Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1898-07-20


Therein lies the peril, and never think of
those persons without thinking of when
they babe the Spirit 60 away.
Soon after vert there | baptized into
the church membership three young men,
one being Joseph Clough, of whom l have
lost all track, though year or two after
wards went ever to Chester and married
him. The other two were Elbridge w.
White and Martin l.. Rugg. The former
Is dow at Chattanooga, chaplain of the 18th
Michigan regiment. He has been sue
cesstul minister and was mighty power in
Milwaukee and in all the state of Wiscon-
sin. Mr.. Rugg has been very successful
on the North Pacific coast. And Mr.. But
terfeld told me soon after baptized them
not to encourage them to enter the minis
try as they never could preach. l don't
know how well they can preach, never heard
them, but they can bring sinners to Christ
and that is what lots OF men who can preach
fine sermons can't do. That was the only
time ever knew Mr.. Butterfeld to make
a mistake in his judgment Of men and it
surprised me of course.
My "quadrilateral" board of deacons
were Peter w. Dean, Jonathan Sherwin,
, William Whitcomb and John Wilt. The
church then had PIP members and at that
first communion season in April, 1868,
three weeks after l went there, some 1926
members were present and l never shall
r forget with what awe and wonder l looked
at those nfour holy men as they all sat
together one Of those ewing pews" at
my left. l guess they bad all represented
the town at Montpelier, and were men of
unblemished characters, highly respected
E by the people and all noted for their piety
! They had carried that church through a
powerful revival one winter, holding meet
ipgs in the schoolhouses all about town,
when the church had no pastor. The dig
e nifty, precision and order they gave to that
service impressed me very deeply and l
said to myself that night as went to my
F. prophets chamber" at Deacon Sherwin's,
$ If the Baptist church in Grafton has moth
: ing else it has board of deacons." Few
q country churches, in fact, city churches,
had such board of deacons. Deacon
Deare told me it used to be the same in
the Congregational church but theirs, all
Il but the aged and feeble Deacon Bancroft,
were dead. In one sense the deacons of
those two churches made that town and
: strange it has often seemed to me none of
r them left sons to carry on their fathers
q work. Deacons Wilt and Sherwin died
while l was there. No men were ever
u truer or kinder to me in all my life than
: those four deacops.
For the first six months / thought I was
in paradise l did not in all that time hear
one member of the church say a word
against any other member, with one single
y exception, and did not take any stock in
It the piety or general character Of that per-
Y son anyway; l put down in my memory
y against thet persons name one word,
''t-r-a-u-d," and SO it proved ere long. 1t
J. was like hard frost on garden in June,
/. when / heard for the first time that the
r Devil was not dead in Grafton" it was
v not stated in just that way but that was
what it meant. 1t was wet blanket on
t me but was young and strong then. l
want to say this, he kept his best foot for
/. ward in one church ard bis cloven hoof
pretty well out of sight. There was some
human nature in Grafton but a church
quarrel or divided church we never had,
nor shadow Of it if anybody was out Of
e harmony with the rest, he wisely kept it
O to himself. We did not always think
=. alike but we did not quarrel nor make up
70 faces to each other behind the back. The
+ Grafton church, in my day, was not quar-
: relling church, not anything Of the kind,
: successful body, and that happy momentum
= is in it still. The population in 1860 was
T 1854, in 1890 it was only S17, loss Of
have suffered loss also.
The postoffice made me laugh. Nelson
: q. Weeks was postmaster and it was in
5 the town hall building alongside Leverett
n Phelps tailor shop. In one corner was a
" little old dry goods box with the top and
; bottom knocked off, some partitions put
in, set up on edge on one end of an old
counter, and those dozen or SO ''pigeon
a holes" were the boxes. For such town
it seemed the most ridiculous Anticipated
n outfit had ever seen and it seemed to me
that old red battered brick town hall had
T been built during the reign of the Tudors
e By and by Judge Nelson H. Bixby, then
b BRIT tless young barrister came to town,
o got the postof6ce partitioned off for his
law office and put in some new big stylish
boxes "as good as they have in Boston,,
r you know. When he left Mrs. Hall had
o the office, moved it into that new little
building down by Mr.. Butterfeld's and it
is there still suppose.
William Wyman sold ipecac and ialaps,
i as we'll as cod liver oil and Ayers pills and
f Mr.. Barrett with his capable son kept
a store. There was also ''tow-headed''
! lad, they would style him kid now, whom
everybody thought would did young
and if he didn't die he never would set the
e river afre and run away in the light of the
4 blaze, but he is Uncle Sans minister to
Siam all the same and most capable and
successful one too. And Lewis Clark is a
very successful lawyer in my county CAPT.
D tai here at Waukegan, where his father
| was. And Elan, as they call him here, is
very highly thought OF, not only in the
growing city of Waukegan but in all the
county. j have named in this letter four
Grafton boys l am proud of, very proud
sometimes, when l see them or think of
them as they are now and were then.
If you like this l will give another chap
ter, less preaching and more Renaissance.
LEWIS B. HIBBARD.
Highland Park, Ill.
ALSTEAD.
} Henry Phelps of Waltham visited friends
in the village one day last week.