USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Jaffrey > History of the town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, from the date of the Masonian charter to the present time, 1749-1880 : with a genealogical register of the Jaffrey families, and an appendix containing the proceedings of the centennial celebration in 1873 > Part 43
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Coming upon the platform at the call of the chairman, Mr. Foster said,-
Every child, youth, man, and woman ; every settlement, society, village, partnership, and business ; every family, tribe, nation, country, and government, has a history. In the lifetime of every individual, settlement, country, and kingdom, there are various epochs of greater or less impor-
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tance. Jaffrey, as a town, has had various epochs, among which are the pioneer, agricultural, ministerial, religious, educational, business, and mechanical. To-day, in her his- tory, this celebration marks the one hundredth epoch. In the work assigned, I am called to speak for the ministerial department in the life of Jaffrey's hundred years.
"The clergy of Jaffrey" is my subject. Here allow me to say, I would that the work assigned me, on this impor- tant and ever-to-be-remembered occasion, had been given to other and abler hands, that the lessons of our life may sink deeper into the character of Jaffrey's coming children for devotion and consecration than it is possible for me to impress and inspire.
But the noble soldier puts on his armor and takes the place assigned him. Thus I remark, first, from a competent person I have an extract from the records of Jaffrey, which is as follows, viz .: "28 Sept., 1773, Voted £6 Lawful money, to support preaching. 26 April, 1774, Voted £6 Lawful money, to support the Gospel. 13 April, 1775, Voted £6 Lawful money, to support the Gospel. 27 March, 1777, Voted £50 Lawful money, to support the Gospel. 26 March, 1778, Voted £100 Lawful money, to support the Gospel. 10 June, 1778, the Committee agreed with Mr. Isaac Allen to supply us. 3 Sept., 1778, the Committee omit giving Mr. Allen a call for the present. Sept. 3, 1778, Voted £50 for preaching. 11 Nov., 1778, Voted to hear Mr. Reed until special meeting. 25 March, 1779, Voted £200, to support the Gospel. I Nov., 1779, Voted to hear Mr. Stevens for all supply this fall. I Nov., 1779, Voted to have Mr. Colby come by Ist March next. 7 June, 1780, Voted to hear Mr. Jewett more on probation, in order to give him a call. 29 March, 1781, Voted not to hire Mr. Walker this year. 16 August, 1781, Voted to hire Mr. Goodale two more Sabbaths. 27 December, 1781, Voted to hear Mr. Ainsworth. 8 July, 1782, Voted to give him a call."
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Foremost, longest, and fullest upon the ministerial record of Jaffrey stand the labors of the long-to-be-remembered pastor, Rev. Laban Ainsworth. This ministerial pioneer was born at Woodstock, Conn., July 19, 1757. At about seven years of age an accident resulted in his losing his right arm and hand. He was educated and fitted for col- lege under Nathaniel Tisdale, of Lebanon, Conn., "a man of considerable pedagogical capability, and of much petulant erascibility." These last facts, modified by the last word, are from Mr. Ainsworth's own language, in reply to some questions presented by a friend. Mr. Tisdale fitted him for Harvard college; but his father said, " To avoid the British, go to Dartmouth, in the woods." He entered Dartmouth in 1775, and graduated in 1778. He studied theology with Rev. Stephen West, D. D., of Stockbridge, Mass., and soon after preached about two years in Spencertown, on the Hudson river; then served from four to six months as chaplain in Major McKinistry's corps.
We find from the record that the church in Jaffrey was organized May 18, 1780, and that a committee from the town met Mr. Ainsworth on commencement day at Dart- mouth, in 1781, and engaged him to preach ; and he began the same summer. He was ordained the first minister in the town of Jaffrey, N. H., Dec. 10, 1782.
On December 4th, 1787, he married the daughter of Jonas Minot, of Concord, Mass., with whom he lived happily and successfully over fifty years ; and labored as the minister of the First Congregational church and parish of Jaffrey for over half a century.
On the IIth of January, 1832, he received Rev. Giles Lyman as his colleague, with whom he lived pleasantly for a number of years. He died March 16, 1858, after a life of an hundred years, and a ministry of about seventy-five years in all. The portraits which hang to-day in the parlor of his old home are excellent representations of him and his wife when they were about seventy-five years of age. His
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dress was thoroughly clerical black, single-breasted coat and waistcoat, black small-clothes, black worsted stockings, shoes, knee-buckles, and shoe-buckles. In his advanced years his long white hair and his courtly manners made him a perfect representative of his class. As a preacher, he was very simple in manner and matter ; his voice was remark- ably strong, clear, and sonorous, his enunciation distinct, and his language pure Saxon-English. In his religious views he was dogmatic and radical, and much of a doctrinal preach- er, holding to the Calvinistic theology as taught by Dr. Edwards. His sermons were seldom if ever written out in full. They were on paper, mere briefs, and very few of these remain. [The only remaining one was here presented to the sight of the assembly. Its subject was an argument against final restoration.] His sermons were very short, seldom exceeding twenty-five minutes. His pulpit services consisted of a hymn, a short prayer, reading of scripture, hymn, the long prayer, the sermon, and then the benedic- tion. His preaching and ministerial labors produced the usual amount of conviction and conversion. He must have attended about three thousand funerals, the services of which consisted generally of an address to the mourners, with an opening and closing prayer. A wedding service he opened with prayer, then he gave the legal point, and lastly the address to the man and wife. As a politician, he was a Federalist, like Washington and Jefferson. In a later day he acted with the Whig party. On Fast days he usually gave his people something of a political discourse. As a . friend of education, he usually appeared in most of the dis- trict schools during their closing days, but did not often fraternize much with the children and youth of the town. As a man and a minister, he commanded the respect and esteem of all classes. As one of the " Mystic Tie," he re- ceived this lamb-skin [here the original lamb-skin received at his initiation as a Mason was exhibited] or white leather apron, which is an emblem of innocence, and a badge more
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honorable than the star and garter, or any other order that can be conferred on the candidate at any time by king, prince, potentate, or any other person except a brother Mason. By this lamb-skin he was continually reminded of that purity of life and conduct which is essentially neces- sary to his gaining admission to the supreme temple above. Thus, being born when George IId was his king, and in the time of Louis XVth of France, Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Clement XVIth of Rome, his life covered vol- umes of history.
[Several anecdotes were here related of the worthy divine, which extensively stirred the risibilities of the great assem- bly.]
The next ministerial record, and the first of Jaffrey's born sons to the ministry, is that of Rev. Robertson Smiley, born at Jaffrey ; graduated at Dartmouth, 1798. He was the settled minister of the First Congregational church of Springfield, Vt., from a very early date, and died at that place in 1856, after a long, laborious, and noble ministry.
Rev. Levi Spaulding was born at Jaffrey, August 22, 1791 ; graduated at Dartmouth college, 1815 ; studied divin- ity at Andover, Mass .; and went, as a Congregational mis- sionary, to Ceylon in 1819. Here, with one exception of a visit of three years to the United States, he spent his life and labors in the Master's vineyard. He did much valuable work in a series of school-books, the compiling of a diction- ary, and the translation of the Bible into the native tongue of Ceylon. He died June 18, 1873, after a long life of noble Christian warfare.
Rev. Luke Ainsworth Spofford, born at Jaffrey, Nov. 5, 1786, was fitted for college under Rev. Laban Ainsworth, his pastor, and Rev. Dr. Payson, of Rindge, N. H. He graduated at Middlebury college, Vt., in 1816. He studied divinity at Andover, Mass. ; was first settled at Gilmanton, then at Brentwood, Lancaster, and Atkinson, N. H., then filled the office of missionary for some time, and afterwards
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labored for years in the missionary field of the Western states, and died at Rockport, Ind., Sept. 27, 1855. Earnest- ly and devotedly he spent his life for man's salvation, and left an excellent record as a faithful minister of Christ.
Rev. Alvah Spaulding was born at Jaffrey, Sept. 9, 1807 ; graduated at Amherst, 1832 ; studied divinity at Andover, Mass .; was settled at Cornish, N. H., where he remained from twenty to thirty years ; was then installed at Weath- ersfield, Vt .; and died May, 1868.
Rev. James Howe was born at Jaffrey ; graduated at Dartmouth college in 1817 ; studied divinity at Andover, Mass., and was settled at Pepperell, Mass., where he spent his life as a faithful, devoted, and esteemed minister of the Congregationalists, and died in 1840, aged forty-three.
Rev. Henry Shedd, born at Jaffrey ; graduated at Dart- mouth college in 1826; studied theology at Andover, Mass., and has spent nearly his entire life as a home missionary in the Western states, as a Congregationalist.
Rev. Adonijah Cutter, born at Jaffrey ; studied divinity at Bangor Seminary, Me., and settled in the ministry of the Congregationalists, at Strafford, Vt., in June, 1840. Here he spent a ministry of ten years. Then, for a time, minister at Hanover, N. H., being dismissed in 1857. He was soon after settled at Nelson, N. H., where he died in a short time, leaving a life of devotion and faithfulness.
Rev. - - Jaquith, born at Jaffrey ; became a self- taught minister of the Baptist denomination in Maine, do- ing a good work, and is to-day in the field of missionary labor.
Rev. William Dutton, born at Jaffrey, in 1815 ; fitted for college at Melville academy ; entered Brown University, at Providence, R. I., in 1839, and graduated in 1842, with much honor. He taught school several years at Kalamazoo, Mich., and died in 1846, aged thirty years. For this noble man, and promising minister for the Baptist denomination, too much cannot be said. Intensely industrious and studi-
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ous, an honest and lively thinker, a devoted Christian, he went down to an early grave, honored and beloved by all who knew him. Many on earth held his memory above price, and in glory did he pass to the spirit land to receive the unfading crown from the hand of the blessed Master.
Rev. Andrew O. Warren, born at Jaffrey ; prepared for the study of divinity at Melville academy ; entered on his theology course with J. V. Wilson in 1838, and completed it with Rev. Charles Woodhouse, of Westmoreland, N. H., in 1840, and the same year entered the ministry of the Uni- versalists. He has been located at McDonough, Upper Lisle, and Smithville, N. Y., then at Montrose, Pa., where, and in the region, he has been actively engaged in the min- istry since 1849. In 1860 he began the study of law : was admitted to the bar of Susquehanna county court in 1862, and to the supreme court in 1865. And yet he has been continually in the Master's vineyard saving souls, and on week-days in the world, stoutly contending for the salvation of men's wills from the ruins of avarice and self.
Rev. E. S. Foster, born at Jaffrey, September, 1821 ; was a student at Melville academy, Lawrence academy of Grot- on, Mass., and closed his academic education at Keene, N. H., in 1843. From this time till 1849, he labored in the mercantile business, and in September of this year he en- tered the study of divinity with Rev. O. A. Skinner, D. D., of New York, completing the course in about four years. Af- ter much sickness, he was ordained in June, 1855, at South Hartford, Washington county, N. Y., where he first settled. He has labored in Abington, Mass., Cuttingsville and Ches- ter, Vt., at Claremont, N. H., at Middletown, Conn., and is now an active minister of the Universalist denomination at Winchester, N. H.
Thus much, in brief, of the history of Jaffrey's sons who have filled no ignoble place in the Christian ministry, as each has understood Christ and his scheme of salvation. I feel sure that they will compare favorably, in body, talent,
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and labor, with the same number of ministers selected from any town of equal population in New England.
Here allow me a few words for our calling, and I am done. I believe it can be shown that the ministry of Chris- tianity in the various denominations has done more to make Jaffrey, in the life and character of her citizens, than all other influences combined.
Think, for a moment! Here is the intellect that, a few years ago, in feebleness and helplessness, nestled in its par- ent's arms, and could not utter the word " mother," but to- day can survey broad acres, build and furnish the gorgeous home, rear and finish the lofty temple, plan and perfect cities, make and defend empires, girdle the earth in a few moments with its thought, and leave character behind which shall be a missionary of blessed life. We to-day are what our parents and the Christian ministry have made us.
Here fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, are our children, which all the wealth and empires of earth cannot purchase, and for whom you will give the last dollar, yea, and your life also, to defend from the grave. And they are in your hands, and the Christian ministry, to mould and educate, to tune and tone, for nobleness and virtue in the world, and to prepare for the ineffable scenes of the incor- ruptible life.
Who among you can estimate the intellect of your child, -its probabilities and its possibilities in the coming days of earth ? Remember, all history teaches us that depres- sion, misfortune, and slavery cannot break it ; ambition, em- pire, and enormous riches and rule cannot conquer it ; and the longest life and best culture cannot fill the compass of its desire, or satisfy its capabilities.
This restless spirit, this irrepressible mind of your child, is to-day for your shaping as clay in the potter's hand. What stamp are you putting upon it ! Is it that of mort- gage bonds and government scrip, that will petrify the heart, and curse with avarice and the long train of woes the com-
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ing generations ? or, is it the stamp of an honest and Chris- tian life of industry, that will charm the coming individuals in the grandest of all characters,-the life that is Christ to live? Oh ! what a gift is your child! What a gem of priceless value is its intellect, given to you as the artist who is to set it ! And are you setting it ? Are you setting it in the gilt of fashion and popularity, in game and Sabbath- breaking, vainly supposing that the canker of remorse will not consume it ? Are you setting it in the rough of profan- ity and avarice, idly assuming that the fires of retribution will not destroy it? or, are you setting it in virtue, cultiva- tion, and spiritual refinement, and under ministerial toning, feeling assured that God renders to every man according to his deeds ?
Forget not, I pray you, that a single man made the French nation nominally all infidel, and another made them all warriors. A Carthaginian general put his little boy of ten years upon the altar of his country and made him swear to be Rome's eternal enemy ; and he was such until he sunk into the grave.
Now, if such a mighty power lies dormant in your child, mould it to make the coming Jaffrey, or some other town, to war forever against ignoble character ; and on the altar of humanity make that child to affirm understandingly that it will be the eternal enemy of all sin, depravity, and crime.
Remember the fact : here is a common-school teacher, the most of whose students, as they went from his hands to the business world, have been unfortunate in health and worldly matters. Here is another, most of the students of whom were sent into practical life, have been successful and hap- py, enjoyed much health, and occupied high positions.
How important, then, to have the right education ! What a need to have the best instruction toned into your children by a live, consecrated teacher, inspired by an energetic min- istry !
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Make the culture-whether from the school-room or the pulpit-so perfect, so entertaining and instructive, that all the families around it shall be drawn to it, as all the vege- table world is drawn up into life, beauty, and worth by the sun. Into this cause should we collect all the stores of human learning, and reduce them to one rational, charming, and useful body of science, of active business, and of hon- est, ambitious character, that shall be as light to those in darkness, as water to the thirsty, as bread to the hungry, and as life to the dead.
And the whole should be put under an affectionate, so- cial, and instructive ministry, that can fondle the darling child, stimulate and tone heavenward the fiery youth, and inspire the young man to cut his name on humanity in the noblest deeds of an honest calling. Then make its devo- tion in righteousness and labor so intense and permeating that it will assimilate or annihilate the world of evil.
A celebrated painter of Italy was once asked by a friend why he spent so much time and labor in the study of the arts and sciences ; why he visited all Europe, the halls and galleries of all nations, and studied all the best paintings, and then came home and toiled day and night in mixing and applying colors so attentively to the canvas. He re- plied, " I am painting for eternity."
Oh! could every parent, teacher, and minister understand this statement of the artist ! But his picture, from the long years of study, toil, and suffering,-what is it compared with your child ? Yet Raphael could spend a lifetime and a world of treasure on it! And Michael Angelo could ex- haust all his powers and the income of a nation to finish that picture !
Cannot you spend a few years to educate that child ? Cannot you give your influence and income to have and aid an intensely anxious and vital ministry, and leave a few pictures in the galleries of that child's memory and spirit that will inspire many a lost one from sin and death to
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redemption and peace, and so leave your name where it will never die ?
Plutarch gives us a learned dissertation on the single Greek word " er" found inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. In the Ionic dialect, we are told, it means "I wish." This perfectly expressed the state of mind of all who entered the temple on the business of consultation. And an ancient scholar of great worth assumes that it is the initial word of a celebrated line in the third book of the Odyssey, and stands there as signifying the whole line, which is thus rendered, viz., "O that the gods would em- power me to obtain my wishes !"
O that there was some such initial word in our mother tongue, that could be inscribed over every church door, the rendering of which should be this, viz., O that God would empower me to obtain my wishes for my child!"
But further. Back of all this needed culture, and around it, lie the purpose and effort, the will and energy and learn- ing, of the clergy. And for years, as a town's committee, Mr. Ainsworth held the school-teachers in his hand ;- and who shall say to-day how much of our life, capability, integ- rity and prudence, energy and will-power, emanated from that noble and heroic minister ! I may be presumptuous, but I firmly believe that the clergy who are in this world, not to be ministered unto but to minister, hold a position to which there is no other paramount. And to stimulate you up to its importance, worth, and influence, I will interrogate you. What, in Barbary and in a servitude worse than Southern slavery, would be woman's condition, if the Chris- tian ministry had never existed ? If it had never existed, where would be our homes and children, and our hopes of the life to come? Without the Christian ministry, how conceive and support a free and enlightened government ? Without the ministry of the divine word, how would you make, mould, and educate its legislators and judges ?
You study this subject, and it will be seen that our gov-
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ernment-the best this side of heaven, and founded on God's impartial rule-could not carry out its principles,- could not secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to man,-without the ministry-the preaching of the gos- pel. Without the Christian clergy, men could not be qual- ified to respect constituted authorities and administer laws. Without the ministry, man is not capable of self-gov- ernment. Without the ministry of the gospel, kingdoms and nations could not be kept from the inroads of passion, taint, corruption, and ruin. Sodom and Gomorrah, Nine- veh and Babylon, Egypt and Jerusalem, Greece, Carthage, and Rome, attest, with overwhelming evidence, the awful consequences, in their complete destruction, of rejecting the ministry of patriarchs and prophets, of Christ and the apos- tles.
Thus we see that the richest, proudest, and most culti- vated nations, with all their forts and navies, with all their schools, arts, and sciences, have been swept from the face of the earth, because they refused the preaching of the great and good who were sent unto them. Remove a nation's honor, justice, and virtue, which are the results of preach- ing and sanctuary privileges, and you take away every band that can hold her together, and remove all the elements of her life.
A Christian clergy educate into society all her convictions and understandings of moral obligations and accountability. They lift men to clear conceptions of duty to themselves, to those around them, and to God, and thus hold society in compact and contract. The Christian clergy are the con- quering and aggressive forces on infidelity, and the absorb- ing army of all idolatry and its baleful effects. The gospel ministry imparts the needed means and grace required by all men to escape death and acquire life,-to pass from the ruins and woes of earth to the orders and joys of blessed character. Preaching bears away our iniquity, absorbs all sin and evil, cleanses the spirit, renews the affections, bears
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all men from darkness to light, and makes man at-one-ment with God. Through ministering, Christ made his disciples the light of the world. And the clergy have borne on that light which lighteth every man that cometh, and which is pressing every person with the necessity of repentance and regeneration. They aid, increase, and vitalize the informa- tion about the resurrection, which inspires all men to a higher life. The gospel ministry imparts the light and truth and intuition which cannot be read from books, can- not be discovered in the best composition, cannot be ren- dered by the ablest stenographer, cannot be written by the most versatile genius possessed with the most copious vo- cabulary. Never forget, then, that it was the living soul in what Demosthenes said that moved the Athenians ; it was the immortal spirit in the utterances of Cicero that thrilled the senate ; it was the flashing of undying light in the eye and mien of Patrick Henry that held our fathers spellbound at the birth of liberty ; it was the soul of Paul in the intense, concentrated, and burning truths, flashing out and shimmer- ing in lines of fire, by which the great apostle entranced the wisdom and learning of Rome and Athens. And it is the eye and the spirit and the light of the clergy which are required to combine and concentrate and intensify the doc- trines, the precepts, and the examples of Christ, until you are swept into purity, into symphony with peace, with spirit- ual passion and power, and the energies of everlasting life.
In such an hour of endless impressions souls are born, affections renewed, hearts regenerated, and all of society moves up from barbarism to God and Christ. In such an hour the clergyman is no longer a preacher merely, but humanity itself,-trampled, torn, bleeding, yet beautiful,- starting one glorious moment in her terrible ruin, with her hand lifted to the blue heavens over her heroic dead, and affirming her great oath in the elemental life that is Christ to live.
I would bear to you at last, then, in the urn of remem-
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brance, ashes from the fires of the wondrous dead, to inten- sify your sense of the importance and worth of the Christian clergy of the past and of to-day.
May you work for and with them, as you would wish to have done when you look back on earth and the loved ones you leave behind : then will you receive in some measure the glorious answer of life's great prayer. And when you come to the congregation of silence,-
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