USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 20
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THE METHODIST SOCIETY.
The first steps towards the formation of a Methodist society were taken by five ladies in 1830. Upon their invitation, the Rev. D. I. Robinson, then stationed in Newmarket, came to Exeter and arranged for religious meetings to be held on every alternate Sunday. The next year the Rev. Amos H. Worthing of Newmarket, continued to hold occasional services in Exeter ; and in 1832 Exeter became a regular station, to which the Rev. Azel P. Brigham was appointed by the Conference. The meetings of the society were at that time held in the old court-house, and the number of attendants was much increased. In November, of the same year, John Clement, Samuel Tilton and Moses P. Lowell organized the First Episcopal Methodist Society in Exeter, by pub- lication in a newspaper, according to law.
In 1833 the Rev. A. H. Worthing was stationed in Exeter, and in 1834 the Rev. Samuel Hoyt, the society, by invitation, occupy-
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ing the old Universalist church on Centre street. In the latter year, however, they erected a brick church of their own, on the east side of the river, upon Portsmouth avenue. The dedicatory sermon was preached, February 10, 1835, by the Rev. George Storrs. In 1835 the Rev. W. H. Hatch was appointed minister of the society ; in 1836 the Rev. Alfred Medcalf, on account of whose illness the Rev. O. Hinds, and afterwards the Rev. Jacob Sanborn took his place. Mr. Sanborn remained for the succeed- ing three years, and under his charge the church was highly prosperous.
It was in 1836, on the evening of the tenth of August, that the town was disgraced by a scene of public disorder at the meeting- house of the Methodist society. The Rev. George Storrs, a noted advocate of the abolition of slavery, attempted to deliver a lecture there on that subject. A crowd of pro-slavery men, idlers and boys gathered, and determined that he should not. As he per- sisted in his attempt, he was interrupted by hooting, by the fling- ing of stones at the windows and blinds, and by streams of water from the fire engines ; so that, finding it impossible to go on, he at length desisted, and his audience dispersed. No serious damage was done to persons or property ; the worst injury was to the good fame of the town. All that can be said in mitigation of the offence is that it was not an unexampled one in New England at that time.
The Rev. E. D. Trickey was the pastor in 1840 and 1841, at which time the church numbered about one hundred and eighty members. In 1842 the Rev. D. I. Robinson was stationed at Exeter. The divisions on the slavery question, and the " Miller excitement," seriously interfered with the harmony of the society, and a majority of the members with their pastor seceded, and a Wesleyan Methodist church was organized. This was never very prosperous. For some years after 1842, Exeter was united with Amesbury, Massachusetts, and had no separate minister. In 1847 the Rev. Isaac W. Huntley was the pastor, and in the two years following, the Rev. Ebenezer Peaslee.
In 1858 the Rev. James M. Buckley, then just from college, supplied the pulpit. He was earnest, able and eloquent, and drew a large congregation. He has become distinguished in later years, and is now a doctor of divinity and editor of the New York Christian Advocate, the leading Methodist journal of the country. The next year the Rev. Mr. Stokes had charge of the society, but
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the interest awakened by Mr. Buckley died away after his depart- ure, and the society declined, and soon came to a full stop.
In 1861 and 1862 the brick meeting-house was occasionally opened, but it was not till 1867 that the Methodists, including some new comers, re-organized their society. In that year the Rev. C. W. Millen supplied them with preaching for a few weeks, holding services in a hall on Water street. After he left. the Rev. J. D. Folsom began his labors with them, and the congrega- tion increased. The Rev. H. B. Copp succeeded Mr. Folsom in 1868, and remained three years. During his stay the society pur- chased from the Unitarian society the church on the corner of Front and Centre streets, where they still worship. The Rev. S. E. Quimby was the next pastor, for the term of three years. The society had now grown in strength and numbers. In 1874 and 1875 the stationed minister was the Rev. S. C. Farnham ; and in the three following years the Rev. J. H. Haines. The church and congregation were largely increased during his administration. The Rev. M. Howard was the next minister, for the years 1879 and 1880 ; and the Rev. J. W. Walker succeeded him in 1881 and part of 1882 ; and the Rev. C. H. Hannaford filled out the latter year. In 1883 the Rev. C. J. Fowler was the pastor, and in 1884 the Rev. John W. Adams was assigned to the place.
The society had long struggled with a considerable debt, in- curred when they purchased their house of worship in 1868, and Mr. Adams resolved to make a determined effort to pay it off. By the concurrent action of his church and society he was enabled to accomplish the desirable result, and on December 28, 1884, announced it to his society, on which occasion he delivered a discourse on the Centenary of Methodism.
In 1886 Mr. Adams was transferred to another scene of labor, and the Rev. C. N. Nutter succeeded to the Exeter charge.
TIIE ADVENT SOCIETY.
This society probably took its rise from the doctrine of the immediate second coming of Christ, preached by William Miller in the year 1842. It was chiefly made up of members of the Christian and the Methodist churches, who left their old commun- ions in the full faith that the end of the world was at hand. Of course when the time fixed for the final catastrophe came and went without the expected event, the faith of many was shaken, but a
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considerable part of the believers decided that a mistake in the time was no reason for rejecting any other tenet of their religion, and so have continued their regular worship in their chapel on Clifford street. Their views as to doctrines are much the same as those which were held by the " Christians," but of course the expected second advent of Christ is the prominent subject of interest with them, and their aim is to be constantly ready to welcome it.
THIE ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIETY.
The Catholic society of Exeter was organized in 1853 by the Rev. John McDonnell of Haverhill, Massachusetts. For some years it was small in numbers, and lacked the means to build a house of worship. There was no resident priest, and services were held only occasionally. But as the numbers increased a regular pastor was found necessary, and the Rev. J. Ph. Perrache was appointed in July, 1859. Meetings were held in the building on Centre street which had formerly served as the Universalist church. Father Perrache remained in Exeter something less than three years, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Bernard O'Hara, in the month of April, 1862.
The Rev. Canon Walsh assumed charge of the society in Decem- ber, 1865, and retained it about three years and a half, until the appointment of the Rev. M. C. O'Brien in June, 1869. His stay was very brief, and the Rev. Charles Egan followed him in November of the same year. Father Egan's residence was longer than that of either of his predecessors, and he did not give place to his snecessor, the Rev. Michael Lucy, until December, 1875. The next incumbent was the Rev. Jolin Power, who was placed in charge of the society in October, 1878, and was succeeded in Jannary, 1883, by the present pastor, the Rev. John Canning.
The society in 1868 erected their brick church in Centre street, and purchased the house adjoining, on the corner of Water street, for the residence of the pastor.
TIIE UNITARIAN SOCIETY.
The Unitarian society was formed in June, 1854. It was chiefly composed of members of the Second parish who entertained Uni- tarian opinions, and were not satisfied with the style of preaching
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there, and of the Universalists, whose society had declined in numbers and means. The new organization purchased the Uni- versalist church at the corner of Front and Centre streets, and there maintained their worship for the succeeding fourteen years. For nearly two years they had no settled minister, but were tem- porarily supplied ; though a considerable part of that time the Rev. Joseph Angier, a graduate of Harvard College in 1829, was their preacher.
On the twenty-fourth of April, 1856, the Rev. Jonathan Cole was installed as their pastor. After remaining about four years he asked his dismission, but was prevailed upon at the request of the society to remain for a year or two longer, until they could decide upon his successor. Mr. Cole was a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1825, and after he left Exeter removed to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he died in 1877.
In September, 1862, the society invited the Rev. John C. Learned, who had then just completed his course of study in Divinity School at Cambridge, to become their minister. He accepted the invitation and, after completing a tour in Europe, was ordained over them May 6, 1863. He retained the connection nearly six years and a half, when it was dissolved upon his appli- cation on account of the impaired condition of his health. After quitting Exeter he took up his residence in St. Louis, Missouri, where he still remains. During his pastorate the society acquired the strength and means to provide themselves with a new place of worship, and erected their present church on the corner of Maple and Elm streets.
His successor was the Rev. Edward Crowninshield (Harvard Divinity School, 1870), who was ordained over the society about the first of August of the same year. His health was found to be insufficient for the position, and he resigned it after a single year's labor.
Another year had nearly expired before his place was supplied by the Rev. Benjamin F. McDaniel, who received his theological education at the same school, in the class of 1869. His pastorate extended over a period of ten years and a half, but during that time he was twice compelled to ask for temporary leave of absence, to recruit his health by foreign travel. At length he was dismissed by his own desire, and after a short settlement in Salem, Massachusetts, he removed to the milder climate of San Diego, California. It was while Mr. McDaniel was in Exeter that the
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society built upon the lot adjoining the church their present parson- age house.
Mr. McDaniel was followed by the Rev. John E. Mande, a graduate of Harvard College, who was ordained October 9, 1883. His term of service lasted only one year, when he fell a victim to disease.
The Rev. Alfred C. Nickerson, a graduate from the Harvard Divinity School in 1871, is the present pastor, and assumed the office in the month of April, 1886.
THE EPISCOPAL SOCIETY.
The Episcopal society in Exeter dates from the year 1865. It originated with students of the Academy who had been brought up in that church, and wished to enjoy its services while pursuing their education. The Rev. Dr. (now Bishop) F. D. Huntington cordially secondled the movement and conducted the first service in the town hall, in July, 1865. In September following the parish of Christ Church was organized.
The next month the Rev. Dr. George F. Cushman, a graduate of Amherst College in 1840, took charge of the parish, and remained six months. Services were at first held in the town hall, and afterwards in the building on Centre street, originally used by the First Congregational society as a vestry.
The Rev. James Haughton, a native of Boston, and a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1860, succeeded Dr. Cushman, and under his rectorship the present church on Elliott street was built. The means for it, $12,500, were raised by the exertions of the indefatigable treasurer of the parish, Miss Caroline E. Harris, and of the rector. The church was ready for occupation at Christmas, 1867, and consecrated September 30, 1868, with no debt, and with free sittings.
After the resignation of Mr. Haughton, to take the charge of the new society in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Rev. Dr. Samuel P. Parker, an alumnus of Harvard College, succeeded to the rectorship. He remained two years, during which the society prospered and increased in strength. For some time after his departure there was no settled clergyman over the parish, but in July, 1872, the Rev. Henry Ferguson, a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, assumed the charge. In 1875 he obtained a year's leave of absence, and travelled
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abroad. During his absence the Rev. J. H. George had the charge of the parish. Mr. Ferguson resumed his duties, upon his return, and remained about two years longer. Afterwards he was for a time rector of the church in Claremont, and then received an appointment to the professorship of history, in his alma mater, which he still holds.
The Rev. George B. Morgan, also a native of Connecticut and an alumnus of Trinity College, was the successor of Mr. Fergu- son. His ministry extended over the period of eight years, when he resigned it, to take the rectorship of a church in New Haven.
The present rector is the Rev. Edward Goodridge, like his two immediate predecessors, born in Connecticut and educated at Trinity College. He began his labors in Exeter February 26, 1887. He had previously been stationed in Geneva, Switzerland in charge of the American church there.
MILITARY.
CHAPTER XI.
THE INDIAN AND FRENCH WARS.
ALTHOUGH under the laws of Massachusetts the people of Exe- ter had to maintain a watch-house and some show of an organized militia, yet until the year 1675 the place had never been made the object of any Indian hostilities. There must have been frequent intercourse between the whites and the aborigines, but their rela- tions were pacific and friendly. Possibly the precautions taken by the former contributed to maintain this tranquillity.
But in the year named an Indian war broke out, brief, but in some sections active and bloody. Philip, chief sachem of the Wampanoags, has the credit, or discredit, of being the instigator of the movement. His own people belonged in the southern part of New England, but he had the power and address to enlist some of the eastern tribes to make common cause with him. This was the less difficult, because some of them had grievances of their own to revenge.
Exeter was a frontier town, and necessarily suffered to some extent from the raids of the barbarous enemy. In the month of September, 1675, a party of savages made a descent upon the set- tlement of Oyster river, adjoining Exeter on the north, and burned two houses and killed four persons. They also made captives of two others, one of them "a young man from about Exeter " according to the historian, Hubbard, but whose name is unknown. By the aid of an Indian " better minded than the rest " he succeeded in giving them the slip, and returned to the garrison at Salmon Falls, after about a month's absence.
Four of the same party of Indians, probably, proceeded to Exe- ter, and made a prisoner of Charles Rundlet, an inhabitant of the town. He was left in the custody of one of their number, named James, whom he induced to connive at his escape. Rundlet was accidentally drowned at the mouth of Exeter river, nearly a quarter of a century later.
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The other three Indians, whose names were John Sampson, Cromwell and John Linde, placed themselves in ambush in the woods near the road leading to Hampton. Soon afterwards John Robinson, a blacksmith who had removed from Haverhill, Massa- chusetts, to Exeter in 1657, made his appearance, with his son, on their way to Hampton. The father, according to tradition, was carrying a warming-pan. The Indians fired from their Inrk- ing place upon them, and shot the elder Robinson dead .* The bullet passed through his body from back to front, and lodged just under the skin. The son, upon hearing the report of the guns, ran into a swamp where the Indians pursued, but could not over- take him. He reached Hampton about midnight and gave infor- mation of what had occurred.
Abont the same time that Robinson was shot, another Exeter man, John Folsom, was riding on horseback along the same road, driving a pair of oxen before him. He heard the report of the guns which gave Robinson his death wound, and presently dis- covered the three Indians creeping on their bellies towards him. He abandoned his oxen, put his horse to speed and made his escape, though it is said that one of the savages sent an ineffect- nal shot after him.
In October following the occurrences just related, the Indians made another incursion to Exeter, and killed one man near Lan- prey river. Several of them were seen about Exeter, and between Hampton and Exeter, where they killed one or two men in the woods as they were travelling homewards. The names of those slain have not been preserved. These outrages naturally terrified the people of the town and vicinity, and prevented them from attending to their daily business, or exposing themselves in any way to the rifle and the scalping-knife of the cruel and stealthy foe. Fortunately this outbreak of hostilities was of brief duration, and was ended in 1676 by the death of the chief fomenter of it, and Exeter experienced no further molestation at this time.
KING WILLIAM'S WAR.
Nearly fifteen years passed away before the Indians again took up the hatchet. They were then set on by the French in Canada, and the brunt of their attacks fell upon the border settlements of
* There seems to be an uncertainty exactly when this tragedy occurred. The record of the town gives the date as the twenty-first of October, 1675.
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New Hampshire and Maine. A terrible massacre was committed upon the settlers of Coehecho in 1689; but it was not until the succeeding year that Exeter was invaded. On the fourth of July, 1690, eight or nine white men went out to work in the field near Lamprey river, when a party of Indians fell upon them and slew them all, and departed, carrying with them a lad into captivity. The next day the enemy beset Captain Hilton's garrison in Exe- ter. Lieutenant Bancroft being then stationed in the town with a small force, at the distance probably of three or four miles, relieved the garrison, at the loss, however, of eight or nine of his party. It was of one of his men, Simon Stone * by name, that the wonderful preservation from death, after numerous and seemingly mortal wounds received on this occasion, is related by Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia.
On the sixth day of the same July, a severe conflict took place between two scouting companies under the command of Captains Floyd and Wiswall, and a large body of savages at Wheelwright's pond in Lee, in which thirteen of the whites were killed. The enemy then pursued their way westward, and within the period of one single week added at least fifteen more victims, slain between Lamprey river and Amesbury, Massachusetts, to those already enumerated, in their bloody raid. How many of these belonged in Exeter we have unfortunately no present means of ascertaining.
About June 9, of the next year, 1691, the Indians killed two men at Exeter, whose names are unknown.
In the latter part of the succeeding month of July, an expedi- tion was sent to the eastward against the Indian enemy, under the command of Captain March and others, and landed at a place called Maquoit, near Casco, on the coast of Maine. They were attacked by great numbers of the enemy, and Nathaniel Ladd, an inhabitant of Exeter, who was in the expedition, received a mortal wound, of which he died on the eleventh of August, following.
During the continuance of the Indian wars, Exeter, by reason of its exposed situation, needed to be garrisoned a large part of the time, not only for the protection of its own inhabitants, but as a bulwark against assaults upon the interior settlements. Sometimes the militia of other places were detailed for this duty, but most of the time, probably, the guard was composed of Exeter men. The records of their service are not now to be found, in
* Then or afterwards of Groton, Massachusetts.
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most cases, but a few have fortunately escaped destruction, to give us an idea of the trying experiences of the time.
The earliest that we can discover bears date March 17, 1693, and is as follows :
The soldiers under my command, quartered by the inhabitants of Exeter from the 1 day of December, 1692, to the 17 of March, 1692-3, the number is twenty and two, and two quartered at Mr. Andrew Wiggins, one of them since the arrival of their majesty's gevernment in this province, to the 17 March, 1692-3, the other quartered fifteen weeks in the aforesaid time.
per me, THOMAS THAXTER, Capt.
The above is a true account of the soldiers quartered by the inhabitants of Exeter.
JONATHAN THING, Capt.
In the year 1693 a truce was "patched up," as Belknap pithily expresses it, between the aborigines and the English, which was violated without scruple by the former in the following year .* But Exeter happily escaped any further attack until the month of July, 1695, when two men are recorded to have been slain there by the Indians. Like so many others who perished in the same man- ner, they are to us nameless.
The precept directed to the authorities of Exeter, November 2, 1695, for the election of assemblymen, contained also the order following :
You are required to give notice to the captain of your town that he stands upon his guard, the Indians being on the frontiers. WILLIAM REDFORD, Dpt.
Kinsley Hall was the captain of the first company of militia in Exeter, and from his return we learn that he lost no time in pro- viding for the emergency. He impressed men from time to time through the autumn and winter, and until April, 1696, requiring of each instalment about a month's service, as follows :
John Young, Sr., Jacob Smith, Alexander Gordon, Francis Steel and Job JJudkins, from November 4 to December 2, 1695.
Thomas Rollins, John Sinclair, Joshua Gilman, Edward Masry (?) and JJolin Judkins, from November 14 to December 12, 1695.
* By the massaere at Oyster river on July 18, 1794. On that occasion Exeter was ordered to furnish twenty men to range the woods in pursuit of the enemy, but no record of their servico is to be found.
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Edward Dwyer, Ebenezer Folsom, John Ficket, Jethro Pearson and Strong Horne, from December 2 to December 30, 1695.
Samuel Bean, Jeremy Conner, Edward Cloutman, Samuel Dol- loff and James Randlet, from December 12, 1695, to January 9, 1696.
John Bean, James Bean, Israel Smith, James Leavitt and Stephen Gilman, from December 30. 1695, to January 20, 1696.
Samuel Piper, Nicholas Smith, Nicholas Gihnan, Philip Spenlow and Moses Rollins, from January 9 to February 6, 1696.
William Graves, Clement Moody, Jonathan Smith and John Leavitt, from January 27 to February 24, 1696.
Francis Lyford, Biley Dudley, Alexander Magoon and Nathaniel Ladd, from February 6 to March 5, 1696.
Nicholas Gordon, James Young, Mark Stacy and William Powell, from February 24 to March 23, 1696.
Peter Folsom, from March 5 to April 2, 1696.
The whole account of the soldier's wages from November 5, 1695, to April 2, 1696, was £52, 16 s.
In addition to the above Exeter men whose tour of duty was in their own town, another, Jonathan Thing, served in the garrison at Oyster river, one month from April 2, 1696 ; and sixteen others were summoned to Oyster river for two days.
It appears, also, that Exeter furnished the garrison in the town through the spring and summer, and until November 9, 1696, as follows :
Job Judkins, Alexander Gordon, D- Meserve, Charles Rundlet, Armstrong Horne, Ebenezer Folsom, Francis Steel, John Gordon, Nathan Taylor and Richard Dolloff, from April 13 to August 3, 1696.
David Lawrence, Thomas Wilson, John Gilman, Israel Young, Richard Morgan, Jonathan Clark, Ephraim Folsom, Samuel Dudley, Job Judkins and David Robinson, from August 3 to August 31, 1696.
Charles Glidden, George Pearson, William Taylor, William Jones, George Gorly (?), Nicholas Norris, Alexander Gordon, Sr., Jonathan Wadleigh, Daniel Bean and Roger Kelly, from August 31 to September 28, 1696.
James Gilman, Philip Huntson, Philip Dudy, Jacob Smith, Moses Kimmning, Theophilus Smith, Jeremiah Gilman, Joseph Rollins, Benjamin Jones and Moses Norris, from September 28 to October 26, 1696.
Cornelius Leary, John Bean, Sr., James Gordon, Caleb Gilman, Jeremiah Bean, Abraham Folsom, William Scammon, Richard Morgan, Sr., Benjamin Taylor and Jonathan Robinson, from October 26 to November 9, 1696.
Moses Leavitt also served in the garrison at Exeter from July 28 to September 22, 1696.
unlo
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No lists of the Exeter soldiers in "King William's War," except those above given, have been found ; but these are enough to show that the daily life of the people was never wholly free from apprehension, and that there was no eraven spirit in the Exeter men of two centuries ago.
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