WESTMINSTER WEST.

 

—————

 

BY REV, A. STEVENS,

 

—————

 

The West Parish of Westminster is that part of Westminster lying west of the mountain that divides the town. It was set off, as a parish, by vote of the town, in 1785. The division was made legal by the action of the Legislature of the State, in 1797. An additional act of the Legislature, in 1800, appoints that the town and freeman's meetings of the town, shall be held alternately, from year to year, in each of the par­ishes.

The parish line of the town, com­mencing on the northern boundary of Putney, at the southwest corner of the farm commonly called the Grout place, runs northerly to the northeast corner of the farm formerly owned by Perez Clark, then westerly to the southwest Corner of the farm now owned by Ad­dison Dunham, then northerly to Rock­ingham.

Before the definite action of the town, making the division, it was regarded a distinct parish. In 1784, the town ap­pointed a committee of three from each parish, as a committee to build a meet­ing-house in the West Parish. The committee from the West Parish were: Lieut. Wm. Crook, Wm. Goodell, and Lieut. David Heaton. There is also a vote appropriating money for the sup­port of preaching in the parish.

The question of a distinct town or­ganization for the parish was early raised. In 1803, the town voted to that effect, and appointed a committee to lay the subject before the Legislature, and secure an organization that should make the West Parish a town, called Westbury.

Who was the first settler in the parish is not certainly known.

 

JABEZ PERRY,

from Rehoboth, Mass. (now Seekonk), had built a log-house on the land now owned by Geo. A. Goodell, and moved into it, as early as 1762. His eldest child,

 

POLLY PERRY*

was born this year. So far as is known she was the first child born in the par­ish. About the same time,

 

EPHRAIM WILCOX

settled on the farm now owned by D. C. Gorham. His oldest child, Dia­dame, supposed to have been born in town, was born in 1763. There are no dates by which the settlement of fam­ilies can be traced to an earlier period.

 

FRANCIS HOLDEN,

from Shirley, Mass., came into the par­ish in 1755 or '56, and built a log-hut on the farm now owned by Jerome Holden, where he lived, mostly alone, for some 15 or 20 years. His grist-­mill was a hollow log and a large block of wood hung on a spring-pole, to pound the corn-meal. In this way he made

 

*Since the above was written, I learn that Polly Perry was born the year before Jabez Perry, her father, came to town. — A. S.

 

 

 

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his meal until a grist-mill was built at Chesterfield, N. H., some 12 miles dis­tant from his home. This distance he carried his grain on his back, and re­turned with his meal. The only road was marked trees. The grindstone, of lime-stone, made by himself, is still kept on the farm. By using sand for grit, it did good service in sharpening the axes that felled the primitive forests in the neighborhood. After living in this primitive way (1801) , for 20 years, and having rsached the age of forty, he married Miss Abigail Clawson, of Shirley, Mass., by whom he had 13 children.

The earliest record of a death in the parish, is in 1774 — Ephraim Wilcox, jr., aged 2 years, and Jemima Wilcox, aged 7 years. Their graves are found a few roads to the east of the school­house, in District No. 1. Large forest trees have grown over their graves.

After the close of the French and Indian wars, in 1760, the fears of In­dian depredations ceased, in a measure, and settlements were, more readily, made back from the forts on the river. Before 1770, there were evidently quite a number of families in the parish. The names and history of many of them are lost.

 

RANNEY, HEATON, AND HOLT.

Ephraim Ranney, jr., David Heaton and Jotham Holt, about the year 1768, made an opening in the forests on the farms near the present site of the church. They were young men, and for some time messed together in a log-house built by Ranney, a few feet south of the house now occupied by William B. Cut­ting. They made their own porridge and ate out of a common dish.

Mr. Heaton was a passionate man, and when insulted would leave the house. When the porridge was a little short of their wants, Ranney and Holt had only to insult their mess-mate, and they had the dish to themselves. This state of things did not long continue. Mr. Ranney brought to the log-house, in 1771, a wife, and never had any wish, afterwards, to be left alone at the table.

Mr. Heaton built for himself on the farm now owned by Eldad H. Harlow, where he lived and died.

Mr. Holt built a house, near the brook, to the east of the church. A rude stone in the forest, near the school house in District No. 1, informs us that he died in 1775. The farms now owned by Ebenezer Hall, Horace Goodhue and Mr. Driscoll were settled before 1770, but who began the settlement cannot now he determined.

 

ICHOBOD IDE,

from Rehobath, Mass. (now Seekonk), was the proprietor of the lots now owned by David Gorham and Geo. A. Goodell, in 1770. His name appears as one of the first settlers in Chester, in 1764. The year he came to the town is not known, probably about 1770. Jabez Perry, his son-in-law, had set­tled on the farm north of his as early as 1762. He had sons, Ichobod, jr., Joseph. Jesse, Israel and John, most of whom settled on farms near him. The name was familiar in the early history, but has disappeared entirely in later years. Only a few families in the par­ish have any traces of the Ide blood.

 

RANNEY — CRAWFORD.

Elijah Ranney and James Crawford made settlements in the south part of the parish as early as 1771 or '72. The former on the farm now owned by Henry P. Ranney, his grandson. The latter on land now owned by William Brailey, lying on the old road leading

 

 

 

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from Elijah Goodell's to George A. Goodell's. He was a soldier in the Revolution, evidently a resolute, deter­mined man, and true patriot. The news of the battle of Lexington reached him at sundown. He started the next morning before sunrise to join the army, leaving his son, Theophilus, but, 9 years of age, with his mother, to clear the burnt field and get in the grain. He obtained a furlough of a few weeks in autumn to gather the harvest. This done, he left again for the army, leav­ing the mother and son alone for the winter of 1776.

That son, when nearly 90 years of age, said, "I chopped the wood and drove the steers. Mother helped load, and we kept warm." Noble mother and boy. Their names shall never die, nor their deeds be untold.

 

NATHANIEL DOUBLEDAY

settled in the parish before 1770, the year is not known, but it is probable that he was one of the first settlers in this part of the town. He was one of the jury of inquest on the body of Wm. French, who was killed by the British troops, at Westminster, Mar. 13, 1775. The jury roll says he resided on lot No. 6, fifth range of 80-acre lots. An old cellar discloses the spot where his house stood, now far away from any house or road.

The farm now owned by Reuben Miller, was first improved by his mater­nal grandfather.

 

REUBEN ROBERTSON,

came from Attleboro, Mass. The year is not known. It appears that a family of that name came to town quite early, at least some years before the Revolu­tion.

Nathaniel Robinson commenced on the farm now known as the Eatonplace. Noah, another brother, on the farm now owned by Mr. Church. Noah and Reuben are known to have been soldiers in the Revolution.

The farms now owned by Harlan Densmore and E. R. Goodell, were settled before 1775. The former by Wm. Crook, the latter by a Mr. Fuller, both of whom, with a son of Mr. Ful­ler, were soldiers in the Revolution. The son was killed at the battle of Bennington.

It is probable that other farms in the south and central part of the parish were settled before the Revolution, but the names of leaders in the settlement cannot now be determined.

 

RAPID INCREASE OF THE PARISH.

 

From 1775 to 1780, the population of the parish increased rapidly. Elisha Hitchcock, Heli Hitchcock, Eldad Hitch­cock and Aaron Hitchcock, from Brim­field, Mass., Edward Goodell, from Monson, Mass., Jabez Goodell, from Mansfield, Ct., and Moses Goodell, from Canterbury, Ct., had settled in the parish before 1780. Each of these per­sons, it is believed, made the first open­ings on the farms where they located. They all brought up large families, and lived and died on the farms, where they put their log-houses when they came to town.

 

BENJAMIN SMITH,

from Taunton, Mass., who settled on the farm now owned by E. B. Hall, and

 

NATHANIEL ROBINSON,

from Attleboro, Mass., who settled on the farm now owned by Mr. Church, were in the parish previous to 1775, and both were soldiers in the Revolu­tion.

 

JOHN TUTHILL,

a native of Southhold, Long Island, about the year 1786, settled on the farm

 

 

 

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now owned by Daniel Goddard. The year these persons came to town, or whether they first broke the forests on their farms, cannot now be determined.

The farms owned by Horace Good­hue and Ebenezer Hall, are known to have been early settled, but by whom It is not known. The log-houses of the first settlers had disappeared and framed houses, of some years standing had taken their place on them before 1795.

There was a large emigration from Cape Cod to the parish, led by

 

ATHERTON HALL,

in 1795, with his sons, Atherton and Peter, with their families, followed the next year by

 

BARNABAS AND SCOTTO CLARK

and their families. They made their journey in 14 days, with an ox-team.

The Clarks brought their gold to pay for their farms. Scotto his, in the cen­tre of a tierce of salt. Barnabas ex­pressed his through on the back of his oldest son, Joshua.

The Clarks were followed in 1798, by

 

MATTHIAS GORHAM,

with his 5 sons, Isaac, Matthias 2d, David, William and James.

 

PERRY, CROWELL, HAMBLIN AND HALLETS.

He was followed by Lewis Crowell, Elisha Perry, Joseph Hamblin and Howes and Gideon Hallet, all of whom had large families. During the first 15 years of the century, the natural in­crease of the population of the parish, was abundant. The largest population was between 1815 and '25. Since 1830, there has been a gradual but constant decrease. In 1870, there was not, probably, more than half of the population of 1825. The population of 1880 was 480.

 

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

From the first settlement of the par­ish there have been good families, lov­ers and defenders of good things. Many of them were but a few genera­tions removed from the Puritans, and brought with them, to the forests of the parish, their doctrines and habits. Sab­bath began at sundown on Saturday, and ended at sundown on Sunday. All were expected to worship somewhere on the Sabbath. From the earliest set­tlement of the parish most of the fam­ilies attended meeting in the east part of the town. Their interests were identified with the settlers there, as they were dependent upon them, to a great extent, for a commerce. This was their only communication with the world outside of the deep vallies of the parish. Many years before the organization of the parish, the settlers held meetings by themselves, and moves were made, looking to an independent parish. They had deacon's meetings before they had any deacons, at which the sermons of the able divines of the preceding generation were read to the families gathered in some private house or barn, the good men taking the part for which their gifts and graces fitted them. Generally, Capt. David Heaton set the tune to the psalm. Ephraim Wells led in prayer. The readers were more varied. All, doubtless, were at­tentive and benefited. It was a recog­nition of then dependence upon God, and an expression of gratitude to him for his blessings upon them, as a com­munity, in their rude homes.

The early families in the parish were somewhat divided in their religious views. All, so far as they made any pretension to religion, were Congrega­tionalists, but unfortuuately some "were dry, others wet, Congregationalists."

 

 

 

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The families originating from Connecticut and Massachusetts believed, and built after the example of Plymouth Rock. Those from Eastern Connecticut and Long Island were Baptist. There was a large common Christian ground on which they could, and did, for years meet and worship together, but like the herdsmen of "Gezar and Isaac, they strove about water." This, doubtless, delayed somewhat, the definite organization of the parish. Though there were settlements in the parish as early as 1758 or '59, the first record of a meeting to consult for the support of the gospel among themselves, was in 1789, Jan. 10, "called by Elijah Ranney, on petition of the inhabitants of the parish." The votes at this meeting refer to previous action on the subject of supporting the gospel. It was voted:

"That allowance be made to Eph­raim Wilcox, for money he had paid to Mr. Bullen for preaching, to be credited to him on the collection bill, to the amount of $11.00."

This and other votes assume the existence of a society with the Congregationalists, for the support of the gospel, prior to 1789.

The town voted, in 1784,

"To divide the money raised to build and repair meeting-houses, between the East and West part of the town, the division to be made as the Militia line runs."

The Congregational Society, at the meeting of' the above date, voted to instruct their committee to lay out money raised, in connection with a committee of the Baptists, for supporting preaching in the parish. There was, then, a Baptist and a Congregational Society in the parish, for the support of the gos­pel, previous to 1789, and they divided their meetings between the two denominations. This continued down to 1799, when

 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

was organized by a colony from the church in the east part of the town.

 

BAPTISTS.

There was a Baptist Society, probably, in town some years before this. Most of their members resided in the West Parish. In 1784, over fifty of the inhabitants of the town, entered their names in the clerk's office, under a cer­tificate, that they worshipped with the Baptists. Among these names is found that of Dea. Benjamin Smith, and Dea. Nathaniel Robinson, and other names, showing a large influence in the parish in favor of the Baptists, as early as 1784.

The date of the organization of the church is not known, neither can it be certainly determined that there was ever a Baptist church in town, distinct from the one in Rockingham, though it is quite probable that there was Elder Oliver Gurnsey, who lived in the parish, and Elder Wellman, who lived in Brook­line, were Baptist ministers, whose names appear often in the early history of the parish. They were uneducated men and scorned the need of preparation for preaching.

They opened their mouths for the Lord to fill, and pitied the preacher that depended on his manuscript. Here was another source of division in the parish, one party seeking an educated ministry, the other wishing for the gos­pel directly from the Lord, without any culture of the schools. "No man-made ministers" was the demand. The feel­ing that existed on this subject is clear from what took place at a funeral, in 1800. Mr. Emerson, the Congregational minister, and Mr. Gurnsey, the Baptist, met at a funeral. The latter was to preach on the occasion. He an­nounced his text, and, as was usual.

 

 

 

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said, "The text has occurred to me since I came into the room. I shall speak from it as the Lord puts thoughts into my mind and words into my mouth." The sermon through, while the people were taking their last look at the corpse, Mr. Emerson complimented his Baptist brother for his sermon, and at the same time asked him if he had not preached from that text before? After some hesitation the answer came in a low voice, "I may have preached from it before. I think I have." The an­swer is repeated by Mr. Emerson, so that all can hear. "You say, then, you think you have preached from that text before," and, at the same time, added, "Have you not preached from that text many times before?" The low answer comes, "I do not know, but I may have preached frequently from the text; I am preaching in var­ious places and cannot say how many times I have preached from it." The answer is repeated, so that all could hear, "You say, then, you do not know how many times you have preached from that text?" This did much to check the boasting about preaching without preparation.

The families from Cape Cod, to which reference has been made, were mostly of the standing order, as it was called. They were large families, and contained the material for a large increase of the population of the parish. This de­cided the history of the parish, from 1795, in favor of the Congregational­ists. The Congregationalist ministers that are known to have preached in the parish, previous to the organization of the church in 1799, are Joseph Mullen, in 1788, Rev. Mr. Churchill, in 1790. In 1791, the society instructed their committee to lay out the money raised in hiring Mr. Freegrace Reynolds to preach on probation, if he could be obtained, or some other man if he could not. There is no evidence that Mr. Reynolds or any other man was ob­tained. In 1792, the society gave a formal call to Mr. Stephen Williams to become their minister and pastor. The call stipulates £150 settlement, to be paid in quarterly installments, at the end of the 1st, 2d, 3rd, and 4th years of his ministry, one-quarter cash in hand, the remainder in stock or grain, wheat at 5 shillings a bushel. Also a salary of £45, to be increased £5 a year until it amounted to £65, to be paid one quarter in cash, the remainder in stock or grain. This call was not ac­cepted.

It is clear from the doings of the society, from year to year, that they had only temporary supplies of preach­ing before 1800. The names of Mr. Wellman and Holman appear as minis­ters that were employed at different times, the former, a Baptist. Of Mr. Holman nothing is recorded but his name. The Baptists, too, depended upon a temporary supply for preaching. Beside Mr. Gurnsey and Wellman, above mentioned, there was one Wm. Bowles, a Baptist minister in town, in 1784, but it does not appear that he or any other person was ever settled as a pastor of the Baptist church in town.

The first pastor of the church was

 

REV. REUREN EMERSON,

born Aug. 12, 1771, in Ashby, Mass., and graduated at Dartmouth, in 1798. He studied theology with Rev. Reed Paige, of Hancock, N. H., and Stephen Farrar, of New Ipswich, and was or­dained at Westminster West, Feb., 18, 1800; was dismissed Mar. 9, 1804.

Sermon by Rev. Reid Paige, of Han­cock, N. H.; ordaining prayer by Rev. Thomas Fessenden, of Walpole, N. H.; charge by Rev. Stephen Farrar,

 

 

 

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of New Ipswich, N. H.; fellowship, by Rev. Sylvester Sage, of the mother church, Westminster, a fellowship that has never been withdrawn.

The terms of this settlement were a salary of £100, to be paid one-half in cash, the remainder in produce, at cash price, which is the highest figure the society has ever reached in ministerial support. Mr. Emerson was of the old Hopkinsian type in theology, a clear­headed, determined man, a stickler for ministerial dignity, rather abrupt in his intercourse; his sermons were terse in style, somewhat personal, especially when anything occurred in the parish that affected himself. His wood, which the society had promised, failed one cold week. The congregation were treated the next Sabbath to a sermon from the text, "Where no wood is the fire goeth out." It was evident that the fire was in him, and the sermon, though it had gone out on his hearth. It warmed the whole parish so well that the good parson found his yard full of ox teams loaded with wood on Monday. His carriage loaned to a neighbor was returned injured. This brought out a sermon from the text, "Alas! master, for it was borrowed," so personal that it did more injury to him and the parish than was done to the carriage.

Mr. Emerson's ministry was short. He was dismissed by an ecclesiastical council, Mar. 9, 1804.

After he left the West Parish he was settled in Reading, Mass., where he remained until his death in good old age, an honored and useful minister.

Rev. Joseph Brown supplied the pulpit for nearly two years after Mr. Emerson. Of him little is remembered, only he was an old man, and some­what absent-minded. His horse, which he was leading, slipped his halter, and went off in another direction. The good pastor did not discover the trick until he had tied the halter to the post at his door.

He was evidently familiar with the parishioners, so much, that they felt at liberty to joke him. One Peter Hall, known by all the parish as Uncle Peter, and famous for his jokes, met Parson Brown, one Monday morning, returning from the store with a birch broom in his hand, and hailed him, "good luck, Mr. Brown, this morning, sold all your brooms but one, havn't you?"

 

REV. TIMOTHY FIELD

was called by the church, Nov. 18, 1806, and installed Jan. 20, 1807. Sermon by Rev. Roswell Shurtleff, D.D.; prayer, Rev. Gersham Lyman, D.D.; charge, Rev. William Hall; fel­lowship, Rev. Sylvester Gage.

He was a native of East Guilford, Ct., (now Madison). Graduated at Yale, 1797. His ministry practically closed with the year 1834, but he was not formally dismissed until Mar. 31, 1835.

He was a man of noble form, quick in all his movements, a frank, smiling face; he made no display of learning, but was above ordinary ability and worth as a man and a scholar. His sermons were short, terse, delivered without gestures, but with the deepest emotion. He despised all hypocrisy, had no ministerial cant, and always en­joyed more than he could express, ex­cept by his tears and laughter. He believed the Bible fully, and preached it just as he found it, without any speculation.

He despised all display in the pulpit. To a certain young minister, who was conversing with him about sermons and the reasons why they were no more effective, he dryly said, "It would not be much credit to the Lord to convert

 

 

 

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sinners under such big sermons as the young ministers try to preach."

He was a Calvinist in his creed, but not an extremest; in politics, he was a Whig, and always voted and preached according to his views in face of all opposition. One of his parishioners once objected to his voting, because he was a minister of Christ, "whose kingdom was not of this world." His quick reply was: "You that belong to the devil's kingdom are the legal voters."

The parish was greatly improved un­der his ministry, in its moral and reli­gious character. At the commencement of his ministry the church numbered only 56 members. There were received by profession during his pastorate, 344, 25 by letter. In the year 1825, the church reports in its association, 300 members. The years 1816, '24 and '31, were marked by powerful revivals of religion. The fruits of these revi­vals mostly united with the Congrega­tional church, but many, it is known, united with the Baptist church at Sax­ton's River, called, after the year 1812, "The Baptist Church of Rockingham and Westminster."

It should be said here that a large number of families in the north part of the parish have always connected them­selves in society at Saxton's River. Geographically, they belong there, which makes the West Parish of West­minster small in territory.

 

REV. PRESTON TAYLOR

succeeded Mr. Field as pastor of the church; installed Mar. 31, 1835; was dismissed Oct. 19, 1836.

 

REV. JUBILEE WELLMAN,

his successor, was installed Mar. 6, 1838, and was dismissed Jan. 5, 1842. Mr. Wellman had not a collegiate education. He studied theology at Bangor, Me., where he graduated in 1823, was installed at Frankfort, Me., Sept. 17, 1824, dismissed Jan. 3, 1826; installed at Warner, N. H., Sept. 26, 1827; dis­missed Feb. 15, 1837. After he left Westminster, he preached 2 years alter­nately in Cavendish and Plymouth, Vt., after which he preached 5 years in Cavendish alone. Was installed at Lowell, Vt., Oct. 17, 1850, where he remained until his death, Mar. 18, 1855. He was a well read theologian, strictly Calvinistic, very confident, sometimes dogmatic in stating his views; sensitive of his rights as a min­ister, and anxious about the honor of his office.

 

REV. ALFRED STEVENS,

the present pastor, was ordained Feb. 22, 1843. The whole number received into the church since its organization is 625 (1867). There have been 668 in­fant baptisms. By the first pastor, 60; by Mr. Brown, 45; Mr. Field, 464; Mr. Taylor, 13; Mr. Wellman, 16; the present pastor, 60. It will be seen by this that the prosperous periods of the church have been, when parents felt most the importance of dedicating their offspring to God in His church, according to apostolic usage, and the plain direction of Christ, to "let them come because they are of His king­dom."

The first deacons of the church were Elijah Ranney, a son of the first deacon, Ephraim Ranney, of the East Parish, and Edward Goodell. They were large men, of few words, of strong purpose, fast friends of their minister with whom they served the church, who sleeps with them in our cemetery.

Their successors were Elijah Ran­ney, Jr., a grandson of Dea. Ranney, of the East Parish, and Ebenezer

 

 

 

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Goodhue, a grandson of the same by marriage. The former was slow in his plans and execution, the latter was hasty; both were good, determined men, and did not easily give up a meas­ure they attempted to carry. The Scotchman's prayer was appropriate for them both: "O, Lord, keep me right, for thou knowest I cannot change."

 

THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.

The date of the building of the first meeting-house in the parish is not known. Money was raised for that purpose as early as 1784. The location was a matter not easily settled, part de­siring it near Crooks' Mills (now Chand­ler's). Some of the timber for it was drawn upon the ground there, but Mr. Ephraim Wells, the owner of the land where the present church now stands, gave a lot for the church and land to be used for a cemetery, as an inducement to build on the present site of the church. The Society accepted his pro­position. The house was in existence in 1792, and occupied, but in an unfin­ished state, as the Society that year voted to take measures to complete it. It was a high, two-story building, fronting the east; a front door, and one on each side. It was painted white; with­out a steeple or cupola even; square pews, with high backs; gallery on three sides, filled with young folks every Sab­bath, closely watched by a man ap­pointed for that purpose; a moderately high pulpit, a deacon's seat in front of it, occupied, rain or shine, every Sab­bath, by the deacons.

This was the place of worship down to the winter of 1828 and 9, when it was destroyed by fire.

The present church was erected the next year. It was first constructed with the orchestra in the rear of the pulpit. The good people of the parish so lovedthe house of God, in the former days, that they had no need of a bell to ad­monish them that the hour of assembling had come. The church was with­out a bell until 1853. Since this year, the cheerful sounds of a bell have been heard daily from the church tower, ad­monishing the parish of passing time, and calling them every Sabbath to pub­lic worship. It has been rung every year, with one exception, by the same faithful bellman.

 

THE SABBATH SCHOOL

was organized first in 1816, and has been continued every year since. It was at first only for children. The exer­cises were only repeating texts of Scrip­ture. The older people gradually be­came interested in it. For many years it has been composed of those of all ages, from the child up to those over fourscore years. There is one person now in the school that has been con­nected with it every year since its or­ganization, as scholar or teacher.

 

THE FIRST SCHOOL.

From the earliest history of the parish the people have manifested a good degree of interest in education.

The first school in the parish, of which there is any record, was taught in the house of Robert Crook, located a few rods to the north of where Geo. Campbell's large sheep-barn now stands. This was as early as 1777. The families living in what is now Dist. No. 1, 2 and 4, furnished chil­dren for that school.

It was a log-house. The room was warmed by a stone fire-place that would receive wood 4 feet long and of any thickness. From 1815 to '30, the schools in all the districts were large. 50 or 60 scholars to a school was not an uncommon thing, sometimes the

 

 

 

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number was as high as 100 in one school.

Since then the schools have diminished greatly in numbers. Where once were large schools now there are hardly enough scholars to make a school.

There was a school taught in a log-house (supposed to be the house of Moses Goodell), that stood on the farm now owned by Ansel Moulthrop, in 1790. The next year the school for the same neighborhood was taught in a log-house on the farm south of this.

AARON HITCHCOCK, in 1793, taught in the same neighborhood, in the home of Edward Goodell. This is the first name that appears on the catalogue of teachers in the parish.

Besides the district school there has been generally a select school of one term a year in the parish.

 

PARISH LIBRARIES.

 

The first social library in the parish was commenced about the year 1810, and continued to 1834. It contained about 500 volumes. These were mostly histories, theological and metaphysical works, and biography. The time of travels had not come, and novels were not then so much in favor as now.

The second library was commenced in 1836, and now contains 300 vol­umes. Compared with the first, it shows quite a change in the tastes and habits of the people in reading. It would now be a rare thing to find a person, young or old, that would take from a library the "Spirit of Laws," by Montesquieu, or Butler's Analogy, or Witherspoon's works, and yet such books were attentively read formerly in the parish, as is evident from the rem­nants of the first library now found scattered over the parish.

A third library has made its appear­ance this year (1870), with 100 volumes. It owes its existence to the ladies of the parish, and has, of course, a bright future.

There are taken from the post office, in the parish this year (1870): Daily papers, 3; weekly, 162; semi-weekly, 3; monthlies, 78; quarterlies, 44.

Saxton's River office furnishes some 12 families in the north part of the par­ish with their mail matter. How many papers and reviews are taken from it by families in this parish, is not known. The number of families that get their papers through the West Parish office is 80.

 

NATIVE MINISTERS.

 

Ministers that have originated in the parish, and the time of their graduation so far as is known: Rev. Calvin Hitchcock, D. D., A. B., at Middle­bury, 1811. J. Q. A. Edgell, A. B., University of Vt., 1827. Josiah F. Goodhue, A. B., Middlebury, 1821. Joseph A. Ranney, A. B., Middlebury, 1839. Timothy E. Ranney, A. B., Middlebury, 1839. Edwin Goodell, A. B., Dartmouth, 1850. Henry A. Goodhue, A. B., Dartmouth, 1857. Jerome Allen, A. B., Amherst, 1831. James Wilcox, Beald Wilcox, Eaton Mason, A. B., Waterville, Me. Anson Tuthill, A. B., Waterville, Me.

 

REV. JOSIAH F. GOODHUE,

born in Westminster West in 1818; se­nior to most of his class at Middlebury by his ardent devotion to study, urban­ity of manner and earnest piety, he maintained a wide influence over his classmates there, and his theological course was pursued at Andover, during one year of which he was tutor in Mid­dlebury College. He accepted a call of the church in Williston, Vt., in 1824, and remained pastor till 1834, when he accepted a call to the Congregational

 

 

 

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church in Shoreham, Vt.. where he spent 24 years.

The chief value of Mr. Goodhue's ministrations was not in the rhetorical finish of his sermons, nor special grace of delivery; but in the sound character of his discourses and solemn earnest­ness with which they were delivered. His pastoral labors had a specially happy influence, in that he possessed that general moral excellence of charac­ter which caused his people to see a happy manifestation of the power of religion over his own heart and life. Eminently a lover of peace, by wise and judicious advice he was greatly service­able in the many councils to which he was called, and on occasions calling for wisdom and discretion. He was among the early and earnest advocates for freedom of the captives of the land, and brought the vigor of his mind to bear in giving public sentiment the right tone on this momentous subject.

His published writings are a sermon on the character of Rev. Thomas A. Merrill, D. D., of Middlebury, and a History of the town of Shoreham, the scene of his last pastoral labors. Both of these productions are happy speci­mens of his ability as a writer.

He died at Whitewater, Wis., in Mar., 1862. — From the Congregational Quarterly. [See Shoreham, Vol. I.]

 

NATIVE PHYSICIANS.

 

Samuel Hitchcock, A. B. at Middle­bury, 1816; M. D. at Baltimore. Al­fred Hitchcock, M. D., Dartmouth, 1837; Henry D. Hitchcock, M. D., Woodstock, 1842; Homer O. Hitch­cock, A. B., Dartmouth, 1851; M.D., New York City, 1856. Alfred Miller, A. B., Middlebury. [Died in Fitchburg, Mass., Nov. 15, 1877. He was a native of West Westminster, Vt., a graduate of Middlebury College, class of 1840; and of medicine in 1844, at the medical school at Woodstock; com­menced practice at Ashburnham, Mass., in 1845. He removed to Fitchburg, May, 1862, and continued in practice until his death. He was twice a member of the Legislature, first in 1866, and also in 1876.] Henry Harlow, M.D., Woodstock, 1843. Daniel Campbell, M.D., Woodstock, 1841. Atherton Hall, Charles Witt, Mark Ranney, M. D., Woodstock. Timothy E. Allen, A.B., Amherst, 1858 ; M. D., New York City. Geo. Clark, M. D., Woodstock, 1841. John Campbell.

 

PHYSICIANS THAT HAVE PRACTICED IN THE PARISH.

 

Asaph Wright, son of Medad Wright of the East Parish, settled in the par­ish about 1787. Edward R. Campbell came to the parish in 1803. John Hall, Wm. Hall, David Allen, a native of Heath, Mass , M. D., at Pittsfield, Mass., 1827; in practice in the parish, 1828, continued to 1839. Wm. Arms, from 1839 to 1840. John Hurd, 1841 and '2. Daniel Campbell, from 1843 to 1855.

 

NATIVE LAWYERS

 

that have originated in the parish. Na­than Hall, A. B., Middlebury, 1861. James Byron Brooks, A. B., Dart­mouth, 1869. Kirk W. Wheeler, read law at Albany, N. Y. Alfred S. Hall, Dartmouth, 1869.

 

OTHER GRADUATES FROM COLLEGE.

 

Luther Hitchcock, A. B., Middle­bury, 1811. David Campbell, A. B., Yale, 1850. Holland Wheeler, A. B., Norwich University, Vt., 1858; rail­road and civil engineer in Lawrence, Kansas. Horace Goodhue, Jr., A. B., Dartmouth, 1867; professor in Northfield College, Minn. Gorham Clark, A. B., Middlebury, 1839; teacher at

 

 

 

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Grenada, Miss., where he died, 1844. Charles Campbell, A. B., Yale, 1839; teacher and merchant in Grenada, Miss.; Alfred S. Hall, Dartmouth, 1873; Horace Goodhue, Jr., Dartmouth, 1857; George Goodhue, Dartmouth, 1873; George B. Brooks, Dartmouth, 1860; Willie Hitchcock, Amherst, 1875.

 

HOTELS.

 

A hotel existed in the parish before there was a meeting-house, or a school­house. The first was kept by Joseph Ide, near the top of the hill, on the old road that leads from E. R. Goodell's to Geo. A. Goodell's. It was a log-house and did a large business in toddy. This was a necessity to meet the wants of the traveling community as early as 1790. Then, as now, the necessity was found in the neighborhood of a hotel. That log-house was witness to many a fight to let off the fire of New England rum on the brain. The proprietor was often obliged to fall back upon his large physical organism to keep control of his house. At one time, he had the worst of the fight, and was laid in his large fire-place, very much to his dis­comfort.

Before 1800, a hotel was kept by Josiah Hendee, in the old house now occupied as a shop, by T. O. Dunham. From 1802 to '7, Gideon Warner was the landlord in the same house. In 1804, Ebenezer Goodhue opened a hotel in the house now owned by Warren Peck. At the installation of Mr. Field, in 1807, it was open for what was called an ordination ball. There is no evidence that any members of the church took part in it; but being at the house of a leading member of the so­ciety, and largely patronized by the lead­ing families of both parts of the town, it shows the tastes and habits of the times. A person that was present remarked, years after, "that it was not certain which had the most attention, the fiddle or the toddy-stick. The heels kept time to the fiddle, the heads to the toddy-stick." The house now occupied by Ephraim Wilcox for a store and dwelling-house was built for a hotel by Benjamin Smith, about the year 1805. He kept it for a few years only. David Johnson was the proprietor for a few years. It was known as "Abel Ed­gell's Hotel," for a number of years, and famous for toddy and horse trading. About the year 1813, it came into the hands of Eprhaim Ranney, and was kept for a number of years by Gideon Warner.

A remnant, of his account-book, for 1815, shows that the good people of the parish were none too temperate. The following is a specimen of account, leaving out the name:

Dr. to 1 glass of toddy, to 2 toddy, to 3 toddys, to 2 milk-pans, to 10 lbs. hog's lard." The history is this: The debtor got drunk, and mistook his door, and fell down in the pantry, and pulled down after him two pans of milk and a pan of lard, yet warm from the kettle. He was now ready to make his mark in the world. It was training day and he was too noisy and a little too drunk to be respectable.

The captain, a neighbor of his, un­dertook to get him out of the way. Having exhausted his patience in flat­tery, and ignorant of the affairs in the pantry, he came to a close hug with the tipsy man, and by a hard struggle shut him up in the barn) when, lo and be­hold, he found his buff pants and vest unfit for a captain to wear.

 

ORCHARDS AND CIDER.

 

The early settlers planted large or­chards. In the rich soil they came quickly into bearing, for the use of the

 

 

 

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next generation. Cider mills became an institution in the parish. As the craving for strong drink was not fully met by cider in its native state, a dis­tillery came to their help. It was set up by Wainwright Witt, in 1824 or '25. The building erected for that purpose is now used by Russell Bailey for a horse barn.

In 1827 or '28, the still was pur­chased by Ebenezer Goodell, and moved into a building erected for it, near the beautiful falls on the brook, to the left of the road, as you go from the meet­ing-house to Charles C. Goodell's, the families in the neighborhood approving. The evil of the thing soon was seen, and some compensation was made to the owner, and the distillery disappeared about the year 1834.

 

THE FIRST TEMPERANCE SOCIETY

 

was formed in 1831. The meeting for the purpose was held in the brick school­house, west of the church. The com­mittee that drafted the constitution were Rev. Timothy Field, Eppa Cone, John Smith and John Braily, most of them known to be not friendly to the move­ment. But a constitution was reported and accepted by the meeting, pledging the members to abstinence from all in­toxicating drinks, as a beverage, with a qualifying clause that gave some liberty in the use of cider in certain states. This clause, it was thought by some, gave too much liberty for the good of the members, and a new so­ciety was formed in 1841, pledging its members; without any qualification, to abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. This society never had the hearty ap­proval of all in the parish, but it doubt­less did much to improve the temper­ance sentiment.

Since the temperance reformation, keeping hotel in the parish has not beena paying business. The house now owned by Wm. Field was opened for that purpose for a few years. Since 1830, the house now occupied as a store has been opened as a hotel, by different persons; none of them have found it profitable.

 

SAW-MILLS.

 

The first saw-mill, in the parish, was built by Elijah Ranney, on the brook nearly east of John Platt's. Wm. Ab­bott, some years later, built one about half of a mile below, on the same brook. The Ranney mill had served its day, and was a matter of tradition only, in 1800. Before 1790, William Crook had put up a mill on the farm now owned by Harlan Dinsmore. In 1811, Joshua Clark leased the privi­lege of Mr. Cook and built a new mill, and ran it until 1830, when he sold to Russell Ranney. Another mill was in existence as early as 1810, at the left of the road, where it is crossed by the brook, near the house now occupied by Mr. Howe. Joshua Clark built a mill in 1809 or '10. It was run by him un­til 1859, when it passed into the hands of R. C. Gould. In 1865, it became the property of Alfred Harlow, who built the present mill in 1867, which is now the only saw-mill in the parish. F. O. Dunham put up a saw-mill in the village in 1858. It was burned in 1862.

 

GRIST-MILLS.

 

The first grist-mill, in the parish, is supposed to have been built by Robert Crook, on the site of the present mill. It was known in 1790 as Crook's Mill, and is remembered as, then, an old building. The year it was erected can­not now be determined, probably as early as 1780. A second mill was erected where the factory afterwards stood, by whom, or when, is not known. Crook's Mill was owned for years by

 

 

 

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Elijah Ranney, and was tended by Mil­ler Paine. Dr. Edward R. Campbell built a third mill, on the brook a few feet below, where it crosses the road leading to Mr. Howe's. He also, in 1827, built the mill that now serves the parish. It has had many owners, and been often changed in some respects, but retains about the same look, inside and out, as the year it was erected.

Russell Ranney, in 1856, put in a grist-mill near Horace Foster's, which made the meal for the parish for three years. Since then the business has been carried on at the location selected by Mr. Crook for a mill, probably in 1780 or '81.

 

MANUFACTURES.

 

The wives and daughters, in the early history of the parish, of course made the cloth used.

In 1813, Scotto Clark* put in ma­chinery for a woolen factory into the building that had been used for a grist-­mill, near Thomas Chandler's. His works were burned Dec., 1723. The next season a two-story brick building was erected on the same spot, and filled with machinery for manufacturing broadcloths and cassimeres. It was burnt in 1832.

 

CLOTHING WORKS.

 

John Cambridge was the first cloth­ier in the parish. Before 1812, his works were in the building erected for a grist-mill, and, after him, used for a factory. In 1813, he erected a build­ing in the village, in which the clothier business was carried on, by different persons, until 1826 or '7.

Silsbury succeeded Cambridge, as clothier, and, for a few years, did some­thing in the line of manufacturing hats. David Duncan succeeded Silsbury, as clothier, for a number of years. About the year 1827 the building was con­nected with a wheelwright shop, and was occupied fur that business by Ly­man French and Noah Whitney, until 1835, when F. O. Dunham succeeded them as wheelwright. After him Hart Halt owned the shop and carried on the business for years. In 1841, he sold to Geo. Allen, who enlarged the establish­ment by adding a large two-story build­ing in 1842. In 1843, both buildings were burnt. A new and larger build­ing was erected the same year, by Mr. Allen, and used by him for a

 

CARRIAGE SHOP

 

until 1854. This year, F. O. Dunham became the proprietor of the shop, and continued the business until 1862, when the building was destroyed by fire. In 1868, F. O. Dunham erected another building on the same spot, but it is yet in an unfinished state.

 

TANNING.

 

David Shield is thought to have been the first tanner in the parish. The building which stood on the flat, near where Willard Moultrie's barn now stands, was erected in 1788 or '89. It was large, and answered the double purpose of a dwelling house and a tannery. But a few years later a tannery was started in the village by Ephraim Wells, followed by a Mr. Wyman. The works were to the east of the brook, opposite the house now owned by Wm. Dean. Wm. Simons was his successor in the business, and moved the works a few rods down the brook. The building erected by Mr. Simons for the business, was standing in 1843; and then used by Amos Ball for a barn, and was burned in May of that year. Wm. King suc­ceeded Simons as tanner, but did not long continue the business in the place. Silas Hardy followed him and contin‑

 

* See page 623.

 

 

 

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ued the business down to 1830 or '32, when the business ceased in the parish.

 

BLACKSMITHS.

 

From the earliest history of the par­ish the hammer of the blacksmith has been heard on the spot where the black­smith shop now stands. The first smith that is remembered, was David Morse, followed in the business by Levi Field, George W. Holland, Charles Black, Daniel Miller and B. F. Winchester.

Peter Hall worked at the anvil many years on the farm known as the Peter Hall place. Wainwright Witt did something in the same line, near Chand­ler's Mill. James Eaton had a shop in district No. 4, near Geo. A. Goodell's.

Gideon Warner was the smith for the neighborhood west of the church. His shop stood near the old house now owned by F. O. Dunham. The black­smith in the early times was an impor­tant character, when all the tools of the husbandman and mechanic, and all that was worked in iron had to pass under his hammer.

 

SHOEMAKERS.

 

The old people remember Thomas Paine, Phineas Ball, Obadiah Barker, Stephen Moulthrip and James Webb, who made their yearly visits to the early families in the parish, with lap-stones, lasts and bench, and did up the shoe­making for the year, for the whole family.

Reuben Printess had a shop in the north part of the parish for many years. John Tower, David Hardy, Amos Ball. W. B. Hamblin and Husey Wardwell have carried on the business in the vil­lage, following each other, to the order of their names here given. Thomas Chandler served the south part of the parish as shoemaker, for nearly 50 years. He still lives, but his lap-stone and hammer have been laid by for years.

 

MERCHANTS.

 

Eleazer May, of the East Parish, is supposed to have erected the building for many years used for a store. It was in existence in 1800, and stood on the ground now covered by Mrs. Stowell's house. Ebenezer Goodhue occu­pied it in 1804, and for a number of years following. After him, Josiah Demming, Gen. Levitt, of Putney, and Solomon Mayo, occupied the building at different times, for a store. Otis Haven, who was a clerk of Gen. Levitt's, was the merchant for a number of years. After him, Benjamin Baldwin, for a few years. Then Howes Hallet. John Goodell occupied the building from 1829 to '33. The next name of the merchant that is known is Burchard.

The building was burnt in 1839. It was rebuilt by David Hitchcock, in 1841, and occupied by G. W. Daniels, from May, 1842, to May, 1851. William Nutting filled the store in 1853. He continued the business only part of the year. For a few years following, A. Clark occupied the building. In 1856, Ephraim Wilcox and Judson Smith filled the store with goods. The partnership continued but a short time, when Mr. Wilcox assumed the whole business, and in a few years moved to the building now occupied for a store by A. P. Ranney.

 

MILITARY.

 

The parish line of the town, run in 1785, is often referred to as the "Mili­tia line." There were two companies of militia in town after that date. That in the West Parish, from 1810 to '30, was large, often reporting 100 pri­vates. The June training was a great

 

 

 

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day. It called out all to see. Gener­ally there was much noise, quite early, about the home of the officers. The one that waked up the captain, and got the first treat, was the best fellow. Toddy was abundant, dealt freely to the company by the officers, and to the multitude at the store and the hotel.

 

EPHRAIM RANNEY, JR.,

was the first captain. The roll of honor (for it was an honor, in the par­ish, to be called captain) runs as fol­lows: David Heaton, Heli Hitchcock, Daniel Mason, Elijah Ranney, Rufus Gibbs, Ira Carpenter, Wainwright Witt, Joseph Ranney, Joshua Clark, Stephen Tuthill, Howes Hallett, Amos Hitch­cock, Alvin Goodell, Russel Ranney, Edward Hall, David Hardy, Lyman French, Reuben C. Gould, Gideon Bemis, F. O. Dunham, David C. Gor­ham, Wm. Field.

The parish furnished soldiers for the army of the Revolution, as follows: Francis Holden, Benjamin Smith, Jas. Crawford, Reuben Robertson, ——— Fuller and son, Charles Holden.

 

WESTMINSTER WEST SOLDIERS

 

FOR THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

 

William S. Cady, Justus Hitchcock, Henry B. Darling, James W. Darling, Willard Moulthrip, William P. Dean, Orman Holden, Joseph Brooks, Ros­well Miller, Henry Houghton, Ransom Miller, Tollman S. Coombs, David C. Moulthrip, George Field, J. Foster Kimball, J. Hunt Clark, Homer F. Buxton, Alfred P. Ranney, Walter W. Ranney, Otis F. Buxton, Henry Bux­ton, Josiah Hall, Bradley Howe, Geo. R. Harlow, G. R. Harlow.

Of our Westminster West soldiers who died in this war, the following are the names of all that I can now recall:

James Darling, Ransom Miller, Henry Baxter, Walter W. Ranney, and one ——— Moulthrip. I do not recal his given name. They were all killed in battle, or died of wounds received in battle.

[How the people of Vermont received the ending of the war, is seen so clear in this sermon, we have included it as a descriptive chapter, fitting, not for this town alone, but for the entire State. In Vol. I, page 836, is to be seen the address of Rev. Silas McKeen to a body of Vermont soldiers as they go forth to the war, and here, this venera­ble Pastor speaking to the people while the pæan of victory yet rings.]

 

NATIONAL JOY.

 

APRIL 9, 1865.

 

THE SABBATH AFTER THE CAPTURE OF

RICHMOND, VA., BY THE FEDERAL

ARMY.

 

From the Pulpit of

 

REV. A. STEVENS,

 

Pastor of the Congregational Church,

Westminster West, Vt.

 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made Heaven and Earth. — Psalms 121, 1-2.

 

The last week has been one of great excitement and unbounded joy in the loyal States, and we doubt not in many places in the land of rebellion. Rich­mond, the rebel capital is fallen, and the army of Lee, which has been the strength of the rebellion from its begin­ning, is retreating in confusion, before our victorious troops, is the news that flies over the land with lightning speed, on Monday. The nation is frantic with joy. The merchant forgets his sales; the mechanic and farmer their work. The white and black unite in demon­strations of joy. Eloquence, poetry, piety, patriotism and humanity are stirred everywhere and speak the best

 

 

 

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they can, the unbounded joy of the na­tion. None could speak too loud or enthusiastically the joy for the tidings. The shouts of "glory, hallelujah!" have rolled up from the mouths of hundreds of negroes, for whose enslave­ment the war was begun. It has been as when "Prophetic Babylon" fell, and the nations are in commotion, "because in her would be bought no more the bodies and souls of men." City an­swered to city, swelling the wave of joy until the land was full. This is well. It is as it should be. It is the instinc­tive demand of justice. Love of free­dom, of humanity, desire for peace and the establishment of good government, call for and approve of our joy for such a blow at the base conspiracy to destroy our government, and build on its ruin a power with its corner stone laid in slavery — defying the doctrines of Plymouth Rock — mocking at the declaration of independence — trifling with humanity and the tenderest affections of parents and companions, and crushing out with its iron rule all that is filial in children, and blasting the intellects of millions of men and women, and making the word of God a sealed book to them. Rich­mond was the representative of all this infamous purpose. Her fortifications, — her hundreds of cannon, her naval preparations, her large army and skill­ful generals, were for the defence of all this. They spoke only defiance to all attempts to put any restraint upon the unlimited spread of slavery on this con­tinent. It is meet that joy fill the land at its fall — that demonstrations be loud and far spread, clothed with piety, adorned with poetry, fired with elo­quence, and made wild with enthusiasm, so that every citizen can give utterance to the sentiments of a freeman's heart: My heart is, it has been, in all this. But while I say this, and say it because I feel it, I say there is a phase of this event that calls for a calmer view, a thoughtfulness that takes us back from our flights of joy, to consider the more permanent relations we sustain to this great, glorious event.

There has been no time since the re­bellion began that demands candor, im­partial purposes, and generous impulses, yet firmness in rulers and people, like the day it falls before our victorious army. Then especially will Christian principle be called for — true magnanim­ity, decided purposes, yet a leniency be­coming a Christian and victorious peo­ple. The struggles in our breasts between the demands of strict justice upon our enemies, and Christian for­giveness, must be adjusted carefully and in the fear of God, lest we, under our great injuries, swear vengeance, or in our great desire for peace, overlook what justice and the public safety de­mand. Duties will now press upon the nation that cannot be performed under the inspiration that has pushed on the war, and kept the armies full and nerved for the fight. Who to blame? who to excuse? who to execute? and who to forgive? what justice and what mercy demands of us towards our enemies? are questions that will occupy the public mind, and be differently answered, and will call out opposing feelings. They cannot, and must not, be answered un­der the inspiration of martial music. As the rebellion falls, and rebels flock to take the oath of allegiance, we pass to new duties and responsibilities. It is not my purpose to speak of them at this time. What they will be, cannot yet be fully defined. I would call your attention to the spirit needful to meet them as they shall he developed by the prosecution of the war. The text defines in general the position we ought to occupy as citizens in our tri­umphs. "I will look unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." The sentiment here expressed is beautiful. It is always be­coming — a humble acknowledgment of God's agency in our deliverance, and of our indebtedness to Him. This feeling, if it were universal, would remove much of the friction of society, and the affairs of the world, in the State, the family, and the church, would adjust themselves harmoniously. Let us con­sider some of the practical results of leoking unto the Lord as our deliverer, in this day of triumph.

I. It will produce candor, and keep us from party opinions, and rash measures.

 

 

 

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I have said the triumphs of our arms will bring new questions for us to con­sider. For our opinions and measures we are accountable, as well as indebted to God for permitting us to form our own, and to enjoy them unmolested. This is true of all we do as citizens. We cannot hide ourselves from His no­tice among the multitude with whom we act. Though we cut ourselves loose from all restraint and act without re­gard to His law, hiding behind parties and customs, and constitutional inter­pretations, or the opinions of great names, we are before Him, and there is a day of reckoning for all we do. No recklessness in our opinions and meas­ures can prevent the facts that we are accountable, as directly as though we were the sole actors. Our opinions, our measures, and the manner we pros­ecute them are ours. We should be always considerate and view things as we wish to meet them before God in judgment. To be thoughtless of our dependence upon God in our rejoicing, and to forget that it is He that has given us the victory is dangerous. We should feel to-day that the everlasting hills are our refuge. Our whole ap­pearance should be that of those seeking wisdom of the Lord, and ready to follow in the openings of His providence. There has been often impatience during the four years of war. We have heard unreasonable complaints, and wholesale condemnation of men and measures. There has been disappointments often, and chagrin. There may have been reasons for all this, regarding human instrumentalities simply. But looking at things as they now appear, it is man­ifest that there has been done a work in the land that neither our government nor the rebels intended to do. All that vexed us, and about which we were impatient, was needful to the result reached. Delay, defeat, by which the struggle has been prolonged, has cut deep under the foundation of the cause of trouble; slavery has been undermined. It has shown us how slavery had been through all our history, corrupting the nation, and imbruting men, and making them creatures that could defy all law, and revel in cruelty, by starvation, by confinement and brutal treatment of their fellow men. Looking at the re­sult of the four years just passed, we see we did not comprehend at all the divine plan now accomplished. Our views were narrow, erroneous. Our plans, if they had succeeded, would not have brought the result for which we now rejoice — the year of jubilee that has come to millions of our race. We look with astonishment on the colored hosts that have leaped from the condi­tion of cattle, or things, to manhood, praised for their valor, admired for their patient suffering for liberty, and for their industry, and thirst for knowledge. All theories of emancipation are put to shame, except the one that all pro­nounced impractical, immediate. God has taught us that what is just to the colored race can be done with safety so far as they are concerned. The lesson should humble us to-day, and make us more teachable before God, more can­did in our judgment about His com­mands, and more thoughtful about His ways, and never measure his doings by our hasty and rash conclusions. We must view the work before God, and bring along the lesson into practical life, that we may know our own ignorance, and wait before the Lord in hope and confidence in all the future unfoldings of His providence.

II. Our gratitude will be a selfish demonstration unless we look to the Lord as our helper.

The last year of the war has been one of almost constant success. All the military movements have strengthened our cause and weakened the enemy. We talk much, and justly, about the skill of our commanders, and the brav­ery and endurance of our soldiers. We regard them as the cause of success. We ought to be thankful for their wisdom and bravery. We think we are. But they are only the gifts of God, raised up for the place they occupy, at the time they are needed to reach the result for which we rejoice. All the leading generals, those by whom the tide of national fortune has been turned, were in comparative obscurity at the opening of our struggle. They came to notice as they have been needed to do

 

 

 

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the work that God had planned. We praise them. We will honor them. The coming millions of freemen on this continent will honor them. But as Christian citizens we must look higher than this, "our help has come from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Here has been the point of observation from which all these movements have been directed. The marching and coun­termarching of the hosts, North and South, East and West, has been under His eye, and superintended by His prov­idence. The winds, the rain, the cold and heat, have held them in check until it was time to move. The rivers, swollen by His command, have stopped the whole until it is time to march. We have looked on with anxiety and some fears, per­haps, for the last year, when the movements manifestly began to converge to­wards the heart of rebellion, lest so great movements, at so great a distance, should not meet to produce the intended result.

The nation has waited for the last six months, in breathless suspense, seeing how one move after another has been tightening our hold upon the capital of our enemy, until he has been forced to abandon his strong holds, and trust to fortune to find others. Skeptical and blind is the mind that does not see a higher than man that has been guiding these movements so various, and oper­ating at so great a distance, so as to make the result a unit. Hard is that heart that has, to-day, no thanks to Him that sitteth upon the everlasting hills, and has from thence, by His providence, been guiding to the result for which we rejoice. When Sherman cut himself loose from Atlanta last autumn, the world was full of conjectures and predictions of what he wished to do, or could or would do, or whether he would do anything but destroy his splendid army. Whatever may have been the human plans at the time, we know that but one mind knew certainly the result, and comprehended all the circumstances upon which success depended. It was all under the eye of Him, who has by His providence guided the whole so as to accomplish his purpose in this war. Thanks be to Him that sitteth upon the everlasting hills, who has made the wrath of our enemies to praise Him, and work their own ruin. Let our de­monstrations of joy be expressed before Him, for He has done all things well. It is only by viewing the work as His, and accomplishing His purpose, that we can appreciate what has been done. The fall of Richmond in itself concerned, is a small event. It is a representative event; that which it was pledged to de­fend falls. The event goes out over the land and world affecting all the inter­ests at stake in this war, — the princi­ples of republican government — Christian freedom — the right to preach freely the Gospel — to teach and to learn with­out restraint. The slave mother breathes freer, feels safer, as she looks upon her loved ones for it; her home is guarded against the intrusion of the dealer in human flesh. The land is opened by it to the philanthropist and Christian mis­sionary, to look after the ignorant and degraded slaves, and teach them the way of life from the word of God. The event not only affects our national in­terest. The church of Christ has an interest in it. The field under God's eye in this war is larger than our land. Grant's war map is but a speck of the whole. His comprehensive plans, and vast moves and glorious results, are but the opening of the divine purpose, to proclaim liberty to the captives in all lands, "to proclaim the acceptable years of the Lord, and the day of ven­geance of our God." We do not to-day rejoice and give thanks simply that Gen. Grant has been successful. God's re­vealed purpose is a reality. The way is opened for a fuller consummation of the purpose of God, that men should dwell together, unmolested, in the free devel­opment of all their powers and full en­joyment of the fruit of their wisdom and toil. It is a small affair that our country be saved, if we consider it dis­connected from the influence of an en­lightened, free Christian people, on the general weal of the world.

It is to be feared that much of the joy of the last week has arisen from selfish considerations; my party has tri­umphed, my business will be improved by the good news, or my son or com‑

 

 

 

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panion will be at home again. There has been no thought of the effect on the more general interests of man — free thought, free labor, free worship — free enjoyment of all these — free spread of Christian principles in the world. If we look to the hills, from whence has come our help, we shall see that there is a wider range for our joy than our land. God is here, moving a wheel within the wheel, that is turning the whole earth, crushing despotism, casting out light and knowledge, and overturning and overturning "until He come, whose right it is" to reign. If we fail to see God's hand in the work, we shall not appreciate its connection with the interests of Christian civilization and missionary movements. Our gratitude will not be Christian.

III. There is another feeling that ought to enter largely into our joy — humility. It will be forgotten if we do not look to God, from whom has come our help. Pride is sin; boasting is its natural language. Sin is defiant, re­bellious, and always confident of having its own way, and by its own plans. In counter tendency to this, we should come before God as our deliverer, feel, confess and act on the principle that we are weak. It is He that has brought the na­tion through the waters. He has brought the heaps of waters over our enemies. We love to say, and ought to, our coun­try, our government, our naval and mil­itary strength, and our victories. But there is danger, in such a time as this, that we become vain. Looking unto God reveals a more powerful disposer of events than ourselves — owning all we call ours by absolute right. None can dispute it. No power can maintain a claim against His. The land is His. He has given it to us as a dwelling-place. He has overthrown our enemies that have risen to contest His right to give us the land for a republican government. We hold it sacred to freedom by the best of titles — the gift of God. Like Pharaoh of' old, our enemies said: we will pursue, we will overtake, we will divide the spoil. our lust shall be satis­fied. God has favored our cause. They have sunk like lead in the waters. They have cast away their chariots of war in their flight. Like Israel, we ought to sing to-day: "Who is like unto thee, O Lord? among the Gods who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"­ Ex. 15:9-11.

How becoming this song for Israel, who had been but a little before hedged in by the mountains and the sea, and pursued by the Egyptian army. Hardly less dangerous was our condition four years since. A united, treacherous en­emy was, before us, clad and disciplined for war. Traitors appeared everywhere in the land, in the army, in the halls of Congress. At home and abroad adverse influences met us. The government knew not what to do, or whom to trust. Many that were trusted were false or heartless to our cause. The Capital was swarming with secret foes and declared, defiant enemies, holding at the time nearly all the munitions of war of the nation under their control. The foreign nations said the republic is a rope of sand, and took it for granted almost that we were not as a nation. But there was a voice, as of old, to "Abraham:" "I will give thee the land."

To-day all the naval preparations of the enemy are in the depths of the sea — "they sank unto the bottom as a stone." Their heavy ordnance, by the thousand, has fallen into our hands. Their forts and fortifications are abandoned, and their strong army, like Pharaoh's host, is floating about to find a place to make a stand.

Looking back four years from this time, and seeing what has been devel­oped of plans to destroy the nation, and the malignant, fiendish determination to execute them, and what combinations at home and abroad were against us, we may say to-day, it is the Lord that has been our help, or our enemies would have prevailed. We were then shorn of all our strength but the justice of our cause and our patriotic hearts. We were like Samson in the hands of the Phil­istines, a sport for our enemies. But, thanks be to God, the pillars of their wicked fabric have been broken and brought down ruin on the lands of the Confederacy. The Lord has helped us this once. It is meet that we rejoice

 

 

 

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with humility, and praise Him for what we see to-day and hope for in the future. Especially, when we consider that all that we have passed through of suffering, in reaching this point of triumph, has been justly deserved. God has saved us from the brink of ruin, where we had rushed by our sins. He has kept us from anarchy. He has weakened our enemies. In mercy, he has made all our defeats lay firmly the foundation of permanent peace. They have all been heavy blows against slavery — the cor­ner-stone of rebellion — and teaching the slave himself to feel his manhood, and arming and disciplining him to defend himself. We, in our inhumanity and selfishness did not think of this, did not mean it; yea, the government declared a different purpose. But God forced us to declare liberty to the captive. Defeat and reverses attended our cause, and strength and courage came to our enemies. The whole ark trembled until hands were put to it and washed from the wrongs of the oppressed. Before God to-day, we ought to take our place in the dust and mourn, that we were so slow to learn that the negro has the feel­ings and rights of a man. God had to write it out in blood before we could see the self-evident truth — slavery is a sin. Thousands of cannon must men­ace the capital, with terrific cannonad­ing, before the ears of the nation were opened to hear God's command "to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke." We should humble ourselves before God in confession and prayer for forgiveness, that millions, guilty of noth­ing "but a skin not colored like our own," have been sunk in all the ignor­ance and degradation of heathen, in this Christian land, and held there by the laws of a professedly Christian people. It is a shame to humanity that slavery, with all its woes, should have ever found supporters in our land, and been de­fended by men educated under our insti­tutions. It is a sin and a shame that we have insulted the word of God by holding it up as a covert for the abomi­nation of slavery, or as an apology for continuing it. God has helped us, in this war, in a way that has brought out to the light of the world the iniquities of the system. It pours out from the plantations and cities of the whole South, in the hundreds of thousands of half-naked, 'half-starved, ignorant and degraded beings, whose affections and chastity have been trifled with by their oppressors all their lives. God says to the nation: Look at this mass of ignorance and filth and see what you have been defending and conniving at, and in some cases defending from my word. See your folly, be ashamed of your apologies and soft talk about this in­iquity that has spewed out all the way I have led your victorious troops.

The inhumanity that has appeared, in robbing and stabbing the wounded, in mutilating the dead on the battle-field, and starving and slaying in cold blood our prisoners, show us what a barbarity, what a dance of cruelty and death we have been indifferent about in a Christian land. God's ways in this thing shame us for our opinions and practices in relation to the colored race. We ought to humble ourselves in shame and self-reproach, that we have been for years, in Congress, in our State legislatures, by our public men, trying to save the Union and make peace at the ex­pense of justice. God has helped us in a way that shows that the only way of peace is to proclaim liberty to the cap­tive, as he has commanded.

IV. We should look unto the hills, from whence has come our help, that we may feel our dependence. The rebellion has developed a vitality and a strength in our government that we had not known. Foreign nations have been disappointed at the developments of wealth, the intelligent action, the moral and Christian principles, and the power of the government in every respect. The ship of state has met the storm nobly, and nears the port in safety, defy­ing the mad waves that have threatened to engulph her. There is danger in such a position. It is well to feel strong; but it is better to feel that our strength is weakness — so much so, at least, as to keep us from defiant airs and provoking measures. The long and severe military training of the country in this war, and the large naval and military prepa­rations, prepare us for aggression.

 

 

 

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There is danger that we become impa­tient under insult, and jealous of little encroachments, and sensitive, to a fault, of national honor. The education of the nation, at this time, will tend to make us feel large and defiant, if not provocative, as if the world was ours. No nation has ever had its power of en­durance more severely tried than ours in the last four years. Our statesman­ship has been proved, our valor on the field of battle has been tested, our pat­riotism has been tried, our Christian principle shown. In all we have met the demand of the hour successfully. But remember that it is the Lord that has helped us. If we forget this, there is danger that we give ourselves up to rashness and insult in diplomacy, and make a cause of war out of trifles, and waste our strength needlessly, and confidently boast of strength when we are weak, only as the Lord helps us. That help can be sought, consistently, only in a just cause. No military preparations, however great, will warrant aggressive war, or give hope of success in oppress­ing the weak, or defying, needlessly, the strong.

V. If we forget the source from whence our help has come, we shall not fully prize the government the Lord has given us, and helped us thus far to de­fend. Many seem to have no other idea of a country than a place to live, where they can eat and sleep, and, perhaps, get rich; and that government is regarded as best that gives them the fullest enjoyment in this respect. They overlook entirely the great end for which civil government has been appointed by God. It is for the fullest development of the powers of man, as a social, intellectual and moral being; to enlarge the sphere of his usefulness, and protect and encourage him in it.

That government is best that gives the freest, largest range of the human soul in its mission of good-will to man and glory to God. God has helped us in this struggle that we might have a government for this, a government that puts no brand upon the human soul that degrades it, or dooms it to a service not required by its Creator. God has helped us that there may be no power in law to blast the intellect and crush the man­hood, pervert the conscience and judg­ment, and degrade the worship of the human soul. God has helped us for this; not that we might have a civil or­ganization to use for what purpose we please, and to manage as party feeling or selfish interest may dictate. Our government is God's gift to this whole land, that the wilderness and solitary places shall bud and blossom as the rose, and all men may rejoice in the salvation of our God. He has helped us that there might be here the freest, fullest range to human thought; that, under the culture of our free schools, free press, free Bible and worship, there may be realized the highest attainment of society, in knowl­edge, in virtue and Christian devotion; and that from our land may go out an enlightening, regenerating influence for the world. For this has God helped us.

We must take no narrow view of the results of this war. Make the hills, from whence has come our help, our point of observation, and we will see the coming millions of our land rejoicing in the joy of our hearts to-day, and thanking God for the results for which we rejoice. All have the means of education within their reach, encouraged from childhood to make the most of their powers and opportunities. The word of God is in a language which all can read. They are restrained by no laws but such as hold them to the high purpose for which God made man — a life of intelligence. of justice and purity. We see them all with free access to the fountain of light in God's word, and re­jocing in it as a common inheritance to the race. Such is the view of the fu­ture of our land, if we look from the hills, from which has come our help. We here get a glimpse of the purpose of the Lord in its present unfolding and future promise, and can realize some­thing of the greatness of His work in our struggle. We are prepared to appreciate what he has wrought for us in humbling our enemies by the fall of Richmond. We can .say, sincerely, "O praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise him, all ye people, for his merci­ful kindness is great toward us." — Psalms 117:1, 2.

 

 

 

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AN ADDRESS,

 

BY REV. ALFRED STEVENS, D. D.,

 

February 22, 1883,

 

THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY

 

Of his pastorate with the

 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, WESTMINSTER WEST.

 

BRETHREN AND FRIENDS:

It is forty years to-day since I was installed as your pastor. I was first seen in your pulpit ten months before my installation. It was on the second Sabbath in April, 1842; there was no person in the congregation I had ever seen before I came to town. It was a pleasant day.

I had not thought of being a candi­date for settlement when I came among you, but I soon learned that that was the expectation among the peo­ple, and the congregation was large that day; there was evidently a feeling of anxiety and expectation with most; with some, curiosity to hear a new min­ister. I was introduced by Deacon Asahel Goodell, into a moderately high pulpit, located between the doors leading into the audience-room. It was reached by stairs on both sides; was without a carpet. A strong board firmly nailed to supports was my resting-place. Behind me in the loft were at least twenty good singers, supported in the service by a bass-viol and a flute. Near­est to me, as I looked from the pulpit, and most prominent among the faces that met my eye, was that of your old minister, the Rev. Timothy Field, whose looks always told his likes and dislikes. In the next pew sat Zadock Hitchcock, then Captain Amos Hitchcock, Atherton Hall, David Gorham, Jabez Miller, Orion Carpenter and Luman Wilcox. In the body pews at the right sat Dea­con Ebenezer Goodhue, then Joseph Ranney, Esq., Deacon Elijah Ranney, Calvin Ranney, Mr. Richmond, Elisha Berry, Sr. and Jr., and Edward Camp­bell. In the wall pews on the right sat Reuben Prentiss, Daniel Bailey, Aaron Gould, Captain Crowell, Abiel Carpen­ter and Joseph Hamblin. On the left sat Isaac Gorham, Stephen Tuthill, Ebenezer Goodell, David Hitchcock, Peter Hall, John Miller and Ira Carpenter. All of these were men who had passed the meridian of life, and most of them were upwards of seventy years. These have all passed into the congregation of the dead. Most of them had their wives with them that day — noble women, mothers of worthy men and women; they, too, have all passed away. There are only three men and a few women that regularly worship with us to-day that could be regarded as active mem­bers of the church and society when I was installed as your pastor.

I think there is not a farm in the parish that is now owned and occupied by the same persons that held them then. Some have passed from the fathers to the chil­dren, but most have entirely new occu­pants; all are changed in many respects. Only a few of your houses had ever had a coat of white paint, and only two had blinds to the windows. There was no piano in the parish; a single melodeon was the only apology for an organ of any kind. Most of the music then in the parish was made by the human voice. There was no lack of singers, then, in any place in the parish. A little observation will show that there has been a great change in all these partic­ulars since I have been your pastor. But there is one thing that has not changed. My first sermon after my or­dination, Feb. 22, 1843, was from the text, "For I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." This was the mes­sage from me to your fathers when I was their young minister. This is the message I have borne to you, their chil­dren, now I am a gray-headed man. I loved that message then; I love it now for the same reason, "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."

I have preached often and plainly on questions that have arisen from habits of the parish that needed rebuke or en­couragement, on questions affecting State or national interests, but never unless I thought the honor of my Saviour required such discourse. My ordination vows demanded that my gospel to you should be the gospel of Christ. seeking

 

 

 

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to save the lost. I have tried to be faith­ful to those vows. But I have much to confess of imperfection, to the parish, and more to my Saviour. The barren­ness of my ministry in conversions hum­bles me, and makes me reluctant to re­view it. I think I can truly say I have studied to preach Christ to you, and have not kept back anything of doctrine or command that I find revealed in the Bible. The subject of salvation has lost none of its interest by repeated discourse. It does not seem old; it is as fresh to day as when I first spoke to you of the great love of God for sinners.

I find I have preached to you 1,400 sermons fully written, and as many more from briefs or entirely extemporaneous — some of these from the pulpit, but more of them in the vestry or the school-houses in the parish. I have been with you, in my pulpit service, in expositions mostly written out, through Galatians, Romans, Acts of the Apos­tles, the Book of Job, the Gospels of John and Matthew. In these discourses, which number over 300, we have sat together before the Saviour with the be­loved disciple, and heard him speak of the divine love manifested in Christ. We have considered the change effected in Saul, the proud Pharisee, by the spirit of God, and have followed him in his journeyings, preaching Christ in the islands of the sea, in Asia, in Greece and at Rome. We have heard him in the praying circles by the seaside, before kings and in the schools of philosophers, speaking, but always of Christ the Di­vine Saviour, able to save. We have together considered, in the book of Job, how God comes down into human af­fairs, how he chastens. His children, how He sustains and how He rewards the faithful. The richest hours of my life have been my communings with the great apostle, the beloved disciple and the afflicted man of Uz, in my prepar­ation to teach you what Christ has been to his people, and what he is to you and me.

I have preached Christ in your fam­ilies, beside the bed of the sick and dy­ing. I do not think of any family long resident in the parish in which I have not been called to speak of Christ to the sick and dying. I have often been carried near to the heavenly world, as I have heard your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters speak of the blessedness of faith in Christ in the hour of death. These scenes have deepened not a little my in­terest in your homes. Your homes are precious to me, for in many of them I have learned how precious Christ is when all earthly things fail. The cham­bers where the good men and women that waited on my early ministry met their fate will always be remembered. Their words of confident trust I still hear. Their looks of resignation to the hand of death I still recall, and shall as long as I remember anything. I would not have blotted from my history the seasons of communings with good men and women that chose me as their minis­ter forty years ago, as the hand of death was taking them over the river. To have repeated the promises and invita­tions of the blessed Saviour, in my poor way, beside the dying-beds in the par­ish, furnishes the most delightful recol­lection in the review of the years I have spent with you.

But I must say to-day that all the dying-beds that I have visited in the parish have not been scenes of Christian triumph. Often I could only commend the dying one to Christ, asking him to come into salvation in the eleventh hour. My unfaithfulness has been rebuked as I have often tried to speak words for Jesus into ears fast closing in death, that should have been spoken before. I hear to-day a voice from some of the dying-beds that I have visited, saying, "You should have let no opportunity pass to point the young and old of your flock to Christ, unimproved." I turn to Christ to-day for forgiveness of my neglects, thankful that the promises of Christ may be repeated with hope on the brink of the grave, and that dying eyes may be directed to the Saviour the gos­pel reveals.

I have preached Christ Jesus to you as your comfort in affliction. There are, I think, only three houses in the parish in which I have not attended funerals — in some of them as many as seven. I have been with you 307 times to the graves of your loved ones, and commit‑

 

 

 

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ted their mortal remains to the keeping of Him who is the resurrection and the life. I have been present and officiated, in part or alone, at all the funerals that have occurred in the parish when I was in town, except two. Twice a Univer­salist minister has been called by the afflicted family, a Methodist three times and a Baptist four times. We shared the services together by the request of the family. I have been called from the parish to attend funerals 75 times.

Of the 307 that have died in the parish during my pastorate, 9 were between 90 and 100 years of age; 57 between 80 and 90, 111 between 70 and 80; 30 be­tween 60 and 70; 16 between 50 and 60; 12 between 40 and 50; 16 between 30 and 40; 16 between 20 and 30, and 40 under 20 years of age [three since over 80 = 60 over 80]. Of all these it is written, "They died." Most of them are forgotten by a large part of those living in the parish to-day. Many of them occupied, forty years ago, the same seats in the house of God that you occupy to-day. They heard the same gospel you listen to from Sabbath to Sabbath. With many of them I took sweet counsel in the house of God, in the social circles and in the houses you now occupy. Of all of them I can say, they were my friends, so far as I know.

I have attended 95 weddings. I have preached Christ to the youth of the par­ish. It has been a great pleasure for me to do it, but the reflection is embit­tered somewhat by the thought that they have not all been led to Christ. That they should have spent their minority under my ministry, and gone out from the parish without the love of Christ in their hearts, is my grief to-day.

I have preached Christ to the busi­ness men of the parish — preached him as their Saviour, His life as their exam­ple, and His law as their rule of life. I have called their attention repeatedly to their civil duties, and urged them to fear God as citizens, in voting, in buy­ing and selling, and as neighbors to be kind and condescending, to be just, "do­ing to others as they would that others should do to them."

There has been generally harmony and good feeling in the parish in the dealings of man with man; yet I must say there would have been better if all had been more thoughtful about the practical virtues of the gospel I have preached. I know of no difficulty be­tween parishioners the years I review that did not arise very much from a want of good will, and did not find a settle­ment for the same reason. Those that have taken with them the spirit of Christ in their buying and selling, and kept the example of Christ with them on their farms and in their shops, have lived in peace, generally.

I cannot, without a good deal of trouble, tell how many sermons I have preached on the practical virtues of civil life. I have preached repeatedly on temperance, on honesty in trade and politics, on the duty of bearing one another's burdens, in taxes in the church, the town and State; on economy and diligence in business; on the duty and dignity of labor and the happiness from it; on the sin of avarice and the con­sequences of it to the individual and so­ciety. Next to the importance of sal­vation, I have tried to show the parish that the gospel demands generosity in business life, a nobleness of spirit in civil intercourse that shows that we think of something besides ourselves in the bargains we make and the votes we cast.

I have labored to make my gospel to you commend the service of Christ as worthy of your first regard. My am­bition has been to make this small par­ish tell the most possible for the cause of Christ in the world. Wherein I have failed to enlist any family or individual in a practical way in preaching the gospel in all the earth, I feel that I have failed in my ministerial work. An individual or a church that is not identi­fied in a practical way with the movement to give the gospel to this sinful world cannot long maintain a Christian stand­ing that commands respect.

The church, during the years under review, has given to other churches, of her members, 113 — some of them our most helpful members, as to pecuniary aid and Christian influence. This con­tribution took the youthful life of the church generally. It has weakened our

 

 

 

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home influence, but, thanks to God, it has strengthened others. We have not spent the years to enlarge ourselves, but the cause of Christ in the world. Our home influence is relatively less than it was forty years ago, but never, in the history of the church, has her influence been so extended and efficient for the work of the Christian church in the world as now. This contribution has been made in no narrow sectarian spirit. Our Methodist and Baptist brethren have shared it — the Presbyterians largely. It is our pride that our mem­bers are good enough for any evangeli­cal denomination, and can work for the honor of Christ with any that hold to "Christ the head."

The benevolent organizations for which contributions have been made every year are the A. B. C. F. M., home missions, A. M. S., and Bible Society. In the early years of my ministry a contribution was regu­larly taken for the American Tract So­ciety. The American Education Soci­ety, the Sabbath-school Society, and the Society for Aiding Colleges at the West, have been remembered in our contribu­tions. We have remembered those suf­fering by fire and famine, also. The definite amounts that have gone from the society in these years cannot be told, as no record was kept in the early years of my ministry. The ordinary contri­bution has never been over $300 in any one year. There have been two small legacies. I think it would not be an over-statement to say the total of the contribution for Christian work, outside of the parish, has been $10,000. This does not include the work of the ladies in barrels and boxes of clothing for missionaries and orphan schools, which will amount to $1,500 more. It will be manifest from this that the parish has not practiced very much of self-denial for the cause of Christ during the years under review.

You are not a prodigal people, but it is doubtless true that you have spent, since I have been your pastor, many times the amount of your benevolent gifts in ways of no practical benefit to you or your families. I am sure that there has been more spent in the parish yearly for tobacco than has been given for benevolent purposes — I think I may add to this the salary of the pastor. We should have been richer to-day, as a people, financially, been happier and more united, if we had given more gener­ously for others' good. You have spent on the church, in repairs and for bell, $5,500 since I have been your pastor.

There has been a weekly prayer-meeting maintained in the parish dur­ing my ministry; the attendance has generally been small. For many years it was held with the families near the church. For a number of years we had a weekly meeting for the young people, which was quite largely attended for some time, but was gradually neglected, and revived in different forms as a Bible class and a prayer-meeting. The ben­efits of these social meetings have not been fully prized by the church. As a consequence, our years together have been, comparatively, barren of conver­sions. The great mistake of these years, as it appears to me, is, we have been more anxious to build up our church than to save the lost. This is a com­mon mistake. To live is not the whole of life. We must do the work of Christ, lead men — sinful men — to him for sal­vation, if our church has vital growth. The person that spends all his thoughts in care of his health will always be a feeble man. We are placed in the world not to live simply, but to do some­thing.

There has generally been a willing­ness in the church to share the pecun­iary support of the parish, but time and effort have been sparingly given to lead sinners to Christ. This is the great work of the Christian. No amount of paying in money can cancel the Chris­tian's obligation.

There have been added to the church by profession, during these forty years, as follows: 1843, 2; 1844, 1; 1845, 6; 1846, 1; 1849, 1; 1851, 3; 1853, 12; 1855, 1; 1856, 8; 1859, 2; 1860, 3; 1861, 1; 1863, 2; 1864, 3; 1866, 3; 1867, 3; 1868, 31; 1871, 1; 1874, 2; 1876, 3; 1878, 1; 1879, 1; 1880, 1; 1882, 2; in all, 94. There have been received by letter, 37. We have lost by death, 84, and 3 have been ex‑

 

 

 

663                                         WESTMINSTER WEST.                        103

 

communicated, making in all, including removals, 200, while we have received only 131, which shows a loss of mem­bership of the church of 69. We now report only 79 members. While we ac­cept this as an evidence of my unfaith­fulness and mourn over it, I find com­fort somewhat in the fact that the larger part of our loss has been in the further­ance of the cause of Christ. Those we have dismissed to other churches have taken from us families from which we would naturally look for an increase, and from which we know the church has received large increase. Infant baptisms, 100.

I find a corresponding decrease in the population of the parish. I do not know what the population of the parish was in 1842, but I cannot count more than 350 that can now properly be said to belong to the parish. Unless you have given thought to the subject, you will be surprised to know how many farms have been given up to pastures or united with other farms, where there were fam­ilies living in 1842. I think there are 24. From some of them the buildings have all disappeared; on others they remain empty or occupied by some tran­sient family. On some of these farms, in 1842, were large families; but this decrease in houses in the parish is not the most discouraging look. When I visited the families in the early years of my ministry I was greeted by children, but in the later years we meet but com­paratively few children. It is hopeful to be able to say that there has been a great improvement in the past few years. Though the parish has decreased in population, my estimate of its importance as a field of ministerial labor has not changed. It has been, is now and always will be a center of large influ­ence, either for good or evil. Ministe­rial and Christian labor will not be useless.

When I came here there was no rail­road in the state; none nearer, I think, than Old Concord, Mass. A telegraph was not known. A telephone was a thing unheard of. These means of communication have connected larger towns, but have left this parish out in the cold. We must go out to get into the current that is rushing by. Very few come in. We can enjoy only the blessedness of giving out. It is worthy of our best efforts to make what we give of worth to the world.

I would refer, in this review, to what I have not preached.

I have not preached myself. I do not mean by this that I have been free from selfishness in my ministry. I know there has been too much. But I think I can say in good conscience that I have not remained these years in any expec­tation of wealth or honor of this world. The question has been asked me a number of times, if I would accept of an invitation to show myself in other pulpits as a candidate. I have always replied, I was under obligation to the West Parish so long as they fulfilled their engagements with me, and I had evidence I was approved of my master. I have not studied to be a popular min­ister. Perhaps it would have been bet­ter for the parish and the cause of Christ if I had been more thoughtful in that direction.

You will bear witness to the truth of my words, if I say I have not preached my own wants. I do not know how it is, but my wants have all been supplied in some way, so that no one in the par­ish has ever heard any complaint from me about my support. I have never asked you to increase my salary. If I have ever been short in my means, as has often been the case, I have regard­ed it as the common lot of thousands, and waited for some way of relief. Ministers are not the only class that are obliged to put up with small income. When I settled with you, 40 years ago, my salary, $400.00, and parsonage, valued at $50.00, was ample for my support, as my circumstances then were and the prices of the means of living then ranged. I saved a little the first ten years of my ministry, enough to pay some debts that had accumulated in. my education. In 1869, you voluntari­ly raised my salary $100.00, and have continued the same until the present time. I have been remembered a num­ber of times by gifts in cash of $100.00 and more each time. I have a little to­day, a home that I can call my own.

 

 

 

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What I prize more than money, I have always had your sympathy in every dark hour of my ministry.

But it is due to me and you to say in this review, if I could have laid by all that I have received from other sources than my salary, it would have to-day amounted to some thousands more than I now have. I do not refer to this complainingly, but as an illustration of the fact I have stated, I have not sought yours. Like Paul, I have sought that you might be relieved as much as possi­ble of burdens, which you might have properly been asked to bear. But I think I am as well off as my brethren in the ministry, who have preached their wants and resigned to better their con­dition pecuniarily.

There are but few ministers of our denomination (and it is true of all de­nominations) that have not changed parishes since I have been with you. In nine-tenths of the removals the ques­tion of support determined the action. My judgment, which I wish here to record, is, a small salary with a home is worth more than a large one and no home. I have not known a brother minister that has become rich by re­movals, rarely have they even bettered their condition financially. But parishes should remember that 40 years has made changes in habits of living. I do not say it is for the better. The fact meets us everywhere. No mother in the parish can satisfy her daughter with the expense in dress that satisfied her when a girl. Fathers do not expect their sons to appear in the simple attire, or ride in the same kind of a carriage, and have only the outfit that met their ideas when young. No business man or farmer expeets to be satisfied with the small avails of the year that was enough for the ambitions of his fathers. To live in 1883 as our fathers did 50 years ago is simply to be out of society. Societies must consider these facts in providing for the support of their minis­ters. Ministers cannot grade their ex­penses by the standard of living 40 years ago better than any other family. Ministers doubtless must bear their share of responsibility for the habits of society that have made their homes transient, but not wholly. Certainly they have had to bear the effects of the change in their constant removals, with­out bettering their condition. This trouble of removal is not with ministers simply. Change is a national mania; change in fashions, in business, new adventures, something startling in mon­ey making, in speed in traveling, in grotesque exhibitions of style in dress or building. Nothing that has been before satisfies. All are on the stretch to be ahead. As soon as one reports 3 minutes, you will hear another say 2:40, followed quickly by 2:25. Man and beast are put on the track to be ahead. Expense is nothing. Be ahead is everything. Ministers and so­cieties are in trouble from it. What is needful for both is to have patience and be considerate of each other's fault in this respect, and make the expenses of each other as small as possible. I could not have said this early in my ministry without seeming to hint at an increase of salary. Being made at my age and with my resignation before you, you will accept it, I trust, as thoughtful­ness about a successor.

At my settlement I was allowed two Sabbaths a year for myself. But my health has been uninterruptedly good, so that 1 have not felt the need of an annual visit to the springs or places of recreation to improve my health. Min­isterial vacations are institutions that have grown up, or at least grown into importance, during my ministry. Min­isters need rest like other men without doubt, but that it needs to be taken by an annual visit to places of fashionable resort is more of a fashion than necessi­ty. I cannot tell the number of Sab­baths I have left the parish without a supply. I think not the number of years of my ministry. Only three Sabbaths have I failed to preach from ill-health. I can think of only 10 Sab­baths that I have not preached all or part of the day during the 40 years of my ministry. Most of the Sabbaths I have preached; often three times.

I have had a class in the Sabbath School since 1844. It was a large class of old men and women, a number of them over 80 when I took it. It has

 

 

 

665                                         WESTMINSTER WEST.                        105

 

changed many times in that time. It is now composed mostly of persons in middle life. There were two other classes in the school that have retained their organization, most of the time under the same teachers, Deacon Good­hue and his wife. There have been nine different superintendents of the school during my ministry. They are all living to-day, with one exception. What we have done in this department of Christian work has not been for our­selves simply. I think of the large families that were connected with the school in the early days of my ministry, that have not to-day a representative in town. I do not know where they all are now, but some of them I know are faithful men and women in the church of Christ in other places. I have often been asked if it was not discouraging to preach to a congregation, feeling that in a few years most of them were to go from the place. It is so; but I am consoled by the thought that I am not here to build up this church simply, but the church of Christ. In a community like ours we must expect that other societies and churches are to reap the fruit of what we do for Christ. I can not mention all the books of the Bible that have been made subject of study in the Sabbath School since I have known it. Early in my ministry the School went through the Assembly's Cate­chism, each lesson being made the sub­ject of the sermon in the morning ser­vice. For years we have followed the lessons noted by the International Sun­day School Committee. We would note this as one of the great improve­ments in the Sabbath School work since 1842; destined as we think, to work good not to the church simply. It is national in its influence, giving to the rising generation one rule of life.

During my ministry the church has been invited 83 times to ecclesiastical councils with sister churches, which I have attended, generally with a dele­gate; three times to organize new churches, four to settle difficulties be­tween brethren or sisters. The demand for councils in the region has been mostly to settle and dismiss ministers. One of the unpleasant things in my history has been parting with ministerial brethren just as I had begun to prize them as neighbors, and wait in uncer­tainty for a stranger to come to their place. West Brattleboro church has had but three different ministers during the 40 years of this review. Two pas­torates cover most of that period. Grafton has had only two pastorates. All the other churches in the county have made frequent changes. Some have changed many times, so I can say I have made the acquaintance of a large number of ministers of the county. I can recall the names of 106 different ministers that have ministered to our churches in the county a longer or shorter time, during my ministry here. Most of them were good men and highly educated. My intercourse with them has been generally pleasant and profitable. I loved them all, but I loved some better than others. All of those that composed the Association when I joined, May, 1843, have died, with one exception. My very dear bro­ther Foster still lives.* I would here record my appreciation of the benefits of the Association to me. Those meetings I have generally attended with great pleasure and profit. I find on file between 30 and 50 articles in manu­script, that I have prepared for the meetings, on questions of interest to our churches.

The years I have spent here have not been years of general revival in the county, if we except one year, 1864. No church, of any denomination, has maintained its numbers by additions by profession during the years under re­view. This certainly is true of the churches in rural towns. The young life leaves such towns. This is especi­ally true of religious families. This should be expected. Christianity is in­spiring, diffusive, progressive. No country or family can settle into a life­less condition, content with a living simply, that is permeated by the doc­trines of the gospel. It is a moral ne­cessity that Christian families should be the moving influence of the world. I wish I had time to read the names of

 

* [Deceased, Sept. 22, 1884. See History of Putney, this volume, page 259.]

 

 

 

106                              VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.             666

 

those that have left the parish since I have been the minister, and notice the positions they occupy and the influence they are exerting in the church and state. Some of 113 that we have dis­missed to other churches took with them families; all took impressions moral and religious here received. The membership of the church is less than 40 years ago. The population of the parish is less, but the influence of the parish never was so widely felt for good as to-day. In many respects it is more important that there be maintained vig­orous Christian life in such a place as this, than in larger.

We often hear persons speak of cen­ters of Christian and moral influences. Every moral being is such a center, whether he lives on the hills or in the valleys, the city or the rural town.

In closing I say I have had a grow­ing impression of the importance of the West Parish ever since I have known it. You must be little among the thou­sands of Judah, but there has and can still come out of you the rulers of Israel. It is the glory of the gospel we preach, that it emphasizes the worth of a moral being.

There have gone from the parish dur­ing the 40 years under review, 9 phy­sicians. They will be acknowledged as an honor to the profession by all that have known them; four clergymen, two of them have preached the gospel out­side of their own land; also four law­yers; two are now filling professors' chairs in colleges. Only one has risen to the dignity of an author. A number have had the title of professor, as teach­ers in high schools, and in music and engineering. But professional titles are quite insignificant as showing the main current of influence, that has burst the bounds of our narrow valley these 40 years. We must see the business men, the intelligent, pious families that dot the whole land, presided over by your sons and daughters, before we can real­ize the importance of the West Parish as a center of influence. I have always felt it was a great thing to preach the gospel here. It is the message of the minister that makes him great, not the place. Paul never shone in brighter colors or found a higher place in his wonderful history, than when preaching Christ to his fellow prisoners, or tell­ing the story of the cross on his jour­neyings among the mountains of Asia Minor. Everywhere, whether on Mars Hill, in the school of Tyrannus or in the prayer meeting, by the river side, his greatness was in the message he bore. No church, however small, or limited by geographical bounds, need lose self-respect so long as it faithfully can say, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. The glory of any church must be in the cross of Christ. The greatness of a minister must be found in the gospel message to a lost world. Rather than feel that our parish is small, let us look upon it as large enough for our best efforts, and mourn and ask forgiveness of the Master, that we have not more fully possessed the land for him. He that touches a moral being here or anywhere else, touches chords that vibrate through eternity. As an inducement to faithfulness in the field given for us to cultivate, I say furthermore, remem­ber our time is passing rapidly. Look­ing back from the point we occupy to­day, I do not see anything that has stood still. As I look back, I see the youth and children of the parish that met me 40 years ago, rushing by me, some out into the broad fields of active life. They are soon lost to sight. Some to the grave. The passer-by reads to-day the date of their birth and death. That is all that is known of them. I see, too, those that were then the occupants of these farms, passing by me. The sound of their driving, their threshing, their buying and selling soon ceases. The grave holds silent watch over them to-day. I see those of the parish then approaching man­hood, rushing by me, to take the places their fathers had just left, striking out for larger fields and with a rush grasp­ing for more than their fathers had, and in a few years of struggle lie down in the grave, or they are lost to my sight in the great business thoroughfares of our growing country. I see, too, the aged of the parish that met me then, moving by me with halting steps.

 

 

 

667                                         WESTMINSTER WEST.                        107

 

They are soon out of my sight. Their sun quickly goes down before me. It is as still as night where they were. It seems but the work of the day passing in my dreams at night. No, nothing stands still here that is of lasting inter­est to me or you or the world. It is the great interest of humanity that crowds upon our thoughts and pushes us to the front and onward, and urges us to faithfulness for the Master who has given us this vineyard to cultivate. This vineyard. Here in this narrow valley we find our field of labor. Here we measure our strength for usefulness, and count the results of our lives that are to appear at the judgment day. It will not be asked there how much im­provement you have made on your farms, in your flocks and houses. These have their importance, and I am proud, as you have occasion to be, in the change for the better that has taken place since I first knew the parish. But other things are to determine the result of our lives. We are touching, in all we do as minister and people, that which is to last; while our oppor­tunities are rapidly passing in which we can be of any use to the world. How many opportunities have been lost by neglect since I have been with you, I cannot tell. I have anxiety, a shrink­ing from the opening of the books that are to show my 40 years passed with you. I and you have forgotten much of these years, but we shall know it all then. I shall never review another 40 years with you, but I shall stand with you in the judgment day. Our years together will then be more perfectly re­viewed. Nothing will be left to con­jecture or doubt. We shall find it all written. It will be read.

I only wish to say these 40 years have passed quickly. It seems but a little while. They have passed pleas­antly. Much has occurred that I could wish otberwise, but nothing that has produced permanent alienation between pastor and people. To have been per­mitted to preach Christ Jesus to you so long a time is a privilege of which I am unworthy. How much longer this privilege shall be continued, I shall leave to you and the Master to determine. I feel thankful to my Heavenly Father for these years; for my health, and favor with this town and the county and state. My ministerial relations in the county and state, and the other side of the river too, have been pleasant. I feel thankful to this church and society for their patience with my many faults and their forbearance with me as their minister so long. I have not had the misfortune to quarrel with my deacons or the singers, not often with any of the parish. I can account for this only on the supposition that they have re­garded my thoughtless, foolish words unworthy of their notice.

If it shall be ordered that the present relation should continue a little longer. I hope it will be peaceful and fruitful in conversions of sinners, and growth of Christian graces in the church and so­ciety. When you wish my active pas­torate to close, I hope you will frankly tell me. I shall receive it kindly. I only ask you to let my pastorate for­mally remain, and me have a home with you and be of use to you as a Christian and a citizen. When I die let me rest with your dead. I want to wait with them for the morning of the resurrection.

 

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[Rev. Dr. Stevens has also published: The Duty of Christians in Time of National Calamity;

A sermon preached on the Day of National Thanksgiving, Aug. 8th, 1865, at the funeral of

 

SERGT. WALTER W. RANNEY,

who died of wounds received at the battle of Gettysburgh.

 

Printed at the Phoenix Job Office, Bellows Falls, 1865 — pp. 15.]

 

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DIED SINCE THE WAR,

Of the soldiers in the war of 1861-5, George Field, Dec. 25, 1879.

                                                      A. STEVENS.

 

 

 

108                              VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.             668

 

WESTMINSTER.

 

EAST AND WEST PARISHES, CONCLUSION.

 

REV. F. J. FAIRBANKS, the writer of the History of Westminster, was the minister of the Congregational church there from April, 1863, to April, 1871; 40 members being added during his ministrations to the church; during his pastorate, he wrote out the history of the East Parish.

Native also of Westminster is the Rev. C. A. Dickenson, graduate of Harvard and of Andover Theological Seminary; pastor of Portland, Me., and Lowell, Mass. — F. J. F.

HENRY CRAWFORD, born in Westmin­ster, Sept. 21, 1793; fitted at Chester­field (N. H.) Academy. He studied law with Hon. Wm. C. Bradley, of Westminster, and practiced in Walpole, N. H., till 1822, when he removed to Utica, N. Y., and practiced there till his death in March, 1835. — REV. H. WHITE.

CHAS. M. EMERSON, son of Rev. Reuben and Persis Emerson. Born 1798, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1809; studied and practiced law in Hartford, Ct., Providence, R. I. and New Orleans, La.; he married twice.

GEORGE CAMPBELL, a leading agriculturist, died at his home in West Westminster, May 22, 1882, in his 64th year. He was an enthusiastic breeder of Merino sheep, attaining, in that industry, a world-wide reputation. In his efforts for the improvement and exhibition of his flock, he traveled extensively, visiting England, Scotland, Germany, France and Spain, and many States of our own country. He was a spirited exhibitor, his sheep taking highest honors at State, National and International, as well as local exhibitions. He made frequent and large sales of sheep for shipment to nearly every country on the globe where fine wool is produced, sending a car-load from his own flock to Montana but a few weeks before his death.

He was one of the founders, and, for many years, one of the directors of the State Agricultural Society, and Vice-President of the New England Agri­cultural Society; a staunch democrat, — eminently just and public-spirited, and commanded the respect of all who knew him. Through a long and very painful illness he retained his interest in public affairs, and especially in the im­provement of sheep, which was a work of love that ended only with his life.

He married in May, 1839, Adaline Wilcox, of this town. Children: E. L. Campbell, now of Comstock's Land­ing, N. Y.; and F. G. and C. H. Campbell, both of Westminster West, and both leading agriculturists; and Carrie C., wife of C. Horace Hubbard, Esq , of Springfield. — From Obituaries.

 

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ITEMS WITH CORRIGENDA.

 

BY HENRY C. LANE, TOWN CLERK.

 

Capt. Jesse Burke, p. 60. His wife Leah Jennings; and the Hon. Edmund Burke, p. 67, was the grandson of Capt. Jesse Burke, p. 56.

John Lane, married Olive Jennings, sister of Leah, wife of Capt. Jesse Burke, p. 60.

Ithamer Lane, married Lucinda, daughter of Perez Clark.

The wife of John Lane was Olive Jennings, or she was sister of Leah, wife of Capt. Jesse Burke. Jesse Burke was the father of Elijah, and Eli­jah the father of Hon. Edmund Burke. Thus, Edmund Burke's grandmother, Leah, was sister to my great grand­mother, Olive. The Clarks, Scotto and Perez were my great grandfather and grandfather, respectively.

 

 

 

669                                              WESTMINSTER.                             109

 

CAPT. THEODORE COLE.

 

In 1694, one Thomas Cole, hus­band-man, was at Salem, Mass. He may have been the one who came to the Colony in the Mary and John in 1633 and was an original proprie­tor of Hampton, but this is uncer­tain. He died in Apr. 1679 leaving two sons, Abraham and John, the latter of whom born in 164– married Mary Knight, May 18, 1667. She died before 1675, and before 1686, he married Sarah Alsbee. He was a cooper by trade and lived first in Salem, then in Malden and last in Lynn where he died Oct. 8, 1703.

His oldest son was John, born in Salem, May 18, 1668. He married Mary Eaton and in 1721 removed from Lynn to Boxford, Mass., and settled in what was afterwards the West Parish. He died suddenly, Feb. 5, 1737. His widow died, Oct. 1, 1746. His oldest son, Jonathan, born in Lynn, 1696, removed to Harvard, Mass., 1696, and in his old age to Westmoreland, N. H. where he died in 1780. He had three sons: Jonathan, one of the grantees of Westmoreland, N. H.; Abijah, who died in Harvard, Mass, in 1768; and John, a soldier of the Revolution, serving as a captain against Bur­goyne. He lived his last years in Windham, Vt. His descendants are found in Londonderry.

ABIJAH COLE, named above, was the grandfather of Theodore Cole, a soldier in one of the expeditions against Quebec. On his return, 1757, he married Sarah Kent of Har­vard. He died, 1768, about thirty-six, leaving three daughters and two sons. Abijah and Asa. Abijah set­tled in Prospect Harbor Hancock Co. Me., where his descendants are very numerous. Asa, born in 1768; his early boyhood was passed in Westmoreland, N. H. He learned the mill-wright's trade of his step­father, Samuel Garfield, and worked with him in many places in Massa­chusetts and in Maine. Jan. 1793, he married Anna Goldsmith of Harvard, resided in Ringe and West­moreland; died, Dec. 6, 1816, leav­ing a wife and large family. She was a superior woman and by great exertion kept her children with her until able to go their various ways in life. She afterward married Amory Pollard, whom she survived and died with her daughter, Mrs. Orin Pitkin, in Montpelier, Vt., Sept. 4, 1852.

Children of Asa and Anna Cole:— Asa, died in West Medway, Mass, in 1872, aged 79. Richard Goldsmith, Cashier of a Bank in Burlington from 1832 till his death, and a lead­ing man among the Episcopalians of Vermont. He died in 1864, aged 69; Sarah, married Asa Farnsworth, and died in Londonderry, Vt., aged 35; Benjamin died at Chargres, Pan­ama, 1850, aged 51; Anna Goldsmith, married Rev. Isaac Estey, for a time pastor of the church in Westminster, and long a resident there, died in Amherst, Mass. in 1872, aged 70; Philena, died in Brattleboro, Vt., in 1859, aged 55; John, long a success­ful whaling captain, afterwards at Walpole, N. H. and Medway, Mass., died in Westmoreland, N. H., 1875, aged 68; Susan married 1st, Elihu Whitcomb; 2d, Orin Pitkin of Mont­pelier, Vt., where she lived many years; died at 74, 1873; William died at 19, 1830; Theodore; and Charles, who died at 37 from injuries by a whale while in command of a whale ship in 1853.

THEODORE COLE, tenth born of Asa and Anna Cole, Westmoreland, N. H., May 11, 1813, at 9 years old went to live with Abijah French, farmer and lumberman of Westmoreland; lived with him till the summer of 1834; the spring of 1835 when to New Bedford and shipped as seaman on a whale ship, voyage,

 

 

 

110                              VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.             670

 

18 months; his 2d, April 1837, round the world, was 2 years; his 3d voyage, sailing the fall of 1837, returned in '42, going out second mate in the ship Julian and after a year or more transferred to the barque Pacific as mate. At thirty, he had circumnavigated the globe twice. May, 1843, as master of the ship Parachute he began his 4th voyage, the third around the world and most successful. He returned in July, 1845, and in August mar­ried Livilla, daughter of Capt. Wil­son Gleason, a prominent and life­long citizen of Westmoreland, and one of the best known of the old time drovers of Vermont and N. H. Oct. 1845, sailing his 5th voyage; gone 2 years, 10 months. Nov. 1848, he set sail for the Arctic Ocean and Mrs. Cole accompanied him. They sailed round Cape Horn to the sand­wich Islands, where he left Mrs. Cole and steered for Behrings strait. He remained one season in the Arctic Ocean, discovering the Plover Islands, July 15, 1849, although he never claimed the title or credit of a discoverer. On return to the Sandwich Islands, he sailed, Mrs. C. again with him, to Hong Kong, China, where he prepared for an­other Arctic voyage. They sailed north through the Japan Sea to the Arctic Ocean, where he completed his cargo and started for home, ar­riving at New Bedford, Mar. 22, 1851. Having now a competency, he decided to give up the sea and as idleness was not to his taste, he en­gaged in manufacturing and mer­chandizing in Brattleboro where he remained till 1859, when he pur­chased a farm in Westminster, where he removed and lived for 7 years, identifying himself with the inter­ests of the town and citizens; in 1862, representing the town in the Legislature. In 1867, he removed to Waverly Village, Belmont, Mass., for better educational facilites. In 1875, he made a prospecting and pleasure trip to California and Col­orado, and then moved to West­moreland N. H., which town, he represented in the Legislature in 1881-­82; and there he died, July 2, 1885. Children of Captain Thodore and Mrs. Livilla Gleason Cole were five: Lucy, Sarah, and Richard G. are dead.

FRANK THEODORE, born in Brat­tleboro, Vt. June 22, 1853; gradu­ated at Williston Seminary in 1873, and at Williams College in 1877; re­ceived the degree of LL. B. on his graduating at the Columbia Law School, 1879; admitted to the Bar of New York, Dec. 1879; to the Bar of Ohio, Feb. 1880; since which time, engaged in practice in Columbus, Ohio, and has been more or less prom­inent in the charitable and politi­cal interests of the city.

WILLIAM HENRY, born in Brattle­boro, Aug. 10, 1851; went to Wyom­ing, 1874; Black Hills, 1875; to Cal­ifornia, 1877, 9 years raising grain there; married, June 3, 1883; Addie M. Green, San Joaquin Co., Cal.; has one daughter, Edith. He is now a farmer in Westminster, Vt.

 

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REVOLUTIONARY AND MILITARY PENSIONERS.

 

FROM THE UNITED STATES CENSUS.

 

Names of the pensioners for revo­lutionary and military services, age of the pensioner and names of the heads of the families with whom the pensioner resided June 1, 1840:

Seth Arnold, aged 82; resided with Seth S. Arnold.

Mary Hall, aged 72 years.

Aaron Bixby, aged 76 years.

Josiah Victor, aged 81 years.

 

DONORS OF PORTRAITS.

 

Hon. Stephen Row Bradley, M. C. aged 76 years; Hon. William Czar Bradley, M. C., aged 85 years. Engraved specially for the History of the Town of Westminster. Donors: Richards Stephen Row Bradley, Esq.; William Czar Bradley, Esq., of Brattleboro, sons of Jonathan Dorr Bradley. Esq., grandsons of Hon. Wm. C. Bradley, great-grandsons of Hon. Stephen R. Bradley.