-house, about twenty feet square, with a low, thatched roof about ten feet from the ground, without a pane of glass, or a foot of lath and plaster to adorn the edifice, - and we find ourselves at the First Church, in the first village of Dunstable. We who go in families must not sit together on those backless seats of rough-hewn logs, placed on either side of the broad aisle. The grave wives and mothers and the grown-up daughters, in their sober attire, go to the left; while the fathers, not less grave, and the grown-up boys, file away to the right. Lovers and sweethearts find it hard to be separated for four mortal hours; and the small boys and girls, seated either in the aisle or on the " hind seats," so that they can be easily watched and repri- manded, find it harder yet to pass the dreary time, as they
IO
The First Settled Minister.
vainly strive to bring their elastic faces into the proper stiffness suited to the solemnity of the place and the day. In the primitive pulpit stands a young man of twenty-six - Thomas Weld, the first minister of Dunstable. He is only seven years out of Harvard College, and not yet or- dained; but he is already the leading man of the settle- ment, and one of the original proprietors. He was a classmate of Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of the Colony. The Psalms that he " lines off " for our singing are from the " Translation of the Psalms into metre for the use of the Churches of New England," made by his grandfather, the Rev. Thos. Weld of Roxbury, one of the most eminent men of his day. He and his fellow translator were selected, not because they possessed any poetic genius, but because they were " most pious and godly men." On pain of ex- communication let us not suffer a smile to wreath our faces as we sing the ludicrous lines. Like Gov. John Winthrop, young Thomas Weld " hath a gift at exhorta- tion," and he easily holds his delighted hearers - the children excepted - through a four hours' service.
After sharpening their intellectual appetites, our worthy progenitors slowly make their way home, still with rifle in hand and a sharp lookout for an Indian, but ab- sorbed in discussing, not stocks, nor railroad speculations, nor political operations, but the exciting and dividing questions of the day: " Whether a believer is more than a creature? " " Whether a man may be justified before he believes?" "Whether a man might not attain to any sanctification in gifts and graces, and have spiritual and continual communion with Jesus Christ, and yet be damned? " Scripture is at their tongues' end. Every thought and circumstance is pointed with an appropriate text. The conversation doubtless had, as Thomas Hutch- inson said of an old Puritan's correspondence with his wife,
II
Priority of Churches in N. H.
" too much religion in it for the taste of the present day." Not because there is less piety in our day, but because the methods of reasoning and mental habits have undergone a change, as well as the nature of the topics of discussion and the customs of society.
For six years this rude building was used for religious purposes, but as yet no church organization was formed. In 1684 a new meeting-house was built, and the next year a church was legally organized, consisting of seven male members, viz .: Jonathan Tyng, John Cummings senior, John Blanchard, Cornelius Waldo, Samuel Warner, Samuel French, and Obadiah Perry who was killed by the Indi- ans six years afterwards. John Blanchard and Corne- lius Waldo were chosen deacons. On the same day that the church was organized Mr. Weld was ordained; and the 16th of December, 1685, marks the real birth-day of the church of Old Dunstable.
The church was the fifth in order of church organiza- tions in New Hampshire - those at Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, and Hampton having been formed nearly fifty years before, in 1638.
For twelve years after the charter of Dunstable was granted there had been preaching, but no church or or- ganization. Mr. Weld had supplied the pulpit with con- siderable constancy, but without a legal settlement - war and poverty having prevented the organization up to 1685.
The salaries in the early times may seem to us to have been very small; but relatively to the times they afforded a very fair support. Mr. Weld was “ passing rich with fifty pounds a year." In addition to his salary, he had the customary "settlement " which the town voted their ministers for nearly a hundred and fifty years. In these early times a town settled a minister for life, taking him
I2
The Second Meeting-House.
" for better, for worse;" and the " settlement " was the marriage dowry. The settlement varied as the circum- stances of the town changed. Mr. Weld's " encourage- ment" to settle was six hundred acres of land, called " the ministerial lot." It was about five miles below the present City Hall, and the principal part of it was the farm known to us as John Little's.
To accommodate the growing wants of the inhabitants, a second meeting-house was built in 1683 " according to the dimensions of the meeting-house at Groton." It corresponded in size and convenience to the increased wealth and population of the place, and cost about four hundred dollars. To defray the expense, a tax was im- posed of twenty shillings, or about $3.00, upon every " thirty-acre right." It was in this house, and not in the original one, that Mr. Weld held services during his settled ministry. About four years previous to his ordination, he married a daughter of John Wilson, of Medfield, a son of the eminent first minister of Boston. After marriage his expenses naturally increased. Money was difficult to be obtained, and much of his salary came in the shape of " country pay " or produce. Mr. Weld appreciated the financial aspects of the times; for he was not willing to " accept of one-third advance from those that pay him in money as proposed, but accepts to have double the sum of such as pay not in money." His residence in Dunstable, Mass., protected him from the pecuniary embarassments of his four ministerial brethren in New Hampshire. Gov. Cranfield, the Royal Governor of the State, issued his decree against the Congregational clergy, ordering their " dues to be withheld," and threatening them with six months' imprisonment for not administering the sacra- ments according to the Church of England.
But hard times were coming to the faithful minister
REV. HABIJAIT WELD
OF COVER, MASAADHUSETSI
JAXT, DECLXXXIL, ETAL
13
Simplicity of Life.
of Dunstable as well as to the settlers. The town was so frequently deserted, through fear of the Indians, that the support of the minister became very burdensome to the twenty-five families who remained. The General Court, however, came to their assistance for four successive years, granting them sums ranging from twelve to thirty pounds per annum. Various sums were granted during the history of the church succeeding Mr. Weld's ministry. To help their pastor bear his burdens during this trying period, every inhabitant was ordered to bring half a cord of wood to Mr. Weld by the first of November, 1697, or forfeit five shillings [50 cts.] for each neglect. This supply was in addition to his salary. Wood at this time was about a dollar a cord. The wood-rate was afterwards increased and assessed according to the ability of the inhabitants. By the depreciation of money, Mr. Weld's salary in 1699 was reduced to about fifty dollars. The wood-rate was consequently increased, and nineteen cords of wood were ordered for the minister. It is worthy of notice that Mr. Weld had to help pay his own salary; for he was assessed like any inhabitant both for the wood-rate and the minister- tax.
The fundamental principle of the equality of all men before God was rigorously observed. All titles were for- bidden Mr. Weld. Even plain "Mr. " was not allowed, either to clergyman or layman. The simple prefix of " Rev." was considered " an innovation of vanity." The austerity of our fathers was carried into minor matters. Dancing at weddings was forbidden. William Walker, one of the colonists, was imprisoned a month for courting a maid without the consent of her parents. Long hair or periwigs, and " superstitious ribands," to tie up and decorate the hair, were strongly prohibited. All ornament was "a vain show, and beauty a Delilah." Christmas
14
Rigorous Laws and Customs.
was a Popish day and not to be observed. To turn the back upon the public worship before it was finished and the blessing pronounced was " profaneness," and was prohibited by law. A " cage " was erected near the meeting-house for the confinement of all offenders against the Sabbath. One Sunday, John Atherton, a soldier in Col. Tyng's company, most scandalously profaned the day by wetting a piece of an old hat to put into his shoes, which chafed his feet on the march. He was fined forty shillings for his flagrant wickedness. Three months' intentional absence from the church brought the offender to the public whipping post. Even in Harvard College, students were whipped in the presence of Professors and fellow-students for grave offences committed in the chapel. The order of exercises for infliction of the penalty was first, prayer; second, the whipping; third, a closing prayer.
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