USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Fitzwilliam > The history of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, from 1752-1887 > Part 16
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CHAPTER IX.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY FROM 1800 ONWARD.
Rev. Stephen Williams Pastorate-Mr. John Sabin called-His Ordination -Location and Erection of a New Meeting-House-Divisions Among the People-Organization of the Unitarian Society-Its Ministers and History-The Orthodox Society Formed-Its Pastors and their Families -The Parsonages-The Centennial Anniversary-The Baptist Church and Society-Its Meeting-House and Ministers-The Methodist Episco- pal Houses of Worship and Ministers.
A FTER the death of the first pastor, and before the close of the year 1799, Mr. Timothy Williams, of Wood- stock, Conn., supplied the pulpit for some months and deliv- ered here a funeral oration at the solemn service which was observed throughout the country, when the people mourned for George Washington. The death of Washington took place December 14th, 1799. The corpse appears to have been deposited in the family vault with funeral solemnities, four days after his death, or December 18th, but the day set apart by Congress for the general service was February 22d, 1800. The oration of Mr. Williams was doubtless delivered at the time of the general observance.
From " an Accoumpt of Money Expended for preaching" from December 31st, 1799, to February 1st, 1801 (which in- cludes expenses " for board of Candidates"), it would appear that Mr. Timothy Williams preached fourteen Sabbaths, at six dollars per Sabbath, his board bill being paid by the town. Hle or some one else was paid " $1.50 for Fast."
A Mr. Marcy preached two Sabbaths and may have been a candidate for settlement, while Mr. Timothy Williams was probably only a supply.
An elder brother of this Mr. Williams, viz., Mr. Stephen Williams, also from Woodstock, Conn., appears to have preached here as a candidate for settlement, early in the year 1800, and on June 25th of that year the church extended a
189
REV. STEPHEN WILLIAMS' ORDINATION.
call to him to become their pastor, and officially notified the town of its action, and requested its concurrence. The town voted to comply with this request, and offered Mr. Williams a settlement of three hundred and thirty-four dollars and an annual salary of three hundred dollars, without the use of the ministerial lot. But it would seem that unfavorable reports respecting the character or habits of the candidate began to be circulated about that time, for the town took the precaution to vote that if Mr. Williams should become their pastor upon the terms proposed, and within six years should be dismissed because of charges affecting his morals, he should bind himself to restore to the town three fourths of the amount of his set- tlement, or two hundred and fifty dollars and fifty cents, and a less proportion, or one half of the same, if, for the same rea- son, his ministry should close in twelve years, and one fourth of the same, if within eighteen years. These conditions prov- ing unsatisfactory, a compromise was made by Mr. Williams' relinquishing his settlement of three hundred and thirty-four dollars, and the town adding one hundred dollars to the amount of his stipulated salary, making it four hundred dollars annually.
The ordination of Mr. Williams took place November 4th, 1800, and the following churches were represented in the or- daining council by pastors or delegates, or by both, viz., the churches of Royalston, Longmeadow, and Athol, Mass., of Woodstock in Connecticut, and of Rindge, Keene, Jaffrey, and Marlborough, N. H. The record of the result of the council contains the following :
In the examination, particular attention was paid to the moral char- acter of the Candidate, and we are happy to find Mr. Williams possessed of an unusually amiable moral character, continued from his early youth to the present time, and which we consider not in the least blemished by some injurions reports which Mr. Williams himself candidly came forward and informed the Council of ; but which upon full, satisfying evidence appear to have been originated and industriously propagated with a wicked, malicious design to injure Mr. Williams, and to disturb the happy unanimity of this people.
The vote to proceed to the ordination was unanimous, and in that service Rev. Mr. Ainsworth, of Jaffrey, offered the
190
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
introductory prayer, Rev. Richard S. Storrs, of Longmeadow (grandfather of Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Brooklyn, N. Y.), preached the sermon, Rev. Mr. Hall, of Keene, offered the ordaining prayer, Rev. Mr. Lee, of Royalston (who had been moderator of the church from the death of its first pastor), gave the charge, Rev. Seth Payson, of Rindge (father of Dr. Ed- ward Payson, who was a distinguished pastor in Portland, Me.), gave the right hand of fellowship, and the coneluding prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Fish, of Marlborough.
The town voted fifty-five dollars to meet the expenses of the ordination.
Mr. Williams is represented to have been a man of educa- tion, of sound doctrinal belief, according to the standards of the times, and a fluent, pleasing speaker ; but, unhappily, he was very penurious, and so fond of intoxicating drinks that he would drink to excess when others stood ready to pay the bill .* These habits soon produced disaffection, and in less than two years the church, the town, and Mr. Williams him- self, united in calling a council for his dismission, all parties, it would seem, proposing to ask for this, without setting forth the reasons for this request.
The council, which met September 28th, 1802, declined to comply with the wishes of the parties calling it, unless the reasons for the dismission should be presented, and advised the calling of another council, to which the whole matter should be submitted. This was agreed to, and the church named the third Tuesday of November, 1802, as the day for the meeting of the second or new council. The records of the church from August 20th, 1802, to August 17th, 1804, are entirely blank. The committee of the church for the call- ing of this council consisted of Deacons Fassett and Da noa, and Esquire Parker.
The town records supply the following information : For some reasons, probably the occurrence of the annual Thanks-
* " Mr. Williams was carried (drunk) from Goldsmith's (Tavern) to Mr. Felton's. Mrs. Deeth said we old women sat in the bodyseats and cried and felt very indignant at Dr. Wright for laughing, and enquired what he was laughing at ? he replied to think how soon you would have it all to do over again." At Mr. Williams' public confession. Related by Mrs. John Sabin.
191
CALL OF MR. JOHN SABIN.
giving, the council did not assemble till November 19th, 1802. at which time Mr. Williams was dismissed (doubtless without the usual or any credentials), and the town voted on the same day its " thanks"
to the venerable ecclesiastical Council now in session in this town, for their patience, candor, and impartial attention to the business laid before them, and for the result they have reached ; and that the town accept with gratitude the proposal of the Hon. Gentlemen of the Clergy belonging to the Council to supply the desk in this town a certain time .*
Apparently this was a happy termination of a most serious difficulty, but, as is often true when pastors are dismissed, some of the people, who were the special friends of Mr. Will- iams, were aggrieved, and not ready to welcome his successor.
It is supposed that a number of candidates for settlement were heard, after the dismission of Mr. Williams, before the people generally were satisfied, but August 20th, 1804, the church called Mr. John Sabin, of Pomfret, Conn., to the pastorate by twenty-nine votes in the affirmative and twenty- one in the negative ; the opposition, it is understood, coming chiefly from the warm personal friends of the late pastor, Mr. Williams. The town coneurring in the call, and offering Mr. Sabin one hundred and fifty dollars as a settlement, and an annual salary of three hundred and fifty dollars, and he ac- cepting the call, a council was selected for his ordination, to take place January 8th, 1805. The following churches were represented : Templeton, Royalston, and Winchendon, Mass., and Rindge, Jaffrey, and Marlborough in this State.
Rev. Ebenezer Sparhawk, of Templeton, was chosen mod- erator, and Rev. Seth Payson, of Rindge, seribe.
Before the council assembled, a protest against his accept- anee of the call, and ordination as pastor, was presented to Mr. Sabin, signed by twenty-one male members of the church.
This document, which has been preserved, bears evidence of
* Stephen and Timothy Williams were the sons of Rev. Stephen Williams, pastor at Woodstock, Conn., and grandsons of Rev. Stephen Williams, D.D., of Longmeadow, Mass. In a sketch of the Woodstock pastor, published in 1861, this is said of his sons : Stephen was ordained pastor at Fitzwilliam, N. II., but became deranged soon. Timo- thy was liceused but never ordained. If the temperance reformation had come earlier, the elder brother's malady might have been prevented.
192
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
having been drawn up by Mr. Thomas Stratton, one of the protestants, and is a plain, temperate, and respectful appeal.
Upon the opening of the council a protest against the or- dination and installation of the candidate, signed, we are told. " by a large number of the church, and some of the inhabitants of the town, " was presented, while other testimony was offered, all of which, we are assured by the record, was patiently at- . tended to and examined. The result arrived at was that the interests of religion, the peace of the town, and the usefulness of Mr. Sabin would not be promoted by his settlement.
The formal result of council is found in full upon the records of the town and of the church. It was very carefully drawn, and the spirit of it is good in the main, but it took strong ground against proceeding to the ordination of Mr. Sabin, partly because of the want of harmony in the church and town respeeting him, and partly because the candidate had, it was thought, as charged by those opposed to him, given occasion for dissatisfaction by being somewhat non-committal in his probationary preaching, touching some of the generally re- ceived doctrines of religion.
Eight days later a request for a church meeting, to consider and act upon this result, was signed by thirty male members of the church, and at a meeting of the church, February 14th, 1805, the call given to Mr. Sabin was declared to remain good, and provision was made for another council, while a long and partieular answer to the action of the former conneil was adopted. This reply was sharp, as such replies usually are, but it did little or nothing toward silencing the opposition.
The town joined in ealling a second council, and in it the following churches were represented : viz., Lancaster, Leomin- ster, Gardner, Gerry (now Phillipston), Barre, New Brain- tree, and Petersham in Massachusetts, and from New Hamp- shire the single church of Peterborough. This conneil assembled March 5th, 1805. Rev. Mr. Gardner, of Leomin- ster, was moderator, and Rev. Mr. Fiske, of New Braintree, was scribe. All the proceedings of the former council were carefully considered by this, as well as a new and very eare- fully prepared protest of twenty-one members of the church,
193
ORDINATION OF MR. SABIN.
and some others, when a committee of the council was raised to confer with both parties and bring about a reconciliation, if possible. The interview was long, and eondneted on all sides in a friendly spirit. Some of the objections to proceeding with the ordination were doubtless removed, for the final vote of the council was unanimous. Mr. Sabin was ordained as a Gospel minister and installed as pastor in Fitzwilliam, March 6th, 1805.
The introductory prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Fiske, of New Braintree ; Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, preached the sermon ; the consecrating and installing prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Osgood, of Gardner ; the charge to the pastor was by Rev. Mr. Gardner, of Leominster ; the right hand of fel- lowship was by Rev. Mr. Dunbar, of Peterborough, and the conelnding prayer was by Rev. Mr. Bascom, of Gerry (now Phillipston). It will be noticed that there was no formal address to the people in the early installations of pastors in Southern New Hampshire.
The circumstances of Mr. Sabin's settlement, as a matter of course, affected unpleasantly his relations to the neighi- boring pastors for a season, but in the course of two or three years they freely exchanged pulpits with him, and al- ways deemed him a conscientious and faithful Gospel minister. As they became acquainted with him they found him to be thoroughly sound in doctrine, though somewhat original in the manner of expressing his belief, and in time came to re- gard him as a wise and safe counsellor. His own good sense, urbanity, and devotion to his work did much toward the estab- lishment of a good name in this region, while the noble traits of Mrs. Sabin's character and her clear views upon all subjects of general interest made a most favorable impression upon the publie generally.
Rev. John Sabin was born in Pomfret, Conn., April 17th, 1770, or nearly one year before the church in Fitzwilliam was organized. Ile graduated from Brown University in 1797, at the age of twenty-seven years, and was nearly thirty-five years old at the time of his ordination. He was admitted to the church in Fitzwilliam, July 14th, 1805, on letter from the
13
194
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
North Church in Salem, Mass. He studied theology in that place, probably under the direction of the pastor of the North Church. He died in Fitzwilliam, October 14th, 1845, at the age of seventy-five years and six months, and in the forty-first year of his ministry. Governor Bullock, in his Centennial ad- dress in Royalston, said :
If each generation of men in New England could have forty such men as Lee in Royalston, Estabrook in Athol, and Sabin in Fitzwilliam, the towns and churches would live in perpetual peace.
The pastorate of Mr. Sabin here covered a very important, and, at times, exceedingly exciting period of this town's his- tory. The meeting-house was too small, and, in most other respects, poorly fitted for the convenience and comfort of his congregation. As early as 1796 the matter of erecting a new church edifice was brought before the town, but the project was voted down, and though it was called up again and again in the succeeding years, for a long time it met with the same result. At times it seemed almost certain that something would be done, for in September of 1803, Thomas Stratton was paid three dollars and thirty-three cents for assisting to draft a plan for the meeting-house. The location of a new meeting-house, as is often the case, was found to be a difficult point to settle. Various places were proposed, each of which had its own points of advantage. The localities which received the most consideration were, the old place near the cemetery, the spot where the Town Hall now stands, and a lot owned by John Whittemore, which, from the description thereof, must have been near, or identical with, the place where Daniel H. Reed now lives. In a short time all the other localities were given up, and the question was between the two places first mentioned.
. . The dispute upon this point was warm and protracted. The people in the north part of the town were agitating the ques .. tion of a new and separate township to be organized out of the south part of Marlborough, the north part of Fitzwilliam, and portions of Swanzey and Richmond, and were already adopt- ing measures for the erection of a new church edifice where
BUILDING AND BURNING OF A NEW MEETING-HOUSE. 195
the village of Troy now stands. The assent of Fitzwilliam to the formation of the new town, which it was desirable to ob- tain, and the location of the new meeting-house, were at length effected by a compromise, for those who were in favor of locating the meeting-house where the Town Hall now stands, and the inhabitants of the north end of the town, uniting their forces at the polls, carried both measures by a large majority. But this action disaffected a large and influential party that stood aloof from the enterprise of erecting the new house of worship.
But in the summer of 1816 a new and commodions meeting- house was erected where the Town Hall now stands, at an ex- pense of abont seven thousand dollars, which was a large sum for the people to raise at that time for such a purpose. The town voted four hundred dollars toward this object, which ap- pears to have been all it ever paid for that house, in its cor- porate capacity .*
On March 12th, 1816, the town voted
to exempt those persons belonging to the Baptis Society, who signed protest given to the Selectmen, from paying their tax of the 400 dollars, granted for the Meeting Hous.
We have no means for determining what disposal was made of the pews in this house of worship, but it is clear that there was a debt upon it, which, a year later, amounted to two thou- sand dollars or more. This church, which was in every way a noble structure, like churches built about the same time in Athol, Templeton, and Petersham, in Massachusetts, was dedicated November 6th, 1816. The probability is that the pastor, Rev. Mr. Sabin, preached the sermon on that occasion, but as his sermons were burned by his direction, this matter cannot be determined with certainty.
The church had been occupied for worship nine, or, at most, ten Sabbaths, when, during a thinnder-storm, on the night of January 17th, 1817, it was struck by lightning, fired and totally consumed. Nothing of importance seems to have been
* When this meeting-house was about to be raised, Mr. Windsor Fay, of Boston, a native of Fitzwilliam, wishing to help forward the enterprise, sent up as his contri- bution a barrel of New England rum and fifty pounds of loaf sugar.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
saved, except the pulpit Bible, which Mr. Jonas Robeson re- moved while the flames were bursting forth from the doors and windows. The congregation was obliged to return to the old meeting-house for worship. The loss to the people was great, but it served the good purpose of uniting them as they had not been united for many years ; and even before the fire had gone out, the matter of rebuilding had been entered upon in earnest. During the same year the house now standing was erected. It occupies the same spot at the former house, though there were slight changes in the foundations. This church cost about six thousand dollars. About one thousand dollars of this came from sympathizing friends living in other places, while the remaining five thousand dollars were raised by the sale of the pews, which sold for about seven thousand dollars, or enough to pay for the new house and liquidate the debt that remained upon the one that was burned. "These things," said Rev. Mr. Sabin, in one of his lectures, " may give a little idea of the strength of a united, willing people, for they were built in the two unproductive years, 1816 and 1817, cold seasons, snow or frost every month in the year, and yet the people did not suffer but got along comfortably."
The corner-stone of this new church (the northwest corner) was laid May 28th, 1817, and in it is a cavity containing a plate with an inscription. This inscription is in Latin, and was written by Rev. Mr. Sabin. The half sheet of paper upon which he prepared it has been preserved and is a curiosity. The sentence is written out nine times with more or less varia- tion. The ninth effort seems to have been satisfactory.
It reads : " Ilaee fundamenta ÆEdis Sacra pro conventu Ec- clesiæ Congregationalis agi incipiuntur Die Maii 28. Anno Domini Christi 1817." And translated is : " These foundations of a sacred house for the meeting of the Congregational Church began to be laid on the 28th day of May, in the year of our Lord Christ 1817."
Mr. Sabin counted and set down upon the paper the ninety- nine letters of this inscription, which leads to the belief that it was the one of the nine which was finally adopted, engraved, and placed in the corner-stone.
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DISSENSIONS IN THE CHURCH.
This edifice, which is an ornament to the town, was dedi- cated November 26th, 1817. one year and twenty days after the dedication of its predecessor. Of the two houses, the one now standing is said to be a little longer than the other. The town appropriated fifteen hundred dollars toward the building of the latter house, but the appropriation was not probably used, as the amount received from the sale of the pews was sufficient to pay for the new house and to cancel the debt of two thousand dollars upon the edifice that was burned.
In 1815, Troy, having been incorporated as a separate town, twelve or thirteen of the members of this church were dis- missed to aid in the formation of the Congregational Church in that place.
The church in Fitzwilliam seems to have increased and pros- pered under the ministry of Mr. Sabin till about the year 1827, when dissensions of considerable importance arose. Cer- tain differences in doctrinal belief were the ground of these, and they led, as is well known, to a division among the sup- porters of religious institutions here, and the organization of a new ecclesiastical society, which was called " The Orthodox Society in Fitzwilliam." The pastor, with the church organi- zation and records, went with the new society.
Upon the merits of that unhappy controversy, which many now living remember, the historian of the town will not be expected to dwell. Time has done much to heal the wounds then made, and the people of but few towns in New England will be found more harmonious in their business and social re- lations.
* For a better understanding, however, of the religious con- dition of the town for twenty years after 1827, it may be deemed important to state that a portion of the people claimed that the pastor was too exclusive in regard to making minis- terial exchanges, that the council that ordained him was one of liberal sentiments, that the church was established, and had always been maintained, upon a liberal covenant, t and that the
* The facts that follow respecting the Unitarian Society have been kindly furnished by Miss Viola L. Spaulding.
+ A copy of this "Covenant " will be found in Chapter VI. of this volume, page 93.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
majority of the people had always been opposed to what was called at that day rigid Calvinism.
At a town meeting during the winter of 1827-28 these mat- ters were freely discussed, but the subject of the exchanges of the pastor with other clergymen (which, it had been supposed, was settled at that meeting in favor of a greater liberality) still divided the people, and rendered fruitless all efforts at reconciliation.
On January 12th, 1831, a meeting was held by the friends of liberal Christianity to consult on the common good, and an association was formed of which the following persons were members : Elijah Bowker, Asa Brewer, Joseph Fawsett, second, John Fay, Benjamin Fay, Nahum Parker, Jr., Sam- uel Felch, Robinson Perkins, Daniel Spaulding, John Foster, Ephraim Parker, Charles Howe, Jabez Stearns, Daniel Mel- len, Sumner Keith, Edward Hohnan, Sylvanus Holman, Joseph Brigham, Jubal E. Allen, Obil Fassett, Solomon Alex- ander, John J. Allen, Phineas Reed, Josiah Ingalls, Moses Stockwell, Peletiah M. Everett, Samuel Knight, Josiah Car- ter, John Whitcomb, Jacob Felton.
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