USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Wentworth > History of the town of Wentworth, New Hampshire > Part 12
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Between this date and June 18, 1865, there were various supplies, and at that time Rev. James C. Seagrave was engaged as pastor, which place he held until July 1, 1870, and was then released at his own request. Rev. T. W. May, from Andover Seminary, supplied the pulpit through July and August of that year.
In February, 1871, Rev. D. S. Hibbard, formerly of Ossipee, N. H., was engaged as stated supply for the remainder of the year, when he was recalled and remained as pastor until May, 1875, at which time Rev. George J. Pierce became pastor and held the position until May 1, 1878.
The church was then without a permanent pastor until January, 1880, when the services of T. W. Darling were secured. He served until May, 1883.
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
The church was then without a regular pastor until September 12, 1885, when Lucien C. Kimball was called as pastor after having served as supply for several months. He remained until August 29, 1886.
Again for a period of two years the church was without a settled pastor. On September 3, 1888, it was unanimously voted to ask Rev. T. W. Darling to return to Wentworth and he complied with the request, beginning his services January 1, 1889 and remaining one year.
In February, 1890, Rev. Edward J. Ross was called but remained only until December of that year, having received a call to East Jaffrey, N. H.
After another period of supply pastorates, Rev. J. S. Gove of Wilmot, N. H., accepted a call for one year, to begin May 29, 1892.
In June, 1893, Rev. E. D. Blanchard was called as pastor.
In December, 1894, a call was again extended to Rev. T. W. Darling, was accepted and he for the third time became pastor of the church. He remained until January, 1901. In March of that year a call was extended to Rev. Frank E. Mills. He accepted the call and remained until the close of the year 1905.
March 4, 1906, Rev. Henry A. Merrill of Atkinson, N. H., preached his first sermon, he having been hired for six months. At the end of that time he was
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asked to remain as pastor and on March 3, 1910, he sent his resignation, being ill at the time and unable to occupy the pulpit. It was voted to take no action on the matter until Mr. Merrill could be conferred with. He, however, was unwilling to reconsider, and his resignation was accepted. On May 15, 1910, the services of Rev. J. K. McClure of South Hanson, Mass., was secured, and he closed his work here September 29, 1912. There was no settled minister until May 1, 1913, when Rev. F. C. Bradeen accepted a call to the church, which he served as regular pastor until July, 1919, and for a supply for a short time following that date.
Until January, 1921, the church was without a regular pastor, the pulpit being filled by supplies and candidates. At this time the services of Rev. Andrew Forrest were secured, he remaining one year. His pastorate was followed by that of Rev. J. F. Scott, who remained until July, 1923.
On August 26, 1923, Rev. John G. Vance of Union occupied the pulpit as candidate, and on October 7, a call having been extended to him, he began his pastorate which terminated on October 1, 1927.
The history of the Universalist Society can in the absence of records be stated only in general terms.
We have already mentioned some of the members
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
who were influential and active at the time of or- ganization in 1837. For some years services were held regularly. As the years passed interest seemed to decline. By 1870 the service was the fourth Sunday of each alternate month.
It has been probably forty years since a Universal- ist service has been held in the church. Rev. H. S. Fiske, still remembered as an artist of ability, having executed several fine paintings, was perhaps the last clergyman of the Universalist faith to live in town.
During the existence of the Society the following ministers have occupied the pulpit at different times. Reverends
Hosea Ballou J. W. Moses H. S. Fiske
Sylvanus Cobb
J. W. Hansan J. S. Kidder
J. G. Adams
S. W. Squire S. A. Johnson
A. C. Thomas
T. Barron J. E. Palmer
F. Whitteman
Benj. M. Tillotson
Quillen H. Shinn
REV. INCREASE S. DAVIS
Rev. Increase Sumner Davis was born at Brook- line, Mass., May 6, 1797, son of Ebenezer Davis and Lucy Aspinwall.
He was named for General Increase Sumner, a brother of his great grandmother, of Revolutionary fame, and at that time governor of Massachusetts.
His brother, Thomas Aspinwall Davis, was elected mayor of Boston.
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REV. INCREASE S. DAVIS
Increase Sumner Davis married Nancy Cook of Brookline, Mass., on the 14th day of May, 1818. He attended school at Brighton, Mass., and later Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. United with the Congrega- tional Church of Newton, Mass., about 1821, becom- ing active in the church affairs under its pastor, Rev. Dr. Jonathan Homer, at whose request he went to Dorchester, N. H., in November, 1827. On May 20, 1828, he established a Congregational Church there, continuing as its pastor until June 19, 1833.
While at Dorchester he was asked to come to Wentworth, N. H., and establish a Congregational Church, which was done in September, 1830, and from May, 1831, to June 19, 1833, he divided his time between the two churches.
On June 20, 1833, he was installed as the first minister of the Congregational Church at Went- worth, the installation sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. Bouton of Concord, and continued as pastor until 1859, removing to Nevinville, Iowa, in 1860.
Mr. Davis was indeed "priest and king to his people " for a quarter of a century, and no needy one was ever turned away from his hospitable door, he being broad-minded and generous. Due largely to his influence the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad was built through Grafton County.
Near the close of Thanksgiving Day, November
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
24, 1864, at Fontanelle, Iowa, after morning service in the church, a social afternoon in his home with friends, without anticipation of change, he passed from time to eternity.
He was survived by his two sons, Ebenezer and Thomas Aspinwall Davis, who died without issue, and two daughters, Mary Wright, wife of Samuel Fellows of Wentworth, N. H., and Elizabeth A., wife of Peter L. Hoyt of the same place.
(The foregoing brief sketch of the town's best re- membered clergyman is the contribution of one of his descendants, the Hon. Thomas F. Clifford of Franklin, N. H.)
G. F. P.
MEETINGHOUSES - PAST AND PRESENT
One of the first organized efforts made by the people of the town was to provide a place where religious services could be held. This was equally true of the early settlers of most New England towns apparently. No community was so small, poor or indifferent, that they neglected to arrange for a meetinghouse of some kind within the town. Wentworth was no exception to this wholesome and all but universal custom.
In the year of 1789 the town "Voted to build a meetinghouse, provided it could be done without a tax to the town."
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MEETINGHOUSES - PAST AND PRESENT
This would indicate the first church was built entirely by private contributions, most of these contributions being no doubt in the form of either labor or material for the building.
The settlers in those days had very little money and the town probably even less.
Ebenezer Gove, John Aiken, Nathaniel White, Samuel Worcester and Gen. Absalom Peters were chosen as a committee to carry out the vote of the town. The committee began promptly to arrange for the building of the meetinghouse. They located the building very properly on the land donated the town in 1787 by Phillips White for use as a burying ground.
In this location, the committee only followed the ancient English custom of burying the dead near the church. The churchyards were almost always ceme- teries in olden times. As a matter of fact, interments, especially of the more noted, were often made inside the church walls.
The land given by Phillips White is now the village Common. The first meetinghouse was erected very nearly in front of the present Dr. Whipple house, and upon the Common.
The building itself was about 35 x 40 feet, of one story, with a hip, or four-sided roof. It had no spire, steeple, bell or belfry. There were two outside doors, one entrance being on the easterly, the other on the
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
southerly side. There is no record of a chimney or any provision for heat in the church. Inside, the church was finished in the standard fashion of those days. There was a lofty pulpit reached by a flight of stairs. There were box pews (called by the irreverent, sheep pens) and a large box pew for the singers.
Inside the pews the plank seats, or at least the most of them, were on hinges and folded up against the side of the pews when the congregation stood or kneeled. At the close of the prayer the seats were dropped back into place with great noise and clatter. No one had an excuse for being asleep during the service in this church. Perhaps this seating system has, after all, much merit. The few windows were small and placed high up in the walls of the church. It is unlikely the building was ever painted either inside or out.
Services were held here from time to time as often as the services of a preacher could be secured. The town refused to accept as a pastor of the Rev. Samuel Currier because he was a Baptist, and had no regular settled minister for many years. In 1806 a scalawag called the Rev. Andrew Harpenden was engaged at an agreed salary of $250 a year, which was apparently far more than he was worth. Har- penden in a short time ran away with his maid of all work, leaving his wife who seems to have been an
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MEETINGHOUSES - PAST AND PRESENT
estimable woman, with some very young children to be cared for by the townspeople. Doctor Thomas Whipple after moving to town preached occasionally in this church and received from the town pay for his services.
This church building was, in the year 1814, moved easterly off the Common and placed nearly in front of the present Wentworth Hotel. It stood on that site until April 4, 1828, when it, with several other build- ings then standing near where the present church now stands, were burned to the ground.
It might be of interest to add that one of the original building committee (Samuel Worcester) did not live to see the church completed, being acciden- tally killed in the woods in 1790.
The old meetinghouse had rather outlived its usefulness and was somewhat dilapidated and shabby. Steps had already been taken to arrange for a new and better building before the old one was burned.
The legislature had in 1827 passed an act of in- corporation reading as follows:
"Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., That Caleb Keith, Thomas Whipple, Jr., Jonathan Eames, John Page, John T. Sanborn, John Currier, Aaron Jewett, Jr., Enoch Page, Jr., and Moses Eaton, Jr., are hereby made a corporation named the WENT- WORTH MEETING HOUSE ASSOCIATION, for the sole purpose of erecting and repairing a meetinghouse, and to hold necessary land, etc., to a value not exceeding $5,000."
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
The incorporators met on Saturday, October 13, 1827, and organized. They voted to issue stock to the amount of $2,000. At a later meeting the amount of stock was increased to $3,000. The new church would no doubt have been built about on the site where the old one was placed after it was moved, but for the fire of 1828. The buildings having been burned, the way was cleared to build the new meetinghouse where it now stands, which is no doubt a better and roomier location.
Erection of the present building was begun in 1829 and it was a year or more in building.
The church stands today so far as the exterior is concerned in practically its original condition. It is a large, well proportioned building, a credit to its builders and an ornament to the village. The spire is tall and graceful and the sweet tones of the church bell have echoed throughout the valley for a hundred years. The bell was bought by public subscription. The townspeople were so pleased with the sound of this bell, that for several years after it was first hung in the belfry they paid a man to ring it. The interior of the church is of two stories and has been subjected to several alterations. The church as originally built consisted of the entry or vestibule, the auditorium and a spacious gallery. The stairs now leading to the church proper, led then to the galleries.
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MEETINGHOUSES - PAST AND PRESENT
The main floor of the church was on a level with the present vestibule floor, the main inner entrance being the present inner doors which admit to the old church hall or present chapel.
The church was high, spacious and imposing in the interior.
The pews on the main floor were the old style box pews and had a gate or door at the entrance. The seats in the gallery were not of the box type however.
In the westerly or village end was a huge box pew for the use of the choir; this would hold about thirty people; in the same end was the high, almost sky high pulpit. Two stoves furnished the heat.
In 1867 the interior of the church was rebuilt and made into two stories, the upper floor being used then as now for church purposes: the old box pews and high pulpit were replaced by those in use at the present time and some minor changes made, at an expense of about $2,100 at this time.
The lower story, or Church Hall as it was called, was remodeled about 1876. The floor was lowered about three feet, a stage built at one end and a kitchen fitted up under the stage. Town meetings were held in this hall for nearly forty years and until the townhouse was built. The hall was also used for public meetings, political rallies, lodge meetings and amateur theatricals for many years. The Grange was
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
organized and during the first part of its existence met regularly here. The Reform Club during the last years of its activity met here and was succeeded by a Lyceum Society, or debating club, which ran for several years. Public Christmas trees were set in the hall at different times in former years, an event eagerly awaited by the children of fifty years ago.
About 1910, during the pastorate of Rev. Henry A. Merrill, further changes were made in the church interior.
The singers' gallery was closed up and the choir and organ removed to the northeasterly corner of the church, a furnace was installed and the stoves removed.
Down stairs, the old Church Hall was partitioned off, making in the basement a chapel suitable for prayer meetings or parish meetings of any kind.
The building is still, as it always has been, in a sense public property, that is, it is not now and never was, the exclusive property of any denomination. It has been used at times by the different denomina- tions represented in town as their needs have re- quired, and is at the present time a church building dedicated to the use and benefit of any religious society in the town for services as occasion may require.
Mention has already been made of the church now
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MEETINGHOUSES - PAST AND PRESENT
upon Atwell Hill, near the schoolhouse. This was built largely by the efforts of the Wright family and Mrs. Xilpha Chase, for the use of the Free Will Baptists of the region.
It is still used as a chapel and for religious services whenever needed.
Rev. Arthur H. Sargent the present pastor at the village, has made frequent use of this Atwell Hill chapel.
He has also held many services in the Foster dis- trict schoolhouse for the benefit of those living in the south part of the town.
CHAPTER III
OF DOCTORS - OF LAWYERS
DOCTORS WHO HAVE LIVED AND PRACTISED IN TOWN
The first doctor who ever came to town was one THOMAS FOSTER, who arrived in 1792 and remained about two years. He lived upon the place later owned by William Moore.
Dr. DAVID GIBSON was the first physician who made a real contribution to the history of the town. He moved here probably in the year of 1798. During the first years of his residence he taught school in addition to attending to his medical practice.
Dr. Gibson was a prominent, useful and well re- spected citizen. He served as selectman three years, and represented Wentworth and Rumney in the legis- latures of 1807, 1809 and 1811. While in town he lived upon what was in later years the Joshua Foster place.
In 1814 Dr. Gibson moved to Rumney, remaining a citizen of that town, and in the active practice of his profession in that and the adjoining towns until
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A SUGAR CAMP
HIGH STREET
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DOCTORS
the end of his long and useful life. He was a kindly man who was greatly esteemed by the people among whom he passed all the active years of his life.
Dr. BENJAMIN KNOWLTON came from Dorchester in 1802, remaining in town until the end of his active and rather eventful career.
Dr. Knowlton can properly be classed as a physi- cian, hotel keeper, farmer, or the village sexton. He followed all these lines, and occasionally appears to have followed them all at the same time. His knowl- . edge of medicine was not exhaustive, and many stories have been told regarding some of his fearful and wonderful concoctions, given in liberal doses without regard to age, sex, color or social standing.
In the year 1804 he built and opened a public house, on the main street of the village, fronting the Common. This was the beginning of the old village hotel. The building erected by Dr. Knowlton was later greatly enlarged and a second story added to it. Having served as the main village hotel for eighty-five years, it was finally destroyed by fire in 1890.
Dr. Knowlton later built and occupied the large three story house located near the upper end of the common, known to our generation as the Deacon Dean house. This was, so far as the writer is aware, the only three-story house ever built in town. It was a fine looking, spacious, well proportioned building
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
with a handsome front porch, and shaded by large, flourishing maples.
The house was always well kept up and was an ornament to the village. Dr. Knowlton also had for many years a farm on the East Side, where he kept quite a large stock. He seems to have been a stirring and substantial citizen who received much benefit from his medical practice. Possibly his patients may have benefited also.
Dr. Knowlton died sitting in his chair without previous warning. His wife died some two years later and almost as suddenly. Both are buried in the ceme- tery at the village.
The year of 1814 marked the arrival in town of one destined to exert a very great influence in the public as well as the private affairs of the citizens, and who eventually became a person of much consequence, not only in the frontier township which he had chosen for his home, but throughout the state, and from the fact that later he was a member of Congress from New Hampshire for eight successive years, became, it may fairly be said, a figure of national importance.
Dr. THOMAS J. WHIPPLE was born in Lebanon, N. H., in 1787 and received his education in the common schools; he also attended an academy for a short time. He studied medicine with Dr. Ezra Bartlett of Warren for about two years, and then ,
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went to Hanover, N. H., for the purpose of com- pleting his medical education. While at Hanover he was a student of Dr. Nathan Smith of that town. After attending lectures at the Dartmouth Medical College, he received his diploma August 4, 1810. In the meantime he acquired a knowledge of the classics and could in later years quote from memory most of Virgil, also freely from Milton and Shakespeare.
Dr. Whipple practised medicine a short time at Bradford, Vt., and moved to Warren in 18II. He held town office in Warren and was prosperous there, but decided to locate in Wentworth permanently and came here with his family in 1814 and remained the rest of his life. He shortly assumed in Wentworth a position of leadership and retained it to the time of his death. The life of a country doctor having an extensive practice in a scattered community was and is a laborious one. But Dr. Whipple found time to do much more than that. He became the political leader of the entire region. He represented Wentworth in the legislature in 1818, 1819 and 1820, where his influence was such that he secured in 1819, the passage of the so-called "Toleration Act." His part in promoting the passage of this much discussed and far reaching piece of legislation, has hardly been understood or appreciated, even by the people of his own town. Briefly, the situation was as follows:
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
Previous to 1819 the settled minister of any town or parish was to all intents and purposes a town official. His salary, or at least the most of it, was paid by the town and raised by taxation as a part of the taxes assessed therein. As it happened a large ma- jority of the inhabitants in the state were Congrega- tionalists, hence the ministers were almost entirely of that faith. There were, however, in the state many Baptists, Methodists and members of other sects, and also doubtless, then as now, those of no pro- fessed religious belief. These people had long chafed and complained because of the fact they were com- pelled to pay taxes for the support of churches to whose doctrines they did not subscribe, and to which they felt they owed no allegiance.
. No doubt in many localities the law was by tacit agreement not enforced, but in many other towns attempts to enforce it led to bitter complaint and organized resistance in some cases, as witness the dispute in Plymouth, when in 1777 and several years thereafter many citizens, among them some of the most prominent men of the town, who had embraced the Baptist faith, paid their tax under protest, and finally refused to pay at all. Without going further into the details of that unhappy controversy, it is sufficient to say, that in 1780 the town of Plymouth voted, "All persons of the Baptist principles, who are
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not inclined to hear Mr. Ward, be excused from ministerial taxes." Similar action was taken in other disputed cases.
The law remained, however, in full force, and all efforts to repeal it aroused violent, bitter and deter- mined opposition. Bills looking to its repeal got very scant support in the House and still less in the state Senate. Finally in 1819, after some fifty years of agitation, the issue was made when Dr. Whipple in the legislature of that year introduced the famous "Toleration Act," so called, and advocating its passage by many able and eloquent speeches, finally carried the measure through and it became a law.
By its terms, all denominations in New Hampshire were placed upon an equality, and every person was free to support preaching or not as he might feel disposed.
That Dr. Whipple was right in his contention for what is in effect religious freedom for the individual, is established by the fact that in the more than one hundred years elapsed since the Toleration Act was passed, no serious attempt has been made to repeal it, and beyond question any attempt looking to its repeal at the present time would receive very scant consideration.
The prestige and popularity of Dr. Whipple at this period is evidenced by the fact that in 1821 he was
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HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
elected to Congress and reëlected in 1823, 1825 and 1827, serving in Congress four full terms, eight years in all, a longer period of service than any man from New Hampshire had enjoyed up to that time. In Congress he was active and influential.
In his profession of medicine he was rated as a physician of exceptional skill, his practice extending over a large territory and even going to towns in Vermont. He had pleasing and easy manners and was noted for his witty and entertaining style. For some years he was, able in addition to many other duties to carry on the business of corresponding secretary of the Grafton County Agricultural Society; and also in the militia of New Hampshire reached the grade of brigade aide de camp. His standing as a medical man is established by his service as president of the Grafton District Medical Society which in- cluded about all of northern New Hampshire.
Dr. Whipple was married first to Phoebe Tabor of Bradford, Vt., and second to Priscilla Pierce of Royalton, Vt. By the first wife there were children as follows: Alonzo A., born February 27, 1811; Thomas J., born January 30, 1816; Walter G., born in Novem- ber, 1818; Caroline B., born April 1, 1820. Of some of these children more will be said later on.
Dr. Whipple was a talented and versatile man of great natural ability. It is said of him that he could
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DOCTORS
and sometimes did, in the absence of a minister, con- duct the religious services in the village church, and could preach an excellent sermon.
He died January 23, 1835, in his forty-eighth year and is buried at the village. His plain marble head- stone bears the simple inscription "Dr. Thomas J. Whipple, 1787-1835." It will probably be the verdict of history that his death marked the passing of a leading citizen of the region in which he lived, and Wentworth's greatest man.
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