History of the town of Essex : from 1634 to 1868

Front matter

J

HISTORY

Town of Essex

Preface

Most of the readers of this vohime will recognize the first cha'pter as the "History of Essex (then Chebacco, a part of Ipswich) from 1634 to 1700," which was published in 1853.

In the preparation of the rest of the work, as well as of that first part, it was the author's plan to insert a " few fancy sketches of domestic, nautical and military life," in the belief, as he stated in his preface, that since these ■' were designed to be true to nature and in accordance

h the history of the times, they would not diminish Uiv value of the book as a history of the town. The ^r," he added, "will readily distinguish, it is presumed, between the facts of history and the drapery in which some bf them occasionally appear. Man is no less a reality for the dress, he may be supposed to have worn, according to the fashion of his day ; nor is it difficult to distinguish between the man and his apparel."

It was also his design to introduce as many biographical sketches of natives and residents of the town, as could be obtained ; considering that " the history of towns, is the history of townsmen, especially when acting for town or country."

And since some mention of public affairs — proceedings of the government, political movements, military opera-

IV PKEFACE.

tions and the like — by which the welfare of the people was in any way affected, or in w^hich their leading men took part, seemed to him essential to a full exhibition of the history of the town, he aimed to associate its successive stages with the most important events occurring in the colony, the province and the nation, of which it was a part.

It was his intention to close the history with the year 1819, and yet to increase its value as a work of reference, hy -appending a chronological record of events from that year to the date of its publication. At the time of his death, however, the work was completed no further than the year 1814, several gaps were still unfilled, and only a few of the materials were collected and arranged for the rest of it.

The town, at a meeting held April 1, 1867, voted to purchase the manuscript for ^publication, and since that time efforts have been made by those, into whose possession it had fallen, to supply deficiencies and to carry out as fully as possible the plan of the author ; but of necessity the book still has defects, from which it would have been free, had he himself lived to revise and finish it.

The last chapter, containing the doings of the town with reference to the loar of the reheUion and the sketches of its soldiers in the Federal army, has been written by Hon. David Choate. Some of the biograj)hical sketches (published originally in the newspapers), the "Walk about Town," the copious extracts from the records of marriages and deaths, and other facts have also been furnished by him. The whole work, too, has had the benefit of some revision at his hands, though he is in no w^ay responsible for its defects.

PEEFACE. V

The book is further indebted for many facts to several other citizens and particularly to Caleb Cogswell, Esq., whose researches have contributed much valuable material to the sixth chapter.

The author was dependent upon Rev. J. B. Felt's History of Ipswich for a number of statements, statistics and dates drawn from ancient documents; yet the most of these have been verified and all others have been taken at first hand from family papers and original records of all sorts. Some errors of dates will, perhaps, still be found, arising from unreliable sources of information, from mistakes in copying, or from oversight in the reading of the proof-sheets. Only those who have had experience in this kind of work can fully appreciate the difficulty of attaining perfect accuracy in such matters.

The hio graphical sketch of the author has been prepared at the suggestion and in accordance with the publicly expressed wish of a number of the citizens of the

town.

E. P. Ceowell.

Amuerst College, September, 1868.

Celebration of l^^ Bicentwtiia Yesterday.

f

Prof. Crowell of Amherst College Gives | a Historical PskPtcL

John Wise, the Brave First Pastor,] Sketched by Dr. Dexter. j

Wednesday was an intere?tiu3 day iuPiolnstory j of the town of Essex, as ils people ^^^^j^^,}^ | two hundredtn anniversary ot tl-e lus C^'S''- national Oluii-eU and parish, of winch the teariess , John V/ise was lirst pastor. There woto nMi.j m ; Stcndauee from abroad, so.ne of whom wore natives of the town who have fomu, t^^.r wayj -into olher sections of tlie country. A nunbei ot very au'cd i-eople were present, among them bslnfe j •Andrew W. Uurnham, who is in his 9'<>th yeai^ . The celebration exercises were held in alaitC: ,t:ent in which 600 people were assembled. Aiancien*. anthem was sung by a choir. aecOmna ed

tliechurcli and also lo the gratitude felt ioi tie men bvwbose mental and spiritual powe^ tWSj

centuries ago knowi ns ( l^*^ '■'\^,^>,,'^"'uoVtVv of the meetiue house, but owing ^o "« « Jf •'^L )'",'''H^ ?^

mmmmm

If ''Sior of tWB unincorporated sc^^^^^^^ ^3 P<>^''^"A,of,''^ „^,^l the house of worsh p

mimm

'^"?J.>'->y,.^^._one-third in money and "ordsof wood and eight 1 ' "^-nd barn were icept •rs' contribution*

Contents,

Page.

Biographical Skktch of the Author, 9

Appendix

Page.

I. Record of Marriages and Deaths, '454:, 460

II. College Graduates and other Professional Men, . . 475

III. Representatives and Senators in the Legislature, Town Clerks, Town Treasurers, Moderators of Annual Town Meetings and Justices of the Peace, . . 476,477"

Index 479

Biograpliical Sketcli of the Author.

Robert Crowell was bora in Salem, Mass., December 9, 1787. He was the son of a sea captain, Samuel Crowell, the commander of a privateer in the Revolutionary War, under a commission from Congress,* afterwards master of a ship in the East India trade, and who was supposed to have perished by shipwreck in the Indian Ocean in 1810, at the age of 55. It was not the lot of the subject of this sketch, therefore, to grow up under the watchful eye and with tlie guidiug hand of a father. His mother, however, — Mrs. Lydia Woodbury Crowell, — to whose care alone he was thus of necessity left, was a woman of more than ordinary intelligence, of energy and discretion and of earnest piety. It was no slight testimony to the fidelity and wisdom of the early training he received from her, that when he entered a store on Kilby Street, Boston, at the age of fourteen, on learning that the clergymen of his own denomination in that city had departed from what he had been taught to believe was the truth, and were preaching error, he decided to attend public worship at a Boptist church. The published history of that church mentions "a remarkable revival of religion in it during the first years of the present century." And with that condition of things, it is not strange that the preaching of its pastor. Rev. Dr. Samuel Stillman, a man eminent for his piety, and " the most popular pulpit orator of his day," — to which he thus statedly listened, should have made upon his mind, as be was wont to declare, religious impressions that were never efi'aced. Some three years of laborious service earned him the confidence of his employer and the promise of a partnership in trade at the age of twenty-one. But a love of books, and a desire for an education, which had been stimulated by the excellent schools of his native town, had strengthened rather than diminished by his separation from studies, and he returned to his home in 1804, to prepare for college at the Latin Grammar School in Salem, then under the instruction of Master Daniel Parker.

He had no means for defraying the cost of a liberal education and was obliged to set out on his course relying entirely upon himself. School teach-

* Captain Crowell's commission as " Commander of the schooner Greyhotmd, of forty tuns burthen, and mounting six carriage guns," is dated October, 1779, and has the signature of John Jay, President of Congress. 2

X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

ing — the first time at Manchester when he was eighteen years old — procured him the necessary funds only in part But he providentially found a friend in a neighbor, Mr. Joseph Hodges, who loaned him several hundred dollars, without interest or security, and who was content to wait for its repayment by installments from the professional salary of his beneficiary.

Entering Dartmouth College in the Autumn of 1807, he was fortunate in the class which he joined, not so much on account of its mmibers, (fifty-four at graduation,) though it was the largest which graduated at that Institution during the first sixty-eight years of its history, as because of the character of some of its members — the real culture of a college student being more vitally affected by the intellectual ability, the degree of enthusiasm, and the scholarship of the leading men of his class, than by almost any other influences of his academic life. Of those with whom he was thus brought into the very intimate relation of class-mate, several have attained high eminence in Church and State — among them his room-mate, Eev. Dr. Daniel Poor, missionary in Ceylon for forty years. Rev. Jonathan Curtis, the first scholar of his class and afterwards a tutor in college, Joel Parker, LL. D., now Professor of Law in Harvard University, and Hon. Ether Shepley, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine. Many others have been useful and influential in the various learned professions.

While an undergraduate, his tastes inclined him especially to the study of the Greek and Latin classics, and mental and moral philosophy. But his conscientious fidelity in all the studies of the college course, and his eagerness to make the most of them as means of discipline and culture, have been attested not more by some who were his associates then, than by his rank as a scholar. Of this no more need be recorded than that he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, to which only a certain part of each class — the first third in scholarship — were eligible.

At his graduation in the Summer of 1811, he was at no loss in deciding upon the profession for which he should study. His Christian life, as he always afterwards believed, had begun in the Winter of his first year in college, while he was teaching a school in Reading. The consciousness of his unfitness to comply with a rule, requiring the daily sessions of the school to be opened with prayer, compelled him to an immediate and earnest consideration of the subject of personal religion, and led him, through a Divine renewal of his character, "to devote himself to God as a penitent believer in Jesus." Giving evidence of this change he had united with the Tabernacle Church, of which his mother had for many years been a member, March 10, 1810, and throughout his connection with college had been known as an active and consistent Christian. He now looked upon the work of the Christian ministry as both a duty and a privilege for himself. And impaired health and want of funds forbidding his entering the Theological Seminary at Andover, he studied divinity with his pastor, Rev. Dr. Samuel Worcester.

BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOE. XI

In 1813, he received licensure, and in June of that year preached for the first time in Chebacco. The pulpit being at that time vacant he was employed as stated supply for the remainder of the year. Several months following ho spent in Home Missionary labor in Maine, and while in that work he received, in March, a call from the Church and Parish in Chebacco, to become their pastor. His acceptance of this call is dated, " Salem, June 25, 1814," and his ordination took place on Wednesday, the 10th of August following. Of the public exercises on that occasion, some account is given in this history. The relation thus constituted continued unbroken forty-one years and terminated with his death by pneumonia, November the 10th, 1855. His funeral was attended at the church on the afternoon of the 13th, on which occasion a discourse was delivered by Kev. Dr Daniel Fitz of Ipswich, from Deuteronomy 11:31, and prayer offered by Eev. Wakefield Gale of Rock port.

In his domestic life during this long period, there were some experiences of sorrow which were adapted to discipline him more perfectly for the " ministry of consolation," but of which it is fitting that only the briefest mention should here be made. Married very soon after his settlement, August 29th, to Miss Hannah H. Frost of Andover, he was deprived of her by death, December 11, 1818. His second wife, Miss Hannah Choate of Essex to whom he was united September 2, 1822, died on the 9th of February, 1837. Two children were taken from him in their infancy, and a third — Washington Choate — at the age of twenty, when a student of medicine and apparently on the threshold of a life of usefulness.

A ministry of such duration was necessarily the witness of many and great changes in the community where its offices were performed. Stretching beyond the middle of the century from a point so near its beginning, this pastorate beheld the erection of the parish into a town ; a steady and considerable increase in its population and its business ; its advance in educational privileges ; its participation in seasons of religious awakening, in the temperance reformation, and in national political excitements ; its growth in intelligence and enterprise, along with the enlargement of the nation, the wonderful progress of the age in science and the arts, and the origination of almost all the appliances of an enlightened |)hilanthropy for the benefit of the diseased and' for reclaiming the vicious, as well as for christianizing the heathen. This term of official service also spanned the life of more than an entire generation ; so that in his earliest parochial visits the pastor conversed with some who recollected the burial of Pickering, and had enjoyed the fifty years' ministry of Cleveland, with not a few who had been old enough to share in the excitements of the Revolution and had seen the beginning of the Republic; and in his latest days numbered among his congregation many whose parents had been reared under his preaching. In this long series of years he had literally followed to the grave more than eight hundred

Xii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

of his people. He had officiated at the baptism of two hundred and fifty-six persons, and united in marriage three hundred and fourteen couples.

Yet even in this eventful period, and while an attentive spectator of such constant and important changes, his own ministerial work could admit of very little variety, and of nothing novel or extraordinary. Most of his time must be spent in the seclusion of the study. In parochial duties, — religious conversation, the visitation of the sick and the afflicted, and the burial of the (Jead, — there was the same unvarying routine. Each year was a repetition of the preceding in its regularly recurring services of worship and of preaching ; and his appearance in public was almost wholly limited to these occasions. His pulpit was never vacated except from sickness, and his only deviation from the round of his ordinary duties consisted in attendance upon meetings of the Association, and of the Conference and upon Councils. His pastorate, therefore, like that of most country clergyman, could be characterized by few incidents of general or striking interest, or even such as would be fitted of themselves to reveal or illustrate the distinctive traits of his character.

His very steadfastness, however, in this undeviating and limited course of action certainly indicates that he had a definite plan and purpose in life to which he constantly adhered. Of the general features of this ideal we may, perhaps obtain the most correct views, — though at best but glimpses — from some of his own published discourses ; since the standard of clerical living which he commends to one entering the profession could hardly be other than the reflection or echo of his own sentiments, and in his delineation of a completed ministerial career would be almost unconsciously disclosed those qualities of mind and heart which seemed to himself most excellent, and which he was ever striving to attain. At the same time in judging of his approach to the model thus outlined in his own words, the reader must make suitable allowance for the coloring of the picture ; since near relationship, while it has the best opportunity of observation, must be incapable of impartial judgment.

Apparent on. the most casual glance at the life of Dr. Crowell,* is his conscientious and exclusive surrender to his professional calling as he deemed it indicated to him by the finger of his Divine Master. That such a devotion was distinctly contemplated, must be inferred from his reply to the "call" to the pastorate, which thus closes : — " To you Providence directed me in the commencement of my ministerial labors. And to you, if I am not deceived, the same Providence is now calling me for a more permanent residence among you. This call I would not resist, being confident in this very thing, that if God has any work for me to do, He can prepare me for it and direct me to it." His success in realizing this purpose, the language he used respecting a father in the ministry, perhaps with some abatement, describes : — " He sought to be

* The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College in 1850.

BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. Xlll

a minister and nothing but a minister. He never suffered any other object to divide or distract his attention. His mind could not indeed be prevented from ranging through the works of nature that he might see and adore the wisdom of their Former and gather up truth wherever it was to be obtained, but he brought all his attainments in knowledge from whatever source derived, and laid them down at Jesus' feet. He was an attentive observer of the political prospects and changes of the world, and particularly of his own country which he ardently loved ; but all his observations he brought to bear upon that Christian ministry to which he was devoted."*

His enthusiasm in theological study was sustained, if not kindled, by this single aim to be faithful and useful in the work given him to do. It was one of his strongest convictions that " imbecility and a barren ministry must be the necessary consequence of a relaxation from studious habits and a reliance upon what has been already acquired. The itinerant preacher may travel the country with the same scanty stock with which he commenced, but the settled abiding pastor must be constantly adding to his fund of knowledge, if, like the well instructed scribe, he would bring forth out of his treasury things new and old." f With the value to the minister of a critical knowledge of the Scriptures in the original, he was deeply impressed. His everyday life testified to the sincerity and consistency with which he charged the candidate for this office to " make the searching of the Scriptures a special study. Be not content," was his injunction, "to read them in any other language than those in which they were originally written. However excellent the translations in English, yet see for yourself that they are thus faithful, that you may add your testimony to this interesting fact, and prevent if possible, evil men and seducers from wresting the Scriptures by a false appeal to the original tongues." He himself read the Hebrew and Greek Testaments systematically and carefully to the end of his life — a practice rare at his day, even among the graduates of Theological Seminaries. The meaning of every passage he was to expound and of every chapter to be interpreted at the monthly meeting of the ministerial association, was thoroughly examined in the original.

In all investigation of religious truth, it was his maxim that one should "study the scope and end of the Scriptures, and make them his only authority for what he believes and practices. He should draw his whole creed from this high and sacred source; never bringing to it any human system, however excellent in itself, or however well sustained by the authority of man, for the purpose of making the Scriptures accord with it ; but examining everything in the light of Scripture, and receiving or rejecting it according as it agrees or disagrees with this unerring standard." % Of his own religious belief, as

* Sermon at the funeral of Eev. Dr. Joseph Dana, November 19, 1827. t Charge at the ordination of Rev. J. Taylor, Wenham. t Ibidem,

Xiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

thus developctl, his summary of Dr. Dana's would be a fan- representation. "In respect to sentiment, he was a firm believer in those doctrines usually denominated Calvinistic, and which embrace as cardinal points — the Trinity — man's native and entire depravity — regeneration by the special influences of the Holy Spirit — ^juftification by the righteousness of Christ alone — election — the perseverance of the saints — man's free agency and accountability — the resurrection of the dead — the final judgment — the eternal misery of the wicked and the everlasting happiness of the righteous." These truths he held solely because he found them in the Bible, "to which alone," like his venerated friend, " he repaired to learn what he should believe and what he should preach ; and for the truth of them he was remarkable for exhibiting ia all his public discourses Scripture authority."

With such a creed growing out of such a constant and reverent j>erusal of the inspired Word of God, as a perfect and authoritative revelation, he could not be guilty of any ambiguity in Ms utterances from the pulpit, or of any effort to win popularity by the subject matter, or the style of his sermons. " Ask not," was his admonition to the young preacher, " in the selection of your subjects for the pulpit, what will please men, but what will please the great Head of the church, and preach the preaching which he hath bidden you. Let no consideration of interest or expediency induce you to omit, in the course of your ministry, any one doctrine or duty of Holy Writ, but faithfully declare the whole counsel of God." In full accord with this precept was his own practice. His characterization of Dr. Dana's sermons was, in proportion to his ability, applicable to his own. " His statements of divine truth were full, clear and impressive. His public discourses were rich in sound instruction and persuasive exhortation, expressed in language simple and pure, and in a style grave, perspicuous and forcible. " They were noted," said Rev. Dr. Fitz in his funeral sermon, " for strength of argument, for depth of research, and for their direct and solemn appeals to the conscience and the heart."

Deriving from the same Divine source his idea of the relative importance of the various duties devolving on him, he always made the public presentation of religious truth from the pulpit paramount to all else. "He ever felt" — to introduce again his own words to another — "that the first and most important duty which he owed his people, besides visiting the bereaved, the sick and dying, was the preparation of thoroughly digested discourses for the Sabbath."* In his estimation, "no frequency of pastoral visits, no zeal in the number and continuance of religious meetings, no sacrifice of time and strength in carrying out plans for the promotion of the great public charities can atone for the neglect of this, the most appropriate and the most important of all ministerial duties, because God's chosen method of saving them that believe." f Yet tvhile making pastoral duties subordinate to the ♦Charge to Mr. Taylor. f Ibidem.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. XV

preaching of the Gospel, his surviving parishoners will testify "-with what affectionate solicitude he watched over their spiritual interests, and how deeply he sympathized with them in all the vicissitudes of life," rejoicino- with them that rejoiced in the social circle, and at the marriage festivity, and weeping with them that wept whether in the chamber of sickness or the house of mourning.

Of his eagerness to supplement the ministrations of the pulpit in every possible way, several illustrations are worthy of record. He established a Sabbath School in less than a year after his settlement, May, 1815, when such organizations were still rare and hardly more than an experiment, and acted as its superintendent for the first season. In 1821, he taught a weekday school and "expended the avails of his labor in the purchase of books for a church library, that his church might be furnished with increased facilities for acquiring the knowledge of duty and of God."* This library was increased, until it numbered more than two hundred volumes of standard theological, and other religious works, and was for many years a source of much interest and profit to a considerable portion of the members of the church. At one period, quite early in his ministry, he was wont to call together the children of the Parish at stated intervals for catechetical instruction in the meeting-house, and this exercise was attended by a large number. At another time he gave lessons to a class in the rules of music, to prepare the way for a singing-school, and thus for the improvement of the choir. In the Summer and Fall of 1827, he taught a Bible class on the Sabbath, in which exercise questions in writing by the members of the class were handed to him for answer.

Seeking thus to do only the legitimate business of his sacred office, he had his reward in the occurrence of several seasons of special religious interest among his people, and in the addition of two hundred and fourteen persons by profession to the church, which at the time of his ordination contained but six male members, and only thirty-two in all. As the result of one of these revivals of religion which began in September, 1827, and of which more particular mention is made elsewhere in this history, eighty-three persons were admitted to the church, among them many of the members of the Bibleclass above referred to. According to the recollection of some of his parishioners, his labors during that harvest season were incessant. " His style of preaching was the same as usual ; his manner, earnest and impressive, manifesting a deep feehng of his dependence upon the Holy Spirit ; and he often expressed the fear that he should prove an unprofitable servant. He attended most of the inquiry meetings, went from house to house holding several short meetings the same day, and conversed freely with his people wherever he met them." f

While aiming at the best possible cultivation of his own field, he could not, * Dr. Fitz's funeral sermon. + Deacon Caleb Cogswell.

Xvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOE.

however, confine his thoughts or limit his exertions to that. The same spirit of single-hearted devotion to his Master's cause, which animated him in his parochial duties, overflowed into undertakings for the moral and spiritual welfare of others. " The arms of his expansive benevolence embraced within them the welfare of the town, the country and the world. Whatever related to the spiritual good of man and to the glory of God deeply interested him. With grief he saw the progress of error, and lamented the wide and increasing departure of so many in this generation from the faith and practice of their pious ancestors."* One indication of his interest in the prosperity of the chui-ches in immediate fellowship with his own, is found in the fact communicated by the present scribe of that Body, that ' ' he took an active part in the organization of the Essex South Conference of Churches, on the 8th of May, 1827, was Moderator of the first meeting after its formation, and was rarely absent from its sessions as long as he lived." But he was especiallyinterested in the work of laying anew the foundations of evangelical religion in several places in his own neighborhood, participating in this with the late Rev. David Jewett, of Sandy Bay, (now Rockport,) with whom he was- " particularly acquainted for more than thirty years, and intimately associated in several objects of benevolence." f "It was their earnest and united efforts," writes Rev. Charles S. Porter, the first pastor of the Congregational Church 'at Gloucester Harbor, " aided by a few warm-hearted laymen, that called into being the evangelical churches at the Harbor and at Lanesville, (then a part of Annisquam parish).

Many were their prayerful consultations, their journeys, often on foot, to raise funds in behalf of those Christian enterprises, and frequent their visitation of those places for the purpose of preaching, at first in school-houses, and of conversing in private with the people. These churches and that in West Gloucester are so many monuments to the zeal, wisdom and fidelity of those men, erected while they still lived to perpetuate their iftemory on earth." " After the incorporation of the Religious Society at Lanesville, March 6, 1828," adds Rev. Thomas Morong,. its late pastor, " Dr. Crowell took a lively interest in everything pertaining to the project, both by preaching there and by uniting with a few other ministers in soHciting the funds necessary for the erection of a house of worship. Of the land, upon which that building was erected, he was made one of the Trustees. At the organization of the church, August 25, 1830, he was present, and took part in the exercises. He is remembered by that church as a constant benefactor and friend in their day of small things." Respecting similar labors in other places, Rev. Mr. Morong furnishes the following information drawn from the records of the Essex South Conference, of which he is the scribe. " On the 9th of May, 1832, the Conference, at the instance of Dr. Crowell and Mr. Jewett, resolved, ' That this Conference: