Two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church in Middleboro, Mass

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974.402
M584mid
1851358

GEN • ...T!ON

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

1833 00082 9520

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

http://www.archive.org/details/twohundredthanniOOinmidd

TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

n XhS

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

MIDDLEBORO, MASS

By GEORGE WARREN STEARNS

Station
By THOMAS WESTON

WITH

OTHER ADDRESSES, PORTRAITS, DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG, ETC.

MIDDLEBORO

PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH

1895

1851358

/

D Middleborough, Mass. First church.

^ Two iiunrlrcclth anniversary oi the First Coiifjivjf.

•62° tional church in Middloboro, Mass. Historical iii.~I-o-.iV*

by fioorgfc Warren Strains; oration l.y Thomas W ■•. .:
witli otlicr addresses, portraits, descriptive catalog, it.
Middloboro, Tlio Church, 1S03.

136 p. front, (pi.) ports. 23"*.

Descriptive catalog oi llic members of the Firsi Concrrcqation.ni clr.irc!
Midillclioro, Massachusetts (continued from the tiuircli book pub. in loi 1)
.».u.OAm.p 121-136.

1. Registers of births, eU. — Mlddlcborouf.il, Mass. I. Talc.

j A 659 r^) i6-5.'.:i

Library of Congress F74.M63M74

CONTENTS

Page

Sermon by G. W. Stearns 8

Address by N. T. Dyer 3!

Letter from J. W. Kingsbury 39

Address by H. A. Hanaford

40

Ode: "The Pilgrim Mothers" 53

Oration by Thomas Weston

55

Letter from Grover Cleveland 78

Address: "The Old Meeting House," by C. W. Wood ... 79
Address by John Eddy 87

93

91

Address by William E. Fuller

Letter from Morton Dexter

Letter from John D. Long 98

Address by Louis Ellms 99

Address by Richard G. Woodbridge 100

Letter from Herbert K. Job 107

Address by Henry E. Cobb 108

Letter from Merrill E. Gates 109

Letter from M. F. Johnson no

Address by Benjamin L. Boomer . .111

Chronological Notes 115

Biographical Notes concerning Pastors and others . . . 116
Descriptive Catalog of Church-Members 124

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Meeting House in 1894 Frontispiece

Portraits of Pastors Putnam, Sawyer, Hidden, Sawin . Facing 15

Portraits of Pastors Dyer, Hanaford, Kingsbury, Stearns " ^4

Portrait of Thomas Weston " 55

Portrait of Joshua Eddy " 73

Portrait of Rev. Charles Wilkes Wood " 79

Portrait of Francis Greenleaf Pratt, Jr " 92

Portrait of Zechariah Eddy " 95

Portrait of Thomas Weston, Sr " 120

3

\^

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

At a business meeting of the First Congregational Church
in Middleboro, April 15, 1894, it was voted to provide for a
suitable observance of the two hundredth anniversary of the
organization of the church.

A strict reckoning from the original organization, December
26, 1694, — correcting the old style calendar, — would bring
the bi-centennial celebration January 6, 1895. It was presently
determined to hold the commemorative exercises not in mid-
winter, but in a season favorable for the largest possible attend-
ance of friends. The date chosen was August 26, 27, 1894.

On those days the celebration was accordingly held, and was
highly successful, the weather being all that could be desired,
and the meeting-house tilled to overflowing. The current
newspapers gave numerous details not here mentioned, ac-
counts specially full appearing in the Boston Herald, the
Middleboro Gazette, and the Middleboro News.

The church feels thankful to a very large number of our
townspeople, as Avell as to many other friends who, by their
presence, their letters, their spoken words, their gifts, or their
other assistance, have laid us under lasting obligation to them
for the success of the occasion.

The committee was later instructed to prepare a fitting
memorial volume. The result of their pleasant work is now
submitted to the public, in the hope that the host of friends of

6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE

the First Church, though widely scattered, may find in these
pages not only much interest, but a quickening of Christian
longing for the triumph of Christ and his Church, and for the
enrolling duly on earth of all those who hope to be enrolled in
heaven.

G. W. STEARNS,

A. H. SOULE,

A. J. WOOD,

R. F. THOMPSON,

H. F. WOOD,

C. F. CORNISH,

CLARA A. COX,

SARAH E. STEARNS,

SARAH F. C. SPARROW,

LUCY S. BLISS,

Committee.
1895, May.

EXERCISES IN COMMEMORATION

OF TUB

TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, 1894

The exercises of Sunday opened with a morning prayer-
meeting at the parsonage.

At the meeting-house, which had been tastefully adorned
with flowers and bunting, the worship began at 10.45, with the
following order : —

Organ Voluntary, ' ' Laus Deo " Morrison

By the Organist, Miss Nellie F. "Wood

Doxology and Gloria

By the Choir aud Congregation

Prayer

By the Pastor

Responsive Reading, Psalms 8G, 87

By Pastor and Congregation

Anthem, " Gloria," from Twelfth Mass . . . . . . Mozart

By the Choir

Scripture Selections, from Isaiah G2, and Ephesians 3
By Rev. H. A. Hanaford

Hymn-Anthem, " Jerusalem, my Glorious Home " . . Lowell Mason

Quartet aud Chorus
Prayer

By Rev. N. T. Dyer

Choual Response, " Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord " . Gounod

Hymn, " 0 where are Kings and Empires now?" Tune, "Tappan" . Coxe
By Choir and Congregation

Offertory, " Cross and Crown " Dana

Sermon

By the Pastor

7

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

TWO CENTURIES IN GOD'S WORK

. . . "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus
answered and said unto them, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom lie hath sent." John vi, 28, 29.

Men have ever been believers in God. The tendency to
believe in him is everywhere apparent, as a characteristic of
the race. It is true that in tiery periods of persecution, ages
before this ancient church was gathered, the early Christians
were charged with being atheists, because they had no idols.
And it is true that the prince of Greek philosophers, for a
reason not very different, was cruelly condemned to drink the
hemlock, though the falsity of the accusation is abundantly
proved by Avhat his beloved disciples, Plato and Xenophon,
have told of their illustrious teacher, for Socrates, like our
Savior, left no writings, and, again strangely like him, fur-
nished to his followers a large part of the luster of their
names.

Even of barbarians, as well as cultivated nations supposed
to believe in many gods, it is well established that some one
among their divinities was supreme. Under some name —
Zeus, or Jove, or Joss, or the great spirit Manitou, of the
Indians whom John Eliot so wonderfully Christianized in this
very region two hundred and fifty years ago — human beings
have steadily borne their witness to the Jehovah who made
them in his image.

Whoever believes in God might naturally be found raising the
question which was put to the Master in the Capernaum syna-
gogue. Our Lord had just counseled men to work not for
perishable food, like loaves and fishes, but for something
better. Then came the question, blunt but not unwelcome,
'• What must we do that we may work the works of God ? " as
if they reasoned, " We believe in God ; perhaps he has some
work for us to do ; we have but a short time to stay here, and

BICENTENNIAL SERMON lJ

ought to make no mistake about that work ; this wonder-
working teacher might tell us just what constitutes such work ;
we will ask him."

Some would have answered as it is often said now, " God's
work means giving bread to the hungry ; it is helping your
poor neighbors to clothing and shelter, or perhaps to mental
food, like books." And they would point to Christ's own
words about a cup of cold water, and about being hungry,
sick, or naked, and then relieved.

But such a reply is obvious. "These ye ought to have
done," indeed, but there was a certain other vital thing not to
be left undone. One need not preach to common men the duty
of not flying at each other's throats. But ordinary people may
well be counseled against certain real dangers; for instance,
cherishing hateful feelings. Therefore Jesus, in the Sermon
on the Mount, instead of merely repeating the commandment,
"Thou shalt not kill," preaches against a hateful spirit, effec-
tively showing that the familiar rules about murder, adultery,
etc., had more meaning than Avas on their surface. Only a
hardened wretch would withhold literal bread from the starv-
ing. That ordinary men would leave undone their duty in
that connection there was, and is, little likelihood. There was,
however, great danger of men failing to see the work of God
in a certain aspect which Christ proceeded at once to reveal.

The claim is often made that there has been a sweeping and fun-
damental change in preaching, and that the old doctrines arc no
longer believed, and in proof it is alleged that certain sterner
features of Bible teaching receive less emphasis or find less fre-
quent utterance than formerly. Yet the modern is not " another
gospel." It would be more truthful to say that the alert church
seeks in every epoch to choose out of the wealth of her treasury
of Christian truth such ideas as Milton might style

"... wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best";

in other words, such as are best suited to the varying condi-
tions of the particular age, and therefore most likely to be

10 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

effective. So a queen may select from her wardrobe the gar-
ment most becoming the special occasion ; or take from her
jewel-case whatever gem is most adapted to the time, but by
no means throws away those not then used.

Accordingly, when Jesus hears the simple question, couched
in terms so plain, " What is God's work?" instead of uttering
truths which any one's common sense would suggest, and say-
ing, " Relieve the distressed," he replies : " God's work is to
believe on him whom he hath sent." When James wrote his
Newr Testament letter, the same spirit must have whispered to
him to make his description of pure religion include not simply
the obvious features, such as helping the class typified by the
widow and fatherless, but also keeping unspotted from the world.
The former duty is plain ; the second might easily be neglected.
In a word, one must attend to spiritual cleansing — a work,
it will be discovered, which can be done only by the blood of
Christ.

Things not material ever run a risk of being ignored. One
side of a truth is so vividly seen that men hastily deem it the
only side. The temporal necessities of men are so imperiously
thrust upon our attention that many a good and intelligent man
allows himself to suppose that the main mission of the church
in the world is to furnish material aid to the destitute ; as if
to be heart-hungry were not worse. A recent startling hook,1
written by a devoted Christian, would seem to foster the
impression that humanitarianism is the sum of the gospel.
"When we contemplate the fierce pressure of congested misery,
poverty, and sin, such as every great town discloses, we can
be excused for a temporary mistake. Yet is there not a plain
contrast between the shallow and the profound answer to the
question : What constitutes God's work in the world?

Hushing the din of past centuries' debating about faith and
works, comes the statement of Jesus which many people have
strangely overlooked. The work of God is to believe on

i "If Christ came to Chicago," by W. T. Stead.

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 11

Christ. Here is something worthy of study, and one can
indorse the word of old John Selden in his "Table Talk,"
when in deploring the unhappy division of faith and works,
likening them to the light and heat of a candle, he said, " Nay ;
in a right conception, fides est opus; if I believe a thing because
I am commanded, that i.s opus.''1

If this is true, it follows that helping others to believe on
Christ is also God's work, for his Son's final and memorable
order Avas to go and make disciples of all the nations, teach-
ing them to observe all his commands.

Such a work, then, — believing and helping others to believe
on Christ, — is what for two centuries this historic church has
heen doing. In a spirit far from boastful do we throng this
meeting-house to-day. It is glory enough for any or all men
to have done humblest services for our Lord. Yet we feel a
proper pride in the thought that for these many generations
our ancestors and ourselves have been really, though humbly,
doing God's work in holding up the cross of Christ, like a beacon
that ever shines while it u stands and Avaits." Whatever our
church has left undone, — and doubtless that is much, — will
any one deny that she has stood for righteousness, for God,
and for God's work, ever since that winter day in 1694, when
those nine women and eleven men organized under the leader-
ship of revered Samuel Fuller, whose dust on yonder hill-top is
3'et aAvaiting the Master's word to arise?

It is a blessed thing, not to be underrated, simply to take a
stand before the world as a servant of God. That even score of
honored fathers and mothers in our Israel Avere like brave
sailors Avho nail their flag to the mast, lest by accident it even
seem to be lowered in surrender. Not many churches in our
republic have raised and kept the banner of the cross upheld
longer than it has been done in this ancient town. Aud be it
not forgotten that those churches which, in the vicissitudes of
time, have become no more, have as a rule gone down as the
"Cumberland" sank in Hampton Roads, more than thirty
years ago, with the colors still waving above the place where

12 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

the ship was a wreck. It is our happy lot to have been sus-
tained in healthy existence all these ages while God's truth has
been marching on. Like Paul at the Three Taverns, let us
to-day thank God and take courage. Substantially the same
idea possessed the mind of your illustrious minister, when,
fifty years since, he bade his people, including some of you who
are spared to this day, see in the preceding century and a half
of their history a proof of the psalmist's words which to-day
adorn yonder wall : " Great is Thy faithfulness."

After so interesting and thorough a harvest of historical
matter as was published soon after Dr. Putnam's well-known
discourses, there is little left for the gleaner to bring from
that early period, rich though the history proves to be.
Let it speak for itself. We may well be embarrassed by the
magnitude of our task. To review two hundred years in any
way that shall be satisfactory and yet not weary all patience
demands gifts which none of us can furnish.

Two centuries ! Think what they mean. But the other
day, as it were, we were celebrating the ever famous event
of 1492. Our church dates back almost precisely half way to
the discovery of America; more than half way back to the
martyrdom of the famous Florentine, Savonarola, in 14i)8. The
grandfather of our first pastor might have seen Martin Luther
and John Calvin, who died in 1546 and 15G4. His father may
have known Shakspere or Cervantes ; Mr. Fuller himself may
have met John Milton, who was somewhat his senior, and John
Bunyan, who was a little younger than he. Local chroniclers
delight to record that one member of our church is said to have
actually seen Oliver Cromwell, and witnessed the beheading of
Charles I, in 1G4(J. This was the venerable Luke Short, for
whom yonder street where his home stood is named, and who
attained the wonderful age of one hundred and sixteen years.

Perhaps we may more vividly locate the date 161)4, if we
recal some famous names. William and Mary were then on
the English throne ; bishops Berkeley and Butler were boys,
growing up in England to help the famous Locke Christianize

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 13

the wayward philosophy of Spinoza, then influential in Europe ;
the poet-laureate, John Dryden, and in France La Fontaine,
had won their fame in the world of letters ; the great contem-
porary names in natural science were Isaac Newton and the
German Fahrenheit; the renowned artists, Rembrandt and
Murillo, had but lately passed away ; of the acknowledged kings
in the realm of music, Handel, aged ten years, was composing
his flrst sonatas, and that other musical genius, Bach, was but a
year younger ; as an explorer, Bering the Dane was about to
achieve his fame ; while in our own country the Frenchman,
Joliet, was exploring the Mississippi River, already visited by
his countryman, Jacques Marquette, whose name and Christian
character still live around the Great Lakes; William Penn and
Cotton Mather were in the midst of life ; Harvard College was
but a child of fifty-live years, while six years must pass before
old Yale would be born.

During Thomas Palmer's pastorate, Gibraltar came into
English possession.

While youthful Peter Thacher, Jr., fresh from our American
Cambridge, was writing sermons in Middleboro, in the mother-
country, Addison, Defoe, and Pope were writing for the
world.

Our fourth minister, Sylvanus Conant, went to Abraham's
bosom the year before Ivousseau and Voltaire, noisome blossoms
of a century-plant of infidelity and coarseness, died and were
buried. Mr. Conant was barely twenty-live years old when
he came. His pastorate saw American independence achieved.

Joseph Barker, our fifth pastor, served us from 1781 to 1816,
that stirring period when the violence of the French Revolution
shocked the world with its atrocities ; when our nation was
again at war ; when Napoleon's boundless ambition was checked
by the English arms at Waterloo. It was during this period
that John Wesley was called heavenward, in 1791. Mr. Barker
has been commended for his able, learned, and courageous work
here, and we may thank God that then the good ship had a
strong hand at its helm to keep it from being swept off its true

14 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

course by the contrary winds of Unitarianism, which in the
early years of the nineteenth century were peculiarly strong.

Our sixth pastor, Emerson Paine, appears to have conic
hither directly from his student life, in LSI 6. Both he and
his successor, William Eaton, had what in those days were
called short pastorates, continuing respectively about six and
ten years each. But the record of numerous new members
whispers of faithfulness and ability on the part of these under-
shepherds.

The records made during our seventh pastor's service show
the church trying to keep herself pure. She disciplined mem-
bers for drunkenness, "hauling wood on Sunday," damming
a brook to a neighbor's inconvenience, prolonged neglect of
worship, etc. Some dead branches were wisely pruned away.
In 1830 was observed a day of fasting and prayer1 for the Sun-
day school. It was in Mr. Eaton's day that the church joyfully
entered into its present comely house, whose outlines of stain-
less white seem to our fond eyes as fair as Ionian marble.

In 1835 came our eighth minister. We now approach a
time so near to the present that to enumerate particulars revives
many memories.

This very Sabbath day, perhaps this very hour, measures
sixty years, save one, since a new face appeared in this pulpit.2
The stranger had a smooth-shaven couutcnance, was about forty-
eight years old, and was evidently a gentleman and scholar.
He was of medium stature, and had a benign, dignified bear-
ing. Fifty-nine years ago last evening, seated probably
in the ancient Sproat Tavern, which, till 1891, stood oppo-
site the parsonage, he began a letter to his family, giving his
first impressions of our town. lie remarks the serene land-
scape, and the roominess of the church environs. Never
dreaming of the later publicity of his letter, he proceeded to
record his feelings as he realized that his preaching on that
August Sunday was destined either to soften or harden the

1 For answer, see page 20.

2 1835, Aug. 23, "was the Sunday referred to.

Jfs (Wr (P&ttZatc^ fc.sA

^Jf.ttsU^"

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 15

hearts of his hearers. When it is added that he had just
driven from Portsmouth, N. II., I have said more than
enough to reveal who was the strange preacher of that morn-
inff, It was Israel Warburton Putnam, known and loved by
thousands in this vicinity for his works' sake, and even now
by hundreds remembered most affectionately.

Little thought Mr. Putnam, it is likely, as he first preached
the words of life to the old church associated with the fame of
Timelier, Conant, and Barker, that he himself was destined to
add his own name with honor to that list of veteran ministers
who had here preached thirty-six, thirty-three, and thirty-five
years, respectively. But it was even so, and for a round score
and a half of years it was his happy lot to tell the people of
Middleboro and vicinity of the love and work of our Savior

God.

After his college days at Harvard and Dartmouth had ended,
in 1809, he began to read law, but ere long, quickened spirit-
ually, it is said, by contact with a youthful college mate,
Daniel Poor, who later was an eminent missionary in Ceylon,
young Mr. Putnam felt that mysterious pressure which Chris-
tians commonly interpret as the Master's wish, in the direction
of the ministry. At some sacrifice of temporary feelings (per-
haps a greater sacrifice than the record shows), he yielded,
and found the new choice blest. When he took up his resi-
dence in this region of peculiar historic interest, he speedily
formed warm friendships with the neighboring pastors, among
whom in time he became a Nestor. He was young enough
to bring ardent hopes and enthusiasm. He was sufficiently
mature to profit by the wisdom gained from his twenty years
of pastoral service in Portsmouth. The records of this church
during his long stay are by his own hand, and they trip lightly
over his own large share in molding the religious life of the
town. Happily, there are too many of his friends surviving to
make it difficult to learn how much his personal service meant.
He was able, like Caesar, to know the names of his soldiers;
nay, rather like the Good Shepherd, to know his own sheep

1(5 F1K.ST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

and call them by name. He pushed the Christian work in
neighborhood meetings. Deeming the chapel unsuited to
evening meetings, he held them, as they are still frequently
held, in cottages and school-houses, his familiar announce-
ment being "at early candle-light." Once in two months
there was a day prayer-meeting, and on the first Sabbath
of each month a missionary concert of prayer for the conversion
of the world. It has been said that he took considerable
worldly satisfaction in his fleet horse and chaise, yet for every
tongue mentioning that surely ten tell of his love for this
church, for many of you who remember him, and for your
sires.

Though Dr. Putnam was a firm believer in government by
the people in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs, being therein
thoroughly Congregational, he was a genuine bishop, ordained
of God, if ever one was. And as such, this courtly combina-
tion of aristocrat and democrat went about doing good unto
all men. He baptized the children ; when they were grown
they came from far and near to be joined in marriage by him ;
he welcomed them, when they were ready, into the fellowship
of the church ; in sickness and trouble he ministered to them ;
and in this sacred place, and in nearly every home in this
town, he bade hundreds of them farewell, who had winged
their way from earth's fatigue to heaven's rest.

His ministry here had begun, it is said, in a somewhat dis-
turbed, if not partly disaffected, parish. Though his advent
was by no means like the feat of his redoubtable kinsman,
Gen. Israel Putnam, famed for entering the wolf's den, yet it is
greatly to his praise that he proved a " peacemaker." x A note-
worthy characteristic of our doctor anr/elicua was his tenderness
of others' feelings. If anywhere, it must have been here that
he erred — in being too gentle and considerate. Sometimes,
instead of speaking, he would write a note about Christ to
impart to some friend a special impulse, at once delicate and

1 See Rev. N. T. Dyer's sermon in 1878, at the semi-centennial of the dedi-
cation of the present meeting-house.

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 17

effective. He was accustomed to mark his initials upon vari-
ous articles of property on the parsonage premises. Those
marks have mostly disappeared. Not so what he marked
indelibly on the hearts of our townspeople. Here is a char-
acteristic entry from his record in 1842, hinting plainly his
high opinion of what the church should be. Twenty-eight
men and fifty women had met at two o'clock in the vestry.
"The brethren," we read, "made free disclosure of their feel-
ings and their views of the prospects of religion among us.
Generally their hearts appeared to be low. There were, how-
ever, some exceptions. On the whole, the meeting was solemn,
and I think important. I exhorted the church to awake from
their sleep and call upon GOD."

So the years passed, bringing the peculiar blessings of a
long pastorate. The Lord came into his garden several times
with reviving power, as the modest records of the pastor could
ill conceal, and pastor and people repeatedly rejoiced together
over new Christians. A word-picture is given of a row of
inquirers seated on the sofa at the south side of the parsonage
parlor, and Dr. Putnam leaning forward, with a hand upon
each arm of the chair which he had drawn up before them,
earnestly asking all how it was with them.

One special wish of Dr. Putnam was fulfilled. He had said
that if he could have his preference, he would choose, as a time
to die, a period of revival. In just such a condition, when he
was living retired in the old mansion yonder on Plymouth
Street (then known as the Dr. Sturtevant house), when his
successor, Mr. Sawyer, had become pastor, and a great revival
was actually in progress, disease came upon him. Happily, he
was able to share for a time in the joyful scenes. He de-
lighted to learn the names of all the new believers. It is said
by one of them that he would sometimes set forth ideals of the
Christian life so exalted as almost to discourage the converts.
While showers of blessing were still falling upon our town,
the last enemy drew near, and began to rob Dr. Putnam of the
remnants of his strength. Some weeks of pain and feebleness

18

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

preceded his final victory. It was in May, 18G8, one Sunday
when the church was to sit at the communion table, when the
sun had risen above the ocean high enough to shine over the
eastern pines into his windows, that God's messenger seemed
to hear the "striving" man cry, "Let me go, for the day break-
eth!" In the glory of the Sabbath morn, Dr. Putnam was
more than conqueror.

At the impressive funeral service, Dr. Elijah Dexter, b>
previous mutual arrangement, would have preached the memo-
rial sermon, had not Dr. Putnam already had the sorrowful
privilege of speaking over the Plympton pastor's remains. So
the office fell to a son, afterward the distinguished scholar.
Dr. Henry M. Dexter. The sermon1 reveals anew the
modesty of the widely lamented pastor. The preacher had
been pledged by him that eulogy should be waived, and when
the time came, the promise made no slight embarrassment for
the speaker thus hampered. Dr. Putnam's remains were
gently borne to God's acre yonder, where they now repose,
distant but a few rods from this pulpit where his living hands
and voice were so often raised in loving appeal or benedic-
tion. Go, see the white shaft of marble. Shall this old
church ever be blest with his like again? Certain it is that he,
being dead, yet speaketh. For many a year to come tradi-
tions wTill linger, and keep the revered name fragrant. In
time, some avenue or park in our town will bear his name.
But no such memorial needs he, whose enduring monument is
in the hearts of men.

The new minister who came in February, 18GG, was Rufus
Morrill Sawyer. He was born in Maine, in 1820, and next
Saturday would be his birthday. Like his distinguished
predecessor, he came hither from a New Hampshire church,
and likewise began his work here in the maturity of his powers.
Mr. Sawyer had entered the ministry somewhat late in life,
having previously preached but seven and five years, in two

1 Printed at the Middleboro Gazette office.

BICENTENNIAL 8EI1310N lit

parishes. He was of size above the average, with dark hair,
and a physique apparently robust. But appearance was mis-
leading. We are told that in his first parish he had labored
hard in circumstances requiring peculiar grace and diligence on
his part, and he was never well physically after leaving it.
Thank God, Mr. Sawyer was well in other respects, as many
could to-day testify who during his stay were brought out of
the world's poverty into the wealth of the Christian life. It
was his glory and joy to witness the most sweeping triumph
of the gospel which this region has seen since the great revival
that gladdened good Mr. Thacher, in 1742. The veteran Dr.
Putnam had rejoiced in some goodly gains, but, as we have
observed, greater ones were reserved to thrill his eyes and
heart before God took him away like Moses from Pisgah.
These aisles and pews, in March, May, and July of the memo-
rable year 1807, saw scores of people, young and old, standing
and pressing forward to receive before this pulpit the right
hand of welcome into this venerable church. In that one year,
one hundred and three joined our company (all but live by
confession of faith), of whom many continue to this day. If
any historian were to omit mention of those happy scenes, I
fancy, as Habakkuk says, the beams would cry out their pro-
test from the voiceless wall. () blessed days departed ! would
that your counterpart might thrill us with new gladness, as in
those months when angels must have looked on with rapture,
as if exclaiming, " Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the
doves to their windows?"

For all this wonderful story I am sure the happy pastor of
the epoch would be the last to claim the praise. Dr. Putnam
and Mr. Sawyer were God's husbandmen. One had indeed
planted, the other watered, but neither gave the increase. That
was God. Yet what lover of Christ would not exult to be
connected with an experience of the sort? Let us not care too
much who holds the sickle, provided only the precious grain is
harvested seasonably into the garner of Him to whom it belongs.
How can the world be deaf to the Master's words? " All souls

20

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

arc mine;" . . . "Will a man rob God?" . . . "Render . .
unto God the things that are God's."

Mr. Sawyer's ministry was blest, both before and after his
Middlcboro life, with powerful religious awakenings. Before
the congregation he was vigorous and persuasive, and he was
peculiarly strong and winning in his frank and persistent
preaching, face to face, with individual men. Here is a tableau :
A winter day; a two-horse sled is moving along the neighbor-
ing highway, squeaking and groaning under its heavy load
of wood ; behind it on foot, to keep warm, two men are
trudging ; one is Mr. Sawyer ; they are earnestly talking, but
we are sure their topic is not roads, nor weather, nor politics.
The next scene is in this meeting-house a few weeks later; the
same two men stand before the congregation, and one of the
two is for the first time doing what the Savior bade men do
in remembrance of him. The picture is typical. In the case
above cited, the man had been a secret and negative Christian
for some time, but the ninth pastor brought him out to show
his Lord's colors, and be counted.

The Sunday school used to meet only from April or May to
December, before Mr. Sawyer came. Thenceforward, its ses-
sions lasted through the year, like the evergreen foliage of
our pines.

Many recal Mr. Sawyer in his assiduous devotion to pas-
toral labor, — that task so delightful, yet in some respects so
wearing, which makes the minister's life the happiest, and yet,
strange to say, burdensome. One friend exclaims: "How
that man did walk ! He would travel on foot through drifted
snows for miles in succession." For his health, think you?
For exercise? To kill time? How absurd the questions!
He was on his Master's business, to catch men — and he caught
them.

O, how plain is the teaching of that life ! Would that we
Christians of to-day might all feel as Mr. Sawyer felt about
God's work, — " How am I straitened till it be accomplished ! "
Perhaps we may heed a warning, too. For his habit was, it

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 21

seems, to work as he walked, fast and hard, possibly too hard.
The parsonage sheltered a large family, yet for his neighbors
he was ready to spend and be spent, not sparing himself. The
sequel is sadly brief. A throat difficulty seized him, and in
1869, resigning his charge, he moved to Iowa, hoping that the
inland air might bring relief. Before he was fairly settled,
typhoid fever invaded his new home ; two of his children were
taken, and though he recovered, his restoration was but partial.
A brief journey afforded little help. His hour was at hand.
It was in the year 1872 that his great heart cried to God for
special grace, which he surely needed and doubtless received,
to aid him in parting from his wife and live children remain-
ing. From LeMars, Iowa, when New England's millions were
in the hight of their Thanksgiving joy, this man of God was
caught up to Paradise.

Ah, there was a workman needing not to be ashamed. His
three short years of service here left a fadeless picture for the
inspiration of us and our children. His is a heroic figure in
our history. Faber has sung, —

" 0, it is hard to work for God,
To rise and take his part
Upon this battle-tiekl of earth,
And not sometimes lose heart ! "

Yet the magnificent lesson is before us in Mr. Sawyer's life,
that the work of God pays sweeter rewards than they surmise
who have not enlisted in it.

After a slight interval, there came, in 1869, your tenth minis-
ter, Ephraim Nelson Hidden. He was born and educated in New
Hampshire. Day after to-morrow will be the anniversary of
both his birth and marriage. It will then be eighty-four years
since his birth. He is, of course, well remembered by many
persons present. He is described as a solid and portly man in
stature, and as wearing a black beard. His age on beginning
work here Avas sixty, even greater than that of his experienced
predecessors. Mr. Hidden was at once recognized as a man
of decided talent, though not of the showy sort. While some

22 FIRST CHURCH, HIDDLEBORO

rated liim conservative in his methods, all .seem to have acknowl-
edged him as beyond question a man of ability. Evidently he
was a good, old-fashioned, scholarly preacher. He is spoken
of as being somewhat animated in his preaching of the gos-
pel, and in his practising of it a pattern of honor, lie had
declined the church's first formal call, owing perhaps to some
local conditions which disposed him to hesitate, and for the
same reason it may be that his work among us was more ardu-
ous than it might have been. But he was no child, to let any
trivial circumstance battle him, and he faithfully preached his
Master's word, welcoming fifteen new members. After his
resignation he preached for six years in Edgartown and Norfolk.
One November Sunday he preached twice in East Medway,
and before the Sabbath was past he was taken to his eternal
home. His age, when the end came, — or rather when the
irlory began for him, — was more than seventy. His memory
is that of the just. It is blessed.

Theophilus, "lover of God," was the appropriate baptismal
name of your eleventh pastor, Theophilus Parsons Sawin,1 who
began work here in 1875. He was equipped with a ripe experi-
ence of nearly fifty-eight years, and his name is well known in
New England. Of his physical appearance some have remarked
a certain likeness to our most recent ex-pastor.

Mr. Sawin earnestly took up his blessed labor, and speedily
won the esteem and confidence of the people. He was not so
youthful as to excite questions as to his capability, nor yet so
old as to raise doubts of his efficiency. Men pronounce him an
excellent preacher. In some particulars he showed a marked
contrast to his predecessor. Where Mr. Hidden would have
been cool and collected, Mr. Sawin would be inclined to vehe-
mence of feeling, though he was, I judge, ever master of himself.
The value of both these qualities is well conceded. It is cer-
tain that Mr. Sawin was a devoted minister, a fluent speaker,
up with the times, progressive, animated, and interesting in

1 Born 1817 Feb. 4, in Natick, Mass.

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 23

both public and private life. He welcomed forty into our fel-
lowship on confession of faith. In December, 1877, he left us,
and became pastor in Lyndeboro, N. II. Seven years later he
moved to Medford, Mass., and a tombstone there tells us that
in a year so recent as 188G1 he was summoned to a heavenly
mansion.

It is fitting at this point to pause a moment in our prolonged
yet incomplete review of this church in the seventeenth, eigh-
teenth, and nineteenth centuries. Our pastors thus far described
— eleven true modern apostles — are all now glorified. Their
average term of service in this place was above seventeen years.
Four of them died between fifty and sixty years old ; three in
their sixties ; three in their seventies ; and Dr. Putnam, the
veteran who was spared to eighty-one, brought the measure of
their earthly life to the goodly average of sixty-five years.

We now come in our consideration to times that have no
antiquity about them. One hundred and eighty-four years have
been reviewed. "There were giants in those days." Now a
new period begins. In 1878, there was restored the era of
comparatively young men in this pastorate. The welcome
presence of two of my happy predecessors on this occasion
makes it difficult for the present speaker to escape embarrass-
ment, save by throwing it upon Messrs. Dyer, Ilanaford, and
Kingsbury. Happily, this recent period is well known. Let
us, however, note a few events in this trio of pastorates.

The afternoon sermon was dispensed with, not without mis-
giving on the part of some, lest the action be an unworthy
surrender to drowsy powers. The loss was met by more
frequent school-house meetings in outlying districts, and by
regular evening worship.

In 1888, the Putnam Christian Endeavor Society was
organized, and to this we owe much of our present enthusiasm
and hope. l>orn in weakness, it soon grew in strength, and has
become an increasing power in the work of God.

'Jan. id.

24 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOKO

Perhaps the .social qualities in earlier generations were
cultivated more than it has been commonly supposed, but
certainly the period now under review has witnessed a marked
unifying of our church's social life, and our second century in
departing sees our healthy old church solidified and strengthened
both socially and spiritually by its youthful element. Many
material blessings elsewhere noted have come in these latter
days, and they give us cause for gratitude. On by sickness or
other weighty reasons have cut short the pleasant and fruitful
pastorates of my three immediate predecessors, whose place in
the hearts of our people is still secure.

It is surely a matter for rejoicing that these fourteen men,
whose service so nearly tills two hundred years, were all worthy
— men of prayer, men of God. It is almost ungracious even
to hint at one being temporarily under discipline in the early
years of the eighteenth century. Hear again those significant
Bible names: Samuel, Thomas, Peter, Joseph, Israel, Ephrahn,
Theophilus, Nathan, Josiah. In their meaning, their associa-
tion, and especially their personality, we may feel naught but
satisfaction to have them with the rest in our pastoral catalog.

There is one serious omission in our annals. What of
those sweet-spirited counselors who in quiet ways have con-
tributed perhaps as much as have these honored fourteen to
Christ's cause — the women of the parsonage? Most of the
unadvertised labors of these gentle and silent partners are
beyond the reach of a modern student. As far as we can
learn, they were worthy helpmeets, while having, of course,
their own ways of thinking and working.

Mrs. Eaton is pleasantly remembered as a Sunday-school
teacher.

Of Mrs. Putnam a friend testifies : "I always had something
good to think about after visiting her." She was naturally
disposed to be conservative in her view of woman's sphere and
work. In her day, it was none but a brave lady who would
sometimes speak in a social gathering of Christians.

Everybody loved Mrs. Sawyer. She was always helpful,

~» cm .^j^

<^K TT^tL*^ M.^. ?&~^>*jl.

sA. /Uu^^e^

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 25

and knew how to sympathize with mothers in the parish, even
if like her they had a set of seven children to bless the home.
Returning from her western abode, she used occasionally to
visit Middleboro. Her benevolenees were largely private, but
they cannot be entirely hidden even at this date.

Like stories are told of Mrs. Hidden. She is said to have
been a very quiet woman, but a very Christlike one. Her
daughter had musical gifts, and during the residence here of
the family, there was an increased interest in music.

Mrs. Sawin was a Dorcas, though doubtless not the first one
to merit that title among the mistresses of our manse. She
loved and clothed certain unlovely but needy persons, and her
charities are not forgotten.

About Mrs. Dyer, Mrs. Hanaford, and Mrs. Kingsbury
cluster many vivid and affectionate remembrances. The tale
of their gracious influences, like those of our goodly succes-
sion of honorable women from the beginning, might easily be
prolonged, but it cannot be told in full. All appear to have
been esteemed, and all were workers.

Our ehurchly republic has not been ungrateful to its lead-
ers, and their service seems to have been both consecrated and
efficient. The First Church has encountered some troubled
waters, but a mighty Hand has steered us safely through them.
It has been remarked that a popular civil government might
occasionally profit by the temporary aid of a wise king; some-
times it may be that our church would have been a gainer by
the touch of some wise prelate's hand, yet on the whole we are
content to rejoice in our church without a bishop, and our
state without a king, — rather, let us say, a church with
thousands of bishops, and a state where all may be kings. As
long as believers are not saints, it would be strange indeed if
trials should not arise. There was, in 1830, a considerable
disaffection in the parish, but there have been no serious
troubles of late years, perhaps because our members have been
intent upon the work of God.

When we look upon this yellow record book, kept by Peter

2() FIRST CHURCH, HIDDLEHORO

Thacher, and dating from 1708, at the other precious old
keepsakes in quaint penmanship and antiquated printing, still
treasured in our archives, Ave feel somewhat like those visitors
who see in the British Museum the famous hut shrunken
parchment, now well-nigh seven centuries old, that tells of
English liberty. We review the history of these godly men
and women, our predecessors in this church, who in one sense
have all faded as a leaf, yet are still living with us in fragrant
memory ; we recal that we are in the same succession, and
our hearts cry, in the verses of Heber, —

" 0 God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train."

AVould that we might speak of what our church did to pro-
mote the sound doctrine of freedom, in the times when ''aboli-
tionist " was not what the term later became, a title of honor ;
of the affectionate reluctance with which Dr. Putnam and
his flock gave so much of their life to the new-born Central
Church ; of the longings and prayers which followed the
soldiers whom we furnished to the Union in its peril from
rebellion ; of certain notable triumphs of God's grace, for
example, of Jephtha Leach, a dissipated man, but gifted, hav-
ing what Augustin would call splenclida vitia. When more
than fourscore years old he was saved, and joined our brother-
hood. From the tavern that then stood hard by, friends used
to lead him hither, and during worship the blind old man used
habitually to stand on these pulpit stairs, lest, with his imper-
fect hearing, he might lose some precious word of the gospel
that his soul needed. Though blind, deaf, and in poverty
because of his sins, he needs no pity now, for he was rich
toward God ; he kept the faith for a year, and, twenty-seven
years ago yesterday, was made free indeed from all infirmity.
" Regarding the reality of revivals, some communities may be
skeptical, but our community is not one of them." May God
keep believers of late times so faithful that it shall never
become so.

BICENTENNIAL SERMON

27

As lon<>- ago aa 1842, fermented wine was banished from our
communion table. But time forbids further details of these
two centuries, that have seen our membership grow to fourteen
hundred, lacking six. The First Church has ever been a foun-
tain flowing for others. This is proved, though defects in
early records preclude exact figures, by a great preponderance
of dismissions over gains by letter. May the Savior keep
the stream pure, that its How may long refresh the region
about it.

Such is the rapid story of these two hundred years, — a story
prolonged, yet incomplete as a landscape viewed from a flying-
car. One shining fact appears like a monarch among mountains.
It is that emphasized fifty years ago by our illustrious Dr.
Putnam, iu his two discourses on God's faithfulness. In a
period so extended, one cannot ignore His superintending care.
Nature sometimes speaks indistinctly of the Creator, while of all
studies history reveals Him most plainly. Sometimes au intel-
ligent man has studied rocks without finding what Hugh Miller
styled their "testimony." A man may be well informed about
the internal structure of the crawfish, and yet quite fail to per-
ceive God therein revealed. But a strange mind must he have
who studies human nature without finding the One in whose
image men are made. If at rare intervals there be a famous
student of history who is an unbeliever, a Gibbon or Niebuhr,
the world hears of it as a singular phenomenon.

To make the present history is our concern. Shall the
prayers of past generations for us be heard? the prayers offered
in 1G1J4? again in the revival that blest New England, and
especially our own town, in 1742? in the centennial year, 171)4,
by Joseph Barker's people? in 1828, when William Eaton's
flock consecrated this stately house? in 1845, when the third
half-century had closed? in the great revival of 1SG7? at the
jubilee of this sanctuary's dedication, celebrated in 1878, during
Mr. Dyer's pastorate? At the dedication they sang the hymn
of Watts, which is a prayer for the reign of Christ, beginning:
"Arise, O King of grace, arise!"

28 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

On us depends the fulfilment of the hopes of all those former
times. Let us lend lives of such healthful activity that the
Savior will often visit his "'plantation," where abide the people
of the First Church and their neighbors, — his "husbandry."

AYe read often thousand Greek soldiers returning homeward
from far-away Persia after the death of Cyrus. The way was
long and hard, but they pushed on, till one day the front ranks
of the marching host saw before them a broad expanse of shin-
ing waters. A glad cry was raised, "The sea! the sea !" and
when the rear ranks came on, the hearty shouts of thousands
shook the hills. Yet the Black Sea was not their journey's
end. Ah, no ! but it marked for them a mighty progress toward
their home. Our exultation to-day is somewhat similar. Our
pilgrimage is by no means ended, but we are glad to hail the
third century before us. On its border we would pause, and
like the prophet Samuel near Mizpah, raise a '"stone of help."
Through a notable part of our journey hath the Lord helped
us. Yonder is home !

Now let us earnestly seek the spiritual welfare of others.
Let us be content with nothing less than the utmost efficiency
of our working powers. Let us live as if the motto were
visibly blazoned above the capitals of yonder pillars : " Middle-
boro for Christ!" Yea, be our watchword: "The world for
Christ."

In these days, if ever, men need a forceful gospel. Social
studies have properly come to the front. O, forget not, in
God's name, that amid the literally hungry are brothers with a
soul-hunger still harder to bear ! Let us be sure that they
miss not the bread that came down from heaven, while we
strive to supply their material want. Multitudes in our own
midst who are quite free from temporal distresses need to be
lovingly taught what Christ said is God's work. They need
you and me to urge, in behalf of Him of the pierced hands:
"Ye believe in God, believe also in me." The Comforter, said
Jesus, will convict men " of sin, because they believe not on
me."

BICENTENNIAL SERMON 2\)

God knows, the old First Church keenly feels her deficien-
cies, but sometimes our vision is so enthralled by our Lord
that we forget all else. We mean to rejoice temperately, and
not because some demon of unbelief or indifference is subject
to us, so much as because our names, we trust, are written
in heaven. Can we not almost hear a voice saying : " Re-
joice not that ye have a majestic temple of dignity and grace ;
not in its verdant environs that may grow yet more fair as the
rolling years pass ; not in your two centuries of history, most
of it inspiring, and some of it sublime; rather rejoice in what-
ever fidelity ye now show as ye hold up the sinless Jesus to
the people of this town and vicinity, and to the strangers who
come within your gates"? O, hearken to him, ye who still
delay taking as your Master him who died for us all on the
cross, — even ye whose lives are fair with lovely traits, like sweet
musical sounds struck at random on some tuneful instrument,
that ought quickly to be ordered on the heavenly theme.
Let each one of us feel the claim — and a Christian's duty is
no more than everybody's duty — to preach and practice
steadily the dear gospel to which for threescore years these
walls have echoed, and this neighborhood for ten thousand
Sabbaths past.

The torch-racers of Greek antiquity had not only to win the
goal, but to reach it with their light still burning, though
sometimes the torch was passed from one tired bearer to an-
other. Their task typifies the work of God which it is our lot
to perform. We are to run in our turn with the full bright-
ness of the true light. In the strength of our fathers' God,
we shall not fail.

30 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

At the conclusion of the sermon the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper was observed, Rev. N. T. Dyer assisting- the pastor,
and Messrs. A. H. Soule, A. J. Wood, R. F. Thompson, and
W. O. Eddy officiating as deacons.

The congregation was dismissed with the benediction by the
pastor, and the organ postlude, " He, watching1 over Israel,"
from Mendelssohn's oratorio of "Elijah."

SUNDAY EVENING

An unusually large audience assembled for evening worship,
and the following order was observed : —

Organ Prelude, " Oflertoire in B flat "... Ambrose Thomas
Anthem, " Great God of Nations," 03' the Choir . . . . A. Beirly
Schii'Tukk Selection, Psalm 145, and Prayer, by Rev. R. G. Woodbridge
Quintet, " Traveling Home to God," by Messrs. H. F. Wood,
R. F. Thompson, W. P. Fessenden, L. I. Thompson, and

G. A. Cox Arranged from T. C. O'Kane

Hymn, " I love Thy Kingdom, Lord"; Tune, " State Street,"

by Choir and Congregation Dwiyht

The twelfth pastor, Rev. Nathan T. Dyer, was then intro-
duced, and his address was as follows : —

MR. dyer's address 31

ADDRESS OF REV. N. T. DYER

Dear Brother Steimis, My Diar People, — now his people, but ever (lie
people of my first love :

The first remark I have to make is one very trite and often
to l»e heard during these days of grand and glorious jubilee, —
I am most happy to be here on this delightful occasion, which
shall remain ever memorable and grow increasingly precious
with the advancing years.

Some time ago, I remember to have met with a company of
invited guests in a happy home to witness the unfolding of a
rare flower into beauteous blossom. For months and years had
that plant been watered, nourished, and cared for, with ten-
derest solicitude, and now neighbors and friends were gathered
with that deeply interested family to witness the first flowering,
after so many long years of anxious waiting. Many and most
emphatic were the expressions of delight and appreciation
which came from those witnessing one development after
another in that astonishing process of nature. And after
those hours of delightful watching, we returned to our several
homes, feeling greatly benefited and even the wiser for having
beheld that wonderful sight.

With how much greater delight and enthusiasm, with how
much larger prospect of profit and blessing, are the several
daughters and granddaughters of this ancient and honored
household of faith, with deeply interested neighbors and
friends, now gathered to witness the bright flowering of this
rare century plant, in historic interest towering majestically
above the younger plants in the garden of the Lord ; yea,
second bursting into glory of this justly proud old church,
during these two hundred }rears slowly but steadily gathering
strength and beauty for its bloom to-day.

And so I confidently speak for others as well as for myself,
when I say we are all more than glad and happy to be here and

32 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

have some part in this great and glorious celebration of two
centuries of honored and fruitful service completed, and with
these who yet bear the burden and heat of the day, rejoice in
the abounding evidence that our faithful God has guarded the
foundations here laid through many successive generations by
his faithful servants, and raised up in these last times also such
true and faithful workers as " give assured promise of abiding
prosperity to the glory of the Most High," and make it possi-
ble in the coining years, so long as time shall last, to mark
these century mile-stones, yet to be, with no more to mar and
no less to cheer than that which now tills our hearts full to
overflowing with glad exultation.

Were I to voice, in the words of prophecy, the future as well
as the past of this ancient church of the Living God, it should
be in the words of Isaiah (lx, 15), "I will make thee an
eternal excellency, a joy of many generations."

Whatever else may be said of the glory and excellence of
other institutions, grandest creations of the noblest human
genius, of none can it be truly said, as of the Church it may
be and here is affirmed, that to her belongs the element of
stability and permanency expressed in the promise of God to
the Jewish church, and meant for the encouragement of his
people in all ages, — "I will make thee an eternal excellency."

The truth of this assurance all history and experience have
demonstrated. In all ages has the Church of God been pre-
eminently the object of his delight and constant care. Under
whatever assaults of its most bitter and determined foes in
every form, through all its trying experiences of whatever
kind, has the confirmation of this prophecy been veriticd to
the world, that the Church of the Living God was ever dear to
him as the apple of his eye, and should be made by him ''an
eternal excellency," and its influence, an ever-living power, be
extended " from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of
the earth."

And because of the gracious fulfilment of this divine promise
in the history of the church at large throughout the ages, we

-■NIK. dyer's address 33

are hereto-day assembled in joyous observance of the two hun-
dredth anniversary of this particular church. For those blessed
words of prophecy and of promise have as truly a specific
application to this visible local church as to the Church uni-
versal,— "I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of
many generations." Yes, it is God who hath made this partic-
ular church an eternal excellency by his manifold mercies and
abundant grace. Wherefore, in passing this mile-stone to-day,
we shall do well to inscribe thereupon the fitting tribute,
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and should make this
" hitherto " of divine help the hopeful assurance of a glorious
henceforth for this church.

May this much now suffice concerning generalities. The
occasion moves me to speak more along the line of personal
reminiscence.

You are aware that the speaker sustains a peculiar relation
to this people, distinguishing his seven years of most happy
service among you in some respects from that of all your other
pastors, at least for the last century and a half.

This was our first-love parish and our first married home.
Here 1 was ordained to the ministry, being the youngest but
one of all your pastors down to this present day. So striking
was the contrast that, as I well remember, one now present
then told me that in all her remembrance so aged had been the
pastors she had come to think ministers never died ; and
another, Col. Thomas Weston, man of fragrant memory, now
looking down upon us from the world of glorified spirits,
remarked that he was glad at last to have a pastor, sound in
body at least, being neither blind nor deaf nor lame.

To the older people in the parish I seemed but a mere strip-
ling, only a boy, as indeed I was. After doing my best as
a timid and somewhat bashful young candidate, good old
Deacon Thomas, who later secured a large place in my heart's
deepest affections, now gone to his blessed reward, being asked
what he thought of me, significantly replied : " I think he did
very well for a boy." And as marking this difference of aire

u

FIRST CHURCH, MIDULEliORO

and experience in the work, yon may recal the fact that soon
after my coining the last of all my living predecessors passed
on to receive his crown at the hand of the Lord.

This, being our rirst-love parish and our first married home,
became also the birthplace of our children and the scene of
their baptism.

Cora Ethel, who is with us, you will remember as the first
parish baby, and, — other than our own dear Perley, who in the
mysterious providence of God was early called to the tender
She} (herd's arms, and whose headstone in yonder yard marks
his resting place on earth, — the only child burn to your pas-
tors who have occupied the present parsonage, which is now
approaching three quarters of a century in age.

In view of these facts, you can easily believe me when I tell
you that this place and people are very near and dear to us, —
nearer and dearer, I may as well confess, than any other has
since been or can ever be.

But how came I to be your youthful pastor? The committee
may remember with what indifference I replied to their request
to set a day when I would appear before you as a candidate.
They may recal that it required not a little patience and per-
severance on their part to secure my consent. But, after one
failure through physical indisposition, I came at last in fulfil-
ment of a second appointment. Imagine my surprise, not long-
after arrival in town, upon meeting another who had also come
as a candidate for this same pulpit. At once the question was
raised between us as to who should hold the fort. However
magnanimous it may have seemed, with no inner feeling of
personal sacrifice, I volunteered to make way for him. But
your committee objected to any such arrangement, and finally
settled the difficulty by ticketing him back to Boston. I was
most delightfully entertained at brother Franklin S. Thomp-
son's, and the resulting agreeable first impressions helped
greatly in determining my ultimate decision.

I have in my possession a copy of Dr. Putnam's first impres-
sions of this place and people, written to his wife in Ports-

1851358

MR. DYElt'S ADDRESS 35

mouth, and dated, "Midclleborough, Aug. 22, 1835," — fifty-nine
years ago yesterday and to-day, for the letter was written on
Saturday and continued on Sunday. Speaking of "this silent
retreat," he said, "I wonder the Society should have built their
church here." Of the people, he wrote, "It is a plain, solid,
good-looking congregation." My own impressions, then
penned to one who was soon to become your pastor's wife, I
now rccal. Some things struck me on the ludicrous side. In
those massive doors were the little brass knobs, no larger than
a medium-sized English walnut. As with some difficulty I
reached aloft to open the door, unbidden came the thought how
even the not very young lambs of the flock were hopelessly
shut out in the cold unless another's hand should open to them.
Yet another reflection, penned at that time, was the observation
that the only appointment missing from the pulpit was a spy-
glass to bring the choir down within counting distance.
Wonder was also expressed at the diminutive size of the stoves
in the vestibule, then the only means of heating this spacious
auditorium ; and this moment I recal, vivid as though it were
but yesterday, with what a smile of triumphant satisfaction the
faithful sexton for quarter of a century or more, brother Lorin
Bryant, not long thereafter called to service in the upper sanc-
tuary, met my expressed doubts about the efficiency of his
heating apparatus with the proud assurance that he had " several
times started the frost on the northwest windows at the right
of the pulpit."

It occurred to me that here was room for improvement, and
a good opportunity for some one to do the people a lasting
benefit by providing for their greater comfort. Many here
present know how this was accomplished before the next
winter by the substitution of steam heat, at the suggestion of
your newly chosen pastor, and through the persistent energy
and unflagging zeal of brother James Sparrow,1 whose thought

1 The neighboring SparroAv mansion -was the parsonage in Joseph Barker's
clay. Men used to go there during the noon intermission of worship to re-
plenish the foot-stoves with coals from its generous hearth.

ab' FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEUOKO

and service were for many years given to the interests of this
church he so much loved.

At our tirst meeting }'ou were judged to be a very cordial
and social people, which early opinion I have never found it
necessary to change.

After a second visit, with its interview concerning the prob-
able acceptance of a proposed call, your committee received
the indifferent reply," I will not say No." Forthwith the call
was extended.

Not over-anxious to come, I did not hesitate to make the
conditions of its acceptance strong enough to insure, as I
thought, my release from all moral obligations to comply with
your expressed wishes. Dr. Putnam, in the letter already
cited, wrote, " Esquire Eddy says they want a minister who,
having sermons already written, can go through the parish and
stir up the people."

I had no " stock " of sermons on hand, and also recognized
the large demands upon your pastor's time for much-needed
parish work. Therefore, the tirst and most important condition
of my coming was that one of the preaching services should be
discontinued. Much to my surprise, this and all else was
granted by this staid old conservative church, and I was thus
in honor forced to become your reluctant pastor. Nor have 1
once, for a single moment, regretted the direction affairs took,
which, by the overruling providence of God, as I fully believe,
compelled me to this decision much against my inclination.
During my seven years' stay, I found you, —

First, a willing people, cheerfully and heartily executing
such plans as the pastor might suggest for the good of the
church.

Secondly, kind and generous, bestowing upon us so many
tokens of esteem as to supply every room in the Medtield
parsonage with pleasant reminders of our Middleboro people.

Tliirdly, sympathetic, rendering tender and loving ministries
in painful sickness and deep affliction.

Fourthly, most patient, uncomplainingly making the best of

MR. dyer's address 37

a " boy's " mistakes, and enduring his preaching all those years.

Ever green in my memory are the many hallowed associa-
tions of those years with this clear people. Most delightful
have been the cordial greetings of this day. But I sadly miss
from their accustomed places many of the beloved elders, so
great are the changes ten years have wrought. Gladly do we
see their children entering into their labors, and nobly carrying
on the work they resigned at the call of God to higher service
in the life beyond.

With deep interest have I marked the growth of little ones
we so much loved, whom then we affectionately held upon the
knee. Some of these we baptized. Others of them also we
prayerfully tried to lead to Christ. Of the more than fifty
whom at this altar we received into communion and fellowship,
there are those now tilling positions of responsibility in the
work of this church. And as we are reminded to-day of the
two hundred golden links which number your increasing years,
I am glad to think that I had something to do with fashioning
seven of them. Yea, I esteem it a rare privilege to have been
for any length of time the honored pastor of a church with
such a grand and noble history as has this ; and it is a great
joy and comfort to believe, as verily I do, that much of our
very best work for Christ and the world is done through the
faithful lives and noble example of those whom we have helped
to train for Christian service.

No grander monuments are anywhere to be found on earth
than these monuments of Christ's redeeming grace ; — the
churches of his eternal love.

Upon all else is the stamp of universal decay. For centuries
have stood the pyramids of old Egypt, " amid the waning glory
of the nations which once tlourished beneath their shadows."
But these mightiest monuments ever reared, which suffer as
little as anything can from the friction of the passing years,
plainly show that irresistible decay, however slowly, is never-
theless surely doing its work upon them. Moreover, the
worlds which make up the great universe of God report to

;\H FIKST CHUUCH, MIDDLEBOttO

the inquiring scientist that they are serving only a temporary
purpose; that .some of them have already burned out tuul
become a mere cinder, and that all the rest, including our own,
must in their turn be reduced to the same sterile condition,
so perishable is the substance out of which are fashioned even
the most enduring monuments of human genius. But, to this
unchanging and unchangeable law of decay, the Church of the
Living God is the one grand and glorious exception. Immor-
tal are the shining jewels built into her walls. Hers is an
"eternal excellency." Wherefore, better, far better, were it to
have our names inscribed upon the roll of a church which has
completed two hundred years of most eventful and blessed
history, than have them graven never so deeply upon loftiest
pyramid or any most admired triumph of human genius, which
shall crumble and pass away, while it blesses nobody.

From of old has this continued to be a Congregational church.
It is one of the noteworthy few in our grand old denomination
that did not, during the trying times of the early part of this cen-
tury, forsake " the faith once delivered to the saints," but firmly
resisted that religious error, which then swept like wild-tire
over New England. " Jesus Christ and Him crucified " has ever
been the grand central thought of the preaching from this
pulpit. It has recognized the desperate condition of man as a
lost sinner. At the same time, with no less emphasis, has it
set forth the infinite compassion and love of Jesus, the Christ,
as Lord and Savior. So has it hitherto unfailingly met the
needs of the human heart. And since those needs, in their
essence, are the same in all ages, yesterday, to-day, and for-
ever, we may be sure that the same gospel of grace for lost and
dying men, which past generations, from the first, have heard
within the four walls of this dear old First Congregational church
of Middleboro, is the only gospel that can meet and satisfy the
needs of the present, and of those who shall come after us,
down to the latest generation.

Such has been the teaching of this pulpit unto the present
hour; such may it ever be. And may this people all go for-

LETTER FROM MR. KINGSBURY 39

ward to know more and more of Jesus and do better work for
Him. So .shall the future of this ancient church be no less, if
not even more, prosperous and illustrious than her past has
been, and her "eternal excellency " prove to be the joy of each
successive generation, down to the end of time.

The following letter of regret from the fourteenth pastor was
then read : —

Braintree, Mass., Aug. IS, 1894.
Rev. G. W. Stearns,—

Dear Brother: Your note was duly received. I most heartily approve
the growing custom of commemorating historic dates. It is especially
tilting that the First Congregational Church in Middleboro, after two
centuries of growth and usefulness, review and remember all the way in
which the Lord has led them. I have delayed replying, not knowing
just what my engagements might be. ... A certain work . . . will cut
me off from participation in your celebration. . . . May the day be
favorable. . . . Accept for the church and yourself the congratulations
of myself and family. Very truly yours,

JOSIAII WEAKE KINGSBURY.

The thirteenth pastor, Kev. Howard A. Hanaford, of Win-
chester, N. H., was then introduced.

40 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

ADDRESS OF REV. H. A. HANAFORD
Beloved Friends of the First Church, and citizens of Middleboro :

I am tilled with unaffected and inexpressible pride and
pleasure in being accorded the privilege of celebrating, with
this numerous and deeply interested assemblage, the two hun-
dredth anniversary of your incorporation as a church of Jesus
Christ, in accordance with the usages of the Pilgrim faith and
polity.

I remember passing well how, some six or 6cvan brief years
ago, I was wont to think : should I remain here sufficiently
long, I shall, Providence being propitious, enjoy the pleasure
of joining in and superintending, very possibly, the bi-ccnten-
nial anniversary of this venerable and venerated church. It
was not so written.

A bird of passage, I came, enjoyed, wrought, and vanished
from the scene in the short space of thirty-three months ; but
those years were tilled with never-to-be-forgotten experiences,
sunny days, sweet and somber hours ; bridals and burials,
worship and the preaching of the Word, in this spacious and
time-honored temple, — in a word, years of peace and joy, of
usefulness and unselfish toil, I trust, in the grandest work
given mortal man to do on these shores of time ; a work that
seraphs may not essay, and that employed an omnipotent
Redeemer's hands and heart.

Never while memory holds her seat shall I forget the years
spent in this dear Old Colony and in association with this
Christian community. My friends were scattered through the
hamlets of this widely scattered parish, this parish of magnifi-
cent distances, but were not a meager band in yonder beautiful
and flourishing village, known in Middleboro parlance as "the
Corners." Nor were my dearly cherished parishioners my
exclusive friends, since among the various Christian sects of
Middleboro's chief village I counted many most valued friends

MR. hanaford's address 41

and helpers. The uniform courtesy and kindness of Rev.
Messrs. Grant, MacBurncy, Hyde, and Bowen I beg leave to
thankfully reeognize at this hour, while calling to mind the
delightful hours of social intercourse enjoyed with those Chris-
tian brethren, their families and people.

The period in my career enclosed between the dates 1885
and 1888 I am in the habit of designating the happiest in my
ministerial course. Coming to Middleboro at thirty-four, I had
been the pastor or acting pastor of several Christian societies ;
hence was no novice in Christian activities, having begun my
public life at the early age of twenty-one years and six months,
assuming then my first acting pastorate.

In an incredibly brief time, friendships were formed here-
about and associations created which have bound this church to
my heartstrings, as none other has ever been linked, and
to my latest day this side the gates of light shall I remember,
with affectionate and ardent devotion, this beloved people, alike
in the Church below and the Church triumphant in the skies ; tol-
as Wordsworth causes his wee maiden to sing of her little
brothers here and there, " AVe are seven," so let us, beloved fel-
low men and women, say of our achieving and our ascended
lirothers, they are ours, not were alone, for not long parted
shall we be, and evermore is it grandly true that

" The Church on earth and that in heaven
But one eommuuion make."

We are one !

" For us the elder brethren stay ! "

Ah, yes, thou sainted Wesley !

They are waiting for us, and soon the eternal gates will lie
lifted high, and we shall enter gladly upon the rest that re-
maineth, and be forever with the Lord and the fathers and
mothers of our Israel.

Secretary Lamar, once at a Northern summer resort, was
suddenly surprised by a half-known lady acquaintance, who
rallied him on his not wholly concealed bewilderment by say-

42 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

ing, "I fear that you hardly remember me, but we met two

seasons ago at this very hotel." " Ah, madam," said the courtly
diplomatic scion of Southern chivalry, " 1 have been striving
for two years to forget you." My friends, that was idle, ful-
some, conseieneeless flattery; but though for six years 1 have
shared the jo}'s and sorrows of another parish, and though they
have done their very best to make me forget my earlier friends
and supporters in this dear town, at old Bedford, and my
native Nantucket, I can, notwithstanding, say in this presence,
what I have said unconstrained by circumstances like the pres-
ent, that I never, before or since, have felt so deeply attached
to a place and people as to this old church of Middleboro.

The years of my ministry here constitute a red-letter period
in my life. There were reasons which I may not recount, and
circumstances and occurrences which only I and mine can fully
appreciate, which made my ministry here at Putnam's a pecu-
liarly romantic episode in my life. But enough.

We are met to call to mind, in vivid fashion by song ami
speech, that this church of our love and pride and pardonable
vaunting (for we New Englanders are a boasting company) is
two centuries old. Old, did I say? I should better have said
two hundred years young. Yet, antiquity is highly in honor.

I come from a church which is just forty years younger than
this ancient organization in whose interest we are met.

At the date of the publication of the Historical Account of the
First Church in Middleboro, 1854, your church was just where
in age my present church, near the storied Connecticut and
amid the granite hills of the State of Stark and Hale and
Webster, is in this year of grace, 1<S!)4. Now, if we can
boast of antiquity up there, as we do, how much more loudly
you can speak the praises of a church that dates back to a
period when a child born at Plymouth at the time of "the land-
ing," or soon after, would have been but a little over three
score years and ten !

AVhy, the men and women who started this venerable Chris-
tian organization may some of them have looked into the faces

Ml!, hanaford's address 4.*}

of the sagacious Bradford and the redoubtable Captain Miles
Standish, and have remembered easily or hazily the tine fort-like
church on the hill at Plymouth, with its cannon-mounted roof
overlooking the bay, where once the " Mayflower " lay at anchor,
and the somber forests where the wily savage lurked, and
1 leasts as tierce as he.

What an old, old church you are ! The word "old " is some-
times used invidiously, but it is sometimes employed most re-
spectfully and tenderly, too. And thus we use it now. Others
may mention the fact, but I will venture the assertion : there are
thirty-one churches older in the Bay State, and^ye hundred and
forty-seven younger than your own, — our own, may I not say?

The roll of churches in this portion of our State older than ours
is as follows, with date of the organization of each : Old South,
or Third church of Boston, 1669; Charlestown, 1632; Ded-
ham, 1038; Edgartown, ll'>o2; Newton Center, 1664; Sand-
wich, 1638 ; Scituate, 1639 ; Marshticld, 1632 ; West Taunton,
16"34; Wrcntham, 1092; and Yarmouth, 1639.

These, with "West Barnstable, 1616, formed in another land
before embarking for these shores, form the elder sisters, in
southeastern Massachusetts, of this church.

There are a few churches in Essex and Middlesex counties,
and a sprinkling in central and western Massachusetts, which
antedate our church by from thirty to forty years, but in a
total aggregation of 579 churches, only 31 are older than this
church.

Our sister church at Acushnet is two years younger, and the
church at Plyniptou one year younger, than our own.

Of course, the list of the ancient churches of old Massachu-
setts and of the old Colony could be doubled, at least, if we
might technically include the First and Second churches of
Boston, the First churches of Salem, Plymouth, Beverly,
Ilingham, with a score of others, perhaps, which are now
known as Unitarian societies, though of course originally
evangelical Congregational churches.

I have spoken of the ancient character of this church. Age

44 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

is not always venerable or worthy. Gray hairs are not always
to 1)0 venerated, nor the hoary head a crown of glory. Still,
" that which is true, as God lives, is permanent."

That which is worthful, beloved, survives, is permanent and
long-lasting. Age that is not premature, and in appear-
ance only, and "age that carries not with it the sting of out-
raged honor," the legacy of a disgraceful and dishonored past;
age that is sweet and gracious, mellow and hopeful, freighted
with holy memories and consoling and heavenly hopes ; age
that has served and wrought zealously, and now rests and
waits, though serving still, is a thing of beauty and a joy
forever. The dear old saints, how we love and dote upon
them, as they fade from view and lie down to their long sleep !
And the dear old churches, we do well to speak them fair ;
for theirs is a noble record of three, five, eight or more genera-
rations, taught, quickened, consoled, uplifted by worship and
the Word ; of innumerable souls redeemed, justified, sanctified,
renewed ; of thousands of men and women brought from
nature's darkness into the light of God's reconciled face, and
the " white beauty of a saved and saintly life."

The beauteous and (may I not say?) sublime record of
this church of yours is not unknown or unwritten here on
earth, but it is brightly and indelibly inscribed in the Lamb's
fair book of life.

Ah, Avho can compute, weigh, or duly estimate the magni-
tude and value of the blessing and beatitude which have come
to this community by means of the planting of this church and
her beautiful bevy of estimable daughters in this delightful
countryside V

Truly we may say of our mother church, she has sent forth
her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river.

Rich beyond words, in blessing, this church has nourished in
holy and scriptural living eight generations of men and women,
fashioned in the image of the Invisible. And the worth of
such an engine or mighty agent of benediction, of moral and
spiritual quickening, is simply inexpressible.

MR. HANAFORD'S ADDRESS 45

This) church 1ms had, pre-eminently, four cardinal constitu-
ents of ;i true, model, and ideal church: .stability, progress,
ideal, and ritual. The stability of the church has been due,
under the blessing of God, to the faithful ministries of the
learned and devoted men who have never failed in declaring
the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, having so gently
and wisely, eloquently and honorably preached the Word that
all harmful schisms and heresies were avoided, and the church
was enabled to pursue the tenor of its way unmolested by
Socinian schismatics or hypercalvinistic zealots. Sound alike
in the days of eighteenth century formalism and nineteenth
century heterodoxy of thought, this church has enjoyed a
remarkable stal rility.

Truly conservative, she has welcomed new ideas and methods,
while not wholly losing her hold upon the ancient landmarks and
time-honored truths and usages of the Pilgrim churches of Britain
and New England. With the great author (under the Finisher
of Faith) of Congregationalism, John Robinson, this church,
like him, has ever believed that God has yet more light to
break forth for us from his most holy Word ; so has welcomed
to its arms the revivalism of a Thacher and Whitetield, and the
earnest evangelism of a Sawyer, in modern times, as well as the
tender, persuasive, tranquil, earnest, paternal ministry of a
Putnam and a Conant. This church has been progressive,
never retrogressive, and though highly conservative, as rural
parishes are likely to be, has always followed in the path of
the car of progress. If she has not led she has sedately and
with calm eagerness followed the leadings of Providence in all
her varied fortunes and vicissitudes.

A grand and gracious ideal, based upon the ideas of the
Fathers of the New England faith and polity, has been yours :
for have you not ever sought to be a true church of Jesus, a
light in this dark world, a helping hand outstretched, hold-
ing forth the word of life?

Then, too (for I must not enlarge), }rou have had a simple
ritual, having by no means neglected the form of sound words,

40 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

but growing into an increasing appreciation of the value t>f

set forms of worship, and religious song and anthems, in aid-
ing to enforce noble truths and cheer and uplift the hearts of
dying, needy men.

To which I should add, as the complement and crown of the
whole, that bond of heavenly charity which pervades and har-
monizes all, that supreme grace of the Christian dispensation,
— love, manifest in works of social reform, in ministrations
to the poor and suffering, in health to the sick, and light to
them that sit in darkness, and the opening of the prison-house
to them that are hound.

According to the creed of the Apostolic Fathers, you have
believed in the Holy Catholic Church and have been one in
miniature. Every Pilgrim church is. Not that which consists
in masses and indulgences, in genuflexions and papal infalli-
bility, but that which consists in faith and progress, devotion,
love. In the work of soul-winning and character-building, in
the work of fitting and preparing stones Avhich shall be incor-
porated one day in the shining, majestic temple of God in the
heavenly places, those servants of the great Master Builder who
wrought and worshiped here these twenty decades, here almost
within hearing of the "breaking waves" that lave the beach
at Plymouth, rejoiced to spend their uneventful days — days
not without their usefulness, not without honor, protit, and
beatitude. Peace was theirs; joy inexpressible and full of
glory. My bosom burns, my heart thrills, as I ponder the
days of yore ; as I call to recollection the fathers and their
lot, their trials, their tears, their treasured hopes, their
loyalty to God, to conscience, and their duty as God gave
them to see it.

I think of those children of the Puritan age and movement,
of those men of iron, of heroic and saintly stock, soldiers,
saints, martyrs, and apostles of righteousness, who planted
here the public school and the Christian church. Our fathers
believed with all their heart in the book* of God, in the voice of
God, in the day of God, in the church and the house of God.

MR. MANAFOliD's ADDRESS 47

Your ancestors followed in their shining footprints. Robin-
son and Brewster wore followed by the Mathers, the Fullers,
the Thachers, the Putnanis of our later day ; a noble army of
confessors. You of the generations now before me are, I trust
and am happy to believe, worthy successors of most worthy and
admirable sires. I congratulate you most heartily on your
heritage, and I pray God that you may remain, for a score of
decades yet to come (I speak of our institution now), what I
found you, a most heterogeneous yet homogeneous and harmo-
nious peopje, loyal to leader, faithful and efficient in labors ; a
rare people, adhering unflinchingly to the faith of Christian
orthodoxy, and intent upon the glory of Christ, whose you arc
and whom you serve.

I dream, and lo ! there passes before my view a reverend
procession of weak and erring yet godly and soul-seeking
men. At the head of the little group I note a goodly form,
with the attire of the seventeenth century Puritan. It is Sam-
uel Fuller, the tirst pastor of this church. His eye is glad
and bright, and he walks with measured tread, as if to the
music of the heavenly choirs, and his hand points upward.
He is followed by one whose glance falls often to the earth, and
whose step seems to falter, while he walks a little aside from
the others, who arc trooping by, as if ashamed or afraid of
joining in this company, but at last he passes nearer his pred-
ecessor, and with head bowed low presses on. He seems to
whisper, "Saved, yet so as by fire," and I seem to see, as
through a haze, a crown upon his brow, but there are no
jewels there, and I think I hear him weeping, as he cries,
" Not one soul with which to greet Him ; 1 kiss the feet of lie-
deeming Grace, but O, my wasted life, my lost opportunity ! "
He passes on and is lost to view, and then follows the godly,
industrious Thacher, with crown studded thickly with stars and
glittering jewels, and after him the lovely and useful Conant,
and the scholarly, able and efficient Barker.

After him, with jeweled crowns, come the saintly Paine and
the faithful Eaton. Then comes an alert and erect but lithe

48 FIRST CHURCH, BIIDDLEBORO

form, with beaming eye and rapid step ; it is the gentle, urbane,
and admirable Father Putnam. His crown has many stars, and
his brow shines with a mellow radiance, as he glides quickly
forward in the glittering train. But who is this that sturdily
presses after? It is Sawyer, the reaper; and I soon hear sower
and reaper rejoicing together over a multitude of gathered
sheaves.

This man of God, pastor and evangelist, on whom many
souls among us look back as to their deliverer, is followed by
two more saintly and faithful winners of souls, and as they
sweep onward I hear them shouting to their noble predeeessors,
" My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horse-
men thereof ! Lo, we come, we come ! "

And as the little throng press skyward, I hear (nor is it all
a dream) a host of angelic voices chanting, "They that be wise
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that
turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."

'• ' T is finished ; all is finished, —

Their fight with death and sin ; '

Fling open wide the golden gates,
And let the victors in ! "

Be it ours, brethren of the ministry, and yours, 1113- pred-
ecessor and successor, to follow in their train. Be it our happy
privilege to receive with devoutest gratitude the legacy of faith,
love, and unselfish devotion to us by them transmitted, and
labor to assert and develop the principles by which they nobly
wrought, and from which they received strength to live sub-
limely, and die in the triumphs of faith.

I have seen a book whose title is, "A Century of Dishonor."
We come together to-day to celebrate two centuries of honor ;
of honorable history ; of useful, noble toils ; of gracious achieve-
ments and soul-uplifting hopes; of hopes, clasping which the
workers have been cheered and spurred on to fresh undertak-
ings for Christ and his Church, and the dying have descended
into the dark-bright vale of death's latest shadow, leaning on
the arm of their beloved Shepherd, whose word to us is not

AIR. hanaford's address 49

alone, "Feed my sheep; tend my lambs," but, "Be ye faith-
ful unto death, and when I, the ehief Shepherd, shall appear,
I will give ye a crown of glory which fadeth not away!"
Cherishing most ardently, and rejoieing heartily in your two
centuries of traditions, trials, triumphs, go on, my brethren,
pastor Stearns and people, and make the living present worthy
of the glorious past. The past, certainly, is secure. The
present we note, and are glad to honor. The future is in
your hands, to mold and fashion it how you will.

When your church was born (comparatively speaking),
science and theology were in swaddling-bands, in their infancy.
Amazing changes have taken place in two hundred years.
Weeks and months and years, generations and epochs have
rolled away. Science is a new creature, as vastly different
from what it was in the seventeenth century, theoretically and
practically, as the Cathedral of St. Paul's is different from the
barn-like structures which served our fathers as churches.

In the realm of religious progress what has God wrought !
Never before was the Bible the book it is to-day. Never were
its treasures so highly prized. Never were its depths and
bights so thoroughly explored. Never before was evangelical
Christianity so puissant, so invincible.

When this church was organized, only thirty-four years,
perhaps, had passed since the great plague in London ; John
Bunyan had been dead but a few years, while Shakspere was
almost as near to the founders of this church in time as Wesley
is to us. Milton's "Paradise Lost" is just issued from the
press, mayhap. Some thirty-eight years must roll along
before the " Father of his Country " will see the light. John-
son and Goldsmith and Edmund Burke, the great poets and
statesmen of the eighteenth century, have not yet been born.
One hundred and forty years must roll away before steam-cars
will be in fashion ; and one hundred and seventy-live or more
before the wonders of the telegraph, the phonograph, and the
electric light and railway will dawn upon a not very greatly
astonished world.

50

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLERORO

Philosophies and literatures have suffered change. Inter-
pretations of Scripture have been modified. Science has
ceased to be a pigmy, and is now a sturdy colossus, striding
across a narrow world. We no longer say in our credo that
the Lord made the world in six days of twelve or twenty-four
hours each, hut we say the universe was "evolved," though in
the beginning (rod created the heaven and the earth.

But in all and through all God works and rules, and well
may we sing with Tennyson,

" Our little .systems have their clay;
They have their day and cease to be."

Yet our God changes not, and truth changes not. We move
nervously from side to side, to and fro, and see truth from
different sides, but she remains the same yesterday, to-day, and
forever. Remembering Jefferson's aphorism, "We are respon-
sible to God, not for the tightness, but for the uprightness
of our opinions," let us search, nevertheless, for truth as for
hidden pearls, for if we seek for her with all our hearts she
will he found of us.

With one fond look backward I will close these somewhat
extended observations. My thought carries me back to the
gorgeous October days of 188;"). I am standing where 1 stand
to-night, and looking down or up into — not a sea of faces, but
a scattered throng of humble worshipers. There were a
goodly number of persons here that day whom we miss to-night.
1 cannot speak their names, but there were Eddys and Pratts,
there were Thomases and Thompsons, Woods and Bryants,
there were AVestons, and many others of fragrant memory. As
I recal their names, and their faces rise before me, I seem to
hear the words of the Cambridge poet : —

" Then, though oft deprest and lonely,
All my fears are laid aside,
If I but remember, only,

Such as these have lived and died."

MR, HANAFOKD's ADDRESS 51

Surviving friends, who .still hold a lofty place on memory's
walls, 1 call you to emulate the virtues of those who, being-
dead, yet speak. I summon you so to set your house in order
that when Life's dream is exchanged for Eternity's reality,
and the little tale of earthly years is all told, we may meet
the saintly souls who beckon to us from the islands of the
blessed, saying, "Come up higher!" Till then, let us follow
Christ as did they. Let us never forsake the Pilgrim faith,
the Trinity, and the cross of Jesus Christ, but, clinging fast to
the glorious doctrines of the reformed churches, let us enter
upon our third century as a church with bright hopes and flam-
ing zeal. Let the aged say, "The past was grand and sweet.
The future we will leave with God, in the trustful assurance that
God's spirit will guide his church in days to come as of yore."
Let the young face futurity with strong hopes and brave re-
solve. Let all renew, or record, their vows to live " out and
out" for God. So shall you honor the memory of your illus-
trious predecessors, perpetuate the venerable institution be-
queathed to you by them, and set forward the common King-
dom of our Savior Christ.

A word last of all to the religiously irresolute or the un-
saved in this great audience. 1 want to say to each one of you,
"as a dying man to dying men," the Master has need of you.
This church has need of you. Stand not upon the order of
your going, but go at once to the fountain of cleansing, the
waters of Siloa that go softly. What Napoleon said to his
soldiers at the pyramids, that, slightly changed, I may say
to you: Eight generations look down upon you. See that
through you the Kingdom of God receive no detriment. Seek
your souls' salvation. Seek then to be polished stones in the
temple of life, granite, not soapstone or shale. Take sides
with the Spirit against the flesh. Receive the death of Christ
for the remission and putting away of your sins, and the pure,
lovely, loving life of Christ to help you overcome the power
of sin. Then shall you be laureled conquerors, and more than
conquerors, when from the bleeding and kingly hands of the

52 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

Captain of salvation you receive a crown of righteousness, and
enter the gates of light, where the saints await our coming.

At the conclusion of Mr. Hanaford's address the choir sang
an old fugue-tune, "The New Jerusalem" {Ingalls) ; the con-
gregation united in the hymn, "In the Cross of Christ I
glory" (Botvring), to the tune "Kathbun"; the benediction
was pronounced by llev. N. T. Dyer, and the congregation
was dismissed with an organ postlude, " Sanctus," from Farm-
er's Mass in B flat.

Tin: pilgrim mothers" 53

MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1894

On Monday, at two o'clock, a goodly throng- met in the
meeting-house. The organist, Miss "Wood, rendered Scotson
Clark's "' Grand Offertoire in G."

The pastor, having been asked to preside, introduced Rev.
B. F. Hamilton, I). D., of Roxbury, who is connected by
marriage with the First Church. Dr. Hamilton read from
Psalm 90, and offered prayer.

Mrs. G. W. Stearns then read the following ode, composed
for the occasion by the pastor : —

THE PILGRIM MOTHERS

Out of the storied past,

Like pictures down from their frames,
Methinks I see the mothers come

Who bore the Pilgrim uames.

Mothers and maidens too,

Tho' little they asked of fame,
Were equally brave with our honored sires;

Be theii their praise the same.

Think ye they loved not home

Because they sailed over the sea?
Think ye they yearned to roam,

Crusaders gay to be?

Speak, from the " Mayilower's " deck,

O damsel with brimming eyes —
Fared ye o'er the unfriendly deep

To And where fortune lies?

What means that stitled sigh,

0 matron in Plymouth's home?
Have ye not lotus found at last,

O'er leagues of ocean foam?

Think'st thou amid her toils

Dreams not thy daughter more
Than she e'er confest of some English nest

With hawthorn at its door?

54 FIKST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

0, how they missed the kiu

They had left beyond the main,
The while they straggled with hardships sore,
Famine and toil and pain !

Many a dear one drooped,
To rest in an unmarked grave.

But the living had need of comfort and care,
And women must be brave.

Many a cottage wall

In an Old Colony town
Could tell a tale of gentle hearts

That ached, but kept grief down.

Sweet words of love and faith,

To husband, brother, child,
Cheered these to act a valiant part,

Their fears and doubts beguiled.

Let laurel grace man's brow ;

Grant him his meed of praise ;
The deeds of our Pilgrim sires may well

Inspire the poet's lays.

Robinson, Fuller, White,

And others are honored names ;
But the angels have sung what earth has not-
' The praise of the Pilgrim dames.

Peal, then, thou sweet-voiced bell !

Answer, ye whispering pines !
Proclaim that bright as the father's the fame

Of the Pilgrim mother shines.

The choir next sang a hymn, "Two Hundred Years A^o,"
adapted from Joseph Flint, with music by Bartholomew Brown.
This hymn was first su ng at a celebration in Plymouth, in 1820.

Pk%

<J*k

<yw\ &^c

6u Uf«

W{

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 55

The President of the Day. — It is well known to all of
you who arc; thronged in this meeting-house to share to-day in
celebrating our two hundredth birthday, that our long member-
ship list includes not a few persons who have won for them-
selves and for us an enviable renown. Some of these persons
have ere this been numbered with the saints in glory everlast-
ing. Many of their descendants are with us to-day. There is
one whose father was for more than threescore years an active
member of our church, and his ancestors for four generations
previous to his own were influential members and constant
attendants on its worship, serving the Master. He united with
us at the age of eighteen years, and, though elsewhere resident,
worthily sustains the name of his illustrious ancestors. I have
the honor to present one already known by most of you, the
orator of the day, Mr. Thomas Weston, of Boston.

ORATION

BY THOMAS WESTON

" Thou shalt remember the way the Lord thy God has led
thee these forty years." So begins the earliest record of the or-
ganization of this church, whose two hundredth anniversary we
commemorate to-day. One hundred years ago, the eminent pas-
tor of this church, the Rev. Joseph Barker, embodied the prom-
inent events in its formation in a century sermon preached
from the church edifice then standing upon yonder foundation.
Fifty years later in this pulpit, Rev. Dr. Putnam, of blessed
memory, gathered the most interesting events connected with
its history, together with some account of the lives and char-
acters of its successive pastors and prominent members, in
two exhaustive sermons, which were published in the volume
containing your church history.1 The revival of historical

1 Book of the First Church of Christ in Middleboro, 1852. This volume
was written by Zechariah Eddy, one of the ablest lawyers in southeastern
Massachusetts. He was recognized as authority on all matters relating to
the Pilgrims and the history and polity of the Congregational churches.

56 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEHORO

studies ill our own time has added but little else to our
knowledge of the early history of this ancient and honored
church.

We have come together, brethren and friends, not so much
for the purpose of bringing additional facts to our knowledge
in its interesting history, but, in the words of its founders,
to remember the way that the Lord our God led them and
has led us, their successors in the work of their hands,
during these two hundred years. Here in this meeting-house,
and the others that preceded it, the members of this church
have come for more than seven generations to worship. Here
they made "the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad
for them, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose";
here for generations they came for that spiritual culture and
growth that made them the strong men and women they were ;
here they found consolation in the privations, the sufferings,
and the sorrows they underwent; here they obtained that
fortitude and courage by which they so successfully met the
responsibilities of those early days and years of hardship and
trial ; here were developed those lives of Christian faith and
holy living the memory of which has for so many genera-
tions been such a benediction upon the lives of their chil-
dren ; here were molded and developed those characters which
made our fathers men of enterprise, of perseverance, of in-
tegrity,— the ideal representatives of our heroic age; and
here, too, they came and went out, one after another, each suc-
cessively in his turn coming to his grave " like as a shock of
corn cometh in in his season." It is for us to-day, as we re-
view the scenes and the traditions connected with these men,
not only to catch, if we may, some inspiration from their
lives and their characters, a stronger love and trust in the God
that they so loved and trusted, that our lives may be nobler
and sweeter to meet the great responsibilities of our day and
generation, but also to see how the story of this church and
the lives of its members have flowed into the great stream of
the history of the nation.

ORATION BY THOMAS "WESTON 57

As its life passea before us in review, we may possibly regret
that its earliest records are lost and its later ones are so meager,
and yet the records of such a church, of such ministers, of such
members, are never lost ; they arc engraven upon successive
venerations of men and women, whose influence is felt, not only
in the life of such a church as this, but in the life of the nation
as they have both grown from infancy to maturity, and must
continue to the end of time, only to be fully known when the
great books are opened on high.

The times were auspicious for its organization. Although
remote from the centers of the old and new world, its founders
were, for the most part, men keenly alive to the great problems
of church and state that were then being adjusted.

William and Mary were on the throne of England ; the gen-
tle and beloved queen passed away two days after our church
was organized. The Commoners of England had secured for
the people the guarantees contained in that immortal state
paper, the Bill of Rights. Freedom of the press was about to
be established. An enactment by Parliament granting a larger
measure of protection and freedom than was ever before granted
to Protestants had been passed; the great Marlborough, who
never lost a battle for England, and who had been honored as
no other subject had been honored, was in disgrace for the
most perfidious treason ; the genius of Addison was just begin-
ning to be recognized ; the marvelous creations of Sir Chris-
topher Wren had already begun to beautify the great city of
London ; Sir Isaac Newton had pointed out great laws which
control the universe ; in France the Edict of Nantes laid been
revoked with terrible results, and the blood of thousands of
Protestants was flowing in the streets of the cities of France,
and the world was still learning that there were men whose
faith in their God was more precious to them than life itself.

In the colonies, our own Plymouth Colony had just united
her fortunes with those of the Bay. The anxieties concerning
the new charter had now been settled. The Colony of the Bay
was just recovering from that terrible delusion of witchcraft

58 FIRST CHURCH, M1DDLEH0U0

which had so disgraced tho anuals of her history, but which,
happily, never extended to our own Plymouth Colony.

The last survivor of the Pilgrims of the " Mayflower," John
Alden, had passed away eight years before ; the horrors of
the Indian War had ceased ; our ancestors had returned from
Plymouth, whither they had fled for protection and safety dur-
ing the war, and had now rebuilt their houses and barns and
redeemed their long-neglected farms. Their numbers, also,
were beginning to be augmented by the recent arrivals in the
colony from the mother country.

Our town was so named because within its territory centered
most of the Indian paths that traversed the southeastern section
of New England, and from its being midway from Plymouth
and the important settlement of Taunton. It was settled later
than most of the towns in the colony, on account of the much
larger number of Indians that continued to live within its
border after they had retired from most of the other sections
of southeastern Massachusetts, and who remained here until
after King Philip's War.

There is a tradition, probably true, that the two men who
first built houses here bore the historic names of Wood and
Leonard. The former was situated between the house of Mrs.
Lorenzo Wood and the river, the latter on the high ground on
the other side of the street in front of the house of Mr. Perry
Wilbur. From their homes could be seen the wigwams of the
Indian settlement on the hill on the other side of the Namasket,
and beyond their ancient burial ground. In what year they
came or how long they remained is a matter of doubt.

Our town was incorporated in the year 1(569. At the break-
ing out of King Philip's War there were here sixteen families,
who, upon its connncnceinent, removed to Plymouth.

The eleven men who organized our church were most of them
elderly men and children of the Pilgrims of Plymouth, who
came from that town and settled within our borders probably
a little before or a little after the year lOoO. Eight of them
were among the twenty-six men who made the purchase of

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 59

much of the territory of our town from the Indians in 1664.
Nine, with their wives, removed their relations from the parent
church in Plymouth, and the remainder united by profession of
their faith upon the organization of the church. I am inclined
to think that most of them were here before the town was incor-
porated and probably some time before the "twenty-six men's
purchase." Although this church was not organized until Dec.
26, 1694, I have no doubt that religious services had been held
within the limits of the town by its first settlers for at least
forty years before its organization. The opening sentence of
their earliest records that have come down to us is significant.
The men of that generation were not only familiar with the
Scriptures, but they always used its quotations with truth and
accuracy, and it is hardly probable that they would have used
the words, " Thou shalt remember the way the Lord thy God has
led thee these forty years," upon such a solemn occasion had
they not been strictly true. Mr. Baylies, in his admirable his-
tory of Plymouth Colony, gives as a reason of their delay in
organizing their church that they were too poor to warrant a
stated ministry until this time.

The church was organized Dec. 20, 1(594, by these men and
women in accordance with the simple forms of the church of
the Pilgrims — first gathered in Elder BreAVster's manor house
in Scrooby, and afterwards removed to Ley den, and from there
to Plymouth — and which have continued in our denomination
to the present time. Letters missive were sent to the neighbor-
ing churches of Plymouth, Sandwich, and Barnstable, which
were represented by their respective pastors and delegates.
They met, in all probability, in the old church edifice that stood
somewhere between the residence which was formerly known as
"Dr. Sturtevant's " and the Green. After the same simple ser-
vices which arc now observed in the organization of a church,
the Kev. Samuel Fuller was ordained their pastor and religious
teacher. They then adopted the Articles of Faith, substantially
the same as they now exist in your church, and entered into
solemn covenant with their God and with each other for the

GO FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOUO

faithful performance of the sacred vows that they then unitedly
took upon themselves. After that their infant children were
baptized, and John Bennet was chosen deacon and ordained
and inducted into his office.

The church they thus organized was built upon what they
sincerely believed to be the testimony of the Prophets and
the Apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone. Their
articles of faith and covenant were for the purpose of setting
forth a common belief in which all members could unite and
heartily agree, and for every member to consent to the rules
and discipline therein set forth. They contained the essential
doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, which they believed to be the
only rule of faith and practice. They believed in self-govern-
ment and open communion of the church, in its free toleration,
with power to select their own pastors and officers, to receive,
dismiss, and excommunicate members by vote of the whole
church and by advice of the neighboring churches in council
whenever desired by either party. They held with rigid ten-
acity to that system of theological thought called Calvinism, —
drawn, as they believed, from the inspired Word, — which was
the corner-stone of the Puritan faith. That system of thought
has always inspired its followers with a sense of their own
independence and dignity as beings called of Clod into his own
kingdom and glory and redeemed by the incarnation and sac-
rifice of the Son of God. It asserted the rights of humanity
and the equality of man before God and the law as no other
system had. They, in common with the Congregational body
of that day and this, believed strongly and tenaciously in a
faith that put God first, the Commonwealth next, the citizen
next ; and its followers have always endeavored to speak and
act as they have professed.

David Hume said that England owed all the liberty she had
to the Puritans. George Bancroft says that the monarchs of
Europe, with one consent and with incisive judgment, feared
these doctrines as republican. That s}rstem of theological
thought was Calvinism, of which John Fisk says that its " dis-

ORATION HY THOMAS WESTON <>1

semination over the world was one of the greatest steps that
mankind had ever taken towards personal freedom." It was
largely this mighty force in the thought of later times that
achieved our independence.

The churches of our denomination have always been tenacious
of this faith, which, as they believe, was once delivered to the
saints. Its members from the beginning have always been well
versed in the teachings of the Scriptures. Its great doctrines
were intelligently comprehended by a large majority of our
churches and adhered to with tenacity in the great theological
controversies of the generations which followed between the
churches of the Pilgrim faith and that of the Arminians, now
known as Unitarians. We of to-day have but little idea of the
bitter feeling that that controversy engendered in New England,
and how it took hold of the churches, dividing some and chang-
ing the faith of others. One quarter of the Congregational
churches of Massachusetts went over to the Unitarian belief, —
nearly one hundred in all. Of the churches in Boston, all but
one thus changed its faith ; so did the church of the Pilgrims at
Plymouth, where William Brewster was its ruling elder, where
Carver and TV inslow, Bradford and Fuller and their children and
grandchildren long worshiped ; so did the church at Bridge-
water, Wareham, and Kingston, in Bingham, and in most of the
other towns in the Old Colony.

In all of that bitter controversy this church stood firm from
the beginning and remained then, as now, true to its ancient
faith. It is, however, a fact in history that cannot be ignored
that the churches of the Puritan faith largely furnished the' men
who were foremost in promulgating the broad ideas of liberty
and resistance to the oppression of Old England, and who led
and guided the War of Independence, and afterwards framed
the government and laid the foundation of the institutions of
our country. And while ignorant men may sneer at the Puri-
tans, their customs, and their belief, the world appreciates
to-day the value of the lives, the services, and the principles
which actuated those noble men more than ever before. Our

62

FIBST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

senior senator' in the United States Senate on a public occasion
not long since, in referring to the forces that achieved our inde-
pendence, said, with truth, that he did not believe that the
American Revolution could ever have been successfully accom-
plished and the government of the United States securely es-
tablished without the preliminary educating power which had
been given to the men of those times through the hard-headed
orthodoxy which prevailed in New England. This was the
faith of our fathers, and has continued the same during all of
these successive generations. The day belongs to us, and it is
not too much to say on an occasion like this that it is from our
church and churches of our faith and order that largely have
sprung the forces and influences that have molded the govern-
ment and institutions of the land, and there are few churches
in New England that contributed more of this mighty force
in the infant days of the colony and nation than this ancient
church.

And yet this simple organization, this belief, these incidents,
was not the church they founded. It was their conception of
a plan for the commingling of spiritual aspirations for the service
they desired to render to God and humanity ; the place where
they could tind inward peace and growth for their immortal
natures, here in this consecrated place, that was then and
there made, and has so continued to be, the First Church in
Middleboro.

I should certainly fail in the discharge of the trust you have
so kindly imposed upon me should I neglect to give in detail
something of the lives and characters of the founders of this
our ancient church. Although there is but little extant con-
cerning them except tradition, I have gathered briefly of this
what I have been able to find.

There is nothing grander in any place or in any age than its
strong, consecrated, devout Christian men. Men never stood
out in a stronger light, having all of these attributes and more,
than the noble souls whose lives we recal to-day. It is true

1 George F. Hoar.

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON G3

that most in their lives i.s gone from us, but the occasion brings
us where we may see something of the details of those lives as
they were here lived, and what they did and what they accom-
plished for future generations, and how they went out to their
reward on high.

The roll of the founders of this church we honor to-day is us
follows : —

Samuel Fuller and his wife. Samuel Outbart.

John Bknnet and his wife. Jacob Tomson and his wife.

Jonathan' Mouse and his wife. John Cob, Jr.

Abiel Wood and his wife. Hester Tinkiiam.

Samuel Wood. Deborah Bardek.

Isaac Billington. Weibrah BumpaS.

Samuel Eaton. EiiexezkeTinkham and his wife.

The most prominent of these men was their first pastor, the
Rev. Samuel Fuller. lie was the son of Samuel Fuller, of
the " Mayflower," celebrated for his piety and skill as a physi-
cian. So desirous was he that his son should be better fitted
for a useful life that he made provision for his education in his
last will and testament. He was born in 1023, and received a
good education. He was one of the twenty-six purchasers of
the large tract of land covering much of the territory of the
town, and came to dwell in our borders, I am inclined to
think, before 16(32. lie served as deacon in the church at
Plymouth for sixteen years in the early part of his life, and
was the religious teacher of the inhabitants of the town from
the time of his settling here until his death. The town voted
to provide a house and twelve acres of land for him as early as
1080, which was located a little east of what was formerly the
residence of Dr. Sturtevant. The same year the town voted
him a yearly salary of twenty pounds, one quarter to be paid
in silver and the remainder in corn and wheat, and also to fence
his field ; and every person who failed to do his portion was to
pay a bushel of corn. At the same time a house was built for
him (which was burned with all other houses in town at the
commencement of the Indian War), the site of which is not

64 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEJJOUO

precisely known. During the war lie removed to Plymouth
with the other settlers, and there remained until its close, when
he returned in 1680.

1 think it was during this year that the town built our first
meeting house, near the house of the late Dr. Sturtevant.

In 1680 he was chosen one of the selectmen of the town.
Tradition is uniform that he was not only an enterprising, in-
telligent, industrious man, hut an earnest, devout Christian
teacher, avIio spent most of his life in preaching the gospel,
although not an ordained minister until the year before his
death. He was ordained at the time of the organization of the
church, and died a few months after. A stone on the burial
hill marks his resting-place and contains a suitable inscription.'

The Rev. Dr. Backus, writing in 1741, said that before King
Philip's War in 1G75 there were three churches of praying-
Indians in the territory included in the limits of our town — one
at Namasket, another at Assawampset, and a third at Titicut —
and that in these three churches there were one hundred and
thirty members. The churches at Namasket and Assawampset
numbered seventy members. Such remarkable results at that
time must have been largely due to the long, devout, and
faithful Christian service on the part of this godly man, aided
as he was by I\ev. Mr. Treat, of Eastham (whose labors for
the conversion of the Indians were not surpassed by the great
apostle Eliot himself), and the Christian associates of Mr. Ful-
ler, who must have been very early in the town. It would
certainly appear to be the fact that not only Mr. Fuller but
the organizers of this church had been here for at least forty
years to have seen such fruits of their faith and their works.

Gov. Bradford, after the Pilgrims' first encounter with the
hostile Indians at Plymouth, wrote home to his beloved pastor,
the Rev. John Robinson, of the signal victory that they had
obtained. In his answer to that letter, after tender and en-
couraging words, he adds this sentence : " O, that you had
converted some before you had killed any !" That rebuke

1 See page 96.

ORATION 1JY THOMAS WESTON 65

could never have been administered to your ancestors, the

founders of this church, for the record shows that before the
gun of John Tonison (borrowed by Lieut. Isaac I lowland)
had been fired from the garrison house of the town at the
Indian on the high rock just above the Star Mills, while
menacing the settlers who had there retired for safety,
wounding him so that he soon after died in the house of Wil-
liam Nelson, which stood not far from the house of the late
Jacob Bennet, they had converted more than one hundred
and thirty before they had killed one.

Next to their minister, probably Jacob Tomson was the
most influential and prominent of that little band. He united
with the church upon profession of his faith at its organization.
He was the son of John Tomson, a member of the church of
Plymouth, and, with his children, was in the habit of attend-
ing church there every Sabbath. There is a tradition that he
when a boy, and in his early manhood, was in the habit of
walking from his father's house to Plymouth and back every
Sabbath to attend services, a distance of over sixteen miles.
He was an industrious, enterprising man, honored and re-
spected throughout the colony. He was one of the twenty-six
men who made the first purchase from the Indians of the ter-
ritory in this town. He made the survey of the land so pur-
chased, and divided it into lots among his associates. His
father was certainly here before 1054, and there is every
reason to believe that his son was with him during those early
years.

He was a large owner of real estate in this and the adjoining-
towns. He was one of the few of His Majesty's justices of the
peace in the colony for many years ; was elected selectman of
the town in 161)7, and held that office for twenty-five years. He
was a representative to the General Court for the years 1708-
18. He was a devout, earnest Christian man, of much influ-
ence in this church and prominent in the affairs of the town
and colony.

Our first deacon was John Bennet, born about the year

66

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEIIORO

1642. He came from Beverly to our town, and died March
21, 1718, aged seventy-six years. He was selectman for five
years, and town clerk for thirteen years. He was a man of
considerable learning, well versed in Scripture, and of sturdy
character. He was of much assistance to the pastor of the
church, and rendered great service in man}' ways to the church
during its early years. He was a man of good judgment,
discreet, and always zealous for the growth and prosperity of
the church that he so long and faithfully served.

Samuel Wood came from the church at Plymouth. He was
a selectman in 16*84, and was re-elected upon eight different
occasions. He was also a man of prominence, and greatly
respected. His descendants are very numerous in this and
surrounding towns. Very many of them have been distin-
guished in the professions, as well as in other of the varied
occupations of life. He died in 1718, in the seventieth year
of his age.

Abiel Wood was probably a brother of Samuel. He was
a quiet, industrious man, of strong religious convictions. His
descendants were not numerous. He died in 1719, aged
sixty-one.

Ebenezer Tinkham united with the church on profession
of his faith at its organization, and was one of the selectmen
for three years. He was a man of great enterprise, and did
much for the church and town. He died April 8, 1718, in the
seventy-fifth year of his age. The enterprise of their ancestors
has always been a characteristic of his posterity.

Hester Tinkham was a sister of Ebenezer, and there is no
record of her marriage. She died in 1717, at the age of sixty-
eight.

Samuel Eaton was a son of Francis and Sarah Eaton, pas-
sengers in the " Mayflower." He was settled in Duxbury in the
early part of his life, and removed from there to Middleboro
probably before the twenty-six were purchasers, of whom he
was one. He married Martha Billington, probably a daughter
of Isaac Billington, and died March 18, 1724, aged sixty-one

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 67

years. He was a member of the church in Duxbury before
joining this church.

Weibkah Bumpas was the wife of Joseph Bumpas. She died
Dec. 27, 1711. Her husband was a son of Edward Bumpas, one
of the passengers of the " Mayflower," and a brother of Edward,
who was one of the twenty-six purchasers of territory from
the Indians in 1604. She was formerly a member of the church
at Plymouth, and severed her relations to join this church at its
organization. The descendants of Joseph and Edward were nu-
merous in town atone time, and were industrious, thrifty men.

Jonathan Mouse owned a large tract of land in town, and
was frugal and diligent. He was a member of the church in
Plymouth, and severed his relations with that church to join
this. Some of his descendants have been very prominent in
the literary and scientific world. He died in 1701), aged
seventy years.

John Cob, Jr., was a son of one of the twenty-six pur-
chasers of much of the territory of the town. His father was
recorded as one of "the tirst-comers " in Plymouth. He was
enterprising and thrifty. It was his custom, as well as that of
most others in town before the organization of the church, to
attend the customary service in the old church in Plymouth, re-
turning the same day. He died in 1727, aged sixty-eight years.

Samuel Cutbakt left no descendants, and died in 109(J at
the age of forty-two. No tradition has ever come down to us
concerning him.

But little is known of Isaac Billington. He left no male
descendants, and died in 1700 at the age of sixty-six.

Deborah Bab den was connected with the family that has
always been well known in town from its earliest organization.

And so we have recorded the little that has come down to us
of these illustrious names, the founders of the church whose
history we rehearse to-day. Of most of them we may say,

" Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply." '

1 Gray's " Elegy."

b'8 FIRST CHURCH, JVIIDDLEBORO

It is enough then for us to say that they were devout Chris-
tian men of sterling character, distinguished for their sobriety
and industry, whose influence for good was Jong felt in this
community. Tradition is uniform that the daily walk of these
men and women was in accord with the solemn vows they took
upon themselves on that memorable Sabbath of Dec. 2(5,
1694.1

It is not my purpose to trace the interesting story of this
church from that day to this. It has been an eventful one. It
lias had its dissensions, but fewer than most churches of the
Commonwealth. The differences between the old lights and
the new lights were soon forgiven and forgotten. It has had
its ''toil and tribulation," but,

" Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God,"

that have also been seen here. The years of 1728, 17-11-2,
1808, and 1823 were

" Years of the right hand of the Most High "

in this place. Nor does time permit me to name the men who
have been prominent in its membership since its organization,
or the part they have taken and the influence they have exerted
in molding and shaping, not only the many interests of this
church, but the affairs of the town, and not a few of them in
the broader held of the colony, afterwards the Commonwealth. -
The sacred tire on this altar, kindled two hundred years ago,
has been kept burning by the children and children's children
down to the seventh generation.

No church is richer than ours in men and women whose
lives have made the world wiser and better, and whose Chris-

1 A brief sketch of the lives of some of the more prominent members of
the church for the lirst one hundred years of its existence may be found in
the history of the church.

-'Of these, more than a dozen have been ministers of the gospel, about the
same number physicians and lawyers, and scores of them in every honorable
trade and occupation scattered all over the country.

OUAT10N UY THOMAS WESTON 09

tian characters have been radiant with the power of the endless
life.

We are upon historic ground to-day. From my boyhood
there has always been a peculiar charm that has lingered about
the sites of the houses of worship this church has successively
occupied. I must linger for a few moments to recal some of
the associations connected with them ; we are fortunate in know-
ing the exact location of each of them. The first, standing
between the house of the late Dr. Sturtevant and the school-
house on the Green, was the place where worshiped those
godly men who, with their pastor, had been, under God, the
instruments of converting the Indians who before the Indian
War had been gathered into the three churches within the
borders of our town as it then existed. These Indian churches
became extinct with the breaking out of the war, and most of
the Indians joined the whites in that bloody contest ; after its
close they removed to other parts of the State, or became so
commingled with the settlers as to lose their identity.

We may judge something of their identification with the
interests of the people from the fact that of the seventy-live
men the town furnished for what was called Gov. Drummond's
Indian War, from 1720 to 1725, one third were Indians, who
cheerfully volunteered for that service, and who were good
soldiers.

The second church editice stood in front of the school-house
from the year 1707 to 1740, or thereabout. It was thirty-six
by thirty-six feet in size, and sixteen feet high in the walls.
It had two ridge poles and four gable ends. In 1745 the
roof was taken oft" and a pitched roof put on. Here worshiped
those devout women, Mesdames Thacher and Morton, whose
names and memory have come down to us fragrant with all the
charms and graces of Christian womanhood. Here, too, came
Samuel Prince, Nathan Prince, Samuel Eddy, Nehemiah Ben-
net, Ichabod Paddock, Isaac Fuller, Barzillai Thomas, — names
historic in the annals of this church, this town, the colony.

This was the place in which Luke Short, when nearly one

70 FIR8T CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

hundred years of age, stood before the great congregation and'
publicly confessed his sins and took upon himself the solemn
vows of your church.

The story of his interesting conversion is fresh in the minds
of you all. lie was a member of Cromwell's train band; was
present at the execution of Charles I, and, after leading a dis-
solute life for more than eighty years, was one day, after he
had reached the age of nearly one hundred, hoeing corn in the
Held adjoining the house where Deacon Tillson used to live.
As he approached in his work a large rock (that may be now
seen), there suddenly flashed through him the memory of the
benediction which he had heard the great Flavel pronounce so
many years before : this so affected him that he gave his heart
to Cod and united with the church, ami during the last years of
his life was an earnest, devout, Christian man. He died at the
irreat age of one hundred and sixteen years. Yesterday, as I
drove past that field and saw that rock there, I could but think
that that, as well as those old meeting-houses, was another
monument to the power of the same gospel, here preached for
two hundred years, in changing the lives and characters of men.
To that old church must have come the men, women, and
children of this entire township on the memorable Sabbath of
the fall of 174G, to unite with the churches of the colony
in prayer for deliverance from the impending calamity that
threatened with destruction the entire English colonies. Owing
to the protracted disputes between the English and French
people, Louis XV had determined, as the most effective
blow he could administer to his ancient enemy, to devastate
her settlements in New England. Accordingly, the largest
fleet that ever sailed from France, consisting of seventy ships,
under the command of her most experienced admiral, was sent
forth. So confident was the admiral of victory, that he or-
dered a huge broom to be hoisted from the mainmast of his
tlau'ship, as a symbol that he was to sweep the name of the
English from the Atlantic coast. Great was the peril of
the colonists. England was not more alarmed by the great

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON

71

Spanish Armada in 1588 than were the colonies at this time.
They had no fleet that could resist such a powerful armament,
and were, without means of defence; their only hope of de-
liverance was from the God that had so often come to their
rescue. Accordingly, the people of the colonies met in their
respective places of worship to spend a day in fasting- and in
prayer for their deliverance. The people of Boston assembled
in the Old South Church, and spent the entire day in prayer.
The next night there came such a storm as was never before
known on the Atlantic, and the great French fleet was sepa-
rated, most of the vessels broken or destroyed, and but few of
the seventy vessels escaped. The admiral, in his chagrin, com-
mitted suicide ; and Gov. Hutchinson, in his history of these
times, said that "pious men saw the immediate hand of Divine
Providence in the protection, or rather rescue, of the colonies."
And to this house of God, during the ministry of Rev. Mr.
Thacher, came the four hundred and sixty men, women, and
children who publicly renounced their sins and professed their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If they that turn many to
righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever, what
must have been the reward that awaited that godly man as he
passed on through the gates into the celestial city !

But perhaps the most interesting associations connected with
any of these church edifices cluster about the meeting-house
standing 14)011 the site of yonder foundation from about 1745
to 1828. Its form was similar to the churches of that day.
It had its high pulpit, its sounding board, and its square pews ;
its seats for Negroes and Indians ; its pews for the deaf and for
the old men and women; its pew for the distinguished judge
and his family ; its place for the tithing man.

This was one of the churches in which the great Whitetield
preached during his visit to America. Here worshiped Judge
Oliver, the most eminent man in the colony prior to the break-
ing out of the Revolution, to whose stately residence, situated
oiTthe brow of Muttock Hill, came the most distinguished men
who visited the colonics. His family attended this church

72

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLERORO

during thirty years, and for most of that period lie was leader
of the singing. One of the good ladies disaffected with the
new order of things being introduced into the church, in dis-
paragement thereof wrote to one of her friends that "even the
judge of the land was bawling in the gallery with the boys."

It was in this church that Benjamin Franklin, during his
visit to the eminent Dr. Clark, worshiped, and during the
intermission between the morning and afternoon sendees gave
that interesting conversation, remembered not only by those
who heard it, but the traditions of which still linger among us.

Here worshiped Gov. Bowdoin while a resident of our town.
Here came Gov. Hutchinson and his family when passing their
summers at Muttock. Here came to worship Sir William
Temple while visiting the colony, and others equally eminent
in English history. Here was to be found, in his boyhood,
Thomas Prince, the eminent pastor of the Old South Church of
Boston.

As I wandered last evening about yonder church-yard, I
lingered with awe and reverence about the stone erected in
ineinory of Mr. Conant, the fourth pastor of this church.
From the high pulpit in that grand old meeting-house, which
some of you remember to have seen, he, in his most elo-
quent and forcible utterances, urged his people" to resist the
atrocities that were being perpetrated during the French and
Indian War. With burning words he fearlessly advised resist-
ance to the oppression of the mother country, to the odious
Stamp Act, the unjust tax upon tea, the bloody massacre on
State Street in the town of Boston, and went out as chaplain of
one of the regiments of the Old Colony that he might stay up
the hands and support the feeble knees of those of this church
and this town who wore standing and lighting upon the battle-
fields of the Revolution. It was by his stirring, patriotic
words that Joshua Eddy, one of the deacons of this church,
with thirty-five others of its members and many more from this
town, were induced to enlist and then cheered on and encour-
aged to take the glorious part they did in that fearful struggle

//l^€^c^ Cec/eLy

ORATION HV THOMAS WESTON 73

for liberty unci for an independent nation. Among this num-
ber were officers of distinction and private soldiers of unsur-
passed valor. Some of them were at Lexington and Bunker
Hill ; some were at Saratoga and saw the surrender of Bur-
goyne ; some in Rhode Island and New York ; some bravely
endured the hardships and privations of Monmouth and Prince-
ton ; and the survivors, at the close of the war for independ-
ence, here came to unite in the prayers of thanksgiving of
this church for the deliverance which Almighty God had seen
fit to grant to the nation. " The sacramental hosts were not all
wasted by these tribulations."

Time does not permit me to name the prominent men of the
town and colony who found that old edifice a place for spirit-
ual refreshment, where they gained strength and courage that
enabled them so manfully to meet and so bravely to endure
the hardships, struggles, and sacrifices of the French and
Indian War and the fiercer struggles of the Revolution. It
was one of the historic spots of the country, and, whatever
may be the interest attached to other localities, that old
church, with what it had seen and what had transpired within
its walls, was certainly among the places long to be remem-
bered in the history of New England.

And what shall I say of the associations connected with this
house, which linger in the recollection of some of you as
among the most precious memories of your lives? It w:is
designed by one of the best architects of that day, Deacon
Ebenczer Sproat. It was built in 1828, and dedicated the
next year. Well might Daniel Webster have said, as he rode
past it soon after its dedication, that it was the finest church
edifice in New England.

There are those before me who remember the vast audience
that used to gather here for years after it was dedicated. As
I stand here, there come before me the men and their families
who occupied these pews in my earliest boyhood. Such men
and such women ! It was at that time often said by strangers
that there was no such conirreiration, outside of Boston, in the

74: FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

State. There could not have been found a better representa-
tion of the .sturdy, intelligent, well-to-do yeomanry of that
day than used to gather in this house, or higher ideals of
manhood and womanhood of fifty and sixty years ago than
those who then occupied these pews. One and another, yea,
a score and more, of those men seem to come up before me —
men well known and respected all over the cbuntry, represent-
ing the various industries and occupations of life. I recal
thirteen successful merchants, four eminent physicians, law-
yers whose reputations extended all over this Commonwealth,
a dozen skilful mechanics, of each of whom Longfellow's
delightful poem, "The Village Blacksmith," was more than
true ; and manufacturers whose wares were sent all over the
country, and whose enterprise was not to be excelled by any
in the country. There were men here in the church and soci-
ety of wide political influence, who tilled important positions
in the town, county, and State. There were men and women
here well versed in literature, whose pens were a power in the
world of thought and letters. There were those who could
cope with the ablest in the subtle questions of law, of the-
ology, and of history. Here were poets and artists of national
fame. There was one, often the guest of Jefferson and Chief
Justice Marshall. There were men here, widely known in civil
and military circles, — one the intimate friend of the elder and
the younger Adams. Who of us can ever forget that long roll
that might be called of dignified, intelligent, strong, well-to-do
farmers, with their large families, that in those days occupied
so many of these pews?

There were here, too, strong, earnest, devout Christian men
and women. The great objects of Christian charity and benev-
olence, to ameliorate and make better our humanity, that then
were just coming before the world, received their fullest and
most cordial sympathy and support. The streams of Christian
charity that flowed from these pews have made glad the dark
places of our world.

Who of us who remember those days can ever forget the

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 75

large choir that crowded these galleries, the skilful -players on
instruments, their earnest leader, or, after the afternoon ser-
vice, those long lines of carriages that radiated from this sacred
center to the many neighborhoods of this large parish?

There are memories that crowd upon us as we sit here
to-day that are sweet to some of us, and which time cannot
obliterate.

What records are here ! of what unwritten history am I tell-
ing, and how much more than I tell do you recal !

" O, many the thoughts of the heart,
As we stand by this temple of God
And think of the worshipers, vanished and gone,
Who up to its courts have trod !

" They came in the joy of their souls,

Or they came with their burdens to bear,
In the sunlight of youth, in the evening of age,
In hope, or in grief and despair.

■' O, strong is the tie that entwines,

And subtle the mystical cord
That binds human souls, with their sorrows and sins,
To the altar and house of the Lord."1

And what shall I say more ? Time would fail me to tell of
the pastors of this church ; of the saintly Fuller; of the erring
but repentant Palmer; of the faithful, godly Thacher ; of the
kind, earnest, and patriotic Conant ; of the pious, Christian
statesman, Barker; of the gentle, earnest Paine; of the schol-
arly Eaton ; of the devout, winning, able Putnam, who

"... Avatched and wept, he prayed and felt for all;
And, as a bird each fond endearment tries,
To tempt his new-Hedged offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way " ; *

and of Sawyer, Hidden, and Sawin, whose memories are still
fragrant with their piety, their goodness and zeal in the work
of their Master, — all "who through faith subdued kingdoms,

From Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D., poem, " The Country Church."
• Goldsmith, " The Deserted Village."

70 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOHO

wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the violence of tire, escaped the edge of the
.sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

I can see those before me who might have known men and
women who had talked with the founders of this church. We
have stood to-day where they stood ; have walked in paths
that were familiar to them ; have had pass before us scenes
which were eventful in their lives, and have stood with un-
covered heads beside their last resting place — one life between
us and them. What thoughts crowd upon the mind on an
occasion like this, as we span the distance between us and
them ; what records have been made in the world's history
since the records which we have perused to-day ; what progress
among the nations ; what changes have these two hundred
years wrought ; what advance in art, in science, in literature :
what marvelous inventions ; what magnificent charities ; what
progress in government, in liberty, in human rights ; what
gigantic strides in overcoming the darkness of the heathen
world ! and yet all of this is the story of what they and their
children and their children's children contributed in their day
and generation, which has taken root and grown into the mar-
velous proportions we witness to-day.

The little colonies have grown to the great nation of the
United States of America, with its sixty-five million of inhabi-
tants ; from the Atlantic to the Pacific there are homes of peace
and plenty ; and a government has grown from the little town
meeting of the colonies to the great government of the United
States that secures to the humblest citizen life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.

When the foundations of this church were laid there was
scarcely a missionary society in the world, and to-day the in-
fant is living that in all human probability will see the spread
of the same gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so
dear to our fathers throughout the length and breadth of tin?
world. Such marvelous results, such wonderful achievements,

ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON <<

.such magnificent success, were of their planting, their nurturing,
and their training, that we might enjoy the fruits thereof !

These two hundred years have witnessed the overthrow of
the French power in the new world and the establishment
and successful maintenance of the independence from the
mother country of the thirteen original colonies, the success-
ful resistance to her encroachments in 1812, and, grander than
all, the wiping out of that relic of barbarism in our own coun-
try that had come down from the dark past, all at such cost of
treasures of life and of property. As I stand in this place
and cast my eyes over this large audience, I see the seat and
recal the face of one and another and another of those who
started life with me, but who arc not with us to-day — one,
from exposure in the swamps of Chickamauga, lingered for
months, and then his life went on beyond; another fell at
Antietam ; another, climbing the breastworks of Fredericks-
burg, was pierced with a dozen rebel bullets; another died
from wounds at Cold Harbor; and another, whose bones are
resting in a nameless grave under the shades at Arlington.
No o-reater service was rendered by our fathers in the forma-
tion of our institutions and government than was rendered by
those brave men, the companions of my boyhood, who gave
their lives in defending what our fathers builded so well.

Brethren, amid all the changes of successive generations, as
they come and go, we, the children of those who two hundred
years ago here worshiped the true and living God, must never
forget the credit due to this ancient and honored church for
the lives that have been here lived, for the characters of those
men and women, for the good they exerted, and for all they
helped to accomplish. Their faith, their principles, are our
crown jewels ; see to it that they are ever sacredly guarded.

And so to-day we " walk about Zion, and go round about her :
tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider
her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
For this God is our God for ever and ever : he will be our
guide even unto death."

78 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOEO

At the end of Mr. Weston's oration ;i bass song, "The
breaking waves dashed high" (Mrs. Hemmis), music by Brown,
was sung by Messrs. G. A. Cox and II. F. Wood.

It had been planned that the Governor of the Commonwealth
for which the Pilgrim churches did so much, the Hon. Frederic
T. Greenhalge, might speak on this occasion, but there was a
misunderstanding as to the date, and his Excellency was not
present.

The following letter was read : —

Executive Mansion, Washington,
Aug. 16, 1894.
My Dear Sir, — The President directs me to acknowledge the receipt
of your letter of the Oth inst., in which you invite him to attend the
celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational
Church of Middleboro, and to express his regrets that it will be impossi-
ble both for Mrs. Cleveland and for him to attend the interesting exer-
cises which you have prepared for the occasion. The President asks me
to thank you for the thoughtfulness and consideration of which your
courteous invitation is an evidence.

Very truly yours,

Henry T. Thurber,

Private Secretary.
Rev. George W. Stearns,

Midelleboro, Mass.

# a^ /.

MR. WOOD'S ADDRESS 7i)

The President of the Day. — It has been our lot often to
bless other churches by dismissing to them with loving re-
luctance our own highly prized members. Numbers of these
have come back to their old mother church for these two
days of anniversary joy. It is said that when wild winds, one
summer day in 1822, suddenly assaulted and overwhelmed
the boat in which sat the gifted though sadly wayward young
poet, Shelley, friends on the Italian shore, near which the
tragedy occurred, burned to ashes the mortal remains of the
almost peerless singer, except his heart, which was borne rever-
ently away, pathetically poor treasure though it was, to repose
in his native England. Our next speaker, who enlisted here in
Christ's sublime service more than a half century ago, is one
whose name indeed we have lost from our roll of present mem-
bers, but whose heart, never lost, is still ours. I have the
privilege of presenting one venerated and beloved by us all,
our reverend brother, Charles W. Wood.

THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE

ADDUESS OF REV. CHARLES W. WOOD1

The highest point on the Plymouth & Middleboro Railroad
is very near the house built and occupied by the late Dr.
Sturtevant, and opposite that house can now be seen the out-
lines of the first church which was erected by the settlers of
Middleboro. The elevation of land in this vicinity probably
determined its selection as the center of the town. The resi-
dence of the first minister was only a few rods from this
meeting-house.

This house was sold, 1701, for £5, 2s.

The second house of worship wTas located near the school
house, opposite the present parsonage. It was thirty-six by
thirty, sixteen feet stud. It had two ridge-poles and four

• The lamented death of Rev. Charles W. Wood occurred at his home in
Middleboro, March 3, 1895. He was horn in this town, June 20, 1814, and
united with the church on confession of faith in 1837, being numbered 948 in
the descriptive catalog.

80 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

gable ends. It at first had no pews. Rev. Mr. Timelier wus
the first person to whom consent was given by the parish
to build a pew in some convenient place for the use of his
family, and not long afterwards nineteen other persons were
permitted to erect pews at their own expense.

Before this time the seats were probably, like those in most
of the meeting-houses in the neighboring towns, long, narrow,
uncomfortable benches, without any support for the back.
This house was at one time considerably enlarged to accommo-
date the increasing number of worshipers ; its roof was re-
moved, and a modern one substituted, and other changes were
made in its general appearance. In consequence of unhappy
differences arising from the controversy between the " old
lights " and the " new lights," which then agitated the
churches, two societies existed here for a while, and a new
meeting-house was erected in *174f>. This division was soon
healed, and the old meeting-house was sold, and the parish
was united again for worship in the new house.

The meeting-house built in 1745 stood but a few rods from
where we now are, and remained until 1821). Of that house
I have quite a distinct recollection. I remember with clear-
ness sitting upon my mother's foot-stove, and resting my head
in her lap ; and I can almost feel now the weariness with
which I looked into her face, and asked, " Is n't he almost
done?" I referred to the minister, who was Rev. Air. Paine.
I sec him as he stands in the lofty pulpit, with his long cloak,
and with black gloves upon his hands, from which the finger
tips had been cut off that he might more easily turn the leaves
of the Bible or his sermon.

The body of the house, as I remember it, was somewhat
longer north and south than it was east and west, of suflicient
liight to admit of two rows of windows, one above the other,
tilled with a great number of small panes of glass. From the
eastern side an ample portico extended, upon which was a
steeple containing a large belfry, in which, however, a bell
never swung. Large doors opened from the eastern side into

MR. wood's address 81

a vestibule, upon whose walls were many notices, especially
of intended marriages, which all were eager to read before
entering upon public worship or at the noon recess. From the
north and also from the south, side doors opened immediately
into the audience room.

The interior of the church presented to youthful eyes a
somewhat magnificent appearance, with its lofty ceiling over-
head, its deep galleries upon three sides, and an imposing pul-
pit occupying a large portion of the fourth side.

The pulpit was of dizzy hight, overshadowed by a widely
extended sounding-board. A few feet below the top of the
pulpit was a large enclosure, capable of holding a considerable
number of persons who, on account of deafness, wished to be
seated near the preacher, and below this was an extended seat
for the deacons, of whom, I think, there were four, and before
this seat was suspended on hinges the communion table, to be
raised at the communion service.

In these primitive meeting-houses, it was no uncommon
thing for the snows of winter to penetrate, especially around
the large window at the rear of the pulpit, so that the minister
often found his place more than usually uncomfortable from
his snowy surroundings. I recollect to have heard, many
years ago, of an amusing event which was said to have occurred
in Middleboro or in some neighboring town.

The preacher found the top of his pulpit well covered with
snow. He stood up and with his right hand brushed a portion
of it off, not minding where it went. lie observed a smile
upon the faces of people. He looked over to see what he had
done, and discovered that he had sent a cold shower upon the
head of the solitary person who was seated in the deaf seat
below. He then brushed with his left hand the remaining
snow in an opposite direction. He observed that his audience
were more amused than before. He looked down again upon
the seat below, and found that the man he had so seriously
annoyed had moved, and in consequence had received another
cold chill from his thoughtless minister.

82 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

The large square pews of the meeting-house were arranged
on all sides against the walls ; aisles in front of them extended
all around, and the space in the center was filled with pews
and aisles in a somewhat complicated manner ; for I remember
it was sometimes a puzzling operation for me to discover my
way to certain pews I wished to find. The pews were tilled
with seats on two or three sides, attached by hinges to the
walls, so that they could be raised during the long prayer,
permitting worshipers to stand with hands or arms resting
upon the rail at the top. At the close of the prayer these
seats went down, making a noise like a discharge of musketry
at a muster.

"And when at last the loud ameu

Fell from aloft, how quickly then

The seats came down with heavy rattle,

Like musketry in fiercest battle."

A by-law of one of our towns reads: "The people are to
let their seats down without such noise." And another : "The
boys are not to wickedly noise down their pew-seats."

Some of these seats, with hinges attached, may be seen now
in the chapel, in the rear of the church, which did service in
the old meeting-house a hundred years ago.

The tops of the pews, as I remember them, were ornamented
with little balusters of artistic form, which were often turned
by childish hands, and made to squeak, to the amusement of
the little ones, and to the annoyance of older ones.

These open balustrades afforded opportunity for children to
look into neighboring pews, and occasionally to cast a paper
ball at another youth, who was readily recognized. At a
somewhat later period of life, through these openings sly mis-
sives were sometimes passed which were of more interest than
anything the most eloquent preacher could utter.

Not many days ago, a lady, now present, described to me
the meeting-house of her girlish days, which was very much
like the one which stood here, and she remembers on one
occasion recoii'nizinir, through the baluster cubby-holes of the

MB. wood's address 83

pew in which she was seated, a boy of her acquaintance ; their
eyes met, and so marked were their smiles of recognition that
smiles of sympathy were .seen on many faces around them.
I was somewhat surprised to learn that that boy was the sou
of the beloved pastor who, in subsequent years, occupied this
pulpit for a third of a century.

This top rail of adjoining pews was used by older persons as
well as by younger ones. During the long service of a hot
Sunday, the grateful smelling-bottle or sprigs of caraway, dill,
or fennel, or southernwood were passed by farmer, wife, or
daughter as a defence against sleepiness. The poet has given
us the picture.

And when I tired and restless grew,
Our next pew neighbor, Mrs. True,
Reached her kind hand the top rail through,
To hand me dill and fennel too,
And sprigs of caraway.

And as I munched the spicy seeds,
I dimly felt that kindly deeds
That thus supply our present needs,
Though only gifts of pungent weeds,
Show true religion.

And often now through sermon trite,
And operatic singer's flight,
I long for that old friendly sight,
The hand with herbs of value light,
To help to pass the time.

It was a custom in many places for hard working men to
stand up for a while and lean over the top of the pew during
the sermon. I read that the deacon of a certain church never
let a summer Sunday pass without thus resting himself.

One day, having ill secured the wooden button of the pew
door, his leaning place gave way and out he fell with a loud
noise upon the floor of the aisle. It may well be imagined
there was no more sleeping for him or his neighbors during
the remainder of the sermon.

A youth of our congregation, some way in his restlessness,

84 F1KST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

at one time thrust his head through the balusters, and was
unable to get it back again until, with a little commotion, he was
released by friendly hands which came to his rescue.

It was not always peace and harmony in the old meeting-
house. The sons of the Pilgrims had too much of the spirit
of independence and of individual responsibility never to
differ in opinion from one another.

One subject of difference was the introduction of stoves into
the church, one party contending for it, and another very
strongly opposed to it. Arguments were advanced with great
spirit, pro and con, producing oftentimes an unlovely and
bitter feeling among neighbors and former friends. Tradition
tells us of the woman who was so oppressed by the heat of the
stove which had been introduced that she was carried out
fainting, and upon recovery, declared that it was caused by
the oilensive heat of the stove, and that she could attend
church here no more ; but she changed her views somewhat
when she learned that no tire had as yet been kindled in
the stove.

It is somewhat remarkable that this story is substantially
told in the history of half a dozen of the churches of New
England.

Another subject which caused a great deal of trouble in the
church was the introduction of instrumental music. After a
struggle, the bass viol was admitted as help for the voices.
So great was the opposition of a prominent member, that he
threatened to absent himself if this instrument should be seen
in the church. It is said that a neighbor accused this man of
trespassing upon his land, and he proposed to hang a bass viol
upon one of his trees, saying that the sight of it was so offen-
sive that it would keep his trespassing neighbor far away
from his premises.

The violin was admitted on the condition that it should be
played upside down, for then it would be a viol, and by no
means a fiddle.

Then followed a great number of instruments of music, the

MR. wood's address 85

double bass viol, the bassoon, the serpent, the flute, clarinet,
and French horn, forming an orchestra or brass band.

It is said that some of the ancients, after the performance
of the choir under these new conditions, left the church in
tears, feeling that the worshipers in God's house had be-
come servants of Nebuchadnezzar, whose herald proclaimed,
" At what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye
fall down and worship."

The old meeting-house, though its summer heats and its
winter coldness could not be forgotten, must have been left
with many regrets by those who had there worshiped the God
of their fathers. It must have been associated with many
pleasant memories of persons and events of the past. Many
distinguished men had been worshipers there. Some of the
highest officers of the State had been seen there, the guests of
Judge Oliver, who received the appointment of Chief Justice
from the crown of Great Britain.

Benjamin Franklin once sat in one of the pews and listened
to the preacher, and entertained large numbers of the peo-
ple who crowded around him at the intermission and list-
ened with rapt attention to his wise words, of which they could
make prolitable use in after years, as they repeated to their
children the sayings of Poor Richard, as they were then told
to call him.

Many could tell of the visit of the world-noted Whitefield,
who found the house so crowded as he attempted to enter that
he could gain admission only by a ladder through the pulpit
window in the rear, when he preached a remarkable sermon
from the text, " I am this day Aveak, though anointed king,"
which had been suggested to him not many minutes before by
the pastor, who for some reason was passing through a season of
despondency.

There were also memories of remarkable triumphs of the
gospel which these walls had witnessed and by them had been
hallowed. During the period which elapsed between the build-

86 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

ing of this house in 1745 and its removal in 1829, four hundred
and twenty-five persons had been numbered with the members
of the church.

On account of the interesting associations connected with
the old meeting-house, it must have been left with some degree
of sadness, though the beautiful new meeting-house opened its
ample doors, inviting all to thankfulness and praise, that God
had put into the hearts of his people to prepare for his worship
a house of such extended proportions, of such comeliness and
comfort.

Following Mr. Wood's address was an anthem by the choir
" All hail the Power of Jesus' Name " (T. M. Towne).

The President of the Day. — I have the pleasure now to in-
troduce one who, years ago, wandered away from old Middle-
boro and the protecting wing of the First Church, but who, I
am well assured, has ever fondly cherished his remembrances of
the good old days which some of you here present may have
shared with him ; one who bears a name highly honored in
the annals of our venerable church, as well as in the wider
circles of the business world, — Mr. John Eddy, of Providence.

MB. eddy's address 87

ADDRESS OF MR. JOHN EDDY

Mr. President : When Dr. Wayland was president of
Brown University, an unsuccessful country minister applied to
him for a professorship in that institution. The doctor in-
quired of him what chair he considered himself best qualified
to fill. The parson replied, " I kinder thought I might slide
into e'en a'most any on 'em.''

When your committee inquired what part I would take in
this celebration, I replied that I kinder thought I should pre-
fer to slide into a postscript.

Anxious mothers are said to keep their children close in
summer time, but in the winter to let them slide. This season
of the year is not propitious for that kind of recreation, and I
have been fearing that the temperature may give me a slide in
quite another direction.

I find myself in the position of the Irishman who was
directed to blow some powders through a tube into a horse's
throat. When inquired of about his success, he declared that
he had none at all, for the horse took advantage of him.

By the addresses of yesterday and to-day, the wind has been
taken out of my sail, so far as reminiscences go (as the Brit-
tania did it for the Vigilant). I will not, therefore, use " vain
repetitions, as the heathen do."

Just fifty-seven years ago, I heard Hon. Orestes A. Bronson
(then a promising light) deliver an oration, in which he com-
pared the government of England to that of the United States.
He spoke of the ruling classes as having been largely born to
their positions, but he thanked God that, in this country, if a
man was born at all he was Avell born. Why not go a little
further and say that the institutions of New England are all
"well born"? Especially that of this church, whose natal day
we honor ourselves in celebrating. Let us publicly thank
God for its foundation, that its history has been so full of

88 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

Divine guidance, and has through all those years been so replete
with benignity.

As our fathers were English, we have naturally credited
England with more than its share in shaping our destinies.

New England " was born in Geneva, expanded in Holland, and

© L

transplanted to Scotland, and begat the revolution in England,
and went over in the ' Mayflower ' with the Pilgrims to the
New World, to seek a temple for the God of liberty and a
refuge for human rights."

By the experiences of our English ancestors gained in Hol-
land, we inherit the best that was then known of government,
education, and religion.

It is not to these, however, that I wish to call your atten-
tion, but rather to the inestimable value that our ancestors put
upon pious homes. From their expressions, both in public
and in private correspondence, it is apparent that their chief
idea and inducement in emigrating to the New World was to
establish homes in which they might be secure "from great
men's oppression and the bishop's rage," and where they
might hand down to posterity their idea of a Christian
household.

They appreciated the goodness of God that he had " set the
solitary in families."

The comparatively mild laws which were enacted by the
Ply mouth Colony, and the more oppressive statutes of Massa-
chusetts Bay, had their origin in their overwhelming desire to
protect their homes from injurious contact with the perverse
ways of the world.

In England, their homes had been subject to search, and it
was here provided at an early day that a man's house should
be inviolate.

How would our fathers turn in their graves to tind a law
on our statute books which gives the right to a civil officer to
search a home, even though it might be reasonably sure that
intoxicating liquors would be brought to light.

In some of the western States, the sanctity of home has been

MR. eddy's address 89

provided for in their constitutions by making a homestead
exempt from attachment for the debts of the owner.

The only excuse for such a provision is that the home is
thereby preserved, from which flows all that is best in our
civilization. For that reason, it is worthy of imitation.

In no other country does the word mean so much as here.
Nor is there one where the home is more sacredly guarded and
kept more pure.

In some languages, there is no word corresponding to our
word "home," nor is there the virtue that prevails here.

It is, therefore, in the spirit of our Pilgrim Fathers that we
so love to sinjj the son£ which is, and ever shall be, most dear
to our hearts, —

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces tho' we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home.
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.

Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home,

There 's no place like Home,

O, there 's no place like Home."

To the homes of the Pilgrims, women contributed the larger
share of influence, deprivation, and labor. As there were no
servants, women not only did their own work but spun and
wove, reared, on an average, eight children, and made the
clothing of the family, and, if occasion required could do things
more heroic. It was a grandmother of mine who, on hear-
ing the pigs squeal, concluded that a wild beast Avas in the pen,
and in a dark night, while her lord was absent, took the old
King's-arm from above the mantel and bagged a bear.
What man could be so audacious as to refuse such woman's
rights?

It was Elizabeth, the wife of Samuel Eddy, my first ancestor
in this country, who walked from Plymouth to Boston on a
Sunday to be at the deathbed of Mrs. Safiin, and was fined
four shillings sixpence therefor by the governor and assistants.

Within the limits of this parish, while but twenty houses
had been built in Middleboro, at the time of the breaking out

90 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

of King Philip's War (1675), John Eddy was hoeing corn in
his field with his trusty musket at his side. Indians were lurk-
ing in his neighborhood with deadly intent, lie perceived one
in the distance and drew a bead upon him and the Indian fell.
At the same instant the Indian also tired, and the bullets
passed each other. The bullet of the Indian knocked the
hammer off the gun of my ancestor. So near did his descend-
ants here present come to missing this anniversary.

While glorifying our fathers, let us never forget to do
greater homage to our mothers.

How vividly do I remember the home of one who for twenty-
ei«ht years was a deacon of this church, which came as near to
the Christian ideal as can well be conceived. He was a
patriarch of the old school, and a captain during the war of the
Revolution. It is some sixty-rive years since he went to his
home above. He had a numerous family, and live of his sons
settled near the paternal mansion. But such an attraction did
the old home possess that for many years after these sons, at
the hour of evening prayer, gathered around the old family
altar. To such is the promise that their peace shall flow like
a river.

Their social gatherings ended with a prayer of thanksgiving
and a song of praise and John Newton's doxology.

If any one in the neighborhood was known to have offended
against morality, the good old deacon would be so grieved that
with tears in his eyes he would beg the delinquent not to offend
again in like manner, till it became a threat against evil-doers :
"I will set the deacon on to you."

On one occasion he heard a stranger use profane language.
Without a word, the countenance of the good man betrayed his
o-rief. They parted without speaking. A short time there-
after the stranger returned and acknowledged the reproof and
vowed he would never again use a profane expression.

But it was on Thanksgiving days that his whole soul seemed
to be poured out in gratitude and praise. On the evening
before, the numerous progeny began to assemble till the vil-

MR. EDDY'S ADDRESS 91

lage was overflowing. From far and near they came, attracted
l>y the magnetism of that home influence. No special invita-
tions were given, and their coming was a matter of course.
The welcome was unbounded, and the whole neighborhood
entered into the spirit of it. It was the red-letter day of all
the year. The morning was spent at church in public and
devout thanksgiving. And what singing they did enjoy in
those good old days, when a hundred voices were led by a
bugle and a dozen other musical instruments ! How vividly
did the plains of Palestine rise to my youthful imagination,
when rang out so as to shake the building : —

" While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around."

So also when " All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name " was
rendered, I could see the multitude assembling, coming from
all Christian nations to " crown him Lord of all."

There was a Thanksgiving dinner in every house, and in the
evening came the grand reunion at the patriarchal mansion.

Of all religious meetings or ceremonies, I have never wit-
nessed one that compared with it in pathos. Had any been in
trouble, heart-felt sympathy did its perfect work. Had any
been unfortunate, genuine benevolence made the losses good.
Had there been any misunderstandings, all were healed and
geniality mingled with prayer and praise. It was to every
one present a never-to-be-forgotten benediction. "A charm
from the skies seemed to hallow us there."

The whole family were musical, and one of the daughters
had a charming and ringing voice. When it struck the treble
in those old fugue tunes, it seemed to rai.se the rafters. It
may be from association, but I had rather hear that music than
the modern scientific.

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning ; . . . if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy."

I think I voice the sentiment of the descendants of the good

92 FIUST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

old deacon to the fourth generation here present, when I
declare that we will ever hold his example in grateful remem-
brance, and will ever be thankful for such an ancestry.

A logical product of that home influence I call to mind in
the delightful remembrance of that spotless young man l who
was so deeply interested in the welfare of this church (as
well as in the one to which he belonged in the chief city of the
State), and who would have contributed b}' his presence so
much to the success of this festival, had he lived a few months
longer. As the pencil of the Holy Ghost has recorded noth-
ing against the character of Joseph, so the record of this
righteous young man is without a stain. Other families in
this grand old parish can undoubtedly furnish a sketch of their
own equally worthy, for all of which let us thank God and
take courage.

No better illustration of a Christian home can be found than
that of the late Rev. Dr. Israel W. Putnam, who was for so many
years the beloved pastor of this church. He was a born genial
gentleman, brimful of the milk of human kindness. No one
could have been more sympathetic, benevolent, and helpful,
and no one has left a more enduring and delightful memory.
His spiritual children rise up and call him blessed.

Let us then imitate the virtues and heroism of our fathers, and
especially such as relate to loving and pure homes, and let us
hand them down unimpaired to the last syllable of recorded time.

" Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past !
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"

1 Francis G. Pratt, Jr. See page 120.

C^TXotcJ &. $™M; wC,

JUDGE FULLER'S ADDKE88 93

The President of the Day. — While we hopefully face
the unknown future, many of the felicitous utterances of this
festal occasion naturally turn the mind backward, as if to
stem the stream of time, — a task which only the mind may
perform. Far away in the earliest years of our history, those
pristine times of simplicity, hardship, heroism, and piety, looms
up the personality of our original pastor, Samuel Fuller, of
revered memory. We are fortunate in having with us to-day
one of his lineal descendants, who in the legal profession sus-
tains the dignity illustrated by his forefathers in the minis-
terial and medical. With much pleasure 1 introduce Judge
Fuller, of Taunton.

ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM E. FULLER

Mr. President: With all my heart I join with you to-day
in paying a tribute of honor to the fathers of this church.

Its rolls bear the names of my father and my mother, Jabez
Fuller and Sally Churchill Fuller.

On headstones, near the gate of the opposite burying-ground,
you may read the names of my grandparents, Doctor Jonathan
Fuller and Lucy Eddy Fuller.

My parents moved to another church in 182G, and my grand-
father died in 1.802, so that probably no man now living in
this parish remembers either of them. To you I am a
stranger, but to myself I seem to be standing among kindred
spirits. Doctor Jonathan Fuller was the grandson of Doctor
Isaac Fuller, who, in turn, was the youngest son of Rev. Samuel
Fuller, the first minister of the First Church of Christ in
Middleboro.

Only four generations of my ancestors in the Fuller line
stand between me and the first minister.

Do you recal with deep and sympathetic interest the names
of those pioneers, children of the Pilgrims, who first came
here from Plymouth to make homes for themselves and their
descendants, to establish this church of Christ, to found a
town? So do I.

94 FIRST CIIUKCH, MIDDLEBOIIO

Do your minds stray away from present circumstances and
linger around the early dwellings of those who lirst cleared and
tilled these lields and dotted them with homes? So does
mine.

Do you often think what strenuous and incessant toil was
required of them, men, women, and children all alike, only to
wrench from the unwilling earth their annual subsistence?
And yet how much beyond all that they created and trans-
mitted to their descendants !

Who built these miles on miles of walls that bound and
sub-divide your farms? Who first wrought these scores of
miles of highways that connect farm with farm, and neighbor-
hood with neighborhood? Nearly all of them were built by
the first three generations.

Let us strive in our imagination to come to-day still nearer
to the lives of those early dwellers. Let us enter their primi-
tive dwellings. Not one of them to-day stands upon the face
of the earth. Sixty years ago, few, if any, remained. But
you recal the picture of the old-time dwelling; its low, ovcr-
han«>in<>' roof, its great central chimney, its wooden door-latch,
and the leather latchstring hanging out by day and pulled in
by night. Inside you see the great open fireplace, with its
crane and trammels and pots and skillets, and above the
mantel-piece the rusty old firelock, high above the reach of the
children. There stands the rude oaken table around which the
o-reat family is fed, and here the high-backed settle, saving the
need of many bark-seated chairs. The piano is not there, but
the spinning-wheel is, and mother and daughters all alike
were skilled in drawing forth its soothing roundelay. In the
corner stands the high-post bed, where pa and ma and baby
sleep, and underneath it slides the trundle-bed, where two or
three more tired toddlers snooze and dream.

We know what stedf'ast men and women were produced in
those simple homes. The orator has told you to-day. We
know them by their fruits. They labored, and we have
entered into their labors.

^C- - fy-S/r^c

'

JUDGE FULLER'S ADDRESS 95

Only once, before to-day, have I sat in this church. It was
forty years ago, but I have not yet forgotten the fine, firm
features of old Dr. Putnam, nor the clear, distinct purpose of
the sermon that he preached that day. Even now I seem to
see sitting in these pews other forms than those that you
behold. Again I seem to be sitting in the pew beside my
genial, loved, and honored kinsman and namesake, the elder
William Eddy. In the pew just in front of me rises up the
venerable form of good old Joshua Eddy1, whose snowy hair
and benignant face reflect the mild light of other days. Not
far away I see the stern and solemn countenance of old
Nathaniel Eddy, a typical deacon of the old-time school.
And just across the aisle mine eyes behold again, with youthful
admiration, the towering form of the serene and learned old
counselor, Zechariah Eddy, contemporary and every inch the
peer of those other eminent lawyers in the old Colony, Marcus
Morton, William Baylies, and Daniel Webster.

By your first minister the ministry of this church is very
closely linked to that of the seer and the prophet of Congre-
gationalism, the elder John Robinson. Mr. Samuel Fuller, as
has been told you, was the only son of the Pilgrim, Dr. Samuel
Fuller, the deacon of the Leyden and the Plymouth church.
I can pardon you, Mr. Stearns, to-day, if for this day, at least,
you feel some self-gratulation in being able to trace your true
apostolic succession through such men as old Dr. Putnam,
Joseph Barker, Sylvanus Conant, and grand old Peter Thacher,
up to the great apostles of Congregationalism in New England,
Elder Brewster and John Robinson.

Of the first minister of this church we know less than of
any of his successors. AVe have a copy of the church record
kept by him, transcribed by his grandson. He left no printed
sermon, and if there is any written sermon or correspondence
of his now in existence, it is unknown to me. I had hoped
that my friend Weston would have been able to bring some-
thing of this kind to light. But he left a precious relic, a
1 See portrait facing page 81).

9(3

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

manuscript book, in which it was his custom to enter his
texts and sub-texts and scriptural quotations to be used by
him in delivering his off-hand discourses. That book was
preserved by a branch of his descendants down to forty or fifty
years ago, when it was given up for safe-keeping to the New
England Historic-Genealogical Society. I have in my pos-
session a part of a leaf cut from that book before it was o-iven
up, and I have mounted it in this frame, where, if any of you
are curious to see his handwriting, it may still be seen. He

died one hundred and ninety-nine years ago this month,

perhaps, correcting the ancient calendar, it is one hundred and
ninety-nine years to-day, certainly within one day. His
people most fittingly buried him on the top of the highest
summit of the old Hill burying-ground. With pious care,
they carved a stone and placed it by his grave, and there it
stands unto this day. It is of fissile substance, and now after
the storms and frosts of so many Avinters it is flaking and
crumbling, and slowly mingling with the dust of him that lies
buried beneath it. The legend upon it is nearly effaced, but
it is still readable, as you may see by this photograph taken
two years ago. It reads : —

(HERE LYES BURIED Ye
[BODY] OF Ye REVd Mr
[S A] M U E L FULLER WHO
CD1EPATED THS LIFE AUC8t
Ye 17th 16 9 5

I N Y8 71st YEAR

O F HIS ACE H E

WAS Ye Ist MINUTER
OF Y° Ist CHURCH OF
CHRIfT IN MIDDLECh

LETTER FROM MR. DEXTER

97

Most profoundly we thank our pious ancestors for engraving
upon that stone the tale that tells to us, now two hundred
years away, the name, the pastoral office, the limits of life, and
the place of burial, of their first minister. The debt we owe
to our ancestors can only be paid by us to our posterity, and I
hope, when the full period of two hundred years shall have
elapsed, as it will twelve months hence, that the old stone will
be taken within this church and protected from further storms
and frosts, and preserved as a sacred memento of a former age,
and that a more enduring block of granite shall be placed upon
,that ancient grave, carrying forward the same legend to the
generations that shall be born iu centuries yet to come.

After Judge Fuller had spoken, the choir rendered an
anthem, " From the third heaven where God resides " (Ingalls) .

The following letter from the literary editor of the Congre-
gatioucdisl was then read : —

Hotel Tudor, Naiiant, Mass., Aug. 23, 1S94.
Rev. G. W. Stearns :

My Dear Sir, — I find that it will be impossible for me to go to Middle-
boro next Monday. My two editorial associates are away, and I cannot
be absent from the office, next week, before Wednesday.

I am greatly disappointed. I did not realize that your celebration
was to occur so soon. I met Mr. Weston on Tuesday, and had the time
thus recalled to mind, and since then have been trying to arrange some
way in winch to go. But it cannot be managed.

I hope that you will not be inconvenienced by my delay, so that the
only annoyance may be my own.

Wishing you a most enjoyable occasion, I am,
Yours very sincerely,

Morton Dexter.

08 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

Also the following letter from Ex-Governor Long : —

5 Tremont Street, Boston, June 15, 1894.
My Dear Sir,— I wish very much 1 could attend the celebration of
the two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church in
Middleboro. It would be an especially interesting occasion to me be-
cause my grandfather, Thomas Long, who moved to Maine in 1806, was
for some years prior thereto an attendant at worship in that church.
My father was then six years old. His surviving sister, my aunt, tells me
that she vividly remembers the interest with which she ofteu listened to
her father and mother describing their former life and associations in
Middleboro.

I fear I shall be out of the State in August, but if I am at home I shall
bear your kind invitation in mind.

Very truly yours,

John D. Long.

The congregation then sang a hymn composed for the
occasion to the tunc, " America," and was dismissed with the
benediction by Kev. C. W. Wood, and an organ postlude
" Dona nobis " {Mozart) .

A dinner was served in the chapel at six o'clock, and about
four hundred friends accepted the invitation to partake, Mr.
John M. Carter's Middleboro Band furnishing music.

The evening exercises of Monday opened with an organ
prelude, "Triumphal March, Damascus," from the oratorio
of '• Naainan," by Costa ; followed by an anthem " The Lord is
great" (J. B. Herbert).

The President of the Day. — It is said that the prevailing
sin of aged men is vanity. Perhaps an old church like ours is
inclined to the same besetting sin. Yet, if ever that fault is
pardonable, I am sure it is so in the case of a church which
has so much reason as the First Church has to be proud of her
three blooming daughters. I take pleasure in calling upon the
pastor of the oldest of our daughters to speak to us, — Mr.
Ellms, of Halifax.

MR. ELLMS'S ADDRESS 9(J

ADDRESS OF REV. LOUIS ELLMS

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: In speaking a
word in behalf of the oldest daughter of this venerable church, in
whose spacious meeting-house we are now happily assembled,
Ave are gratified to recal several facts. Of these the tirst is
that you sent to us, in 1734, a number of remarkable men and
women to furnish the beginning of our history. Among these
original members was Ebenezer Fuller, grandson of your first
pastor ; other examples were Ebenezer Cobb, who lived to the
advanced age of one hundred and eight years ; and Thomas
Thompson, whose father, John, was ancestor of all the thousands
of Thompsons in this country.

It gives us pleasure to remember that your offspring was
able to be of use to you. It is by no means forgotten that
at a certain critical time in your early history you were
helped and ably defended by Rev. John Cotton, who was the
first pastor of the church in Halifax. It is well known,
furthermore, that the lost records of this First Church for the
period 1GJI4 to 1708 were providentially restored to you, in
182(5, by an ancient copy prepared by Ebenezer Fuller of
Halifax, and possessed by his great-grandson.

Our record, we are glad to tell you, — and it is well preserved,

i.s, in its great facts, the same as that of the parent church.

The church in Halifax has ever adhered to the great gospel
principles on which it was originally established. It has, I
believe, never failed of an honored evangelical ministry. And
through the years it has always been blest in having a suitable
place in which to worship God.
• Representing, as I trust I do, those gathered for the
Master in Halifax, most gladly and most heartily do I bring
you greeting on this glorious day of yours.

100 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDJLEBORO

The President of the Day. — Another daughter church is
represented here to-night, the one youngest and nearest to us.
In January, 1847, ho our church records say, there was dis-
cussed a movement for " a colony church " at the " Four
Corners," "in terms of caution and deep seriousness." In
February a "small" meeting of eighteen brethren and seven-
teen sisters prayed over the matter, and chose a committee
to consider the likelihood of permanent support for the pro-
posed new church, and also the prospect of the subsequent
sustaining of worship here in that event. You know the rest.
The daughter was born in March, and the mother still lives,
each rejoicing in the other's prosperity. Of this daughter,
whose home has always been so near to the maternal nest, one
might affectionately speak in the language of the brilliant

Roman poet —

" 0 matre pulchra Alia pulchrior! "

I am happy now to present the pastor of the Central Church
in this town, Mr. Woodbridge.

ADDRESS OF REV. R. G. WOODBRIDGE

Mr. President and Friends : It is recorded that Dean
Swift once preached a sermon on "Pride." He opened his
sermon by saying, " There are four kinds of pride, my friends :
pride of birth, pride of fortune, pride of beauty, and pride of
intellect. I will speak to you of the first three; as for the
fourth, I shall say nothing of that, there being no one among
you who can possibly be accused of so reprehensible a fault."
I think that if the good dean were present to-night he would
add one other point to his sermon, and that, " pride of old
a<»e," and with all the wit and eloquence at his command he
would seek to justify and commend it. Old people are proud
of their years, and young people are proud of the aged, espe-
cially when their lives have been marked all along the way by
usefulness and honor.

It was my good fortune to know an old mother in Israel
who lived to be ninety-nine years of age. She was proud of
her lineage, proud of her eventful history, proud of her attain-

MR. WQODBBIDGE'S ADDRESS 101

ments, proud of the evidences of the Divine Hand and the
Divine guidance through the years, proud that she was nearly-
one hundred years old. She lived with her children and with
her grandchildren, and they too were justly proud of the
good old mother. On days when special company was ex-
pected in the home, they did not hustle the old lady off to
some back chamber, and keep her out of sight. But they
drest her in her best silk dress, and put upon her her daintiest
cap, and she was the hostess of that occasion, and the center
of attention and attraction for all. It was an inspiration and
a blessing to sit in the good old lady's presence and to hear
her tell of the wondrous things God had done for her through
the years.

And as I stand here to-night, dear friends, to represent the
daughter of this grand old mother, " the First Congregational
Church of Middleboro," I can say for her daughter, whose
name is " Central," that we are justly proud of her fulness of
years. We are proud of her godly history. We are proud
of the manifestations of the Divine favor that have been hers
all through the years. We are proud of being present to help
celebrate this two hundredth anniversary.

We stand here to-night, dear friends, proud of our lineage.
We come from good stock. It is the blood of a royal priest-
hood that runs in our veins. It is the blood of saints and
martyrs, and the blessings wrought out by their heroism and
sacrifices have become a part of our life, and the portion of
our heritage. We are glad as a church that we can go back
by so straight and direct a route to Plymouth Rock. ■ We are
proud of the Pilgrim faith; we are proud of the Pilgrim
character ; we are proud of the Pilgrim conscience ; we are
proud of the Pilgrim perseverance. It is because our mother
possessed these virtues so richly that we, her daughter, have
such an abundant life and prosperity in this, our day. The
life you poured so generously into our veins, dear friends, in
1847, was pure, true, Christian. It was the quality of that
life that shaped, strengthened, and sanctified ours, and for

102 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

which we are profoundly grateful. If the quality of the life
of the twenty who founded this church, and the quality of the
life of the thirty-three that you gave to us, hud been less pure
and less Christian, our life to-day would be less fruitful, and
there would be less power in it, too, for the kingdom of God.

Daniel Webster was in the habit, as some of you remember,
of taking his children once a year up into New Hampshire to
show them an old log cabin that once stood mid New Hamp-
shire wilds and New Hampshire snowdrifts, that they might
remember, by gazing upon it, the debt that they owed to
former generations. One day, as he stood before the old log
cabin, he was moved in soul by the very thought of what he
too owed his ancestors. He said, " When I forget their labors
and their sacrifices, may my name be blotted out from the
memory of mankind!" And so, loyally and lovingly would
the Central Church keep in her mind the memory of the labor
and the sacrifices that have brought to her not only life but
continual prosperity.

We are justly proud, too, dear friends, of the fact that the
Lord has written over the portals of this church in letters of
light, so that the world may read, if it will, these words : "The
Church of Jesus Christ." There are a great many people
to-day who are looking for that Church as never before. They
believe that the Lord Christ has but one Church in the world,
and they want to mid it, and to feel its inlluence. They do
not care so much to-day about what material the church is
built of, whether it is built of wood, or brick, or stone, or
canvas. They do not care so much as to the form of worship
that the church engages in, whether men kneel in prayer, or
stand, as in the former days, or sit, in reverential mood. All
that is a matter to them of small importance. Nor do they
care, 1 think, — I honestly confess it, and rejoice in it, —
whether the church is orthodox or heterodox ; whether it was
born yesterday, or the day before, goes back in unbroken suc-
cession to Wesley, or Luther, or Augustin, or Peter ; whether
it belongs to a denomination that is weak or to a denomination

MR. WOODBRIDGE's ADDRESS 103

that is .strong. But what men do care for, as never before in
the Church's history, is the Church that bears clearly and
unmistakably upon it the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.

AVe boast sometimes of our denominationalism. We write
above our doors " Congregational," or "Baptist," or " Metho-
dist," or " Episcopal," and these words have absolutely no power
over the outside world to lead them to worship the Father.
But when you can put up the name" Congregational " (as some
of these changeable signs are put up on the street), so that as
you look upon the word you read the name of the denomina-
tion, and then looking at it at another angle read, " Our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ," then we have put up a name that
touches the outside world as well as those who believe, and
that lifts them up into the image and the likeness of Jesus
Christ. It is as Jesus himself promised, " And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." One of the
hopeful signs of the times to me is that the people are crying
out as never before, "None but Christ ; no word but his word,
no works but his works, no Church but his Church."

Now tell me, how are we going to distinguish, in this day
and generation, the Church of Jesus Christ from the churches
that are not Jesus Christ's? Shall we point to our pedigree,
and say: " Behold ! the church at the Green, Plymouth Rock,
Leyden, Scrooby, Pentecost, Jesus Christ " ? Behold the
line in unbroken continuity ! No, no ! there is a better way
than that. It is the way of this beloved church, the way of the
Master. " By their fruits ye shall know them." Look back
in the history of this church, and what do you see? A claim?
You see the claim, and the confirmation of the claim. God
has put his seal upon this church, and owned it as the Church
of Jesus Christ. The Pentecostal blessings, dear friends,
that have come to this church through these two centuries bind
this company of redeemed souls to the company that waited
in the upper room in the long ago, upon whose heads rested
the tongues of flame, and bind them also to Christ, who said :

104 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEUORO

"Wait in Jerusalem for my blessing." Out from that room,
you will remember, the noise went abroad into the city there-
about, until the multitude came to hear of the wonderful words
and wonderful works of the Lord. And only last night we
were reminded that out from this room the same sound went
forth until those living sixteen miles away heard, and came
here to learn of the river of life, and to drink from its refresh-
ing stream, and to go home rejoicing in newness of life. It is
these evidences of apostolic power, these evidences of the in-
dwelling and abiding Christ, that stamp upon this church
indelibly the name : " The Church of Jesus Christ." By its fruit
this church, dining the past centuries, has proved itself to be
the Church of the Lord, bought by his blood, preserved by his
power, tilled by his spirit and life, and, blessed be God, still
alive with his regenerating power.

There is a story of a Japanese magician who stood once
before an amazed assembly, doing very wonderful things. He
took a flower-pot ; he tilled it with earth ; he put into the
earth a seed ; and then, before the eager eyes he began to fan
the mold that contained the seed, and the earth was seen to
break, and little leaves to appear. The little shoot grew and
grew before the astonished spectators, until it became a bush,
budded, blossomed, and the magician picked off the blossoms
anil gave them to those who were near to him. Skilful hands
on the yesterday and to-day have been doing for us precisely
what the Japanese magician did for his spectators. We have
seen the earth, and the Divine seed planted in it, and the earth
breaking, and God's seed growing, and the bush, and the bud,
and the blossom, and the fruit, — the fruit, redeemed hosts, and
mighty influences that still are in the world, pointing the way,
even as John the Baptist pointed the way at the Jordan, to the
Lamb of God that taketli away the sin of the world.

I would, dear friends, that wre might focus our thought on
that picture, and that we might carry home the one great
truth that the picture emphasizes : this church and work are of
the Lord God omnipotent.

MB. WOODBUIDGE'S ADDRESS 105

Then I want to say, in the third place, that we are proud of
the fact that, though two hundred years old, this church has not
outlived its usefulness. There came once to a town a stranger,
and he inquired carefully for the minister of the parish. The
parsonage was pointed out, and the minister gave him audi-
ence, and he told hid story in a few words. His mother was
dead ; she was born in that town, and the desire of her heart
for many years had been that she might be taken home to her
birthplace, and put with the friends of her childhood in the old
cemetery. The kindly servant of the Lord expressed his
sympathy for the sorrow that had come to this one at the loss
of a mother, and the man, full-grown and independent of
mother's care now, said : "Well, you see, it is no great loss to
us ; our mother was very old ; she had been a burden to her-
self and to others for a great many years, and though we shall
be sorry to say good-by to her, there is a great sense of relief
now that it has come, for she had outlived her usefulness."
And there are a great many who think just in that way about
old people and old institutions. It may be, dear friends, that
some of you, as you have listened to these grand things that
have been said about the past and its glories, feel in regard to
this church: "It is all in the past; this church, like that good
mother, has " outlived her usefulness." I cannot think so. I
want to say, with all the earnestness and thoughtf ulness and
delibcrateness of which I am capable, that I believe that this
church has still a great work to do ; a work in the present as
important, nay, more important, than any work that has been
done in this community during the past two hundred years.

The conditions in which this church works have been materi-
ally changed through the years, but the need of its earnest
and sanctiHed labors was never greater in the past than it is in
the present. If this were the last service of a dead church,
dear friends, we should need to go home with hearts heavy and
sorrowful. Here is a great community about us, needing the
light and the salvation of Jesus Christ, and needing it from
this church as a center. Suppose the usefulness of this church

10G FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

Mere all in the past. What would become of these scattered
homes, one hundred and fifty or two hundred of them in the
radius of this church, that need to-day the earnest and the
sanctified ministry of the First Congregational Church of
Middleboro?

I was thinking only just after supper that if there had been
no church building here, nor organization, when the fathers
were here, they had enough of pure and undetiled religion to
have the church of God in their homes, where the church
started in the beginning. But there are lots of families near
this church who have no such godly heritage, and unless the
light of this church shines out full and clear, and the love of
these earnest, consecrated brethren here is continually exer-
cised in their behalf, these must go down to death unknown of
Christ and unloved of him.

During the past years, my friends, you have given largely
of your life to make others strong. This you will undoubt-
edly do in the days to come, but you will not forget, though
that kind of work is discouraging, that that too is God's work.
But for the pure and consecrated life of the years gone by, the
Central Church could not have been, and the church at Halifax
could not have been, and the church in North Middleboro could
not have been. And but for your pure and consecrated life in
the present, other germs cannot develop, and other powers
shall not go on working with the Father for the redemption of
the world. We are proud because your usefulness is not all
in the past, because opportunities for usefulness press upon
you from every side. And we pray tonight, as those who owe
you a great debt, that the same God who has been with you,
guiding and blessing you, and making you useful in days past,
will still be with you to guide and bless and make you useful
in the days to come. May those who have received from you
so richly and abundantly never be so wrapt up in themselves
that they shall forget how great a debt they owe to the mother
church. When we do forget the debt we owe to you, and
others like you, may our name be blotted out from the
memory of mankind.

LETTER FROM MR. JOB 107

The following letter from the pastor of a daughter church
in North Middlcboro was read : —

Manomet, Mass., Aug. 24, 1894.

Dear Bro. Stearns, — I should be most happy to be with you ou your
interesting anniversary occasion, and I realize that I shall miss much
in not being with you. ... I am very sorry not to be. . . .

I trust that in every way your celebration may be successful. The
grand old mother church has done a noble work in the past, and has
still a mission in these stirring times at the close of this wonderful cen-
tury, and in an age to come still more remarkable. I am sure that all
the members of the daughter church at North Middleboro join me in
sentiments of respect and fellowship, and in the hope that the church
may be abundantly blest, and that you may be cheered and refreshed
by the precious fruits that shall be gathered in the days to come.
Though absent in person, my thoughts aud prayers will be with you on
the day of the celebration, and on many other days. May God bless
you and abide with you all.

Yours in Christian love,

HERBERT K. JOB.

Mrs. G. A. Cox read some humorous descriptive verses.1
An anthem by the choir was next rendered : " It is a good
thing to give thanks" (J. B. Herbert).

Mr. L. F. Millet, Secretary of the Middleboro Young Men's
Christian Association, was the next speaker. He made a brief
address, uttering some kind words relative to the share which
the First Church had taken in the interdenominational work
that he represented. It is regretted that by accident no full
report was made of this address.

1 See the Middleboro Gazette, September 7.

108 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEliOKO

The President of the Day. — Many of you interested in
Old Colony chronicles may recal that one of our earliest and
honored members was Jonathan Cobb. I discover in this
goodly congregation one of his descendants in the fifth genera-
tion from whom we should all greatly like to hear. Therefore,
in your behalf, I take pleasure in asking Mr. Henry E. Cobb,
of Boston, to address us.

ADDRESS OF MR. HENRY E. COBB

Mr. President : I have been thinking that if those grass-
green graves in yonder burial-place should give up their
tenants in all their life and strength, and they could come in
here and sit in these seats, and hear the well-won eulogiums
which we have pronounced upon them, the blush of conscious
modesty would rise on their cheeks at once. They would raise
their hands in deprecation of our estimate of their lives and
work — these heroes, martyrs, saints!

They were but humble, God-f curing, earnest men. They
came here to conquer this wilderness, to plant here the com-
mon school, and the church, and the state, with no under-
standing or idea beyond the one or two generations that were
to come. They buildcd better than they knew.

The great Architect had a work for them in foundation-
laying, and they laid their foundations in eternal verities.
They laid those foundations broad and deep, building into
them principles of right which should last throughout the ages.
And now we, their children of the seventh generation, have
builded upon those foundations. They were unconscious
heroes, martyrs, saints. God has a work for each one of us
to do, and we too may be heroes, martyrs, saints, just as we do
in earnest purpose, with a God-fearing intent, whatever God
places in our hands to do. And future generations may arise
and call us blessed if we, with the same faithfulness, and
earnestness, and devotion, and self-denial, do the duties that
come to our hand.

LETTER FROM PRESIDENT GATES 109

These flowers may fade ; the echoes of the eloquence and of
the music of to-day and to-night will Anally die away. The
Church of the living God, planted by the forefathers, will then
remain. Are you to be heroes, martyrs, saints? You can be
as they were. Generations yet unborn may rise up and call
you blessed.

The following letter was read from the president of Amherst
College, who had been invited to speak in behalf of education.

Bethlehem, N. H., Aug. 22, 1S94.
Rev. G. W. Stearns,

My Bear Sir, — It would give me great pleasure to be with you on the
27th were it possible, and to add to the many words of congratula-
tion which the Middleboro Church will hear on that day, a word from
Amherst College. But I am established with my family here in the
mountains, and our plans for the next two weeks are such as to put
it out of my power to be present on your two hundredth anniversary.

Who knows the Christians who have been the true " pillars of the
church " during these two hundred years? The historian of the occasion
will meution or refer to certain families and a few prominent men whom
the world has looked upon as sustaining the church. But is it not alto-
gether probable that, seen as God sees the record of our church history,
it has been some silent, deep-souled, praying woman, poor perhaps as
she who threw her all into the treasury while the Lord " sat over
against " it, and told his people how great a gift were the two mites, —
some one of God's own children who serve him and pray to him " in
secret " even more than in public, who has been the real power prevail-
ing with God and bringing blessings upon the church, in the years when
the statistician and the historian have found the wealth and the influ-
ence of the church in far different personalities among its membership?

That your church may abound in those who have power in prayer with
God, and in these coming years may, by its living works, reflect the glory
of our Father in heaven more and more clearly, is my wish for you.

Yours very truly,

Merrill E. Gates.

110 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

In the absence of the pastor of the Central Baptist Church
of Middloboro, who was to speak in behalf of our sister de-
nominations, the following telegram from him was read:

Woods Hole, Aug. 27.
Rev. G. W. Stearns :

Accept my sincerest congratulations. Read Psalm one hundred and
twenty-six.

M. F. Johnson.

The congregation listened to a part of the Psalm referred
to : " The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are
glad," etc.

The exercises were then enlivened by some original and
amusing stanzas which were read by Mr. William Pratt.

MR. boomer's address 111

The President of the Day. — All blessings this side of
Heaven must end. While our hearts are still stirred by the
inspiring words that have been spoken to-day and yesterday,
we are loth to give up our attempt, vain though we know

it is —

" To chase the glowing hours with Hying feet."

Ere we close these commemorative exercises, and go forth
with our high hopes for coming days and years, let us enjoy
one more address. The First Church of Middleboro, like
Virginia, mother of presidents, forgets not her children even
after they have left her side. I am glad to be able to call now
upon one of our loj'al sons, the last speaker of the evening,
Mr. B. L. Boomer, of Brockton.

ADDRESS OF MR. B. L. BOOMER

Mr. President and Friends : The burden of my thought at
this time is good Father Putnam — and what an overwhelm-
ing burden it is ! Such a multitude of precious and delightful
recollections of one Ave all loved so much, that I scarcely know
where to begin ; but justly taking precedence of all subsequent
tilings, — he gave me my wife, and I may date the beginning of
my acquaintance with him and his family from this event.
" Come at two o'clock this afternoon, and I will be happy to
serve you" went his neat little note in answer to my inquiry.

How well we remember all his quiet wa}rs ; never loud,
never bustling, never in a hurry, yet never staying too long ;
never forgetting aught of spiritual or worldly matters pertain-
ing to those he visited, — the crops, the weather, the horse,
the boy, all had a place, — and after he had asked God's blessing
upon the household and so spryly regained his chaise, we
looked after him with a feeling that he had left a blessing and
a benediction in the house.

Passing some quiet but fruitful years, we come to an impor-
tant event, not only in his life, but in that of all who for so
many long years had known Dr. Putnam only as minister,
and as the occupant of the parsonage, where his stamp and

112 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

device and most gentle individuality gave to the place such an
odor of quiet and welcome that we thought it never could be
otherwise. But the change came, and with it commenced a
much more intimate acquaintance between us. Some of you
remember what a time, reaching over weeks, it consumed to
tear up, pull out, make let go, and carry away so many things
that for more than thirty years had been rooting themselves to
the dear old place. I often have wondered how he so bravely
endured the making of a new home ; how interested he was in
the arrangements and repairs, and the brightening up of the
quite famous old house which seemed saved providentially for
him. How carefully every old familiar book took its proper
place in the stately parlor which was thenceforth to be his
library and study, and in how surprisingly short time he
adapted himself to the new surroundings.

During this settling in the new home I was, as a friend and
neighbor, often with the family. I shall never forget how
the heartiness of his blessing at the table affected me. With
his face toward Heaven, his voice strong and clear, his simple
grace seemed like a grand burst of praise and thanksgiving to
God his Father.

Presently age and its infirmities laid a heavy hand upon him
we loved so well, and in that quiet upper chamber the good
man waited the summons of his Friend.

Among the most precious experiences of my life, I chietly
prize my many opportunities to be with him in the capacity of
watcher, for there was much pleasantness between us. He had
varying moods — sometimes quiet, silent, unnoticing, again
smiling, happy, and jubilant ; then, perhaps, waking from a
restless sleep, he would be in great distress of mind. Once,
in tliis condition at midnight, a great grief came upon him,
resulting, as I supposed, from some unhappy train of thought
he could not control. His agitation I quieted as I could ; and
holding fast my hands he told me that for hours he had been
thinking over his past life, and had found himself overwhelmed
with a feeling of his unworthiness, considering his long life

MR. boomer's address 113

and abundant opportunities. I told him that One would be his
judue -who was full of mercy and compassion ; who knew all
the thoughts and intents of his heart, and that He would be
much more merciful to him than he was to himself. Growing-
more calm, and taking .some refreshment, he commenced the
story of his college life, particularly the incident when, con-
vinced of a privilege he believed was his right and that of his
fellow-students at Cambridge, he with the rest had been sus-
pended and the case referred to higher authorities ; how he
passed sleepless nights and days ; with what anxiety he waited [
the coming of the stage from Boston which was to bring-
either his vindication or his disgrace, and his thankfulness when
acquitted by the Faculty and his action approved, which was to
be in the nature of a precedent, contributing to the liberty of
those coming after. In the depth of his trouble and anxiety,
he said he read and read again the thirty-fourth Psalm, and it
had become to him a great consolation ; and many times during
these still hours, with many others, I read it to him. A very
notable bit of his early history he related. While in the office
of his uncle, Judge Putnam, of Salem, there came into the har-
bor the ship having on board the first missionaries sent out by
the American Board to any foreign land, in 1812. To meet
these devoted people, and to bid them God-speed, many of the
prominent people of all that region went on board the evening-
preceding the day of their sailing. A most powerful assur-
ance of the presence and blessing of God was felt by all on
board, and that evening was spent in fervent prayers, songs,
and encouraging words, succeeded by tears and solemn fare-
wells. The absolute self-sacrilice of that historic company,
going they knew not where, but trusting to God alone to
direct the way, so impressed the would-be "lawyer Putnam"
that within twenty-four hours he decided to give up his studies
with his uncle and prepare himself to Itea minister of Christ —
with what success let us fall back to his devoted and cxem-

1 At Hauover, N. II., having left Harvard for Dartmouth College at the end
■of Sophomore year. See the funeral sermou by Dr. II. M. Dexter.

114 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

plary life, and to a myriad of tender and precious memories
for answer. The good man, the kind friend, the wise coun-
selor, the genial companion, was carried by loving hands to a
place appointed for all the living, and, as again and again we
visit it, Ave feel that the remembrance of the good can never
die.

In behalf of the church, at the close of Mr. Boomer's
address, the pastor added a few words of appreciation of the
large share of pleasure contributed by the many guests to the
occasion, and was about to announce the closing hymn, when
Rev. R. G. "VVoodbridge and Rev. N. T. Dyer proposed a
resolution of thanks to the church for its hospitality. The
audience kindly passed such a vote of thanks to their enter-
tainers, after which all joined in the hymn,

" Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love,"

to the tune " Dennis," and the bicentennial commemorative ex-
ercises were closed with the benediction by the pastor, and
the "Festival March" (67. Blessner) rendered on the organ.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 115

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

(Continued from Church Book o/1854)

1728-9 Revival; 42 added.

1829 Chapel erected.

1832 Parsonage built.

1851 Nov. 8 Bell.

1855 Meeting-house frescoed.

18GG Feb. Rev. Rufus Morrill Sawyer came.

Reed organ given by Abishai Miller.

18G7 Revival; 92 added on confession of faith.

Chapel remodeled.

18G8 May 3 Dr. I. W. Putnam died, aged 81.

1869 Nov. 10 Mr. Sawyer dismissed.

Dec. Rev. Ephraim Nelson Hidden came.

1872 Nov. 29 Mr. Sawyer died in LeMars, Iowa, aged 52.

1874 April Mr. Hidden left.

Nov. Rev. Thcophiius Parsons Sawin came.

1877 Revival ; 35 added.

1878 April Rev. Nathan Tirrell Dyer came ; ordained

July 31.
Steam heat in meeting-house.
1880 Nov. 28 Mr. Hidden died in E. Medway ; aged 70.

1885 Dec. 1 Rev. Howard Alcott Hanaford came.

1886 Jan. 19 Mr. Sawin died in Medford, aged nearly 69.

1887 Pipe organ.

1888 Christian Endeavor Society organized.

1889 Feb. Rev. Josiah Weare Kingsbury came.

1891 Nov. 1 Rev. George Warren Stearns came.

1892 Furnace in Parsonage.

1894 Grading and improvements around meeting-

house.

116

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 117

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES CONCERNING PASTORS
8 Rev. ISRAEL WARBURTON PUTNAM, D. D.

Born in Danvers, Mass. 1780 Nov. 24, son of Eleazer, and
Sarah (Fuller). Studied at Franklin Academy, N. Andover ;
Harvard College 1805-7 ; Dartmouth College 1807-9. Read
law two and a half years under Judge Samuel Putnam in
Salem, Mass. Andover Theological Seminary 1812 April to
1814 Sept. Ordained 1815 North Church, Portsmouth, N. H.
Married in 1815 Miss Harriet Osgood. She died in 1832.
Children : Charles Israel, Samuel Osgood, Edward "Warren,
Francis Brown, Harriet Osgood, Horace Morse, William Fuller,
Julia Maria, Lucy Macintosh ; of whom the second, fifth and
ninth alone survive. Married in 1833 Mrs. Juliana Osgood
(nee Osgood, the widow of first wife's In-other). Her children
were: Samuel Warburton (born 1815 May 7, died Aug. 7,
next child bearing the same name), Mary Augusta, Adeline
Hamilton, Charles Edward, and Julia Henrietta who alone sur-
vives. Mrs. Juliana Putnam died 1871 Feb. 10.

Pastor of First Church, Middleboro, Mass. 1835 Oct. 28 to
18G5. Degree of D.D. from Dartmouth College in 1853.
Died 1868 May 3 in the house on Plymouth street now the
home of Mr. Sylvan us Tinkham.

9 Rev. RUFUS MORRILL SAWYER

Born in Otisfield, Me. 1820 Sept. 1, son of Jeremiah, and
Lydia (Morrill). Studied in Gorham and other academies.
Graduated at Bangor Seminary 1851. Ordained pastor at
Winthrop, Me. 1851 ; 1859 called to Great Falls, N. II. ; 1800
York, Me. ; 1866 First Church, Middleboro, Mass., moving to
Iowa in 1869 to gain health. Preached in Iowa City, and Ana-
mosa, and in July 1872 moved to LeMars. Having hardly
recovered from typhoid fever, he died of consumption 1872

118 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

Nov. 29. He had married in 1851 Miss Sophia Blake of Otis-
field. Children: Silas B., Julia, Clara, Susan, Charles L.,
William, and Lizzie ; all living except second and sixth.
Mrs. Sawyer died of pneumonia 1891 Nov. 21, aged 70.

10 Rev. EPHRAIM NELSON HIDDEN

Born in Tainworth, N. II. 1810 Aug. 28, son of Ephraim, and
Dorothy (Remick). Student at Phillips Exeter Academy.
Graduated at Dartmouth College 183G, and Gilmanton Theolog-
ical Seminary 1840. Taught in Gilmanton Academy 1836-40.
Married Mary Elizabeth Parsons of Gilmanton 1840 Aug. 28.
Ordained in Deertield, N. II. 1841 ; installed Milford 1849 ;
First Church, Deny 1857 ; Candia 1859 ; Great Falls, Somers-
worth 18G5; First Church, Middleboro, Mass. 1809; Edgar-
town 1874; Norfolk 1875. Residence in last years at Millis
(formerly E. Medway), and died there suddenly with heart
disease 1880 Nov. 28. Children: Fanny, and Emily P.,
neither surviving. Mrs. Hidden is living (1895) in Milford,
N. H.

11 Rkv. theopiiilus parsons sawin

Born in Natick, Mass. 1817 Feb. 4, son of Bela, and Becca
(Barber). Student at Phillips Academy, Andover. Studied
theology with Parsons Cook, D.D. in Lynn. Married Martha
Mclntyre Mason 1838 Jan. 1. Ordained 1843 in Saugus ;
installed 1850 at Harwich. City missionary, Manchester, N. H.
1851-0' and 18GG-9. Pastor at Brooklinc, N. II. 185G-GG ;
Revere, Mass. 1869 ; First Church, Middleboro, 1875 Jan. ;
Lyndeboro, N. H. 1878-85. Died in Medford, Mass. 188G
Jan. 19. Mrs. Sawin died in Bedford, Mass. 1895 March 8.
Children: T. P. jr., James, Chapin, Lura S., William M.

12 Rev. NATHAN TIRRELL DYER

Born in Braintree, Mass. 1852 Jan. 1, son of Jacob S., and
Ann Maria Thayer (Holbrook). Graduated at Lawrence Acad-

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 119

emy, Groton, 18G(J ; Dartmouth College 1873 ; Andover Theo-
logical Seminary 187G. Four months' service in S wanton,
Vt. interrupted by a year of illness. Three months in Orange,
Mass. ; First Church, Middleboro, 1878 July 31, resigning in
Jul}' 1885. Sickness of two and a half years. Dighton 1887
Jan. 1 ; Medtield since 1890. Married Harriet Mann of Frank-
lin 1878 June 4. Children : Cora Ethel, and Perley Bradford
(died 1884 Sept. 20).

13 Rev. HOWARD ALCOTT HANAFORD

Born in Nantucket, Mass. 1851 Dec. 31, son of Dr. J. H., and
Rev. Phebe A. (Coffin) . Educated in public schools of Beverly
and Heading ; Dean Academy, Franklin ; Antioch College,
Ohio ; graduated Tufts College Divinity School, Mass. 1873.
Held acting^ pastorates as a Universalist 1873-8 in Shirley and
Wellfleet ; also Little Falls, N. Y. Congregational pastor
since 1877 in Nantucket and Bedford, Mass. Came to Middle-
boro 1885 Dec. 1. Pastor in Winchester, N. H. since summer
of 1888. Married Mary Weston Landerkin of WelWeet 1874
Nov. 4. Children : Charles Leonard and Maria Mitchell.

14 Rev. JOSIAH WEARE KINGSBURY

Born in Underbill, Vt. 1838 Oct. 2, son of llev. Samuel, and
Mary (Babcock). Fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Acad-
emy. Graduated at Dartmouth College 18G2 ; Presbyterian
Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. 18G5. U. S. Sanitary
Commission 1865. Ordained, after preaching a year, at
Queechee, Vt. I860. Preached in N. Woodstock, Ct., Bidde-
ford, Me., N. Reading, and Montague, Mass. ; also Rye, N. H.,
W. Charleston (and Derby), Vt., Deertield, N. H., Chichester
(and Short Falls), N. H. First Church, Middleboro, Mass.
1889 April 10; dismissed 1891 Oct. 19. Residence Braintree.
Married 1865 Oct. 2, Mary H. Jackson, of Tamworth, N. II.
Children: William J., Joseph J., Samuel, George D., Mabel
II., M. Lizzie, Noah J., Grace E.

120 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

15 Rev. GEORGE WARREN STEARXS

Born in Windham, Ct, 1856 Dec. 24, son of Rev. George I.,
and Amelia D. (Jones). Student Derby Academy, Hingham,
Mass. and W. C. Wilkinson's school, Tarrytown, N. Y. Grad-
uated Phillips Academy, Andover 1874 ; Amherst College 1878 ;
Andover Theological Seminary 1881. Preached during sum-
mer of 1880 in Albany, Ale. Acting pastor 1881-5 in Patten
(and Island Falls) , Me. Ordained Patten 1883. First Church,
Hadley, Mass. 1885-7; Acton 1887-91; First Church, Mid-
dleboro since 1891 Nov. 1. Married Sarah Elizabeth Dow
1887 Oct. 21. Children: Roswel and Pauline.

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF PORTRAITS

JOSHUA EDDY (633 on church roll) was born 1748 May
5 in Middleboro. Served in American Army 1775-8, being a
captain ; after the war he engaged in iron-manufacturing, etc.
Joined First Church 1797. Deacon from 1806. Married
Lydia Paddock. Died 1833 May 1 .

ZECHARIAH EDDY (718) was second son of the above
named, being born 1780 Dec. 6 in Aliddleboro. Graduated at
Brown University 1799. Married 1803 Sarah Edson. Ad-
mitted to the bar 1800, to the church 1808, and became an
eminent lawyer. Died 1860 Feb. 14.

THOMAS WESTON (834) born 1770 Sept. 20, joined this
church 1823. Married Abigail Doggett. Merchant, Judge of
the Court of Sessions, and prominent in public life. Died
1834 June 17.

THOMAS WESTON (1066) grandson of the last named,
was born in Middleboro 1834 June 14. Joined First Church
1853. Married Nellie S. Childs. Lawyer. Residence, New-
ton.

FRANCIS G. PRATT (1212) born in S. Maiden (now
Everett), Mass., 1850 Aug. 8. Business Manager of the
"Youth's Companion." Summer residence, Middleboro. Died
in Boston 1894 Mar. 19.

"3

4 O^TlySU'

Y?j

INDEX

121

INDEX TO THE FOLLOWING CATALOG

Alden

1142 George L

1143 Marietta

1193 Phebe A Fuller

1194 Etta P Baldwin
Atwood

1176 Jacob
Bagnall

1291 Clara A
Baldwin

1194 Etta P Alden
Bennett

1153 John
1240 Grover

Bliss

1158 Lucy 8 Bryant
Boomer

1190 Benjamin L

1191 Rebecca C
Bourne

1324 Lucy W Thomas
Bowman

1326 Mary C Wood

1060 Annie A Wood

1362 Abram L
Bradbury

1389 Eleanor A
Bradford

1131 DeWittC

1132 Lydia R
Brett

1349 Irene B Pratt
Bryant
1055 Mercy E
1145 Esther H

1154 Ira

1158 Lucy 8 Bliss

1164 Arad

1165 Betsy J

1166 Sarah E

1181 Susan E Freeman

1201 George F

1202 Isaac jr

1203 Irene

1242 Lorin

1243 Lois L

1244 Rebecca

1298 Roxana E Hagen
1314 Addie A Penniman
1331 Mary E

1336 Charles M

1337 Henry 8

1338 Susan M

Bump

1204 James S

1205 Huldah P
Burgess

1246 Amanda Penniman
Butler

1319 Samuel S
Caswell

1088 Azubah Hood

1090 Anna W Wood
Chase

1196 Sarah E Tinkham
Clark

1127 Helen E Williams

1363 Mabelle \V
Cobb

955 Jane E Eddy

1133 George E

1134 Martha
1198 Annie

1206 Heman

1207 Sarah B Smith
Cody

1395 Caroline F
Coffin
1136 Sarah B

1339 Charles W

1340 Henrietta E
CONANT

1369 Fred A
Cornish
1101 Angeline F Thompson

1110 Charles F

1111 Mary L
1103 JosiuhT

1292 Alice H

1341 Herbert W
Cox

1293 George Alton
1299 Clara A Hagen

Crosby

1188 William H

1189 Maria A

1342 Eudora F Dempsey
Cross

1365 Annie W Harwood

CUSIIMAN

1128 Susan H Hambly

1129 Lucy A Thompson

1294 E Elizabeth Eddy
Darling

857 Lauretta A Fuller
Deane
987 Lois

1117 Nancy D
1318 Irene L Soule

1332 LucyH

1333 Mary E
13 13 Ella L

1344 Albert

1345 Florence
1397 George A

Dempsey

1342 Eudora F Crosby
Dexter

1108 Mary F Wood
Driggs

1150 Leonard

1295 Deborah L

1296 Mary A
Drinkwater

1270 Betsy
Duniiam
1370 LuraL

DUUFEE

1358 Lily H R A Thornton
Dyer

1320 Rev Nathan T

1321 Harriet M
Eddy

955 Jane E Cobb

970 Ann E Pratt

988 Charlotte E

1160 Susan M Thomas

1161 William C

1162 Anna C
1208 Joshua M
1252 W Osgood

1273 Florence Jedermann
1294 E Elizabeth Cushman
Ellis
1225 Abby L Vaughan

1359 Rhoda 8 Waterman
Fessenden

1378 William P

1379 Sabina E
1386 Edward W
1400 Laura J

Freeman

972 Jane Tinkham

1118 Harriet

1177 Morton

1178 Benjamin

1179 Nancy C

1180 Angeline E Howard

1181 Susan E Bryant

1182 Samuel

122

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

11 S3 Anna B

1377 William J

Puinney

1184 Henrietta

1380 Mabel H

1366 Mary W

1185 Andrew

Leacu

Place

1315 Matilda II Simmons

1209 Jephthah

1261 George n

Fuller

1210 Giles

Pratt

857 Lauretta A Darliug

1245 Anna E

970 Ann E Eddy

1193 Phebe A Alden

LlTTLEJOUN

988 Charlotte E Eddy

1197 Lucy T

1148 Orsamus

1095 Betsy L Morris

1269 Mary II

1238 Eliza

1120 Rev Francis G

GlFFORD

1259 Elizabeth J

1149 Simeon M

1241 Elizabeth H Haskins

1398 Ira O

1212 Francis G jr

GlSBY

1399 Dorcas S

1213 George W

1093 Olive E

McAllister

1349 Irene B Brett

1112 Deborah

1119 Amanda

1350 Irene S

1272 Edward T

McCrillis

Putnam

Gray

1199 John

1086 Lucy M Thompson

1120 Ellen W Thompson

1200 Sarah A

Raymond

GUUNEY

1211 Mary E

1247 Jerusha

1229 Charlotte H

1274 Herbert O

1248 Alexander

Hagen

1348 Walter C

1249 Lydia A Moultou

1230 Desire R

McMann

1323 Samuel D

1237 Harriet S Kendall

1322 John E

1335 Frederic R

1297 Mary F Smith

Malloy

Reynolds

1298 Roxaua E Bryant

1347 William F

1151 Louise L Weston

1299 Clara A Cox

Morris

Ryan

Hambly

1095 Betsy L Pratt

1307 Mary

112S Susan H Cushman

Morse

Ryder

Hari.ow

1281 Lucy A

1384 Annie J

1346 Reuben

1301 Augusta W

Sampson

1304 Betsy

1302 John P

1265 Thomas W

Hakwood

1303 Fidelia J

Savery

1305 Annie W Cross

1304 Lucy F

1084 Rhoda J

Haskell

MOULTON

1218 Albert Allen

1300 John T

1249 Lydia A Raymond

1219 Elizabeth T

Raskins

Nichols

1220 Elizabeth A Ingallfi

1155 Job R

974 Lucia M

1239 Everett W

1241 Elizabeth H Gifford

1109 Lydia A Tinkham

1267 Albert T

Hathaway

1107 James G

1208 Maria 8

1283 Ephraim

1168 Susan M Thompson

1305 Luther W

1284 Isabella P

1381 Ethel G

Sawin

Hidden

1391 Frank A

1277 Rev Theophilua P

1262 Rev Ephraim N

1392 Mima W

1278 Martha M

1263 Mary E

Osgood

1279 Lura S

1204 Emily P

1113 JuliaH

1280 William M

HIGGINS

Palmer

Sawyer

1110 Mary Weston

1312 Susan Louise Thomas

1139 Rev Rufus M

Howard

Parlow

1140 Sophia B

1180 Angelina E Freeman

1109 Lydia A Nichols

Scanlin

1285 Asaph E

Pease

1286 John

Inoalls

1214 Clara

1287 Betsy B

1220 Elizabeth A Savery

Penniman

Shaw

Jedermann

1130 Virtue M

1095 Betsy L Morris

1273 Florence Eddy

1231 Prince

1124 Eliza P Thompson

Kendall

1246 Amanda Burgess

1215 Ebenezer A

1237 Harriet 8 Hagen

1314 Addie A Bryant

1216 Sarah M

Kingsbury

1373 Arabella

1217 Relief

1375 Rev Joaiah W

Phillips

1236 Deborah C

1376 Mary H

1109 Lydia A Tinkham

1271 Sarah E

INDEX

123

1307 B Jennie Shurtleff

1351 Charles A
1363 Betsy 8

Shurtleff
125" Lydia B Vaughan
1288 Elizabeth II
1300 Benjamin C

1307 B Jennie Shaw

1308 Cynthia A
Simmons

1315 Matilda 11 Freeman
Smith

1144 Mary A

1207 Sarah B Cobb

1232 James

1233 Mercy T
1207 Mary F Hagen

1316 Jabez F

1352 Albert W
Snow

1114 Olive

1253 Venus
Soule

1135 Elizabeth B

1137 Augustus H

1133 Amanda

1152 Otis

1195 Caroline E

1317 MaryH

1318 Irene L Deane
Sparrow

1186 James P

1187 Persia L

1353 Emma J

1354 Sarah F C

1355 Sarah L Washburn
Stearns

1387 Rev George W

1338 Sarah E
Swift

1221 John L
Thatcher

1275 Clarinda
Thomas

900 Mary A Wrightiugton

1074 Clarissa J

1160 Susan M Eddy

1224 Albert

1309 Augustus L

1310 Theodosia

1311 John B

1312 Susan L Palmer
1324 Lucy W Bourne

1371 Sarah A

1372 Annie S
1390 Lewla R

Thompson
1085 Franklin S

| 1096 Ivory H

1097 Jerusha B

1098 Ivory B

1099 Philander

1100 Eliza G

1101 Angeline F Cornish

1102 Mary E

1103 Philander W

1104 Charles L

1105 Ann E

1106 Alfred W

1123 11 u e 1 Francis

1124 Eliza P Shaw

1125 Lucia A Washburn

1126 Ellen W Gray
1129 Lucy A Cushuian
1156 Edward

1159 Mary Abby

1168 Susan M Nichols

1169 Ruel

1170 Leroy

1171 R Ella S Wood

1172 S Evelyn

1173 David W

1174 Mandana A

1175 Weltha Emma

1222 Lewis H

1223 Mary II
1266 Marcus M

1356 Cora F

1357 Leslie I
Thornton

1358 Lily 11 R A Durfee

THUR8TON

1087 Francis T

1258 Marcia E

1374 Jason F
Tilson

1119 Amanda

TlNKHAM

972 Jane Freeman

1109 Lydia A Phillips

1196 Sarah E Chase

1382 Rachel May

1393 E Elvira
Vaughan

1192 William H

1225 Abby L Ellis

1256 Harrison W

1257 Lydia B S

1328 Lucy J Wrightiugton
Warren

1147 John M

1157 Polly L

1396 Jane W
Washburn

1125 Lucia A Thompson

1313 Emma B

1355 Sarah L Sparrow
Waterman

1359 Rhoda S Ellis
Weston

1116 Mary Higgius

1151 Louise L Reynolds

1260 Laura M

1239 Marcia
Wilbur

1018 Perry A

1141 Eiueline

1226 Lucretia E Wood

1254 Horatio N

1255 Mary A
1385 George H

WlLLIAilS

1127 Helen E Clark

1276 Sara S
Willis

1115 Mary J
Wood

1003 Mercy L

1089 Willard

1090 Anna W

1091 Warren

1092 Julia M

1107 Pauline T

1108 Mary F Dexter

1121 William W

1122 Maria A
1146 Louisa E

1171 R Ella 8 Thompson

1226 Lucretia E Wilbur

1227 Albert J

1228 Eliab

1234 Benjamin F

1235 Louisa

1250 John F

1251 Maria L
1282 Anna S

1325 Edgar W

1326 Mary C Bowman

1327 Horace F

1360 Annie A Bowman
1383 Nellie F

1394 Florence J E

WRIGHT

1290 W Scott

1330 Kate L

1334 Mercy M
Wrightington

960 Mary Ann Thomas

1094 Henry

1328 Lucy J Vaughan

1329 Charles G

1361 Soranus G
1401 Roxauna C

124 FIRST CHUKCH, MIDDLEBORO

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG

OF THE

MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
MIDDLEBORO, MASSACHUSETTS

(Continued from the Church Book published in 1854)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The names are numbered at the left chronologically in the
order of joining. Dates are generally expressed by number of
year, month and day.

Figures in parenthesis following a name indicate husband or
wife.

Other figures denote kindred; thus "fa 964" appended to a
person's name would mean that his father's name is numbered
964.

Besides abbreviations of obvious meaning the following are
here used : —

ad =

ae

adopted
aetatis, or age

gr =
h

grand, or great
husband

br

brother

m

married

ccc

Central Cong'l church

mo

mother

ch

church

0

original or maiden name

d

died

re-adm re-admitted

dea

deacou

s

son, or son of

dau

daughter

sis

sister

dis

dismissed

sus

suspended

fa

father

w

wife of

fr

from

wid

widow of

The labor of preparing this list of names from number 1085
to 1281 was largely done by the late deacon Alfred Wood.

The first thirteen names following, being those of present
or recent members, are repeated from the volume of 1854.

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 125

1823

857 No 23 Lauretta Aun (Fuller) Darling (848) grmo 647, d '9515 ae 85

1838

955 Se 2 Jaue E. (Eddy) Cobb, re-adni '61, see below

960 " Mary A. (Thomas) Wrightiugtou (1301) mo 921, d '95

5 25 ae 71
1840

970 Se 6 Ann E. (Eddy) Pratt, re-adm '75

972 " Jane (Freeman) Tiukham (997) grmo 856, mo 1061, sis

1055, 1056
974 Lucia Maria Nichols (1167) dau Lemuel Cole, grfa 665

1841

957 Ja 4 Lois Deane, fa 964, mo 9S6

958 " Charlotte E. (Eddy) Pratt, re-adm '62

1003 Mh 7 Mercy Lewis Wood, dau Eliab, mo 70S, grfa 747, br 122S,
sis 1235
1842
1018 Je 26 Perry A. Wilbur, re-adm '66

1851
1055 Ja 5 Mercy Eddy Bryant (1154) mo 1061, sis 972, 1050, 1130,
grmo 856, grgrmo 486, grgrgrmo 127
1853
1074 My 1 Clarissa Jane Thomas, mo 1073, br 957, 1390
1084 No 6 Bhoda J. Savery, w George S. [his fa 607, grmo 555]
dau Asaph Churchill, niece 1359, grfa 720

1857

10S5

My 3

1086

cc

10S7

CC

1088

((

10S9

(C

1090

u

1091

((

1092

(1

1093

Oc 1

Franklin Southworth Thompson (1086) fa 994, sis 1275
Lucy Macintosh (Putnam) Thompson (1085) fa 939
Francis Thomas Thurston (1258) s of Thomas, s 1374, dis

M. E. ch. '72 1 5, re-adm '78 9 1
Azubah EL Caswell, fr Bridgewater, dau James Hooper,

wid Zephaniah, d '64 5 10 ae 80
Willard Wood (1090) fr Bridgewater, s of Rums, s 1091,

d '87 4 2 ae S4
Anna W. Wood (10S9) fr Bridgewater, dau Geo. Chipmau,

1st h Caswell, d '75 2 23 ae 73
Warren Wood (1092) fr Bridgewater, fa 10S9, s 1325, dau

1326, d '92 11 12 ae 57
Julia M. Wood (1091) fr Bridgewater, dau Salmon Caswell,

mo 1005
Oc 1 Olive E. Gisby, w Thos. jr., dau Jonathan Morse, s 1272,

d '71 9 27 ae 48
1858

1094 Ja 3 Henry Wrightiugtou, s of David, dis N. Carver '70 11 4

1095 " Betsy L. (Pratt) Morris, fa 1149, 1st h O. Shaw, 2d E. G.

Morris, dis Abingtou '69 2 12

126 FIRST CHURCH, M1DDLEBORO

109G No 7 Ivory H. Thompson (1097) fa 705, d '87 11 3 ae 79

1097 " Jerusha B. Thompson (1096) grmo G43, br 1186, d '88 1 3

ae 73

1098 " Ivory 13. Thompson, fa 1096, d 'm 8 10 ae 29

1099 " Philander Thompson (1100) s of Thomas, mo 655, dan

1101, 1102, 1105, 1126, 1175, s 1103, 1104, d '77 8 9 ae 76

1100 " Eliza G. Thompson (1099) dau Martin Giles, d '93 9 24 ae 80

1101 " Angeline F. (Thompson) Cornish (1110) fa 1099

1102 " Mary Elizabeth Thompson, fa 1099

1103 " Philander Williams Thompson (1129) fa 1099, s 1357, d

'92 1 20 ae 51

1104 " Charles L. Thompson, fa 1099, dis Cawker City, Kan.

'80 2 29

1105 " Ann E Thompson (1106) fa 1099, dis CCC '83 2 18

1106 " Alfred W. Thompson (1105) fa 1109, dis CCC '83 2 18

1107 " Pauline T. Wood, mo 1020, sis 1108, br 1227, dis Maiden '93

1108 " Mary F. (Wood) Dexter, w Geo., mo 1020, sis 1107, br

1227, dis Mattapoisett '80 9 3

1109 " Lydia Ann (Tiukham) Phillips, w James, dau Alvah Tink-

ham, sis 1196, 1st h Chas Parlow, 2d Asa Nichols
Charles F. Cornish (1101) fa 1163
Mary Louisa Cornish, fa 1163

Deborah Gisby, fa 773, d '94 8 6 in Brockton

Julia Henrietta Osgood, mo 941

Olive Snow (1253) fa 802, sis 1083, 1115, o Willis, d '84 11 12

ae 64
Mary J. Willis, fa 802, sis 1083, 1114, d '88 11 28 ae 50
Mary (Weston) Higgins, fa 839, w Jesse T. of Wellfleet,

dis CCC '93 10 22

1117 " Nancy D. Deane fr Baynham, w Seth, o Hall, dau 1343,

d '91 10 29 ae 69
1861

1118 Ap 28 Harriet Freeman (1177) br 1231, dis Hudson '92 11 20
(955) Jl 7 Jane Ellen (Eddy) Cobb, wid Timothy, fr Central ch,

Fall Biver, fa 944, dis CCC '75 6 27, d '95 2 3 ae 87

1119 No 3 Amanda Tilson, w Ichabod, o Jones, 1st h McAllister,

d '66 4 4 ae 64
1862

1120 My 4 Bev. Francis Greeuleaf Pratt (988) s of Greenleaf, fr Mai-

den, s 1212, 1213, d '91 8 17 ae 70
(988) " Charlotte Elizabeth (Eddy) Pratt (1120) fr Maiden, fa 71 S

1121 No 2 William Wirt Wood (1282) fa 1234, br 1327, dis Stoughton

'64 2 28, m '65, re-adm '77

1110

(<

1111

u

1859

1112

Mb. 6

1113

u

1114

No 6

1115

<<

1116

it

1863

1122

Ja 4

1123

(<

1124

u

1125

(<

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 127

Maria A. Wood, dau Joshua, grgrrao 697, d '66 8 9 ae 23
Buel Francis Thompson (1124) fa 1169, dau 1356, dea '92
Eliza P. (Shaw) Thompson (1123) dau Ira, grgrfa 807
Lucia A. (Thompson) Washburn, fa 1169, m '74 A. R. of
Freetown, dis Central ch. Fall River '82 12 10

1126 " Ellen W. (Thompson) Gray, fa 1099, m '67 Amasa, jr., dis

Somerset '70 6 19

1127 " Helen Elizabeth (Williams) Clark, w D. Seely of N. Y.,

mo 991, sis 1276, dau 1363, dis Presb. ch. Elizabeth, N. J.
'70 1 28

1128 " Susan II. (Cushman) Hambly, dau Samuel, sis 1129, 1294,

m John B. '70, dis Episc.ch. Portsmouth, R. I. '77 3 2

1129 " Lucy Ann (Cushman) Thompson (1103) sis 1128, 1294,

s 1357

1130 " Virtue M. Penniman (1231) mo 1061, o Freeman, dau 1373
1864

1131 Jl 3 De Witt C. Bradford (1132) s of Luther, sis 1350, dis Rock-

land '80 9 3

1132 " Lydia R. Bradford (1131) fa 978 (Isaac Soule of Halifax)

dis Rockland '90 10 5
George E. Cobb (1134) fa 1206, d '68 7 11 ae 35
Martha Cobb (1133) fr Raynham, dau Dr. Elisha Hay ward,

d '71 11 2 ae 36

1133

Au 14

1134

i<

1865

1135

My 7

Elizabeth B. Soule (866) wid James, dau Isaac Brown, fr
2d ch. Abington, dis CCC '66 9, d '95 1 11 in Brockton

1136 " Sarah B. Coffin, w Samuel C, dau George W. Nye, fr Nan-

tucket, s 1339, d '91 6 29 ae 09

1137 Oc 29 Augustus Hamilton Soule (113S) fa 1152, dau 1317, 1318,

dea '78

1138 " Amanda Soule (1137) dau William Sears of Halifax
1866

1139 Se 2 Rev. Rufus M. Sawyer (1140) fr York, Me., dis Iowa

City '70 1 7, d LeMars, la. '72 11 29 ae 52

1140 " Sophia B. Sawyer (1139) fr York, Me., o Blake, dis Iowa

City '70 1 7, d '91 11 21 in Dakota, ae 70
(1018) " Perry A. Wilbur (1141 2d w) fr Presb. ch. Newcastle, Pa.

1141 " Emeline AVilbur (1018) dau Thomas Wilder, fr Presb. ch.

Newcastle, Pa.

1142 No 5 George L. Aldeu (1143) fr Bap. ch. Lyme, N. H. dau 1193,

1194, dis Kidder, Mo. '69 8 22

1143 " Marietta Aldeu (1142) dau Joseph Bump, dis Kidder, Mo.

'69 8 22

1144 " Mary Ann Smith, wid Darius, dau James M. Ashtou

1145

No 5

1146

a

1867

1147

Ja 6

1148

tc

128 FIUST CHUKCH, MIDDLEBOHO

Esther S. Bryant, dau Isaac, br 1202
Louisa Elizabeth Wood, fa 1234

John Milton Warren (1157) fa 696

Orsainus Littlejohn (1062, 1238) s of Win., mo 805, dau
1259, s 1398, d 'SO 10 17 ae 82

1149 " Simeon M. Pratt (1350 2d w) fa 772, dau 1349, d '88 2 19

ae 82

1150 " Leonard Driggs, dau 1295, 1296, dea '72, d 'S5 1 24 ae 69

1151 " Louise L. (Weston) Keynolds, dau Dura, grfa 918, sis

1258, 1301, m Dexter of Stoughton, d '74 7 30 ae 27

1152 Mh 3 Otis Soule (952) fa 664, s 1137, dau 1195, d '71 8 13 ae 72

1153 " John Bennett, s of Thomas, neph 1240, d '92 10 5 ae 83

1154 " Ira Bryant (1055) s of Ezekiel, s 1201, 1336, dau 1158, 1360

1155 " Job R. Haskins (973) ad dau 1241

1156 " Edward Thompson (1027) s of Francis, d '73 4 14 ae 62

1157 " Polly L. Warren (1147) dau Ezra Wood

1158 " Lucy S. (Bryant) Bliss, fa 1154, m Oscar

1159 " Mary Abby Thompson (996) fr M. E. ch. N. Bedford, dau

Moses Carr, step-ch 1173, 1174, d '93 5 14 ae 64

1160 My 5 Susan M. (Eddy) Thomas (1390) dau Win. S., sis 1009,

d '89 9 4 ae 59
1101 " William Cady Eddy (942) s of Wm. S., sis 1160, s 1252,
dau 1162

1162 " Anna C. Eddy, fa 1161, dis Presb. ch. E. Orange, X. J.

'80 11 7

1163 " Josiah T. Cornish (1056) s of Wm., grfa 593, s 1110, dau

1111, d '82 8 3 ae 69

1164 " Arad Bryant (1165) s of Levi, br 1242, sis 1244, ad dau 1166

1165 " Betsy J. Bryant (1164) dau Ruel Simmons, d '92 7 8 ae 75

1166 " Sarah Ella Bryant, ad dau of 1164, d '85 7 29 ae 32

1167 " James Gilbert Nichols (974) s of Gilbert, dau 1168,

d '92 11 11 ae 79

1168 " Susan M. (Nichols) Thompson (1266) fa 1167, d '82 6 20 ae 40

1169 " Ruel Thompson (1007) fa 705, s 1100, 1123, 1170, dau 1125,

1171,1172, d'7S 9 3 ae 71

1170 " Leroy Thompson, fa 1109

1171 " Rhoda Ella S. (Thompson) Wood (1227) fa 1169

1172 " Sarah Evelyn Thompson, fa 1169

1173 " David W. Thompson, fa 996, step-mo 1159, sis 1174

1174 " Mandana A. Thompson, fa 996, step-mo 1159, br 1173

1175 " Weltha Emma Thompson, fa 1099

1170 " Jacob Atwood (1004) fa 840, d "J2 1 25 ae 83
1177 " Morton Freeman (1118) mo 1001, dau 1251, s of Josiah,
d '88 3 24 ae SO

DESCRirTIVE CATALOG 129

1178 My 5 Benjamin Freeman (1179) mo 1001, dau 1180, 1181

1179 " Nancy C. Freeman (1178) fa 1050, o Fuller, sis 1189

1180 " Angeline Ella (Freeman) Howard (1285) fa 1178

1181 " Susan E. (Freeman) Bryant, w Walter T., fa 1178

1182 " Samuel Freeman (1183) mo 1061, dau 1184

1183 " Anna B. Freeman (1182) dau of S. Tinkham, sis 1197,

d '91 5 20 ae 75

1184 " Henrietta Freeman, fa 1182

1185 " Andrew Freeman (1315) fa 1182

118(5 " James P. Sparrow (1187) s of James, grmo G43, sis 1C97,
dau 1355, d '85 7 5 ae 00

1187 " Fersis Lavinia Sparrow (1180) dau of S. Smith, d '92 2 17

ae 07

1188 " William II. Crosby (1189) s of Nathan, dau 1342

1189 " Maria A. Crosby (1188) fa 1050, o Fuller, step-rao 1209,

sis 1179

1190 " Benjamin Loring Boomer (1191) dis South ch. Brockton

'89 4 11

1191 " Kebecca Churchill Boomer (1190) o Waterman, sis 1270,

dis Brockton '89 4 11

1192 " William II. Vaughan (1083) s of Cushman, dau 1225,

d '85 6 9 ae 07

1193 " Phebe Ann (Aldeu) Fuller, fa 1142, dis Kidder, Mo.

'69 8 22, m '72 Albert II. [his grfa 1050] of Brockton

1194 " Etta Paulina (Alden) Baldwin, fa 1142, dis Kidder, Mo.

'09 8 22, m '71 W. W. of Mo.

1195 " Caroline E. Soule, fa 1152

1196 " Sarah E. (Tinkham) Chase, dau of Alvah, w John, sis

1109, d '75 9 1 ae 25

1197 " Lucy T. Fuller, sis 1183, wid Amos S.

1198 " Annie Cobb, mo 955, sis 1207, dis CCC with mo '75 6 27

1199 Je 21 John McCrillis (1200) fr Grafton, dau 1211, s 1274, 1348,

d '94 12 28 ae 84

1200 " Sarah A. McCrillis (1199) dau Asa Coggeshall, d '88 9 3

ae 69

1201 Jl 7 George F. Bryant (1331, 1298) fa 1154

1202 " Isaac Bryant, jr. (1203) sis 1145, d '94 7 5 ae 65

1203 " Irene Bryant (1202) dau Henry L. Thomas

1204 " James S. Bump (1205) s of James, d '80 7 14 ae 73

1205 " Huldah P. Bump (1204) dau Benj. Warren, d '95 6 16 ae 84

1206 " Heman Cobb (847) s of Heman of Plymouth, d '68 12 27

ae 64

1207 " Sarah B. (Cobb) Smith, m Earle, mo 955, sis 1198, dis CCC

'77 5 4

130

FIRST CHURCH, BUDDLEBORO

1-208
1200
1210
1211

1212

1213
1214
1215
1210

1217

1218

1219

1220

1221
1222
1223
1224
1225

1220

1227
1228

1229
1230

Jl 7

Au30
Se 20

1231 Oc G

1232 "

1233 "

1234 "

1235 "
1230 "

1237 "

1238 No 2

Joshua M. Eddy (IOCS) fa 944, dau 1273, d '80 3 17 ae 62
Jephthah Leach, s of Benj. of Bridgewater, d '08 8 25 ae 88
Giles Leach, fa 1048, dis Raynham '77 12 9
Mary E. McCrillis, fa 1199

Francis G. Pratt, jr., fa 1120, dis Berkeley Temple, Bus-
ton, '87 11 27
George W. Pratt, fa 1120

Clara Pease, dau of Joseph, dis Bap. ch. '77 0 30
Ehenezer A. Shaw (1210, 1308) mo 1217, d '94 11 20 ae 54
Sarah M. Shaw (1215) dau Harrison Shaw, of Carver, sis

1313, d '78 0 30 iie 38

Relief Shaw, s 1215, w Ehenezer C, dau Benj. Shaw,

d '86 11 9 ae 85
Albert Allen Savery (1219) fa 1003, dau 1220, dis CCC

'77 5 4
Elizabeth Thomas Savery (1218) dau James Shurtleft', dis

CCC '77 5 4
Elizabeth A. (Savery) lngalls, w Charles F., fa 1218, dis

CCC '77 5 4
John L. Swift, s of Henry, grmo 780
Lewis Henry Thompson (1223) s of Lewis, br 1200
Mary W. Thompson (1222) step-fa 1254, mo 1255
Albert Thomas (901) mo 1017, d '87 4 4 ae 82
Abby L. (Vaughan) Ellis, w Isaiah 11., fa 1192, dis CCC

'90 12 28
Lucretia E. (Wilbur) Wood (1327) m '70, fa 1254, mo

1255, dau 1383, dis Eliot ch. Newton '75 10 10,re-adm '78
Albert J. Wood (1171) mo 1020, sis 1107, 1108, dea '85
Eliab Wood, jr. (1005) mo 708, s 1250, sis 1003, 1235, dis

Northboro '75 12 19
Charlotte II. Gurney, w Elbridge, sis 1254, d '08 2 4 ae 27
Desire It. Hagen, fr F. W. Bap. ch. Boston, w Charles,

dau of Converse Beed, dau 1297, 1298, 1299, step-dau 1237
Prince Penniman (1130) s of Prince, sis 1118, dau 1240,

1314, 1 300, 1373, d '82 8 20 ae 78
James Smith (1233) s of Timothy, s 1352

Mercy T. Smith (1232) dau Ehenezer Colwell, sis 966
Benjamin F. Wood (1235) s of Alfred, s 1121, 1327, dau

1146, d '79 5 12 ae 75
Louisa Wood (1234) dau of Eliab, br 1228, d '79 4 29 ae 69
Deborah C. Shaw, dau of Elijah, d '81 6 2 ae 48
Harriet S. (Hagen) Kendall, m Horace '88, step-mo 1230,

dis Piedmont ch. Worcester, '7'.) 1 31
Eliza S. Littlejohn (1148) fr M. E. ch., wid Lewis Holmes,

dau David Hathaway, d '90 0 21 ae 74

1243

cc

1244

(C

1245

«

124G

(C

1247

u

124S

(<

1249

((

1868

1250

Ja 5

1251

u

1252

((

1253

u

1254

a

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 131

1239 No 2 Everett William Savery, mo 10G4

1240 " Grover Bennett, s of Jacob, unc 1153

1241 De 1 Elizabeth II (Gaskins) Gilford, 1st h Francis, 2d h

ad dau of 1155, o

1242 " Lorin Bryant (1243) s of Levi, br 11G4, sis 1244, d '83 4 20

ae 78
Lois L. Bryant (1242) dau Sand. Fuller of Livermore, Me.
Ilebecca Bryant, br 1104, 1242, d '80 5 18 ae 83
Anna E. Leach, fa 1048, dis Bridgewater '77 12 9
Amanda (Penniman) Burgess, fa 1231, w Robert
Jerusha Raymond, w Kllis, o Clark, s 1248, dau 1249, d
Alexander Raymond, mo 1247, drowned in Attleboro
Lydia A. (Raymond) Moulton, mo 1247, w Royal, dis

Abingtori '74 5 2, d

John F. Wood (1251) fa 1228, dis Norlhboro '75 12 19
Maria L. Wood (1250) fa 1177, dis Northboro '75 12 1!)
Warburton Osgood Eddy (1294) fa 1101
Venus Snow (1114) s of* Aaron, d '93 2 10 ae 77
Horatio Nelson Wilbur (1255 2d w) s Marshall, dau 1220,

1392, s 1385
1255 " Mary A. Wilbur (1254 2d h) dau John Morse, 1st h Cephas

Holmes, dau 1223, 1220, 1392, s 1385
1250 " Harrison W. Vaughan (1257 3d w) s of Ebenezer, d 'SO 7 11

ae 00

1257 " Lydia B. Vaughan (1250) dau Benj. Thomas, 1st h Wra.

Shurtleff

1258 " Marcia Ellen Thurston (1087) dau Dura Weston, grfa

918, sis 1151, 1301, dis M. E. ch. '72 1 5, re-adm '78 9 1
Elizabeth J. Littlejohn, fa 1148, mo 1002
Laura M. Weston, w Robert, dau of Geo. Thomas, d '08 9

20, ae 23
George II. Place, 8 of Richard, dis N. Rochester '80 2 1

Rev. EphraimN. Hidden (1203) dau 1204, fr Great Falls,
N. IL, dis E. Medway '74 11 13

1203 " Mary Elizabeth Bidden (1202) fr Gt. Falls, N. II. , dau
Josiah Parsons, dis E. Medway '74 11 13

12G4 " Emily P. Bidden, fa 1202, fr Gt. Falls, N. IT., dis E. Med-
way '74 11 13, d '82 in Chester, N. II.

1205 " Thomas W. Sampson, s of Ichabod, dis Braintree '71 4 16

1200 " Marcus M. Thompson (1108) br 1222, dis M. E. ch. Cam-
pello '84 8 24

1207 " Albeit T. Savery (1208) s of Peregrine

1259

it

1200

Au21

1201

No 1

1870

1202

Mh 4

132 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

1208 Mh 4 Maria S. Savery (1267) dau of James Waterman

1269 Ap 29 Mary H. Fuller (1050 2d w) sis 095, stcp-dau 1189, dau

Seth Southworth, fr CCC, d '78 12 21 ae 71
1871

1270 Jl 2 Betsy Drinkwater, sis 1191, o Waterman, w Isaac W., dis

Campello '8G 3 5

1271 No 3 Sarah E. Shaw, w Charles, fr Braiutree, dau John A.

Sampson, s 1351
1873

1272 Jl 0 Edward T. Gisby, mo 1093, grfa 928, d '77 7 17 ae 23

1875

1273 Mh 7 Florence (Eddy) Jedermann, w It., m '89, fa 1208, dis

House of Hope, St. Paul, Miu. '89 8 25

1274 " Herbert O. MeCrillis, fa 1199, dis Winslow ch. Taunton

'79 G 29

1275 Jl 2 Clarinda Thatcher, w Lewis, fa 994, br 1085

127G " Sara Stephens Williams, mo 991, sis 1127, dis Fresh, ch.
Seattle, Wash. '91 2 11

1277 " liev. Tiikoi'iiilus Paksons Sawin (1278) fr Manchester,

N. H. dis W. Somerville '78 1 25

1278 " Martha M. Sawin (1277) fr Manchester, N. H., o Mason,

dis AV. Somerville '78 1 25

1279 " Lura S. Sawin, fa 1277, fr Manchester, N. H., dis W.

Somerville '78 1 25

1280 " William M. Sawin, fa 1277, fr Manchester, N. H., dis W.

Somerville '78 1 25
(970) Se 3 Ann Elizabeth (Eddy) Pratt (976) fr Beneficent ch., Provi-
dence, LI. I., fa 082, mo 797
1876

1281 Jl 2 Lucy Ann Morse, w Emerson P., dau John Blackburn,

dis Advent ch. '93 12 14
1877
(1121) My 4 William W. Wood (1282) fr Eliot ch., Newton, dea
'78-S9

1282 " Anna S. Wood (1121) fr Eliot ch., Newton, dau Josiah

Bennett

1283 Jl 1 Ephraim Hathaway (1284) s Ilandall

1284 " Isabella Priscilla Hathaway (1283) dau Isaac Shurtleff

1285 " Asaph E. Howard (1180) s of Asaph
128G " John Scanlin (1287) s of James

1287 "' Betsy Barker Scanliu (1286) dau Josephus Bump, 1st h

Cyrus P. Caswell, d 1894 9 4, ae 7G

1288 " Elizabeth II. Shurtleff, 2d w of Lothrop, dau Richard

Whitmore

1289 " Marcia Weston, dau Seneca, d '90 4 22 ae 72

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 133

Winfield Scott Wright (1334) dau 1330, d '89 10 20 ae 48

Clara A. Bagnall, dau Oliver

Alice H. Cornish, fa 1110

George Altou Cox (1299) s of George

Elvira Elizabeth (Cushman) Eddy (1252) sis 112S, 1129

Deborah L. Driggs, fa 1150

Mary A. Driggs, fa 1150, d 'SO 9 21 ae 37

Mary E. (Ilagen) Smith (1352) mo 1230

Roxana E. (Ilagen) Bryant (1201) mo 1230

Clara Augusta (Ilagen) Cox (1293) mo 1230

John T. Haskell, dis CCC '83 4 29 s of John,

Augusta Hope Morse, w Thomas, sis 1151, 1258, grfa 918

John P. Morse (1303) sis 1304, s of Barzillai

Eidelia J. Morse (1302) dau Lorenzo Thomas, grfa 918

Lucy E. Morse, br 1302

Luther W. Savery, br 1207, d '80 10 25 ae 40

Benjamin Shurtleff, s of Barzillai, dau 1307, d '93 4 21

aeSl
B. Jennie (Shurtleff) Shaw, w Benjamin C, fa 1300
Cynthia A. Shurtleff, w Virgil, dau Ephraim Butler, dis

Bap. ch. '87 3 4
Augustus L. Thomas (1310) fa 957
Theodosia B. Thomas (1309) dau Thomas Vaughan of

Carver

1311 " John B. Thomas (1371) sis 1324, s of Arad, dis CCC

'89 12 19

1312 " Susan Louise (Thomas) Palmer, dau Geo., w. Stephen IL,

dis Princeton, Minn.
Emma B. Washburn, w Asaph Foster, sis 1210
Addie A. (Penniman) Bryant, w Wallace, fa 1231, mo 1130
Matilda R. (Simmons) Freeman (1185) dau Henry A.
Jabez Francis Smith, s of Jabez, aunts 805, 1051, dis Rock

'83 11 2
Mary H. Soule, fa 1137,' d '78 11 15 ae 10
Irene L. (Soule) Deane (1344) m '94, fa 1137

Samuel Shaw Butler, s of Samuel, sus '79 9 5
Rev. Nathan T. Dyer (1321) fr Union ch. Grotou, dis
N. Dighton '87 8 7

1321 " Harriet M. Dyer (1320) o Mann, fr Union ch. Groton, dis

N. Dighton '87 8 7

1322 " John Elijah McMann, s of William

1323 " Samuel Dexter Raymond, s of Samuel, cous 1335

1324 " Lucy Williams (Thomas) Bourne, w Fred, br 1311

1290

Jl

1291

Sep

1292

(i

1293

(I

1294

u

1295

u

1290

(I

1297

u

1298

K

1299

u

1300

u

1301

(i

1302

u

1303

a

1304

(i

1305

ft

1300

(<

1307

K

1308

((

1309

u

1310

a

1314

No 4

1315

u

1310

u

1317

a

1318

a

1878

1319

Se 1

1320

«

(122G)
1328

u

1320

((

1330

t(

1879

1331

Ja i

134 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOBO

(1087) Se 1 Francis T. Thurston (1258) fv M. E. ch.

(1258) " Marcia E. Thurston (1087) fr M. E. ch.

1325 " Edgar Warren Wood (1300) la 1091

1320 " Mary Caswell (Wood) Bowman (1302) la 1091, d '88 2 14

ae 22
1327 " Horace Franklin Wood (1220) fr Eliot ch. Newton, fa
1234, br 1121, dau 1383
Lucretia E. Wood (1327) fr. Eliot ch. Newton
Lucy Jane (Wrightington) Vaughan, w Harry, fa 1301, br

1329, dis Allen St. M. IS. ch. N. Bedford 'SO 0 2
Charles Gilbert Wrightington (1401) fa 1301
Kate Lewis Wright, fa 1200, d '7'.) 5 18 ae 18

Mary E. Bryant (1201) fr Freetown, m '70, dau Thomas

Evans, d '83 4 24 ae 31
1332 " Lucy II. Deane, w Orien E., dau J. Higgins of Orleans,

dau 1333, 1345, s 1344, 1397
Mary Eliza Deane, mo 1332
Mercy M. Wright (1290) dau Robert Weston, d '84 5 22

ae 40

Frederic R. Raymond, s of John, cons 1323, dis Bap. ch.
S. Halifax '80 12 19

Charles Morton Bryant, fa 1154

Henry Solon Bryant, sis 1338, s of Henry

Susan May Bryant, br 1337

Charles Warren Coffin (1340) mo 11 30

Henrietta Eliza Coffin (1339) dau Rufus Butler of Falmouth

Herbert Willard Cornish, fa 1110

Eudora Frances (Crosby) Dempsey, fa 1188, w Robert M.

Ella Louisa Deane, mo 1117, dis Porter ch. Brockton

'95 1 27
Albert Deane (1318) mo 1332
Florence Deane, mo 1332

Reuben Harlow (1304) d '89 3 5 in Lakeville, ae 09
William Francis Malloy, s of Edward J., d '83 8 18 ae 19
Walter Clifton McCrillis, fa 1199
Irene Bradford (Pratt) Brett, fa 1149, mo 1350, dis '93

17, 1st ch. Brockton

1350 " Irene Shaw Pratt (1149) dau of Luther Bradford, br 1131,

dau 1349

1351 " Charles Augustus Shaw, mo 1271

1352 " Albert Wilson Smith (1297) fa 1232

1333

C(

1334

Se 5

1880

1335

Ja 2

1883

1330

My 4

1337

u

1338

u

1339

((

1340

t(

1341

((

1342

C<

1343

u

1344

a

1345

u

1340

«

1347

u

1348

u

1349

((

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 135

1353 My 4 Emma Janette Sparrow, o Ward, w Samuel, (lis CCC

'91 2 15

1354 " Sarah Fearing Crocker Sparrow, dau Luther S. W. King,

w Fred C.

1355 " Sarah Lauretta (Sparrow) Washburn, fa 1186, in T. A. F.

'1)3
135G " Cora Frances Thompsou, fa 1123

1357 " Leslie Irving Thompson, fa 1103, mo 1121)

1358 " Lily Henrietta Richmond Andrews (Thornton) Durfee,

w Henry K., dau Win.

1351) " Ilhoda Savery (Waterman) Ellis, niece of 1081, w Harri-
son B., dau James II.

136U " Annie Ardelia (Wood) Bowman (1325, 1302) fa 1154

1301 " Soranus Gilhert Wrightington (900) s 1329, dau 1328, d

'85 11 25 ac 00

1302 Je 24 Ahram Lincoln Bowman (1320, 1300) s of Stephen E.

1303 " Mahelle Williams Clark, mo 1127, dis Episc. eh. AVesterly,

R. I. '94 3 18

1304 " Betsey Harlow (134(J) fr Central ch. Chelmsford, dau John

Shaw

1305 " Annie Wyman (Ilarwood) Cross, w Chas. E., dau Henry

V., dis Bridgewatcr '80 12 19
1360 " Mary White Fhinney, fa 1231, mo 1130, w Zenas
1367 " Mary Ryan, dis Warcham '93 12 14
1884

1308 My; 4 Betsy Savery Shaw (1215) dau Benj. F.Dunham

1886

1309 My 2 Fred A. Conant, s of Winslow, fr Melh. ch., dis '92 1 1 to

M. E. ch. N. Easton

1370 " Lura Lorena Dunham, w Charles II., o Lewis, d '90 9 5

ae 24

1371 " Sarah Aildie Thomas (1311) dau Chas. Thomas, dis CCC

'89 12 19
1887

1372 Mh 4 Annie S. Thomas, dau George, dis CCC '89 0 9

1373 Jl 3 Arabella Penniman, fa 1231

1374 " Jason F. Thurston, fa 1087, dis '92 4 3 to M. E. ch.
1889

1375 Mh 1 Rev. Josiaii Weaue KiNGsnuRY (1370) fr Deerfield,

N. II., dau 13S0, dis Braintree '94 4 22

1376 " Mary II. Kingsbury (1375) fr Deerfield, N. H., dau Charles

Jackson, dis Braintree '94 4 22

1377 Oc 31 William J. Kingsbury, fa 1375, fr Derry, N. II., dis Ray-

mond, N. II. '91 12 27

136

FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO

1890

1378

My 4

1879

tc

1380

u

1381

((

1382

(C

1383

"

1384

Jl G

1385

it

1891

1380

Se 4

1892

1387

No 20

1388

u

1380

u

1893

1300

My 7

1894

1391

Ja 7

1302

u

1393

Jl 1

1304

a

1393

Se 23

1396

1895

1307

Ja G

1308

Mh 3

1399

Mh 10

1400

i<

1401

Jl 7

William Pitt Fessenden, sis 1379, br 138G, s of Marshall

Sabina Elizabeth Fessenden, br 1378, 138G

Mabel II. Kingsbury, fa 1375, dis Braintree '93 12 21

Ethel Gertrude Nichols, fa 1391

Rachel May Tinkham, sis 1384, 1393, dau of Sylvauus

Nellie Franklin Wood, fa 1327

Aunie J. Ryder, sis 1382, 1393, w 8. Everett

George Herbert Wilbur, fa 1254, mo 1255

Edward Warren Fessenden (1400) fr May/lower ch.
Kingston, br 1378, sis 1370

Rev. George Warren Stearns (1388) fr Acton

Sarah Elizabeth Stearns (1387) fr Acton, dau Oliver S. Dow

Eleanor A. 13 radbury, fr Acton, dau Samuel

Lewis It. Thomas (11G0 2d w) fr Salmon Falls, N. II. mo
1073, br 057, sis 1074

Frank A. Nichols (1302) dau 1381, s of Stephen S.

Mima Wilbur Nichols (1391) fa 1254, sis 1220, br 13S5

Emma Elvira Tinkham, sis 1382, 1384

Florence J. E. Wood, dau Edgar 1).

Caroline Florence Cody, vv John II., fr ch. of the Cove-
nant, Shelby, Ala.

Jane W. Warren, fr Lincoln, Me., wid Osman, dau Hum-
phrey Chadbourne

George Alfred Deane, mo 1332

Ira Orsamus Littlejohn (1399) fa 1148, mo 10G2

Dorcas Susan Littlejohn (1308) dau Thomas l'owcll, fr

Union ch. Newport, It. I.
Laura J. Fessenden (1380) dau Thomas II. La Porte, fr

Mayflower ch. Kingston
Roxauna C. Wrightiugton (1329) dau Samuel S. Keyes

I .

^ APR 75

N. MANCHESTER.
INDIANA