Fifty Notable Years

"Brother Mallory was a man of great energy of character, often travelling and preaching under such adverse circumstances as would have discouraged others of less inherent power. His compensation for services has been comparatively small, but, sustained by the ministry of the reconciliation, he fainted not, occupying till the Master came."

In the yearly Universalist "Register," the names of nearly thirty women are given as ministers, – evangelists or with pastorates, – in the Universalist Church.49 Among the number of those who have served in this capacity, the record is made of the death of the following: —

Mrs. Elvira J. Powers. She came into the ministry from the Canton Theological School as a licentiate of the New York Convention. At the end of six months she was compelled to give up her work on account of ill-health, and was not able afterwards to resume it. During the war of the Rebellion, in the office of nurse, she rendered good service, and wrote an interesting book of her experiences, entitled "Hospital Pencillings." A friend and former pastor speaks of her personal worth in very strong terms. "In fidelity to her conviction of duty, in her industry, zeal, and integrity, in her constant sacrifice of the superficial and temporal for the profound and eternal, her life was a great success." She died in Worcester, Mass., Sept. 21, 1871.

Rev. Fanny Upham Roberts, daughter of Frederic and Hannah R. Cogswell, both of whom were preachers in the "Christian Connection," was born in South Berwick, Me., in June, 1834. She joined the Congregational Church in Northwood, N. H., and was for some time a superintendent of a Baptist Sunday-school. She had, however, from a child been acquainted with the Universalist faith. In 1870 she began to give lectures in public on lyceum topics, and not long afterwards commenced preaching in Kensington, N. H., and Wells, Me. In the spring of 1871 she removed to Kittery, Me. (where she had been ordained), and preached there until April, 1875, when from loss of voice she resigned her post, and went to Minnesota, hoping to regain her health. But the change of climate failed to arrest her disease, and she steadily declined until death came to her relief. She died in Winona, Minn., Aug. 26, 1875. Her friends testify to her vigor of mind, her goodness of heart, and the graceful modesty and sweet womanly dignity that ever shone out in her life. An intelligent member of the Universalist congregation of Portsmouth, N. H., once informed the writer that in listening to her discourses, as he did occasionally, he was forcibly reminded of the logical clearness and strength of the elder Ballou.

Rev. Prudy Le Clerc Haskell was born in Louisville, Ky., Feb. 6, 1844, and died in Oxford, O., Dec. 27, 1878. In her youthful days she was thoughtful, intelligent, and studious. Her parents were Universalists in sentiment, and her mind was impressed by the influences of their religious faith. An only brother, who had intended to enter the Universalist ministry, died in a Southern prison during the war, and she felt herself called to take the place which he would have filled. She was ordained at Madison, Ind., Oct. 14, 1869, where she preached two years, and succeeded in gathering the scattered remnants of a former congregation into a living form. She then went to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and labored there successfully for two years, greatly endearing herself to the people; but the climate proving unfavorable to her, she was obliged to leave and return to the home of her parents in Aurora, Ind. She was afterwards settled at Mt. Carmel, Ind., at Jeffersonville and Newtown, O., and at Covington, Ky. She was an attractive and interesting preacher, and very popular as a pastor. While residing in Covington, she was united in marriage to Mr. Cassius L. Haskell, who afterwards entered the ministry. She had been married but a single year when her earthly life ended. The remembrance of an evening with her at a meeting in Mt. Carmel, O., is very vivid in the mind of the writer. She had been deeply interested in a new church organization there, and had induced a good number of young believers to become members. Her welcome and counsel to them were pervaded with the Christian spirit.

Living Ministers

It has been thought advisable to append to this record of the departed the names of a few of the living ministers, now advanced in years, who have earned an honorable reputation by their works during the time included in the survey here taken. It would have been agreeable to the writer if the number of such could have been increased, but this was forbidden by the limits prescribed to this volume. Besides, as already stated, it will be understood that this historical sketching is by no means exhausted; that there is another and a larger roll of those passed on, who have done faithful service in the redeeming army, as there is a noble company of the living who are yet adding their good work to the history of the church, and whose names and deeds may in some future day be truthfully and gratefully given to an appreciative public. For this brief review we are able to take of the faithful dead and living, let us be thankful.

One of the most aged living ministers of the Universalist Church is Rev. Clement Fall Le Fevre, D. D., of Milwaukee, Wis. He was born in Berkhamstead, County of Hertfordshire, England, Nov. 12, 1797. He was christened in the parish church, as was the poet Cowper, who was a native of the same county. The father of Mr. Le Fevre was a clergyman and graduate of Oxford University, and was acquainted with the distinguished poet, and always held his works in high estimation. In 1814 Mr. Le Fevre had a commission in the British navy as second lieutenant of the Royal Marines, and was appointed to a frigate and sailed for Halifax. His war record was a short one, however, for with the peace of 1815 he was put on half-pay. He was never in any engagement with the enemy, and, as he writes, "my sword was never stained with American blood, and theirs was never stained with mine, and that I consider the better." Having no particular employment, he was for some time adrift as to a life-calling, but subsequently inclined to his father's profession, and in nautical phrase "bore up for a parson." His father was educating some young men for the Universities, and the son joined in their classes. Having by this means obtained some knowledge of Latin and Greek, he received ordination, and was adopted by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This was in the year 1821. His appointment was to a church in Canada, in the diocese of Quebec, where he remained until the close of the year 1829, when, rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity and endless punishment for the sins of this life, he withdrew from the ministry and communion of the Church of England.

He next removed to New York, and made his home at Hempstead, L. I., the native place of his wife; and here and at several places on the island and in the city of New York he frequently preached. In 1830 he received fellowship of the Universalists, at the New York and Philadelphia Association, met at New Brunswick, N. J. He was next pastor four years in Troy, N. Y., six in New York city, four in Hudson, and six in Milwaukee, Wis. In the last-named place he purchased a farm and settled down for the enjoyment of a permanent home. Although having no special pastorate, he has been doing much missionary work, has constantly attended the meetings of the church, and often written for its publications. His health at this present writing is quite firm for one of his years, a slight failure of eyesight and a partial paralysis of the right hand being his principal infirmity.

Mr. Le Fevre enjoys a deservedly high reputation. His pulpit talents have always been appreciated by his congregations. His discourses have indicated a keen and well-balanced mind, logical force, and ripe scholarship. In social life he has always exerted a salutary influence; his wit and humor being admirable accompaniments of his gentlemanly dignity and sympathetic spirit. He has proved a valuable acquisition to the church whose pleasure it is to make this truthful record of him.

Rev. Lucius Robinson Paige, D. D., is, with two exceptions,50 the oldest living minister in the Universalist Church. He was born in Hardwick, Mass., March 8, 1802, and was educated in the public schools of his native village. On reaching his majority he began his work as a preacher, and did some effective missionary work as a layman. In 1825 he was ordained, and was settled at Springfield, Mass., where he remained four years. During this time, his faith being assailed by two ministers of the Methodist church, Rev. Timothy Merritt and Rev. Wilbur Fisk, Mr. Paige entered into a controversy with them, and proved himself an able advocate and defender of the Christian Gospel. The debate still exists in pamphlet form, and is one of the most pithy and searching that can be found. The spirit and behavior of the bigoted opponents of Universalism are strikingly illustrated, as well as the readiness and efficiency of the assailed one to meet and to deal with them. Mr. Paige was next minister in Rockport, and removed from there to Cambridgeport, where he was installed pastor of the First Universalist Society July 8, 1832. He held this position until 1839, after which he took no pastorate, but continued to preach frequently for more than twenty years afterwards, and has been active in the ministry until within a few years.

In 1833 he published his "Selections from Eminent Commentators," a work showing most conclusively the admission on the part of orthodox writers of the very ground taken by Universalists in their explanation of many passages of Scripture supposed to stand in opposition to Universalism. It was a strong call upon all candid inquirers after Christian truth, and has made its impress in the progress of Christian thought since it was issued. In 1838 he published "Questions on Select Portions of the Gospels," designed for Sunday schools and Bible classes. His greatest work, however, is his Commentary on the New Testament, the first volume of which was published in 1844, and the last in 1870. The work is the result of sound judgment, careful research and close thought, and is a monument of the steady and untiring industry of the writer. It has been highly acceptable to those on whose behalf it was prepared. While engaged upon it, he also contributed to the denominational papers, and gathered materials for the history of Cambridge, which was published in 1877.

He has also been actively engaged in secular pursuits. He was town clerk from March, 1839, to January, 1840, and from March, 1843, to May, 1846, and city clerk from May, 1846, to October, 1855, and representative in the General Court in 1878 and 1879. He was treasurer of the Cambridgeport Savings Bank from April, 1855, to April, 1871, and has been cashier and president of the Cambridge Bank. He received the degree of A. M. from Harvard in 1850, and D. D. from Tufts in 1861. Although he has retired from business, during the past few years Dr. Paige has given much attention to the preparation of a history of his native town, Hardwick, and after many years of hard work the task is completed and the manuscript is now ready for the printer. He is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and one of the oldest on the roll; also of the American Antiquarian and Phi Beta Kappa societies.

As a Mason he has stood high. He joined the Order in Little Falls, N. Y., in 1824, became Worshipful Master of the Hardwick Lodge in 1826, having previously been exalted to the Royal Arch degree at Greenwich, and having joined the Knights Templars in 1824. He is now the oldest Past Commander of the Knights Templars within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He became Steward of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1848, and deacon in 1850. The year following he was elected right worshipful deputy grand master. Upon retiring from that position, he became a permanent member, and is now the oldest surviving permanent member of the Grand Lodge. In 1861 he received the thirty-third degree Scottish, and was at once admitted a member of the Supreme Council. Here he served as Secretary two years, and Minister of State three years. He is now, as he has been for nineteen years past, resident representative of the Supreme Council of Belgium.

One of the most noticeable events in the life of Dr. Paige was that of the celebration of his eightieth birthday, in the vestry of the Universalist Church in Cambridgeport, on the evening of March 8, 1882. A large company was assembled, and after a feast at the tables, very impressive exercises followed. Rev. O. A. Safford, pastor of the Universalist Church, presided, and introduced Dr. Paige to the company, who heard from him a very appropriate and affecting address. The assembly was then addressed by Mayor Fox of Cambridge, Rev. Dr. McKenzie of the Congregational church, Rev. Drs. Sawyer, Adams, Miner, and Capen, Rev. C. A. Skinner, J. A. Jacobs, Esq., the city clerk, and Capt. J. W. Cotton. A letter, expressive of his sincere and hearty respect for Dr. Paige, was read from Professor Longfellow. A handsome illustrated copy of Longfellow's Poems was presented to the doctor, bearing this inscription: "Presented by a few old friends, with their congratulations and best wishes on the 80th anniversary of his birthday."

On Monday, May 1, 1882, the Columbus Avenue Universalist Church celebrated the thirty-fourth anniversary of the pastorate of Rev. Alonzo Ames Miner, D. D., LL. D., who entered upon his duties as a colleague of the late Rev. Hosea Ballou, pastor of the Second Universalist Society in Boston, in place of Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin, called to New York. Mr. Miner was born in Lempster, N. H., Aug 17, 1814. His ancestors on both sides were distinguished by good sense and firm physical constitutions. His remote American forefather, Thomas Miner, landed at Boston in the same year with the elder Winthrop (1630), and removed to Connecticut with the company of the younger Winthrop about 1646. His grandfather, Charles Miner, served in the Revolutionary War, and removed to New Hampshire soon after its close. Thomas Miner, his ancestor, was a descendant of Henry Bulman of the Mendip Hills, Somersetshire, England, who furnished Edward III., when on his way to embark for the wars of France, with an escort of one hundred men, selected from his servants and from the men employed in his mines. For this service the king honored him with a coat of arms, and changed his name to Miner.

Dr. Miner was so feeble in his youth that it seemed doubtful whether he would grow up into mature life. But good care and judicious training wrought a change for the better, which was doubtless aided by a vigorous will. His education was gained at village schools and academies in New Hampshire and Vermont. He began teaching between terms when he was sixteen years of age, and in 1835 took entire charge of the Scientific and Military Academy at Unity, N. H. His first discourse in the pulpit was delivered in February, 1838. In 1839 he received ordination, and was settled in Methuen, Mass. In 1842 he removed to Lowell, where he became an efficient yoke-fellow with the pastor of the First Universalist Church, and where they made good proof of their ministry in the pulpit and through the press. Dr. Miner remained in Lowell as pastor of the Second Society until the removal of Rev. E. H. Chapin from Boston to New York, when he was called to take his place as colleague with Rev. Hosea Ballou at the Universalist Church in School St. On the death of Mr. Ballou, he became pastor of the church, which office he still retains. His health failing him partially in 1851, he visited Europe, and on his return found that his church edifice had been remodelled during his absence, at a cost of $20,000. Subsequently, in 1872 the building in School Street was put to secular uses, and the edifice now occupied on Columbus Avenue was erected at a cost of $150,000. During his long pastorate, two colleagues have been settled with him, Rev. Roland Connor, for a short time, and Rev. Henry I. Cushman, now pastor of the First Universalist Church in Providence, R. I.

In 1862, after the decease of Rev. Dr. Ballou, President of Tufts College, Dr. Miner was chosen to this office, and took upon himself its duties in connection with his work as pastor in Boston. His energy seemed adequate to this double task for a time, until it became evident to him and his friends that the interests of both college and parish required his main attention to be given to but one of them. He chose the parish, to the great satisfaction of its members, and Rev. E. H. Capen, one of the alumni of the college, was elected its president.

Through his past life-course Dr. Miner has been one of the most indefatigable of toilers. As a Christian minister and reformer he is widely known. His pulpit talents are of the highest order. His clear, strong, and readily modulated voice, his sharp logic, often "on fire," his good scholarship, his aptness not only in making his points, but in the elucidation of them; his thorough acquaintance with the evidences of his faith, and especially with the scriptural proofs of it; his directness in striking at the wrong, as he perceives it, with most telling blows, and his uncompromising adherence to what he considers the right, are sure to gain him a respectful and serious hearing wherever he comes before the public. His many published discourses evince his power as a theologian, and his little volume, "The Old Forts Taken," embodies a searching review of some of the over-confident statements of Rev. Joseph Cook on the religious signs of the times. It would have been well for Christian truth, and for some of the churches professing it, whose representatives so readily applauded many of the stirring and sensational words of Mr. Cook at the moment of their utterance in Boston, could they have listened also to a close and rigid questioning of them by Dr. Miner. The Universalist Church generally, we think, would be quite willing to abide by the presentation of its faith and the claims of it, by him. At a conversation circle, embracing members of the "Radical Club," held in Boston within a few years, where all shades of religious opinion were represented, the question "Is Christianity a Finality?" or, in substance, can any religion superior to it be given to man? was proposed for consideration. After various discussions on the subject from the purest orthodoxy to the most radical "liberalism," Dr. Miner, who had come in while the subject was under discussion, was invited by the chairman to speak. His statements were very readily made, viz. that the Christianity of the New Testament included the best religion conceivable by man, meeting his deepest spiritual wants, answering his highest aspirations after the purest life here, and his most anxious hopes respecting the future of himself and the race. All this is presented, and its complete fulfilment with all souls assured through Christ, the promise of whose mission is, that ultimately "God shall be all in all." If Christianity is true, therefore, it will have no successor. The discussion was at an end.

As a Christian reformer Dr. Miner has gained a deserved prominence. He has been outspoken on the subject of Capital Punishment, advocating its abolishment, and in the Anti-slavery war proved himself one of the veterans. It is in the Temperance reform, however, that he has taken a strong and marked interest. As an advocate of Prohibition he is one of the leaders in the land. The pamphlet on Prohibition, published in 1867, containing his arguments on the subject before the Massachusetts Legislative Committee in the Representatives' Hall, is one of the most readable documents of the times.51 His ready answers to the questions proposed to him, and his telling questions pressed upon the advocates of liquor license laws, on that occasion, evinced a mastery of the situation not often realized. In temperance conventions and conferences he has often some searching criticisms on the city officials in their evasions of the laws respecting the liquor traffic; and on every available occasion when called to speak on the moral needs of the State and the moral responsibility of the people, he is quite sure to give a few ringing notes emphasizing the temperance reform. Dr. Miner has been for ten years past President of the Massachusetts Temperance Alliance.

As an educator Dr. Miner has done good work. He began it early, and has never lost interest in it. As president of the college, a member of the State Board of Education, and Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Normal Art School, he has been true to it constantly.

His business talent is well known. He is a safe and far-seeing financier, to whom the interests of the busy movers "on 'change" are somewhat familiar. In all financial plans and operations demanding his action he is especially and effectively at home. He is President of the Universalist Publishing House, and is still one of the trustees of Tufts College. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Harvard College, and that of LL. D. by Tufts soon after his resignation of the presidency of that institution. He was one of the "Hundred Boston Orators;" having been called to deliver the oration before the authorities and citizens of Boston, July 4, 1855.

The positiveness and persistence of Dr. Miner have sometimes had the effect to alienate rather than conciliate those who might conscientiously differ from him in their convictions of right and duty. It is to be lamented, however, that where we find one possessing his degree of positiveness in what he believes to be right, we are more or less "troubled on every side" by those who are only half-men because of the low policies and expediencies by which they are governed. His confidence in the right seems instinctive; as he says, "A mountain can be tunnelled; a principle never." A Boston secular journal just now speaks of him: —

"His honesty nobody has ever questioned. If he hit hard, he hit where he believed hard hitting was warranted and indispensable. It is fortunate for the world, perhaps, that he took a liberal side in theology. Had he been a Calvinist, he would have been as uncompromising as any one of those Puritan inflexibles who drove Baptists into Rhode Island and Quakers into eternity; had he embraced Catholicism, heretics would have fared the worse for it, and he could hardly have found his fitting place anywhere short of the college of cardinals, with its possibilities toward the chair of St. Peter. By the same qualities that make him a terror to his enemies, he binds his followers to him with hooks of steel."52

Rev. Thomas Jefferson Sawyer, D. D., was born in Reading, Windsor Co., Vt., Jan. 9, 1804. His father was one of the earliest settlers of the town, having removed with his father's family from Pomfret, Conn. The son enjoyed very good advantages for acquiring a common-school education, and at the age of eighteen had gained such a mastery of the branches then taught in such schools as to become a teacher, in which capacity he served three or four months every year until he entered his profession. He entered Middlebury College in the autumn of 1825, having completed his preparation after he was twenty-one, and graduated in 1829. As there were no theological schools to aid him, he went to study with Rev. William S. Balch, then at Winchester, N. H., who was soon called to Albany. Mr. S. remained in Winchester through the winter, preaching occasionally, reading the Iliad of Homer, and studying such theological works as he had opportunity to find.

In April, 1830, he went to New York, and took charge of a small society there in Grand Street. The chapel in which he preached had been built and was for several years occupied as an Episcopal church. It was afterwards purchased by the Universalists.

In 1832 Mr. Sawyer entered upon his ministry with his people in a new place, a church on Orchard Street. The church was built three or four years before by a small society of the Reformed Dutch Church, from which the property fell into the hands of two enterprising builders who had been the contractors for it when it was erected. It was rented to Mr. Sawyer for two years. He was then a young minister of scarcely two years' standing in New York, and had entered the ministry only two years and a half before. He had been married six months and had no cash investment. Four members of his congregation became his security for the payment of the rent, and he in turn pledged for their security the whole income of the church, – pew-rents, collections, and all. Under the circumstances he was assuming quite a responsibility. The income of the society had been small, and its receipts now were not equal to the rents alone. Besides, Universalism in New York had suffered greatly through the defection of Abner Kneeland, and the consequences of his lamentable course were still fresh in the memory of all. Divisions and heart-burnings still existed, and the prospect was not greatly encouraging to the new adventurers. Yet it was seen that, if success was to be realized, a new movement, as independent as possible of the old issues, must be made. Hence this piece of wise policy in securing a new location, and beginning church-life under new auspices. It was a bold step, but a good Providence had directed it. Mr. Sawyer writes of it: —