USA > Vermont > Rutland County > The history of Rutland county, Vermont; civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military, pt 1 > Part 14
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other branches of the church, and the society became well-nigh extinct. A sad warning against strife among brethren.
In 1814, William Clark, a zealous Method- ist, removed into town. He, in connection with Eli Mc Collum established meetings, and Brandon became once more a regular preach- ing appointment, which it has continuei to be to the present time. Three years later, in 1817, a great revival prevailed in town. Benaiah Douglas and Daniel Pomeroy are remembered as the chief members of the church in 1825.
A camp-meeting was held in Brandon, near the village, in 1831, and another in 1832. Elder Tobias Spicer presided at both. Bishop Elijah Hedding attended the first, preached and ordained a minister.
Rev. Peter P. Harrower was appointed to the charge of the Brandon Society for the last quarter of the conference year 1834-5 and the succeeding year. When he went there he found about 30 members in the soci- ety, mostly in middle and advanced life, the chief men of whom were Daniel Pomeroy, Benj. McDaniels, David Sanderson and Eli Mc Collum. About the first of September, 1835, a revival commenced and continued without interruption for some 8 months. As the result, about 60 converts joined the church on probation, and all, with one or two exceptions, continued in the church.
The first Methodist Sunday-School in town was established by Mr. Harrower the same year. The Sunday-School, together with a bible-class meeting on a week day, had much to do with this revival. Mr. Harrower su- perintended the school himself for some time. He then appointed Harry S. Mc Collum, su- perintendent, who was at the time an uncon- verted man, but he soon after experienced a change of heart. Later superintendents of the school have been Charles Sullings, jr., Rev. William Ford, Henry L. Leonard and J. S. Stafford.
A legal society was organized for building a Methodist church, Oct. 4, 1836, and on the 18th, Levi Bacon, Daniel Pomeroy, H. S. Mc Collum, Edward Fisk and Lorenzo Wash- burn were chosen trustees, and Daniel Pom- eroy, building committee. It had already been determined to build a brick church with a tower. Daniel Pomeroy for himself and son subscribed $ 1350 for the church, the next highest subscription being only $ 150, The
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church was built in 1837-8, and was dedicat-| New York and Pennsylvania. He filled im- el just before conference in the latter year, presiding elder John M. Weaver preaching the dedicatory sermon.
Through the efforts of Rev. John W. Bel- knap, who was appointed to Brandon in les, the first pastor to occupy the pulpit in the new church, in connection with the pas- tors of the Baptist and Congregational church. ex, special services were held at Forestdale, the Arnold neighborhood, and in other school- houses about town, and an extensive revival occurred; 30 adults were converted in the Arnold district alone. In this revival Lewis Barker was converted, who has since been one of the main pillars of the church. Un- der the labors of Rev. Daniel F. Page, pastor in 1841, a series of meetings was held in the Arnold school-house, at which a large num- ber of children were converted. The num- bers of probationers reported to conference by Rev. C. R. Ford, pastor 1855-7, indicate that very considerable additions were made to the church by conversion during his term of service. The largest number of members that has ever been reported to conference, since Brandon became a separate charge, was 131 members and 11 probationers which were reported by Rev. B. D. Ames in 1862.
The present officers of the church are as follows: Pastor, Rev: Andrew Heath ;
Stewards, H. S. Mc Collum, Lewis Barker, W'm. A. Williams, Emory Fuller, James L. Cahee Henry L. Leonard, A. Me Laughlin, J. S. Stafford and Asahel L. Cool.
Leaders, Wm. A. Williams, Henry L. Leonard, and Chauncey Hewett.
Sunday-School Superintendent, J. S. Staf- ford.
A very eligible lot, opposite the Brandon House, has recently been secured, on which to erect a new church., This enterprise will doubtless be carried out at no distant day. The church has also erected a cottage on the New Haven Camp-Ground.
The following preachers have been raised up in connection with the Brandon society, viz. Noah Bigelow, licensed to preach in 1:00. Nathaniel B. Alden, licensed to preach in 1-10. Charles Pomeroy, licensed to preach in 1820, and Enoch Brazee probably licensed to preach about the same time as the latter. Mr. Bigelow entered the travelling connec- tion in 1510., preached in the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
portant appointments in Portland, Maine, Pittsfield, Mass., Troy, N. Y. and New York City, at which place he died about 1845. Ile was a man of genuine piety and superior tal- ents, but injured his health by the practice of vociferous speaking. He commenced his re- ligious life alone, so far as his own family was concerned, they all remaining unconvert- ed till the great revival of 1817, when most of them were brought in. Charles Pomeroy joined the New York conference in 1822. He was a powerful preacher, and a man of deep conscientiousness and solid piety. He con- tinued a faithful and useful minister of the church, till in the mental infirmity of ad- vanced age he became a Swedenborgian. He has reared a most worthy family of children, several of whom have been called to fill re- sponsible positions in society. Rev. Enoch Brazee left the church and joined the Free Will Baptists.
STATISTICS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, BRANDON.
The following table contains the statistics of the circuit in which the Brandon society was included, from the beginning down to 1841, and from that time to the present the statistics of the Church in Brandon which has been a separate station :
Year. Members. Names of Ministers appointed.
1798 186 Joseph Mitchell, Abner Wood.
1799 274 Joseph Mitchell, Joseph Sawyer.
1800 343 Henry Ryan, Robert Dyer.
1801 285 Ezekiel Canfield, Eben'r Wash- burn.
1802 292 Eben'r Stevens, Joshua Crowell.
1803 295
Henry Eames, Ebenezer Stevens.
1804 351
Seth Crowell.
1805 388 Samuel Draper, Reuben Harris.
1806 360 Samuel Howe, George Powers.
1807 395 George Powers, Lewis Pease.
1808 431 Dexter Bates, Steph. Sornborger.
1809 559 Francis Brown.
1810 645 Daniel Brumly, Tobias Spicer.
1811 408 Samuel Howe, Justus Byington.
1812 587 David Lewis, Beardsley Nor- throp.
1813 640
Thomas Madden, David Lewis.
1814 611
Almon Dunbar.
1815 608 Justus Byington, Jacob Beeman.
1816 605
J. Byington, D. Lewis, Cyprian H. Gridley.
1817 733
D. Lewis, C. H. Gridley, James Covell.
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Year. Mem. Prob. Names of Ministers appointed.
1313 715
Isaac Hill, Phinehas Doan.
1819 793
Eli Barnett, Moses Amidon.
1820 737
Samuel Draper, Jacob Beeman.
18-1 773
Samuel Draper, Moses Amidon, J. Beeman.
1822 921
George Smith, Hiram Meeter.
1823 432
Harvey De Wolf, Philo Ferris.
182: 501
Harvey De Wolf, Dillon Stevens.
1825 429
Cyrus Prindle, Lucius Baldwin.
1826 510
Cyrus Prindle.
1827 128
Orvil Kimpton.
1828 160
Joshua Poor.
1829 202
J. Poor, M. Chamberlain.
1830 236
Cyrus Meeker, Christopher R. Morris.
1831 255
Charles Pomeroy, Lewis Potter.
1832 255
William Rider, John Alley.
1833 299
Samuel Eighmy, Asa C. Hand.
1834 272
1835
Reuben Wescott, Peter M. Hitch- cock, P. P. Harrower.
1836. 238
Joel Squire, Lawton Cady, Man- ley, Witherill.
1837 333
Ezra Sayre, Braman Ayers, Da- vid P. Hulburd.
1838 390
E. Sayre, John W. Belknap, D. P. Hulburd,
1839 237
W. F. Hurd, Peter P. Harrower, Cassius H. Harvey.
1840 311
W. F. Hurd, Micajah Townsend, David Osgood.
1841 293
Daniel F. Page.
1842 86
William A. Miller.
1843 87 William Ford.
1841 80 Thomas Kirby.
1845 78 Thomas Kirby.
1846
90 Mathias Ludlum.
1847 60 Mathias Ludlum.
1848 70 Albinus Johnson.
1849 79 3 Albinus Johnson.
1850 72 2 Alvin C. Rose.
1851
70 1 Alvin C. Rose.
1352 77 2 Diodorus H. Loveland.
1853 91 8 Diodorus H. Loveland.
1854 100 8 Reuben Washburne.
1855 87 16 Cornelius R. Ford.
1856 72 35 Cornelius R. Ford.
1857 91 31 Zina HI. Brown, W'm. Ford.
1353 110 19 Zina II. Brown, Win. Ford.
1859 114 6 William A. Miller, Win. Ford.
1860 116 3 Bernice D. Aines, Win. Ford.
1861 127 6 Bernice D. Amnes.
1862 131 11 Andrew Witherspoon, D. D.
1863 110 5 Andrew Witherspoon, D. D.
1864 110 2 Richard Morgan.
{$65 112 3 Richard Morgan.
1866 Richard Morgan.
1867 123 5 William Ford.
1868 124 3 Wm. W. Atwater.
IS09 121 10 Wm. W. Atwater. 1870 120 9 Andrew Heath.
1871 115 8 Andrew Heath.
The circuit of which the statistics are giv- en above was at first called Vergennes, and embraced all the Methodists in Vermont, west of the Mountains. In 1799 it was cur- tailed by the organization of Essex circuit, embracing that portion of Western Vermont, north of Williston. In 1801, it first appears under the name of Brandon circuit, all the ter- ritory north of Salisbury remaining in Ver- gennes circuit. It then, and for some time afterwards, extended south and west so as to include Danby and Wells, and Granville with Whitehall and Crownpoint in New York. In 1821, the circuit was further reduced in size by the erection of Whitehall circuit from it, embracing Shoreham, Sudbury, Hubbardton, Middletown and the towns to the west of them. The circuit before many years was still further reduced in size, and from 1826 to 1840 its boundaries and name were often changed. For one or two years, about 1835 it is not easy to determine from the Minutes in what circuit the Brandon Society was in- cluded. From 1841 to the present time, (1572), the boundaries of the charge have re- mained substantially unchanged, embracing the town of Brandon and the William's dis- trict in Sudbury.
FROM A DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARAC- TER OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
BY REV. B. D. AMES, DELIVERED IN THE METHODIST E. CHURCH AT BRANDON, ON SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 1861 .*
"How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle."-2D SAMUEL I. 25.
During the last week signs of mourning appeared throughout the nation. Bells were tolled, minute guns fired, and flags were dis- played at half-mast and draped in black. The telegraph dashed everywhere the melan- choly intelligence that a distinguished citizen was no more.
On Monday morning last, Hon. Stephen Arnold Douglas closed his earthly career. The prominent part he had borne in the af- fairs of the nation, the suddenness of his death, its occurrence in the high noon of his manhood and in the plenitude and maturity of his strength, as well as in the crisis of the nation's history, have all conspired to render the event peculiarly impressive. Truly,
* Printed in pamphlet .- Ed.
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" Death loves a shining mark, a single blow, A blow which while it executes, alarms.
Aud startles thousands with a single fall."
The death of such a man, of one who has by his words and deeds occupied so large a share of the public attention, and who has been so lauded by his friends and decried by his enemies, affords a favorable opportunity to take a survey of his life and character. * * * * *
And it is the more fitting for us to make this improvement of the solemn event from the fact that here was the birth place of Senator Douglas, the home of his child. hood and youth, the residence of his father and grandfather, and their final resting place. c* *
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Mr. Douglas was born in the house now occupied by Justus Hyatt, Esq., in this vil- lage, Apr. 23, 1813. His father, for whom he was named, was a physician-a native of Hancock, Mass. He died suddenly, probably of aneurism of the heart, with the future Senator in his arms, when the latter was but two months old. His grandfather, Benajah Douglas, was a prominent citizen of this town and was for several years its Represent- ative in the State Legislature. He was an early and zealous member of the M. E. Church in this place.
The mother of Mr. Douglas retired with him and a daughter 18 months older to a farm now owned and occupied by Mr. Henry L. Leonard, which she had inherited con . jointly with a brother, the late Mr. Edward Fiske. Until young Douglas was 15 years of age he remained on the farm, in the mean tune acquiring a good common education at my. At this time he earnestly desired to prepare for college, but being thwarted in this by his friends, from pecuniary considera- tions, he left the farm and engaged himself as an apprentice to the trade of cabinet- mak- ing. At this he worked a year and a half, part of the time in Mr. Parker's shop in Middlebury, and part in Dea. Know.ton's in this town. His health failing, he left the shop and en. ered the brick academy, (now the district school house on the south side of the river) in this place, where he prosecuted his studies for a year. He afterwards stud- ied in the academy in Canandaigua, Ontario Co., N. Y., his mother and sister having mar- ried a father and son named Granger, resid- ing in that county. There he began the study of law. In the spring of 1833, he s-t out to seek his fortune in the great West, but was detained the whole summer by severe illness at Cleveland. After his recovery he visited various places until at Jacksonville, Ill., he found his funds reduced to thirty- beven and a half cents. He walked 16 miles to Winchester, replenished his depleted treas- ury by serving three days as clerk for an auctioneer, then opened a school which he taught for three months. While engaged in teaching he studied law, evenings, and prac- ticed before a justice Saturday afternoons.
- Having been admitted to the bar he openel an office in March, 1834. He was remarka- biy successful in his practice, and his prog- ress in his pol tical career was truly marvel- ous. Within a year of his admission to the bar, while not yet 22 years of age he was elected by the Legislature, Attorney General of the State. In 1835, be was chosen a member of the Legislature of which body he was the youngest member. In 1837, he was appointed Register of the Land Office at Springfield, by President Van Buren. In 1838, he came within five votes of an election to Congress in a poll of 36,000 votes. He was then only twenty-five years of age. In December, 1840, he was chosen Secretary of State of Illinois, and in February, 1841, he was chosen a Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1842, he was elected a Representative in Congress, and was re-elected in 1844. At the close of his second term in the lower house of Congress he was transferred to the Senate, of which he continued a member for 14 years, until his death.
He was a prominent competitor for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1852, again in 1856, and he finally achieved it in 1860, to be defeated before the people. But of these later events of his life, with which you are so familiar I need not speak.
During the last 10 or 12 years no man has been so conspicususly and constantly before the American people as Senator Douglas. Scarcely a measure or principle, relating either to the home or foreign policy of the government, has been agitated within that period which has not received his vigorous support or encountered his energetic opposi- the Arnold school-house and the old acade- Ition. He will figure in history as one of the chief actors in the period of our national history which is just now closing with civil war.
He could not be said to have attained the first rank as a Statesman. He must have been endowed with capabilities more than human to have done so in spite of all the disadvantages under which he labored. His scholastic attainments were limited, and his circumstances must have always prevented him from supplying the deficiency by exten- sive reading. Neither his youth as a farmer boy or a cabinet maker's apprentice, nor his manhood as an office holder and a partisan leader and stump speaker afforded an oppor- tunity for acquiring that thorough culture and intimate acquaintance with history and the philosophy of government which are in- dispensable to the great Statesinan.
It was a great mistake or misfortune * of
* We could wish this, the paragraph above and two following, had been written more carefully. "It was a misfor: une to rush so anddenly from the workshop to his profession." " It was certainly a great misfortune to him to be called so early to assume responsible offi- cial trusts" and, "it is doubtful whether he ever found him-elf in a situation where he could not ac- quit himself with credit," are not logical. We adunt them, as they contain somewhat we would retain.
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Mr. Douglas to rush so suddenly from the |dauntless courage, a boldness indeed which workshop to the active practice of ble s . wieg- at times almost bordered upon recklessness. sion; and it was certainly a great = xfor- tune* to him to be called so early to time responsible official trusts, from wi ..... for any length of time, he never after estated.
As an off-hand debater, either in 2. esen- ate or on the stump, he was rarely :: : 2.4dl, and perhaps never vanquished excess when his antagonist had the better cause to s.aad.
His adroitness and skill in debals vere proverbial. A remark has been well applied to him, which an opponent once ma. con- cerning Henry Clay : " If I throw i., he goes of with flying banners, per-uante the spectators that he is victorious, and %, most makes me think so too." His fer: .; in resources was wonderful. Notwithsterling the defects of his early education, it is coubt- ful whether he ever found himself in & ?. tu- tion where he could not acquit himsei with credit.# Vermonters have witnessed some- thing of his skill in adapting himse !: to his audience so as to win the applause even of his determined opponents.
I heard him deliver his speech at Moldle- bury College in 1851, when he rece. 44 the degree of LL.D. there. That was the speech in which he afterward boasted of asving made the remark that " Vermont was & good State to be born in, provided one engrated early." I have no recollection of Lex mak- ing any such remark. But he certainly did not fail to win the admiration of the people. And you well recollect how in his creech here last summer he charmed away all the asperity of your opposition to him. This power of adaptation, the freshness and vigor of his thoughts, his bold and untrammeled style of oratory with his heroic perseverance and courage and that indefinable magnetisin which great leaders civil and mitary so often possess, made him the admiration, the idol of his followers.
Among his remarkable characteristicz were great self-reliance, an indomitable w.nl, un- conquerable energy and perseveranos, and .
We have desired an able paper on this great Stataaman, for the history of Brandon, and several years graco on- gaged the Hon. D. A. Smalley of Burlington, who hal the advantage of an intimate acquaintance with hong- las to prepare his biographical ketch ; ant when we found. a year since, that he shrank now from ao much of a literary effort, and named and engaged Henry Clark, of Vermont historical fame, to be his substitute, and he, Judge Smalley, bal visited him at Rutland for this purpose, and had communicated to him hna help. and Mr. Clark had assured us that he would give the paper, and has it underway but not yet compl tod- unwilling to go to press with Brandon papers without svine account of the " Little Giant" of the nation, born at Brandon, we have concluded to give this extract here, from the commemorative sormon prowhad for him in his native town; and the biographical sketch Mr. Clark has in progress, with other inlereating and valuable papers, prepared aul being prepared, to follow the histories of the towns of Rutland Couuly .- KL.
His self-reliance flashed forth when his family decided that he must relinquish the idea of acquiring a collegiate education. " Well then," he is reported to have said. "I will take care of myself,"-a principle upon which he doubtless acted ever afterwards. In this trait he was well worthy of the im- itation of his young fellow-countrymen.
His unconquerable will, his quenchless energy, and undaunted courage were fully put to the test in his inemorable struggle for the repeal of the slavery restriction of the Missouri compromise in which he was op- posed by nearly the whole North, and again in his heroic struggle against the admission of Kansas under the Lecoinpton constitution, when he had the administration and nearly all the members of Congress of his own party pitted against him. Perhaps no other man living would have had the courage to throw down the gauntlet as he did in offering the Kanzas-Nebraska bill, or could have carried it through if he had. *
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I. Judge Douglas was inexcusably prodi- gal of that priceless boon, physical health.
Although far from robust in his youth, yet in his mature manhood, he had an iron con- stitution, and his powers of endurance were prodigious. But his free habits of living, and his Herculean labors were too much for any one to endure. Perhaps no one ever carried stump speaking to such excess as he did. During the presidential canvass of 1840 he addressed 200 political gatherings. And his biographer states that in the four months occupied in his senatorial campaign in 1853, "he made 130 speeches-127 of which were delivered in the open air. He passed most of the time in rail cars and car- riages, on an average, going to bed but three times a week. On one occasion, during the canvass, he was five days and nights with- out going to bed." These, with his last sum- mer's tour, are but the more prominent spec- imens of his labors in this particular field for the last twenty years. And some of his campaigns in the senate have been hardly less severe than any before the people. * *
Senator Douglas was admonished of his imprudence several years since by a serious attack of throat disease. Again he was warned one year ago by his broken health. But after the labors of last summer, and of the succeeding session of Congress, he went home to Chicago to die: His sun, alas! his gone down at noon! Who can say what service he might not have rendered his coun- try for the next twenty-five years, in this new and glorious era of her history if bis life had been prolonged. *
. Of his early moral and religions culture I have been able to learn nothing. If it was neglected, it was his misfortune.
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1. Mr. Douglas was a thorough American. He loved his country and gloried in its pros- perity. He was wont to cast longing glances to that future when all North America would be embraced in our nation, and ours would be an ocean-bound Republic.
2. Mr. Douglas was true to the Union from first to last. His final stand for the Union and the maintenance of the Government, the Constitution and the Laws was worthy of all praise. When the black cloud of treason, which had been lowering over our whole Southen horizon from the Potomac to the -Rio Grande, burst in "leaden rain and iron hail" upon devoted Sumpter and its gallant garrison, then the bugle notes of Douglas were heard calling the people to the rescue. And surely "one blast upon his bugle was worth a thousand men." It has been truly said that "no voice has been more powerful than his in producing that unanimity and heartiness with which the people of the free States have rallied to the defence of their flag and their national existence; no exhort- ations to concord and energy have been more timely or more weighty than his." As soon as the last hope of reconciliation was gone, and civil war was seen to be inevitable, lie called upon the President, tendered assur- ances of his cordial support in maintaining the Government, and gave various practical suggestions and counsels of great value. It was even in contemplation to give him a Gen- eral's commission, that he might defend in the field that cause which he had so ably sup- ported in the Senate and before the people, but he had encountered and been vanquished by that foe to whom we must all sooner or later capitulate, has entered that war in which " there is no discharge." His decease at this time is regarded by the Administra- tion at Washington and by the people gener- ally as a national calamity.
Those who know him best, speak of his social and domestic qualities in terms of high commendation. Says a late writer in the in- dependent : "Bold, frank, genial and hearty, no man was ever less pretentious, less repel- lent in manners. The poorest and humblest, if of the Caucasian race, found him always cordial, never sporting airs of superiority- a public-spirited citizen, a generous neighbor, a devoted friend. No white man was ever oppressed by his greatness, or ill at ease in his presence. Born of the people, he never sought to rise above them, but was hail-fel- low with the rudest or the most benighted to the last."
From his perfect familiarity with the peo- ple and his accessibility to them, the snobs and petty aristocrats, who sport their preten- tions to superiority everywhere, might learn a salutary lesson. It is natural and fitting that men who are identified with the people A3 Mr. Douglas was, and as the late Silas Wright was, should have their affections, while those of more courtly, but repellent tanners, will only secure their cold respect.
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