Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1870-02-17
FIFTY YEARS
OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
IN LEE, BERKSHIRE CO., MASS.
by ARTHUR GILMAN

: will be interesting to all Sundi
School scholars, and all those wi
, feel an interest in the success
these institutions
Less than a hundred years ago
visitor from Eastern Massachuset
wandered over the hills to the va
ley in which the town of Lee,
now situated. Looking at the fe
houses, and the frowning moul
tains, then innocent Of the WooC
mans axe, he exclaimed
81 think this town is highly fl
voredw
When asked to explain, he said
81 have noticed that good me
always pray for the desolate part
of the earth, and l am sure yo
must be included in the descrip
ton !"
About the same date a younj
man started from Cape Cod 70
Lee, and his mother mourned, say
ing:
David is going to Mt. Ephraim
and he will never hear another ser
mon !"
But the good mother was mistak
en-, for in 1850 a Congregations
church was organized, and has'con
tinued ever since, with an unalter
ed covenant, with only seven pas
tors. The wilderness has become
glad, and the desert blossoms as
the rose. Of the seven pastors
Alvan Hyde, D. d., occupied tht
pulpit from 1892 to 1888, and Ma.
hum Gale, D. D., from 1853 to the
present time. Under DR.. Hyde A
Sunday school was begun, and un-
der DR.. Gale, that department of
the church has attained its greatest
efficiency
1t was in the year 1919, and in
June Of that year, that DR.. Hyde,
then fifty-two, in meditating on the
state of the lambs of his flock, con
cluded it would be well to have
them gathered on Sunday for in
struction, On the 10th Of June, he
brought the matter before the
church. It was voted to have a
Sunday school, and seven brethren
were constituted committee to
attend to the matter The same
year schools were established in
other parts of Massachusetts. Rev.
Stephen H, Tyng, senior, began the
first Sunday school in Quincy and,
just after DR.. Hyde's action, the
subject was discussed by the Con
gregational Gen'l Conference which
met at Pittsfeld.
It appears the good mountain
pastor evolved the Sunday school
for Lee, out of his own love
for his people, and from that Chris
tian watchfulness and zeal, which,
in the words of DR.. Gale: "Ever
kept him abreastwith Providence in
all church works"
The school was not held in the
church at first, but in the centre
school house, a two-story wooden
that stood a few blocks
distant, After the morning service
The children, most of them between
i've and fifteen, marched in process
sion to this school house, where
leacon Josiah Spenser conducted
lhe exercises, the verses were recit-
I'd, and they all march back again.
Two Of the teachers who were pres
9nt at the organization are now liv
Lucy Hamblin Baker, of
Lee, and Mr.. Leonard Church, of
CT. OF the scholars Of
he first Sunday, number are also
living; among whom are; Hon.
Vm. Hyde, Of Ware; Edwin Stur
res, Harrison Garfield, Judge Isaac
}. Ives, Marshall Childs, David Ba-
,er, Mrs. Hannah Crosby Smith,
md Others, Of Lee.
The school was not so attractive
hen as now. The exercises con-
listed of recitations from the Bible,
he scholar selecting the portion,
nd from Dwight's Psalms and
hymns. Prizes were offered for
he longest recitation, and the chill
Ired strovG hard for them, The
econd summer a Bible was thus Of
cred, and, during the season, Han
,Sh Crosby, new Mrs, Henry Smith
ecited six Thousand 10000 verses
among these was the whole book
# Revelation. On one occasion
1iss Crosby occupied the entire
ession of the school with her reci-
alton. She was found worthy of
he prize. Wolcott Spencer cne
ay recited an entire chapter from
be sermon on the mount. The
oys told him he could not do it
gain, and to prove that his re-
ources we're not exhausten, he re-
tied another chapter the next Sum
ay. But these trials of memory
some evil. The boy Of /,
IN verses was, perhaps, equally
raiseworthy with him of eighty,
ut he was not praised, and became
iscouraged. Nor was the under
ianding trained. The Bible was
the head, but it was neither so
ell understood nor SO available as
ought to have been. DR.. Gale
lys there was
A PORCH CLASS,
Id a