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19 1911 *; 
 
 /^NE HUNDRED AND 
 
 ^^ SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS 
 IN THE LIFE OF A CHURCH 
 
 %f6totical Setnton 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE ONE HUN- 
 DRED AND SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNI- 
 VERSARY OF THE ORGANIZATION 
 OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 IN HASSANIMISCO PLANTATION, 
 NOW GRAFTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 DECEMBER THE THIRTIETH, 1906 
 BY SAMUEL ALLEN *^ARLOW, 
 PASTOR OF CONGREGATIONAL 
 CHURCH, AT GRAFTON, MASS. 
 
 %/CAL SEU-^' 
 
The Davis Press 
 Worcester 
 
THE town of Grafton occupies a portion of 
 territory which used to be called the Nipmuck 
 country. The Nipmuck Indians of which the 
 Hassanimisco Indians were a branch, seem to have been 
 less warlike than many of the neighboring tribes, and 
 the Rev John Ehot who commenced his labors at 
 Natick in 1646 among the Indians of that place, found 
 them ready to Usten to the preaching of the gospel. 
 The Nipmuck Indians were most friendly with the 
 Natick Indians, and Ehot in a letter to the Corpora- 
 tion of London in 1649, describing his work among 
 the Indians says: "A Nipnet Sachem hath sub- 
 mitted himself to the Lord, and much desires one of 
 our chief ones to Uve with him and those that are 
 with him." Within a few years after this the great 
 Apostle to the New England Indians visited this 
 section, for in 1654 the General Court, on the petition 
 of Ehot, set this town apart for the use of the Indians. 
 For a number of years after this Ehot often 
 visited this locahty, and carried on his work with 
 such fruitfulness that on September 23, 1671, an 
 Indian church was formed in the town, which was the 
 second organization of the kind in Massachusetts. 
 The church was organized by Ehot himself, or by 
 some one acting under his direction. The church 
 grew in numbers, and the Indian reservation ot 
 Hassanimisco came to be the center of a large and 
 wide-spread Christian influence. 
 
A school was established for the study of the 
 Bible in the Indian language. The chief ruler of the 
 Nipmuck country lived here. Maj. Daniel Gookin, 
 who was a friend of the Indians, visited Hassani- 
 misco in company with Ehot in 1674, and gives 
 us the following picture of this interesting Indian 
 village : "This village is not inferior unto any of the 
 Indian plantations for rich land and plenty of meadow, 
 being well tempered and watered." 
 
 "Their ruler is named Ananeakin, a sober and 
 discreet man. Their teacher's name is Tuckappa- 
 willin, his brother, a pious and able man, and apt to 
 teach. Their aged father whose name I remember 
 not, is a grave and sober Christian, and deacon of 
 the church. They have a brother that Hves in the 
 town, called James, that was bred among the English, 
 and employed as a pressman in printing the Indian 
 Bible, who can read well, and as I take it write also. 
 The father, mother, brothers and their wives, are 
 all reputed pious persons. Here they have a meeting 
 house for the worship of God after the Enghsh fash- 
 ion of building, and two or three other houses after 
 the same mode, but they fancy not greatly to live in 
 them. Their way of living is by husbandry and 
 keeping cattle and swine; wherein they do as well or 
 rather better than any other Indians, but are yet 
 very far short of the English both in diligence and 
 providence. There are in full communion in the 
 church and living in town about sixteen men and 
 women, and about thirty baptized persons; but 
 there are several others, members of this church, 
 that live in other places. This is a hopeful plantation." 
 
 So great was the educational and missionary 
 activity of this Indian conmiunity that in 1674, three 
 
 6 
 
years after the organization of the church, seven new 
 villages of praying Indians were formed in different 
 places around Hassanimisco. One of the members 
 of the native church in this town, whose EngUsh 
 name was James the Printer, and afterwards, James 
 Printer, rendered Eliot immense service in assisting 
 him to set up the type of his famous Indian Bible. 
 He was educated in the Indian school at Cambridge, 
 and apprenticed to Samuel Greene to learn the printer's 
 trade. Ehot, in a letter to Hon. Robert Boyle of 
 London, 1682, accords him honorable mention for 
 his great service. Afterwards, in 1709, Printer and 
 a son of Samuel Greene pubhshed a Psalter in the 
 Indian and English languages. James Printer at 
 one time served the native church as a teacher. 
 The period upon which our attention has been fixed 
 was one of peace, prosperty, growth and influence 
 for the httle Indian reservation of Hassanimisco. 
 But dark and troublous days were in store for its 
 people. This is not the occasion, however, to describe 
 at length the calamities and sufferings which befell 
 the community. 
 
 The story of King Philip and his disastrous 
 war with the whites moves one deeply with its pathos 
 and horror. PhiHp was the son of the noble hearted 
 Massasoit, who, with his braves, marched to Ply- 
 mouth between three and four months after the 
 Pilgrims landed, and entered into a league with 
 the new colony which lasted in an unbroken friend- 
 ship for over forty years. Phihp himself at first 
 assumed a friendly attitude toward the English. 
 The hanging of three of his own tribe, however, by 
 the white men, without sufficient justification in his 
 eyes, and the deep seated disHke in his breast of the 
 
 7 
 
encroachments upon Indian territory by the English, 
 and his dread of their future supremacy, as well as 
 the war spirit of his young men, decided him at last 
 to take up arms against the whites. There could 
 be but one outcome of such a struggle. In the end 
 the English were sure to conquer. But it was not 
 an easily won victory. The war was wide-spread 
 and terribly destructive. The English suffered 
 grievously. Whole villages were wiped out of 
 existence. Fire and massacre wrought destruction 
 and death in scores of happy, peaceful and prosperous 
 towns. Women and children were burned in their 
 homes, or wantonly killed; and the farmer never 
 knew in what hour his foe might shoot him down, 
 or spring unseen from some ambush. In this 
 dreadful war of races a dozen towns were completely 
 destroyed, and scores suffered more or less by fire 
 and massacre. "We will fight to the last man before 
 we will become servants to the English" was the cry 
 of one of the great chiefs. The tide of war began at 
 last to turn, and Phihp found himself, Uttle by httle, 
 deserted by aUies. He became a fugitive, hiding in 
 caves, forests, and swamps. When his wife and 
 son were taken prisoners he cried out in despair and 
 sorrow, "My heart breaks. Now I am ready to die." 
 Not long after this Phihp was shot by a traitor Indian 
 while hiding in a swamp, and his head carried to 
 Plymouth where it was exhibited on a pole for a 
 number of years. I am told that one of the Indian 
 skirmishes during King Phihp's war was fought on 
 land now belonging to Mr. David L. Fiske. 
 
 The village of Hassanimisco suffered severely in 
 the Indian uprising. A large number of the Christian 
 Indians of their own free will, or by compulsion, 
 
 8 
 
joined the forces of King Philip. It is just possible 
 that "blood which is thicker than water" may- 
 have had something to do with their casting in 
 their lot with their own race. Some of the natives, 
 however, remained loyal to the English throughout 
 the war; while others, after fighting against the 
 whites for a time, returned to their former friendly 
 relations. Those who remained hostile were punished 
 when captured. The chief of the Nipmucks, who 
 lived here, and through whose influence some of the 
 Christian Indians were persuaded to fight against 
 the whites, was taken captive and carried to Boston 
 where he was put to death. 
 
 Thus the prosperous, and Christian plantation of 
 the Hassanimisco Indians was overwhelmed in utter 
 desolation and ruin; and the church which had sent 
 its bright rays of Christianizing influence abroad into 
 the surrounding darkness, and has helped to make 
 the name of Eliot imperishable, was so broken and 
 scattered that it ceased to have an existence. 
 
 A number of years after this devastating war, 
 a mere handful of Indians wandered back to this 
 hilltop where, in other days, their wigwams clustered 
 in a happy and unmolested settlement, and the 
 sound of Christian prayer and worship floated out 
 over these hills and valleys. In 1698, twenty-one 
 years after King Philip's war, according to the Eeport 
 of Commissioners of this Province, there were only- 
 five Indian families living on the old Hassanimisco 
 reservation. James Pi inter, who had rendered 
 Eliot such fine service in the printing of his Indian 
 Bible, was one of the Indians then living in this toM^n. 
 He was a man of unusual intelligence, and of upright 
 character, and was the teacher of the little community 
 
 9 
 
which had gathered here. The Indians now were 
 without a church or a school, and their numbers 
 increased but Httle. There sprang up a movement, 
 about this time, on the part of the Enghsh settlers 
 in this town, and in Shrewsbury, Marlborough, and 
 other places, to secure possession of the land still 
 owned by the surviving members of the old Hass- 
 animisco tribe. For two or three years the subject 
 was discussed by those interested in the project, and 
 the matter was at last laid before the General Court 
 of Massachusetts in the form of a petition by inhabi- 
 tants of Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Concord, Ipswich 
 and other towns. The General Court appointed a 
 committee to look into the matter and report. This 
 committee visited Hassanimisco, consulted with the 
 members of the tribe, and brought back the report 
 that the Indians were wiUing to sell all land which 
 they did not care to cultivate. After various delays 
 the General Court in December, 1727, granted the 
 petitioners the right to purchase, and the Indians 
 to sell, some 7,500 acres upon certain conditions. 
 The forty proprietors were to pay to Trustees ap- 
 pointed by the General Court, the sum of £2500, the 
 interest of which was to be paid to the members of 
 the tribe as the General Court should order and 
 direct. The deed of purchase also gave to the Indians 
 the farms which were already under their cultivation, 
 "together with one hundred acres more of land there, 
 to be the present Indian Proprietors', their heirs 
 and assigns forever." Of this land there now remains, 
 on Brigham Hill, some three or four acres, in the 
 possession of James L. and Lewis S. Ciscoe, the 
 descendants of the Hassanimisco Indians. 
 
 10 
 
On March 19, 1727, the transfer of the land by 
 the Indians was consummated, and Ami Printer, 
 Moses Printer, Peter Muckamaug and Sarah his wife, 
 besides five other native Indians made their marks 
 opposite their names, and ground which had been 
 trodden by the moccasined feet of the Red Man, passed 
 into the possession of a race which akeady had com- 
 menced to mould into fresh and original forms the 
 life of this Western continent. 
 
 Certain conditions were imposed upon those 
 who had bought the Indian lands. The white pro- 
 prietors were required "to make a settlement in the 
 town of forty English families; each of whom should 
 build a good habitable house, and break up and fence 
 at least four acres of land within three years." They 
 were required, also, ''That within ye space of three 
 years, they build and finish a meeting house for ye 
 pubhck worship of God, and build a school house for 
 ye instruction as weU of ye Indians as Enghsh chil- 
 dren, and settle a learned Orthodox Minister and 
 Schoo' master among them; and yt all ye above 
 articles shall be without charge to ye Indian natives." 
 
 The meeting-house was built within the next 
 three or four years and was first used for religious 
 services and town meetings in the winter of 1730, or 
 the early spring of 1731. The school-house was 
 built in the autumn of the same year. The new 
 settlement prospered and grew in numbers and its 
 inhabitants thinking that it had become of sufficient 
 size and importance to become a town, petitioned 
 the General Court that it might be constituted a 
 separate town. On April 17, 1735, between seven 
 and eight years after its purchase from the Indians, 
 the House of Representatives passed an act author- 
 
 11 
 
izing and empowering "the Freeholders and other 
 qualified voters to assemble to make choice of Town 
 Officers." The next day, April 18, the act received 
 the endorsement of Governor J. Belcher, and Council 
 as follows: "Ordered, That the plantation of Hass- 
 animisco, in the county of Worcester, as the same is 
 hereafter bounded and described, be and hereby is 
 set off and constituted a separate and distinct town- 
 ship by the name of Grafton." It is not known 
 exactly how the name Grafton came to be given to 
 the new town. It frequently happened that the 
 House of Representatives omitted the names of the 
 new towns, in the acts of corporation, and left the 
 omission to be supplied by the Governor and council. 
 It has been suggested that Governor Belcher designed 
 to bestow a compliment upon Charles Fitz Roy, 
 Duke of Grafton, and a grandson of Charles II, and 
 a man who had possibly shown, in some way, an 
 interest in the Massachusetts colony. 
 
 Through various vicissitudes of a profoundly 
 interesting character, we have briefly traced the 
 history of the old Hassanimisco plantation. We 
 now come to the time when the chui'ch organized 
 one hundred and seventy-five years ago by the English 
 settlers, began its historic life as a rehgious and 
 spiritual force in the community. One of the con- 
 ditions upon which the forty proprietors secured 
 possession of the town from the Indians was that a 
 meeting-house should be built within three years, 
 and that a "learned orthodox minister" should be 
 settled. 
 
 The first meeting-house stood near the center 
 of our present Common, a little to the south. It 
 was a very plain structure, with porches one story 
 
 12 
 
and a half high on three sides. Stairs led from the 
 porches to the galleries on each side of the house. 
 The church was furnished at first with only nine 
 or ten pews; benches being used in the remaining 
 space. These pews resembled large boxes, with 
 seats on three sides, and they were so high-backed, 
 and shut in the people from view so completely that 
 they came to be called "pits." The pulpit towered 
 above the people and was equipped with a huge 
 sounding board which was a constant source of wonder 
 to the youth of the congregation. 
 
 As the deed of purchase required that the Indians 
 were to be free of all charge to support the preaching, 
 they were seated after considerable discussion near 
 the entrances of the church. In 1832 this meeting- 
 house was removed from the common, a short dis- 
 tance west of its old site, and is now known as the 
 "Arcade," and is used as a dwelling house and a 
 business block. 
 
 On the fly leaf of the first records of the church 
 of Grafton one reads as follows: "A Book of the 
 Records of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ at 
 Hassanimisco gathered the 28 of December Anno 
 Domini 1731." We here touch the fountain head 
 of whatever history we, as a church, have been 
 making the past one hundred and seventy-five 
 years. It is profoundly suggestive to note the name 
 by which the first church of Grafton was called. It 
 went under no special or distinctive denominational 
 name. It was, unquestionably. Congregational in its 
 polity; but it was organized under the simple and 
 comprehensive name of "The church of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ at Hassanimisco." And this was the 
 term used, in that day, when referring to the 
 
 13 
 
churches of Shrewsbury, or Westboro, and elsewhere — 
 "the church of our Lord Jesus Christ" or sometimes, 
 in abbreviation, "the church of Christ." The formal 
 organization of the church is described in the 
 Records under date of December 28, 1731. It 
 reads as follows: 
 
 "A church of our Lord Jesus Christ being about 
 to be gathered in this place, the candidates for the 
 church were by the Reverend Elders" (observe, please, 
 the use of the word Elders as applied to the ministers) 
 "and beloved messengers in Council assembled, desired 
 to bring their certificates from the churches which 
 they respectfully belonged unto which are as follows:" 
 Then follow the admission by letter of different 
 persons from Ipswich Hamlet, Framingham, Shrews- 
 bury, Sutton, Sudbury, Cambridge, Marlborough, and 
 Westborough, Mass. The whole number who were 
 admitted at this time was twenty or twenty-two. 
 
 The Rev. Solomon Prentice, Pastor-Elect, united 
 by letter from the church of Christ in Cambridge. 
 The certificates having been presented, the Council 
 then proceeded to organize these persons into the 
 church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Hassanimisco. 
 The following day, December 29, the Rev. Solomon 
 Prentice was ordained as pastor over the newly 
 organized church. The Rev. Ebenezer Parkman of 
 Westborough offered the opening prayer; the Rev. 
 Nathaniel Appleton of Cambridge preached the sermon; 
 the Rev. Mr. Smith of Framingham offered the 
 ordaining prayer; the Rev. Mr. Loring of Sudbury 
 gave the right hand of fellowship, and the Rev. Caleb 
 Trowbridge of Groton joined in the laying on of hands. 
 
 It may be interesting to know in what form the 
 members of the first church of Christ in Grafton 
 
 14 
 
embodied their religious and doctrinal beliefs. It 
 was, by no means, an elaborate theological statement. 
 It was simple, explicit, and more confessional and 
 experimental than is the modern expression of 
 religious belief. It sunnnarized briefly, but compre- 
 hensively, the fundamental points around which the 
 churches of Christ in New England centered their 
 religious life. In the old records of the church 
 this statement of belief is set forth under what 
 was called, "The Foundation Church Covenant " 
 I will read a few selections. 
 
 "We, whose names are herewith subscribed, 
 inliabitants of Hassanimisco, in New England, 
 knowing that we are very prone to offend God the 
 most high, both in heart and life, through the prev- 
 alency of sin that dwelleth within us, and the mani- 
 fold temptations from without us; for which we have 
 great reason to be unfeignedly humble before Him 
 from day to day, do in the name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, with dependence upon the gracious assistance 
 of his holy spirit, solemnly enter into a covenant with 
 God and one another according to God, as follows:" 
 
 Seven articles of the Covenant then follow. 
 One reads: "We bind ourselves to bring up our 
 children and servants in the knowledge and fear of 
 God by his instructions according to our best abilities 
 and in special by the use of our common orthodox 
 Catechism that the true religion may be maintained 
 in our families while we Uve; yea, and among such 
 as shall live when we are dead and gone." 
 
 The third article says: "We promise to keep 
 close to the truth of Christ endeavoring with lively 
 affection towards it in our hearts to defend it against 
 all opposers thereof; which, that we may do, we 
 
 15 
 
resolve to use the holy Scriptures as our Platform 
 whereby we discern the mind and will of Christ and 
 not the new found inventions of men." In the 
 fifth article those who signed the covenant promise 
 to observe the two seals — "Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper." The Rev. Solomon Prentice was settled 
 upon a salary of £90, which was afterwards increased 
 to £100. In a "Title of Real Estate on South street, 
 in Grafton Mass., from the Hassanamesit Indians in 
 1727 to Arthur A. Simmons in 1894," as compiled 
 with great care by Mr. Simmons, and which I have 
 examined vv^ith much interest, we learn that the 
 proprietors of the town assigned forty acres of land 
 to Mr. Prentice. The "Minister's Lott" as it was 
 called, extended from the south line of the meeting- 
 house lot south to a point between the present estates 
 of Dr. Robert Lilley and the late Mr. S. A. Forbush. 
 The house in which Mr. Prentice lived stood between 
 the homes of Mrs. Geo. W. Fisher and Mr. Albert 
 L. Fisher. The present parsonage therefore, occupies 
 a portion of the original grant of land to the first 
 minister of this town. 
 
 The Rev, Solomon Prentice was born in Cam- 
 bridge, Mass., May 11, 1705, and was graduated at 
 Harvard College in 1727. He was twenty-six years 
 of age when he entered upon the pastorate of this 
 church. In 1740 George Whitefield visited this 
 country, and Mr. Prentice became an ardent admirer 
 of the great Enghsh evangelist. It is said his invita- 
 tion to Whitefield to occupy his pulpit created severe 
 criticism, and this act, together with his liberality 
 in admitting lay preachers into his pulpit, and also 
 certain extreme religious utterances, led to such 
 opposition and division among the members that 
 
 16 
 
a council was called in 1744 to consider the matter. 
 A large number of charges, — some thirty in all — were 
 brought against Mr. Prentice. None of these charges 
 reflected in the slightest way upon his moral character. 
 They all referred to certain expressions and pecuUar 
 teachings which were regarded by the council as 
 unscriptural and erratic. One charge brought against 
 him was that he asked: "To what purpose is it 
 to preach to an unregenerate man? To tell him he 
 must not kill, must not steal, must not do these and 
 those things? For he has no power to resist them; for 
 he is the devil's slave and vassal, and doeth just what 
 the devil would have him do." This teaching was 
 considered by the council as "carrying the matter 
 too far." Another charge was that he had said, 
 "Some ministers would advise some persons in dis- 
 tress to pray; which he said was abominable." 
 After prolonged and stormy sessions, lasting for nine 
 days, the council, after condemning certain teachings, 
 and cautioning him for the future, finally decided to 
 exliort the disaffected members of the church to 
 forget all past grievances and to sit peaceably under 
 the ministrations of Mr. Prentice. The apparently 
 amicable settlement of the difficulties of the church 
 did not last long. No real and permanent reconcilia- 
 tion had taken place. The people charged Mr. 
 Prentice with not following the advice of the council 
 in all particulars. He replied that it never had been 
 his intention to do so, for the reason thac it would 
 have been contrary to his conscience. The church 
 was again thrown into a state of d.saffection. Council 
 after council was held without any fruitful result. 
 Painful and distressing times followed for the church 
 and pastor, until Mr. Prentice made it known that 
 
 17 
 
"he was discouraged in his station," and would 
 welcome a dismission. A council was called July 10, 
 1747, by whose advice he was dismissed. In his 
 letter to this council, he alludes in a most touching 
 way to his trials, and after manifesting a tender and 
 loving interest in the members of the church, he 
 expresses the hope that he may still continue in the 
 sacred office of the ministry, "if it might be for the 
 glory of God, and the spiritual good of His church 
 and people." The Rev. Mr. Prentice subsequently 
 preached in Easton, Bellingham, and Hull. In the 
 autumn of 1772 he returned to Grafton, and died 
 in May of the following year in the sixty-eighth year 
 of his age. He was buried in the old cemetery of 
 the town. Mr. Prentice was called by the people 
 in his days a "New Light." The exact meaning of 
 the term is obscure, but it is thought to refer to the 
 inner light, or knowledge, which some of the revival- 
 ists and lay preachers of the day claimed to possess. 
 I have tried to form a picture in my mind of this 
 first minister of the Church of Christ in Hassanimisco. 
 I think I understand him in a measiire. He was of a 
 highly impressionable natm-e; ardent, impulsive, and 
 emotional in temperament, with a tinge of mysticism. 
 It is not surprising that a man of his temperament 
 should have been deeply moved by the dramatic 
 and persuasive preaching of Whitefield, when we 
 remember that Governor Belcher kissed and wept 
 over the great evangelist when he left Boston. 
 
 Solomon Prentice may not always have balanced 
 truth with care, and he was doubtless indiscreet and 
 extreme, at times, in his religious utterances. That 
 he was a man of deep spirituality, high ideals, noble 
 aims, and profoundly anxious to lead his people into 
 
 18 
 
the deeper and richer experiences of the Christian 
 Ufe, I have no doubt. He stands out as a true, faith- 
 ful, high-minded minister of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. May his memory always be cherished. 
 
 The people in the time of Mr. Prentice were not 
 permitted to choose their own pews and seats in the 
 meeting-house, and were under the necessity of 
 taking those which were assigned to them by a com- 
 mittee. This assignment which occurred from 
 time to time, was called "seating the meeting-house," 
 and the seats were assigned to the congregation 
 "according to estate and age." The seats in the 
 box pews ran around three sides and hung on hinges. 
 During the long prayer, when the congregation stood, 
 they were raised; and the youthful attendants hailed 
 with delight the general slamming which was the 
 signal that they could once more sit down. The 
 custom prevailed for the congregation to tui-n around 
 and face the choir; and the town clerk would announce 
 in church, for three successive Sundays, the names of 
 those who intended to marry. There was no way 
 to heat the meeting-house on the Common, and the 
 people after the morning service would go over to the 
 hotel and warm their feet before the great fire place 
 with its blazing logs, and then go back to listen to 
 the second sermon in the afternoon. The music 
 was led by a choir, and at first, a violin. The instru- 
 mental part of the choir grew in numbers as time 
 went on, and during the pastorates of Mr. Miles and 
 Mr. Biscoe, there was an orchestra of several pieces, — 
 a violin, a base viol, a cello, and a clarinet. 
 
 The church was without a pastor for three years 
 after the dismission of Mr. Prentice. June 6, 1750, Mr. 
 Aaron Hutchinson, of Hebron, Conn., was ordained 
 
 19 
 
the second pastor of the church. He was graduated 
 at Yale college, and was honored with the degree of 
 Master of Arts from Harvard and Dartmouth Colleges. 
 He served the church for twenty-two years with 
 marked ability. He was a strong Calvinist, severe 
 in his theological views, and inclined at times to 
 controversy. He was an excellent classical scholar, 
 and he sometimes carried on his recitations with 
 young men while ploughing in the field. He had a 
 remarkable memory, and would often conduct the 
 service of the church without opening a book. He 
 would ask the congregation to follow him with their 
 Bibles or hymn books. He was a man of rather 
 eccentric and brusque manners, which evidently 
 did not always please the people. It was during 
 his pastorate that the church adopted the use of 
 Watt's Psalms and his first and third book of hymns, 
 as well as a number of authorized t;unes. A choris- 
 ter was also chosen. Mr. Hutchinson closed his 
 pastorate November 17, 1772, and removed to Pom- 
 fret, Vt., where he supplied various churches until 
 his death September 1, 1800, at the age of seventy- 
 six years. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Hutchinson was succeeded in the 
 pastorate by the Rev. Daniel Grosvenor. He was 
 born in Pomfret, Conn., and graduated at Yale 
 College in 1769. He was settled over the church in 
 Grafton October 19, 1774. His ministry covered the 
 stirring times of the Revolutionary War. He was 
 an ardent patriot, and he gave signal proof of his 
 interest in the cause of the colonies by "leaving his 
 pulpit, taking his musket, and joining the company 
 of minute men that went to Cambridge on the 19th 
 of April." Mr. Grosvenor was a man of winsome 
 
 20 
 
personality. His manners were courteous, affable, and 
 dignified. His fine conversational power, readiness 
 of wit, and fund of anecdotes made him a great 
 favorite in the social circle, and a delightful compan- 
 ion. In the pulpit he was fluent and vivacious. 
 He avoided doctrinal preaching. The church was 
 harmonious under his ministry, and when at the 
 end of fourteen years he asked for a dismission, owing 
 to the loss of his voice, the request was granted 
 with the greatest reluctance. After Mr. Grosvenor 
 recovered his voice he preached in Paxton for eight 
 years; then removed to Petersham where he died 
 July 1834, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. 
 
 The church was without a settled pastor for nine 
 years after the dismission of Mr. Grosvenor. It 
 then called the Rev. John Miles. Mr. Miles was born 
 in Westminster, Mass., November 3, 1765, and was 
 graduated at Brown University, 1794. He was 
 ordained as the fourth pastor of the church October 
 12, 1796. The number of people who gathered to 
 witness his ordination and settlement was so large 
 that the services were held in the open air on the 
 Common. Mr. Miles w^as the minister of the church 
 for thirty years. It was a period which embraced, 
 "beyond doubt, the most embarrassing and trying 
 portion of the history of the Massachusetts Congrega- 
 tional churches, and under his ministrations it was 
 in a united and prosperous condition." Mr. Miles 
 held rather liberal theological views. The care of 
 the public schools fell largely to his supervision, and 
 he devoted a great deal of time to their interests. 
 
 The movement toward more liberal theological 
 views had been gathering momentum in the churches of 
 Massachusetts, and when discussions and dissensions 
 
 21 
 
arose in the church and town of Grafton, Mr. Miles 
 asked to be dismissed. His pastorate closed October 
 1825, and he removed to Shrewsbury where he lived 
 until his death in March 1849, aged eighty-four years. 
 
 The year following the dismission of Mr. Miles 
 the church called, September 21, 1826, the Rev. 
 Joseph Searle. Mr. Searle was born in Rowley, Mass., 
 1797, and graduated at Princeton College in 1821. 
 He was the minister of this chm'ch for five and a 
 half years. Two of our number, Mrs. Elizabeth W. 
 Flagg and Mrs. Martha H. Dodge, united with the 
 church during his pastorate. 
 
 After eighty years his gentleness and amiability 
 are vividly remembered. To the young he was 
 approachable and friendly. He was a deeply spirit- 
 ual man. The conversion of his people was a cause 
 of constant solicitude and labor. His eyes would 
 fill with tears as he talked of the spiritual condition 
 of the church. The following incident has been told 
 me by one who clearly remembers it. It made 
 a lasting impression upon her mind. Mr. Searle 
 was once speaking to her, when a girl, about uniting 
 with the church at a time when there was consider- 
 able religious interest among the people. She told 
 him that she might possibly wait until another 
 Communion. "Suppose you should not live until 
 another Communion," was the reply. His pastorate 
 of less than six years was one of the most fruitful in 
 the history of the church. One hundred and sixty- 
 two persons — young and adult — were added to the 
 membership. His ministry was blessed with one of 
 the most extensive revivals the church has known. 
 
 I have been reading recently, a sermon published 
 in 1828, by request of the Grafton and Westborough 
 
 22 
 
churches, on the subject of Slander, from Prov. 26:20. 
 "\ATiere no wood is, there the fire goeth out; so where 
 there is no tale-bearer, the strife ceaseth." It indi- 
 cates a mind of high order ; a close student of human 
 nature ; and in diction and imagery possesses a literary- 
 charm which shows Mr. Searle had gone to the foun- 
 tains of "English pure and undefiled" for his style. 
 Influences to which there has already been allusion, 
 made themselves felt in a more decided manner dur- 
 ing Mr. Searle's pastorate and finally led to his leaving 
 the church. To quote from a brief history of the 
 church pubhshed in 1842 : "At the close of the Rev. 
 Mr. Searle's ministry, the church and a part of the 
 society, finding that there was no probability of their 
 continuing to enjoy the ministrations of an evangel- 
 ical pastor while connected with the parish, seceded 
 from it, and made provision for the preaching of the 
 gospel in its purity, by the erection of a commodious 
 house of worship." Mr. F. C. Pierce in his admirable 
 history of Grafton says; "The church in a body, 
 with a large minority of the parish, withdrew, thereby 
 relinquishing their right as members of the First 
 Congregational Society." Into the discussion of 
 this separation it is not at all necessary to enter. 
 We profoundly wish that it might never have hap- 
 pened. That there were prolonged discussions, ani- 
 mated and intense, there is no doubt. But there 
 was one great infelicity in the whole' system of church 
 life'^in Massachusetts, in those days, which we are 
 profoundly thankful has ceased to exist. The town 
 was virtually the parish, and its inhabitants, who were 
 assessed for the support of religion, had the legal 
 right to vote on church and ecclesiastical affairs. 
 That day, most fortunately, has passed. The separa- 
 
 23 
 
tion of churches into Unitarian and Orthodox went 
 on at this time, throughout New England, with 
 considerable rapidity. The Massachusetts General 
 Association in 1836, as stated by Prof. Williston 
 Walker in his History of Congregationahsm, reported 
 "eighty-one cases of church division, and property 
 valued at $600,000 left in the possession of the 
 Unitarians." The men and women who felt com- 
 pelled to go out from the original "Church of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ" in old Hassanimisco had, for a time, 
 no house of worship. They climbed at first, the stairs 
 which led up on the outside of the ell of the present 
 home of Mr. Roswell A. Smith, to a hall or room where 
 they gathered for their services. The people used 
 to call it "going to Upton," when they went there 
 to worship. Afterwards they held their services in 
 the dance hall of the old hotel; and then upon the 
 invitation of the Baptist church, they worshipped in 
 the vestry of that church. 
 
 The Rev. John Wilde was called to succeed the 
 Rev. Mr. Searle. Mr. Wilde has born in Dorchester 
 in 1803, graduated at Middlebury College, Vt., in 
 1827, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 
 1831. He was installed pastor of the Evangelical 
 Congregational Church, June 20, 1832 and resigned 
 seven years afterwards, and removed to Conway, 
 N. H., on account of the health of his wife. He 
 preached afterwards in Maine, but his own health 
 failing him he visited California. On his return 
 east he had charge of the Laurel Bank Seminary, 
 Deposit, N. Y., and subsequently opened a school in 
 Stamford, Conn. He was again compelled to give 
 up active work on account of feeble health, and he 
 removed with his wife and daughter to Alexandria, 
 
 24 
 
Va., where he died Febuary 10, 1868 at the age of 
 sixty-five years. He was a man of scholarly tastes 
 as is shown by his work after leaving Grafton. Mr. 
 Wilde married shortly after his installation, Miss 
 Julia M. Forbes, the daughter of Deacon Jonathan 
 Forbes of Westborough. Her father built the house, 
 probably for his daughter, in which Mr. Arthur A. 
 Simmons now lives. It was during the pastorate of 
 Mr. Wilde that the present church was built at a cost 
 of $8,400. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas C. Biscoe was installed the 
 seventh pastor of the chui'ch J\ily 18, 1838. He was 
 born in Cambridge July 18, 1810, and gi-aduated at 
 Amherst college in 1831. After teaching one year 
 at the Academy at Brattleboro, Vt., he devoted three 
 years to theological studies and was hcensed to preach 
 in 1835. The pastorate of Mr. Biscoe was one of 
 signal ability and large accessions to the church. 
 During the thirty years of his pastorate four hundred 
 and forty were added to the membership. His 
 pulpit ministrations were of such a forceful and 
 impressive character that they made a lasting im- 
 pression upon those who heard him. He was a 
 Calvinist of a rather severe type, and he delivered his 
 message with a profound sense of its vast reality and 
 solemnity. The people heard in full, unmuffled 
 sound, the thunders of the law. I sometimes think 
 it would be a good thing if they reverberated a little 
 louder in our day. There is no doubt that such 
 preaching, stiff and uncompromising as it was, put 
 back-bone into men, and moulded them often, into 
 large and heroic types of Christian manhood. Mr. 
 Biscoe fitted admirably into an age and an atmosphere 
 when men were capable of receiving strong meat, 
 
 25 
 
although some found it, even then, pretty hard to 
 fully digest at times. He was a forceful personality. 
 He had an exalted sense of the dignity of the minister's 
 position, and he did not hesitate to make it known. 
 Stern as was^his style of preaching, he was by no 
 means averse to social life; and he was ever ready to 
 tell an anecdote, or indulge in pleasantry, and he 
 could laugh right heartily at a good joke. He was 
 a fine sermonizer, a stimulating preacher, and a 
 pastor who was profoundly impressed with the 
 seriousness and responsibility of his duty. His is a 
 figure which will always stand out in the history of 
 the church in a commanding way, as a most able 
 and faithful and successful minister of the gospel. 
 On September 29, 1868, the Rev. John H. Wind- 
 sor D. D., was installed pastor of the church. He 
 was born in England and came to this country with 
 his parents in 1844. He graduated at Iowa College, 
 July 12, 1854, — and from Andover Theological 
 Seminary August 6, 1857. He labored for six years, 
 under the Home Missionary Society, in Iowa, and 
 subsequently served the First Parish at Saco, Me. 
 The pastorate of Dr. Windsor was marked by delight- 
 ful harmony between minister and people. He easily 
 won the esteem and affection of the people by his 
 friendliness of spirit, and the affability of his manners. 
 He mingled dignity with cordiality; pleasantry with 
 a fine seriousness. The preaching of Dr. Windsor 
 was of a practical, helpful character, and showed the 
 influence of the new age into which the church was 
 moving. His week day addresses are still remembered 
 for their felicity, and close application to the experi- 
 ences and problems of life. His ministry was emi- 
 nently successful, and when he felt constrained to 
 
 26 
 
respond to the call of duty elsewhere, it was with 
 sincere and deep regret that the pastoral relation- 
 ship was severed. The fragrance of his memory 
 still lingers in the church, and on this one hundred 
 and seventy-fifth anniversary of the church he served 
 for sixteen years so honorably, and faithfully, and 
 fruitfully, we send to him in his home in La Grange, 
 111., our heartfelt thanks for all he wTought while 
 here, and offer the prayer that his pathway may 
 have across it the golden light of a peaceful age, and 
 the blessed presence of Him who walked in the vesper 
 hours toward Emmaus, and filled with speechless 
 joy the companions at His side. 
 
 Of all the pastors who have served this church it 
 was my privilege to know personally but one — the 
 beloved Rev. Benjamin Adams Robie, who ministered 
 to this people from 1884 until 1900, a period of sixteen 
 years. Mr. Robie was called to this church from 
 Groton, Mass., where he had labored for ten years 
 with signal ability. I met him for the first time 
 fifteen or sixteen years ago. The longer I knew him 
 the more strongly was I drawn to him. The gracious- 
 ness of his manner, the refinement of his bearing, 
 the sweetness of his spirit, the generosity and fineness 
 of his treatment of one younger than he, — all this 
 has left a beautiful and ineffaceable impression on 
 my mind. It was always a pleasure to me to be 
 in his society. There was such an innate delicacy of 
 manner; such a high toned and manly attitude to- 
 ward life; such seriousness of survey of different 
 questions; such unusual attractiveness of personality 
 that I have never ceased to cherish his memory. I 
 have frequently said to myself since knowing him, 
 what the Rev. George A. Putnam said at his funeral : 
 
 27 
 
"He had so many excellencies that I had not, that I 
 could always put myself to school to him to my pro- 
 fit." Mr. Robie was a popular, attractive preacher. 
 He rarely preached doctrinal sermons. They were 
 eminently practical, and related themselves to every 
 day hving. "The man is the style," a great French 
 writer once said, and this held true of our dear friend. 
 He was not by temperament nor taste, a doctrinal 
 preacher. He was a noble knight, clothed in shining 
 mail, who rode abroad with high chivalric spirit to 
 fight the battles of his Lord, and to bring in the 
 sweet days of righteousness. 
 
 It was during the pastorate of Mr. Robie that 
 the splendid improvements were initiated and carried 
 out at a cost of $11,000, which have made our church 
 one of unusual beauty. The whole interior of the 
 church, floor and galleries, was taken out, leaving 
 only the walls of the old church standing. When 
 the people resumed their services, they met amid the 
 dehcate and harmonious colors of a new Sanctuary, 
 whose memorial windows, the gifts of many friends, 
 lend a distinct and perpetual beauty to our house 
 of worship. 
 
 It is, after all, but an imperfect sketch of this 
 church and its historic life which I have given you 
 this morning. There is much more that might be 
 said. I am profoundly conscious that it is not the 
 minister alone, who has kept the flame of faith burn- 
 ing in its golden candle-stick through these one 
 hundred and seventy-five years. There has been a 
 long line of devout, efficient and praying men, and 
 a multitude of saintly women who have created, 
 from generation to generation, the atmosphere and 
 environment in which the Church of the Living God 
 
 28 
 
has been able to radiate its influence. There have 
 been teachers in the Sunday School, and Superin- 
 tendents, who have stood by their tasks with a 
 fidelity, a courage, and a patience which will not 
 go without their rich reward. There have been 
 players on stringed instruments, and singers with 
 sweet voices, who have refreshed many a weary pil- 
 grim on his journey Zion-ward, who deserve to be 
 remembered for their loving and self-sacrificing labors. 
 How beautiful it would be to call each one by name 
 this morning, and express our gratitude for their 
 part in the service of the King. He who keeps His 
 loved ones written, as it were, on the palms of His 
 hands, knows them all. He it is who has promised: 
 "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a 
 crown of life." 
 
 29