USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Jaffrey > Jaffrey centennial : proceedings of the centennial celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Jaffrey, N.H., August 20, 1873 > Part 7
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One of your early settlers, who, on his bridal "tour, about a century ago, brought his wife to a log cabin in the wilderness in an ox cart, with her spinning wheel and other marriage outfit, raised in this cabin eleven children.
And these large families were beehives of industry and no drones were allowed in the hive. Father, mother, sons and daughters worked and sometimes more than ten hours each day.
There is not an honored descendant of these families here to- day who does not in all sincerity acknowledge himself more in- debted for such measure of honor and success as has attended him on life's battle field, to the lessons and habits of industry and frugality, inculcated in the old home than to all other caus- es and influences combined.
John Conant, when, with matchless industry, perseverance and economy, he was laying the foundations of that wealth which has enabled him to endow your High School, a Seminary and an Agricultural College so munificently, gaining for himself an hon- ored and illustrious name among the benefactors of his race, was largely indebted to the industry and frugality of his wife.
There is not a good thing that marks your progress during the century, -a school, a church, a library, or a reform, -that has not been largely fostered and helped onward by the labors and sacrifices of the mothers and daughters. Now, the school-masters having mostly gone abroad, almost the entire education of your children is committed to the daughters and no one doubts that they will be faithful to their responsibility.
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The mothers and daughters have not at any time in the cen- tury been wanting in the exhibition of an exalted patriotism.
In the Revolutionary war they bravely sent their husbands to the front and remained at home faithful and devoted to their families, adding often to the labors of the household the labors of the field.
In the war of the Rebellion the mother heroicly severed the tie that bound her to her son and sent him forth to the service of his country with her prayers and benediction, and side by side with the recruiting station, organized the Soldiers' Aid So- cieties, the springs of the Sanitary Commission, the Good Sa- maritan of the war.
There is not a son of Jaffrey who has come up here from his home in another State to revisit the scenes of his childhood and live over in imagination his boyhood days, who does not bring in his heart some tribute of gratitude and respect for the mother who bore him, - who cradled him in her arms, - taught his in- fant lips to lisp his morning and evening prayer, and, as he grew into boyhood, patched his trowsers, washed his face, comb- ed his hair and sent him to school on a week day, and bade him " mind the master, learn his lesson and bring home the medal ;" and on Sunday, took him with her to church and made him read the Bible and say the catechism ; and later, as he ripened into young manhood and manifested a love for learning, with gentle persuasion, influence the puter-familias to sell his cow, or yoke of oxen, to raise money to send him to college, - then with assidu- ous toil carded with her own hands the rolls, spun and dyed the thread, and on the old hand-loom, located up in the old attic to be out of the way of interruption, wove the fabric and then fash- ioned and sewed the suit in which her son entered the Academy or College.
And this is no fancy picture for the man still lives and will address you here today who entered Dartmouth College in a suit of home-spun manufactured entirely by his mother.
Many of these mothers still live to grace and honor this as- sembly with their presence, but many have passed away and been borne to their resting places in your village cemetery, and
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to many a son those beautiful lines of Cowper, addressed to his mother's picture, have come home with peculiar power. 1
"My mother, when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed ? Hovered thy spirit over thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun ! I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day ; I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, And, turning to my nursery window, drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu."
Many a son of Jaffrey has wept a last adieu at the grave of his mother, but her love and affection will hallow his latest as his earliest memory.
But I am admonished to close by the consciousness that the time of this occasion belongs to your own sons and not to me.
I give you as a sentiment in closing : - " The Mothers of Jaf- frey ; Models of Industry, Piety and Frugality ;- May their Daughters emulate their Mothers' Virtues.
SENTIMENT No. 9 .- "The Clergy of Jaffrey." Response by Rev. E. S. Foster, of Winchester, N. H.
Coming upon the platform at the call of the Chairman, Mr. Foster said: - "Every child, youth, man and woman, every set- tlement, society, village, partnership and business, every family, tribe, nation, country and government has a history. In the life-time of every individual, settlement, country and kingdom, there are various epochs of greater or less importance. Jaffrey, as a town, has had various epochs, among which are the pioneer, agricultural, ministerial, religious, educational, business and me- chanical.
Today, in her history, this Celebration marks the one hun- dredth 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 that the work assigned me in this important and ever to be remembered occasion, had been given to other and abler hands, that the lessons of our life may sink deeper in- to the character of Jaffrey's coming children for devotion and consecration, than it is possible for me to impress and inspire.
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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 fol- lows, viz :- " 28 Sept., 1773, Voted £6 Lawful money, to sup- port preaching. 26 April, 1874, 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 pres- ent. 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. 1 Nov., 1779, Voted to hear Mr. Stevens for all supply this fall. 1 Nov., 1779, Voted to have Mr. Colby come by 1st 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. Ains- worth. 8 July, 1782, Voted to give him a call."
Foremost, longest, and fullest upon the ministerial record of Jaffrey, stands 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 7 years of age an accident resulted in his losing his right arm and hand. He was educated and fitted for college under Nathaniel Tisdale, of Leb- anon, Conn., -" a man of considerable pedagogical capability. and of much petulant eracibility." 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. Ste- phen 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 Maj. Mc- Kinistry's Corps.
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We find from the record that the Church in Jaffrey was or- ganized May 18th, 1780, and that a committee from the town met Mr. Ainsworth on Commencement Day at Dartmouth, in 1781, and engaged him to preach; and he began the same sum- mer. He was ordained the first minister in the town of Jaffrey, N. H., December 10th, 1782.
On December 4th, 1787, he married the daughter of Jonas Minot, of Concord, Mass., with whom he lived happily and suc- cessfully over fifty years, and labored as the minister of the First Congregational Church and Parish of Jaffrey, for over half a century.
On the 11th of January, 1832, he received Rev. Giles Lyman as his Colleague; with whom he lived pleasantly for a number of years. He died March 16th, 1858, after a life of an hundred years, and a ministry of about seventy-five years in all. The portraits which hang today 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 dress was thoroughly clerical black; single breasted coat and waist coat, 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 remarkably strong, clear and sonorus; his enunciation distinct, and his language pure Saxon English. In his religious views he was dogmatic and radical, and much of a doctrinal preacher, holding to the Cal- vinistic 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 assem- bly. Its subject was an argument against final restoration. His sermons were very short; seldom exceeding 25 minutes. His pulpit services consisted of a hymn, a short prayer, reading of Scripture, hymn, the long prayer, the sermon and then the ben- ediction.
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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 District Schools during their closing days; but did not often fraternise much with the children and youth of the town.
As a man and minister, he commanded the respect and esteem of all classes. As one of the " Mystic Tie," he received this lumb-skin, or (here the original lamb-skin received at his initia- tion as a Mason was exhibited,) white leathern apron, . which is an emblem of innocence, and a badge, more 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 con- · tinually reminded of that purity of life and conduct which is es- sentially necessary to his gaining admission to the Supreme Tem- ple above. Thus, being born when George 2d was his King, and in the time of Louis 15th, of France, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, and Clement 16th, of Rome, his life covered volumes of history.
Several anecdotes were here related of the worthy divine, which extensively stirred the risibilities of the great assembly.
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 carly 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 Divinity at An-
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dover, Mass., and went as a Congregational missionary to Ceylon in 1819. Here with one exception of a visit of three years to the U. S. he spent his life and labors in the Master's vineyard. He did much valuable work in a series of school-books, the com- piling of a Dictionary, and the translation of the Bible into the native tongue of Ceylon. He died June 18, 1873, after a long life of neble christian warfare.
Rev. Luke Ainsworth Spofford, born at Jaffrey, Nov. 5, 1786, was fitted for College under Rev. Laban Ainsworth, his pas- tor, 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 Gilmantown, N. H., then at Brentwood, Lancaster and Atkinson, then filled the office of Missionary for some time, and afterwerd labored for years in the missionary field of the Western States, and died at Rockport, Ind., Sept. 27, 1855. Earnestly and devotedly he spent his life for man's salvation, and left an excellent record as a faith- ful minister of Christ.
Rev. Abel Spaulding was born at Jaffrey, Aug. 22d, 1791; graduated at Dartmouth, 1815; studied divinty at Andover, Mass .; was settled at Cornich, N. H., where he died a few years since, much beloved by his denomination - the Congregational, and esteemed for his good ministerial record.
Rev. James Howe was born at Jaffrey ; graduated at Dart- mouth College in 1817; studied Divinity at Andover, Mass., and was settled at Pepperill, 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 Dartmouth 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 Con- gregrtionalists at Strafford, VI., in June, 1840 : here he spent a
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ministry of ten years. Then for a time a 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, doing a good work, and is today on the field of missionary labor.
Rev. Wm. Dutton, born at Jaffrey, in 1815 ; fitted for College at Melville Academy, entered Brown's University at Providence, R. I., in 1839, and graduated in 1842, with much honor. He taught school several years at Kalamazo. Mich., and died in 1846, aged 30 years .. For this noble man and promising minis- ter for the Baptist denomination, too much cannot be said. In- tensely industrious and studious, 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 Mas- ter.
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 Universalists. He has been located at McDonough, Upper Lisle, and Smithville, N. Y., then at Montrose, Pa., where, and in the region, he has been ac- tively engaged in the ministry 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 Mas- ter'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, Sept. 1821 ; was a student at Melville Academy, Lawrence Academy of Groton, Mass.,
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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 entered the study of Divinity with Rev. O. A. Skinner, D. D., of New York completing the course in about four years. After 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 Chester, Vt., at Claremont, N. H., at Mid- dletown, Conn., and is now an active minister of the Universal- list 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 un- derstood Christ and his scheme of salvation. I feel sure that they will compare favorably in body, talent and labor, with the same number of ministers selected from any town of equal pop- ulation 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 Christianty 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 parent's arms and could not utter the word Mother ; - but today, 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, today are what our parents and the christian ministry have made us.
Here fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters are our chil- dren, 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 ineffible scenes of the incorruptable life.
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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 depression, misfortune and slavery cannot break it; ambition, empire and enormous riches and rule cannot conquer it; and the longest life and the best culture cannot fill the compass of its desire, or satisfy its ca- pabilities.
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 mortgage bonds and government scrip, that will petrify the heart and curse with avarice and the long train of woes, the coming gener- ations ? Or is it the stamp of an honest and christian life of in- dustry, 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 profanity and avarice, idly assuming that the fires of retribution will not destroy it ? Or are you setting it in virtue, cultivation 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 war- riors. A Carthagenian 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 for ever against ignoble character ; and on the alter of humani- ty make that child to affirm understandingly that it will be the eternal enemy of all sin, depravity and crime.
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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 worldy matters. Here is another, most of the students of whom were sent into practical life, have been successful and happy, 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 ministry !
Make the culture, whether from the school-room or the pul- pit, so perfect, so entertaining and instructive that all the fami- lies around it shall be drawn to it as all the vegetable 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 re- duce them to one rational, charming and useful body of science -of active business, and of honest, 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, social, and instructive ministry that can fondle the darling child, stimulate and tone heaven-ward 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 devotion in righteousness and labor so intense and permeating, that it will ussimilate or annihitate 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 nd sciences ; why he visited all Europe - the halls and galle- ries 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 replied, " 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 ?
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Yet, Raphael could spend a life-time and a world of treasure on it ! And Michael Angelo could exhaust 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 intense- ly 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 redemption and peace, and so leave your name where it will never die ?
Plutarch give us a learned Dissertation on the single Greek word " F1" found inscribed on the Temple of Appollo at Delphi. In the lonic dialect we are told that it means - " I wish." This perfectly expressed the state of mind of all who entered the tem- ple on the business of consultation. And an ancient scholar of great worth assumes that it is the initial word of a celebrated lino in the 3d book of the Odyssey, and stands there as signifying the whole line which is thus rendered, viz : -- " Oh that the gods would empower me to obtain my wishes !"
Ch! 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 :- " Oh! that God would empower me to obtain my wishes for my child !"
But further. Back of all this needed culture, and around it, lays the purpose and effort, the will and energy and learning of the clergy. And for years, as a town's committee, Mr. Ains- worth held the school teachers in his hand ; and who shall say today, how much of our life, capability, integrity and prudence, energy, and will-power, cminated 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 enterrogate you. - Where in barbary and in a servitude worse then was Southern Slavery would bee woman's con- dition, if the christian 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 min-
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