The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 63

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt. : Vermont Watchman and State Journal Press
Number of Pages: 1064

USA > Vermont > Washington County > Montpelier > The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier. > Part 63

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The Newbury Seminary boarding-house furnishings and school apparatus were re- moved to this Institution, and the funds resulting from the sale of the Springfield Seminary property was also paid into this Institution.

In the fall of 1868, the school was opened, with a faculty most of whom had recently been teachers in Newbury Semi- nary, and many of their former pupils came with them. Rev. S. F. Chester having been the last Principal at Newbury, was the first Principal at Montpelier.

The Seminary building, having been erected under the superintendence of Revs.

S. Holman and A. G. Button, was opened for use in the fall of 1872, which is thought to be one of the finest academic buildings in New England. The school property, grounds, buildings, etc., are valued at $82,000.

At present there are in the School seven courses of study, as follows :

I. Common English, . I year.

2. Business, 2 years.

3. Modern, 3 years.

4. Music. 3 years.

5. College Preparatory, 3 years.

6. Latin Scientific, 4 years.

7. Collegiate, 4 years.

While the scholarship is designed to be thorough, the moral and religious welfare of the students is a prominent feature of this school; and though founded and fos- tered by the Methodist Church, it gladly welcomes students of all communions, giv- ing to them the privilege of such Church Sabbath service as their parents or guar- dians may designate.

It is with gratitude that we acknowledge the healthful religious influence which has been manifest since the transfer of the school to Montpelier, though it has hardly reached what was often seen in its palmiest days at Newbury. It has been at Mont- pelier only about 12 years, and its alumni are already taking rank as educators, min- isters, lawyers and business men.

Principals at Montpelier .- Rev. S. F. Chester, A. M., Rev. C. W. Wilder, A. M., Rev. J. C. W. Coxe, A. M., Rev. L. White, A. M., and Rev. J. B. South- worth, the present Principal, who has com- menced his sixth year.

Present Board of Trust .- Rev. J. A. Sherburn, president ; Rev. A. L. Cooper, secretary ; P. H. Hinkley, Esq., treasurer.

By the blessing of God, and the wise, united and persistent efforts of the friends of this school, it is hoped it may live in growing efficiency and usefulness as the years go by, being a blessing not only to the Church which built it and cares for it, but also to the wide, wide world.

W. cle be th he sh it in

M - g da ga de iou to sic tu ne an fo th ty ul th fer tai CO

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BETHANY CHURCH, MONTPELIER, VT.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH PAPERS.

[Compiled from material furnished chiefly by Hon. JOSEPH POLAND, but in which we shall purposely omit the statistics given by Mr. WALTON on page 239, preceding .- ED.]

The first Congregational organization in Montpelier was the Society-83 members -formed in April, 1800, antedating the or- ganization of the Church 3 months and 8 days. It was called the " First Congre- gational Society of Montpelier." Its first declaration was :

Impressed with the importance of relig- ious institutions to society in general, and to ourselves as men, and taking into con- sideration the unsettled state of such insti- tutions in this part of the country, and the necessity of uniting in religious opinions and harmony : we do hereby agree and form ourselves into a religious society, by the name of the first Congregational Socie- ty in Montpelier, under the following reg- ulations :

I. We pledge ourselves to each other that we will (laying aside all trifling dif= ferences) according to our abilities, main- tain regular meetings in our Society, and contribute to the support of preaching, and when consistent, to maintaining a regular clergyman in the Society.

2. That no member of this Society shall be compelled to pay any sum or sums for the use of the Society, except such sum as he shall voluntarily subscribe.

3. When any member of the society shall remove to such distance as to render it inconvenient for him to attend our meet- ings, or shall in conscience think he ought

to dissent, he may notify the Clerk there- of, whose duty it shall be to enter the same on record, and such person shall no long- er be considered as a member of this Society.

4. We agree to meet at the usual place of holding meetings, in the Academy in Montpelier, on Wednesday, the 27th day of April, instant, at 3 o'clock in the after- noon, for the purpose of organizing said society with proper officers, and transact- ing any proper business when met.

Dated at Montpelier, this 12th day of April, 1800.

Elisha Town, George Worthington, Jo- seph Hutchins, Geo. B. R. Gove, Oliver Goss, Thomas Davis, Timothy Hubbard, John Bates, Charles Bulkley, Augustus Bradford, John Hurlbut, Alden Clark, Isaac Freeman, Amasa Brown, Jeduthan Loomis, Stuart Boynton, Willis I. Cad- well, Abel Wilson, Phineas Woodbury, Thomas Reed, Sylvester Day, Nathan Jew- ett, E. D. Persons, Samuel Prentiss. jun., Urial H. Orvis, Ellis Nye, Joseph Howes, Linus Ellis, William Hutchins, Jeremiah Wilbur, Roswell Beckwith, David Tuthill, M. B. Billings, Jonathan Shepherd, Eras- tus Watrous, Silas Burbank, Cyrus Ware, Roger Hubbard, Joseph Freeman, Edward Lamb, Nahum Kelton, Larned Lamb, C. W. Houghton, Josiah Parks, Sylvanus Baldwin, Joseph Wiggins, Abner H. Pow- ers, Abel Crooker, Ebenezer Morse, Enoch Cheney, Mason Johnson, Samuel Goss, David Edwards, Oliver Dewey, John Hunt, Ichabod Peck, Darius Boyden, Levi Pit- kin, E. Lewis, Hers. Estabrooks, T. Gay- lord, Jude Converse, Theop. Pickering, Archibald Kidd, Joseph Ray, Paul Knapp, Henry Howes, Samuel West, D. Edwards, jun., Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Bass, Charles Hamlin, William Hamlin, Timo- thy Hatch, Solomon Lewis, Elijah Tyler, John Howes, Joshua Y. Vail, J. H. Lang- don, S. W. Cobb, Ebenezer Parker.

April 27th, this Society held its first meeting, and chose Samuel Goss to con- tract with a clergyman. June 24th, the Society voted to employ Rev. Chester Wright. (See sketch.)

The original members of the Church, or- ganized July the 20th, were :

Amasa Brown, Sylvanus Baldwin, An- drew Dodge, Heraldus Estabrooks, Sam- uel Goss, Timothy Hatch, Joseph Howes, Solomon Lewis, Sibyl Brown, Bachsheba Burbank, Lydia Davis, Susannah Lewis, Lydia Hatch, Polly Barker, Patty Howes, Rebeckah Persons, Sarah Wiggins.

Relation of Church and Society. - The Society owns and has care of the house,

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by mutual understanding with the Church, provides for and pays the salary of the pas- tor, and all funds needful for public wor- ship. When the pulpit is vacant, the Church may appoint a committee to act with a committee of the Society, if they choose, or leave it to the committee of the Society to secure a supply. In the settle- ment of a pastor, the Church take the first step in voting a call; after which the So- ciety are asked to concur with the action of the Church, and a call is given by joint action. The annual meeting of the Socie- ty is on the last Monday of December.

At the first communion after, 12 persons more were added to the Church, and Aug. 16th, the day of Mr. Wright's ordination, 15 children were baptized. In the 3 years subsequent to 1812, 30 persons united with the Church; from 1816 to 1820, 142; in 1827, more than 70. In 1830, the last of Mr. Wright's pastorate, the Church was almost daily enlarging.

REV. CHESTER WRIGHT.

Prepared, by particular request, for this work, by his grandson, Rev. J. EDWARD WRIGHT.

Thompson, in his History of Montpelier, having drawn a dark picture of the low moral state into which the town had lapsed at the beginning of the present century, refers to the action of a large portion of the better class of the people who desired a reformation, which resulted in the engage- ment of a minister and the organization of a church, from which time a marked im- provement was seen, and " the village of Montpelier, redeemed and regenerated through the blest instrumentalities of the affectionate and untiring labors of the devoted, self-sacrificing and high-souled Father Wright, at length took its stand among the most moral and orderly com- munities in the State." Perhaps the wri- ter's enthusiastic admiration led him in- to exaggeration in ascribing so great a re- sult to the efforts of one man ; but, with all due allowance made, Mr. Wright must certainly be ranked among the very first and worthiest of Montpelier's moral bene- factors. He was the first pastor of its Congregational Church, and here his min- istry continued for more than twenty years.

For a large part of that period he was the only pastor in the town. It was his first settlement. It was at a time when the preacher spoke with an official authority which he does not command to-day. And the town itself was then "in the gristle," as it were. Thus it was the very time for moral and religious suasions to tell. His faithful work did tell ; and many have there been who would sympathize with the his- torian's enthusiasm for his subject, even if they could not fully endorse all his lan- guage. "Even to this day," said the Rev. W. H. Lord, D. D., in the pulpit which Mr. Wright once occupied, and eighteen years after his decease, " the living power of his ministry is seen and felt in all this community, and his memory is kept in the hearts of many, fresh and sacred-fragrant and perfumed with the savor of a deep, deathless devotion to the cause of his Mas- ter. The church, nay, the village of Mont- pelier, is indebted to him, under God, for many of those principles and sentiments, and generous, hospitable, social traits, and kind brotherly feelings, which have dis- tinguished its society. Underneath all the frivolities and conventionalities of her mod- ern life, there is a strong blessed under- current of human sympathies, and effect- ive feelings of social interest and life, which have their source in the influence of his ministry."

The man from whose labors such grand results flowed, was born in Hanover, N. H., Nov. 6, 1776. He was the son of Na- thaniel and Jemima (Bartlett) Wright, and the fourth of their eight children.

His father was a farmer, one of the first settlers of Hanover, an estimable man, and a deacon of the Congregational church. His mother, a woman of deep piety, died when he was 8 years old, and his father subsequently married Mary Page, by whom he had three children. In 1815, two years after her death, he was united to Mrs. Martha Conant May.

The subject of this sketch passed his youth on the farm, and intended to follow his father's occupation. He bought a farm in Berkshire, Vt., on attaining his majority, but before working long on it

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was led to consider the claims of the Christian ministry, and to change his en- tire plan of life. He began the necessary course of classical study, finished it, and entered Middlebury College in 1802. He supported himself during his preparatory work and his college course partly by teaching, and graduated, having maintain- ed a fair standing, in 1806, being then 30 years of age. For 2 years he was the pre- ceptor of the Addison County Grammar School, and then he began the study of theology with the Rev. Asa Burton, D. D., of Thetford, Vt. Later, his studies were directed by the Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., of New Haven, Conn., and he was licensed to preach in 1808. In June of that year his services were engaged by the newly formed Congregational society in Montpelier, and after 12 months he was invited to settle as their pastor, at a salary of "$350 for the first year, $375 for the sec- ond, $400, together with the use of a con- venient parsonage, annually, after the second year." His ordination took place Aug. 16, 1809; sermon by the Rev. Asa Burton, D. D., of Thetford ; charge by the Rev. Stephen Fuller, of Vershire, and right hand of fellowship by the Rev. Calvin Noble, of Chelsea. His labor in this place having continued more than a score of years, he was dismissed Dec. 22, 1830 -a step which seemed inevitable to the council which consented to it, in view of the withdrawal of support by members who were offended by Mr. Wright's course in regard to Free Masonry.

The early years of his ministry were very fruitful to the church and the com- munity generally. "The church received additions at almost every communion till the time of my ordination," he says. The band of seventeen who were consti- tuted a church, July 20, 1808, became seventy by the fall of 1810. "In two short years, the testimony is universal," says the Rev. Dr. Lord, " a great change passed over the society. In family after family, the worship of the true Jehovah was established, and morning and evening sacrifice was regularly offered in the name of Jesus. Men of unbelieving and

skeptical sentiments became impressed and sobered. Young men of dissipated habits became industrious and devout. The streets no longer echoed with ribaldry and profaneness ; social life and intercourse were greatly refined and improved ; . and it seemed as if the placid and benefi- cent spirit of christianity had descended to hover over and to dwell in a place once so troubled and distracted."

In the 4 years, from 1816 to 1820, 142 persons were received into the church. Indeed, " at no time in the history of Mr. Wright's ministry, was there any remark- able moral sterility. The influences of divine grace and truth were steady and effective. The special times of religious interest were not followed by drought and reaction." And the records show that 428 persons were welcomed to the fellowship of the organization during Mr. Wright's pastorate.

His labors were not limited to his own flock, nor confined within the boundaries of his own parish. His missionary activ- ity was very great, and wherever oppor- tunity offered, he held religious meetings to the limit of his strength, whether in churches, dwellings, school-houses, or barns. He was a leader in the councils of his denomination in the State, and was often sent as a delegate to ecclesiastical gatherings beyond its borders.

Theologically, he was conservative. " New lights " in religious doctrine were to him false lights. Buthe was in advance of most of his associates in reformatory work. Very early did he enlist against in- temperance, endeavoring to stem the evil tide. The cause of the slave readily won his sympathy and his advocacy. The ed- ucation of the young commanded much of his thought ; the great Anti-Masonic con- troversy aroused his interest. And in all these matters he " conferred not with flesh and blood " as to the course to pursue. He closed his ears against the suggestion of prudential considerations. He only asked, "What is right? What is the path of duty ?" and, when conscience gave answer, heeded her voice alone. He may have erred ; if so, his was not the error of

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a cool time-server and trimmer, a shrewd calculator for self; it was the error of one whose whole being thrilled with devotion to God and man, of one whose excess was ever on the side of conscientiousness and philanthropy.

As Mr. Wright had, during his pastorate in Montpelier, eked out his small salary by occasionally acting as a tutor, so, after his dismissal, he had for some time charge of the instruction of a class of boys at his house, preaching meanwhile, as opportu- nity offered, in churches readily accessi- ble from this village. He was regularly engaged for quite a while to fill the pulpit in East Montpelier.

In 1836, he was settled in Hardwick, in this State, remaining there till early in 1840, when failing health led him to return to Montpelier, where he died of consump- tion, Apr. 16, at his former residence, then occupied by his daughter, Mrs. J. W. Howes. His body was placed in the graveyard on Elm street, but on the open- ing of Green Mount Cemetery, it was re- moved thither.

His widow, nee Charlotte Clapp Whitney, of Royalton, survived him 19 years. They were married in April, 1811, and had 6 children, four of whom lived to maturity, and were married- Jonathan Edwards, married Fanny Wyman Houghton, of Mont- pelier ; Charlotte Whitney, married James H. Howe, of Troy, N. Y .; Julia, married Joseph W. Howes, of Montpelier ; and Eliza Maria, married Ferrand F. Merrill, of Montpelier. Of these four children, only Mrs. Howes survives at the present date. Descendants of all the others are living, however.

Although Mr. Wright's literary training began late, he was a man of no mean at- tainments as a scholar, and held high rank among his contemporaries. He was rec- ognized as possessing a sound judgment, and his counsel and advice were often sought.

He was from 1819 till his decease a member of the corporation of Middlebury College. While engaged in teaching, he published an arithmetic entitled, "The Federal Compendium ;" and at various

times quite a number of his sermons were printed ; not only obituary discourses, but also others-as an " Election Sermon" in 1810, a sermon before the Middlebury College Charitable Society in 1814, and in the latter part of his life, two sermons, which he entitled, "The Devil in the Nineteenth Century," and which were called forth by certain extravagances com- mitted, under the name of religion, in Hardwick. [The " New Lights," see ac- count of in vol I, page 329, of this work .- ED.]

In person, Mr. Wright was under the average height, of slight figure, with keen brown eyes. Though described as "ap- parently deficient in physical powers," he was quick in all his movements, vigorous and energetic in action, and intrepid in the face of danger. Pre-eminent as a pastor, he was persuasive and successful as a preacher, a leader among philanthro- pists, stainless in private life, and ever alive to the material, as well as the spirit- ual, interests of the people whose servant he made himself "for Jesus' sake."

J. E. w.

After the close of Mr. Wright's ministry there was an interval of 9 months before the church was supplied with another pastor, and when Mr. Hopkins' 32 succeed- ing years' pastorate closed, Rev. Mr. Burchard, the noted revivalist, took the vacant pulpit for a 40 days' protracted meeting, of which, says the Rev. Dr. Lord, in his fiftieth anniversary sermon, "Good was accomplished at a tremendous cost. Of course, after such an exciting preacher, the church found it diffi- cult to settle down to the regular ministra- tions of the word, or to find a pastor who would unite their suffrages. For a year thereafter, the society was afflicted with 17 candidates, a sufficient number to have furnished a half dozen superior ministers."

At length a call was given to Rev. Buel W. Smith, who accepted it, and labored here 4 years, as long as his health would permit.

Mr. Gridley was pastor for the next 5 years, during which the only important

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event was the dismissal of several members to the Episcopal church, of which says Mr. Lord :

Including one, for a long time a faithful and efficient co-laborer with us, a super- intendent of the Sunday-school, and the not infrequent lay reader of sermons to this congregagation ; a gentleman of edu- cation and piety, who became the first rector of that church in this village. It is not inappropriate to say that while we greet the success and prosperity of that society, and rejoice in its present health- ful activity and enlargement, and recog- nize it, in its methods and ways, as an ef- ficient agent of Christ's Kingdom, we take peculiar satisfaction and pleasure in the remembrance that many of the prin- ciples and persons, which have given to it such animation 'and efficiency, were be- gotten and nurtured under the shadow of these walls. And it is almost with a ma- ternal sentiment that we contemplate its origin, while with fraternal salutation we bid it to-day God speed in the work in which we are united, of raising this whole community to the level of the Gospel.

Mr. Lord succeeded to Rev. Mr. Grid- ley in the pastorate, of which he says :

I have already, on a former occasion, adverted to the records of my own min- istry among you ; yet still, the occasion would seem to require some notice of its events. I came here in a time of division and controversy. With the dreams of youth and inexperience, I entered upon the hard toil of the ministry, in a disunited church, divided not in principle, not in vital sentiment, but in local policy and about persons. The records of the church from that day to this are not mere statis- tics and notes and catalogues to me, but a life, a labor, a struggle, full of fears and apprehensions, and encouragements, and joys and hopes. I will only say that God has blessed an unworthy and feeble min- istry, and thank Him for the vast mercies that have followed the course of our rela- tionship. The short period of 11 years has been filled with changes. I preach in the same house, but not to the same audi- ence that listened to my first sermon. There have been 80 removals and 63 deaths in the society; in the church, 70 dismis- sions and 43 deaths since I began my work with you, a considerable increase in the society and 80 baptisms.

The admissions during Mr. Wright's pastorate, 428; during that of Mr. Hop- kins, 48 ; that of Rev. Buel W. Smith, 137 ; that of Mr. Gridley, 21 ; and of Rev. Mr. Lord, 139, to 1876, when the Manual of

Bethany Church was published, which in- cluded his pastorate, less the last year ; making to that date, 1,126 received to membership.

Deacons .- The deacons given in this Manual who have served the church to 1876 are-Sylvanus Baldwin, George Worthing- ton, Salvin Collins, Alfred Pitkin, E. P. Walton, William Howes, Jeduthan Loom- is, John Wood, Norman Rublee, Constant W. Storrs, F. F. Merrill, E. P. Walton, Jr., N. P. Brooks, John A. Page, and Joseph Poland.

Church Clerks .- Samuel Goss, 1808; Rev. Chester Wright, 1809 to '30 ; James Spalding, 1831 ; Jeduthan Loomis, 1832 ; Rev. Samuel Hopkins, 1832 to '35 ; Jedu- than Loomis, 1835 ; Rev. Buel W. Smith, 1837, '38 ; Lyman Briggs, 1840, '41 ; Rev. John Gridley, 1842 to '46; Gustavus H. Loomis, 1846, '47 ; Rev. W. H. Lord, D.D., 1848 to '75 ; Mahlon C. Kinson, 1876 to '79 ; Rev. C. S. Smith, 1880.

This church is Congregational in polity and affiliation, and heartily receives the doctrine and order of Christianity as they are stated, for substance, in the declara- tion of faith and order made by the Boston Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States in 1865, and adopted by the General Convention of Ministers and Churches of Vermont in 1874.

Resuming our extracts from Mr. Lord's sermon :

This church can now give her invitations with more earnestness and force than ever, before. She has a history of 50 years ; she has tested the virtue of her everlasting foundations ; she has a roll of 924 members, of whom 364 are to-day in her earthly com- munion, and nearly 300 gone home to that happy harbor,

"Whose gardens and whose goodly walks Continually are green."

The celestial spirit of peace has never long been absent from this society ; joy and peace have been the rule. I seem to hear the voice of her many choirs, all blending this day in grand unison to the glory of God. I seem to catch some strains of the strange melody of all her singers and instruments of music. I listen to the solemn dirge for her dead, the sober grief of her funeral orations, the sobs of her mourners, the songs of her redeemed. Again, in long circles of young men and

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maidens, of strong men and furrowed age, her thousand witnesses for Christ seem to collect, and stand before her altar and re- peat her solemn consecration, and sit around the hallowed emblems of her Sav- ior's death. Again, I hear their conclud- ing triumphant acclaim, the sublime dox- ology to the Triune Jehovah, not one voice wanting in that imagined song. Again, I seem to hear the words of prayer and invi- tation, and the voices long or lately hushed in death, that used to break the stillness of her conference.

And as the imagination goes into the past, to awake into life its history, and to kindle its scenes, so does it project itself onward, fifty, an hundred years. Then another voice than mine shall address an- other audience than this, on the centennial birthday of the church. Two or three that joined it at the last communion may hear the discourse. The rest shall have fallen asleep. Another organ shall respond to the fingers of another player ; another choir shall chant the same sublime psalm and hymns ; these places left of us shall be filled with many more. Eternity will be our residence. May its centennial cycle find us all, if removed from earth, in that City which hath foundations, whose Build- er and Maker is God.

REV. WILLIAM HAYES LORD, D. D. BY PRES. BUCKHAM, OF THE VT. UNIVERSITY. From an Address read before the Vt. His- torical Society, Oct. 14, 1878.

William H. Lord was the son of Rev. Nathan Lord, President of Dartmouth from 1828, 35 years. William Lord was thus brought at four years old into the midst of a college circle, and brought up under the strong influences of that remarka- ble man from whom he inherited some of his most characteristic and pronounced opinions. He entered his collegiate course in his sixteenth year, ranked well in all his studies, excelling in language and literature, was a Phi Beta Kappa, de- livered the Greek poem at Commencement ; graduated (1846) at Andover ; but was not a subtle logician. He could state an opin- ion with clearness and force, and present it with luminous illustration and persuasive appeal, better than he could maintain it in the lists against all comers. Shortly after finishing his studies, he began to preach in Montpelier. He was emphatically a preacher ; his diction choice and elegant.

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The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 63

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Montpelier, Vt. : Vermont Watchman and State Journal Press Number of Pages: 1064

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt. : Vermont Watchman and State Journal Press
Number of Pages: 1064