USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Dunstable > History of the first church in Dunstable-Nashua, N.H. : and of later churches there > Part 5
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the first church in Dunstable-Nashua, N.H. : and of later churches there > Part 5
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The ninth pastor of the church was the Rev. Matthew Hale Smith, who was ordained Oct. 17, 1842. By his energy and financial skill, a church debt of $2,000 was liquidated; and, as if Providence designed to show the
42
A Series of Pastors.
intimate relation between sacrifices made for the material welfare of the church and its spiritual prosperity, another work of the Spirit began, which resulted in the addition of upwards of eighty to the church. On account of ill-health, Mr. Smith asked for a dismission; which was granted Aug. 20, 1845, after a ministry of nearly three years. For many years Mr. Smith's residence has been in the City of New York, where he is engaged in earnest, Christian labor; but he comes to Nashua almost daily in the character of " Burleigh," the entertaining New York correspondent of the Boston Journal.
The Rev. Samuel Lamson succeeded him in April, 1846. A dismission was most reluctantly voted Mr. Lamson at the close of his second year - he having resigned on account of feeble health, April 7, 1848.
He was followed in 1849 by the Rev. Daniel March, one of the ablest clergymen in the United States, not only a brilliant writer and effective speaker, but a most indefatigable and successful Christian worker. An im- portant church in Brooklyn, N. Y., called him from Nashua in 1855. He has since been settled in Woburn, Mass., and in Philadelphia, where he now resides as the honored pastor of a Presbyterian church. The influence of his accomplished mind is still felt in Nashua and throughout the country, in his widely read works, " Night Scenes in the Bible," " Our Father's House," and " Home Life in the Bible."
The society then called a professor from Amherst College, the Rev. Geo. B. Jewett, who was both ordained and installed May 24, 1855. His pastorate commenced with every appearance of a bright and happy future for the church and for himself, but was terminated in less than a year by a most distressing accident at the railroad cross- ing near the Concord depot, by which his son, an only child, was instantly killed. In consequence of injuries
OLD CHOCOLATE CHURCH
43
Growing Membership of First Church.
sustained on that fatal 15th of April, Mrs. Jewett lost a hand and Mr. Jewett was crippled for life. With great sorrow the church dismissed the pastor to whom they had become most tenderly attached, on the 4th of August, 1856. Although the state of his health has not allowed him to take another pastoral charge, he still preaches occasionally; and from his home in Salem, Mass., he si- lently influences the literature of the country and of the churches, through his accurate and thorough scholarship.
The Rev. Chas. J. Hill, now of Ansonia, Conn., suc- ceeded Mr. Jewett. His ministry commenced in 1857 and terminated in 1864. Another revival blessed the church at the commencement of his labors, and large accessions were made to its membership. Many young people were attracted to Mr. Hill's services, through his sympathy with the youthful.
Ill health compelled Mr. Hill to resign, and he was succeeded by Rev. Elias C. Hooker. His installation took place in September, 1865. He was a most zealous worker and an excellent preacher; but his feeble constitution would not admit of a long pastorate, and he was reluctantly dis- missed in August, 1868.
The present incumbent of the pulpit, Rev. Frederick Alvord, was settled July 6, 1869. On the 15th of April, 1870, the " Old Chocolate " church was destroyed by fire. With praiseworthy energy the society erected on the same site their present elegant brick church, with its beautiful, convenient and unique interior arrangements, - and dedi- cated it, about thirteen months afterward, on the 18th of May, 1871.
The records of church membership up to 1790 are not to be found. Since that date 784 names appear on the church books; and the present membership is between 450 and 500. Among the names are found several who
44
Fraternal Pastoral Relations.
are in the ministry, or in preparation for it. Rev. Mr. Dolt and Rev. Milton Bailey are from this church. Rev. John . Abbott French is settled over the Presbyterian church in Morristown, N. J. Another is a professor in Andover Theological Seminary .*
Here ends the long and eventful history of the First Church of Dunstable and of Nashua. It is entwined with much that is noblest and best in the feelings of Christian citizens, and also with much that springs from the weakness of imperfect human nature. In spite of its lamentable short-comings and the undermining influences from within and without that have been brought to bear upon it, its inherent vitality has enabled it to endure the shock of disruption; and the Mother Church - to-day the largest society but one in the city, and among the foremost in the state - stands as the principal object in the background of our historical picture.
In recurring to the division of the old church of Dun- stable, which took place during Mr. Nott's ministry, it is most gratifying to be assured by Dr. Austin Richards, the first pastor of the Olive St. Church, that both pastors of the two Congregational churches labored side by side in perfect harmony, and that the partial alienation and dis- cord that had so unhappily rent the body of the church gradually gave place to a spirit of mutual forbearance and fraternal affection.
The change in Mr. Nott's doctrinal views was not the only reason that constrained many of the original church to remain where they were. A large number, though by no means all, of the friends of Mr. Nott sympathized with his views. All were strongly attached to their pastor; and none, without reluctance, could forsake the house of wor-
* This statement refers to Professor Churchill, who was received into the First Congregational Church by letter in 1860.
45
Rev. Dr. Richards of Olive St. Church.
ship, with its added conveniences and improvements which they had helped to acquire by their earnest efforts and pecuniary sacrifices. So about half the members of the church and a large majority of the society decided to stay. Accordingly they formed a new organization, of which 41 - who were members of the old church - were legally dis- missed to constitute the new. It is worthy of notice that Col. Thomas G. Banks, the efficient chief marshal of this Bi-Centennial celebration, is the only man living whose name is on the first records and membership of the society, forty-seven years ago. Mr. Nott preached for them a year, when he was dismissed in order that he might join the Baptist communion.
The church installed the Rev. Austin Richards, of Francestown, as their pastor, April 6, 1836, who continued his exceedingly useful ministry through a period of thirty years. At the close of the first year of his pastorate the church was blessed with a revival which resulted in 65 more members. In 1842 another great work of the Spirit was witnessed, and 115 new Christian hearts swelled the num- bers of the church. Many of our most influential citizens date their spiritual life from that revival season. Ten years afterward there was another extensive and remark- able effusion of the Holy Spirit, and 10I united with the church - 80 at one communion. Many were from the Sabbath-school, and one of the devoted teachers who had been engaged in the Sunday-school work for thirty-five years declared it was during that winter that a great dis- covery was made. He had just found out that the true object of Sunday-school teaching was not simply Bib- lical instruction but the Salvation of the Soul. When this was realized whole classes gave their hearts' allegiance to the Redeemer. The history of Mr. Richards' ministry, with its three extensive revivals and constancy of religious
46
Noble Line of Olive St. Pastors.
life in the church, closed Nov. 16, 1866, when he was dis- missed at his own request. He was soon recalled to his former pastorate at Francestown. Failing health com- pelled him to relinquish all pastoral care; and he now resides in quiet retirement in Boston, surrounded with
" That which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends."
The Rev. Gustavus D. Pike was settled in 1862 as Dr. Richards' colleague. Resigning his position in 1865 he soon after accepted a secretaryship of the American Missionary Society. It is largely owing to his judicious management that Fiske University is so successfully accomplishing its objects.
The third pastor in the church was Rev. Hiram Mead, who was called from one in South Hadley, Mass., and in- stalled Dec. 17, 1867. The church building was remodelled, and the parsonage and vestry built during his charge. His rare abilities were sought for by the Oberlin Theological Seminary; and in September, 1869, he resigned his pastorate to assume the Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric in that institution.
Dr. Mead's successor, the Rev. James S. Black - still holding the pastorate - was ordained and installed March 31, 1870, and is the bishop of 300 souls.
Olive St. Church takes a pardonable pride in the sons she has placed in the ministry, all of whom are honoring their mother church and the church of Christ in their respective fields of Christian effort.
Rev. Dr. Spalding of Newburyport, Mass., the Rev. Edward Clark - pastor of an up-town church in New York City, - and Rev. James Powell, late of Newburyport, Mass., are enrolled among the members of the Olive St. Church.
47
Pearl St. Congregational Church.
One fact full of meaning manifests itself in the history of the division of the First Church and Olive St. Church - a fact that stands out in bold contrast to the earlier dis- ruptions of the old church of Dunstable. The causes of division originated in the pulpit and not in the pews. There was no taint of the selfishness of party spirit leading to the separation. An honest change in the opinions of a beloved pastor, involving great self-sacrifice on his part, resulted in an expression of loyalty to a good man on the one hand, and in an adherence to the great principle of lib- erty of conscience on the other. That such liberty is not in- compatible with the work of the Holy Spirit is shown in the blessed seasons during the days of McGee and Richards immediately following the division; while spiritual torpor, almost amounting to deadness, marked the history of the dissensions of earlier days.
The Pearl St. Church was a child of Olive St. Church. The faithful preaching of Dr. Richards had so filled the Olive St. house that it became expedient to set off a colony of fifty-five members, to form another society.
The sympathy and co-operation of both the Congre- gational churches was cordially promised the new enter- prise; and, on the 3d of September, 1846, the Pearl St. church was organized.
Until their new house of worship was completed, the society worshipped in the Town Hall and held their prayer meetings in the Olive St. vestry.
The Rev. Leonard Swain was their first pastor. He was ordained and installed June 24, 1847; and after a most pleasant and faithful term of service, he was dismissed in 1852 to take the pastorate of a new society in Providence, R. I. Here he remained until his death, which occurred, July 14, 1869.
In relating the history of the Pearl St. Church, I ven-
48
Rev. Leonard Swain, D.D.
ture to advert to the name of its first pastor with more than a single word; for he is pre-eminently the ablest man who has yet appeared among the ministers of Nashua. For a period of eight years, from 1847 to 1855, and more particularly from 1849 to 1852, the Congregational pulpit of Nashua was honored and adorned by two of the foremost ministers in New England, Daniel March and Leonard Swain. Of the one, I have already spoken.
There are many of us to whom Dr. Swain, with his tall, spare, erect form, high, serene forehead, clear marble- like complexion, thin sensitive lips, deep sincere blue eyes, and solemn, impressive manners, seemed more like a being from another sphere - a direct link with the unseen world - than did any other man we ever beheld.
He seemed to be breathing the refined atmosphere
" Where the immortal shapes Of bright aërial spirits live inspher'd In regions mild, of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call earth."
No other preacher within our memory succeeded as he did in uttering the soundest evangelical thought with the stately manner of ancient orators. The leading quali- ties of his interior nature were his emotional and imagi- native powers. To a stranger, simply looking upon his thin white face, and lips hard as marble in their repose, it seemed as if the fires of a passional nature could never dwell within so much ice. But those who were acquainted with his inner life as well as any one could know a man of so much natural reserve testify to his deep and tender feeling. It was his rich emotional nature, in combination with his sincere moral earnestness and brilliant imagina- tion, that controlled, infused, and informed his powerful
49
Genius of Leonard Swain.
speech. His deep-toned, silvery, resonant, majestic voice gave most solemnly penetrating emphasis, to his elaborate, though simple, language; and thrilled the soul with its physical properties merely. As it became the facile in- strument of his strong feeling when profoundly stirred, it seemed like a Hebrew prophet's, echoing the voice of God. But when he took the hand of suffering, or spoke of the loving compassion of the Saviour, or responded to the changing moods of devotion, its trembling accents seemed to be full of tears.
Perhaps his emotional power, enhanced by a vivid imagination, was never more strikingly displayed than on the day of his graduation from the Theological Seminary at Andover in 1846. So diffident was he of his ability to do justice to himself and credit to the seminary that, up to the Saturday evening previous to the anniversary day, he had not written a word, and had pleaded urgently to be excused. His professor of rhetoric, unwilling that the day should be robbed of its brightest luminary, advised him to deliver the last half of a sermon that he had just criticised for him. The self-distrustful student reluctantly acted upon the suggestion; and one of the most eminent men of the day, himself a pulpit orator of foremost rank and a highly competent critic, affirms that the effect produced was simply wonderful. The audience was bathed in tears. Dr. Woods* was so agitated that he visibly trembled from uncontrollable feeling. Scholarly, unemotional men, who sat on the platform from which he spoke, sobbed aloud; the very stage shook beneath them from the force of their emotion. That anniversary address stands out from among all others of its class during the
* Dr. Leonard Woods - formerly professor of Christian Theology, and then professor emeritus at Andover Seminary - undoubtedly is the person here meant.
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Spirituality of Dr. Swain.
history of that venerable seminary as a conspicuously solitary exception.
The character of his preaching was direct, simple, and thoroughly evangelical. It seemed to his people at times that he dwelt too long in the bracing atmosphere of Sinai, and not long enough in the milder air of Calvary. The two master ideas which possessed his mind were God's glory and man's salvation. One of his parishioners in Providence who knew him intimately says " that he was not so anxious about the spiritual condition of individual Christians as about the state of the impenitent as indi- viduals. For his people he was apparently less solicitous about growth in grace than about conversion. Sanctifica- tion was important but justification was vital." He loved souls too well, it would seem, to speak words of a false peace; he waited until they had declared a complete allegiance to the Saviour.
He had a clear vision of unseen things. Spiritual verities were to him realities. He had the spiritual mind that discerned spiritual things. With pertinent emphasis a friend says that, in his long life of suffering, he " endured as seeing Him who is invisible." Spirituality was the pre- dominant feature of his Christian character.
Nature had not formed Dr. Swain for many friend- ships; but those who were admitted to the sanctuary of his affections never knew a friend more tender, true, and steadfast. Another friend speaks of " his genial sayings, tinted with the delicate hues of fancy, edged with the keen- est wit, or bubbling over with genuine humor." Dr. Swain had in him the original stuff for a martyr. He never hesitated an instant between policy and principle. He gravitated towards principle as surely and as naturally as the needle to the pole. And yet he was always cour- teous, candid, and just to an opponent. He took positive
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Dr. Swain's Literary Attainments.
ground on all important social and political matters; and the poor and the outcast found in him a friend and a defender. He pleaded for the rights of black children in the common schools, and declared that until they enjoyed their rights he would take his own children away from the schools and place them under private tuition. His voice rang like a trumpet during the Great Rebellion, and he called upon men to " fight as Christians and because they were Christians."
He frequently disappointed those who went to hear a " great sermon " from him; and he always appeared to better advantage in the conference room and the familiar lecture. His literary standard was so high, his critical sense so keen, his culture so varied, and his nature so modest, that he undervalued his sermons, and never allowed but one or two to be printed, and solemnly enjoined that none should be published after his death. This morbid sensi- tiveness was his weakness and our calamity. The printed sermon of striking eloquence and beauty on " God's owner- ship of the sea " suggests to the world what it has lost; but this masterpiece will take its place among American classics. He read Dante in the original Italian, and knew French and German. Two rich specimens of German hymnology were translated by him for the Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book. He had the mental constitution of a poet, and had written a manuscript volume of poems which was committed to the flames. I have read a poetical letter, written when he was in his twenty-third year, to his brother George, that, notwithstanding its haste and familiarity, is full of airy fancies, exquisite feeling and delicate turns of thought and expression. No one but a " born poet " could have written it. He is also the author of one of the choicest hymns in the Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book.
52 Swain's Successors and Their Good Work.
Let his friends speak for him again: - Many of his former people who hear this brief memoir to-day will appre- ciate what is said of the " regal mastery of his speech as associated with his prayers, so unlike the prayers of other men. The heart that could hear his prayers, unmoved, must be as the nether millstone. He had a remarkable faculty of summing up the items of thought and petition, presenting them in prayer clearly, pertinently, fervently and devoutly. In this particular, he far excelled any other man I ever knew. The thought, the tone, the expression, the whole outgoing of the man was prayerful. He was emphatically a leader in prayer. You could follow him so easily in his spiritual thought and gracious speech that it seemed to be as much your prayer as his." But though we have no sermons to perpetuate his memory, his work and his life shall be his best memorials. This church, of which he was the first pastor, and which he built up and made strong with five years of his noble life, is here his fitting and enduring monument.
The second pastor was Rev. Dr. Ezra E. Adams, of Philadelphia. This genial man, able preacher, and faith- ful pastor, began his work here Aug. 31, 1853, and ended it July 13, 1857.
His four years' ministry was succeeded by the still briefer pastorate of two years of the Rev. E. W. Greeley, at present settled over the church in Haverhill, N. H. He was installed over this church Feb. 24, 1858, and was dismissed, at his own request, May 17, 1860.
Rev. B. F. Parsons was with the Pearl St. Church nearly six years, from Nov. 7, 1861, to June 18, 1867. His residence is now in Derry, N. H.
The fifth pastor, Rev. Wm. L. Gaylord, was called from the church in Fitzwilliam, and was installed Dec. 31, 1867. He closed his ministry three years later, - Oct. 27,
1
53
A Wonder-Working Providence.
1870, - and went to Meriden, Conn. (where he now re- sides), to become the successor of Rev. W. H. H. Murray, who had gone to the Park St. Church in Boston.
The Rev. Charles Wetherby, the present pastor, was settled, Dec. 7, 1871.
Five hundred and forty-three names have been placed upon the membership records of the Pearl St. Church since its organization twenty-seven years ago. Among them are the names of six men who have become able ministers of the gospel. The Rev. S. M. Freeland, at one time a popu- lar principal of the Nashua High School, is in Detroit, Mich. Rev. Richard C. Stanley, a principal of our High School, is professor of natural science in Bates College, Lewiston, Me. Rev. C. A. Leach is pastor of the Congre- gational church in Keene, N. H. Rev. E. L. Whitcomb is an Episcopal clergyman in North Haven, Conn. Rev. Henry M. Tenney is settled in Winona, Minn. Rev. Josiah E. Kittredge is the pastor of the Congregational church, Glastonbury, Conn.
The present membership of this church is 203, and the Sabbath-school of 250 members is in a very flourishing condition.
The history of the Olive Street and Pearl Street Societies affords another illustration of the unfolding of God's wonder-working Providence. Who amongst us to-day, of those living at the time of the division in the church forty-seven years ago, could have predicted that he would see what he now sees? Out of a division so full of regretful causes, have sprung two large and influen- tial societies which are among the leading moral and spiritual forces in the city. And the old First Church itself from which they derived their original life is stronger to-day than either.
This was not designed nor anticipated at the time of
54
Rise of Various Sects.
the disruption; but there was an Eye that did see it, and the Mighty Head of the church so directed the dissension that He finally made the wrath of man to praise him.
Passing now from the natural branches in their or- ganic development, we come to the branches that have been grafted into our ecclesiastical tree. We return to the time of Kidder and Sperry in 1818. For nearly a century and a half the old ideas and institutions of the primitive faith of New England had prevailed in Dun- stable. As I have before remarked, the Congregational church, in a certain sense, was the established church of New England; indeed it may rightly be called so to-day. For a hundred and fifty years no one in Dunstable ever thought of being anything else than a Congregationalist. He might be Orthodox or New Light, but he was a Congre- gationalist still. Whitefield was a Methodist, it is true; but he was a Calvinistic Methodist, and did not concern himself with the forms of church government. He simply sought to infuse the spirit of the living Christ into the existing forms. There had been petty dissensions in the church itself, but no schismatics had gone out from the old church to form other churches maintaining peculiar and contrary views.
As time passed on, and the population increased, and new attractions drew strangers into town, it was to be expected that adherents to other forms of faith and prac- tice would be found scattered here and there in the grow- ing village.
The doctrine of universal salvation, so radically opposed to one of the leading doctrines of the Evangelical faith, was introduced into the country during the eighteenth century by the famous John Murray. His liberal teach- ings had been promulgated in New Hampshire in a few localities as early as 1781. In that year a Universalist
OLD SOUTH BURYING GROUND - NOW CALLED EVERGREEN CEMETERY.
55
The Universalists.
church was formed in Portsmouth. The bold and able advocacy of the fascinating doctrine resulted in the or- ganization of the first Universalist society in Nashua, Jan. 27, 1818, which became the first to encroach upon the domain of the original ecclesiastics of the village. Twenty- eight members constituted the society. Only two of them are now living, Gen. Israel Hunt and Hon. John M. Hunt. Their father was the leading mover in the new enterprise. The Universalists in both the Dunstables united in the services which were held in either place as convenience dictated. The leading Universalist divines - Hosea Bal- lou, Thomas Whittemore, Paul Dean, and Otis Skinner - preached for them in schoolhouses and barns. Gen. Hunt more than once spent some of his youthful strength in tearing off the boards from some 'schoolhouse which had been nailed up against the " heretics." The following year it seemed best to concentrate the society in Dunstable, N. H., and a new constitution was adopted Feb. 20, 1819, Israel Hunt, Jr., being chosen clerk. The new society started with forty members, and with the Rev. Charles Hudson as pastor. Mr. Hudson afterwards became a member of Congress, and is now living in Lexington, Mass. The society was merged in course of time into the congre- gation worshipping in the Olive St. Church prior to its occupancy by the orthodox.
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