Watertown City (part 3 of 5)

Benjamin Bobbin^ Curtis, one of the ablest of American jurists, was bom in Watertown, November 4, 1809, and died in Newport, ]^ode Island, September 15, 1874. He was the son of Captain Benjamin and Lois Bobbins Curtis, and graduated with distinction at Harvard College in 1829. He then studied law, was admitted to practice in Boston in 1834, attaining eminence in .the profession, was a member of the Mass^ochusetts House of Bepresentatives in 1851, and from 1851 to 1857 was an Associate Justice of the Uin'ted States Supreme Court. lu the famous Dred Scott Case Judge Curtis dissented from the decision of the majority of the court. In 1868 he was one of the counsel of President Andrew Johnson when impeached by the House of Representatives. His success in this case greatly enhanced his reputation.

Geoige Tjrler Bigelow, Oiief Justice of the Supreme Court of Uassacliusetts, bom in Watertown, October 6, 1810. died in Boston, April 12, 1878. ije was the son of Tj'ler Digclow, an eminent lawyer of Watertown, graduated at Harvard College in 1829, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. From 1^0 to 1848 he served in the state legislature ; wu appointed a judge of the Court of Common

Bench, November 21, 1850; and was chief justice from November 7, 1801, to January 1, 1868. As a judge he posKssed great administrative ability, facility in the despotch of business, and patience, willingness, and capacity to bbor, performing bit duties with uaiversail acceptance.

HENRT F. JOnNSON. - . SAMUEL J. ELDER. EDWIN A. WADLEIOO. JOHN T. WILSON. JAMES A. DUPEE. J. F. DWINIU'L.. J. a MASON. O. W. T. BILEY. STEPHEN H. CDTTER. STEPHEN A. HOLT.

THE BORROWER WILL BE CHARGED AN OVERDUE FEE IF THIS BOOK IS NOT RETURNED TO THE LIBRARY ON OR BEFORE THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. NON-RECEIPT OF OVERDUE NOTICES DOES NOT EXEMPT THE BORROWER FROM OVERDUE FEES.

Source changes here: from History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, by Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Ed, published 1890; 38,209 words in this source stream.

Watertown City

Until 1639 Mr. Phillips was sole minister. In that year Mr. John Knowles, "a godiy man and a prime scholar,'' arrived in New England, and on the 19th of December he was ordained second pastor, in connection with Mr. Phillips. By departing from the common usage of pastor and teacher, the church put its theory of independency into practice, and, by ordaining a man who had never been a minister, ordaining him by their own act, without notice given to the magistrates, without co-operation or consent of any minister save their own, the people declared that they took their Christian liberty in sober, practical earnest. Mr. Knowles seems to have been a man of very liberal views ; in church government an independent, and in his broad charity of doctrine a man to delight " that good Knight, Sir Richard Saltonstall.''

In 1642 he went with Mr. Thompson, of Braintree, on a missionary voyage to Virginia, but, finding things there in no condition to warrant much hope of good, he presently returned to Watertown and resumed his pastoral relation with the church.

This relation he retained for six years after Mr. Phillips' death, when in 1650 he returned to England. Making his home in London, he continued to preach in spite of persecutions until he died at a very advanced age in 1685.

According to Dr. Francis, " Mr. Phillips' successor in the ministry at Watertown was the Rev. John Sherman." By some Mr. Sherman is said to have begun his pastoral work in 1647, but there is no certain proof from the records of his having been in office before 1648. His relation to Mr. Knowles, who was here until 1650, is not definitely settled.

Mr. Sherman was born December 26, 1613, in Dedham, in the county of Essex, England. In his home, and under the preaching of the celebrated John Rogers, the friend and counselor of George Phillips, he received deep and permanent religious impressions. In school he was studious and dutiful - once only he was chastiged, on which occasion his offence was that he gave " the heads of sermons to his idle schoolmates, when an account thereof was demanded from them " - an offence which no modern boy could well be guilty of.

In due time he became a student at Emanuel College, Cambridge, but failed to receive his degree because be refused to make the required subscription.

As he was then not more than twenty years of age, his behavior revealed not only an early maturity of thought, but an equal development of honesty and self-respect. He acted with like decision when it came to the choice of his theatre of action in life, for when he was but twenty-one years old we find him in New England. That was in 1634. In that year he preached at Watertown as assistant to Mr. Phillips for a few weeks. Mather informs us that his first discourse was on a Thanksgiving Day, when a meeting was held under a tree in the open air. Several clergymen who were present " wondered exceedingly " when they heard so young ii man speak with such learning and good judgment.

Soon after this he removed to New Haven, and was invited to settle in that region. Declining to do so, he was chosen as oneof the magistrates of the Colony ; but being invited to return to Watertown to take the place left vacant by the death of Mr. Phillips, he laid down his office and came back to the banks of the Charles.

Here he fully justified the h'gh reputation he had made before his departure. He was chosen fellow of Harvard College, and besides the services rendered to that institution in his official capacity, he continued for thirty years to give fortnightly lectures, which were attended by the students, who walked from Cambridge to Watertown to hear him. His reputation for scholarship extended far and wide. A "skill in tongues and arts," says Mather, "beyond the common rate adorned him,"

His style of discourse is said to have been full and rich. His mind was his library, and he could sjjeak freely and accurately without the help of manuscript or even the briefest notes.

In private he was sparing of speech. In council he was clear and weighty. In all relations of life dignified and courteous. His last discourse was marked by a richness of thought and energy of language that filled his hearers with admiration. He was seized with his last illness at Sudbury, where he had gone to preach, but rallied sufficiently to be able to reach his own house in Watertown, where he died on the 8th of August, 1685, at the age of seventy-two.

On the 24th of August, 1685, a little more than two weeks after the death of Mr. Sherman, a committee was chosen at a town-meeting to treat with " Mr. Bailey, the elder," on the subject of settling in the ministry at Watertown. Mr. Bailey was at that time residing in Boston, and a committee was sent to him requesting him to meet the assembled people and give them an opportunity " to discourse a little with him." At a conference held in accordance with this proposal, he expressed himself willing to become their minister " if peace and love should continue amongst them, and they would make his life comfortable."

In August, 1686, " at a general to svn- meeting," a call was issued in due form. This call Mr. Bailey accepted, and on the 6th of October he was " solemnly set apart for pa.storal work at Watertown, without the imposilioii of hands."

John Bailey was born near Blackburn, in Lancashire, England, on the 24th of February, 1644. His mother wjis a woman of deep and earnest religious spirit, and under her influence the boy became early imbued with " a serious sense of God and religion." His father was a man of licentious habits, and in his absence tlie young John conducted the devotions of the family, until his example so admonished and affected his parent that he broke off his evil ways and became an exemplary Christian.

Having received a good education, young Bailey began to preach at the age of twenty-two. His first charge was at Chester. The principal field of his labor in the old country was, however, in Limerick, Ireland, where he was preacher in the Abbey Church. He devoted himself to his work with such zeal and constancy that at the end of his fourteen years of service his health was seriously broken. This result was, probably, hastened by the vexation and imprisonment that he suffered for his non-conformity in church matters. He had shown himself to have the qualities of influence and leadership to such a degree that he was worth winning over to the Establishment, and before attempting to silence him, the Lord Lieutenant attempted to buy him with promises of preferment. But Bailey was not for sale, and so went to prison. He was liberated, after something like a year, on his promise to go beyond seas. In fulfilment of this agreement, he came to Boston, and was for a time assistant minister at the Old South Cliurch.

In the old book in which he kept a record of his ministry in Limerick, he gives an account of the last Sacrament which he observed there with his friends, under date of January 13, 1683-84. Immediately beneath this entry, and under date of October 6, 1686, is a brief account of his settlement in Watertown. Here he remained until 1692, doing his work with a zeal and fidelity that .sorely overtaxed his failing strength. For a short time he had as colleague his brother, Mr. Thomas Bailey, an amiable and excellent man, who died in January, 1688, aged thirtyfive years ami was interred in the old burying-ground. Ill 1691 Mr. Uailey was deeply alllicted by the death ofhis wife, ami with this event his worn as minister ill Watertown was virtually ended. A single entry ill his book records a baptism on May 31, 1691, about a month after Iho death of his wife, "and with this his .luaiiit farewell t,. his people and the town that had been his home. Tlie diary of a brother minister hints at the reiiMon for his removal in these words - " Then, brinij very melancholy and having the gout, ho moved to Boston."

says Dr. Francis, " were ardent piety, great tenderness of conscience, and an ab.sorbing interest in the spiritual welfare of his fellow-men." The records be has left show that he was much given to melancholy, and to the sort of severe self-judgment to which the religion of the time inclined men. " If he had been at any time," says Mather, " innocently cheerful in the company of his friends, it cost him afterward abundance of s^id reflection." Judging from the specimens left in his book, his sermons must have been addressed to the feelings, rather than to the intellects of his audiences. He was evidently a pleasing and popular preacher, for he records that on the 20th of November, 1687, there were in the church many " from Dedham, Wooburn, Barnstable, Cambridge, Old Church in Boston, & Y° New Church in Boston, Cambridge Village, Concord, Dorchester, Roxbury, Newbury, Charlestown, Weymouth, etc. Y' text was in Col ii : 11."

Mr. Bailey was much sought for as a preacher in the adjoining towns, and one of his hearers who once heard him in Boston, has left on record his impression in the words, " I thought he spake like an angel."

After his return to Boston, Mr. Bailey acted as assistant minister in the First Church, when he was not too ill for work, holding his office until December 12, 1697, when he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age.

In his record-book, under date of April 27, 1690, Mr. Bailey writes : " I admitted " (to the church) " Mr. Henry Gibbs, who has sometimes preached for me, and now this quarterof a year has lived with me." On the 14ib of October, in the same year, the town voted " to make choice of a help to carry on the work of the ministry amongst us, in this our great need." At the same meeting it was voted " to treat with Mr. Henry Gibbs," and to give him forty pounds. These measures indicate that Mr. Gibbs was at this time engaged to act as Mr. Bailey's assistant, the latter being unable, on account of ill-health, to attend regularly to his duties. To this position the young man was most heartily welcomed by his elder, who entertained for him a very tender regard. When Mr. Bailey removed to Boston, Mr. Gibbs was left the only minister in the town. He had not been ordained, but continued to act .as minister to the society, his engagement being renewed from time to time. During the larger part of his life, the town was greatly disturbed and divided by the controversy that arose over the question of locating the meeting-house in such a way as to accommodate the people. For a time a second society existed, having a minister of its own, and a meeting-house in which services were held. It being found impossible to harmonize the discordant elements, Mr. Gibbs was finally ordained, October 6, 1697. "This was done in the afternoon in the open air, though a cold day. The Western party, having the selectmen on their side, got possession of the meeting-house, and would not sutler the assembly to enter there." In 1719, the Rev. Samuel Angler, minister of " the Western Party,'' died, and after several years more of controversy, a part of his constituem'y were set off to form the town of Waltham, and the . rest gradually became identified either with the old or the new town.

The Rev. Henry Gibbs was born in Boston, and was graduated .at Harvard College in 1685. His father, Mr. Robert Gibbs, was a Boston merchant, of large property, and of considerable distinction. The position of minister in Watertown during the years of controversy must have been one to tax both the wisdom and the patience of the incumbent, but Mr. Gibbs seems to have met the demands of the time with singular firmness, prudence and good sense, and to have been held- in high respect by all the inhabitants of the town. This fact alone is eloquent in his praise. JIany a man who has gone to the stake with unshaken courage, would have broken down under the strain of twenty-seven years of angry debate and petty neighborhood jealousies. That Mr. Gibbs was able to bear such a trial, and all the while to " do justly and love mercy," entitles him to rank with Job on the roll of the world's worthies.

His power to keep his head iu a time of general madness finds another illustration in the fact that he seems to have stood aloof from the mob that hounded the Salem witches to their miserable fate. Under date of May 31, 1692, he records the fact that he was in Salem, observing the trials, ancP he says; '' Wondered at what I saw, but how to judge and conclude I was at a loss ; to aflect my heart, and to induce me to more care and conceraedness about myself and others is the use I should make of it."

" Mr. Gibbs," says Francis, " was a benefactor both to his church and to the college. In his will, which w.as proved November 11, 1723, he made the following bequest, part of which still constitutes a portion of what is called The Ministerial Fund: ' I do give and bequeath to the Eastern Church of Christ in Watertown, to which I have borne a pastoral relation, for the encouragement of the gospel ministry there, my four acres of pasture land and three acres of marsh, situate in the East end of said town, for the use of the said church forever. And I do give to said church my silver bowl with a foot.'

"His bequest to the college he devised in the following terms : ' And further it is my will, that within ten years after my youngest child comes of age, an hundred pounds be paid by my heirs for the use of the Harvard College, forty pounds thereof by my son, and twenty pounds apiece by my daughters ; the yearly interests to be exhibited to such members of the college as need it, firstly to my children's posterity if they desire it.' "

As a writer, Mr. Gibbs was natural and direct- His words were those of an honest man, who desired to do good. He died on the 21st day of October, 1723, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and the

Mr. Gibbs was succeeded in the ministry of 'he Eastern Parish by the Rev. Seth Storer, who was ordained July 22, 1724. There is no record of the proceedings that attended his settlement on the books of the to wn, since the transactioncoucerned only the Eastern Precinct. In fact, there is not, so far as is known, any record in existenceof the particulars of his life or ministry. He inherited the controversy that began in the time of Mr. Gibbs, between " The Western party " and the old parish, and experienced, doubtless, his share of the discomfort arising during its progress and settlement.

There were many other distracting incidents arising during the growth of the town, and out of its relations to the authorities in Bnstou, but it is believed that the minister of the First Parish bore his part in these matters with patience and wisdom. His term of service was the longest in the history of the town - over fifty years. He died on the 27th day of November, 1774, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was a native of Saco, Maine, where he was born May 27, 1702. He graduated at Harvard College in 1720, at the age of eighteen. His father was Colonel Joseph Storer, of Wells, Maine, a man who won considerable distinction in the Indian wars. As indicating the conditions amid which his childhood was passed, we may note the fact that he had a sister Mary, who was carried away by the Indians as a captive, and was brought up near Montreal. Dr. Francis relates that in his time there were still living a few who could remember Mr. Storer in his old age, and they reported that he was much loved by young people and children. This fact he ju.stly regards as an evidence of the simplicity and goodness of his character. He never, as far as is known, published any production of his pen. He took no part in the theological strife of his time, but lived the friend and helper of his neighbors and died lamented by those who had known him to love and re.spect him.

For three years after the death of Mr. Storer the pulpit of the First Parish Church remained unoccupied by a settled minister. This was probably owing to the excitement and confusion of the time which saw the opening of the Revolutionary War. The pulpit was filled by temporary supply, as circumstances and the inclinations of the people directed. There was use for the church, however, at this time, not contemplated by those who built it, though it was precisely such use as was forecast by the action of George Phillips and Richard Browne, in 1631. The Second Provincial Congress was suddenly summoned to meet at Concord, April 22, 1775, but immediately adjourned to meet at Watertown. Here the Congress assembled, during the remainderof the session, in the meeting-house. John Hancock having been chosen delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, Joseph Warren presided over the deliberations. The third and last Provincial Congress also met at Watertown on May SIst. The sessions were held in the meeting-house as before. Joseph Warren was again chosen president, and Samuel Freeman, Jr., secretary. The Kev. Dr. Langdon, president of Harvard College, preached a sermon before the body. The session limted until the 19th of July. On the 26tli of July the meeting-house was again in use for the assembling of the General Court of the Colony. Subsequently the Boston town-meetings were held here, and in 1776 the anniversary of the 5th of March was observed by the people of Boston in the meetinghouse in Waterlown.

It was not till Xovember, 1777, thatany movement was made toward the settlement of a minister. At that time it was voted unanimously to concur with the town in the choice of Mr. Daniel Adams. He accepted the invitation to the pastorate, and was ordained on the 29th of April, 1778. The Rev. Mr. Prenti9.s, of Medfield, preached the ordination sermon, and the Rev. Dr. Appleton, of Cambridge, delivered the charge.

The settlement of Mr. Adams was regarded by the people as .adequate cause for rejoicing, and the brightest anticipations were apparently about to be realized, when the town was plunged in grief by the sudden death of its chosen leader. In the August following hia ordination Mr. Adams was seized with a violent illness, and, after lingering for six weeks, expired on the 16th of September, in the thirty-third year of his age.

He was the son of Elisha Adams, of Medway, where he was born in 1746. His ancestor, Henry Adams, came from Devonshire, Kngland, and settled in Braintree (now (^uincy) in 16^50. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1774, and immediately began the study of theology under the tuition of approved scholars and preachers, as the custom then was.

As a preacher he was received with marked favor, and his services were desired by several churches. In the brief term of his pastorate in Watertown he won the respect of his people by the virtues of his character, and commanded their admiration as a preacher.

After the death of Mr. Adams the pulpit was filled by various pro^ichers, emi)loyed for various terms of service, by a committee of the church, until the 18lh of March, 17fiO, when a meeting was called to consider the calling of a pastor. Mr. Richard Rosewell Kliot, who hail preached for the society during the preceding winter, was chosen by a unanimous vote. He accepted the invitation, and was ordained June 21, 1780. Dr. Francis records the fact that the town appropriated £1600 to defray the expenses of the ordination. What sort of festivities were indulged in is not matter of record. We may infer the condition of Ihc I'urrency, however, from the sum named.

The period covereil by the pastorate of Mr. lOliot saw the successful termination of the National struggle for independence, and the exciting and critical debates that resulted in the adoption of the Constitution. It was a time of hardship and of trial. The financial and industrial confusion of one great war were soon succeeded by the business stagnation incident to another, and there are indications that the Watertown parish and its minister had their .share in the troubles and depressions of the time.

Mr. Eliot died on the 21st of October, 1818. He was sixty-six years old and had been for more than thirty-eight years the minister of the First Parish. He was descended in direct line from John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, and was born at New Haven, Connecticut, October 8, 1752. He was graduated at Harvard in 1774, and was a class-mate of Mr. Adams, his predecessor in Watertown. In his early manhood he gained much reputation as an orator, but for the larger part of his life his health was poor and his strength was inadequate to the full exercise of his native gifts. As a preacher, he was graceful and pleasing in manner, and his doctrinal views were of the milder and more benevolent type. His virtues were such as fitted him to shine in the quiet walks of a life of piety and beneficence.

- Rev. Mr. Eliot's successor was Dr. Convers Francis, the last minister hired by the town. He had preached occasionally during the winter after the death of Mr. Eliot, and on the 12ih of April following (1819), the town concurred with the church in the invitation, and ofFereS him a salary of one thousand dollars and a settlement of the same sum. The ordination took place on the 23d of June, in the old meeting-house, a plan of which we give later, that stood near the corner of Mt. Auburn and Common Streets, in what is now the cemetery, and where his remains and those of his wife now rest.

Dr. Osgood presided at the council, and one might e.Kpect some disputation at this time, when the doctrines which were soon developed by the Unitarian controversy began to be differentiated ; " but everything went oft' without an infraction of the peace." Rev. Mr. Lowell made the first prayer. Dr. Osgood preached the sermon. President Kirkland made the con.secrating prayer, Dr. Ripley, of Concord, gave the charge. Rev. Mr. Palfrey gave the right hand of fellowship, and the Rev. Mr. Ripley, of Waltham, made the concluding prayer: " God grant that my ministry in this town Tnay be a long, a happy and a useful one, and that many may have reason to bless the day when my union with this people was formed." The ministry was a long, and, in many respects, a happy and a useful one. There are those still living whose childhood reaches back to that time.

Converse Francis was devoted to the ministry to which he was called. " But his record upon earth is blotted with the clouds of his humility and selfdepreciation. There never was a man of such various learning, delightful converse and refined philosophy, so absolutely unconcious of a personality. It seems at first as if more self-esteem would have enhanced his powers." In 1821 he says in a little diary, "God forgive me that, when speaking on the most important subjects, 1 am so cold and indifferent." " My mind is filled and pressed with anxious thoughts." He felt depressed that he could not lift the people to the level of his glowing thought. His quiet life in Watertown was made eventful by thoughts and books. He wrote the life of Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, for Sparks' " American Biography." A thousand or more of his manuscript sermons, now in the Public Library of this town, testify to his industry and his interest in his people. The classic writers of Greece and Rome were often in his hands. The literature oi France and Germany presented no barriers by their strange tongues. His library, a part of which is now the property of the town, gathered from all nations, shows his omnivorous reading. He was especially interested in the history of the past, the history of his own town and parish, as his history of Watertown and his historical addresses testify. He was an active member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and, by his collections of materials and his substantial contributions, showed that not only in the Bible, and in Bible history, but in all history he believed the thought of God could be traced dealings with his people.

He was something of a seer. When Emerson was covered with a cloud of obloquy, and even he could not agree with his remarks on some points, he says, '' The more I see of this beautiful spirit, the more 1 revere and love him ; such a calm, steady, simple soul, always looking for truth and living in wisdom and in love for man and goodness." Plato was also a bond between them.

He made (March 28, 18.37) some remarks on art, in speaking of the destruction of his old church : " In passing the site of our old meeting-house, I observed that to-day the last remains had been leveled with the ground. The old spire came down, the cock bowed his head to the dust" (it is now perched on the Methodist spire in the village) " after having stood manfully up amidst the winds of heaven. There is an interest attached to the humblest forms in which the genius of man makes itself apparent in outward shapes, however rude. Every church, every dwelling-house, every utensil we use in domestic life, every garment we wear, is a fragment in the great world of art, which has been building up ever since Adam. The individual forms and manifestations vanish, but art is ever reappearing. I believe, after all, I can never love my new church as I did the old one ; it had been consecrated by years of prayer and instruction ; generations had come and gone, and had sought God and truth within its walls; old men were there, with their gray hairs, whose infant fronts had

This is not the place to present his peculiar doctrines, or to present arguments in favor of his soundness in wisdom, or his success in reaching the truth.

The times were fertile in ideas and new organizations. New England was in labor. Whether the offspring of that day will help to bring on the millennium or not it is not the province of the historian to discuss. That the asperity of the controversies which began in those times is somewhat changed for the better, and that it found no occasion for being in Doctor Francis' mild, quiet, studious, loving life, there are many yet to testify.

There is in the Public Library a delightful portrait of Doctor Francis in middle life, painted by Alexander, a noted Boston artist, and given by his daughter Abby a few mouths before her last .sickness, the same time as when she entrusted to the same keeping the collection of his written .sermons, that they might be near where they were produced, and perhaps where they would find the children of those to whom they were preached, who might, for their fathers' and mothers' sakes, like sometimes to test the earnestness and purity of heart with which they were written.

Whether the people of the town would be better served, would be more highly ble.ssed, by the ministrations of the church, if all the differences of opinion and of sentiment that now divides it into so many societie?, with such sharp lines of doctrine, could be obliterated and all return into one fold, with one shepherd, as under the former ministers in the town church, or not, we will not attempt to answer.

As this period of Dr. Francis' long ministry (twenty-three years), which ended only with his acceptance of the important Professorship of Pulpit Eloquence in the Divinity School of Harvard University^ in the summer of 18-12, was the last one in which the town was united, we may find it pleasant to stop a moment to look it over.

We hoped to present an elevation of the old meeting-house, which was built, in 175.5, enlarged in 1819, and demolished in 1836. We must be content with a plan of the seating of the church as it is remembered by some of the old people who are still living.

This plan was drawn by Charles Brigham, architect, at the suggestion of Dr. Alfred Hosmer, president of the Historical Society of Watertown, and is the result of a large amount of labor and careful comparison of testimony. Here in the building thus represented were held all town-meetings.

The second Provincial Congress having assembled in Concord, on the 22d of April, 1775, adjourned to this house the same day ; the third Provincial (congress assembled here May 31st, and remained in session until July 19, 1775.

This house was immediately occupied by the Genral Court, or Assembly of the Colony, until they adjourned to the State-House, in Boston. It was again

This drawing shows a plan of the old meetinghouse as it was when last used as a place of worship, in IS.iii. It stood in what is now a burial-ground, on the corner of Mt. Auburn and Common Streets. The names are of persons who are now known to have been pew-holders, or to have had sittings.

We wish the lime and space allowed us would now allow us to give a short historical sketch of each person whose name is included in this significant plan. We cannot do better than present some reminiscences, from a member of the Historical Society, of

The Oi.i> Meeting-House.' - The old meeting-- bouse, 80 truthfully sketched by Mr. Brigham, has a greater interest for the towns-man of today than could possibly belong to any church edifice of the present time, similarly reproduced a century or two hence. The modern structure would only represent the particular occupants thereof, and their peculiar traits, whereas the one now under consideration has a secular, as well as a religious history. Throughout its entire existence it was the only place where the town-meetings were held, and that clliptically enclosed space below the |>ulpit, de signed for the dispensation of church ordinances, was also the forum where the edicts of the town were uttered and recorded.

Fn this place the moderator rehearsed the usual " Articles " of the "' Warrant " in their order with the conventiiiiially reiterated phrases of " To see," " To know'" and " .Vet thereon,'' so familiar to everybody nowadays. The people have not always received a printed copy of this document at their doors - a written copy was posted in a glass-covered case at the front door of the meeting-house, for the prescribed number of days. And where also every man, young or old, before he could take to his home, in lawful wedlock, the partner of his bosom, must have his intentions to do so, " published" over the signature of the town clerk during three successive Sundays. The town-reports also were not published, and could be consulted only by a resort to the records of the town clerk.

In the earlier days of the old meeting-house the town and the parish were an involuntary co-partnership - the minister w!Ui called the "minister of the town." An inhabitant it/o/t^fcd to the parish, wotow rolem~x\nA in a more chattel sense than was agreeable to an inconsiderable minority of persons. A tux-payer might abstain from it« teachings, but there were only two ways of escape from contributing to iU support - cither to move away, or die, before the l»t day of May. Afterward the law was so modified that Bcruplca could bo relieved by " signing off" (as it waa called) t« some other specified parish. And still Inter on, a/{ persons were exempted from involuntary

Selfish ends have been attained often by shrewd foresight and sharp practice. The clustering memories of the old meeting-house call up a transaction which, in the attending squabble, and the eminent counsel engaged, had at the time all the importance of a " cause celebre."

About fifty years ago, when the population had increased, and new parishes had been formed, a majority of the inhabitants petitioned the Legislature that the act of incorporation might be so changed that the income of the " ministerial fund," so-called, would revert to the treasury of the town.

The contention then was that, as the mini-stry of the town had become a subdivided function, the town provender should be correspondingly distributed, or else remain in the granari/. Moreover, the "Minister of the Town," municipally, no longer existed - and casuists queried whether the " ministerial fund," also, had not lapsed with the beneficiary. The petition was argued, /iro and co", b)' eminent counsel, before a committee of the Legislature, who reported leave to withdraw, on account, as was said, of the troublesome precedent of disturbing old vested rights and interests - some captious persons have pretended to descry a similar paradox in this case to that of the old jackknife that claimed identity with one that had a new blade, and a new handle.

The particular topic to which my random recollections were invited was a Sunday in the old " Meeting-house." I have made a prelude of its week-day history, which in its entirety would comprise a history of town affairs for a century, the later years of which will not much longer be rehearsed by eye-witnesses. My own experience in the Sunday services of the old meeting-house occurred in its latter days, now more than three-score years ago, when, and where, for a short time, in my early 'teens, I took part in the instrumental accompaniment to the church choir. The associations and personal friendships of those days have been unavoidably interrupted, but they will be remembered as long as the faculty for .so doing remains.

The especial object of interest in the Sunday service is the occupant of the pulpit, and to which object all other arrangements are incidental and tributary. The incumbent under our notice, the late Kev. Convers Francis, D.D., was a man of medium height and stocky build, made apparently more so when in the pulpit, by the ample folds of his silken robe. Under the canopy of the great broad sounding-board, which, by its seemingly slender hanging, menanced whoever stood beneath it with probable destruction, he unaffectedly delivered his always carefully written sermons, a large collection, of which, in their origi-

It seemed strange that one so amply endowed with exuberance of thouglit and fluency of speech never indulged in extemporaneous discourse in the pulpit. He could " reason of fate, foreknowledge and freewill," " from rosy morn till dewy eve," v.ithout note or break, and for conversation needed only a listener to make the onflow continuous. He did not aftect those graces of oratory that are exemplied by gesticulation, his emotion never found vent through his arms, nor did he ever attempt to make a point clearer liy laying one fore-finger upon the other. His convictions might have been shaken by argument, but they could not have been burned out of him with fire. His contempt for all 'isms and 'ologies other than his own was never disguised by any blandishments of demeanor.

He was equally vigorous in body and mind - books were as essential to his existence as bread, and were he required to dispense with either, he would have experimented up to the starvation point, at least, upon a diet of books alone. Many of those he read became much enlarged by his annotations upon the fly-leaves and margins - sentences would be underlined - exclamation and interrogation points sprinkled in - and in the margins would be found the " pshaws," or " bahs," or " boshes," or other forcible expressions, according to the intensity of his agreement or dissent. A great university of learning, to him, was more worthy of reverence than aluK^st any other human achievement. He made frequent visits on foot to Cambridge, where he was ultimately called to a professorship. This was his Mecca, and before whose shrine he passed the remainder of his days. I occasionally met him in the vicinity of the college, when he always stopped for a friendly chat about aflairs in Watertown, and the current topics of the day - especially of the anti-slavery movement, which was then at full tide - in which he took a deep interest, and for the noted advocates of which he had great admiration. The conservatism of his former years had melted away, and a wider field had been opened to his views and his desires. Mr. Brigham has given us a sketch of the pews and the names of their occupants also, with all the correctness of a sun-picture; but the history of a "Sunday service" would be lacking without the mention of an occurrence which was i'requently repeated, and which in any worshipping assembly of to-day would be a startling shock to the prevailing sense of propriety.

It was the custom to turn u() the hinged seats in the pews in order to make room. At the close of the slaiiding services they would come down with a whang and a clatter closely resembling the report of a volley of musketry by an undrilled company of militia; yet the devotional demeanor of the occasion was not disturbed, either in the pulpit or in the pews. In our sketch personal allusions are precluded through fears both of forgetfulness and seeming invidiousness. Cut there was one more, at least, who was part and parcel of our theme. He had a place in the front centre of the singing-gallery, where he accompanied the choir upon the 'cello. The sexton and the bell were no more punctually present in their vocation than was Col. Thomas Learned. He lived in a house, the site of which is now occupied by the house of Mr. Charles Q,. Pierce - ^from which, twice every Sunday, he could be seen with his instrument of music under his arm, wending his way to the church. And during the tolling of the " last bell " he was occujji'd with "tuning up," and the mingling of the .soft concordant sounds were a more fitting and pleasurable prelude to the succeeding exercises than the pretentious hullabaloo now sometimes inflicted as a " voluntary." He was also self-appointing tithingnian whenever the need existed - sometimes he would proceed to the vicinity of a group of disorderly boys in the " free-seats," and either push them apart and seat himself among them or else take the biggest rogue by the collar and lead him back to his own seat in the choir.

The attraction as well as the edifying influences of the singing service were as well understood and appreciated in those days as at present. If there were persons who were indifl'erent, to say the least, to their own spiritual welfare, might they not be " moved by the concord of sweet sounds," and thereby be brought within reach of the more salutary influences of the pulpit? Therefore, preparatory measures must be kept in operation for the replenishment of this branch of the service. Music was not a part of the town-school curriculum - the average scholar came out of it, finally, with as little ability (gained therein) to read a staff of printed music, as he had to comprehend the geometrical intricacies of the diflerential calculus. Now, " we have changed all that."

This want was supplied by the village .singingschool. It never attempted to exemplify " High Art," nor to produce extraordinary individual proficiency ; it did not aim at the training of professional " stars," but of a compaay of sujjernumeraries that would be available for the Sunday service of song. Other objects and influences incidentally grew out of and into it - the social element became prominent ; it afforded remarkably congenial conditions for the development of the " tender passion ;" conjugal affinities were brought within that sphere of mutual attraction where, " like kindred drops, they mingled into one ;" and many a fragrant flower there found recognition, which otherwi.se might have " wasted its sweetness on the desert air."

The village singing-.school passed away with the demise of our sturdy townsmen and intimate friends, Messrs. Joseph and Horace Bird. They rendered effectual voluntary aid to the singing services of the "old meeting-house" for a considerable time, meanwhile qualifying themselves, by study and practice under higher professional sources, to become teachers of this particular science, in which capacity they were widely known and esteemed, during forty years in our own and many neighboring towns, where they BHccessfuUy practiced their special vocation. They never needed importunity to take part in any movement that had in view the public welfare or the relief of private want.

Of the male members of the singing choir during my own sojourn, whose names and faces are still vividly in mind, there is not one now to be found. Of tliosein the same department, who, in the familiarity of youthful intimacy, were called " the girls," but two can be recalled, who would hear the sound of the old church-bell could it again peal forth from the newly reproduced steeple. And the occupants of the pews, excepting those who were then in early childhood, can now be counted upon the fingers - and some of these, although living in their original homes, are re-sidents of another town. And many of the family names borne by those who congregated in the old meeting-house, have become extinct, or are tending in that direction.

The losses we have enumerated were in the order of Providence, and therefore could not have been averted - others may have occurred through negligence. The associations connected with the history uf the old meeting-house were of sufficient interest to have induced, if possible, its further preservation - and it would have seemed proper action on the part of the town to have determined by examination and discussion, whether the " sentence " of demolition should not have been commuted. But fate decreed otherwise. And the structure that sheltered the Provincial Congress while in direful circumstances, passed away, " unwept, unhonored and unsung," and the green lawn upon which it stood was transformed into a final resting-place for the descendants of those who reared and occupied it.

Our readers will certainly pardon the wide range which memory of a place occupied for so diverse purposes as the town meeting-house calls up in the charming sketch which we have inserted without change or suggestion.

That the town, the modern New England town, the unit which is everywhere repeated, although in various combinations, in the organization of the State and the nation, had its origin in the parish., we perhaps have here one of the last chances to see. Originally an ecdesiiwtical organization, growing out of the democratic origin of the Christian church, the idea of the public good has in time come to be larger than the idea of kings or of any privileged class. In the history "f this church, this town, we see the municipal order separating from any and all churches, and launching out upon the independent, the broad and generalized idea of existence for the public good, and henceforth meeting (from LSI") in a town-house constructed for the purpose, wholly freed from ecclesiastical questions.

determining, it must be confessed, sometimes in a most tumultuous fashion, what shall be done for the restraining of criminals, the pre.servation of property, the education of the young, the care of the poor, and all those various concerns suggested by the common convenience.

Rev. John Weiss was ordained October 25, 18-13. He resigned October 3, 1845, because of his strong anti-slavery convictions, but resumed his pastorate on invitation of the parish in 1846, and continued till his resignation in November, 1847, when he was installed as pastor of the First Congregational Society in New Bedford.

Rev. Arthur B. Fuller became pastor March 1, 1860, and resigned in 1862, and enlisted with Company K, (?) receiving the appointment of chaplain of the regiment. He was shot in the streets of Fredericksburg, having volunteered to go over the river to the attack.

Of Mr. Weiss, the first minister ordained after the society was wholly separated from the town government, and serving long after all of the present churches - but one, the Episcopal - were established, much might be said. The time is too recent, although his service began nearly fifty years ago, and feelings are still too unsettled, the perspective too short, for a clear and impartial statement of the value of his labors. His services in the work of the public schools and in the establishment of the Free Public Library were of inestimable worth to the town. As time passes they will rise higher in the regard of his fellows. Mr. Weiss was born in Boston in June, 1818, and died there March 9, 1879. He went to the Chauncy Hall School for a while and afterwards to the Framingham Academy, from whence he went to Harvard College in 1833, graduating in the class of 1837, taught for a time at Jamaica Plain, entered Harvard Divinity School in 1840, spent the winter of 1842-43 at Heidelberg University in Germany, and on his return to this country was ordained, as we have stated, in 1843, over this old parish church.

Looking back over his whole service, his brilliant preaching, his interest in all forms of education, his cheerful and playful manners, his wit, and yet his earnestness, we are glad to take refuge in the appreciative words of O. B. Frothingham, a classmate and life-long friend, who says of him, in the course of quite a long article : unalloyed by terrestrial considerations ; a spiritlamp, always burning. He had an overflow of nervous vitality, an excess of spiritual life that could not find vents enough for its discharge. As his figure comes before me, it seems that of one who is more than half transfigured. His large head; his ample brow ; his great, dark eyes ; his ' sable-silvered ' beard and full moustache ; his gray hair, thick and close on top, with the strange line of black beneath it like a fillet of jet ; his thin, piping, penetrating, tenuous Voice, that trembled as it conveyed the torrent of thought ; the rapid, sudden manner, suggesting sometimes the lark and sometimes the eagle ; the small but sinewy body ; the delicate hands and feet ; the sensitive touch, all indicated a half-disembodied soul."

Soon after he graduated " he read a sermon on the supremacy of the spiritual element in character, which impressed me as few pulpit utterances ever did, so tine was it ; so subtle, yet so massive in conviction." Afterwards in New Bedford, he gave a discourse on materialism, which " derived force from the intense earnestness of its delivery, as by one who could look into the invisible world, and could speak no light word or consult transient effects. Many years later, I listened in New York, to his lectures on Greek ideas, the keenest interpretation of the ancient myths, the most profound, luminous, sympathetic. He had the faculty of reading between the lines, of apprehending the hidden meaning, of setting the old stories in the light of universal ideas, of lighting up allusions.

" His genius was eminently religious. Not, indeed, in any customary fashion, nor after any usual way. He belonged to the nationalists, was a Protestant of an extreme type, an avowed adherent of the mo.st ' advanced' views. His was a purely natural, scientific, spiritual faith, unorthodox to the last degree, logically, historically, critically, sentimentally so.

" He had an agonized impatience to know whatever was to be known, to get at the ultimate. Evidence that to most minds seemed fatal to belief was, in his sight, conformity of it, as rendering its need more clear and more imperious. ' We need be afraid of nothing in heaven or earth, whether dreamt of or not in our philosophy.' "

He was a more subtle and more brilliant thinker for being also a poet. Dr. Orestes Brownson, no mean judge on such matters, spoke of him as the most piomising philosophical mind in the country. To a native talent for metaphysics his early studies at Heidelberg probably contributed congenial training. His knowledge of German philosophy may well have been stimulated and matured by his residence in that centre of active tl^ought ; while his intimacy, on his return, with the keenest intellects in this country may well have sharpened his original predilection for abstract speculation. However this may have been, the tendency of his genius was decidedly towards metaphvsical problems and the interpretation of the 22-iii human consciousness. This he erected as a barrier against materialism. His volume on "American Religion" was full of nice discriminations; so was his volume on the " Immortal Life ; '' so were his articles and lectures. His " Life of Theodore Parker " abounded in curious learning as well as in vigorous thinking. He could not rest in sentiment, must have demonstration, and never stopped till he reached the ultimate ground of truth as he regarded it.

He was a man of undaunted courage. He believed, with all his heart, in the doctrines he had arrived at. He was an anti-slavery man from the beginning. At a large meeting in Waltham in 1845, to protest against the admission of Texas, Mr. Weiss, then minister at Watertowu, delivered a ."peech, in which he said, " our Northern apathy heated the iron, forged the manacles, and built the pillory."

To his unflinching devotion to free thought in religion he owed something of his unpopularity with the masses of the people. " There is dignity in dust that reaches any form, because it eventually betrays a forming power, and ceases to be dust in sharing it." " It is a wonder to me that scholars and clergymen are so skilled about scientific facts." " We owe a debt to the scientific man who can show how many moral customs result from local and ethnic experiences, and how the conscience is everywhere capable of inheritance and education. He cannot bring too many facts of this description, because we have one fact too much for him ; namely, a latent tendency of conscience to repudiate inheritance and every experience of utility." John Weiss was essentially a poet. His pages are saturated with poetry. His arguments are expressed in poetic imagery.

" AVhat a religious ecstasy is health ! Its free step claims every meadow that is glad with flowers ; its bubbling spirits fill the cup of wide horizons, and drip down their brims ; its thankfulness is the prayer that takes possession of tlie sun by day, and the stars by night. Every dancing member of the body whirls olT the soul to tread the measures of great feelings, and God hears people saying : ' How precious also are thy thoughts, how great is the sum of them ! When I awake I am still with thee.' Yes, ' when I awake,' but not before." '

After Mr. Weiss resigned, the society spent some time in hearing candidates, but in 1870 Mr. James T. Bixby was in.stalled, and he preached until 1873, showing those scholarly traits that have made him so famous as a writer since.

Within the last few years a ne»v building has been erected for Sunday-school work and for social purposes, which has proved an aid in religious and social ways. The Unitarian VAiib, of this church, the first to he estahlished in any society, has proved of help to its luendjers in leading to new interest and participation, in church activities, and has been followed in its form of organization by many new clubs in various parts of the country.

The Bai'Tist Church and Sabbath-School.' - During the summer and fall of 1827, Miss Eliza Tucker, Miss Martha Tucker and Miss E. Brigham united in gathering some of the children of the village together. Sabbath mornings, to teach them verses of Scripture and poetry, and also to properly observe the Sabbath.

They were successful, and tlie movement found favor with the jieople, especially the mothers, who were glad to have their children properly cared for on the Lord's day.

They held tiieir gatherings in the house of Deacon John Tucker (the building lately occupied by Otis Bros.), but their numbers increased so they had to seek a larger iilace, and in the fall of 1S27 they hired the hall in the brick building now occupied by S. S. Gleason and others.

In this hall the Sabbath-school was held at 0.30 A.M., and preaching .service at 10.30 A.m., every Sabbath. In .\pril, 1828, the school was organized, with a membership of thirty-five, including officei-s and teachers. William Hague, superintendent; Josiah Law, vice-superintendent ; Deacon Joaiah Stone, Elijah Pratt, Mrs. Pratt, Misses Eliza Tucker, Martha Tucker, E. Brigham and E. A. Wheeler were appointed teachers.

They occupied this hall until the fall of 1828, when they were obliged to move to a larger hall; they found such a hall in the building opposite Market and Arsenal Streets, where they remained until they moved into the vestry of the new church, in August, 1830, the same year the church was organized, composed of members of the Sabbath-school and others, which was July 18, 1830, with lorty-si.\ members.

In 18.57 tlie old house was removed and the new house was built upon the same foundation, with a few alterations. This was dedicated in 1859. During the sixty years, the church has had ten pastors, whose names and terms of service are as follows : (1) Rev. Puler Chase, served 1 year and 1 month ; (2) Nicholas Medbery, served 10 years and 10 months ; (3) E. D. Very, served 1 year and 1 month ; (4) C. K.

Phillips Church and SociETir.' - During the spring and summer of 1854 a pious and devoted lady, who wiis engaged in missionary labors in the town, became aware of the fact that many residents of the town were members of Congregational Orthodox churches in the neighboring towns and cities. A careful estimate gave from thirty to forty families. With these were connected many single individuals and a large number of children, who preferred to attend Orthodox Congregational preaching. Some of these had found a temporary religious home in the other churches of the town. But they had long felt that their own usefulness and growth in grace were in agreat measure dependent upon church privileges, in accordance with their belief and convictions. For this they had anxiously waited and devoutly prayed. It seemed to them that now " the set time to favour Sion had come," and, acting in accordance with this, and believing that God was ready whenever the instrument by which His work is carried on is ready, a meeting of all those known to be in favor of such an object was called. The first meeting was held at the house of David F. Bradlee, on Main Street, in the latter part of January, 1855. The meeting was adjourned one week in order to invite some brethren from the Eliot Church, Newton, to advise in the matter. At a sul)sec|uent meeting the subject was duly considered. The church was named after George Phillii)s, the first pastor of Watertown, and a committee chosen to procure a preacher. This committee were providentially directed to Dr. Lyman Beeclier, the father of Mrs. Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, who, after hearing some facts in relati( n to religious affairs in Watertown, said : " I will come and preach for you." He came, and his services were secured until a pastor was obtained.

Sabbath services were held in the Town Hall morning and evening. These services were well attended. Mr. Beecher was well advanced in life, but his eye was not dim nor his natural Ibrce abated.

He hold his audiences with a tight grasp, and even Theodore Parker, then at the height of his popularity, who preached in the same hall, on Sabbath afternoons, with matchless eloquence, hardly held his owQ against the stern logic and fire of Beecher, many of Parker's iiearers being found at the evening service, careful and attentive listeners.

The society, or parish, was legally organized in the month of March; and the church was organized on the 17th of April, 1855, with a membership of twentysix, received by letter from other Orthodox Congregational churches. A large council of churches from the neighborhood met in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the use of which was kindly oflered by that society for the purpose.

At the expiration of Dr. Beecher's engagement a call was given to the Eev. Stephen K. Dennen (then finishing his studies at Andover Seminary), who accepted, and was ordained and installed as pastor on the 11th of July, 1856. A lot of land was bought and a church building erected on the site of the present one. The locality was then an open country, and the large building had a seating capacity of double the present one, and was a conspicuous object for miles around. It was dedicated and occupied in April, 1857. The congregation increased slowly during the following years, with a good deal of up-hill work.

On the night of January 13, 1861 - one of the coldest nights of the season - the building was destroyed by fire. It h.ad got such headway before the alarm was given that nothing wps saved. The front of the building was much nearer the street than the present one, and many feared that the tall steeple might fall across Mt. Auburn Street, and do much damage. Fortunately it fell into the burning building.

For a time the enterprise seemed to stagger from the blow ; pastor and people had to begin the up-hill struggle over again. They went back to the town hall again till a new building could be erected; and about a year after the destruction of the first building they occupied their second house, on the 12th of January, 1862. This is the building now occupied by the society. It is much smaller than the first house, but up to this date it is large enough to accommodate the worshipers. It is much more commodious, having a chapel in the rear which is used for prayer-meetings. Sabbath-school gatherings and social purposes. Thereare library rooms, vestries and kitchen. There is a bell in the tower. The inside of the building is frescoed. The windows are of stained glass. The choir gallery is over the front vestibule. It is one of the pleasantest and prettiest church edifices in the suburbs of Boston. There is a row of graceful .shadetrees in front, and a well-trimmed lawn and concrete walks, the whole forming a picture in harmony with the neat private residences which cluster around it.

In August, 1862,. Dr. Dennen, at his own re<iuest, was dismissed from the pastorate, and for-a lengthened time the church depended on stated supplies. In the fall of 1863 the church secured the services of Kev. William L. Gage (afterwards of Hartford), who remained one year. This brief pastorale was one of great satisfaction to pastor and people, and the relations between them ever after were cordial and affectionate. Eev. James j\I. Bell succeeded as pastor in the following spring. He filled the ofiice for six years. He was followed in the pastorate by Rev. E. P. Wilson, who was installed on the 6th July, 1872. He remained pastor for near sixteen years, resigning February, 1888. During the vacancy the church was supplied by Dr. Webb, Dr. Dennen and others.

In the autumn of 1889 a unanimous call was given to the Rev. E. C. Porter, who accepted and commenced his pastorate on the 1st of October of that year, and continues his labors at this date. Under his faithful, and devoted pulpit and pastoral work the church and society have entered upon a fresh career of prosperity, spiritually and materially evinced by the large attendance, and interest taken in all the services of the church, the gain in membership, and the sound financial condition of the society.

The Sabbath school connected with the church has a membership of 262, including twenty-four teachers and six oflicers. The studies are graded from adult Bible classes down to a primary department, which is the largest and perhaps the most important of the school's work. It is in charge of a very efficient lady teacher, who is devoted to the work.

A deceased lady, formerly a teacher in the school, Miss Sarah Cook Dana, left a sum of money, the interest of which is to be spent yearly in the purchase of books for the use of members of the church and Sunday school, and to be called the " Dana Library.'' It is expected that the Sunday school library will be merged in it, and the Sunday School have thebenefit of it. There is already an excellent collection of books and more are to be added from time to time, of standard religious works, suitable for promoting sound knowledge and instruction among the members of the church and Sunday school, all of whom are invited to take out and read such books.

She also left a fund, the interest of which is to be spent in purchasing shoes and clothing for destitute children, to enable them to attend the Sabbath-school. Several missionary societies exist in connection with the church, viz : A Sunday-school, the Ladies' Missionary Society, the Phillips Mission Board, and the Sunshine-makers. They do a vast amount of work, and contribute freely for home and foreign mission work. There is also a Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, which is a strong and active association. The members are pledged to be active and earnest in Christian work, outside the regular meetings. There are at this date seventy active and twentyfive associate members on the roll of the society.

The officers of the society are E. A. Benton, president; Fred Lyman, secretary and treasurer. Most of the young candidates for church membership come from this society and the Sabbath-school.

The parish, which forms such an important part in Xew Knglaud Congregationalism, lias been so modified by tliis society of late years that only members of the church are eligible as members. Formerly, any member of the congregation could be voted into the parish. In ISSO, however, a committee of the pari.sh which had the matter under advisement for many years, reported to change the by-laws. The report was accepted and adopted. It reported that all names then on the parish register should be continued as members, but that after January 1, 1S87, only memberg of the church were eligible. Members of the church desirious of becoming members of the parish shall present a written request to the clerk. A Prudential Committee who shall have an article inserted in the warrant for the next parish meeting, to be then acted on by ballot. The parish is called the First Orthodox ParLsh of Watertown.

The treasurer's report for the year ending December 31,188!), gives the following items of interest In regard to its financial affairs. The receipts from pew rents, and the weekly offerings for the year amount to $2'J24.(i(j, and the expenditures to $2778.25, leaving a balance over to the new account of 1146. The Prudential Committee who manage the affairs of the parish, are : K. S. Piaisted, James H. Snow, Willard IS'. Chamberlain, ('lerk ; H. F. ftlorse, Treasurer ; J. M. Johnson. The annual meeting for the election of officers and other business is held in Ajiril of each year.

Chuich finances do not pass through the puri^h Treasurer. There is also a church treasurer. The contributions passing through him are the great Mi.ssionary As,sociation collections, which are taken up through the year, communion collections and other sums raised by the various benevolent societies of the church for the poor and other objects. The amount of these from all sources for the year 1889 was $745, 77, nuiking the income from church and parish for the year $3970,43. These pass through the treasurer's hands, but a considerable amount is given directly from private hands to benevolent olijects, of which no account is rendered. The growth of the church has been steady, with periods of marked discouragements and trial. The oflicers of the church, besides its pastors already mentioned were: Deacons - Wm. 0. Ladd, Ichabod II. Wood, Henry Waite, James (f. Fuller, Abiel Abbott, Charles E. Whittemore, David B. Makepeace, Frank F. Fay, Orlando W. Dimick.

The Phillips Church believes in carrying out the commission received from its great head of preaching the gospel to every creature, and in obedience to that command, finils warrant for its existence and work. It believes in the Congregational order, and polity of '

Church government, and in the sound Orthodox faith, once delivered to the saints, and by its preaching, teaching, and other ministries, seeks to bring into obedience to the law of Christ, men's lives. How far it has succeeded in this cannot be gauged byi numbers or financial success. Living epistles known and read of all men, are self-evident testimonies to the truth of the Gospel, which the church proclaims to a lost world, and this is the warrant and necessity for the existence of the Phillips Church. The following is a list of names of the original members who were received by letter, twenty-six in number, from other churches, at the formation of the Church, by Council.

Methodist EpiscorAL Church.' About the year 1822, Mr. and Sirs. Leonard Whitney were received into membership in the Methodist EpiscopaL Church, Sudbury, Mass. Removing to Watertown soon after, and finding no Methodist society in the town, they opened their own house for services. These at first were attended by but four persons, Mr. and Mrs. Whitney, John Devoll and Joshua Rhodes. Although so few in number, they did not become discouraged, but continued these private services, with occasional preaching, for about two years. Rev. C. S. Macreading, who was then pastor of the Methodist church, at Newton Upper Falls, took great interest in the work of establishing Methodisni in Watertown, and freely gave his services to the undertaking. October 4, 1836, the first class was constituted in Mr. Whitney's house. Beside the four persons already mentioned, the following were either at that time, or soon after, members : Sylve^iter and Cynthia I'riest, George and Grace Bigelow, Thomas and Eden Cam()l)cll, Dorcas A. Silfbrd, Eliza Whitaker and Mrs. (or Miss) Richardson.

Preaching was for some months obtained from various sources, but as the interest in and attendance upon the services increased, it was thought that with a little aid from the Missionary Society, regular preaching could be sustained. Accordingly ajiplication for this purpose was made to the New England Conference. The request was granted, Watertown was made a mission, and Rev. George Pickering was sent as first Conference preaclier, receiving bis appointment June 17, 1837. Regular services were .still held in Mr. Whitney's house, and here, August 4, ,'1837, was held the first Quarterly Conference.

The first stewards of tlie church, appointed at this time, were Leonard Whitney, George Bigelow and Joshua Rhodes; the last-named soon after removed to the West, and Sylvester Priest was appointed steward in his place. It now began to be generally fell that a larger and a permanent place of worshii) must be secured.

An old one-storied academy building on a slight elevation in the centre of the town was available ; this was bought for four hundred dollars, and in the summer of 1837 was dedicated with appropriate services.

At the close of this year it was reported that the Sunday-schocl numbered twenty, that there was a Bible class of twenty-five, and though a mission station itself, $21.84 were raised for missions. In 1838 W'altham and Watertown were united and made a circuit, which arrangement continued till 184G. During these years Revs. Geo. Pickering, E'ranklin Fisk, David Webb, Horace G. Barrows, Bradford K. Peirce and T. W. Tucker were in turn in charge of the circuit.

The junior preachers during the same time, who made Watertown their home, were Revs. O. R. Howard, E. A. Lyon, H. (x. Barrows and Geo. W. Frost.

Rev. ti. W. Frost was a local preacher, residing in Watertown, and teaching a grammar school ; he was recommended to the Annual Couferenceby the C^uarterly Conference of Watertown, and afterward became quite prominent. Removing to the West, he was ap- ]>oiuted Government Director and Purchasing Agent of the Union Pacific Railroad; he also served several terms in the Nebraska Legislature. He died in Omaha, February 2, 1888.

In 1846-47 Watertown and Dedham were united as a circuit, and Rev. W. R. Stone was placed in charge, with Rev. L. P. Frost, a local preacher residing in Watertown, as assistant.

In 1847 Watertown was made an independent station, with Rev. Daniel Richards as pastor. This proved to be a very important year in the history of the church. The necessity for larger and more accessible accommodations was felt, and the society thought that the time had come to change its location, so the hill property was sold at auction.

A man from Boston, unknown to any present, purchased it for a bonnet factory, but as it proved, he bought it for the Roman Catholics, and the site has ever since been occupied by their house of worship. June 6, 1847, was the last Sabbath in theoldbuilding. Having made the mistake of giving possession too soon, the society reluctantly left for the Town Hall, where services were held till August 1, each member pay three shillings to purchase additional books, and that the librarian be paid for bis services one shilling a night (or month). Evidently, great confidence was felt in the librarian or other officers, for the directors or society seldom met, except at the annual meeting at Bird's tavern.

At the next annual meeting, called with all the formalitiesof a regular town-meeting, held January 25, 1802, Moses Coolidge was chosen moderator, Saraue' Coolidge, clerk ; Thos. Clark, Nathaniel R. Whitney, Nathaniel Stone, David Stone and Thomas Bisco, directors. Voted, that the money which is not collected may be collected & laid out for such books as shall be thought necessary by the Directors. Voted, that the fines arising for not returning the books at the time, the past year, be appropriated for the covering, with leather, such books as the Directors shall think necessary."

So the records run on with some changes of names, with the annual purchase of books, collection of fines and assessments, and it is fair to believe, for after a few years the name of the library was changed to the Union Social Library, with a good social meeting at Mr. Bird's tavern, with such literary discourse as the batch of new books would naturally suggest.

After awhile, about the time of the last war with England, it was decided to pay the librarian for his services (two dollars) and also the cierk for his, and the only records are of theaunual meetings which were then held at the house of Samuel Bellows (the same tavern). In the year 1818, Joshua Coolidge gave his share to Joshua Coolidge, Jr. ; Col. Moses Coolidge, still chosen moderator nearly every yeai', is now made librarian ; Joseph Bird is made collector and assistant librarian. The records are very legibly written by Elisha Livermore, clerk.

In 1842, at a legal meeting, the warrant for which was issued by Tyler Bigelow, one of the justices of the pease, a report was received from a committee appointed to report on the state of the library, and proposing a union with the North District, was accepted and entered at length on the records.

As this report was prepared with evident care, partly by men who, twenty-six years afterwards, interested themselves in the Free Public Library, and as it recommended an immediate union with the North District, thus endorsing;; the plan of Horace Mann for furnishing the whole State with good reading in the District School Libraries, we think it of importance not only to the history of the library in this place, but as showing the results of both of these steps - the society library and the district school library - in thegradual development ofasystem of free public libraries, probably nowhere excelled in the world, and now quite generally patterned after by England.

We therefore make free extracts from the report, which was signed by Charles Stone, Daniel Learned, Joseph Bird, Jr., Thomas Livermore and Joshua

Coolidge, Jr. They report : "That the subject upon mature consideration seems more feasible and likely to produce good results to most of the proprietors and particularly to the district. A large number of the books are valuable, and only want more attention directed to them and also an introduction to a new class of readers to still be permanently useful." They complain that the books are not read ; that the neglect of them even seems to increase; give as a reason that not books enough can be bought to keep up the interest ; that personal assessments are too apt to be neglected, and the committee deplore the evident result to which all is tending, for several reasons : " First, that this Library, founded by our fathers many years since, should not be destroyed by their children, but continued to our children with increased energy and usefulness. Second, that many of the books could not now be purchased, and which, united with new books, would make a valuable library. Third and more important, that if the library should now be broken up, the taste for reading which is now with us, would lie dormant and perhaps be extinguished, instead of which it needs, by every proper means, encouragement."

The plan of union with the District School Library seems advisable. First, because of the new books added to the library ; second, that the " children, as they are plodding through the dull routine of education," - it must have been a dull routine before the days of Horace Mann, - " will be forming a taste for correct reading, which cannot fail to increase their usefulness in society; and still another reason is that parents also will be able to increase in useful knowledge and thus be better prepared to educate their children. This is no new idea. Many districts in our State already have libraries, one even in our own town. Of so much importance was it deemed by our Legislature, that it was proposed to form one in every District in the State, and it is probable, but for the pecuniary difficulties of the times, it would have been done." The report goes on to say that the Board of Education have begun to prepare a number of books to be sold as cheap as possible to encourage their adoption. Indeed it would seem that there should be no objection to a plan of this kind if properly managed, and they would hope that everyone will see the importance of either aiding the present plan or proposing a better one. They recommend a union with the North District, the library to be called "The North District Union Social Library." Minute and wise conditions are appended which were substantially adopted.

The remnant of this North District Union Social Library, after thirty-six years more of partial usefulness and natural neglect, came, in 1875, by the hand of Joseph Bird, together with the old and precious record-book, as a gift to the town, to the care of the Free Public Library, the natural successor to such and all other institutions for the education of the people through books.

Circulating Libraries. - Before speaking more explicitly of the experiment mentioned as District School Libraries, attention should be given to the work of circulating libmries in the town. Several have existed at different periods, well cared for by their owners, always open to those who were willing to pay the small fee for the daily or weekly use of the books, and furnishing such books as the taste or the selfish interests of their owners dictated. In some cases these books have given an impulse to study, and have laid the foundations of learning.

Such a library was kept by Mrs. Curtis, in the Hobbins house, near the Great Bridge. Mrs. Curtis was the daughter of "an intelligent, prominent and much respected citizen of Watertown, Mr. James Robbins, who carried on various branches of manufacturing,'' and had also a country store. When he died, in 1810, having been less successful in the latter part of his life, and having left a numerous family, with rather scanty means, this daughter, a person of energy and education, not wishing to be dependent upon friends, opened this library as one means of support. Here her two boys, Benjamin Robbins Curtis and George Ticknor Curtis, laid the foundation of their love of books for v?hich the world has since been richer. We may never know how much good was done by that collection for the mass of its readers ; but one grateful son has thrown a little light on the subject which is encouraging to those who, from any motives, are trying to bring good books to the attention of those who may be benefited thereby. Of course, "It was chiefly a collection of novels and poetry; and when I name the period during which my mother kept this library, as from about 1818 to 1825, the reader will see that Scott's novels from ' Waverly ' to ' Redgauntlet,' and all his principal poems; Byron's works; Southey's 'Thalaba' and ' Roderick ;' Irving's 'Sketch-Book,' BracebridgcHall' and 'Tales of a Traveler;' Cooper's 'Spy,' 'Pioneers' and ' Pilot ' and many other books, new at that period, might have been, as in fact they were, included in this collection. The books were much sought for by the surrounding families.

" A[y aunt's books were not embraced in the circulating library ; but she possessed, among others, an excellent edition of Shakespeare - of whose works she was a constant reader - Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' Young's 'Night Thoughts,' Thomson's 'Seasons,' Cowper's ' Poems,' Johnson's 'Rasselas, 'Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy Living and Dying,' and the 'Spectator.' I am ijuite sure that my brother's first knowledge of these authors was derived from her books. In a home so furnished with the lighter and some of the more solid materials of intellectual development, my brother became a great reader at an age when most boys care for nothing but their sports. At first he read novels incessantly," - this young judge! and why should he not? - "and I c«n well remember the sorrowful resignation with which he would surrender a volume of Scott, or Cooper, or Irving, when a call for it came into my mother's little parlor, from the 'shop.' From novelreading he passed to some of the historical plays of Shakespeare, and afterwards to ' Paradise Lost.' "

George Ticknor Curtis, in thus speaking of his brother's experience, says nothing of his own ; but as we know of his great ability in letters, and the fact that he was three years younger in the same circulating library, we are al liberty to draw our own inference.

Many years ago there was a circulating library in the north part of the town, and, until quite recently, there has been quite a prosperous one for many years on Main Street.

The District School Libraries planted by Horace Mann in almost every town in the State, have left the evidence of their existence in several districts of this town. A few of the books scattered among the families have come into the Public Library. There are less than a dozen of them from al! sources. It were an ungracious task to show why such collections of the wisdom of the ages should have so short a life and be dissipated so soon. The very conditions under which they were located, without permanent responsible care, being in charge of the teacher, who was changed each term, made their usefulness, as collections, of very short duration. Then, we believe, there were some grave difiicuUies of choice of books among the State authorities ; and the conflicting interests of publishers were, in this State, however they may have been managed in other States, very near insuperable.

They gave many a youth, however, a taste which helped in mature life to develop that larger knowledge of books which demands for all, the more permanent public library.

Book Clubs. - Since 1843, soon after Mr. Weiss came to town, there has been a very flourishing booh ei7<6, composed of some of our most appreciative people, who pass their books and periodicals from one to another in some prearranged order. More recently other book and magazine clubs have been formed.

Dr. Francis saj's, in his historical sketch of Watertown: " In 1829 a Lyceum was established. Connected with the Lyceum is a scientific and miscellaneous library ; there are two libraries besides this - one a Religious Library, the other a Juvenile Library." What has become of the Lyceum Library? The second one mentioned is probably what afterwards became the Parish Library, given to the Public Library in 1870 by the First Parish. This gift was an accession of over three hundred volumes, " rich in works of scholarly and devout thinkers."

Free Public Library. - The Free Public Library of Watertown was first opened to the public on the 31st of March, 1869, with 2250 volumes on the shelves, and $3000 in cash and subscriptions to be expended for books.

money to the town, given by quite a large number of residents and former residents of the town, in the year 1868, the town agreed " to accept the gift to establish a Free Public Library, provide a convenient place to receive it, and make it useful to the citizens. The said Library shall belong to the town, be cared for, and enlarged as circumstances will permit by annual votes of the town, in meeting assembled."

When the first catalogue was published, in March, 1870, the original subscription of $6000 having been expended and several considerably large contributions of books having been included, there were five thousand (5401) volumes, and nearly two thousand (19.'36) pamphlets and papers. When the second catalogue was published, in 1881, there were over twelve thousand (12,447) volumes, and nearly twelve thousand (11,880) pamphlets and paper. At present, in 1890, there are about 20,000 volumes and over 25,000 pamphlets and papers. The library is located, in a handsome building which, with improvements introduced since its erection, has cost, with the lot on which it stands, about $45,000.

The town has not in these twenty-two years failed to do its part in preserving, in maintaining, in enlarging, and in making useful this noble trust.

The history of the formation and growth of this library is creditable to the public spirit of the town. It was not, as we have seen, the first attempt in town to make a collection of books for public use; it was the first attempt, as far as we know, to make a collection /or the use of the entire town without expense to any reader.

The history of this library, perhaps not unlike the history of the public library in many another town, is full of interest. It is creditable to the public spirit, the energy and zealous self-denial of many of its citizens. What they did others can do, so that no town or community, following their example, need be without some kind of a public library. In the first steps, regard was had for what had been accomplished elsewhere, particularly in the neighboring town of Brookline, and in New Bedford.

In the movement for a public library in this town, it was accepted as a fundamental principle that people would pay for what they considered of real worth. That those who had enjoyed peculiar advantages of education, or by wealth had the necessary leisure for reading and acquaintance with books, would naturally know their value. Then, that those who from being associated with these would be influenced by them, would like to appear to prize what the others prized, and help what the others helped. In a word, that if a certain number could be found who knew the value of a library to themselves, and so by inference to a community, who also to their knowledge coul3 add a certain amount of Christian benevolence suflScient to enable them to make a sacrifice of the ownership or immediate possession of books that they called their own, and had themselves enjoyed, or were willing to transfer the investment of a portion of the funds which stood or might stand in their own name, to the charge of public trustees to be chosen for the purpose, in order that they might be invewted in books for the public use; in short, if there could be found a sufiicient number of people who could see that the wealth in their possession was something held in trust, and could see that by transferring a portion of their money for this specific purpo.se of a public store of books, they would more certainly advance the common good by this treasury of learning, to which all alike might go for information, and transfer their care to those to be benefited, and so relieve themselves so far from further care ; if, in a word, an appropriate appeal were made to the better educated and more benevolent members of the community, the foundation of a library would be secured. The appeal was made. The result more than established the correctness of the assumption. At each decided step in the direction of greatly increased expense, during the more than twenty years of experimental life of the library, such people have been asked to contribute of their means as an evidence of faith in the value of things asked for, and then the town has been asked to complete the appropriation.

Any community can have a public library if the more intelligent and benevolent will personally from their own means contribute one-half of the cost, and then will assist the rest of the community according to their rates by taxation to bear their share by public appropriation of the other half. The mass of any community can be brought to see that thus they, the principal gainers of the advantages of such an appropriation of fnnds, and only contributors to a part according to their amount of property, do a good thing for themselves and their town by voting the other half. The mass, I say. Alas! there are some stubborn exceptions to the truth of so natural and obvious an assertion.

The time will come when towns will vote libraries as they do schools, directly. When the experimental, missionary stage of the work has passed, then supplies for libraries will be voted as for roads, for public lighting, for schools, as a matter of necessity. For they will see that by creating a taste for reading among the children, for instance, who, growing up in idleness and vice, would form the criminal classes, they will be merely transferring a part of the expense of police and police courts and jails to other and better forms of restraint. In getting the idle and ignorant into reading-rooms, they are forming habits that will lead to knowledge and thoughtfulness and desire of personal independence and useful employment, and thus so far do away with the necessity of police machinery. The cost of insurance of the safety of property in a community decreases as the common estimate of the desirability and use of a public library becomes more universal. The productive energies of a people are increased by increase of knowledge. The quality of the skill of a community improves with the improvement of the minds of the workers and with the elevation of their taste and artistic sense. It is not necessary to predict converts to some particular idea or sect as the result of opening to a people the fountains of all knowledge. To one who believes that all knowledge, all truth in its vast ramifications, proceeds (rora and tends to one vast origin and end, and is a part of the great cosmos, there can be no fear as to the final result of opening all the flood-gates of light for the benefit of the seeker after truth. There will be limitations enough left in the capacity of men, in the willingness of human beings to consider the more desirable forms of truth.

We have indicated in a general way some of the peculiar conditions in this town favorable for the growth of the public library when once planted. The spirit of independence of thought and action, exemplified in its entire history, from the foundation by .Sir Richard Saltonstall and George Phillips, and the somewhat broad-minded Deacon Brown, like the light of a vestal lamp has never been allowed to be quite extinguished. In looking ovsr the history written by the successive School Committees, one is almost oppressed, it must be confessed, with the fear of the near approach of some fatal extinguisher of policy or parsimony. But it is only that the selfishness perhaps of those who bore the lamp, or their short-sightedness for the time, allowed the flames to burn low. Again and again the flame rekindles. In the report of 1S50 we read "thrift, thrift, Horatio," "it would be easy to show that good schools would pay us in good dollars," although the committee sadly, one would think, and with fear, recommended the raising of J'S'tO for each of the three school-districts with their total of 500 scholars. Now they cheerfully and confidently ask for *!2G,000 for 917 scholars. The committee of 1852, when an additional school-house was imperative, "respectfully suggests the establishment of a High School." In 1856, " If Watertown wishes to grow in numbers and in wealth, let her continue as she is now doing, appropriating liberally for the education of her children."

In 1805, " Mr. Jesse A. Locke proposed a set of prizes for actual improvement in demeanor and scholarship; so that industry, patience and a sense of iluty received the stimulus." In 1866, " The comniitte have determined, by aid of private subscription, to create the nucleus of a High School Library." In 1867, "There has been established a good [High School and Teachers'] library, which contains 276 volumes." " This Teachers' Library is a novelty, and the habit of using it has not yet become general among thime whom it. is intended to benefit." " The pu[.ils have come to depend upon the library."

The very man who as a boy attended those meetings of the Social Union Library Association in his father's tavern, Mr. Joseph Bird, who afterwards was a '.eucher of music with Horace Mann at West Newton, and at home was a hearty supporter of the scheme for District School Libraries, the custodian of the Union District Social Library of which we have already spoken, himself an omnivorous reader, obtained the first contributions for a " Teachers' Library," which were so generous as to inspire the hope that with similar eflbrt extended through the town, a fund of sufficient amount could be obtained to make the establishment of a town library - a free public library for the whole town - possible. The lesson was a good one, the hope has been fully realized.

It was " At a meeting of the School Committee called by Dr. Alfred Hosraer, chairman, May 7, 1867, voted to choose Messrs. Alfred Hosmer, John Weiss and Joseph Crafts a committee to consider the subject of a town library, and report at the next meeting." On July 2d it was "Voted, that the secretary transmit to the donors of the books that now compose the High School Library, the thanks of the committee, in behalf of the town, for such a generous contribution to the cause of education in Watertown." " Voted that the thanks of the School Committee be cordially expressed to Joseph Bird, for his personal interest and effort in securing the valuable books that now compose the High School and Teachers' Library in Watertown."