•>::^i m. § ml P mim\^>!ud. '^rJ^\ M i^^i :i^i m- Mi;- ■H^' m^\ *# ¥i PRESS OF R. H. BLODGETT & CO. 30 BROMFIELD ST. BOSTON MED WAY MASSACHUSETTS PROCEEDINGS at the CELEBRATION of OLD HOME DAY .ijH* WEDNESDAY AUGUST THIRD, Nineteen hnndred four TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEDICATION OF THE REV. JACOB IDE MEMORIAL IN CONNECTION THEREWITH Published by THE MEDWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Edited uy RUFUS G. FAIRBANKS. Gin Autho* Medway. — Incorporated as a town October 25, 171 3, in the twelfth year of the reign of Queen Anne; Hon. Joseph Dudley, Provincial Governor of Massachusetts. MiLLls. — Known as " The Old Grant " or " East Parish ". Set off as a separate town, February 24, 1885. W\\t Mthmn^ IftBtnrtral ^orirtg. Incorporated 1902. OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. Board of Directors. President, Rufus G. Fairbanks. First Vice-President, Herbert N. Hixon. Secretary, Orion T. Mason. David A. Partridge. Amy Clark Hodges. Evan F. Richardson. Joseph Litchfield. Vice-Presidents. Dr. Addison S. Thayer, Portland, Me. AsAHEL A. Shumwav, Philadelphia, Pa. George P. Bullard, West Newton. David B. Hixon, Brooklyn, N. Y. Henry A. Whitney, Bellingham. Rev. Rufus K. Harlow, Medway. Dr. George A. Leland, Boston. Treasurer. James T. Adams, Medway. Curators. Orion T. Mason, Medway. Daniel W. Newell, Medway. Herbert N. Hixon, West Medway. Joseph Litchfield, West Medway. Objects of the Society. — The collection and preservation of all matters pertaining to the history of this town and locality, the study of this material, the education of members and townspeople in historical and antiquarian sub- jects, the collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts and all articles connected with former times, and the publication from time to time of such articles as may be judged of interest or instruction to this locality. "in trraauring u|i tl^r inrmariala of tifr fatt;rra tor brat inanifrat iuir rryurd fur {iaatrriti|." ROSTER OF MEMBERS. Adams, James T. Adams, Eunice R. Adams, C. Albert Austin, Henry C. BuUard, Clara L. Bullard, Helen G. BuUard, Nannie Blake, Edward H. Bateman, Anna F. Blake, Mrs. Nellie Bullard, George P. Boyce, Mrs. Eva K. Clark, Samuel G. Clark, Sarah E. Cary, William H. Converse, Julius P. Clark, Mary D. Cary, Nellie J. Coombs, Alvin W. Deans, Charles H. Drawbridge, Rev. R. W. Drawbridge, Charlotte D Daniels Sadie J. Daniels, Josephine M. Dana, Charles H. Daniels, Dr. Edwin A. Fisher, Willard J. Fairbanks, Rufus G. Fisher, Frederick L. Fales, Herbert E. Fales, Nettie L. Fairbanks, Rufus A. Fairbanks, George L. Grant, Emma J. Gale, Hattie W. Hodges, Emma C. Hixon, Herbert N. Hixon, Harriet E. Hiller, Clara Thayer Hitchcock, William N. Hitchcock, Amy G. Holbrook, Miss E. R. Hamlin, Mildred L. Harding, Clark P. Howard, Edward L. B. Holbrook, Elmer E. Hodgson, Samuel Harlow, Rev. Rufus K. Hill, Don Gleason Hill, William F. Hewitt, Rev. George R. Hixon, David B. Hodges, Amy C. Leland, Dr. George A. Litchfield, Joseph L. , Mason, Orion T. Mason, Eva C. Mason, Marie G. Metcalf, Kate L. Metcalf, Esther M. Metcalf, S. Newman Nason, Dr. Osmon C. Nason, Dora Newell, Daniel W. Palmer, Harriet W. Partridge, David A. Partridge, George F. Prescott, John Prescott, Mrs. Maud Pierce, Rev. L. M. Partridge, Rev. Lyman Quint, Dr. Norman P. Roche, Fred B. Roche, Mrs. M. J. Richardson, Evan F. Richardson, Geneive F. Richardson, Elizabeth B. Richardson, Louis B. Rice, Lizzie D. Rice, Helen F. Spencer, Charles F. Smith, Charles M. Sanford, Edmund L Shumway, A. A. Shaw, Dr. Herbert W. Smith, George R. Stowe, E. Barron Tedford, Delia M. Thayer, Lydia S. Thayer, Dr. Addison S. Thompson, J. Warren Wheelock, Rev. Albert H. Wheelock, Mrs. A. H. Whiting, Wesley W. Ware, Inez A. Ware, Arthur Wilkinson, William H. Wilkinson, Mabel R. Wilkinson, Mrs. E. A. Whiting, Henry A. Washburn, Rev. George Y. Young, George A. SECOND MEETING HOUSE, I749-1816. THIRD MEETINC; HOUSE, 1816-I850. FOURTH MEETING HOUSE, PRESENT MILLIS CHURCH. THIRD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 1836-1870. SOME HISTORIC SITES IN AND ABOUT TOWN. 1. " GEORGE FAIRBANKS' PALISADE." Location, north shore of Boggastow pond, Millis. Used as a residence by George Fairbanks, and a place of refuge from Indian attacks about 1660. [See Morse's History of Sherbom,] 2. EDWARD CLARK HOUSE. Known as the " Putnam Clark house," built 1 710. Now in MilHs. 3. FIRST MEETING HOUSE. 1715 to 1749. Site, Bare hill; stood just north of tomb in Millis cemetery. Destroyed by fire. 4. SECOND MEETING HOUSE. 1749 to '816. Stood forty feet from the first meeting house. 5. THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 1816 to 1850. Stood south of second meeting house, top of Bullard's hill. Steeple removed, and now the large vacant building in Rockville, known as «• the old safe factory ". 6. FOURTH MEETING HOUSE. Built in 1850. The present Millis church. Rockville chapel built 1877. 7. WEST PARISH MEETING HOUSE. Built 1749. Corner Main and Evergreen streets, adjacent to the " old burying ground ". Present church built 18 14. 8. BAPTIST CHURCH. Built 1822-23, near comer Main and Winthrop streets ; moved to comer Main and Cottage streets, and used as a boot shop, later as Mechanics hall, and was burned Febmary, i88g. Present church edifice erected 1852. g. THE VILLAGE CHURCH. Built 1838, on Village street. 10. THE METHODIST CHURCH. Located on Cottage street. Erected 1859. 11. ST. CLEMENT'S CHURCH. 1865, Main street, Millis. Built 1836, as the Third Congregational church. Moved across the street. Burned during church service, February 5, 1871. 12. CHRIST CHURCH. Erected 187 1. School street. 13. ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, Village street. Begun 1876. First ser- vice held August 12, 1877. 14. CHARLES RIVER BRANCH RAILROAD. From the Village, through Rockville, to Norfolk. Built 1853; rails taken up in the night, 1864. 15. TOWN POUND. Near Putnam Clark house, Millis. Built 1734, by Michael Medcalf ; cost £,t. Still in existence. 16. OLD POWDER HOUSE. Site near Putnam Clark house, Millis. 17. FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE, 1737. Site near Peter Adams house in Millis. First money voted for schools, May 13, 171 7, £,\, 18. FIRST SAW MILL. Built 1665. Site, Boggastow dam, Millis. Grist mill built at Rockville, 1680. 7 8 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS 19. LOWELL CARPET MFG. CO., bom on Winthrop street, on Chicken brook. Here was woven the first woolen carpet on power loom made in the United States. Mill taken down in i860 by Timothy Partridge. 20. SCYTHE FACTORY. Established in Rockville, 1784. Lace mill, cotton factory and machine shop added. All burned in 1884. 21. OLD COTTON MILL, or "Old White Mill". 1811 to 1881. Site, Sanford mill, Sanford street. 22. HOLBROOK BELL FOUNDRY. Main street, Millis, from 1816 to 1880. Cast 11,000 bells. 23. CHURCH ORGAN FACTORY. Opposite bell foundry site. Estab- lished 1837. 24. FIRST BOOT SHOP. Willard Daniels homestead on Braggville road, 1828. 25. SAW AND GRIST MILL, 1800. Erected on site of Electric Light station. Cotton mill added. All burned in 1850. 26. KING PHILIP TREES. Variety, Nyssa. After the Me(a)dfield massacre of February 21, 1676, the Indians retired to this spot, destroying the only bridge over the Charles, located near present rail- road bridge. Here they held a savage feast and prepared an attack on the Fairbanks stone house at the farms, but were unsuccessful. Site of trees in rear of Moses Adams' farm, Millis. Now standing. 27. FIRST BURYING PLACE. Junction of MiUis, Medfield and Sher- bom roads. Here was buried Capt, George Fairbanks, the first white settler (1657), and who died 1682 ; also the Lealands, BuUards, Morses, Brecks, Hills, Holbrooks, and many others. 28. SECOND BURYING PLACE. Established in Millis territory, Octo- ber 29, 1 7 14, now called Prospect Hill Cemetery. 29. THIRD BURYING PLACE. Established in West Medway, April 12, 1750. Known as Evergreen (old) Cemetery. 30. FOURTH BURYING PLACE. Established at Medway Village, June 20, 1865 ; known as Oakland Cemetery. 31. FIFTH BURYING PLACE, Established in 1876 on Oakland street ; known first as St. Patrick's, now as St, Joseph's Cemetery, 32. WILLIAM T. ADAMS' BIRTHPLACE, Known as " Oliver Optic," and a successful story writer for boys. Site, where house of Joseph Sassak is now located on Ellis street. Buildings burned February, 1892. 33. OLD SHUMWAY HOUSE, Village street. Supposed to be 200 years old. Now standing. 34. DR. NATHANIEL MILLER HOUSE, Original building erected about 1 68 1, on River End road at the " fording place ". 35. CONTRIBUTIONS, May 30, 1825, the townspeople subscribed and paid $114.28 to assist in building Bunker Hill Monument. In 1678, George Fairbanks, Jr., gave one shilling and one bushel of corn, and Joseph Daniell gave two shillings, sixpence, and two bushels of com to the support of the new (Harvard) college at Cambridge. tii i^-i^;4r. FIRST MKETINC HOUSE, I715-I749. o3 FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE, 1737-I.S23. KING PHILII- TREES, 1 676. SlTl-: ol- OLD STONE FORT. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 Program 6.00 A.M. Welcome the Day, with bells, whistles and cannon. 10.00 <• Organ Selections. By Annie Bigelow Stowe. 10.05 " Double Quartette. "Recessional" De Koven Florence Ives Atwood. Annie Campsey Ives. Lizzie HcNamara. Anna L. Bell. W. L. Scott, Ist Tenor. Elijah B. Stowe, Ist Basfi. Fred Smith, 2d Tenor. C. Fred Butterworth, 2d Bais. Prayer. Rev. George Y. Washburn of Everett. Welcome by the President. Male Quartette. " Old Oaken Bucket " Kiallmark Oration, "The Debt of the Country to New Eng- land," by Hon. Thomas E. Grover, of Canton, Mass. Singing. " America," Everybody. Dinner. William M. Fairbanks of Foxboro, Caterer. Organ Selections. Miss Stowe. Double Quartette. " Pilgrim Chorus" Lotnbardi Prayer. Rev. Seelye Bryant of Middlefield, Mass. Duet. " When life is brightest " Pinsuti Mrs. Atwood and Mrs. Ives. 2.20 " Dedicatory Address. Rev. Rufus K. Harlow. 3.00 " Male Quartette. " Home, Sweet Home " Giebel Recess. 3.30 " Exercises at Monument in Evergreen Cemetery. Male Quartette. "Arise, shine, for the Light is come " Rhodes Unveiling and Strewing of Flowers by Twelve Little Girls. Dedicatory Formula. Rev. George R. Hewitt. Prayer. Rev. Dr. Frank A. Warfield, of Milford. Male Quartette. " Still, still with Thee " Gerrish Benediction. 10.15 It 10.20 i( 10.30 (( 1 1.30 <( 12.00 (( 2.00 p. M. lO MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS Firat WtBt Partali Mtttbx^ Ifouae. Raised April 6, 1749. Stood approximate to and northwest of the Second Burying Place, on Evergreen, facing Main street. The building was forty feet long, and thirty-four feet wide, with twenty-foot posts between joints. Had a gallery and two rows of windows, but no steeple. Abandoned in 18 14. Erected 1814. In 1846 the cupola was removed and a spire built. The body of the house was reseated, the pulpit reconstructed, the gallery lowered and extended over the vestibule, and blinds applied. The walls were colored and carpets put down in the aisles. In 1873 the interior was again recon. structed, the pulpit recess added, and the heating arrangement changed. The walls and ceilings were frescoed. The chapel was built in 1874. During Rev. J. M. Bell's pastorate the spire was blown down and rebuilt. The sale of pews, in 1814-15, brought a fund of $3,000. Levi Adams, Esq., who died in 1842, left the Society $1,200 for a parsonage. He also left $300 for supply of the Communion table. Mrs. Charlotte Slocum bequeathed $500 to the Sunday School library. (©fiSnal S^glater of ^eroith QUjurrlj of QII|nat in Mthmui^. Rev. David Thurston. Ordained June 23, 1752; resigned Feb. 22, 1769. Rev. David Sanford. Ordained April 14, 1773; died April 7, 1810, Rev. Jacob Ide. Ordained November 2, 1814; died January 5, 1880. Rev. Stephen Knowlton. Ordained Nov. 2, 1865 ; resigned Nov. 20, 1872. Rev. S. W. Segur. Ordained May 7, 1873 ; died September 24, 1875, Rev. James M. Bell. Ordained September 26, 1876; resigned July i, 1885. SECOND conc;re(;ational church. REV. JACOB IDE, D. D. Born in Attleborough, Mass., March 29, 1785. Lived on his father's farm until seventeen years of age. Fitted for college with Rev. Holman, pastor of Attleborough Congregational Church. Graduated from Brown University, Providence, R. I., in 1809. Valedictorian in his class. Taught school in Wrentham. Graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 181 2. Preached at East Abington and at Portsmouth, N. H. Assistant to Dr. Griffin in Park Street church, Boston. Preached again at East Abington, and also at York, Maine. Ordained pastor of Second Church of Christ in Medway, November 2, 1814. Continued full pastorate to 1865 and senior pastorate to his decease, a period of sixty-five years. Degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred upon him by Brown University in 1837. Married Mary Emmons, daughter of Nathaniel Emmons of Franklin in 181 5. He prepared forty-three young men for the ministry. Editor of the Christian Magazine. Edited seven volumes, the works of Dr. Emmons. Invited to assume chair of theology in Bangor Seminary in 1832, but decHned. Preached centennial discourse October 20, 1850, which with forty sermons and lectures were published. Delivered his fiftieth anniversary address November 2, 1864, to an audience crowding the church. Many unable to get in. Seventy clergymen were present. He stated in this address that he had attended 175 ecclesiastical councils and preached twenty-seven ordination sermons. In his own parish he had performed 432 marriages. Baptized 510 persons and attended 745 funerals. Did similar service in surrounding parishes. Preached over 5,000 sermons from his own pulpit. Served the town of Medway on school committee for thirty years, between 181 5 and 1850. Died January 5, 1880, aged ninety-five years. II 12 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS REV. JACOB IDE. JR. Son of Jacob Ide, D. D. Born August 7, 1823. Attended preparatory school at Leicester and graduated at Amherst College in 1848. Taught school in Boston and at Leicester Academy. Studied theology under his father. Ordained March 26, 1856, pastor of the Mansfield Congregational church. Married Ellen M. Rogers in 1859. Member of House of Representatives in 1864, and State Senate in 1866. His pastorate continued forty-two years to his decease, March 26, 1898. ^ OTHER CHILDREN OF DR. JACOB IDE. Rev. Alexis Wheaton Ide. Born October 10, 1826. Studied in public schools, and received theological instruction from his father. Ordained pastor of Stafford Springs, Conn., Congregational church, July 7, 1859. Resigned July 2, 1867, to live with his parents. Member of House of Representatives in 1872, and chaplain of the Senate in 1874. Died December 21, 1 901, at the age of seventy-five. Isabella T. Ide. Born February 6, 18 16; died November 18, 1863. Mary Ide Torrev. Born June 29, 1817; married Charles T. Torrey, March 29, 1837; died November 6, 1869. Henry Ide. Born October 23, 1818 ; died January 30, 18 19. Erastus Ide. Born January 10, 1820; died February 20, 1821. Nathaniel Emmons Ide. Born August 28, 1821 ; died July 29, 1847. Sarah Williams Ide. Born August 17, 1825 ; died January 20, 1826. Charles W. Ide. Born January 20, 1829 ; died August 29, 1829. George Hopkins Ide. Born May 10, 1830; died July 10, 1831. George Homer Ide. Born February 3, 1835; kiUed and buried on the battlefield of Cedar Mountain, Va., August 9, 1862. REV. JACOli lUr, JK address: "DEBT OF THE COUNTRY TO NEW ENGLAND." BY THE HON. THOMAS E. GROVER OF CANTON, MASSACHUSETTS* HAVE been invited to speak today on the " Debt of the Country to New England." The subject is a comprehensive one and opens a wide field for in- quiry. The growth of the nation has been so phe- nomenal, its prosperity has come from such varied sources, and the influence of New England has been so potent a factor in producing these results, that the time allotted to this address will permit only of a very superficial examination into the influence this section has exerted while playing its part in the great drama. Nor has progress been confined to the United States alone. We have only shared in what all the world has experienced. Measure the advance, and mark by comparison the rapid changes wrought in the last century. Should one of the early settlers, who nearly three hundred years ago laid the foundation of New England, be released from the sleep of death and reappear on earth, what would be his emotions of joy and wonder ! Yet he would look upon the transitions that have taken place since he passed from earth with scarcely less amazement than his ancestor of a much earlier time. Both of them would be more nearly related to a person living in the early part of the last century than they would be with us, and as they contemplated the changes produced by the inventions and discoveries of the last hundred years, and compared their own primitive and circumscribed condition with those of the present day, they might well think that the strange and marvelous tales of the East, in which are told the wonders wrought by magic and enchantment, were no longer mere creations of the imagination, but had become veritable deeds. * Delivered on Old Home Day, at Medway, Mass., August 3, 1904. t4 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS This onward movement, even to the personal comfort and con- venience it has brought, and in this movement New England has performed its share, may be largely studied in tables of statistics ; but there is a power growing out of the character and institutions of the people that does not appear in census reports, and in that the influence of New England stands pre-eminent. It is better to illustrate the force of this influence by reference to concrete exam- ples, than to indulge in declamation or abstract theories. Let us take as examples the public schools and town govern- ment, and before examining these subjects consider for a moment what manner of men the founders of New England were, for grapes do not grow upon thorns nor figs upon thistles. There was certainly nothing in the soil or climate of this section to give its settlers any advantage over colonies located elsewhere. The land was sterile, requiring severe labor, and not yielding abun- dant harvests. Farming, as in most new countries, was their chief occupation and means of resource. They lived under more adverse conditions, all things considered, than the people in any other part of North America. They came here to enjoy the free- dom that was denied them in England, and were far from being favorites of the home government. They could hope for no assist- ance from that quarter, for if they escaped persecution, the most they could expect was forgetfulness and neglect. In all the territory there was neither gold or other mineral wealth, in suflficient quantities to make its mining profitable. John Smith, the famous navigator and founder of Virginia, who had examined the rock bound, and to him, forbidding coast of New England, declared, "that he was not so simple as to suppose that any other motive than riches would ever erect there a commonwealth, or draw company from their ease and humors at home to stay in New England" ; and yet, to quote the words of the learned histo- rian, John Fiske, " of all migrations of peoples the settlement of New England is pre-eminently the one in which the almighty dol- lar played the smallest part." In intellectual capacity they were probably not superior or essentially different from the English speaking inhabitants of other sections. They were, however, to a greater extent than their rival colonists, men of strong character and great moral force, and OLt) HOME DAY, 1904 1$ it is these qualities rather than the intellect that bring permanent results. They were imbued with earnestness and intense convic- tions, characteristics that always exert extraordinary power. They were liberally endowed with that element called obstinacy in those with whom we disagree, and firmness in those of our own way of thinking. They had little wealth, but this perhaps in the early life of New England was hardly a misfortune to men of their char- acter and in their situation, as property is always timid and pov- erty generally hopeful. Moreover, they possessed in a large measure what has been well called " the genius of common sense." It is in the character of these men, not in their environments, that we trace the beginnings of the institutions they planted, and from these institutions there arose in a large measure the " Debt the Country owes to New England." There is an indescribable charm in studying the early history of New England. Indeed, the exile seeking a home is always a fascinating story, whether in fact or fiction. The simply-told narrative of Bradford possesses an interest that attracts us like the recital of the events attending the exodus from Egypt, the wanderings of Ulysses, or .^Eneas fleeing from burning Troy to build " the walls of lofty Rome." The territory known as Massachusetts for many years contained two colonies, the Colony of New Plymouth, and the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. The first settlement in the former was made by the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1620, and in the latter by the Puritans at Boston, in 1630. The settlement at Plymouth was made originally under a grant of land obtained from the London Company, to which large concessions had been made in North America ; that at Boston under a charter from the king. These colonies, with eastern Maine, and those islands on the Massachu- setts coast which had not before belonged to either colony, were, June 8, 1692, united into the " Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England," under a new charter. After this date all general laws that were passed became operative upon the people of Maine and the islands, as well as the inhabitants in both colonies. The Province continued, or rather the people continued, to live under the Province charter till October 25, 1780, when our present constitution went into effect. Maine l6 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS remained a part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it became a State. The time from the first settlements to the formation of the Province is known, historically, as the Colonial Period, and from the establishment of the Province to June 17, 1774, as the Provincial Period. I do not find that the Plymouth Colony took any measures to establish free public schools for all children, although schools were maintained in some of the towns, and the question of education in a general sense received considerable attention. That it should occupy the thoughts of men in their situation to any degree is remarkable, when the condition of the people is considered, and what is said of Plymouth is also applicable to the Massachusetts Colony. The settlers had difficulty at times in even procuring proper food to sustain life ; they were surrounded with wild beasts and tribes of savage Indians, and protection for themselves and families required continual watchfulness. In every respect they lived under great personal discomfort and extreme nervous strain. They were few in number, and the phy- sical labor required to build their houses and reclaim the land they were compelled to cultivate, was strenuous and unremitting. It would seem, under the circumstances, as though life itself would scarcely be worth the danger of preserving it, or that ordinary physical or mental health could sustain the burden they were obliged to bear. Their acts, however, not only show solicitude in looking out for the educational welfare of their children, but the small means they were able to allow for this purpose bring into prominence their precarious situation, so that in contemplating their condition, we are moved with both admiration and pity, — ■■ admiration for their courage, self-reliance and unbending tenacity, and pity for their destitute circumstances, and the dismal future that confronted them. Their poverty alone would seem in the language of Burke " to take their virtue to a market almost too high for humanity." If they possessed little of the refined forms of idealism they had in abundance that quality which shows itself in mighty deeds. In 1644, when the Colony was but twenty-four years old, a peti- tion was presented to the Commissioners for " A genrall Contribu- tion for the mayntenance of poore Schollers at the CoUedg at Cam- OLD HOME DAY, 1904 I7 bridge." The petition alleged, in substance, that because of their lack of means some parents were discouraged from sending their children to school, and some were forced to take them away too soon. The petitioners therefore asked that it might be "com- mended by you at least to the freedom of every family (wh is able and willing to give) throughout the plantation to give yearly but one-fourth part of a bushell of Corne or something equivalent thereto." These gifts, small in value as they appear to this age of greater things, came from generous hearts, and there was noth- ing in the giving to suggest ostentatious benevolence. In 1660, the record states " It is proposed by the Court unto the several townships of this jurisdiction as a thing to be taken into serious consideration that some course may be taken in every town that there may be a scholmaster sett up to train children in reading and writing." The Colony claimed to possess certain privileges in the fishery at Cape Cod, which it sold or leased and for which it received compensation. This it sometimes devoted to school purposes, for in 1672 it "did freely give and grant all such profits as might or should annually accrue or grow due to the col- lonies from time to time for fishing with netts or saines att Cape Codd for mackerel], basse or herring, as by said grant doth fully appear, to be imployed and improved for and towards free scooles in some towns of this jurisdiction for the training up of youth in litterature for the good and benefit of posteritie, provided a begin- ning were made within one year after the said grant ; and that the ordering and managing of said affaire was by said Court com- mitted to the Gov. and Assistants, or four of them." In 1678 five pounds were ordered to be paid " to the schoolmas- ter at Rehoboth in reference to the order of Court disposing such pay to be improved towards the keeping of a grammar scoole in each town of this jurisdiction as in said order is expressed." In 1 68 1, the Court ordered that of the Cape money be given "12 pounds thereof to Rehoboth, and 8 pounds thereof to Mr. Ichobod Wiswall's scool at Duxburrow," and in 1682 "the court have ordered the Cape money as followeth, viz : to Bastable scoole twelve pounds, to Duxburrow scoole eight pounds, and to Reho- both scoole five pounds." • But to the Massachusetts Colony belongs the credit of being the tS MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS first people in history to require compulsory education, and to inaugurate a free public school system to be supported by taxation, the foundation of all the attributes of sovereignty. In 1642, only twelve years after the settlement at Boston, it passed an act requir- ing parents and masters to teach their children and apprentices to read the English tongue, to know the capital laws, and to repeat the catechism. By another act passed in 1647 ^^ was provided that every township of fifty householders should employ some per- son to teach reading and writing to such persons as should come to them, and every township of one hundred householders should set up a grammar school, and hire a master who could " fit pupils for the University." The last provision, it would seem, was a rather pretentious attempt at that early day to promote higher education. Such grammar schools would take the same compara- tive rank as the best of our public high schools today. It was then eleven years since John Harvard had endowed the University that still bears his name and to which the act refers. The time had barely passed in the life of that noblest and grandest of all our institutions for learning since, as Dr. Holmes wrote, "... the seniors knocked about That freshman class of one." The two acts are the foundation of all subsequent legislation establishing free schools everywhere. They contained the germ of our present system. They required compulsory education for all children and compelled municipalities to establish schools main- tained at public expense, so that their requirements could be ful- filled. In 1683, it was ordered that in all towns of five hundred householders a grammar school, that is a school of the rank of our high schools, and two writing schools or primary schools as we should term them now, should be maintained. This seems to have been in advance of the age, for when the Province was formed this statute was not re-enacted. What the population of either Colony was at any time previous to 1647 I have been unable to ascertain with any degree of exact- ness. Bancroft estimates the population of the Plymouth Colony in 1675, about the time of King Philip's war, at seven thousand, and the Massachusetts Colony at twenty-two thousand. As the HO.MK OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. OK. lOKS KE.SIUENXE. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 1^ increase had been quite rapid it must have been considerably less twenty-five years earlier. Upon the formation of the Province the system of public schools established by the Massachusetts Colony was continued. Among the earliest of the Provincial Acts was the substantial re-enact- ment of the two colonial statutes above referred to, except in place of the provision requiring a master in the grammar schools who could fit pupils for the University, was a provision " that some dis- creet person of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues " should be " procured to keep such school," and providing a pen- alty to be paid by every town that should neglect to comply with these requirements. Let us hope that the teachers of that day who were " well instructed in the tongues " were not like some instructors of modern times who seem to think that the great mas- terpieces of Greek and of Roman literature were only composed to illustrate the rules of grammar. The same policy was pursued when the Province became a State by incorporating the principle of free education for all chil- dren into the organic law. The Constitution makes it *♦ the duty of the legislature in all future periods of the Commonwealth to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all semin- aries of them, especially the University at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns." It would be instructive, if time would permit, to trace in detail the evolution and growth of the school system, in the States com- prising New England, through their various legal enactments. A very rapid and imperfect sketch of some of the more important statutes of Massachusetts must suffice. Statutes upon all sub- jects have been so numerous of late years that with an honest desire to comply with them we almost walk amid their snares and pitfalls, but still a study of the acts passed by any legislative body is instructive as exhibiting the subjects toward which for the time being men's minds are turning, or which denote new conditions demanding legislation, or some moral awakening. Who would not know from the acts of the last few years in this Commonwealth that questions relating to labor and kindred subjects were upper- most in public attention, or that a public supply of water was not demanded generally by municipalities, or that the use of iO MEt)WAV, MAsSACHUSEtTS intoxicating liquors was not receiving consideration ? The many acts that were passed relating to schools are evidence that the sys- tem was in a growing state, that new conditions were arising, and that the design was to bring them to a high point of excellence. There appears to have been in the beginning two objects which the legislators sought to obtain, and the same general theory has since been pursued. The first was to provide for a diffused primary education for all the children ; the second was to secure a more advanced education for them in those towns where the population was large enough to supply a sufficient number of pupils who sought such an advantage, to make the maintenance of the higher grades of schools possible without increasing the expense of each individual scholar to such an extent as to be prohibitive. These laws, however, were not well enforced. This is more especially true for some years after the beginning of the last century. Common schools were established in all the towns, but strict compliance with the statute relating to the length of the terms and the maintaining of grammar or high schools in munici- palities where the law required them, received but little consider- ation for many years. It is but a short time since any school, beyond the grade where the elementary branches were taught, became generally estab- lished in towns in which the population was sufficient to require a higher grade. This is true notwithstanding the statute had for a long time required every town containing five hundred families, which means about twenty-five hundred inhabitants, to maintain a school to be kept by a " master of competent ability and good morals, who should give instruction in general history, bookkeeping, surveying, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of the Commonwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language." Outside of municipalities containing a considerable population there were no public schools " to fit pupils for the University," and the teachers employed were not always " well instructed in the tongues." A few weeks since, a friend placed in my hands the records of OLD HOME DAY, 1904 21 one of the school districts in a neighboring town. The first entries were made in 18 14, and a fair idea can be gained of the schools of those early days by consulting these records. Two district school meetings were held each year, one in the spring and the other in the autumn. At the spring meeting a vote was passed to have a " woman's school " in the summer, and in the autumn the district voted to have a " man's school " in the winter. The meeting determined the length of each term, which was from four to eight weeks in summer and from six to eight weeks in winter. The " woman's school " usually commenced about the first of July, and the "man's school" early in De- cember. The salaries paid were not extravagant. Among the items of expenditure were such as these, ** paid eight dollars and seventeen cents in full for teaching our school seven weeks this summer." " Paid nine dollars and thirty-three cents in full for teaching our school eight weeks this summer." " Paid twenty-four dollars in full for teaching our school two months this winter." The teach- ers probably received their board in addition, and the price to be paid for the purpose was evidently determined by auction, for I find such entries as this, " paid five dollars and eighty-four cents in full for boarding our school master eight weeks the winter last past at 73 cents a week." At other times there was paid for board ninety-one cents, ninety-five cents, and sometimes as much as one dollar and a quarter a week. At an earlier period the teacher " boarded round," and that practice continued in some places to a time considerably later than the beginning of these records. In 1789, the previous acts relating to schools were codified and amended. Under that statute, in a town of fifty families or house- holders, one school was to be kept an equivalent of six months in each year, in a town of a hundred families an equivalent of twelve months in each year. A teacher of those schools was required to teach children to read and write and to instruct them in the Eng- lish language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and ♦* decent behavior." In towns of one hundred and fifty families a school was to be kept an equivalent of six months, and in addition a school to instruct children in the English language an equivalent of twelve months in each year. Towns of two hundred families 22 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS were to provide a schoolmaster or schoolmasters well instructed in Latin and Greek, and in addition thereto to provide a schoolmaster or schoolmasters as above described to instruct children in the English language for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for each of said schools in each year. No person could be employed as schoolmaster in the grammar school " unless he shall have received an education at some College or Univer- sity," or unless the person employed " shall produce a certificate from some minister well skilled in the Greek and Latin lan- guages " settled in the town or "two other ministers in the vicin- ity." In schools of a lower grade the teacher was to obtain a certificate from the selectmen, or the committee appointed by such towns, as well as from the ministers settled therein. The same statute for the first time provided for dividing towns into school districts and determining and defining their limits. It also provided for the holding of district meetings and the election of district officers, among them being a prudential committee whose duty it was to hire the teachers and have charge of the school property. It was very common and perhaps the universal custom, before the creation of school districts, for towns in town meetings to make their contracts directly with the teachers. The statute also imposed a penalty upon towns neglecting to comply with its provisions. In 1826, former statutes were repealed and a new and extended school act was passed, which was afterwards amended at different times. The general provision in this statute and its amendments were that only schools of the ordinary grade were required in towns of less than five hundred families, and in those of five hundred families schools should be maintained for teaching, in addition to the branches mentioned in the statute of 1789, history of the United States, bookkeeping, surveying, geometry, and algebra, and in towns containing four thousand inhabitants, Latin and Greek languages, general history, rhetoric and logic. These provisions continued in substance till 1859. After that date vari- ous changes were made, such as requiring towns to maintain a sufficient number of schools for all children, without designating the number of families in the town, and permitting towns to abolish school districts. (|s||gsas ^B' ' ^r SI S fO E^ ^^^n ^iTy^ ^J HI .j^9R ^ :.>ife^. - ■ ■ ■•^^HBIr^^^^^^B^ ' ^1 jL _ ^K--.. Wmm^^ ' # r ^ 1 "W '^^^^^-^^ ^"^ OLD HOME DAY, 1904 23 The statute of 1826 for the first time made it compulsory upon towns to elect town committees to have general supervision of the schools, to visit them and to examine the qualifications of and grant certificates to the teachers. In 1 800, districts were authorized to raise money to erect school- houses and keep them in repair. This is the first statute in Massachusetts permitting them to be built at public expense. The reason for this statute probably was that the powers of towns had not been clearly defined. Numerous votes can be found passed by towns relating to building schoolhouses before this time. But in some towns schools were kept in private residences or in rude structures voluntarily built. The theory of govern- ment was then, and is now, that all the powers that towns pos- sessed were derived from the Commonwealth, and, as no law had been passed specifically authorizing the appropriation of money to build schoolhouses, it was probably deemed best to give towns that power by legislation. In 1866, school districts were abolished throughout the State. In 1870, an act was passed authorizing towns to re-establish them, requiring, however, a two-thirds vote for that purpose, but I am not aware that they exist today in any town in the Commonwealth. The more recent statutes are too familiar to require reference. The studies in the schools have been extended and now it would be a very indifferent scholar who, upon leaving our public schools, did not have some knowledge of sciences that were entirely unknown to the best educated person two centuries ago. The time, to a greater extent than ever before, demands men trained to the highest expression of their powers. Education will not create what does not exist, but through it the ordinary man is enabled to develop his capacity to its fullest extent. The State has done much. It has instituted, for general supervision over schools, a State Board of Education, of which Horace Mann, a native of the neighboring town of Franklin, and for several years a practic- ing lawyer in this county, was for some time secretary. Probably popular education owes more to him than to any single individual. The State has established Normal Schools for training teachers, and schools of various other kinds to meet every educational want. 24 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS Children have not changed. The school boy with his " shining morning face " still " creeps like snail unwilling to school," but the methods of imparting instruction have developed into more scien- tific methods. The text books are better, but no book however perfected can supply the place of the living voice of the true teacher. The means of securing obedience are much less severe. There was some truth in what a boy of " ye olden time " said that the birch branch was the chief branch taught in his school. But that branch has fallen into disuse, though still a sceptre of author- ity. It is not, however, employed so much as formerly as an incentive to urge the tardy loiterers along the flowery paths of knowledge. New England would not be entitled to the credit that now belongs to her if the colonies in what are now the Middle and the Southern States had provided for public instruction as early in their settlements. New York was established thirteen years before Plymouth, but no attempt was made there or, indeed, in any of the Middle States or in the territory now comprising those States, to institute a system of schools to be maintained at the public expense until after the Revolutionary War, nearly a century and a half later than they were introduced into the Massachusetts Colony. On the other hand, when that war opened every school in the Commonwealth, except one, was founded and supported at the public charge. The South was still farther behind, for not until after the Rebellion were the public schools founded in every part of that section. Free schools and African slavery could not flourish together. They were antagonistic and incompatible with each other. The difference in sentiment between New England and the South in colonial days is illustrated by the replies of the governors of Virginia and Connecticut to an inquiry regarding the progress of education in those settlements made by the English Commissioners of Foreign Plantations. The former said " I thank God there are no free schools or printing presses " in Virginia, " and I hope we shall not have any these hundred years." The latter replied, ♦* One-fourth of the annual revenue of the colony (Connecticut) is laid out in maintaining free schools for the education of our children." Today, so much has the influence of New England spread that OLD HOME DAY, 1904 25 public schools exist in every state and territory of the Union. More than fourteen and a half million of children in the United States attend them. Above four hundred thousand teachers are employed, and their annual maintenance exceeds one hundred and seventy millions of dollars. They are our most cherished institu- tions, and are guarded with jealous care. They are sustained by the settled conviction of every class in society and of all political parties. Money is freely voted to sustain them, and houses arc erected for them with lavish munificence. The government itself could be overthrown and create less disturbance than would follow an attempt to destroy them. They are the foundation of our liberties, and part of our organic existence as a nation. They belong to freedom as ignorance belongs to barbarism and slavery. Now let us consider another product, the seeds of which were sown by the same men who established public schools. The town is distinctively a New England institution. It is the nearest approach to pure democracy the world has seen, and nowhere else exists in the same perfection. It has received the praises and commendations of jurists, historians, statesmen and philosophers alike. In confirmation of this statement let me cite the opinions of three prominent men of different nationalities, who, from training, observation and research, were competent to give an. opinion, all of whom were familiar with our institutions. De Toqueville said that •' Local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations. Municipal institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science ; they bring it within the people's reach ; they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty." James Bryce asserts that " the town meeting has been not only the source but the school of democracy." Thomas Jeiferson declared that ** those wards called townships in New England are the vital principles of their government, and have proved themselves the wisest inven- tion ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government and for its preservation." In New England the town is the unit of government. Therein it differs from the general system prevailing in the Middle and Southern States, where the county is the unit, and towns or 26 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS townships, as they are more often called, are to the county some- thing as the old school district was to the town ; or perhaps a better illustration would be as the counties in Massachusetts are to the State. These are the two distinctive systems upon one or the other of which the political structure of all the States has been built, although, in some western States, where early immigration was partly from New England and partly from other sections, there is a combination of the two systems. Still, there is no State in the Union in which the New England principle of town government does not have more or less influence. Towns, as they exist in New England, are similar both in their origin and in their relation to the State. I am, therefore, justified in speak- ing more particularly of our own Commonwealth. Correctly speaking the State of Massachusetts is the tract of land known by that name. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the name given in the Constitution to the political creation or body politic exercising authority upon the inhabitants, corpora- tions and property residing or being within that territory. To make an efficient political organization, the authority of any gov- ernment must bear directly upon each individual member of that government. This is precisely what must be done in every permanent political organization. Wc have an illustration of this in our own history. An attempt was made in 1777 to organize the several States into a govern- ment under " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union." It proved a failure, and why ? One of the chief reasons was that instead of making its laws operative upon each individual, it under- took to operate through the States. In raising money, for in- stance, it made a requisition upon the States. Each was relied upon to furnish its share of what the Confederation might need. Now the power of taxation is the underlying principle upon which all governments rest. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of one existing without it. It is the most fundamental of all attributes of sovereignty. If a State refused, there was no way to compel it to bear its share of the public burden, except by the exercise of force against it. That meant war between the State and the government. On the other hand, the government, formed under the Constitution of 1789, acts directly upon each individual EMMONS IDE. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 2/ in the United States. The raising of nearly six billion dollars, which the Rebellion cost the Union in the prosecution of that war, was made possible by this principle, and would have been impossible without it. This theory is expressly recognized in the Constitution of Massachusetts, which declares, " the body politic is a social compact by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good." The written constitution is another institution that germinated in New England. The first known in history that created a gov- ernment was adopted by the Connecticut Colony in 1639. There have been other instruments defining and securing people's rights, like the Magna Charta, the Compact on board the Mayflower, and the Body of Liberties in the Massachusetts Colony in 1641 ; but that in Connecticut was the first to declare in written form the principles upon which the Government was to rest, and to provide for its practical operation. This precedent has been universally followed until now the United States, and every State and terri- tory in the Union, exist under written constitutions, and it is a little curious to note that the Constitution of the United States is shorter than that of any State or territory. Generally speaking, the constitutions of those States more recently admitted are the longest and most elaborate. It is well occasionally to refer to the organic law, although I have sometimes thought that the reply of the schoolboy, who, according to Mark Twain, when the question was put to him by his teacher, *' What is the Constitution of the United States " ? answered, " Those printed pages in the back part of the book which nobody ever reads," had a certain element of truth in it. Although in theory towns derive their powers from the Com- monwealth, yet in fact they made the Commonwealth, and were in existence a hundred and fifty years before the Constitution was adopted. That instrument assumes their existence, but gives no information as to what powers they possessed, what officers they are required to elect, although it provides that selectmen shall preside at certain meetings, or even for their incorporation, except an amendment provides for the incorporation of towns into cities. It refers to them in connection with State elections and religious 28 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS worship by an article which was subsequently modified and amended. Still they are as much of an institution, and are as thoroughly a part of our system of government, as they could be made by any constitutional provision. At first they were mere collections of dwelling houses situated near together, and became towns without any formal act of legislation. In 1785, for the first time, it was enacted that "the inhabitants of every town within this government are hereby declared to be a body politic and corporate," and that act is now in force ; but when it was passed it only declared what the law had been before. Not only was there no acts of incorporation, but the inhabitants gave whatever names they pleased to their settlements, and, as might be expected, chose old English names which were familiar to their ears and suggestive of their old homes. Accordingly we find Plymouth, Dorchester, Boston, Wrcntham, Gloucester, and the like. Afterwards towns were incorporated by formal act of the legislature, and there was a period in Provincial times when the royal governors selected the names for the towns so incorporated. These officials at first named the new towns after living English statesmen, or those holding public office, and we find Mansfield, Walpole, Shelburne, Halifax, Grafton, and many others. Then the governors began naming them after their predecessors in office, and we recognize that in Bellingham, Dudley, Belchertown, Shutesbury, Sherley, and a number more, both in this State and in Maine, the names of provincial governors whose fame is thus perpetuated to posterity. The royal governors, towards the end of the existence of the Province, were not favorable to incorporating towns, for each town had at least one representative in the Great and General Court, as the legislative body was called in the charter. That body was a thorn in the side of the representatives of George III. They could neither frighten nor cajole it, but they could prevent it from increasing its members. They therefore in numerous instances permitted the establishment of precincts, which had certain powers, but which had no representative in the Legislature. These subsequently became towns under a general act. But General Gage, June 5, 1774, near the end of the last OLD HOME DAY, 1904 29 General Court ever held under a royal governor, permitted the incorporation of a town, which he named after his immediate pre- decessor, Hutchinson. In 1776, fourteen towns whose names had been designated by royal governors, petitioned for a change. Only one was acted on, — Hutchinson was changed to Barre in honor of the gallant colonel who so bravely defended the colonists in the English House of Commons. Towns, through their meetings, were an almost indispensable means of promoting the Revolution. The inhabitants could be easily summoned to a common place of gathering, and they had been accustomed to act together. Moreover they had been trained to consider public questions. This is as essentially nec- essary to a self-governing people as it is to have the power of self- government. Public opinion when organized is omnipotent. None understood this better than the leaders of the Revolution. They had ready means, through the town meetings, to create such an organization, and they knew how to make that organization effective. The Suffolk Resolves, for instance, which were written by General Warren, were sent to the several towns. They declared that " no obedience was due to the recent acts of parliament," and " went further," a recent English historian asserts, '♦ in defiance of British authority than any formal or authorized declaration had yet done." Their influence upon the events that led up to the Revolution is incalculable, and they owe their importance almost entirely to the action of the towns in adopting them. A history of more than two centuries and a half has proved that town government meets the public necessities better and more economically than any other form. Their business is done in primary assemblies by the voters in town meetings. There the appropriations are made and officers elected. The affairs of these municipalities are conducted on the whole in a satisfactory man- ner. There is less embezzlement and mismanagement among town officials than in the same number of officers and agents in banks, or in mercantile, manufacturing and transportation corpo- rations which are under the direction of officers chosen by the stockholders. 30 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS The plague spots in our country are the cities in which a differ- ent system prevails. In them the prudential affairs and executive duties are performed by officers with whom too frequently " The jingle of the guineas Heals the hurt that honor feels ; " and in some of them it does not require a very pronounced pessi- mist to imagine that they are but a few degrees from moral disaster. If some means could be devised so that the town system could be applied, would not the question of municipal government for cities be solved ? You say to me " You have related when and where the system of public instruction began, you have told us something concern- ing the origin of towns, but what have these to do with the * Debt the Country Owes New England ? ' " Is it from these sources," you ask, " that the mighty energy has sprung that has developed the material resources of this continent ? Are the inventions and discoveries which have added to the necessities, the comfort, and the convenience of the people, and brought luxurious wealth in their train, traceable to the influence of these institutions alone ? " By no means. We cannot calculate percentages in determining the importance of these New England institutions and say how much of the progress that has been made in every direction of human activity during the last century has been due to them, how much to native force, how much to necessity or other causes, any more than you can measure the importance to the world of a Homer or a Shakespeare, or prepare tables to indicate the influ- ence of the ten commandments. We know that public school and town government had their beginning in New England. We know that the mammoth undertakings of private enterprise, the great lines of transportation, the wonderful means of communica- tion that have almost annihilated time and space, and the thou- sand beneficial inventions that the present age enjoys, owe their existence in this country almost entirely to men born and bred where the influence of these institutions are the strongest. But we need not stop at material prosperity or personal com- fort. " Is not life more than meat or body than raiment ? " BIRTHPLACK OF WILLIAM T. ADAMS (OLIVER OPTIC). KORN 1822, DIED 1897. Wrote over lUO volumes, over 1,'«kmw copies sold. Scl.oolniaster in Boston. OLD HOME DAY, I904 3t When the war for independence began, public schools had existed in New England for more than a hundred and twenty-five years, and towns from the first settlement of the country. In the South, town governments were unknown and public schools con- temned. The ranks of the American army in that war were filled by volunteers alone. There was no law or power to enforce compulsory enlistments. Is there no connection between these institutions and the fact that Massachusetts, with about one-fourth as large a population, furnished more soldiers in the Revolution than all the Southern States together ? «' The bones of her sons falling in the great struggle for liberty," said Webster, "now lie mingled with the soil of every State from New England to Georgia, and there they will remain forever." Was it an accident that the first blood of the Revolution was shed by Massachusetts men at Lexington, and the first blood of the Rebellion by Massa- chusetts men at Baltimore ? The " Debt the Country Owes New England " is traced in every step of our history. Her influence has not been confined to people living within her geographical limits, for the West has been largely settled by emigrants from New England having the same invincible courage, endurance and faith as their fathers, and who carried and planted in their new homes the same institutions with which they had become familiar, and under which they had been nourished. These settlers and their descendants have min- gled with emigrants from other States and countries, and there has sprung up all over that vast section a people of heroic fibre and tireless energy. Enterprise and industry, joined with economic growth and industrial development, have produced great wealth, but this in itself is a blessing not an evil. Besides, there still exists, I believe, in the people generally throughout our land, a deeper and grander principle than is satisfied by the mere accumulation of property, and which, if occasion demands, will, in time to come, as in the past, express itself in a way not to be misunderstood, and that is a strong, intelligent, patriotic devotion to their country, characteristics found only in men of honest, upright, robust characters. We had an illustration of this in the secession move- ment of 1 86 1. Think of nearly three million volunteers willing 32 MEDWAV, MASSACHUSETTS to risk their lives to maintain the unity of the government, then doubt of the future if you can ! In other nations men flee from their homes to escape service in the army, here they rushed to the war as to a feast, and the names of three thousand three hundred and fifty-one battles of the Rebellion that are inscribed upon the Union banners attest the magnitude of their services and the sincerity of their convictions. Notwithstanding the obstacles that may arise in our pathway, it seems to me that the sentiments of one of New England's greatest sons was never more appropriate than now. *' Advance, then, ye future generation. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good government and religious liberty. We welcome you to the pleasures of science and the delights of learning. We welcome you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, the happiness of kindred and parents and children. We welcome you to the immeasureable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting truth." /■r-t^ OLD HOME DAY, 1904 33 H6 Me Buil^. The masons were building the granite wall Round the beautiful church on the green ; They hammered and chiseled the stones inch by inch, And laid them with mortar between. They made the foundations both strong and deep, And leveled with plummet and line ; And carefully wrought that no flaw might appear To sully the perfect design. And when the last beautiful crowning stones Were laid, and the work was done, Complete and strong and perfect it stood, A lesson for every one. A lesson of daily human life : We build, though we may not see, For Time and Eternity, day by day, The character that shall be. Each little word, or thought, or deed Is clipped by the chisel we wield ; Each loving plan for another's good Is wrought in the life we build. If honor and truth are the tendrils which hold The purpose when life is new; And conscience and faith on the granite have set Their seals of a life pure and true. Then the years, as they roll with their changes, will bring A manhood both fearless and strong ; The power and the will to stand fast for the right, And firmly to stand against wrong. And the sure reward of a faithful life, The great Master Builder will own. When, our tasks " well done," to us shall be given The victor's fadeless crown. REV. JACOB IDE, D. D. DEDICATORY ADDRESS AT THE IDE MONUMENT AT WEST MEDWAY, MASS., AUGUST THIRD, 1904 BY THE REV. R. K. HARLOW OF MEDWAY, MASS. Mr. Preside7it and Friends : ^ODAY is a time for congratulations. A long neg- lected obligation to one of Medway's most deserving citizens of the last generation has been discharged. Twenty-four years after his death a monument has been set up to the memory of the Rev. Jacob Ide, D. D., who for sixty-five years held a pastoral relation to the Second Congregational Church in this town.* The reason for this delay has been variously explained. Of late the chief reason was the lack of some one to inaugurate the move- ment. If I may be allowed a personal expression, let me say that I feel a sense of relief, such as I imagine one enjoys who has lifted a long-standing mortgage that has been a sort of nightmare, disturbing his peace by day and his sleep by night. For a long time I have felt a personal obligation in this matter. By the death of Dr. Ide's son, Jacob, I took his place as the longest settled pastor in the Mendon Conference ; I was, at that time, the only minister in this body who knew Dr. Ide personally. The church I served for twenty-seven years was the only child of Dr. Ide's church ; I knew how unselfishly he had relinquished the village constituency to form a new church in a growing and prosperous section of the town. Then, in addition, the Rev. David Sanford, my only predecessor in the village church, was Dr. Ide's nearest ministerial neighbor of his faith and order, and his sincerest friend. Under these conditions, I often determined with myself that I would start a movement in the town or con- ference to take away our reproach. While I was musing, the fire burned, but it broke out in a very unexpected quarter. The Medway Historical Society, an organi- *NoTE. — Fifty-one years active pastor, fourteen years pastor emeritus. 36 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS zation started by some of our progressive young men of antiqua- rian tastes, with a purpose to rescue and pass on to posterity relics that grow richer as they age, was sagacious enough to see an opportunity for starting a movement that would bring the young society into popular notice and favor. A monument for Dr. Ide ! That was a rallying cry to which both obligation and sentiment would respond. I do not mean to imply that self-interest was the primary or chief motive of the Society in its action. I am willing to credit something to sentiment — much to a sense of the fitness of things — and to believe that the knowledge that the grave of a man so well deserving had remained unmarked twenty-three years appealed to their young manhood, and led them to undertake a work so well befitting the aims and intentions of their organization. If the Society never does anything else, it has done enough in starting this movement to justify its existence. The Society recog- nized the propriety of enlisting the co-operation of the Mendon Conference of Churches, and, at a subsequent meeting of that body, a committee was chosen to co-operate with a similar committee from the Historical Society. I had the honor to be chairman of the Conference Committee. It was suggested later that I prepare a sermon and present the object in the churches. Three of them, viz., West Medway, Milford, and Mansfield, perhaps from an innate horror of the visitation of agents, promptly took up generous contributions. The response of the other churches that I visited was so cordial, that I began to question whether it had not been fore-ordained from all eternity that I should be the financial secretary of some Congregational Missionary Society, or, at least, a life insurance or book agent, and thus be fat and flourishing, and still bring forth fruit in old age. Allow me to say that what I have done in furtherance of this object has been most cordially performed as my tribute to Dr. and Mrs. Ide. The Joint Com- mittee prepared a circular describing the project, which was sent far and wide, and met a generous response. Some unexpected favors came to us that seemed like special providences. Owing to the partition of the Ide burial lot, it was deemed necessary to procure a larger and more central lot, to which the remains of the family could be removed, and a monu- ment erected, where there would be no embarrassment from joint 1785— JACOB IDE — ISSOJM 30 PASTOR OF THE 20 CONGL Sw^ CHURCH MEDWAY I6W TO 1885 ff'?' PASTOR CMERITUS 186S TO ISeO ^%* A SKILLED THEOLOGIAN ^^ A CONVINCING PREACHER jSb A MODEL PASTOR ^3k A DISCREET ADVISER 3^| A ZEALOUS PrONEER OF ^Wx TEMPERANCE AND ABOLITION t^ TRAINED 43 STUDENTS FOR THE MINISTRY ON SCHOOL C OM 30YRS 1790- MARY EMMONS-1880 1815 — HIS WIFE — 1880 DAU OF NATHL EMMONS D D A RARE HELPMATE. THE REV. JAC015 IDE MEMORIAL. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 37 ownership. The heirs of the late Joseph D. Leland, of Boston, who, with his wife, were formerly members of Dr. Ide's church, and his personal friends, solved the problem by deeding the vacated Leland lot, with its hammered granite boundary posts and steps, to the Medway Historical Society, Another family of Dr. Ide's parishioners and members of his church, Mr. and Mrs. Emerson Bullard, who still survive, is pleasantly connected with this movement through the generosity of their son, Mr. George P. Bullard, of Newton, Mass., who has donated one hundred dollars for perpetual care of the lot and monument. Thus the children, in honoring the venerable pastor of their parents, honor their father and mother also. The next problem of the committee was as to the form of the memorial. At first a rough native boulder was considered, but the size and sightliness of the donated lot demanded something more colossal and conspicuous. A similitude of an old-time pulpit in undressed granite was agreed upon. It is little more than a suggestion, but that is better than a conventional show piece of the stone cutter's skill in turning scroll work and tracing granite vines and flowers. The monument is unique — like the man it memorializes. It stands for something. Its stability suggests the old-time life pastorate. Its proportions, tall and wide, represent the dignity and propriety of the old-time clergyman. Its ruggedness and inflexibility suit well to the characteristics of the old-time theology. As it stands empty, it speaks of the pathos of the breaking up of a long pastorate. The front panel bears the name of Dr. Idc and his worthy wife, with some characteristics. The back panel gives a catalogue of their children. It reaches from the top of the pulpit down to the platform, eleven all told — a granite indictment against race suicide. The hardest task of the committee was to prepare an inscription to be cut in the granite setting forth some of the prominent char- acteristics of Dr. Ide. The strokes must be few, but revealing. How well we succeeded we leave you to judge. What I shall say further will be in elaboration of these epigrams. The committee has saved me and you from the statistical part of Dr. Ide's biography by printing these as a prelude to this dedicatory service. 38 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS A SKILLED THEOLOGIAN. The times preceding the birth of Dr. Ide, and during his ministry, may be called the age of positive theology. In our days of easy-going, shirt-waist theology it is difficult for us to under- stand why the fathers were so strenuous as to the exact fit of the theological straight-jacket, and why such battles were fought over the number of gores and biases it should show. Then the downright positiveness with which some of these old- time preachers declared just what God could and could not do, would and would not do, as if they were confidential secretaries of the Almighty, amazes us. In reading some of the deliverances of these men, which they are certain are correct likenesses of Jehovah, one is reminded of the story of a little girl, who was making a drawing on paper. Her mother asked her what she was doing ; " I am making a picture of God." " But, my child, no one knows how God looks." "They will know when they see this picture." Out of the unconscious mouths of babes and sucklings cartoonists of God are rebuked. Jacob Ide was not by nature or training one of these. In his fiftieth anniversary sermon we read : " It is proper to say here that this church and people have, from the beginning, been taught, and they have believed, the doctrines usually termed Calvinistic. They have been in the habit of recognizing the Assembly's Catechism as a good epitome of Christian doctrine, and the Cambridge platform as among the best systems of disci- pline within their knowledge, though they have not been prepared to adopts without qualification, all the language or every thought contained in these formulas." Their minister took the liberty of modifying the standards so as to make them defensible by the reason, and taught them to do the same. He was like a skillful builder, who, having come into possession of a line of timber forts that have done service in war- fare on the debatable ground of hostile camps, culls out the soundest of the timber, and, by hewing and sawing, constructs an ample and comfortable dwelling for his household. One who knew Dr. Ide, says : " His theology was of that clear, logical type called New England, or modified Galvanism. He sympathized fully with Dr. Park in his controversy with Princeton, and held r^,'^ ■' '■'■:.■:- chfldren %^ o r^ ^ARr TDRREY— 1869 -1821 -.1847 jads !r S 1820.— ERASTU5 \^-\. 1821— NATHANIFr I 1823 ■ NATHANIEL: JACOB : PASTOR OF PONCL. CHURCH --«,- .'MAKlSFIELD JeSB^ — laea ^"^ >825' ;. SARAH " 'I'^t. 182.6 ■ MM 1826 . ALEXIS W-^^ISPI. CS' ■ , ■PASTOR OF concuchui}ch; >1. 'STAFFORD SPRINGS CDNM.I859r:-l867 \fl"^ 1829— CHARLES W--I829- y^:- F I830-CEORCE HDPKINS-I83r f^^^ !,:' tj 1635- QEORGE H0MEBrJ^62 t^f ^ KEVIiKSli OF THE REV. JACOH IDE MEMORIAL. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 39 with the Hopkinsians in their emphasis on disinterested benevo- lence and submission to Divine decrees." Dr. Park bore this testimony at the Ide fiftieth anniversary : " He has framed his creed with great carefulness. He has weighed and balanced his words. This venerable pastor has explained the doctrines so that he could preach them without reserve. He has made out such a system of theology that no part of it needs to be hidden from the people. His theology is fit to be preached, and he has preached it." Dr. A, L. Stone, on the same occasion, said : " His ministry has been an instructive one, and in advance of the age. He has lived to see the times come up to him." The fact that the trustees of the Theological Seminary in Bangor elected Dr. Ide to a professorship of theology and pastoral duties, and the reluctance with which, after repeated overtures, they acquiesced in his final declination, shows the popular estimate of him as a theologian and a possible seminary professor. The persistence with which young men came to his house for theo- logical training, and stayed, against his advice and inclination, until the total reached forty-three, suggests the inference that it was decreed that he should be a theological professor. There is this additional confirmatory fact : In his early ministry there were five young men, graduates of Brown University, settled in this vicinity. One of them says : " We formed, for our mutual improve- ment, a sub-association, held monthly meetings, and in the course of five years went through a system of divinity. Dr. Ide was the best theologian of our number, and was in reality our teacher." Brown University conferred on him the merited title of D. D. . A CONVINCING PREACHER. Theron Metcalf, Esq., Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, once said of Dr. Emmons' preaching : " If you admith is premises, all hell can't get away from his conclusions." From what I have read of Dr. Ide's sermons, and from what others competent to judge have told me, the same remark might apply to the preaching of Dr. Emmons' son-in-law. One parishioner testifies : " I have heard Dr. Ide preach on election and predestination, and reconcile man's free-agency with 40 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS God's sovereignty in a satisfactory and convincing manner." Among students who heard him in his later ministry (who are now ministers), one says : " He was not an eloquent preacher, as we should define the word, but he was always effective in the pulpit. His style was like his thought — plain, direct and luminous. I think he must have always claimed and held his hearers atten- tion by these qualities. His deportment in public ministrations was dignified and commanding." Another says : ** He was logical rather than illustrative. During the civil war his extemporaneous utterances, on the Sunday after a battle, did not lack in vigor. He certainly was a keen and ready debater, even as an old man, and spoke as one who had mastered his subject." An aged man told me that he used to go, as a boy of fifteen, from North Bellingham to hear Dr. Ide every Sunday. I said, "Could you understand his sermons.^" " Understand them ! I guess I could ! " Another hearer says : " He had the galleries full of young men. In all weathers, from miles around, the farmers came and stayed all day to hear him preach." Prof. Park, when a student, taught school somewhere in this vicinage. One Sunday he went to hear Dr. Ide preach. He remembered this about the sermon, which was on Sabbath breaking, one form of which, the preacher said, was in " gadding about to hear other ministers than your own." Rev. S. J. Horton, late principal of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, said : " My first acquaintance with him was when I was a lad of fifteen, and he was in his prime. His strong and sanctified intellect leading him to grasp with a giant's strength, great and sublime truths, his power of analysis and illus- tration, his sincerity, boldness and zeal in proclaiming the Gospel message, all have had an abiding influence upon me." A boy- hood parishioner, who spent some time in his youth in the Ide family, relates this incident, showing the doctor's courage in declaring his convictions. One Sabbath he preached on a theme against the protests of some of his leading men. He used the same theme a second Sunday, and a third, with more protests, and ended by telling the people " there were men who would preach what they wanted to hear, they could be had for money, but he wasn't the man." It is evident, from the published and manuscript sermons of MARY ICMMONS lUE. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 41 Dr. Idc, that he kept out of shallows ; never got lost in his own fog, or left the question among his hearers when he stopped — " Whatever was he driving at ? " I imagine this was so evident that some of them were as uncomfortable as they would have been in hair-cloth underwear. A MODEL PASTOR. We are speaking of a man whose active service ceased thirty- eight years ago. The living witnesses of his pastoral work are few, but I am sure they would endorse our characterization. If there were no survivors, certain historic facts give us data for an estimate. When Jacob Ide, at the age of twenty-nine, accepted a call to this church, the outlook was discouraging. There had been no pastoral service done here for nearly seven years. An entire generation had passed since any general revival interest had blessed the congregation, and nearly all the young men of that period had removed elsewhere. The membership was small, and made up mostly of people past middle life. Eighteen months before they had seriously considered the matter of disbanding and returning to the mother church, so discouraged had they become. Worst of all, the habit of absenteeism from public worship had grown up in the comrhunity. There was also considerable fac- tional feeling, because the location of the new meeting house, which had just been completed, after they had taken a new lease of life, had been changed. In addition, Mr. Ide was in such deli cate health that he did not expect to live a year. Evidently young Ide was not looking for a prominent, wealthy, envied parish. He was looking for an opportunity to be useful. He found it, and God honored his spirit of self-effacement. In the first two years of his pastorate, thirty-five persons were added to the church, all except three on confession, and all through his ministry similar results were manifest, the whole number in fifty years reaching 516. His schedule of a pastor's duties, outlined in his fiftieth anni- versary sermon, shows how exacting his ideal was. To know the wants of his own people, to learn the dangers to which they are exposed, to find the avenue to their hearts and consciences, and 42 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS to select those portions of the Divine Word best adapted to their respective cases, and to present these at the time and in the manner best suited to win their souls to Christ, to sympathize with his people in all their joys and sorrows, to be ever at their call when they need his services, to bear them on his heart in all his approaches to the throne of grace, is a work in view of which an angel might quail." While he was a man of strong will and pronounced convictions, he so ruled his spirit that he was always self-poised, modest, cour- teous and patient. He was a minister for whom his people never had to apologize or make allowances, the force of whose preaching was never discounted by indiscretions or eccentricities in the pulpit or out of it. The following description of an English vicar fits him well : " Six feet he stood within his shoes. And every inch of all a man, Ecclesiast on the ancient plan, Unforced by any party rule His native character to school. He ne'er was bitter or unkind. But positively spoke his mind. Up for his church he stoutly stood ; No worldly aim had he in life To set him with himself at strife." A fact of special interest is his service for the children and youth. In the second year of his pastorate, at a time when Sunday Schools were rare, he organized this portion of his con- gregation into three classes for Biblical study. These he met once a month on the same day, the youngest (from 4 to lo years of age) at 10 a. m., those from 10 to 16 at 2 p. m., and the eldest in the evening. Thus in a single day more than one hundred young people met their pastor for religious instruction. This continued for about three years, when a Sunday School was formed. After such faithful seed-sowing, is it any marvel that a most sweeping revival visited the community in which a hundred persons professed conversion .-' In the two years succeeding this awakening, one hundred and five were added to the church. It may be fittingly mentioned here that ten young men from this OLD HOME DAY, 1904 43 parish entered the Christian ministry during Dr. Ide's pastorate, and two others were in preparation when he closed his ministry. A DISCREET ADVISER. A man of Dr. Ide's recognized common sense, breadth of vision, fairness of judgment, knowledge of human nature and Christian spirit, we can readily believe would be much in demand in individual and church difficulties as a judicious counselor. He came as near being a bishop for this region as our Congrega- tional polity allows ; not in the sense of being a dictator, but as an adviser in religious and other matters. The number of ecclesias- tical councils of which he formed an important part (175) indi- cates his position in pubHc esteem. Individuals have told me of his illuminating ministry when they were in religious doubt or difficulty. A younger minister after living in a neighboring town twenty-six years, bore this testimony : " When I came to this region and found in Dr. Ide an old friend of my father, I imme- diately experienced something like a filial regard, and was inclined to look up to him as a father, for that sympathy and counsel which at that time I so much needed. He has been like a pillar against which one could lean, and feel firm in his position." How many snarls he has helped untangle, how many belliger- ents he has quieted, how many gathering cyclones he has punc- tured and made invisible, he has not recorded, but we may be sure they were sufficient to entitle him to the beatitude, " Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." A ZEALOUS PIONEER OF TEMPERANCE AND ABOLITION. Dr. Ide in his fiftieth anniversary sermon, says : " At the time of my settlement, the drinking of intoxicating liquor was, here as in almost every other place in the country, nearly universal. It was customary at ordinations in the country to erect upon the common, near the church, or at some other convenient place, temporary stands for the sale of this article to accommodate the multitude that usually attended on such occasions. Understand- ing that such accommodations were expected here, I sent to the committee of arrangements and requested that no such thing should be allowed at the time and place of my ordination. My 44 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS request was complied with. I tried also to prevent the provision of spirituous liquors for the council on that occasion, but this effort was a little too early for the time, and proved a failure." The elect, it seems, were harder to manage than the reprobate. It was a token of hospitality to treat the minister on his parish calls, and for him to refuse would have been thought an incivility. Dr. Ide, in his later days, told a close friend of the way he became awakened to the personal danger of this custom. He was out making parish calls on a cold day, and at every house was offered hot toddy. As a result, he said, " When I got home I found I was a little boozy." That experience made him ever thereafter a total abstainer. He found that while many deplored the evil effects of intoxication, it was quite generally thought an incurable evil. " In this state of things," he says, " I felt it a duty to preach upon the subject. In 1 8 1 8 I undertook to show the evil nature and effects of intemperance, also that the drunk- ard might be cured. The remedy was, to leave off drinking immediately and entirely. The sermon attracted much attention and comment, but it bore fruit." The doctor said that he had preached as many sermons on temperance as on any one subject of Christian morals on which he had spoken. He adds, as a result, " This people were the first in this vicinity to go heartily and in earnest into the temperance reform." It was largely through Dr. Ide's influence that the serving of liquor at the meet- ings of the Mendon Association was abolished. Dr. Ide was one of the pioneers in advocating the abolition of American slavery. He says : " I have from the first, both in private and in public, denounced American slavery as an out- rageous wrong, exposing us, as a people, to the displeasure of heaven." In 1844, in the annual meeting of the American Board of Missions, he presented a memorial (drawn up by the late Hon. M. M. Fisher) to that body, signed by himself and eighteen others, ministers and laymen, virtually asking the Board to declare that slavery is a crime against man, and a sin against God. The discussion that followed, in which Dr. Ide took a prominent part, awakened much interest among the pastors and laymen throughout the country, and gave great impetus to the rising anti-slavery sentiment. Thank God Dr. Ide lived to see ORdAN TRESENTED, A. I). I9OO, TO THE CHURCH AS A M.IVIORIAL FOR JOSEPH D. LELAND AND MARY l\ LELANU, BY THEIR CHILDREN. OLD HOME DAY, 1904 45 this great crime abolished, a result that cost him the loss of his youngest son, George, who was killed at the battle of Cedar Mountain, Va., 1862 ; also his son-in-law, Rev. Chas. T. Torrey, who died in prison in Baltimore, under sentence for abducting slaves. The championship of these reforms, so far in advance of popu- lar sentiment, indicates the moral courage of Dr. Ide. " Instead of going with the stream, he stemmed the torrent " — the sign manual of the hero. His advocacy of these movements was of the highest value in creating popular sentiment in their favor, for all who knew Dr. Ide agreed that he was no fanatic or crank, chasing a will-o'-the-wisp that would land him in a bog, with all those who followed him. Dr. Ide was a pioneer also in mission work, home and foreign. He says : " At Andover Seminary I was in the class of Mills and Richards and Warren, and was familiar with Judson and his associates. I went among the churches in the vicinity of Andover to solicit funds to fit out the first missionaries of the American Board." This early interest deepened throughout all his ministry, and the effect upon his people is seen in this state- ment : " The contributions for benevolence have steadily increased through the whole period of my pastorate." Of the forty-three students whom Dr. Ide trained wholly or in part for the ministry, it may be said that, while none of them attained great eminence, they averaged well among their contem- poraries as faithful and efficient ministers of Christ. A number of them entered the service of the Home Missionary Society, and did pioneer duty in the wilds of the far West, e.g., in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, etc. Others settled in New England parishes and gained honorable mention for their work's sake. Special mention should be made of the venerable Dr. Edmund Dowse of Sherborn, who is among the few survivors of Dr. Ide's students, whose active pastorate in his native town exceeds that of his instructor by fifteen years, and who still abides among his people (July i), honored and revered. If Dr. Bushnell's theory is correct that men get a property right in the achievements of those whom they have started in service, then Dr. Ide's royalty upon what his students have done for the world is a revenue incalculable. 46 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS In addition to his exacting work already noticed, Dr. Ide served for thirty years on the School Committee, •' a great proportion of the time without compensation." In connection with two other members of Mendon Association, he edited the Christian Maga- zine for four years, and occasionally contributed to its pages. He prepared for publication, with some assistance, the works of Dr. Emmons, aggregating seven octavo volumes of 550 pages each. He preached special sermons before various county and State organizations ; served as trustee of Amherst College and Wheaton Seminary. Reviewing his abundant labors, we read with surprise this statement in his semi-centennial sermon : " For the whole period of my ministerial life, I have been an invalid. This state of my health has been a perpetual embarassment to me. It has frustrated my plans, disappointed my expectations, rendered me timid and undecided in my resolutions respecting any future achievement." No wonder the Doctor chose as a most fitting text for his fifty years' review : " But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain." He pays a deserved tribute to the aid of his competent and affectionate wife, who was a very tangible exponent of the grace that was bestowed upon him, for as one of the speakers at the anniversary well said : *• Dr. Ide's excellent wife is entitled to share the honors of the celebration with her husband. Together theirs has been a model pastorate." The fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Ide's ordination, to which refer- ence has been made several times in this address, was recognized by a unique celebration. Seventy clergymen were present, among whom were Professor Park of Andover Theological Seminary, Dr. Nehemiah Adams of the Union church, Boston, Dr. A. L. Stone of Park Street, Secretary Anderson of the American Board, Dr. H. M. Dexter, editor of the Congregatiottalisty who took part in the service. Letters were read from Dr. Kirk, Dr. Manning of Boston, Dr. Gardiner Spring of New York, in whose epistle occurs this sentence : " Gabriel would not stoop to fill a throne, but he would rejoice to fill a pulpit." There were giants in those days, and they met to honor their venerable friend as an equal. I first knew Dr. Ide when he was an old man of eighty-seven OLD HOME DAV, 1904 47 years. He was tall, erect and commanding in personal appear- ance ; his hair snow-white, his neck swathed with a spotless ker- chief, a sort of ministerial badge in his early days, courteous and benignant in his bearing, a fine type of the New England minister of a century ago. One Sabbath, by some arrangement of exchange, I preached in his old church and was entertained at his home between services. He came into the west parlor, where I was, and stood facing the window toward the sunset. There was snow on the ground. His hands rested on the head of his tall cane. He said, " I remember a New Year' s Sabbath long ago, for which I had prepared a special sermon. There was a heavy fall of snow on Saturday, and on Sunday it stood on a level as deep as this cane, the roads were blocked ; there was no service. The next New Year's Sabbath it was just the same, and the third." What became of the thrice snowbound sermon he did not say. There was a strain of quiet humor in his nature that lighted up his personality as flowers in a mountain crevice light up its rugged face wall. This crops out in his anniversary sermon here and there. Speaking of the students who came to him for instruction, instead of going to a seminary, as he advised, he says : " No one but themselves has reason to regret the course they pursued, unless it be the people t6 whom they preached." Of his sermons he said, ** How many sermons I have written I cannot say. If they were seen, I apprehend their numbers would be thought greater than their merits." He plays upon Paul's caution, " Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers," and thinks that some who have good wives are suffering from being unequally yoked with believers. " They have so much stronger faith and warmer hearts, and quicker motions, than we, they not infrequently get the fore end of the yoke, and, knowing nothing about backing, compel us to quicken our steps and draw a heavier draft than we are accus- tomed to move, in order to keep in line with them. Certainly in quick repartee and flashing humor, the Doctor was unequally yoked with a believer. A guest taking tea with the Ides in their later life, says that Mrs. Ide, while serving the tea, upset a rather awkward receptacle that held the milk. She instantly relieved the situation by saying, " I always thought the cow ought to be brought to the table." 48 MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS There were families in North Bellingham connected with the West Medway parish. There was a Baptist church there, pre- sided over by a resident minister. The two clergymen frequently met at family gatherings, and were on cordial terms. One day the Baptist clergyman said, " Dr. Ide, I would like to exchange with you." The Doctor blandly replied, " I would be happy to accommodate you." " Well, when can we arrange for an exchange ? " " Oh, on your next Communion Sabbath," replied the sedate Doctor. The exchange was laid on the table. An irreligious man in that community, on his dying bed, was converted, and was very desirous of being baptized and joining the church. The two ministers were together in the sick chamber. Dr. Ide said, " What are we going to do about this matter ? " The Baptist brother replied. " Well, sprinking will have to do in this case" Jacob told me that after his graduation from the Seminary, he was at home trying to do the impossible — to create a sermon for a non-existent audience. The days went by, and the Doctor now and then asked if the sermon was finished, and the answer was continuously ** No." After about three weeks, the Doctor calmly said, " Well, Jacob, if you ever get into the ministry, you'll have to get a sermon done sometime." A few incidents show in what wholesome reverence the vener- able minister was held in the community. If a company of men were chaffing and joking in a store or public place, when Dr. Ide appeared it was the signal for silence. A parishioner of most obdurate will was once rebuked for his obstinacy. He replied, " What you call obstinacy in me \s firmness in Dr. Ide." One of his church members and a deacon, a man of wealth and great influence, but a victim at times of a most uncontrollable temper, flew into a rage at a parish meeting (at which the min- ister was present), and, with an oath, declared a proposition to be a fact. His nephew, a youth, was so shocked at this flagrant wickedness, that he went home and said to his mother, •' Uncle J will surely go to hell," and repeated the statement, " Uncle J will surely go to hell." " What do you mean ? " said his mother. " Uncle J swore today, right before Dr. Ide ! " The next day the deacon drove into Dr. Ide's yard a load of wood, OLD HOME DAY, 1904 49 which tradition says was the finest load ever drawn through the streets of West Medway. Perhaps the deacon thought he would furnish reliable material for a good crop of coals which the Doctor could heap on his head next time he called, by way of foretaste or rebuke. The seasons came and went, and the years, but the venerable man scarce realized the transitions. The world of this once busy and achieving minister was fast shrinking to the dimensions of the four walls of his dwelling, and the marvel grew. Why does not God substitute the blessed rest of heaven for the irksome idle- ness of earth ? His last days were like the hours of vanishing twilight, after a golden October sunset, when the gray of oncoming night makes the/fafnres of the landscape one. The skilled theologian — The convincing preacher — The model pastor — The discreet adviser — The pioneer of reform — was a little child again, waiting to be rocked to sleep. Not long before his release, he stood in front of his study desk and offered this last audible prayer. " O Lord, when Thou hast kept us here on earth as long as it is Thy will, be pleased to take us home to Thyself." The prayer gained speedy answer, and "he passed through glory's morning gate, and walked in Paradise." TO THE PUBLIC. The Medway Historical Society congratulates itself upon the work it has been able to accomplish during the short period of two years since its incorporation. It has gathered a live membership of over one hundred, and in its permanent quarters in the Old Parish House it offers to public inspection an exhibit of great value, both financial and educational. It has provided the public of the town with over twenty lectures without an admission fee, and promises others of equal or greater merit for the future. It carried out the first Old Home Day last year, and presents a program today which is offered without apology ; in fact today's exercises are not only of present but of future value. We present this our first publication in the full confidence of public apprecia- tion. Two years ago we took up the question of a memorial for Dr. Ide, because the matter had lam dormant for nearly twenty- five years, and was a reflection upon the town. We raised the money, half in the Mendon Conference and half from miscellaneous sources, and today we dedicate a granite monument to this truly great man. We have marked two historic spots, and hope to con- tinue this line of effort until no important historic place in the original town remains unidentified. We have placed 1 1 1 markers, provided by the town, over the graves of revolutionary soldiers. We hope to be able to continue all lines of work appropriate to an organization of this character, and, with a continuance of the support of an interested membership, we trust the benefits to the town will be of that character which cannot be determined or measured by money considerations alone, but by that other stand- ard — the honest and sincere approval of all our people. MEDWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. W