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The Seminary in the Wilderness: a Representative Episode in the Cultural History of Northern New England

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The Seminary in the Wilderness: a Representative Episode in the Cultural History of Northern New England The seminary in the wilderness: A representative episode in the cultural history of northern New England The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Williams, George H. 1959. The seminary in the wilderness: A representative episode in the cultural history of northern New England. Harvard Library Bulletin XIII (3), Autumn 1959: 369-400. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363785 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Seminary in the Wilderness A Representative Episode in tl1e Cultural History of Nor ther11 New E11gland. ucAL his~oriography, even ,vithout a single episode belonging to general history, often has much more than antiqu~rian and regional interest ,vhci1 seen as a representative action in 2. ............h1rger epic. The f ollo,ving narrative is at once the. chronicle of a short-] ived and· forgotten theological sc1ninary and a sketch of the biblical rnotives and aspirations ~fa gcner2tion of Christians ,vho ,verc trying to gc·t their cultural bearings and establish a ne,v pattern of ministerial e<lucatioi:iat that n101ncnt in the history of the young llc- public ,v hen ne\v and p otcntial ly continentRl assign men ts ,vc~e bci ng laid upo11the churches of the Nc\v England "\1/ay.1 · T11e brief career of Gilmanton Semjn ary in Nc,v Han1pshire ( 1 8 3 5- 1 846) must be seen against the background of the Congregational Convention of \¥indso r in 1 8 1 2 1 seven n1onths after the outbreak of ,var , vi th Great Britain. 1 For he]p in prieparing this article the author ,vishes to express at the outset his ap- pn::cfatjnn to his fdlo,\r Giln1:1ntonians·who have joined in the search for n1atcrhls an cl shared ln the sa ti:sfaction of repossc~liing an eventful p a:st: 1\1r Rj cha rd \r arne y 11 l\1r Harry l\1udgett,. h1rs Florence j\,t Chaffee, l\1rs Pearl Bro\\Tn, i\-ir and 1\-frsCharles Kelleyf and Selectmen Harold hlirchcIJ~ lvlelvin Bunkcri and llff'i.,·ard Lang1ey. Thanks arc al.so due to retired Deans Douglas Horton of I~Iar\~ardDhdnity Schcolt \T~ugh-a.n ] )abncy of Andover J\le,,·ton Thcologic-al School~ and frank Dixon rvJcCloj\ J rj of '''estern Theological Scininctry in Pitts:burgh; to D.r An-'cl Stccce of N orthfon d College, ·v(isc·on.liin; to Prof cssors Dern nrd Baily n and G c orge Kirk of Harvard; to Nliss H~r1·ict ,,r.J\-latr of Springfield, M~s~achusctts; and to the direc- tors or cur:a.tors of rcposi tor j es of ma teri~l b earing upon tho GUma nton Sem 1nary: John A.. l-Jarrcr and Frances Ricker of the Congregational IJisturic:a.lLibrary, Bos- ton; Bradford JVI,Hill of Reference and Research Scr·dccsj Boston Public Lihrary; Rena D ll rkan of the Ed ,vard Hitch cock A1cn1oria l R oo n11 A rr1herst Co] Iegc; F.d ''-'$.rd Conn er y Lathem of the Di vision of Special Co] leet ion 5i Da rtn •u u th CoH~ge; Dorothy ,v.Rridg\v~ter of Yale. University Ltbrary; PhiHp N. Gny-ol and Gretchen Tobey of the Ne\V Hampshire Historica] Society, Concord; anJ l\1~ry L. Roy of tl)e Ne...,,· Han1pshire State Library, Concord. The author \vhhes also to acknO'\.l-'1cdge his great indebtedness to the Editor of the BuJ~J.F,TIN,\\'hose .indEfatigablc scrutiny of the :study and a ppre cia ti ve in vol vcn1cnt in tra c:king d o,vn disparate sou recs ,Yere a subt1y creative factor in its composition. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn 1959) 37° Harvard Library B11lleth1 I THE. EscHAT0LoG1cAL lJi.1:PuLSE IN THR PLANTING oF SEi\11NARIES IN THF. '\ 1ILDERN.ESS 2 On z r Ocrohcr r 812~ an extraordinary council, representing Con- gregational churches from all over Ne\v England,. met at "'\~'indsor, \ 1ern1ont. The issue that had brought together such distinguished and distant de]egates as President Timothy D\vight fron1 Valet Professors Ebenezer Porter, lvloses Stuart, and Leonard ,~roods from Andover Theological Seminary, and Ebenezer Adams (Professor of 1\1.oral Phi]o.sophy), Zephaniah S,vift l\1oore (Professor of Greek)~ and Ros- ,vell Shurtleff (Phillips Professor of Theology) fronl Dartn1outh ,vas n proposal -already much discussed by the Nc\V Han1pshirc nnd Ver- mont associations ofCongregational ministers at their annual 111eetings) n~uncl)T1 ,vhether northern Ne,v England Congrega.tiona1ismcould unite in the formation of a theological academy for the recruitment and training of n1inisters ,vithout the expense and de)a.y of four y·ears of non-professional college rutclage. In the background of the northern Nc\v England effort to plant :i non-collegiate seminary ,vas the palpable failure of the colonial colleges, including Dartn1outh, to prepare enough farm boys and sons of artisans to supply preachers and p2stors for the expanding settlements of the region .. The Second Great A,vakening and the succession of rcfresh- ings in its ,vakc had, in northern Ne\v England, challenged the ecclesi- astical and acadcn1icusages and instin1rionsof the standing order of the older settlements. Could not, the spokesn1cn of the northern frontier \Vere asking, a 1norc professional and less costly training be devised to 1ncet the great need? At al1nost the san1e time V crn1ont, Nc,v Han1p- sl 1ircl and the District of l\1aine ,v ere n1ov ing to an s,vcr th cir questions thcn1sclves h)7 organizing theological acadcn1iesj partly on the model of (post-collegiate) Andover Theological Scrninary, founded in 1 808 1 and partly on that of the much n1ore lin1ited progran1 of the disscnting acaden1icsof Great Britain. In Port1andl' l\1ainc, a Society for Pron1oting Theo logical Education had been formed in 1810. :!2 For the larger settjng of the V/Hderness motif in Clujstfan history, ~ec George Ii. ''-'illfa.tns, 4Thc \:Vilderncss and Paradise in the History of the Church/ Cburcb J-lfr~ toryt XX\ 7Ill ( J959), 3-24. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn 1959) The Se111i11aryiJi tbe lf 1 ilder11ess 371 Over jn Vcrn1ont the Orange Association of I\1inistcrsand the Coos or Korthcrn Associ2tion (of both V cr1nont and Nc\v liampshire) had n1et at Pjcrn1ont, Nc,,r I-Ian1pshire (rnid,vay bet,vecn St Johnsbury and [-Ianovcr), on 6 August _1811,and had resolved to undertake the cstab- Jishment of a 'charitable institution . 4 • for the purpose of educating poor and pious J1ou11gmen for the Gospel 1ninistry-~under the name of 'The Ne\v 1-Jampshjrcand \ 7crtnont Theological Seminary.' s The cul rural and political background of the projected, non-col- legiatc, joint sc1nin ary , vas the co1n1nonConn cc ti cut origin of the Con- gregational sett1ers on either side of the Connecticut River, ,vho after the fall of !vlontreal in I 760 had pushed nord1,vard. In 1778, by the Convention of Cornish, a number of Ne\v Hampshire to,vns h~d boldly· entered into the so-called Eastern Union ,vith the Sovereign Republic of V crmont; and in the V cr1nont legislative assc1nbly· meeting at Cha.rlestov/n (no,v ,vithin the boundaries of Ne\v l-:ln1npshire) in 1781 forty-five Nc\v I--Ian1pshircto\vnsl including Hanover (Dartmouth) and Lebanon~ had been represented h}7 elected deputies4 It ,vas natural that the sense of solidarjty an1ongcitizens of Congre- gationalist background on either side of the river should co~tinuc long after \T ermont 1· confined to the ,vest bank of the Connecticut River~ joined the Federat Union in 1791. An1ong these Connecticut \ 7ulley Congregationalists the Prcsbytcria.nizing trendt constitutionally rein- forced by the PrcsbJrterian-Congrcgational Plan of Union of 1801 t ,vas n1uch stronger than in the older parts of Ne,v Han1pshire and l\1assa~ chusctts; and~ as n consequence, man)r of them ,vcre not indisposed to look to Presbyterian Scotland, espcciall)7 to the seceder groupsi for theological guidance. Deacon Joseph Focrd of Pierrnont had a son1 John, ,vho in 1811 ,vas studying at a dissenting 2cadenl)" in northern England .. John Foerd had prevjou.sly been studyjng gratis at a Scottish sc1ninary, ,vhich had just failed for \vant of funds; but the young thco!ogue assured~ nun1bcr of correspondents in the nvo states that 'if an institution of the san1c l~ind \Vere established jn Ne\v-England, he ,vou]d obtain don2tions for it in money and books to a considerable amount jn England 2nd Scot- ]and.' The British academ)r ,vas understood to press into four years \vhat Ne,v England Congregationalists \Vith their colonial col]cgcs had thought best to spread over a period of nine years above the con1n1on Extraca f ro1!1the A1i-nutcs of tbe General Asrociatio1i of l\1.ew-Haulf>Jbire (Bos- to nj 1 8 n ) , pp+4 f, Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 3 (Autumn 1959) 372 H «rvardLibrary Bulletin or parochial schools.4 At the Piermont meeting Deacon F oerd and four other trustees \Vere appointed 2nd a convention ,vas ca.lied to be held in October a.t Nor\vich, Vermont., for the purpose of drafting a con- stitution for a Scots-English type of rhcologicai acaden1yand of making an ~ppcal for support from the churches/~ The plan of the northerners ,vas thereupon co1n1nunicatcd in a letter from Thctf ordt \ 1ennont, under date of 1 2 August 1811, to the state organizations of both Nc,v Hampshire and,, ermont Congregationa]isn1.
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