USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Dunstable > History of the first church in Dunstable-Nashua, N.H. : and of later churches there > Part 8
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the first church in Dunstable-Nashua, N.H. : and of later churches there > Part 8
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THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES OF MICHIGAN issued a sterling tribute to the memory of Prof. Churchill - prepared by an Advisory Editorial Committee consisting of Rev. James McAllister of Detroit, Rev.'s John P. Sanderson and E. B. Allen of Lansing, Rev. R. M. Higgins of Constantine, and Rev. J. A. Blaisdell of Olivet, all or nearly all of whom, it may safely be presumed, were former pupils of Prof. Churchill. This tribute speaks of him as one of the best and most deservedly popular professors that ever adorned the halls of Andover. It mentions many of his noble qualities in terms similar to those in the tributes already quoted. In addition to these encomiums, it says: -
" Although he had achieved honors early in life, the highest came late; and the chair of Homiletics had still the charm of newness to him when he died. This chair afforded him the opportunity for closer, more protracted, work in the study than was possible during his earlier and more public career, when frequent appearances on the
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platform and giving instruction in several New England colleges made great demands on his time and strength and kept him much from home and the study.
" Andover is distinguished for the scholars, the theo- logians, the exegetes that she has trained, and who in turn have served her; but with none of these is the late Prof. Churchill to be compared. Some men are profound schol- ars, and that is all we can say of them. Others fill a chair with merit or even with distinction, but outside of it have little or no influence. They do not leave their mark upon the students; but nature had so mixed the elements in Prof. Churchill that above all he was a man, - generous, sympathetic, unselfish and magnanimous. Bunyan might have taken him for the type of his Greatheart. . . .
" Not the least valuable of his work was that done in Phillips Academy in turning awkward boys into graceful speakers, sometimes to the amazement, always to the delight, of their friends. Those who have received such instruction will never forget it, nor ever cease to be grate- ful for it. .
"For years he delighted New England audiences with readings culled from the best English literature. Others were his rivals in the same field, but none of them gave such genuine satisfaction to an audience of highly intelligent people. As an interpreter of Dickens he was without a peer. In the same lecture course with such princes of the platform as Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher and John B. Gough, not the least enjoyable even- ing of the course was the night of the Churchill readings, - as a crowded house and enthusiastic audience testified. It was such power and such popularity that induced certain Lecture Bureaus to attempt to capture him; but he stead- fastly resisted all their blandishments. The offer of four times the salary that Andover could afford failed to draw
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him from his chosen work of instructing lads fitting for college and young men fitting for the ministry.
" Not once nor twice was he approached by church committees looking for a strong man to fill an important pastorate; but to such calls he turned a deaf ear.
" His fine literary taste was evident in pulpit, on the platform and in the class-room; and yet somehow his full intellectual force was overlooked, -it may have been that it was overshadowed by other qualities that made him popular, but by a false psychology were not thought of as intellectual.
" His wide knowledge of men and his great human sympathy enabled him to see and feel the needs of men - their spiritual needs - and prompted him to study how he could meet them and help others to do likewise. .
" His ideal pastor was not a pale theological student in a white necktie, but a man among men, a man with iron in his blood, living a wholesome, happy life, enjoying all the good things that God has given him - a gentleman, seeking to win men to Christ by the open heart and open hand."
REV. HARRY P. DEWEY, D.D., at an Alumni Dinner in Andover, June 13, 1901, said: - " Two friends talked with one another, as they returned from the cemetery yonder, whither his body had just been borne; and one told of a kindness which Prof. Churchill had shown him. ' Yes!' replied the other friend, 'that is what every one is saying to-day, - What he did for me.' - This man of consolation and cheer, who felt in his sensitive heart the pain of others as his own, once wrote a letter to a friend who had suffered grief, saying that he thought the best word descriptive of the other life was Reunion; and surely, in the sense of bereavement which is upon us at this hour,
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we all feel that Heaven will grant us a happier entrance, if the dear, beloved Churchill is to be at the open gate, - to bid us welcome."
DR. S. S. CURRY, President of the Boston School of Expression, said of him-in a publication issued soon after Prof. Churchill's decease: -
" We have lost not only the best known but the most artistic of our public readers. He believed in reading rather than impersonating. He always had his text before him.
" Among the characteristics of his art were his subtile power and delicate truthfulness in transitions, a fine in- stinct of unity and harmony, a marvelously sympathetic genuineness and naturalness, and the breadth and depth of his humor, which - as Thackeray says - sheds tears. His magnetism was most inspiring.
" His annual visits to the School of Expression were always occasions of great joy to all the teachers as well as students. He brought always a restful repose, and a genial sympathy with his audience that put everyone at his ease and soothed into calmness the perturbed agitations and weariness of his most nervous hearer.
" His interpretations of Dickens' characters were very unique - wholly different from those of Prof. Eastey, who made a life-long study of the representations of this author. His reading of the Charity Dinner was totally different from that of Ballou, for whom the selection was originally written. Indeed, all his work was original, and bore the mark of a dramatic, creative genius. His famous reading from Hamlet was thoroughly unconventional, and showed a finely conceived harmony between the grotesque elements in the grave-digger, the passion of Laertes, and the subdued intensity of Hamlet. His rendering of Ros-
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setti's great lyric, Sister Helen, was poetic and intense; and embodied, in his rendering of the refrain, his idea of the Greek chorus.
" The most difficult of dialects, the Lancashire, was so suggested by him that every word could be distinctly understood. The same is true of his Irish, his French, and his Scotch dialects. All were given, not as an artificial imita- tion, but as a representation of dramatic insight; they were always expressive of types of character.
" Prof. Churchill ... was one of the editors of the Andover Review, and contributed many articles of great interest upon noted speakers .* .
" He was every inch an artist. Associated as he was, all his life, with professors and scholars; yet - by his imaginative and sympathetic instinct, by his intuitive power to 'do the thing that breeds the thought,' by his noble suggestion and intimation of his seeing things from different points of view, [and] by his power of assimilation and [his] understanding of human nature - he was one who could mould his fellowmen by direct portrayal, better than by reflective and persuasive teaching. .
" Can I dare to speak in cold print of that beautiful personality, that marvelous friend, that sympathetic ad- viser, that loyal heart?
" ' His life was gentle; and the elements So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, " This was a man." '
" What a crowd gathered at his funeral! There I saw painters, musicians and literary men, lawyers
* An eminent scholar and critic, known throughout the country and long acquainted with Prof. Churchill, is reported to have said of him that, in his best judgment, he was one of the five ablest reviewers in the United States.
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and judges, who had come long distances to pay him their last tribute.
" His body sleeps on that famous hill, by the side of the distinguished men who had for long years filled the chairs at Andover, - not far from the grave of Harriet Beecher Stowe, of whom he was a personal friend and of whose works he was the greatest interpreter. . . . As I came down to take the train, I could not endure the thought that I could no more come to him for counsel and inspira- tion, for strength and patience, in carrying out the great work to which I have given my life."
It may be well to ask: How was Prof. Churchill regarded during the latter part of his life by his old friends and acquaintances in Nashua, - did they continue to like him as well as in his earlier years? Let us see!
THE NASHUA DAILY PRESS, in its issue of April 14, 1900, said :- " Prof. John Wesley Churchill, D.D., died at his home in Andover, Mass., on Good Friday, at the age of 61 years. He was a son of the late Capt. John E. Churchill of blessed memory in the Main street Method- ist Church and in the hearts of all Nashuans who knew him. ... Brought up in this city, he came here frequently in the lifetime of his parents, kept in touch with the people, and delivered the address at the bi-centennial of old Dun- stable and the dedicatory sermon of the present First Congregational Church. ... He had often preached in the church mentioned, of which he was . . . a member. . .. Of his memory, no words are too eulogistic to be spoken. He was a sincere man, faithful in all things, a scholarly gentleman, a reader without a peer, a minister of the gospel of eloquence and power. He rests from his labors, and his name is blessed."
PRESENT FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
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Biographic Sketch of Prof. Churchill.
THE NASHUA DAILY TELEGRAPH, in its issue of April 14, 1990, said of Prof. Churchill: - " Although not a resident of this city for many years, John Wesley Churchill has always been looked upon as a 'Nashua boy.' .. . Nashua was always loyal to him, and the boys and girls who were in school with him never wearied in speaking their praise of him to the younger generation."
THE MANCHESTER MIRROR of like date, after speaking of his scholarly attainments and ability as a preacher and elocutionist, said: - "He was the embodiment of unself- ishness and a husband and father of unusual tenderness and devotion."
A little more than a year after Prof. Churchill's de- cease, a life-like portrait of him, of rare artistic merit, was presented to Phillips Academy. The gift was fittingly announced, in an admirable letter from Prof. John Phelps Taylor, as follows: -
Andover, Mass., May 18, 1901.
Principal Bancroft, D.D., LL.D., Dear Dr. Bancroft: -
The pupils and friends of the late Professor John Wesley Churchill herewith present to Phillips Academy the portrait of one of her most honored and beloved sons and instructors.
They lay this treasure fitly at the feet of the Mother of the Seminary, from whose chair of sacred rhetoric he went so early to his crown.
They recall, with admiring pride, the judgment, the conscience, the manliness, the culture, the geniality, the dis- interestedness, the humor, the pathos, the charm, the fin-
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ish, the devotion to duty, the kindliness toward man, the reverence for God, which were his in rare degree.
They desire that his ardor for perfection may live in the school he loved and in the community he adorned. Thanks to your sympathetic cooperation and to the genius and generosity of the artist - Mr. Paul Selinger, - the Academy becomes the owner of a speaking likeness of a noble spirit.
The many donors rejoice to believe that Phillips today receives, in this glowing canvas, an inspiration to the highest, not unworthy of the lamented dead.
With high respect and esteem, I am
Yours cordially and sympathetically,
JOHN PHELPS TAYLOR.
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Biographic Sketch of Prof. Churchill.
Not long after the presentation of the portrait, there was contributed to the Memorial Room in which it had been placed a massive bronze tablet bearing the inscrip- tion shown below: -
TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF JOHN WESLEY CHURCHILL DOCTOR IN DIVINITY PROFESSOR IN THIS SEAT OF RELIGION AND LEARNING FOR THE SPACE OF TWO AND THIRTY YEARS A PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS MAGNANIMITY SERVICEABLENESS AND GRACE MADE A NATURE GIFTED AND TENDER A POWER FOR PEACE A FOUNTAIN OF GOOD HE TAUGHT MEN HOW TO MAKE TRUTH WINSOME 1839-1900
Since the removal of Andover Theological Seminary to Cambridge, Mass., this tablet has been transferred to the Phillips Academy Chapel on Andover Hill.
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In conclusion, the writer of this biographic sketch is constrained to say that, from first to last, he has felt that he was treating of one whose character was altogether unique, and that no words of his could do justice to the rare per- sonal worth of his subject. It is therefore his earnest prayer that the friends of Prof. Churchill, and especially the Church of which he was so long a member, will con- tinue to cherish his memory with ardent affection, and will be ennobled and sanctified through his personal influence. And may God richly reward his Christ-like efforts and self-denials!
. THE END.
APPENDIX.
JOHN ELIOT, familiarly known in history as the Apostle to the Indians, was born in Nazing, Essex County, Eng- land, in the year 1604. Having decided in his early youth to become a minister of the gospel, he pursued a course of study at Jesus College, Cambridge University, and took orders in the Church of England.
Soon afterwards he became a non-conformist, and went to America. Having preached a year at a church in Boston, he was called in 1632 to a pastorate in Roxbury; where he fixed his permanent abode and did the chief work of his subsequent life. Fortunately his cares were les- sened by the companionship of an estimable wife, who came from England to accept his hand in marriage, and who survived until near the period of his death.
From about the time of his settlement in America, Eliot was carefully considerate of the welfare of its Indian tribes. Although he received at first but little encourage- ment in this benevolent disposition, from his familiar associates, he soon won the favor of Winslow, the agent in England of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, - and thus brought about the incorporation in 1640 of a British So- ciety to furnish funds for christianizing the Indians. To this society, Harvard College, in its early days, was largely indebted for the help which made it an important liberal- izing force in America. In 1647 the General Court of Massachusetts voted a gratuity to Eliot of ten pounds sterling for his missionary work.
Former efforts for christianizing the Indians seldom went far enough to relieve them from the most degrading
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associations; and therefore resulted in but little more than a suspension of their hostilities against the whites. Eliot planned to segregate them in praying bands, the members of which should be taught to read and write, should be supplied with the Holy Scriptures in a language they could understand, and should be favored with frequent mis- sionary visits for the explanation of religious truths.
An Indian, taken in one of the Pequot wars and who became a resident of Dorchester, was the first native to teach him words in the Indian language known as the Wampanoag, which was spoken throughout the Province of Rhode Island and to a considerable extent beyond. This language, Eliot saw fit to adopt as the most service- able for his translation of the Bible. Eventually he gained a knowledge of it which, for sacred purposes, probably was unsurpassed by that of any other person whose mother- tongue was English.
To the Indians, he first preached, without an inter- preter, at Nonantum - now Brighton, Mass. This was the beginning of his systematic missionary labors which resulted in the establishment of an Indian settlement at Natick in 1651-52, and afterwards of about a dozen other settlements. His journeyings early took him into south- eastern Massachusetts and afterwards up the valley of the Merrimac to the falls where Lowell now stands and thence to Nashua, - at both of which places he was cor- dially received alike by red men and whites. He was par- ticularly successful in favorably impressing the two chief sachems in southern New Hampshire - Passaconaway and Wannalancet - both of whom remained to the end of their days his steadfast friends.
In one of his visits to Nashua, he engaged a competent man to look out a route for a bridle-path thence, up the Merrimac valley, to Amoskeag Falls, and to attend to its
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construction. The bridle-path was provided - much to the satisfaction of the Indians in the neighborhood - some of whom were employed in the work. It was paid for by Eliot. Many years later the city of Manchester, noted for its manufactures - especially of cotton goods - sprang up along the lower course of Amoskeag Falls.
The translation of the Bible by John Eliot, into the Wampanoag language, was completed in 1658. His New Testament was published at Cambridge, Mass., in 1661, and his Old Testament in 1663. But, although he lived until 1690 - blessed till near his end with rare bodily and mental vigor, and remarkable for his sweetness of temper and winning persuasiveness - his hopes of bringing mul- titudes of the red men to Christ were never realized.
Many reasons may be assigned for his failure. The great majority of the whites were unwilling to cooperate with him. They believed that the Indians would hold fast to their usual modes of support chiefly by hunting and fishing. Rangers of the forests liked these pursuits better than cultivating the soil. Besides, the white population - which was growing numerous - steadily encroached upon the red men's hunting grounds and fishing resorts; and so compelled their retirement. In most instances, however, their lands were bought for a satisfactory con- sideration. One of the chief factors in causing trouble between the two races undoubtedly was the almost uni- versal indulgence in alcoholic drinks. The Indians soon shared in this indulgence; and often were led thereby into the wildest excesses. Thus wars were generated, which begot a lasting hatred, and resulted in great destruction of lives and property. What is known as King Philip's War, which began in 1675 - was largely of this class. King Philip (so called by the whites) was the chief sachem of the Wampanoags, his Indian name being Metacomet.
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The story of the war as briefly told in the New Inter- national Encyclopædia (ed. 1907), vol. xv, p. 707 - is as follows: -
" About 1670 Philip's friendly intentions began to be suspected on account of frequent meetings of the tribes and many murders of white settlers. In view of these suspicions, Philip and the principal tribesmen were sum- moned to meet the whites and explain their movements. This they did, and also agreed to surrender their arms; but it was only a truce, and preparations for war were still secretly carried on by the Indians. An Indian con- vert named Sausamon revealed to the colonists the prepa- rations made by Philip, and was murdered by the Indians. In revenge for the execution of his murderers by the whites, the Indians killed eight or nine colonists, and open hos- tilities were begun in June, 1675. The Indians did not venture to meet the colonists in battle, but burned or attacked a number of their settlements, including Swansea, Brookfield, Deerfield, and Hadley, and laid ambuscades for the settlers.
" In December, 1675, Governor Josiah Winslow led a force of 1000 men against the Narragansets, with whom Philip had formed an alliance, took by storm a fort said to have contained 4000 Indians, near the present location of Kingston, R. I., destroyed their village of 500 wigwams, and put to death 500 of their warriors and twice as many Indian women and children. The war went on for the first six months of 1676, and was marked by burnings and massacres at Weymouth, Groton, Medfield, and Lancaster, Mass., and at Warwick and Providence, R. I. But the increased efforts of the colonists soon struck demoraliza- tion into the ranks of the Indians. A substantial reward was offered by the Government for every Indian killed in
.
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battle, and many Indian women and children were cap- tured and sold into slavery.
" Among the latter were Philip's wife and son, who were sold, not to a buyer living near - from whom Philip could have redeemed them on condition of his abandoning the war - but to a purchaser in the Bermudas, who, it is presumed, disposed of them afterwards (not unlikely in the Spanish West Indies) without regard to their ulti- mate fate.
" A force under the command of the great Indian fighter, Capt. Benjamin Church, hunted Philip from place to place, at last locating him through the aid of a friendly Indian in a swamp near Mount Hope, where he was killed by another Indian while trying to escape. His body was quartered on a Thanksgiving Day especially appointed, and his head was sent to Plymouth, where it was long kept on a gibbet.
" During this war some 600 colonists were killed, 600 buildings burned, and 13 towns destroyed, but of the two once powerful Indian tribes it is said that less than 200 individuals were left. The cost of the war was estimated at $1,000,000."
But the war did not end with the death of Philip; it continued some time thereafter with growing embit- terment.
Eliot did what he could, during the progress of the war, to lessen its horrors and to protect persons who were unjustly accused of wrongful conduct relating to its prose- cution.
From that time on, for more than a century, the feel- ing of discouragement respecting the Indians was so strong that but little was done for their betterment. In 1824, William Cullen Bryant wrote a poem, called “ An Indian at the Burial Place of His Fathers", which contained the
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following pathetic lines as to their ill treatment by the whites: -
" They waste us - ay - like April snow In the warm noon, we shrink away; And fast they follow, as we go, Toward the setting day - Till they shall fill the land, and we Are driven into the Western sea."
Nine years later, Samuel G. Drake, a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, who was the author of a highly instructive work called "Drake's Book of the Indians", put the foregoing lines on its title page, as show- ing his frank recognition of the truth they express. His Book contains an excellent sketch of the life of King Philip.
It must be admitted that Philip was vindictive, treach- erous and cruel - very unlike his father Massasoit who was exceptionally honest and almost always friendly to the whites.
Regarding King Philip's war, the editor of the present book is constrained to say, after examining many works on the subject: - including especially those of the eminent, fair minded scholar, Jared Sparks - that a good number of the authors who have written about it seem to be much influenced by personal bias, - others, by reluctance to tell the whole truth, lest they be drawn into a vexatious controversy. The theme is of unusual interest - far beyond that of the later French and Indian War, which has received more generous attention. Probably two or three generations hence it may be treated more satisfac- torily than at present.
For many years during the latter half of the nine- teenth century, James Hammond Trumbull of Hartford, Conn., was the only person living who could read Eliot's Indian Bible. One of the foremost of American philolo-
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gists, he was conversant not merely with numerous lan- guages of the Old World, but had mastered the speech of a great number of Indian tribes in widely separated dis- tricts of the New World.
The picture of John Eliot, shown on page 7 of the pres- ent book, was taken from a portrait discovered in London in 1851 by Hon. William Whiting, a distinguished lawyer long resident in Roxbury, who was familiar with the per- sonal history of Eliot. It was bought by him, and brought home.
MR. IRA F. HARRIS, of Nashua, is entitled to our thanks for supplying us with the photographs of localities and buildings in Dunstable-Nashua from which many pictures in this book were taken. A descendant of one of the first settlers here, he has contributed much to a knowledge of its early history. Besides, he has aided not a little in rendering attractive the city of Nashua as it now stands.
MR. FEDERICO GLENTON, a skillful Nashua photog- rapher of many years' experience, also has done much for us.
Of our indebtedness to the DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERI- CAN REVOLUTION, it is hardly necessary to speak. The historic tokens and monuments provided by their gen- erosity are numerous.
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