History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

ullets were fired into his houses which lodged in a
beam near the bed on which lie was lying. This
room was pulled down in 1831. The town was in-
dignant at the outrage, although many were of the
opinion that it was done simply to intimidate. A
reward was offered for the offenders.
Mr. Smith was dismissed the following year, and
died at East Sudbury, March 25, 1781, aged sixty-
seven.
An interval of seven years elapsed before the
settlement of the next pastor, Eev. Asa Packard.
He graduated at Harvard in 1783, and was ordained
March 23, 1785, — a day long remembered on ac-
count of the fact that the snow was of sufficient
depth to cover the fences, the crust being hard
enough to bear the heaviest teams.
The town voted, March 23, 1785, to give Mr.
Packard for a settlement £300; and for a salary
£100 and twenty cords of wood annually. In
1804 tlie question agitated the town as to the loca-
tion of the new meeting-house. The west part
desired to see it erected on the site of tlie former
houses. The east part desired to liave it where
the Union Church now stands, maintaining that the
old location was not central. At the town-meeting
on the 16th of July the town refused, seventy-five
to one hundred and ten, to give their consent to
the incorporation of the west part as a separate
town. May 26, 1806, consent was refused to the
formation of a separate parish, one hundred and
twenty-five to seventy-six; whereupon the west
part, having contributed tlieir proportion to the
meeting-house built by the town, proceeded to
erect another in the jwsture-field of Benjamin Eice.
Mr. Packard, after consulting the Marlborough
Association, and with their acquiescence, decided
to ask for a dismissal from the church. He was
minister of the town twenty-one years. The two
meeting-houses were opened on the same day,
April 27, 1806. February 23, 1808, the West or
Second Parish was incorporated, and Mr. Packard
was installed its minister March 23, 1808. He
took a dismission May 12, 1819, and removed to
Lancaster, where he died, March 20, 184'3, aged
eighty-five years. He was a man of fluent gifts,
cheerful temper, and pastoral capacity, neitlier a
profound thinker nor given to polemic divinity, of
a liberal spirit, while his opinions more resembled
those of the Arminian than of the Evangelical school.
The First Church chose tlie Eev. Sylvester F.
Bucklin as their first minister after tlie separation.
He remained pastor of the society until Jiuie 20,
MAELBUROUGH. 145
1832, when at his request he was dismissed, remaining
for twenty-eight years a devoted member
of the church and a higldy respected citizen of the
town. He died March 25, 1800. On the retirement
of Mr. Bucklin the church openly manifested
a division of opinion on doctrinal questions.
March 18, 1833, the clerk of the parish was noti-
fied that about fifty of its former members liad
formed themselves into The First Evangelical
Congregational Society. On the 1st of April
the church voted to worship with this society, and
seventy-three out of the ninety-one members with-
drew from their connection with the First Parish.
The remaining church-members held the meeting-
house and church property ; a church was organ-
ized, and Mr. Bucklin was employed to supply their
pulpit for a year.
March 18, 1835, these two societies petitioned
tlie legislature to be incorporated as the Union
Society, and on the 1st of April, 1836, they held
tiieir first meeting and voted to receive the act of
incorporation. On the 24th of April, 1836, the
churcli voted that "the name of this church be
changed from the East Church in Marlborough to
the Union Church in Marlborough, to correspond
with the name of the Union Society with which we
are connected."
Eev. John N. Goodhue was the first pastor of
the Union Church, installed May 4, 1836. Since
then they have enjoyed the services of the Eev.
George E. Day, installed Dec. 2, 1840; Eev. David
L. Ogdeii, installed April 26, 1848; Eev. Levi
A. Field, installed August 31, 1853; Eev. George
N. Anthony, installed November 8, 1860; Eev.
Charles E. Treat, installed March 30, 1870 ; and
Eev. John Willard, installed December 30, 1873.
The present membership of the churcli is two hun-
dred and eighty-five.
The West Parish called Eev. Seth Alden, May
Eev.
12, 1819; Eev. William Morse, June, 1834 ;
Horatio Alger, November, 1844; Eev. W. C.
Tenny, July 6, 1861. These have been succeeded
by Eev. Eugene De Normandie, Eev. Calvin Steb-
bins, Eev. J. H. Wiggin, and Eev. E. A. Griffin.
The Methodist Church was originated by Mr.
Phineas Sawyer in 1808, the first class-meeting,
of which he was appointed leader, bemg held at his
house. In 1827 it was decided to erect the Old
Brick Church, as it is called. It was situated be-
tween Sudbury and Marlborough, for the accom-
modation of the adjacent villages. It was destroyed
bv fire December 28, 1852. The society amicably