USA > New York > Chenango County > Norwich > History of the first one hundred years of the First Congregational Church, Norwich, New York, 1814-1914 > Part 19
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It was not, however, a voyage on " unruffled seas." Many discouragements clouded the sky, yet the build- ing was inclosed in the fall and the work suspended until the next summer. Many were faint-hearted and he saw many " blue days;" but he never wavered; and when the work was started in June, the sky had cleared, the sea had become calm and every one pulled lustily at the oars. His personality threw enthusiasm into the lagging efforts and the work moved steadily for ward in spite of the blue days which would dawn occa- sionally. In one of these times he issued a pastoral letter to the trustees and members-" We will dedicate this church the last week in December and it must be ready without fail," was what the letter said, and it worked like magic. Almost at once the enthusiasm flamed up anew and soon never a bee-hive was busier than the church. No one seemed to question his pre- diction, nor his authority to make it and it came to pass as a matter of course. Some parts were receiving the finishing touches while the services were in pro-
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gress in some other part; but they all went on accord- ing to schedule. The dedication services began Sun- day, December 27, and continued during the week with some kind of service each day. Some pastors through the county, assisted as did Rev. Dr. J. C. Holbrook of Syracuse, and Rev. Dr. Edward Taylor of Bingham- ton.
Immediately following the dedication special meet- ings were begun by the pastor and continued about three months without other assistance than the mem- bers of the church. During this year 59 came into the fellowship. A debt of about $15,000.00 remained on the church. The fourteenth anniversary of his pastor- ate occurred on Sunday, June 6, of this year-1875. At the conclusion of the anniversary sermon he asked for subscriptions and soon over $9,000.00 had been pledged. Before July 1, the debt was provided for.
October 19-21, this year, the New York State Gen- eral association met in the new church in annual con- vention, brought here by the efforts of the pastor. It was a very successful meeting and was very largely attended by pastors and delegates from all over the state. Mr. Beecher and Dr. Henry M. Storrs were present and preached; and many other famous pas- tors also attended and spoke. The association met in the church again in 1899. Reminiscences were related by many who attended the former meeting 25 years before, testifying to its value and helpfulness. Mr. Scoville was also present, coming up from Vineland, N. J., and took part in the deliberations and other serv ices-in fact was still a member of O., C. & D. Associa- tion ,having never transferred his membership. Very many of his acquaintances of former days greeted him there, and they will not forget it; but though they had no suspicion of it, it was the last look they were to have of the kindly face. There was the same whole- souled manner and band grasp as of yore; and the
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same joyful enthusiasm, though somewhat tempered by the added years, was still very much in evidence and as much enjoyed by all who came in contact with him.
The next year, 1876, 65 were added to the member- ship. In that year the present choir was born. By a succession of unpropitious circumstances, the music at the Sunday services had fallen into decadence and . was the cause of a good deal of anxiety to the pastor; but as usual in an emergency he " arose to the occa- sion " and proposed a chorus choir with the organist, Mrs. Mitchell, as leader. She refused on the plea that she did not know how. With great persistence he finally prevailed upon her to at least make the trial. On Sunday, April 2, the new choir appeared before the congregation, a very vigorous and enthusiastic infant; and has taken its place there regularly to this present time, a fitting legacy from Mr. Scoville and a notable evidence of the skill and devotion of the leader.
The space in this Memorial is much too meagre to more than catalog the events of Mr. Scoville's eighteen years of life in our midst. He had so impressed him- self on the people that few would converse long with a stranger without having something to say about him; and this continued for some years after he had gone to Stamford. He returned quite often to officiate at weddings and funerals; and at vacation times to visit the many beloved friends and the dear old home. Dur- ing these visits he was never on time at meals or any appointment, because so many stopped him on the street to give a hearty greeting and steal a little visit. So marked was this feeling that Rev. Henry A. Delano, a talented man, whom came some years after as pastor of First Baptist church, in conversation one day with the writer said with a very emphatic tone and gesture, """ Why, what kind of a man was Scoville anyway?" I asked, " Why ?" He replied, " I hear him quoted and talked about by every one-by my own people and those
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of the other churches the same as by yours. I would give all I ever hope to possess if I could impress myself on a community as he has himself on this. It is won- derful. I never saw anything like it." Awhile after this I had the pleasure of introducing them; and from that day Mr. Delano was a lover of Mr. Scoville. I have been told by one who has followed the life of Mr. Delano, that he became in Evanston, Ill., something of what Mr. Scoville was in Norwich. He was pastor in Evanston when he died and a very large concourse of citizens followed the body to the cemetery. He had put in practice the example of Mr. Scoville which had so powerfully impressed him during his stay in Norwich.
In every church in the village and through the county as well, pastors came and went, except in the First Congregational Church of Norwich. Mr. Scoville had calls from nearly all points of the compass, to larger and more prominent churches, but " my work is not done in Norwich yet " was always the answer, and no call was loud enough to move him. He came to be called " the Bishop of Chenango " by the pastors com- posing the Oneida, Chenango and Delaware Associa- tion. I have already illustrated some of his strong characteristics. He had others equally strong. I would put first his absolute fearlessness and utter dis- regard of the consequences to himself in the way of duty and right after he had settled in his own mind that the course he proposed to take was the right one. He never shirked a duty, no matter how disagreeable it might be or how unpleasant the probable effect on him- self.
Several times he did things which at the time raised storms of criticism and even censures, but he never wavered. He kept right on in the even tenor of his way. After the storm had blown away and the people had taken time to think it over they said, " Scoville is right after all."
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Early in war time, on a Sunday morning, he con- ducted the opening services at the church as usual. At sermon time he calmly arose and said: " Brethren, I'm not going to preach a sermon this morning, but I'm going to have a famliy talk with you." He spoke of some things which ought to be done and yet were not done, and of some which ought not to be done, yet were being done. Finally he said: " I have heard a good deal of fault found with my sermons, that they are too political. Well, if believing in the Union and oppos- ing those who would break it up is " political," then I will admit that I am open to the charge, and have only this to say about it-I want it thoroughly understood that I shall not ask anyone what I shall preach; but shall preach what I consider is the truth as God reveals it to me; and shall continue to stand by the old flag in word and. deed every time. If you don't like that sort of preaching all I ask is a week's notice and I will get out." All was said in calmness and love, but with a firmness which gave no equivocal meaning. As might have been expected nothing was ever after heard of the criticism, but a good deal was heard about the grand old Union and her victories, and of the old flag and the old gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and a goodly num- ber each year were led into the church on confession of faith.
Mr. Scoville's sermons were not of the brilliant sort, but in important respects they were models. If humor would give point to a truth it was used without hesita- tion; but above everything else love for men and the old gospel were never lacking from them; and best of all he lived as he preached. The sermons of the pulpit and the daily life were identical and men believed the twofold message.
With his splendid voice which never failed him, he was often elqouent; and in sermon, lecture, impromptu
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speech or quiet funeral talk, he was able to hold the attention closely.
His talks at funerals were never disappointing. He seldom used notes at such times, but spoke from the heart, which seemed to go ont in words full of tender- ness, comfort and consolation to those who had been bereaved; and for the neighbors and friends came the earnest words of exhortation-" be ye also ready."
He was always interesting in lectures and quite often filled engagements for them in different towns around the center of the state; but his best speeches were extemporaneous, when some great occasion gave the inspiration ; then he was sure to thrill his audience. At the evening service of a certain Decoration Day, held in his own church, a large audience had gathered. He was present, but not expecting to speak, had made not the slightest preparation. After the speech of the evening, the chairman called on him for a few remarks. He could not refuse, so he ascended the pulpit and spoke for " The Boys in Blue " who went from this county, many of whom he was well acquainted with, with an eloquence that was thrilling. After recounting some of their valorous deeds in the war lately closed he burst out with: " Talk about Thermopylae, or Marathon, or the deeds of valor which made the ancient heroes famous for all time; why, I can match every one of them from right here in Chenango county." A storm of applause testified to the enthusiasm aroused in his audience and the grace of the compliment to the vet- erans.
He was also very quick and happy at repartee. At the State Sunday School Convention held in Norwich in the summer of 1872, before mentioned, he was present at the morning session of the second day, held in the Baptist Church, which was full to overflowing. The village Fire Department (he was foreman of the Hook and Ladder Company) had been out on monthly
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parade and drill the latter part of the afternoon of the day previous. A delegate, a gentleman from Troy, who was very active and prominent in the State Asso- ciation, joined in the discussion then in progress.
In his remarks he volunteered the assertion-" I never heard so much profanity in so short a space of time as I heard in this village yesterday afternoon." Instantly Mr. Scoville was on his feet: " Mr. Chair- man, I beg pardon of the brother, but he must remem- ber that there are just now a great many strangers in town "-and sat down. For an instant there was not a sound, but as the force of the turn dawned upon the audience, a smile broadened into a jolly laugh and that into a perfect salvo of applause which most effectually closed the Trojan's speech; and his colleagues, in every way imaginable, pestered him with the joke during the remainder of the convention.
Mr. Scoville believed it to be the bounden duty of every citizen, and especially the Christian citizen, to make any sacrifice of time and strength for the good of the community. Among other things he realized that a volunteer fire department was a necessity for the vil- lage, and by so much was the duty laid on every man to assist in the work and efficiency of the organization. To carry out his ideal, he joined the department and became a member of Rescue Hook and Ladder Com- pany in 1864. He put the same enthusiasm into this as he had into the church work. He was twice elected president of that company, 1871 and 1872, and foreman June 18, 1872. January 5, 1874, he was elected Chief Engineer, which placed him at the head of the whole department. He accepted cheerfully the trusts thus laid upon him and made some radical changes in the conduct of affairs. It had been the custom at parades and at fires to pass around a bottle of some kind of liquor among the men ; but he changed that to hot coffee in pails in charge of boys with dippers. A committee
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of ladies prepared it in a near-by kitchen or vacant store.
In the event of a fire in the night (that was when they mostly came) he heard the first tap of the alarm and was very soon on the street running like, "a sprinter " and at frequent intervals yelling "Fire! Fire!" " with din enough to wake the dead." No one living on the line he took to reach the fire ever " slept through " that alarm. Once at an Yale Alumni dinner in New Haven he replied to a toast and during his remarks gave that yell of " Fire! Fire!" His neigh- bors in Norwich were not surprised to learn that the effect was very startling and caused much merriment. Only once did he fail to hear an alarm and quietly slept through the din. It took many days for him to decide to forgive himself for the transgression.
In the summer of 1879 (July 13, to be exact) two gentlemen spent a Sunday in Norwich and attended the Congregational Church. In the evening they were seated near me and I shook hands and greeted them at close of service. During a little chat something. was said about Mr. Scoville. They said they were from New York. They had enjoyed the sermons and would be glad to meet him. My wife and I volunteered to pilot them to the parsonage and introduce them. This was done and a short time pleasantly spent. The next spring I met them in Stamford and they had a good deal of fun at my expense. They were from New York -in business, daytimes-but their homes were in Stamford. One was Mr. Theodore Davenport, church clerk; the other Mr. Smith. They were a committee from the Stamford Church to hear and see Mr. Scoville with a view to a call. The call came soon, but Mr. Sco- ville did not take any one into his confidence until he had decided the question; then he read the call at a Prepartory Lecture and added, " I have accepted the call to take effect the first of October next."
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For an instant the people present were dazed. Some grew pale. Soon tears came to many eyes as they began to realize what it all meant. The news flashed- it seems now like wireless telegraphy-through the vil- lage,and until the time for leaving came, his going was the one absorbing topic of conversation. The church could do nothing but accept the resignation. He was as firm in his purpose as Luther at Worms. He had made up his mind that it was best for the church that he should go and no arguments could change his de- cision The citizens arranged the services for the last Sunday before his departure At morning service he preached his farewell sermon, intended for his own people; yet a good many others listened to the sad but hopeful words out of his great heart. Then came the Sunday school and that to, was turned into a farewell. At the evening service all the evangelical churches in town united and the church was full to overflowing, not even standing room remaining Four pastors spoke of his influence in the life of the community from their church standpoints. Mr. Daniel M. Holmes spoke for the business men; Mr. Charles L. Tefft, Esq., for the professional men. It was late when the last speaker closed his remarks, but the great audience was in no hurry to go. The moderator* voiced its sentiment when he said " I know we all want to hear from Mr. Scoville." Mr. Scoville had occupied a chair near the desk, in full view of all present. At this invitation he slowly arose, running his fingers through his long hair at the back of his head-a movement quite common with him when he was about to make a funny remark, said: "I have often wondered, when preaching a funeral sermon, how the corpse felt about it; but I wonder no longer; I know all about it; I have heard
* Rev. L. M. S. Haynes, Pastor of First Baptist Church.
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four ministers and two laymen preach mine." After the audible smile which followed the audience was in a right mood to hear the well chosen words of farewell, and were dismissed, filing up and grasping the hand of the friend of them all. A very large company met him and his family at the depot on the morning of October 10, as they took the train for New York.
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SAMUEL SCOVILLE.
Address by Dr. R. W. Raymond, at the funeral of Mr. Scoville in Plymouth Church, April 17th, 1902.
More and more as the years go by, do we have cause to bless the name of Jesus Christ, and the name of Henry Ward Beecher, His prophet and apostle to our generation, for the renewed utterance of the Divine message which delivered us from the fear of death, moving us to hang flowers instead of crepe on the door of sorrow, and both to sing and see " The Shining Shore."
It is surprising, and not very creditable to the Chris- tianity of the nineteenth century, that this message, when it was spoken from Plymouth pulpit, was so widely regarded as new and strange; for it simply reasserted the attitude of the early Church, the Church of the Apostles, the Fathers, the Martyrs and Con- fessors,-the Church of the persecutions and the cata- combs. The members of that church were not eminent in culture, profound in philosophy, or even altogether sound in doctrine; but one thing they did :- they pressed forward, forgetting things behind, boldly attacking things before, " swarming " to the conquest, and victoriously both conquering and despising death. The illiterate inscriptions upon their tombstones show how they realized the continuous and conscious life of their dear dead; communed with them; rejoiced for them; waited with eager impatience to follow them. No intermediate sleep, no purgatory, no vague, vast inter- val, preceding the ultimate triumph of life over death, seems to have confused their simple creed. " They who have seemed to die did not die at all, but lived, and live! " was their sufficient dogma. Thank God ! after a long eclipse of faith we are recovering at last that pro- found belief, that certain hope, that radiant joy !
I recall today, with peculiar pleasure, that I gained
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my most vivid realization of this glorious temper of primitive Christianity in the company of my dear friend and comrade, Samuel Scoville. To neither of us did it then seem so precious a revelation as it now seems to me. For we were both-as we had a right to be- looking forward to this earthly life, and little concerned with its earthly end.
Let me sketch to you my friend, as I knew him first, in Italy, forty-two years ago. It was a memorable experience for me, a young student at a German univer- sity, to join at Florence, upon a sudden invitation, and to accompany for several months of Italian residence and travel, a party of relatives and friends, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, with her son, daughters, and niece, and attracting to familiar intercourse, by virtue of her magnetic personality and fame, such spirits as Robert Browning and his poet-wife, Charlotte Cush- man, Mr. and Mrs. James T. Field, and artists and authors innumerable of all nations. The stimulus and delight of such an association may be imagined. But I am now chiefly concerned with the memory of one mem- ber of the party, the tutor and traveling-companion of Mrs. Stowe's son-a tall, handsome athlete from Yale and its Divinity School, full of the pure joy of physical life (lebens froh, as the Germans say), eagerly suscep- tible to all beauty of nature or art, hungry for knowl- edge, and overflowing with human sympathy and unsel- fish enthusiasm-in short, such a soldier as Christ loves to enlist.
It is not surprising that Christians of delicate bodily frame, little inclined to outdoor activity, should be drawn towards the studious life and the intellectual and spirtual labors of the ministry, albeit they prove too often physically inadequate to its burdens and stresses. The rarer sight of strong, hardy, buoyant youth, superabundant in vigor, open to all the invita- tions of our multiform modern life, yet consecrating all
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its powers to the life-long service of the Master, is indeed inspiring. Such a man was Paul, the rough rider, the hard fighter, the restless traveler, the despiser of pain, the conquerer of beasts and men. Fever and wounds, scourgings, chains, prisons, perils and hardships by land and sea, could not wear out his body, or cut off his bold triumphant endeavors. And such- a man was Samuel Scoville, as I knew him in his shining young manhood. How well I remember that splendid figure, with the noble brow and clustering locks which Phidias might have copied for the statue of an antique hero, and that radiance of smiling joy and conscious strength, which Phidias could not have copied-a very vision of Balder the Beautiful, greeting, investigating and conquering at once the glories of a fresh, new world; that swinging stride, which forgot the space behind, and consumed insatiably the space before; that exuberant, lithe power, that leaped gates on the way without deigning so much as to touch them with the hand !
Together, as members of a party of four or five, we journeyed afoot from Rome along the Appian Way and the highways and byways of Italy, through the Abruzzi (then still the picturesque haunt of bandits), along the sea-coast, by lovely historic Gaeta, to classic Capri; to Naples, Sorrento, Salerno, Paestum-he always lin advance, and the rest of us plodding after him in various inferior fashion. Handsome indeed he was, and doubly so-for his glory of youth and strength was crowned with the halo of a happy love. The life of glad service that lay before him was to be shared by a helpmate, willing and dear. And we all knew the maiden, and approved the match!
Can you not easily recreate for yourselves the picture I have sketched? Have you not seen, in days. just now ended, the gray-headed man, striding along these streets, caressing little children, waving his hand-
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kerchief in salute to friendly faces at the windows, fronting still with exhilaration the winds as well as the sunshine, carrying still, beneath the transparent sur- face of experience, and behind the trivial, impotent wrinkles of age, the simple, glad heart of a boy?
Well, my friend and I went our different ways, and saw one another but seldom in subsequent years. Yet I was not surprised to hear that the young pastor at Norwich was Chief of the Volunteer Fire Department, and leader of the young men in their games upon the village-green, as well as under the roof of the meeting -. house. Some of you may recall a Christmas story, called " Three Elections," which I read, long ago, to Plymouth Sunday School, and in which a young theo- logical graduate was chosen to be the pitcher of the baseball nine, the pastor of the church, and the husband of the deacon's daughter. There are no actual facts in that story : it is not my practice to illustrate litera- ture with portraits of living persons: but the inspira- tion which underlay my fictitious narrative came from the life and character of this my friend.
From time to time, of course, I met him or his dear wife, or one or another of the children who came to fill his happy home, and in whose gracious growth to man- hood and womanhood the soul delighted, with good reason to the end. But I must pass lightly over the years that passed so lightly over him, and come to the time when, at the call of this church, sorely straight- ened in its work by the long illness of its beloved assist- ant pastor, Rev. Horace Porter, he came to assume, with us, the duties of that position. I knew already that he would deem it a privilege to spend in the service of Plymouth Church the years that still remained to him. But when the occasion came, it found him immersed in fruitful labors for another church, which he felt bound in honor not to leave. Our sister church in Vineland solved that difficulty by releasing him with
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affectionate regret, but in cordial recognition of our need; and so, at last, he came to us.
You and I know but too well the rule of business in these " strenuous " days. A man of 60, thrown out of occupation, can scarcely earn his bread. Nobody wants to employ one who may decline in strength upon the hands of his employer. In the conduct of war, also, age must submit to be retired from duty. I remember vividly a visit which, as a young officer in the Army, I made in 1861, to St. Louis, to De Bonneville, the famous explorer of the far west, whom Washington Irving had celebrated. He must have been very old; yet he had been retained as a military officer, in charge of the Army barracks at St. Louis, so long as the post required no special activity. With the outbreak of the Civil War, however, younger men became indis- pensable; and, to his measureless and eloquent wrath, the veteran had been retired. I could not agree with him in characterizing this measure as an outrageous injustice, but I did sympathize with his indignation at being deprived of the privilege of serving, with his mil- itary experience and ardent patriotism, the flag he loved. ,
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