History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

132 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
brothers, Dr. Ezra and Bernard, he reached a good
old age. He survived all his class, and died at
Andover, December 23, lSo3, at the age of eighty-
nine years. During his pastorate the parish became
subjected to a process of disintegration which
in the end resulted in a total change of its doctrines.
As early as the settlement of Mr. Judson
doubts had been entertained by many of the validity
of infant baptism ;
and several embraced the prin-
ciples of the Baptists. A sermon, preached in
1797 by the venerable itinerant, Samuel Shepard,
which is said to hii\-e been the first Baptist dis-
course delivered in liie town, was received with
much favor; and was i'ollowed by a revival whicli
resulted in regular Sabbath services being held in
a school-house that stood under a large buttonwood
tree where Sprague Street now enters Salem
Street. These regular services were commenced in
1800, and received much bitter op])osition from
those of the " standing order." Finding the school-
house at last closed to them, the " Schismatics," as
they were called, took refuge in a barn belonging
to Benjamin Faulkner, which until within a few
years stood on Salem Street; and here, Decem-
ber %1, lSfi:5, the First Baptist Thureh, with a
membership of forty-two persons, was recognized
by a council of three neighboring churches. To
counteract this movement, Dr. David Osgood of
Medford preached two energetic sermons, in de-
fence of infant baptism and the validity of sprink-
ling,, in the pulpit of the old church. These sermons
were much esteemed at the time, and were
printed in two rival editions with a title-page stating
that they were " occasioned by the setting up
of a Baptist Society." Nevertheless, the new
church and society prospered; and the next year
they built a meeting-house on Salem Street, then,
and for half a century after, known as Baptist
Row, on a site now enclosed in the Salem Street
Cemetery. This exceedingly plain house, with its
ge windows and square belfry, was occupied
until 1843, when a new church was built at the
corner of Main and Salem streets. The present
church building is the third which has stood upon
that site, the others having been destroyed by fire.
While the town and parish were thus distracted
they found time and means to replace the old meet-
ing-house, which had become unfit for its purpose,
bv a more commodious house built of brick, which,
dthough several times remodelled, is that now
(Kcupied by the First Parish. This house, which
\\as estimated to cost S 5,019, was completed in
the latter part of 1802. It was originally surmounted
by two cupolas, in one of which hung a
presented by the eccentric, so-called " Lord "
rnnothy Dexter.
Hardly had the animosities caused by the Bap-
ist movement been allayed, before the church suf-
led depletion by the withdrawal of a large part
of the people of North Maiden and the formation
111 a Methodist society there. This was the direct
result of a strong Federal sermon, preached in
1813, at a time when Republicanism was not un-
likely to become heated by opposition, which irritated
the majority of the north-end people, who
were of the latter party. This society, itself the
ofl'spring of political excitement actitig upon minds
already prepared for a change by the preaching
of Jesse Lee and other early Methodists, was the
parent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Maiden
Centre, the formation of which was caused by
the removal of a member of the North Church to
that locality, and a revival which, originating at
the north end, spread to the other parts of the
town. A class of ilethodists had been formed
nearly thirty years before by the celebrated Jesse
Lee; but time and other causes had nearly do-