USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 95
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Mr. Billings thus far was not an ordained minister, and there was no church organization, but the people were pleased with his gospel ministrations among them and he had gained a warm place in their affections. There was also a desire for the establishment of Christian ordinances. Therefore on the first of November, 1704, William Pabodie and Thomas Gray, in the name of the rest, sent letters missive to the neighboring churches calling a council to establish a church and "ordain the Rev. Richard Billings to the Pastrol office." This council convened on the 30th of November, 1704.
A copy of faith was formulated and to it was appended the signatures of Richard Billings, then their ordained pastor, and ten others revered as the founders of this church. Their names are William Pabodie, Thomas Gray, William Pabodie, Jr., Joseph Blackman, James Bennett, Joseph Church (brother of Colonel Benjamin), Jonathan Davenport, John Palmer, John Church (son of Joseph) and Sylvester Richmond.
While the elements of congregationalism were crystalizing, the Episcopal church kept missionaries in the field. Reverend James Honeyman, who became rector of Trinity church at New- port in 1704, was sent to Rhode Island by the English Mission- ary Society, and for eight years made weekly visits to Tiverton and Little Compton. Freetown, Tiverton and Compton were made a missionary field in 1712, and a missionary sent from England to organize an Episcopal church, but the effort was unsuccessful.
In February, 1723, it was voted to build a new meeting house, forty-two feet long, thirty-eight feet wide and twenty feet posts,
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
to stand about two rods to the southward of the old house. This new honse occupied the site of the present Congregational church. That the old house referred to is the house until recently owned by the town and used as a town house is not undisputed, but it is generally believed to be the same.
The building committee were Deacon William Pabodie, Syl- vester Richmond and Thomas Church, Esq., son of Colonel Benjamin Church, who gave the timber for the new house. The timber was of excellent quality, and some of it still exists, sound and strong, in the present edifice erected in 1832.
The last Sunday in 1724 Pastor Billings records: " This day we had our first Meeting in our New Meeting Honse." This structure of 1723-24 was built by a subscription of £519 Os. 7d., and from that time the contributors or their principals took the name of the " Proprietors of the Congregational Meeting House of Little Compton." The proprietors originally intended this meeting honse for the use of the Congregational church, and in 1746 passed a formal resolution, drawn by the pastor, in which they " forever devote the meeting house for the public worship of God, to the Church and Christian so- ciety that now worship God in it, of the Congregational per- suasion and way of worship, as long as the said meeting house shall endure, and for no other use." This is the only dedica- tion of the house of which mention is made in the records.
Succeeding the pastorate of Richard Billings was the thirty- six years of the parish and pulpit work of Rev. Jonathan Ellis. He was born in Massachusetts in 1717, graduated at Harvard College in 1737, and was settled here as Reverend Billings' successor in 1749. During his pastorate the " United Congre- gational Society" was formed, February 8th, 1769. Nathaniel Searle, Oliver Hilliard, Constant Southworth, John Bailey, Thomas Brownell, Thomas Church, William Taylor, John Wood, and Gideon Taylor-who were especially interested in having the meeting house repaired-met and issued a call for a meeting on the 20th instant to consider the subject. At that meeting those who acknowledged themselves as belonging to the Congre- gational denomination formed a society, which had the care of the meeting honse and the ministry lands, and also was re- sponsible for supplying the pulpit. This society was incorpo- rated in 1785 as " The United Congregational Society." After the death of Jonathan Ellis this society, it appears, had the
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
entire control of the pulpit, engaging candidates and settling a pastor; but when the next pastor was called and settled, the society acted in co-operation with the church, and this has ever since been the practice.
At the March session of the general assembly at South Kings- town, in 1787, this society petitioned for authority to raise £600 to build a parsonage. The act granting this petition named Perez Richmond, George Simmons, Nathaniel Church, David Stoddard, Nathaniel Searle and John Davis as managers, " pro- vided they shall previously give bond to the general Treasurer of this State, in a sum donble the amount of said scheme, for the faithful performance of their trust."
The pastorate of Rev. Mase Shepard from September 19th, 1787 (more than two years after the death of Mr. Ellis) until his death, February 14th, 1821, was a marked era in the history of the church. His ordination was celebrated at the house of Captain George Simmons, with an entertainment which was sumptuous, to say the least, and was untrameled by sumptuary amendments. Mase Shepard was a typical New Englander, the son of a farmer, born May 28th, 1759, the youngest of thirteen children, and spent his minority at the farm. He graduated at. Dartmouth at twenty-six years of age, and two years later be- gan that remarkable career in Little Compton which insures his name a place in the memory of the people here for years to come. In the vestibule of the church is a tablet erected in his memory.
Rev. Emerson Paine was installed pastor November 20th, 1822. He was born at Foxboro, Mass., in 1786, graduated at Brown University in 1813 and studied theology with the re- nowned theologian, Doctor Emmons. He was ordained as pas- tor of the church in Middleboro', Mass., in 1816, and dismissed, at his own request, in the same year in which he was settled here. It would seem that he supplemented the labors of Mr. Shepard admirably, for in 1831 there was a great ingathering. His careful instructions in pulpit and Sabbath school were at- tended with happy results, and, in the year mentioned, sixty- three were received into the church. He was dismissed at his own request April 20th, 1835, and accepted an invitation to la bor in Halifax, Mass., where he continued to preach till his death at the age of sixty-five.
After the dismission of Mr. Paine, Rev. Samuel W. Colburn
64
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
labored here for three years, but his health seems not to have been permanent enough to justify a settlement. He was a native of Lebanon, N. H., a graduate of Dartmouth in 1808, and had been previously settled in West Tannton, Mass., but was dis- missed after three years labor because of ill health. He was afterward pastor at West Attleboro, Mass., for seventeen years. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. A. Reed, in New York city, in 1854.
Rev. Alfred Goldsmith preached his first sermon here Febru- ary 1st, 1839. He was dismissed at his own request in the an- tumn of 1844. The Sunday following Reverend Goldsmith's dismission, it would seem that Rev. Samuel Beane began his ministry, which continued as stated supply for nearly two years, and after that for eleven years as pastor. He was a na- tive of New Hampshire, a graduate of Dartmouth and of Ando- ver Theological Seminary. Ilis second request for dismissal was granted May 11th, 1857, after which he was principal of a western seminary for three years. At his death in 1865 he was pastor of a church at Norton, Mass.
Within a month of Mr. Beane's resignation, Nathaniel Beach of Middlebury, Mass., was installed. This pastorate continued until 1867 and was followed by that of Rev. George F. Walker, of Wellfleet, Mass. His pastorate, which was terminated in 1872 at his own request, was marked as having inaugurated an era of changes in the house of worship and the residence of the pastor. The first change consisted in remodeling the inside of the meeting house and frescoing the walls. Then the society sold their parsonage and lot, and bought another lot nearer the church, upon which they erected a large and convenient parson- age, at an additional cost of about $3,000.
In 1871 they began work again upon the meeting house, which was completed about two years later. It included raising the house and putting underneath it a vestry, committee room, ladies' parlor, etc., the building of a tower and steeple, and painting the house-the whole requiring an expenditure of some $6,000. Later still the society placed in the church a beautiful and truly valuable pipe organ.
In making all these improvements, the Ladies' Sociable con- nected with the church has been a valuable auxiliary. The so- ciety has existed under various names for forty-two years. It was organized in 1846, during the pastorate of Samuel Beane, as the "People's Colporteur's Society," having as its object the
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IIISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
maintenance of colporteurs in the Mississippi Valley. In 1852 it added to its objects that of general benevolence, and changed its name to the "Ladies Sewing Circle." In 1867 the name was changed to "The Ladies' Social Aid," and it is now known as "The Ladies' Sociable." Since 1852 this society has, in addi- tion to a vast amount of benevolent work for objects abroad, aided the United Congregational Society to the considerable sum of more than $2,200.
Between Mr. Walker's pastorate and the beginning of the present one, the church engaged, as stated supply, for nearly two years, Rev. A. M. Rice.
The church, under the pastoral care of Rev. W. D. Hart (130) since October, 1875, has been prosperous in all the departments of its work.
Two hundred years ago the dominant idea was the union of the church and the body politic. Here in the midst of Mr. Hart's labors record cannot be made of the chief characteristics of this pastorate, but in his love for, and labor in the cause of public secular education may be noticed a renaissance of that other doctrine of two centuries ago-unhappily since too long untaught-that the culture and expansion of the intellectual powers lie very closely along the line of religions development; that he who would develop the spiritual may not neglect the intellectual side of man's nature.
On a tablet on the wall of the church is this inscription:
In Memoriam.
REV. RICHARD BILLINGS, Pastor 44 years, Died November 20th, 1748. REV. JONATHAN ELLIS, Pastor 36 years, Died September 7th, 1785. REV. MASE SHEPARD, Pastor 34 years, Died February 14th, 1821.
REV. EMERSON PAINE, Pastor 13 years, Died April 25th, 1851. REV. SAMUEL BEANE, Pastor 11 years, Died May Stlı, 1865.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
The Christian Baptist church, at Adamsville, is an ecclesias- tical body of waning influence, once belonging with the Baptists of the Stone Church of Tiverton. They took the title " The Christian Baptist Church." and built the edifice now the public school building at Adamsville.
The first religions services held in the town by the Methodist people were at the house of Lemuel Sisson, in 1820, preaching by Reverend Mr. Dorchester, of Portsmouth, once in two weeks. A local preacher, Levi Chase, also held meetings in various pri- vate honses early in 1821. July 7th, 1821, Reverend Daniel Webb, of Newport, preached at the house of Mr. Sisson, after which he baptized Mr. Ephraim Sisson and his wife, Mr. Job Sisson, his son John and daughter Mary, also Ann and Mary Brownell. He then organized the first Methodist class of Little Compton, and appointed Ephraim B. Sisson class leader. A lot for a church was purchased of Sylvester Brownell, at the head of what is now called " Meeting House lane," and on this lot the first church was built, in 1825. This building was subse- quently converted into a dwelling house, now owned by Abra- ham Wilber. The second Methodist Episcopal church, built in 1839-40, on a lot given by the town, was dedicated April 16th, 1840. This building is now " Odd-Fellows Hall." The present church building, erected in 1872, stands on Little Compton Commons. It was dedicated by Bishop Matthew Simpson, October 22d, 1872.
The trustees of the first church were : Lenmiel Sisson, John Sisson, Ezra Brownell, A. R. Brownell, Philip Wilbour, Jon- athan Tallman and Samuel Dedrick.
The successive pastors have been : Daniel Dorchester, 1820; Isaac Stoddard, 1821-22; Milton French, 1823; Joel McKee, 1824; Newel Spaulding, 1825; David Culver, 1826; Amos Bin- ney, 1827; Stephen Puffer, 1828; IIiram Walden, 1829; William Barstow, 1830-31; Israel Washburn, 1832-33; G. W. Winches- ter, 1834; Henry Smith, 1835; Daniel H. Bannister, 1836; Philip Crandon, 1837-38; Joseph Brown, 1839; John C. Goodrich, 1840; Lemuel Harlow, 1841; John W. Case, 1842; Daniel Webb, 1843- 44; Philip Crandon, 1845-46; Richard Donkersley, 1847-48; Elihu Grant, 1849-50; G. W. Rogers, 1851; Carlos Bonning, 1852-53; B. L. Sayer, 1854-55: J. B. Weeks, 1856-37; Charles Hammond, 1858; John N. Collier, 1859; G. B. Cargill, 1860; C. A. Merrill, 1861-62; C. S. Sanford, 1863; S. W. Coggeshall,
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
1864-65; W. MeKendree Bray, 1866; A. A. Wright, 1867 69; Walter Ela, 1870-71; S. T. Patterson, 1872 74; W. J. Smith, 1875-77: J. O. Thompson, 1878-79; JJ. H. Humphrey, 1880-82; E. W. Goodier, 1883-85; W. P. Stoddard. 1886.
The first building erected in Little Compton, exclusively as a house of worship, was built in 1700 by the Society of Friends. For one hundred years this old "meeting house," with its high galleries, its open fire-place and its movable partition, served the purpose intended. By this partition the audience room could be divided into sections, one for the brethren, the other for the sisters. Men and women worshiped God, but each on their own side of that partition. All these Little Compton Quakers belonged to and attended the "monthly meeting" at Westport, Mass. The present meeting house was built on the old site in 1815. The leading member of the early society was John Irish, who, with his family, the Wilbours and the Peckhams, were among its earliest members. John Irish's wife was a sister of Colonel Benjamin Church. Their residence was just west of the old meeting house, the stone chimney of which is remembered by residents here. It was standing long after the house to which it had belonged, as well as all the other honses of that early day, had been destroyed. John Peckham's wife was Elizabeth Wilbour, danghter of the original Samuel Wil- bour? (168).
Edward Howland, one of a family long identified with this society, is the last to maintain, with eccentric persistency, the "First Day" meeting, often worshiping alone.
During some twenty years preceding 1884, Elder John Smith, from New Bedford, occasionally came to Little Compton and preached to the people the doctrines of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sometimes their meet- ings were held in the school buildings, sometimes in private honses, and occasionally his own wagon served for a rostrum and the Commons for an audience room. Elders John Gilbert and Cyril E. Brown also preached here during the same period.
March 30th, 1884, the Little Compton branch of this society was organized with eleven members. In the same year they built themselves a snug chapel in the northern part of the town, where a large family and a small hill have furnished the local geography the descriptive term of Pearce hill. The seating ca- pacity of this chapel is about two hundred. The first officers
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
of this society were: Priest, Algerine O. Tripp; teacher, John L. Crosby; deacon, Joseph B. Pearce. They have now a mem- bership of thirty-two. The officers are: Priests, Samuel O. Wilbur and A. O. Tripp; elder, Joseph B. Pearce; deacons, William Whaley and Charles E. Briggs.
CEMETERIES .- The people who are moving and controlling the affairs of Little Compton to-day are six or more generations removed from the men and women who were in the prime of life when the first white man's grave was dug in the land of the Seconnets. Much of historic interest centers in the cemeteries and burial places throughout the town, wherein " The rude fore- fathers of the hamlet sleep."
The old cemetery at the Commons contains the greater num- ber, and perhaps the most interesting, of these graves, but the private cemeteries in the town contain graves of more than fam- ily interest. The oldest dated grave in the town is that of Captain Edward Richmond, in a family plot on the farm now owned by William H. Chase. This was formerly the Richmond farm, and the burial place of the family is here. The captain's grave is marked by a rude slab with the date 1696. The earli- est date at the Commons is 1698, at the grave of Mary Price.
Among the descendants of the Pilgrims who became residents of Little Compton was a woman whose name is ever a part of the song and the story of the quaint old town. She was a dangh- ter of John Alden, whose relation to the courtship of Miles Standish is a part of Longfellow's great poem. Her grave was at first marked, as that of her husband beside it is still marked, with a brown stone slab. The tradition which makes her the . first white woman born in New England suggested the propri- ety of some more substantial monument to mark the spot. This sentiment was reduced to practice, largely through the efforts of Mrs. Sarah S. Wilbour (170), and now the most notice- able monument here is the white marble shaft on this historic spot where a handful of dust has made some other dust seem sacred. Into the west face of the monument the little old orig- inal headstone was sunk, with its inscription: "Here lyeth the body of Elizabeth the wife of William Pabodie who died May ye 31st, 1717, in the 94th year of her age."
(North face.)
ELIZABETH PABODIE, DAUGIITER OF THE
PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS, JOHN ALDEN
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
AND PRISCILLA MULLIN. THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN BORN IN NEW-ENGLAND.
(East face.) NEW MONUMENT ERECTED JUNE, 1882. (South.) A bud from Plymouth's Mayflower sprung, Transplanted here to live and bloom, Her memory, ever sweet and young, The centuries guard within this tomb. -0-
The four lines on the south side, from the pen of a resident poet (118), are a monument to him as much as the stone is to her. Immediately north of the monument is the grave of her husband, with its original headstone thus inscribed:
HERE LYETHI BURIED YE BODY OF WILLIAM PABODIE WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE DECEMBR YE 13TH 1707 IN YE 88 YEAR OF ILIS AGE.
Another interesting grave is covered with a horizontal slab with this inscription:
HERE LYETII INTERRED THE BODY OF THE HONORABLE COL. BENJAMIN CHURCH ESQR. WIIO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JANUARY THE 17THI 1717-18 IN YE 78 YEAR OF HIS AGE.
Near it is a like stone recording in similar phrase the death of his wife Alice, "March ye 5 A C 1718-19 in ye 73 year of her age." It is rarely the case in America that a direct line of six generations can be found in the grave-yards of one town. Here lie, however, of the Church family Joseph2, Joseph3, Caleb', Ebenezer®, Joseph", and John' and Nathaniel'.
The antiquarians of this vicinity had their curiosity excited by a discovery, in 1887, of an ancient gravestone which ante- dates any heretofore known in this town. A Brooklyn gentle- man purchased the farm of the late Allen Gray, and in making repairs workmen found in the cellar a smooth, flat stone, which apparently had for many years served as a standing place for the farmer's pork tub. On bringing it into the light it was found to bear the following inscription :
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
"OF JONATHAN BLACK- MAN, AGED ABOUT 32 YEARS, DEPARTED THIS LIFE JULY YE 3D 1690."
The first Blackman known to have lived here was a Jonathan, born 1667, died Sth of October, 1717. His wife, Leah, born 1667, died 1st of October, 1741. The upper part of the stone is gone, but it is probable that the inscription may have been prefixed by the words, "Here lyeth the body, etc.," as Savage, in his genealogical dictionary, mentions a Jonathan Blackman, son of John and his wife Mary (Pond), of Dorchester, born 1658. Where this stone came from, and how " it came to this base use at last" are mysteries, but the extensive carving indicates that it belong- ed to some one of wealth and position. This land formerly be- longed to Edward Richmond (son of John of Ashton Keyes), born in 1832, was attorney-general 1677 to 1680, died in 1696, and is buried a few rods west of the Gray house. His wife was Amy Bull, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth, of Newport. It was afterward owned by Colonel Sylvester (son of Edward), who married Elizabeth Rogers, great-granddaughter of John Alden on the maternal side, and of Thomas Rogers, of the "Mayflower," on the paternal side, and by him devised to his son, William Richmond.
ADAMSVILLE .- On the eastern boundary of the town, sup- ported by a rural community including more of Westport and Tiverton than of Little Compton, is the post village of Adams- ville. West and sonth is that portion of Seconnet purchase known then, as it might well be now, by the designation of " The Woods." Isolated thus, as Adamsville is from the rest of the town to which it belongs, the social and commercial interests of the village are more closely allied to those of the region to the eastward in Massachusetts, and to the northward in Tiverton, than to the town of which it is geographically and politically a part.
This was the condition which obtained in 1788, when from Fair Haven came Samuel Church, and built here the first country store. The coming of Mr. Church, if it did not create an epoch in the history of this community, was certainly contemporaneous with that first awakening which may well be regarded as the be- ginning of Adamsville. He purchased the mill site and water
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
power, and erected the store nearest the stream, a building still standing, and which for the most of the intervening century has been used for the purpose first intended. The changes of a hun- dred years would forcibly appear in a comparison of the nature and extent of the business of Samuel Church of 1788 with that of Philip J. Gray of 1888 in the same building. Then the stock of the stores consisted of the plainest necessaries of life; for the people of the vicinity, as a class, were poor, the wealth of Compton being then, more generally even than now, in the western portion of the town. Rum was a staple commodity in those days, and at one time as many as three stores in the little borough furnished that article of diet.
Sonth of his store Mr. Church built a salt works, utilizing the water of the bay, and the manufacture of that staple became no insignificant portion of the business of the place until, in the September gale of 1815, the works were nearly ruined. The plant was rebuilt, but after the death of Mr. Church little, if anything, was done to render the business profitable. What might have been the future of that and other enterprises of his minst remain conjectural, for his years were numbered at thirty- five, and the completion of his schemes was left to his widow and Ebenezer P. Church, his younger brother. The mansion he had begun was finished by them, and is now the residence of his nephew, Thaddeus II. (122).
This younger brother came here in 1796 as his clerk, and in that capacity, or as proprietor, he was a part of the business history of Adamsville until his death. He lived a bachelor, acquired a fortune, and kept to the close of his life the confi- dence and esteem of the people.
From the conflicting statements of those who can date from memory only, it is useless to attempt a chronological arrange- ment of the names of the merchants of the century here. This Ebenezer P. Church, as a merchant, was conspicnous and suc- cessful. With his brother Nathaniel, as E. P. & N. Church, he did business for several years, and in 1839 the late Philip Man- chester became his junior in a partnership which continued un- til his death in 1872. They occupied the store that Mr. Church built in 1820. It is still standing and is occupied by Mr. Man- chester's son, Abraham, as one of the two general stores here at this time. From the death of Mr. Church until the death of Mr. Manchester in 1878, the firm was Philip Manchester & Son.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Another of Mr. Church's clerks, William A. Brown, became proprietor in a building which he erected, and which now, on another site, is the residence of George Palmer. The residence of Captain Calvin Manchester was also once a store kept by this Mr. Brown, for whom E. P. Church was at one time clerk.
On the corner where John Tompkins now lives, a building was burned in 1855 which had been owned or occupied as a store by Colonel Nathaniel Tompkins, George W. Brown and Albert H. Simmons. East of this corner Joseph Hicks had a store at one time.
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