Duxbury Town

The First Church

"We love the venerable house our fathers built to God." "Here holy thoughts a light have shed on many a radiant face." "And anxious hearts have pondered here the mystery of life."

This plan is from one of two copies compiled some time before the middle of the last century; one is preserved in the writer's family, and the other belonged to Mr. Ezra Weston, who died in 1852. This latter copy his nephew, Mr. William B. Weston, lately presented to the society, where it can be seen in the church vestibule. Mr. Weston also presented at the same time a painting of this third building, framed with wood that came from the timbers of the second church building, and it hangs beside the plan of the pews.

religious peoples, - Jew, Pagan or Christian, who severally paid their sacred temples a devout veneration. The building, even after the town had become prosperous, was used for all purposes, down to as late a date as 1840. They also took an original position over all the communities of which we have record, in closely connecting their religious and civil life; and yet separating the one from the other by natural barriers, forming what the scientist would call a physical rather than a chemical mixture.

They considered the Hebrew Bible as the only written religious page that existed, and they must follow its maxims as they could interpret them, and they doubted not their own ability to do it correctly. Thus they endeavored to mold their lives and worship after the prophets and Christians of old, whose reign on earth would eventually come.

"For in the background figures vague and vast Of patriarch and prophet rose sublime, And all the great traditions of the past They saw reflected in the coming time."

And they worshiped devoutly within the plain, unembellished walls without imposing ceremonials, and thus without extraneous means; their thoughts were not taken from the holy and spiritual part, which, according to Saint Paul, is that which is unseen. The Holy Grail legend and symbolism would have had no interest for them. They were also consistent in not bringing their most sacred observances into their secular life, as in the marriages and burials, referred to on page 60, which were considered solemn occasions, but not enough to warrant the use of their most sacred rites, which were reserved for an ordination or a confirmation, where the personality and consent of the one receiving it gave the ceremony the highest possible expression of a holy ordinance. In following in this way the lines of piety and business - together, yet apart - they never lost their common sense, which has been much commented upon by great statesmen, both here and abroad. Of the church pastors, Ralph Partridge was the first, he being settled in 1637, although undoubtedly Elder Brewster officiated often in that capacity during the five previous years, as he was known to be living at that time in the town. The several pastors, with the dates of their settlement, are as follows:

These notes should be added here, - Mr. Kent was colleague to Dr. Allyn, but was to all intents pastor from 1826 to 1833, the former being the greater part of this time incapacitated. Mr. Knapp fully supplied the pulpit a number of years before Mr. Moore's death, coming over from Plymouth, where he had a private school, as Mr. Moore became too enfeebled to officiate. After the hitter's death, Mr. knapp continued to fill it, until the society could decide upon a resident minister. This was done in 1882 by the settlement of Mr. Burr. It is a curious fact that in this long list of ministers only three are buried in the town, to any one's knowledge, these being Mr. Wisewall, Dr. Allyn and Mr. Moore. To the first there is a stone in the old burial ground, the second in age within the enclosure, bearing the date of 1700. It is of some significance to the religious inquirer to learn that all the colonial churches of the Old Colony but one turned Unitarian when that movement began early in the last century, namely: Plymouth, Duxbury, Scituate, Cohasset and Hingham, the exception being Marshfield.

We have but few material mementos of our old church, its organization or buildings, as our fathers were not given to symbols. Of the second building only the frame of a picture, before alluded to, and a few pieces of the communion set; also the "Big ha'- Bible, once our fathers' pride," twenty by thirteen inches in size, with the English arms - the Lion and the Unicorn - and the date 1762 engraved upon its title page. The communion service has twelve pieces, some of them dating before the middle of the eighteenth century. That person has little imagination in his nature, or piety in his soul, who can look unmoved upon these ancient pieces of silver. However we may consider the practice of the communion rite today, who can regard without a feeling akin to veneration its use by our forebears, and the devout memories that cluster about its former observance? We know how piously and unselfishly these articles were procured by those who lived in less prosperous times than ours, and cannot regard them other than as symbols of that church not made with hands which is eternal in the heavens.

Interesting Characters

TN the year 181 7 Capt. Amasa Delano, who had been brought 1 up in the town, the little time that he had passed at home, published a very interesting book descriptive of his various voyages and the people whom he met in the different parts of the earth. He sailed around the world three times, and visited countries and peoples then or now not generally known. His description of the lower Pacific coast and the Oriental islands is particularly fine. He tells of the settlement and inhabitants of Pitcairns Island better than most writers, getting his information from original sources; though it is a subject that has had the attention of noted authors, including no less a one than Lord Byron. His remarks on the sailing, navigating and repair of vessels are instructive, not only to those who are familiar with sea life, but for the ingenuity often shown they are of profit to all.

Captain Delano apologizes for his language as indicating his lack of an academic education; but he need not have done so, for one would seek long before finding an academician who could express himself in so graphic a manner, and in a way to so fascinate his reader. The book is a quarto of nearly six hundred pages, and is now, of course, out of print and rarely seen.

A character somewhat opposite to that of Captain Delano's, equally high perhaps upon the heavenly list, is that of Miss Hannah J. Packard, who was born and lived on what is called the Dr. John Porter place at the corner of St. George and Alden Streets, living a short life of sixteen years, from 181 5 to 183 1. The young girl early displayed a talent for composition, making verses before she could use a pen to write them down. A small book of writings printed after her death was composed between her twelfth and fifteenth years, showing a maturity of judgment in expression that would be associated with a woman of thirty years. Her father, a sea captain by profession, gave her the few advantages for education which the town afforded, but it was her own inherent talent that developed her gift in language. She was spiritually minded to an extent that permeated her whole life; warm hearted, amiable, unassuming, her associates testified; and all loved and admired, while none envied her rightful superiority. Canonization would eventually have been her lot had she been born in the Roman Catholic communion. Expecting death she met it calmly, and appeared to receive it joyfully, thinking that she saw attending spirits beckoning her to the land beyond. Her grave is in the old part of Evergreen Cemetery within a small iron paling. I cannot end this brief account better than with her own verse addressed to another:

"Earth, take the tribute thou may'st not keep! Fold in thy bosom that faded flower; It will bloom again in a fairer bower, Where mourner may come not its blight to weep."

A character almost totally unlike the preceding, but which may be thought scarcely less interesting, is that of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Bailey began his life, not as the others in the Old Colony, but among the vine-clad hills of France, and in the French colonies, where he lived until after the Battle of Waterloo, in which he participated as one of Napoleon's officers. Later he came here and settled at the cross-roads, where Tremont, Chestnut, Evergreen and Tobey Garden Streets meet; and this place has since been called Bailey's Corner. He lived in the house now owned by Mr. James H. Peterson, where he brought up a large family of attractive daughters, and a son who now lives in an adjoining house. The latter preserves the sword that was on the world's eventful battlefield of Waterloo, where his father received a saber cut on his head, necessitating the trepanning of his skull and the insertion of a piece of silver, a surgical operation that could not, at that time, have been long practiced. Mr. Bailey's life in Duxbury was as quiet as it had formerly been eventful. He was a cigar-maker by occupation, and carrying his wares to Boston by vehicle must have been his most exciting diversion. He died at his home in 1864.

wards prepared for the ministry, which he was obliged to give up because of an affliction that prevented him from speaking easily in public; then a teacher, and afterwards a merchant. During this time he held various public offices, from member of Congress to surveyor of highways in his native town, thus exemplifying the Old Colony and ancient Roman idea, - that a citizen must accept any place to which he is called by his fellow countrymen, without considering its desirability, emoluments, or otherwise. He figured prominently in the preliminary steps that brought on the Revolution, first as the author of an address* to the Boston Committee of Correspondence, which was decided on at a town meeting held in March, 1773, to protest against "the violation of our chartered rights and privileges." He served as captain of a company of minutemen raised by the town in 1774, a muster-roll of which is given on pages 129, 130 ; and later was a member of the famous General Court that met in Boston, and was by the King's command adjourned to Salem, and while there in secret caucus at night determined upon calling a Provincial Congress. Mr. Partridge was a member of this Congress, which met in October, 1774.

He was delegate to Congress under the old Confederation, and at his death was its last surviving member, with the exception of Charles Carroll of Maryland, - the Charles Carroll of Carrollton of the Declaration of Independence.

which General Washington gave back that commission that had been given him eight years before, and which was so graphically pictured in our early school books.

In his death he did not forget us, for out of a property that was not large, he bequeathed a fund to the first church, and founded the academy that bears his name. His grave is in Evergreen Cemetery, about midway on Oak Avenue.

THIS subject is continued from page 65, giving a list of stones in the Duxbury Cemetery that date previous to 181 1, with an exception that those- of Revolutionary veterans are added, though of a later date; and with a similar account of the Dingley burial ground in the vicinity.

The Dingley Burial Ground

This is by West Street, about midway between Lincoln and Franklin, on the summit of the highest ground in the vicinity, among the pine trees, and just above the large cranberry meadows that have been lately started in this part of the town, its oldest stone dating back to 1766. The town neatly fenced it a few years ago. A list of the stones that date before 181 1 is added, one of a later 'date being included to name a Revolutionary veteran, there being two buried in the yard.