USA > Vermont > History of the Baptists in Vermont > Part 33
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In addition to these civil and political offices, he was a com- mittee with Elijah Paine and James Whitelaw, to fix the site for the first State House in Montpelier; a commissioner in 1807, with Samuel Shaw, John Cameron, Josiah Wright, and Elihu Luce, to determine the place and plan for the State prison, and subsequently a commissioner to locate the State arsenal. He was a trustee of the University of Vermont from 1810 to 1816. Indeed, there was hardly an office of trust and honor in the gift of the people or legis- lature that he did not fill. In this respect, the career of Gov.
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Butler, from an untrained pioneer,-(his schooling was limited to six months in his boyhood) from a hunter and trapper, up through almost every grade of office to the chief magistracy of the State, is a remarkable one and has few parallels in history. These honors and trusts he won by his sterling sense and honesty, and by his great energy and strength of will. Everybody felt that whatever trusts were imposed on him were safe, that whatever was given him to do would be done, and so they always found it.
Mr. Butler had a religious as well as political history, and the former was as marked and positive as the latter. When he came to Waterbury, he was an irreligious and profane young man, and not a little disposed to quarrel with certain great doctrines, and so he continued for some three or four years. The story of his conviction and conversion is an exceedingly interesting one. At a time of profoundest indifference in regard to religious things, when he did not know of a religious man in town, and before there had been a Gospel sermon preached in it, his attention was called to the subject of personal religion in the following singular manner. The account has been preserved substantially in the words of one who received it from his own lips: "Being obliged to work hard during the week, and there being no public worship in town which he could attend, if he desired, he was in the habit of spending much of the Sabbath in sleep. On a certain Sabbath, awaking from his sleep, he found his wife reading a pamphlet, and proposed to read it aloud for the benefit of both. The beginning and end of the pamphlet were gone, and he never knew whence it came, what was its title, or who its author. But he found it treated of a subject which in former times had given him great perplexity, viz., how a man could be blameable for a disposition which he did not create. He would admit the justice of God in punishing overt acts, but not wrong propensities. The author he was reading made it appear that we are justly condemned for wrong dispositions as well as wrong actions. After reading awhile, he exclaimed to his wife, 'If this is true, we are undone.' In a moment all the convictions he had formerly had turned upon him and he was cast into the deepest anxiety. After days of profoundest darkness and sharpest distress, bordering on despair, he was brought into clear light and
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liberty of the Gospel. His feet having been set in the way of life he walked circumspectly in that way to the end."
His was the first conversion in Waterbury. A few days after his conversion, Rev. Mr. Call, a Baptist minister from Woodstock, came along and preached the first sermon in Waterbury. About a year after this, Mr. Butler was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Call and united with the Baptist church in Bolton. At the organiza- tion of the Baptist church in Waterbury, in 1800 or 1801, Mr. Butler was ordained as its pastor, and amid the multitude of his civil offices he continued to discharge the duties of this office until within a few years of his death, and that without salary or re- muneration. In all the conflicts of party politics, and all the labors and perplexities of official life, it is said the meekness and dignity and propriety of the Gospel ministry never forsook him. He walked uprightly, and with serious christian deportment, amid them all. Well may his children venerate his name and the com- munity hold him in lasting remembrance.
His form was slightly stooping, his complexion dark and sallow, and his whole appearance quite unprepossessing; but his penetrating black eye and the calm tones of his voice, quickly told of intellect and will of no common order. He died July 12, 1838, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
BURLINGTON
The Baptist church in Burlington cannot be classed among the pioneer churches. While in many less promising places churches were coming into vigorous life, Burlington was taxing the faith of a few residents, and the benevolence of sister churches. The township was chartered in 1763, by Governor Wentworth. An attempt to effect a settlement was made in 1775, but the Revo- lutionary war, breaking out about the same time, the settlers were driven back by the Indians, and one of the number killed. In the spring of 1783, the first permanent settlement was effected by six or eight families from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Con- necticut.
From that time till 1800, the population increased from forty
HON. LAWRENCE BARNES A pillar in Burlington Baptist Church, a power in the state Born, 1815-Died, 1886
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to six hundred. From 1783 or 1784, no traces of a solitary christian can be found, and the Gospel was preached only occasionally, as missionaries chanced to pass by. In 1795, Mr. Lee, a Congrega- tional minister from Connecticut, visited the place, and remained something more than a year. Mr. Lee found but four professors in a population of near five hundred. His labors were erowned with a measure of success. For nine years after he left, the place remained destitute of stated preaching. The names of Kingsbury, Gartu and Williams are mentioned as occasional supplies, up to the time when Mr. Saunders entered the presidency of Vermont University, who then became the religious instructor of the peo- ple, and continued as such until the organization of the Congrega- tional church, in 1815.
The first settlers were reckless of the interests of religion. There is no evidence of the erection of a single family altar before 1800, and as late as 1802, at the funeral of a respectable person, not a man could be found to engage in prayer, and no house of public worship was erected until 1811.
Records have been searched in vain for a single member of a Baptist church before 1823. From that time till 1830, a few traces of our brethren have been found.
The first member of a Baptist church, of which any informa- tion has been obtained as a resident of Burlington, was a Sister Boyington, whose husband was not a professor. She was a very devoted sister. Elder Phineas Culver was probably the first Bap- tist minister who ever proclaimed the Gospel in Burlington. Some circumstances led to his acquaintance with Sister Boyington, when she solicited him to "come over and help," and it is believed that his first sermon was delivered in her house, and the great probability is that she was the germ from which Baptist interests sprung in this town. Elder Culver continued to preach occasion- ally in the academy, which was generally filled with attentive hearers.
Soon after this, Brethren Pangborn and Ebenezer Bartlett settled in the village. A few sisters came about the same time. These met often together. Elder Peter Chase made them a visit, probably about 1825 or 1826, and commenced preaching in the court house, and continued his labors for some time.
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Left without a leader, the little company felt keenly their destitution and began to rally and to cry to Heaven for help, and finally came to the resolution that whatever came they would throw themselves upon the promises of God, and ask their breth- ren to constitute them into a branch church, under such regulations as they might deem proper.
The church was finally organized by advice of a council as a branch of the Williston church, provided that church extended to them their fellowship as such, January 5, 1830, with power to transact any church business save the final exclusion of members. The persons composing this branch were six, viz .: Ebenezer Bart- lett, Tera Pangborn, Esther Pangborn, Rebua Bartlett, Lucy Wainwright, Ruth Cheney. Terah Pangborn was appointed their first clerk, and they adopted the Articles of Faith of the Danville Association. This church was received into the fellowship of the Williston church, August 13, 1830, and into the fellowship of the Fairfield Association soon after its organization, and with other churches was dismissed for the purpose of forming the Onion River Association.
Few, poor, and without a place of worship, the church began its organized work. Brother E. Hill, a licentiate of the Williston church, was their first preacher. Elders J. M. Graves, Alvah Sabin, M. Cheney, and Elder Winegar of Hamilton, N. Y., sup- plied now and then. Baptism and the Lord's Supper were first administered, April 18, 1830, by Elder Graves.
Elder Gregory Norris became their first pastor, July 24, 1834, and on the 26th day of September, with the advice of a council, the church was recognized as an independent church. The con- stituent members, eleven in number, were as follows:
Elder Gregory Norris, Mrs. Norris, Charles Benns, Isabella Benns, E. Bartlett,
Benja. D. Hinman, Abigail Hinman, George Wells, Lucy Wainwright, Silva Proctor,
Lorinda Merritt.
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For five years, the little church, being almost without pastoral watchcare, maintained a precarious existence. Rev. Mr. Norris, who had been laboring with them previous to their organization, took his departure two months afterward. Rev. John H. Walden, who accepted a call to the pastorate in June, 1836, resigned in September of the same year. In June, 1835, Rev. Hiram D. Hodge became pastor and resigned at the expiration of nine months; but not without seeing the church doubled, numerically, by the recep- tion to its fellowship of sixteen by baptism and two who brought letters from other churches. In August, 1840, Rev. Hiram Safford was chosen pastor. Hitherto, the church had worshipped in a chapel on Colchester Avenue, built for their use by Charles Benns, one of the constituent members, and rented to them at a nominal price. At length, stimulated by the earnest encouragement and guided by the wise counsel of Mr. Safford, the church purchased a lot, and undertook the erection of a house of worship, on the south- west corner of Church and Main streets. Before, however, the little band were able to complete this enterprise, they were bereaved of their pastor, who died July 28, 1844, aged fifty-three years. The work of this consecrated man was not long, but was so fruitful of important results as to make him worthy of special mention. He came to the Burlington church when the church was poor, and few, and overshadowed by Congregational, Unitarian, and Methodist churches, and also by the University of Vermont, which was officered by Congregational professors. He preached in an old academy for some time. His congregations were small and the church had been struggling for some eight or ten years with its head just above water. He encouraged his people to build a meet- ing-house. He circulated the subscription in the town and the neighboring towns, and as he was a mechanic himself, he supervised the building of the house, collected the subscription, and paid for the material and paid the workmen. The effort was a noble, self- sacrificing effort. Brother Safford was a noble gentleman and he had the entire respect of all the christian community of Burlington, and was tenderly beloved by all who knew him.
In January, 1845, Rev. I. H. Parker became pastor and en- tered with earnestness upon the completion of the house of worship.
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This was speedily accomplished and the dedication took place on the 3d day of April, ensuing. Mr. Parker resigned after a fruitful ministry in November, 1852. Rev. Leonard Tracy became pastor in March, 1853. The protracted illness of his family compelled him to resign in February, 1855, to the great regret of the church. Mr. H. H. Burrington was ordained December 27, of the same year, a man of frail health who served two years. In January, 1858, Rev. N. P. Foster took pastoral charge of the church, which he re- tained eight years. His pastorate was marked by an interesting revival, in which thirty-five were baptized into the fellowship of the church. The period of this pastorate was characterized by a sub- stantial growth in material resources, which manifested itself in the erection of a new and superior house of worship in a more favorable locality, on St. Paul street, at a cost of $32,550. The dedication took place December 15, 1864. In January, Mr. Foster resigned and the church remained without a pastor one year. During this interval, however, they enjoyed manifest tokens of divine favor. There was developed in the Sunday school, under the superin- tendency of Deacon E. A. Fuller, such a degree of religious interest that the church had recourse to Rev. A. B. Earle, the evangelist, for assistance in reaping the evidently ripened harvest. The labors of Mr. Earle, though of brief duration, were attended with the blessing of God and large numbers were added to the church. In February, 1867, Monson A. Wilcox became pastor and was ordained the 25th of April, following.
In the autumn of the same year, a mission school was started, and the erection of a chapel on Water street projected. This was speedily acco nplished and dedicated January 9, 1868. The school, which commenced with an attendance of six, so increased, under the superintendency of George E. Davis, as to tax, not un- frequently, the capacity of the chapel. In April, 1875, Mr. Davis resigned his position as superintendent and in 1877, this work was discontinued. In July, 1870, the church was incorporated with the cordial consent of the society, which had previously had charge of its business affairs. Early in the same year enlargement of the house of worship became a necessity, and it was extended one-half its original dimensions, securing a main audience room, seating
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seven hundred and thirty, and in the vestry, accommodations for five hundred or six hundred persons. The cost of this enlargement exceeded $23,000, giving a total value of $55,550 to the enlarged structure, which was dedicated to the worship of God, January 1, 1871.
The same winter, fifty-eight converts were baptized. In the autumn of 1872, the church established a French Mission, in a chapel, presented by Deacon Mial Davis for that purpose. Rev. A. L. Therrien of St. Pie, Canada, was secured as leader of this mission. The first French converts were baptized May 3, 1874. In 1876, financial embarrassments constrained the church to seek the aid of the American Baptist Home Mission Society in the prosecution of this French work.
In 1879, the mission experienced an interesting spiritual re- freshing, which resulted in the accession of several converts. Mr. Therrien relinquished the work in July, 1879, to take up the work in Grande Ligne Mission, and Rev. J. Rossier immediately as- sumed charge of the mission, which continued for a time to prosper, but after awhile was given up.
In the winter of 1875, there was a gracious spiritual quickening, and forty-eight persons were baptized, and the Sunday school be- came so large as to need extension of its accommodations.
The church has been greatly favored with the wise counsels of its deacons. The names of those who have held this office, and the dates of their appointments and retirement, are as follows:
Charles Benns, September, 1834, to January, 1845; Daniel Stearns, December, 1839, to 1841; Azariah Lee, August, 1844, died February, 1851; William Hawkins, April, 1845, to June, 1854; Isaac Austin, April, 1847, to January, 1849; Milo Fuller, February, 1854, to March, 1854; Eliashib A. Fuller, June, 1854; Dandy Fletcher, June, 1854, to February, 1856; George Duncan, June, 1856, to July, 1857; Mial Davis, March, 1861, to December, 1878; John Tennant, December, 1867, died March, 1868; Lawrence Barnes, March, 1871; Samuel Bigwood, March, 1871; Volney G. Barbour, March, 1871, to May, 1873.
The following persons have believed themselves called to the work of the ministry and have been licensed by the church :
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Frank W. Ryder, September 4, 1873; Gaylord B. Smith, August 13, 1874; Samuel W. Nichols, August 14, 1874; John C. Bracq, April 8, 1880; Mr. Ryder was ordained at Rockport, Maine, August, 1876; Mr. Smith was ordained at Plainfield, N. H., June, 1877.
Mr. Nichols was ordained at Essex, N. Y., in September, 1877; and in the autumn of the following year, sailed with his wife, the daughter of Lyman Jewett, D. D., to Madras, to labor among the Telugus. Mr. Bracq was converted from the errors of Roman- ism in the summer of 1875, studied at McGill University, and gave himself to the foreign mission work.
The Baptist church in Burlington, beginning its existence with very limited resources, early asked the aid of the Vermont Baptist State Convention, and for a period of twenty years, previous to 1859, received large appropriations for the support of its ministry. Sometime between 1850 and 1860, the Convention Board appointed a special committee to investigate the wisdom of having a Baptist church in Burlington and of longer continuing aid to it. Rev. L. A. Dunn was chairman of that committee, and went to Burling- ton on a prayer meeting night, to meet the people and inform them that the Convention Board had decided that a Baptist church was not really needed in Burlington, and could no longer be aided from the Convention funds. The thirteen members fell upon their knees, and one after another besought Almighty God in some way to carry on the work, and help them to maintain a New Testament church in Burlington. When all had prayed, Elder Dunn was so moved with their sincerity and determination, that he reversed his decision, and told them to go on, and the Convention Board would help them. In 1856, Lawrence Barnes began business in Burlington, and shortly after put in money enough so that the church could get along without Convention aid, and from that time until the present, has continued to grow numerically, spirit- ually, and financially, so that it now has about five hundred mem- bers, and is one of the most generous supporters of the State Con- vention. Lawrence Barnes moved from New Hampshire to Bur- lington in 1861, as the business which he established in 1856, had greatly increased and prospered, and he became Burlington's fore-
DEACON WILLARD CRANE, Burlington Member of Convention Board for thirty-three years
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most citizen, and always proved himself an earnest christian and a true philanthropist, and after his death, Willard Crane and D. G. Crane stepped into the breach and for many years have given much time and thought to the work, and been by far the largest con- tributers for the support of preaching and the expenses of the church.
The Burlington church has long since cancelled its pecuniary obligations to the State Convention, by its liberal contributions to that missionary body. It has been the aim of this church to maintain vital interest in the principal enterprises of christian benevolence, and in the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom throughout the world. It established, at a very early period and still continues to cherish, a monthly concert of prayers for missions.
Pastors
John H. Walden, June, 1836, to September, 1836; Hiran Dodge, June, 1839, to February, 1840; Hiram Safford, August, 1840, to July, 1844; H. U. Parker, January, 1845, to November, 1852; Leonard Tracy, March, 1853, to February, 1855; H. H. Bur- rington, August 1856, to August, 1857; N. P. Foster, January, 1858, to January, 1866; Monson A. Wilcox, February, 1867, to 1880; F. J. Parry, 1882, to 1886; F. S. McFarlan, 1887, to 1890; W. S. Roberts, D. D., 1891, to 1902; F. Dee Penny, 1903, to 1910; J. S. Braker, 1911.
Suggestive of the evangelistic efforts of this church, within the last thirty years, there have been received into the church by bap- tism, eight hundred and twenty-five persons. The benevolent contributions, as reported in the minutes for the same period, total $21,443. Present total membership (1912), four hundred and eighty-three.
EAST ENOSBURG
The East Enosburg church observed its centennial October 26, 1910. Pastor Rev. William J. Clark gave the historical address, a part of which is here given. It must be said of the history of the
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past century in this place, as of so many others, that it has been one of constant struggle. Or to put it in the words of Deacon T. T. Snell, "part of the time we have been swimming, and part of the time we have been swimming with our heads scarcely above water, yet we have kept on swimming." The first Baptist known to have lived in town was Joseph Waller. \ He moved here February, 1806. Others soon joined him, and steps were taken looking toward church organization, which took place on the 26th of October, 1810. There were ten constituent members. There is no record of there having been a pastor till 1812, and then only for a brief season. During long periods the church was pastorless, and dur- ing other periods it had preaching one-fourth or one-half the time. However, year by year, some additions are reported and the church grew, till in 1833, it had forty-seven members. This gain was in spite of distracting difficulties, one of which was likened to the severing of a limb to save the body. In 1835, a few churches in this region organized what was called the East Enosburg Conference, a sort of circuit preaching, in the bounds of which Brethren Cole, Flint and Chase, labored. The first year, 1835, Brethren Cole and Flint, worked among the seven churches of the circuit and their ministry was specially blessed to this church and eleven converts were baptized. The second year, Brethren Flint, Beeman, and Chase, were engaged on the circuit and a revival followed in Fair- field. But the third year the circuit preaching was discontinued, because there were a few who opposed it. The churches were urged each to settle its own pastor. During this time, however, a continued healthy growth was maintained and the membership became fifty-three, in 1841.
At this time, there was in this church much sympathy for the slaves, some members of the church having been members of the Anti-Slavery Society from its origin.
But now there came a sudden reverse in the continued pros- perity of the church. The church voted to discontinue meetings when they had no pastor. Perhaps the men of that day did not realize the full purport of this action, but to one reading the records today, it seems like the first great turning point in the church's history. It seemingly makes a cooling of that warm spirituality
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which had previously characterized the church. However, the church kept together and in October, 1842, Rev. R. A. Hodge be- came pastor. For the next ten years little was done. During the latter part of the decade they had preaching only one-fourth of the time. During the next six years, the work appears to have been nearly abandoned. On May 2, 1858, Rev. J. W. Buzzell was called to the pastorate for one-half of the time. He went from house to house, hunting out the places where spirituality had been hibernat- ing and bringing it again to the light of day. By faithful effort and prayer he gave the church the impetus which has made what it has since become.
In July, 1858, the East Enosburg and the West Enosburg churches united and a revival followed. In May, 1860, twenty- five baptisms are recorded. A new meeting-house was built and dedicated about December 20, 1860.| A burdensome debt remained a few years, but was finally cancelled by the generosity and firmness of Deacon Snell, who said, "If you will pay the whole debt I will give $50, and a friend will give a like amount. If the whole is not paid I will not give a cent." The debt was paid and the property deeded, with reversionary clause, to the State Convention.
During the early sixties, this community sent out its quota of men to the army. They were accompanied by the active sympathy, interest and prayers of the church. The clerk of the church was appointed to hold correspondence with the brethren in the army and the church voted to look after the families of the soldiers who belonged to the church and provide for them if necessary. This correspondence brought its replies from the men at the front and cemented the bonds of fellowship which had previously existed and thus was a benefit to the men at home as well as to those in the army.
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