USA > Vermont > History of the Baptists in Vermont > Part 37
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The Board employed Rev. Timothy Spaulding as agent in the early part of the year. He stated that he had formed sixteen primary societies in the towns of Rochester, Middlebury, Bridport, Addison, Panton, Bristol, Jericho, Essex, Fairfax, and Cambridge; that the sums subscribed would probably amount to $232. The whole number of subscribers, two hundred and ninety-two. He also stated that "a part of the societies were flock societies; the number of sheep for which keeping has been procured was thirty- five. Mr. Spaulding stated that his missionary labors were per- formed in the following towns: Chelsea, Brookfield, Washington,
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Barre, Plainfield, Orange, Topsham, Bradford, Montpelier, Nor- wich, Sterling and Rochester. He found some of these churches in a very low state, spiritually; baptized four persons and received, while engaged as missionary and agent for the Convention, $31.34, and articles of elothing, ete., to a considerable amount, not valued.
Rev. Joseph Gambrell spent ten weeks with the churches of Winhall, Londonderry and Weston.
The northwest part of the State, adjacent to Lower Canada, offered at that time the most extensive and needy field for mission- ary effort. There were a few feeble churches, scattered here and there, that are deseribed as appearing like stars of the sixth magni- tude, and there were few ministers to break the bread of life there. The cry from that region was like that from Macedonia, "Come over and help us," and the Board could not but respond. Rev. Marvin Grow was sent and labored in twenty towns, baptizing eighteen persons, and reporting revivals in Richford, Montgomery, Craftsbury, Malden and Goshen Gore.
Rev. John Ide was another missionary sent to that part of the State, laboring in sixteen towns. He was gladly received wherever he went and baptized seven persons, assisted in organizing one church, and formed one auxiliary society. Rev. Harvey Clark, another missionary, was sent aeross the border into Lower Canada and spent about twelve weeks, principally in Stanstead, Barnston, Eaton, Bolton, Dunham, St. Armand and Stanbridge. Mr. Harvey reported the region very destitute of evangelieal preaching, and that he was probably the only Baptist preacher in that region.
Ira M. Allen, agent of the Convention, during an agency of six weeks in Bennington County, traveled five hundred miles, originated five primary societies and reorganized sixteen. He found many societies in a dying state, their annual meetings having passed without notice, and nothing would have been raised by them had they not been visited by an agent.
Appropriations of from $20 to $25 were made to the churches in Dresden, East Clarendon, Pittsford, Dorset and Arlington, and one of $60 to the Rutland church, which had been supplied during the year with a pastor and had erected a new, decent house of worship.
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An appropriation of $33 was made to Hamilton Theological School, and $20 given to assist a beneficiary of that school.
Boxes of clothing were sent to the western missionary sta- tions among the Indians, and $300 appropriated to the Burman missions.
One cannot read this report without being impressed with the breadth of the missionary spirit of the Convention.
In 1828, the Board reported that the small amount of funds, and the difficulty in obtaining suitable men, had given them much perplexity. Home and foreign missions received some support, and the circulation of missionary and other religious periodicals and publications was encouraged by the Convention and its agents. Seven missionaries had been employed from two weeks to three months each. In this number of missionaries was Rev. Wm. Arthur, widely known now as the father of Ex-President Chester Allen Arthur. In his report to the Board he gave a gratifying account of his work, which was half the time for six months in Richford. He remarks that when the brethren were made ac- quainted with his appointment to labor among them as an under shepherd, they manifested gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, as also to the Board for their special fostering care ex- hibited to them in seasons of peculiar need. He had the pleasure, generally, of preaching to large and deeply interested audiences, and frequently enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing anxious sinners come forward to request prayers. During the period of labor with them, seventeen were added to the church by baptism and three by letter.
The connection of William Arthur with the Convention, and his relation to the people of this country as the father of Chester Arthur, give special interest to the account of his life and character published at the time of his death. He was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland, in the year 1797. He sprang from that Scotch- Irish stock which is excelled by no other in all those qualities which go to make strong, true, independent men. After a thorough pre- liminary training, he entered Belfast College and was graduated from that institution at the early age of eighteen. Not long after, he determined to make the new world his home and accordingly
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sailed from Liverpool to New York. Proceeding from the metro- polis he began his labors in this county as principal of Burlington Academy. While maintaining this connection he commenced the study of the law, which he subsequently continued in the office of Governor Van Ness of Vermont. His future, however, was destined to run along a different path, and he had not been long at the law before he became convinced, first in his heart and then in his mind, that he was called to the ministry. He at once pre- pared himself with characteristic energy and assiduity for the sacred calling, and in due course of time was installed as minister of the Baptist church in Bennington. He was subsequently settled at Hinesburg, Fairfield and Williston, Vt., and, in 1835, removed to western New York. After laboring a while at York, Livingston county, he accepted a call from the Baptist church in Greenwich, Washington County, and in that field remained five years. Later he removed to Schenectady and had charge successively at Schien- ectady, Lansingburg, Hoosick, West Troy and Albany. Among his literary labors, the most widely known was his work on "Family Names."
A correspondent of the Rutland Herald, probably Dr. Case, of Brandon, wrote the following letter to that paper:
"I send you a few facts concerning the parentage and birth of Gen. Arthur, the Republican nominee for Vice President. Nearly fifty years ago, the writer, then a small boy, lived in a re- mote district in the town of Fairfield, Vt., which joins St. Albans on the east. I well remember the advent to that neighborhood of a Baptist preacher of Irish birth, but of remarkable ability and eloquence. He drew audiences unheard of before in that rustic community, where there was a flourishing Baptist church. He at first preached in the district schoolhouse, which soon failed to hold half his audience. Finally, a spacious neighboring barn was pressed into service as a place of worship. A meeting-house was soon built in which he afterward preached. On moving his family to the place of his labors there was no vacant house suitable to re- ceive them, as the large families of the farmers filled all desirable tenements. The minister and his wife and four young daughters moved into a small log cabin, only a few rods from the humble
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dwelling of my parents, to remain there till a small but comfortable parsonage should be built across the way. In this log cabin Chester A. Arthur was born."
At the session in 1829, the Convention made its first declara- tion on the subject of temperance, appointing a committee on that subject composed of three strong men-Hadley Proctor, Aaron Leland and Alvah Sabin. When we take into account the com- paratively low standard of public sentiment at that time upon the subject of temperance, the stand taken by the Convention becomes an item of history worthy of record. The report of the committee sounded a note of uncompromising hostility to the use and sale of intoxicants. The report:
"The committee on the subject of intemperance beg leave to report that they consider the evil of intemperance as one of an alarming nature, and while they are pleased with the powerful check which it has received, it is still evident that much more must be done before the remedy will be equal to the disease. It is the duty of all christians to use their influence to advance the cause of temperance, and especially should the ministers of religion lift up their voice and cry aloud until the alarm be sounded through all the land, and the means of suppressing the evil be known and suc- cessfully employed. It is the duty of every christian to adopt as his maxim, in relation to this subject, 'Touch not, Taste not, Handle not.' Wherefore,
"Resolved, 1. That it be recommended, that all persons, and especially professors of religion, wholly abstain from the use of inebriating liquors.
"2. That it be recommended to the several churches to take the subject into consideration, and adopt such measures as will best promote temperance, and report next year to the Convention their doings on the subject.
"3. That this Convention approve of the object and measures of the American Society for promoting temperance, and recom- mend to the churches a cooperation with that body to the extent of its ability.
"HADLEY PROCTOR, Chairman."
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Another important incident marked the session of the Conven- tion in 1829. "On the expediency of forming a Sabbath School Union for the Baptist Denomination in this State, the churches by their delegates were agreed; therefore, Resolved, that we proceed to form a Baptist Sunday School Union for the State of Vermont." Jonathan Merriam, Leland Howard and Cyrus W. Hodges, were appointed to draft a constitution, which, after amendments, was adopted and the Union organized by choice of Rev. Proctor, presi- dent; Rev. Jonathan Merriam, corresponding secretary; and Eli B. Smith, recording secretary. A committee was appointed to prepare a suitable address to the churches which, with the constitu- tion, was printed in the Vermont Telegraph, a paper which was re- garded as an important auxiliary in promoting the various objects of the Convention. This organization was maintained until 1844, when it was merged into the State Convention.
The year 1830, was one of great religious interest throughout the churches in most of the Associations .. The baptisms for the year were one thousand, three hundred and twenty-nine. The Board reported the missionary work as encouraging, considering the amount of funds at their disposal, $1,609. Six missionaries were employed, mostly for short periods of time, and thirteen churches were aided, among them the Burlington church, which was organized that year, and was aided to the amount of $100. The great destitution of pastors in the northern parts of the State, to- gether with the inability of the Board to procure suitable men to supply vacancies, led them to recommend to such churches to unite in forming circuits of suitable size, and to employ one or more min- isters to preach to them. Rev. J. M. Graves was appointed agent of the Convention to assist the churches in forming such circuits. Committees in each association were also appointed to carry the measure into effect.
At this anniversary was formed the Vermont Branch of the Northern Baptist Education Society. This society, of which further account will be given, was maintained till 1845, when it was merged into the State Convention.
The next anniversary, in 1831, was one of deep and thrilling interest. A large majority of the churches had enjoyed a glorious
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refreshing from the presence of the Lord-one thousand, two hun- dred and sixty-three baptisms were reported for the year. The circuit system so far as organized had worked well. Eight mis- sionaries were employed, most of them for short seasons.
Some of the aided churches had been specially blessed by re- vival influences and additions to their membership. The Arlington church had received thirty by baptism; Middletown was rejoicing in the addition of fifty, nearly all youth and children. The pastor of the Wallingford church had baptized forty; Williston had re- ceived thirteen converts; Londonderry and Weston each had re- ceived fifteen. Burlington alone is mentioned with discourage- ment. Brother Winegar, after laboring there eighteen weeks, thought the prospect not very flattering for a Baptist church there. They had no convenient place of worship.
At this session, which was held in Ludlow, the Convention appointed a board of twenty-five trustees "to take measures to establish a literary institution in this State." This action resulted in the founding at Brandon, in 1833, of the Vermont Literary and Scientific Institution, which school, in its day, did good service in the cause of education, but for want of adequate support did not realize the hopes of the founders.
The year 1832, was also a year of unusual spiritual prosperity. About one thousand, six hundred souls were gathered into the churches by baptism. The receipts of the Convention were large, amounting to $2,347. The domestic mission work was carried on in the northern part of the State and in Canada, though by fewer missionaries and with less vigor than for a few years pre- vious. Fewer churches also were aided than before. Foreign missions absorbed, and naturally, a larger share of the interest of the churches that year. Since its organization the Convention had taken a deep interest in the Burman mission. During the six years it had contributed more than $1,000 to its work. Now the relation was to be still more intimate and sympathetic, for one of their own number was to be a missionary there, and for this event the churches had been preparing, having raised some $1,800 for the outfit, passage money, and support of Nathan Brown and his wife, who were soon to sail as "our missionaries to Burma."
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The Convention at this session pledged itself to support the Rev. Nathan Brown and wife, "while they shall labor as mission- aries under the approbation of the Baptist General Convention."
The Board in its report says, "This field has now become ex- ceedingly dear to us, from the circumstance that one of ourselves has taken a commission to labor in it, nursed in our churches, set apart to the work of a missionary by our hands, clothed, fur- nished, and sent forth by our liberality, known to our eyes, loved by our hearts, and to be sustained through the toils of his life by the aid we have pledged; we are, it is believed, ready to say, as was said to the first mission from England: while Nathan Brown is in the well, we will hold him up-we will not let go the rope."
Although Dr. Brown was not born in Vermont, and was edu- cated in Massachusetts, yet, as he removed with his parents to Whitingham the year after his birth, and was ordained and sent out from this State, he is appropriately claimed as our representa- tive. He was born in New Ipswich, N. H., in 1807. He was con- verted at the age of nine years and received into the Whitingham church, August 5, 1816. He was graduated from Williams College in 1827. After graduation he was one of the associate principals in the Bennington Seminary, in 1829, having taught formerly in Sunderland and Ipswich, Mass., and Concord, N. II., thus earning money to pay his debts incurred during his college course. Here he became acquainted with William Lloyd Garrison, then editor of the Bennington Times, and the intimacy doubtless deepened and intensified his anti-slavery views.
IIe was dismissed from the Whitingham church to unite with the Bennington church, March 6, 1830. On the sixth of May, 1830, he married Eliza Ballard, who was born in Charlmont, Mass., April 12, 1807, and was educated at Framingham, Mass., and later at Sanderson Academy in Buckland, Mass., then under the charge of Miss Mary. Lyon. For a while they resided at Bran- don, and Mr. Brown was editor of The Vermont Telegraph. He was a member, for a short season, of the church in Rutland, and was ordained there as a missionary to Burma, August 15, 1832. They embarked for Burma, December 21, 1832, and arrived in Bengal, May 2, 1833.
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As a translator, philologist, poet and philanthropist, Dr. Brown met the highest expectations of those who were so interested in his going to the foreign field.
Dr. and Mrs. Brown, in consequence of conscientious scruples in regard to the receipt of money from slave-holders, for the sup- port of missions, returned to this country in 1855.
For fifteen years he was editor of the American Baptist, the organ of the American Free Baptist Mission Society. While he was in this post, he was one of a committee of three, who visited President Lincoln, to urge the issue of the Emancipation Proclama- tion. The difference among northern Baptists in regard to slavery having been settled by the war of the rebellion, Mr. Brown accepted an appointment from the missionary union as a mission- ary to Japan, and reached there in February, 1873, when he was sixty-five years old. Having translated the New Testament into that language, finishing it in 1847, he now did a kindred work for the Japanese, completing it in 1879. He died January 1, 1886, aged seventy-nine years.
Mrs. Eliza Brown died in 1871. On the 24th of July, 1872, Dr. Brown married Mrs. Charlotte A. (Worth) Marlitt.
The joy of the delegates at this session, in 1832, was tempered with sadness on account of the death of one of its foremost mem- bers, Elder Aaron Leland. At the close of the annual report, the Board pay a brief but fitting tribute of respect to the venerable Father Leland, "who had for the last five years, with no ordinary diligence and patience, presided over the deliberations of your Board, and taken a very active part in all the business of the Con- vention. Prompt in his attendance upon all the meetings of the Board and Convention, ever ready to unite with all the friends of Zion in all measures to advance her interests, we feel that we may be allowed to imitate the conduct of the ancient Israelites, who mourned when they saw that Aaron was dead."
At this meeting also the Convention voted to become an auxil- iary of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, and or- ganized a board of managers to act as an executive committee for home missions. Of this board, Alva Sabin was president and G. B. Ide, secretary.
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In their report on the state of religion for 1833, it appears that the churches were generally prosperous, although in the Barre Association the condition was said to be deplorable. It had four- teen churches and only three were ordained ministers. The Board appropriated $200 to support circuit preaching in eight towns in the northwestern portion of the Danville Association, and Brethren Downs, Powell and Jonathan Baldwin preached on the circuit with much success. Earnest effort had been made to secure an effective agent for the Convention and Rev. J. M. Graves had been engaged, but for special reasons he had been able to give but ten weeks to this work. At one of its meetings the Board, having sought in vain to secure an efficient agent, appointed every Bap- tist minister in the State an agent of the Convention. But the result approved the wisdom of the old adage, "What is every- body's business is nobody's," as the receipts for the year were only $755, the smallest amount reported since the first year of the Convention, when the Board began by appointing twenty agents.
At this session, added to the usual committees was one on tracts. On this was the untiring Hadley Proctor and Edward Mitchell. In their report they refer to the general utility of tracts, as proven by their success in the foreign mission work, and by the increasing demand for them throughout the world. The report concludes with the resolution, "(1) That we feel a deep interest in the affairs of the Baptist General Tract Society and approve both their general and denominational publications; (2) That we purchase the Depository at Brandon and take the whole manage- ment of the concern; (3) That we furnish all our domestic mis- sionaries a suitable portion of tracts for gratuitous distribution."
The sessions of the Convention were adjourned three hours to give time for the anniversary of the Education Society.
In 1834, the Convention held its anniversary at North Spring- field. Mr. Joab Seely, agent of the American Bible Society, ad- dressed the Convention in relation to the work of that society, and was commended to the patronage of the Baptist churches of Ver- mont, among which he was then traveling.
Rev. Bela Jacobs, secretary of the Western Baptist Education Society, gave an interesting account of the efforts in operation to
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extend general information and pure religion throughout the states of the Mississippi Valley, and upon calling for contributions, above $100 was immediately raised for the work of the society he repre- sented, and resolutions passed commending the interests of that great valley, with its rapidly increasing population, to the prayers and contributions of the people. The work of the Board had been limited for lack of means. But few churches had been aided. The Orleans circuit had been organized, but no man found to take charge of it. One church, the Passumpsic, realizing the destitu- tion in this circuit, were willing that their pastor should be absent from home a third of the time, and he worked with success and was rewarded by seeing several churches revived, and reported sixty conversions in Derby and thirty in Coventry.
William Guilford and Prosper Davison were employed about thirteen weeks, and Edward Mitchell and Jona. Baldwin worked in Lower Canada with encouraging success. During that year twelve protracted meetings were held in the Danville Association, and three hundred were baptized into the fellowship of those churches.
The Leyden Association changed its name to the Windham County Association. The Vermont Association was divided and its boundaries confined to Rutland County.
The Addison Association held its first anniversary this year.
We have covered now the first decade in the history of the Convention. The results have been thus summed up by Rev. Chas. Hibbard, whose centennial address is the basis of what has been already given. "The success of the organization has already become assured. It has facilitated intercourse among brethren in all parts of the State; it has become a strong bond of union to the churches and of fraternal and christian affection to their member- ship; it has made known to all the wants of the destitute, and has become the medium of their relief. Noble plans of usefulness have been devised, sectional jealousies have been removed, selfishness repressed and benevolence promoted. Churches separated by mountain barriers have become one in feeling, in interest, in action. Supported by its contributions, the heralds of the Cross have con- veyed the glad tidings of mercy to the sinful and perishing through-
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out the length and breadth of the State; and many a barren spot has been made to blossom as the rose. And not only to our own State, but to Canada and to many a western settlement, and even to distant Burma, it has become a fountain of blessings. The Sab- bath School Union, The Home Mission Board, The Education Society and institutions of learning have been the natural out- growth of the Convention. During these years, six thousand, four hundred and forty-nine persons have been received into the mem- bership of the churches by baptism, and the total membership has been increased from six thousand, six hundred and twenty-nine in 1825 to ten thousand, six hundred and eighty-two in 1834. The receipts of money in the meantime have amounted to $13,657, making a yearly average of $1,365.70. And, finally, Nathan Brown and his noble wife, have been sent as missionaries to Burma."
The study of these early records and documents reveals the conception the founders had of the constituency of the Convention and of the method of accomplishing its mission. The Convention originally was a federation of missionary societies. It was a sort of missionary trust; all the little scattered missionary societies pool- ing their contributions in a central treasury, under the management of trustees appointed by their representatives. The membership of the Convention consisted of the delegates of associations, missionary and education societies, and contributing individuals. The representation of a society was determined by the size of its contribution. Each organization was entitled to one delegate, and if its contribution amounted to $50, it could send another. The influence of an individual was determined by the size of his con- tribution. Five dollars annually made him a member for life, and $50 at one time made him a member of the Board of Trustees for life!
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