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AN ADDRESS on the
EARLY HISTORY OF OLD BROOKFIELD, MASS.
Delivered at West Brookfield, Mass.,
His Native Tovi^N,
HY
The Rev. L. T. CHAMBERLAIN, D. D.,
in
'. „ OF New York.

At the Invitation, and under the Auspices, of the
West Brookfield Branch of The Quaboag
Historical Society.

AND
REM.\RKS BY HIS BROTHER
The Hon. D. H. CHAMBERLAIN,
OF New York,
At the After-Dinker Exercises.

Press of Larkin & Co.,
286 Fulton St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

ADDRESS.

Mr. President, Felloiv-citizens, and Friends :
The motive of our gathering to-day is, withal, so
kindly fraternal, that I venture now and here to ac
knowledge the privilege, as well as honor, which has
been conferred upon me by your invitation to address
you. The very announcement of your Society's exist
ence, woke in me anew a fond remembrance of these
familiar scenes. I thought of the heritage which was
mine in the days when for me, as for so many others
on this soil, poverty enjoined a frugal life, and neces
sity compelled to self-supporting labor. Days where
in the thirst for learning rose, in spite of hindrance,
to be a master passion, and the prospect of wider
Christian service turned self-denying preparations into
simple and exultant joy. Even those days seemed
distant as I recalled them, and it was therefore the
easier to let the interest which they awakened, enlarge
itself to include those greatly remoter times which
this Society is to preserve from oblivion's touch.
Surely it were an impoverishment of life, almost to
the verge of destruction, were we to sever ourselves from
the long and memorable past. The span of our earthly
existence is, at most, so brief that, taken by itself, it

tends inevitably to discourage the thought of both
human dignity and human worth. The consciousness
of personal feebleness, the little that we can individ
ually achieve in the present, the still less that we can
hope to contribute to the future, — this also sets itself
against an inspiring conception of man's place and mis
sion. If here we are but unconnected atoms, seen for
a day and disappearing with the sun, it will require a
rarely vigorous faith to uphold the conviction that
ours is either a considerable or an abiding value. I
know that the thought of the race, in its longer en
durance, presents itself as a welcome aid. It stands,
of course, that the assurance of immortality brings
august sanction to the hope that we are of real con
cern. The transcendent realities of redemption from
above, seal absolutely, and for each soul, the warrant
of life's large import. Yet for all that, it were a loss
needless and immense, to give up the tie which binds
us to what has gone before.
There is for us a venerable past. To reach back to
the date of man's appearance on the scene, even the
traditional six thousand years will not suffice. It is
maintained that while animal species now extinct, were
numerous and widespread ; even before the zones of
temperature were wholly fixed, or the shores of con
tinents had taken their completed form ; mankind had
begun to be and to do. Indeed there are those, not a
few, who incline to hold that through ages and aeons

before man as man distinctively appeared, tiiere was
an evolving from the lower to the higher, from the
simple to the complex, from the non-sentient to the
sentient, the " roof and crown " of it all to be attained
in the final advent of those who stood erect and were
conscious that God had made them in his own gra
cious likeness.
And yet, Mr. President, even though we count only
the period which authentic human history covers,
there is a past, the thought of which, and much more
the knowledge of which, tends to uplift and ennoble
our individual life. It is on record that since our race
first drew breath, the drama of rational life has been
marked by scenes of surpassing interest and surpass
ing power. Arts have been fashioned and wholly
lost. Literatures have shone forth and disappeared.
Systems of law have been framed and blotted out.
Governments have prospered and declined. Civiliza
tions have risen in splendor and gone down in thick
darkness. Personal heroism has brought undying
honor to our common nature, and personal baseness
has done its worst to drag that nature down to shame.
Messages from heaven have summoned the sons of
God to walk in white, and the servants of evil have
set themselves in array against whatever is pure.
While, out of it all, has emerged the radiant fact that
the forces of truth are really on the winning side, and
that the kingdom of right is destined, sooner or later,

to take to itself the full dominion. Is it not worth
while, somewhat to trace for ourselves that long and
desperate struggle? Can it be otherwise than inspir
ing, thus to assure ourselves of that final and beneficent
triumph? I know of nothing which can take the place of his"
torical study. Like travel, it permits us to visit climes
and peoples. Like music, it both charms and thrills.
Like art, it gives ideals and teaches to construct. Like
literature, of which it is itself a part, it disciplines
and informs the mind. Like science, it proclaims the
reign of law. Like religion, it reflects the being and
character of God. It is true, that " nothing solidifies
and strengthens a nation, like reading the nation's
own history ; whether that history is recorded in
books, or embodied in customs, institutions and mon
uments." To all who hear me, and especially to my
younger friends, I commend the study of history in
all its length and breadth.
And comparatively rare, permit me to say, are the
localities around which cluster such varied historic in
terests, centered in which are so many historic rela
tionships, springing from which are such ample his
toric influences, as belong to the territory cared for
by the Quaboag Historical Society, and especially to
that part of the territory included within West Brook-
field's bounds. I speak in sober accuracy, when I
affirm that every rood of these Quaboag hills and val-

7
leys, has its association with events deservedly mem
orable. No ploughman among you turns a furrow,
no gardener digs with spade, no woodman fells a tree,
no husbandman drives his flocks and herds to pasture,
no housewife keeps the home, no pupil goes to school,
no foot walks on highway or in byway, no eye looks
toward either point of compass, without having to do
with a recorded past which becomes the more impress
ive the more completely it is recalled and understood.
In one of the world's great paintings, the artist has
pictured, in the foreground, the actions and actors of
the'selected day and generation ; but beyond in the
distance, and above in the upper air, he has also traced
in outline the deeds and doers of the ages preceding.
They too are given a place in the panorama. To them
as well is assigned participation in the actual scene.
The artist's conception is fruitful in its suggestions.
Not difficult is it for the instructed imagination to
bring back to these scenes the forces and the factors
which went before. Here, where we stand, civilizations
contended, and races met in predestined strife. Here,
in what was once a frontier settlement, the ambitions,
the enmities, of old-world kingdoms found tragic devel
opment. Here, at the hands of colonists who thought
themselves but isolated individuals, the plans of Prov
idence were grandly accomplished for all time to
come !
For example, it is wholly impossible to understand

the presence on this Plain and yonder on Foster's
Hill, in 1660, of the prospecting men of Ipswich, with
out bearing in mind the forces which had already
moved all Christendom to look westward, and had actu
ally brought Pilgrim and Puritan to New England's
rocky shores. It is absolutely needful, in the explan
ation of that one scene, to take into account the
struggle for civil and religious liberty, for freedom of
conscience and of speech, which had long been main
tained under Elizabeth and James I. You cannot
comprehend the impulse which brought men and
women from a relatively secure eastern Massachusetts
to this spot, in the heart of the wilderness and in the
midst of savage enemies, without including the pre
paratory experiences of those settlers,— in their orig
inal leaving of their English homes, in their voyage
across the wide and stormy Atlantic, and in their
maintenance of themselves through the early trials
of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. You must, of
necessity, recognize the fact that they were antece
dently possessed by a world-wide spirit of adventure ;
that, in truth, they themselves were borne on the tide
and crest of a world-wide movement. You are called
upon to discern in them not only persons, but also
principles ; not only free individuals, but also the
foreordained pioneers in humanity's latest and high
est achievement.
And, similarly, when you look upon the wild native

tribes among whom these pioneers sought a dwelling-
place, you are required, as the first condition of even
an intelligent view, to recall the history of those tribes,
and to mark well their position and purpose. Never
will you understand the acts of either of the parties to
the conflict which was fought out on this soil, unless
you remember that the Indian had possessed the land
from time immemorial, holding it by the, to him, inde
feasible right of hunting and fishing and planting of
maize. You cannot fairly sit in judgment, until you
perceive that it was practically impossible for the In
dian to understand the legal force of written contracts,
even though he had willingly set to them his formless
mark, or to realize the obligation of allegiance to an
unknown sovereign who was said to exercise jurisdic
tion from his throne beyond the sea. It is requisite
that you give weight to the fact that the traditional,
the inherited, life of the Indian, was that of a warrior
whose courage was shown in a disdain of physical suf
fering, and whose coveted glory was measured by the
scalp-locks of his foes.
Mr. President, there is a " climate of opinion " which
marks each race and age. The Greeks, with their su
perb culture, had but one name for enemy and stran
ger. The Romans, with their imperial civilization,
wantonly tortured their slaves at will. It was common
for Roman parents to expose their malformed infants
to wild beasts. Their older children they frequently

lO
sold into slavery or put to death. A Roman emperor,
even the illustrious Trajan, in one hundred and twen
ty-three days, forced ten thousand prisoners and gladi
ators to fight to the death in the amphitheatre. Nor,
for the parallel of Indian atrocities, need we look so
far from home. It is said that seventy-two thousand
persons were put to death under Henry VIII. alone,
on the simple charge of theft. In a single year of his
reign, three hundred were executed for soliciting alms.
Our English and revered ancestors attached the death-
penalty to two hundred and twenty-three acts. If a
man injured Westminster Bridge ; if he cut down a
young tree ; if he was disguised on the road ; if he
shot at a rabbit; he was hanged. Time was, in Chris
tian England, when the death-penalty was inflicted by
slowly immersing the condemned in a cauldron of
boiling oil. Harrison, the regicide, the honorable
judge who voted for the beheading of Charles I., was
condemned, by the highest English tribunal, to be
" hanged, revived, maimed, drawn, and hanged again."
Late in the eighteenth century, Edmund Burke assert
ed that he could obtain the assent of the House of
Commons to any bill imposing the punishment of
death. In Colonial days, our own Virginia made ab
sence from church-service a crime, and for the third
offence prescribed the penalty of death.
It is in accordance, then, with these tokens which
history puts in evidence, that you are to judge the In-

1 1
dian whose savage life had never been illumined by the
Gospel's light. I submit that such just and pertinent
considerations, though they make none the less awful
the war which raged on this spot, do operate to mod
ify the blackness of darkness in which the scene is
usually viewed. Believe it, there was much of human
nature on both sides of the relentless strife !
Little wonder, however, that the men who visited
the Quaboag Indians in 1660, choosing Foster's Hill as
the proposed town site, with the South Brookfield
meadows on the one side, this arable level on the other
side, and our Wickaboag Pond in the near distance, —
little wonder, I say, that those men inclined to delay.
So far as the Massachusetts government was concerned,
the desired grant of land had been freely accorded,
provided a settlement was effected within three years ;
and it was recognized, by the grantees, that the
forfeiture of the grant would be a serious misfor
tune. Yet immediately subsequent to 1660, Oneko,
son of Uncas, with a band of Connecticut Mohe-
gans, made war on the Quaboags, and the gen
eral state of Indian affairs became threatening. It
was not, therefore, until 1665, when the land had
been purchased from the Indians themselves, for
about $400 of our present money, that the first two
houses were biiilt and some corn planted. Two years
later, in 1667, the Massachusetts General Court re
newed the original grant which, by its terms, had ex-

12
pired, and gave desired permission to organize a town
ship, and to conduct township affairs, including the
settlement of a minister and the maintenance of pub
lic worship. In 1673, the slowly increasing town was
incorporated, with Brookfield as its official and signifi
cant title.
It is interesting to observe the names and former
residences of those heads of families who signed the pe
tition for the town's first incorporation : — John Ayres,
Sr., of Haverhill ; Richard Coy, Sr., of Wenham ; John
Warner, William Prichard, James Hovey, Thomas "Wil
son, and John Younglove, of Ipswich ; Thomas Millet,
Samuel Kent, and James Travis, of Gloucester; Thom
as Parsons, of Windsor ; Judah Trumbull, of Rowley ;
Edward Scott and Hezekiah Dickinson, of Hadley.
Those were the men who, with their families, made up
the Brookfield outpost. Only Springfield, settled in
1636, was further westward. Hadley had been settled
only fourteen years, and Deerfield only four years ;
and these were the nearest neighbors. Worcester had
not yet been incorporated. Evidently, it was a haz
ardous venture, and in less than two years the hazard
proved disastrous.
In the spring of 1675, various troubles arose between
the Brookfield settlers and the adjacent Indians. Nor
will you at all wonder, when you consider the actual
situation. On yonder hill, the white man's slender
town ; on the high plain by yonder pond, a populous

13
village of the Quaboags; between the two, this goodly
plain which the white man, having purchased, had di
vided into individual holdings, but which, previously,
had been the great common cornfield of the Quaboags.
Meantime, the Indian had learned intemperance by
the aid of the white man's rum, and some of the white
settlers had caught the ways of lazy and lawless im
providence, from the degraded Indian. Moreover, in
other places than Brookfield, the general antagonism
was increasing. Dispossessed, albeit by written con
tract, of favorite hunting grounds and cornfields, and
thus circumscribed in their territorial freedom, many
of the more thoughtful Indians were seized with the
fear of ultimate extermination. The manifest superi
ority of the white man was, to those Indian minds,
prophetic of their doom. Massasoit who had been the
first Indian chief to befriend the colonists, and
who, in his later life, probably lived on this very
spot as the sachem of the Quaboags, was now dead,
and Philip, his daring, ambitious son, was the
leading spirit among the Indians of both eastern
Connecticut and central Massachusetts. To Philip
came the resolve to strike for self-preservation,
while yet there was apparent chance of success. In
that desperate resolve, the younger men of the Qua
boags were his secret allies. Accordingly, on the
first day of August, 1675, when the twenty cavalry
men, sent from Cambridge to safe-guard the Brook-

14
field settlers, sought a conference with the Quaboags
and their associates, the troops were led into an ambush
beyond the present New Braintree line, where five of
their number were killed, together with three volun
teers from our Brookfield, namely: John Ayres,
William Prichard and Richard Coy. Many others were
wounded, and the survivors, with extremest difficulty,
made their way back to the settlement. Another Brook
field man, James Hovey, had been elsewhere killed,
and the remnant of the soldiers, together with all the
surviving settlers — men, women and children — eighty-
two in all, took refuge in one of the houses on Foster's
Hill. Then ensued that awful siege, four days and
nights of absolutely incessant attack and defence. Bul
lets and arrows piercing the walls of the extemporized
fort ; two men killed ; others wounded ; balls of fire
hurled against and through the roof ; masses of hay and
other combustible substance ignited and pressed
against the building ; the ammunition of the defenders
well nigh exhausted ; the defence seemingly hopeless;
and then, following the timely rain, the sudden, unex
pected appearance of Major Willard with his command,
and the raising of the siege !
Yet how sad the scene on which the rescued settlers
looked, that eventful 5th of August, — every home
burned, all the fields laid waste, the horses and cattle
for the most part destroyed or driven away ! Surely
it is not surprising that the survivors took refuge in the

>5
securer regions to the eastward, and wholly abandoned
the Brookfield settlement.
That was the first signal success of the Indian over
white soldiers, and it bore its swift and baleful harvest.
Attacks upon the other towns of central Massachsetts
followed. Within a brief period, there fell, of citizens
and soldiers, not less than one hundred and forty, — in
Brookfield twelve, in Whately nine, in Deerfield two,
in Squakheag eight, at Beer's Plain twenty-one, at
Bloody Brook sixty-four, in Springfield five, in North
ampton six, in Hatfield ten, and in Westfield three.
Though what is known distinctively as " King Philip's
War," ended in the following year, yet for a full de
cade, until 1686, no attempt was made to resume the
Brookfield settlement.
I have said that on this spot the ambitions and en
mities of old world kingdoms found tragic develop
ment. Bear in mind, I pray you, that in those early
days this new continent was the magnificent prize for
which France and England strove with utmost force.
Bear in mind also that it was the policy of the French,
whenever special conflict between France and England
arose, to incite the American Indians to attack the
English colonists in both open battle and secret am
buscade. You will thus perceive that here, in this town
ship, were felt directly those strifes whose origins were
beyond the sea. In 1686, when Brookfield was finally
re-settled, France and England were at enmity, and the

i6
Indians were, therefore, the more hostile. Accord
ingly, in 1688, our settlers thought it requisite that a
strong fort — known as " Gilbert's Fort " — should be
built, with surrounding stockade ; and the chosen site
was that afterward occupied by the " old brick school-
house," of West Brookfield, at the junction of what
are now known as North Main and Maple Streets. Nor
was the precaution superfluous. A few years later
Woolcott Village, scarcely more than three miles from
the fort, was destroyed, and eight or nine persons were
killed or carried captive. It was thereafter that sen
tries were stationed on " Warding Rock," northeast
from the fort, to watch continually for the approach of
danger. In 1698, the Peace of Ryswick was proclaimed by
France and England, and the French-Indian atrocities
were temporarily abated. Even at that date, Brook
field had but twelve families. Only four years later,
France and England were again at war, and in Massa
chusetts the effects were soon and wofully manifest.
Deerfield was wholly laid waste by the French and In
dians in 1704. More than twenty houses were burned,
forty inhabitants and nine soldiers were killed, and five
soldiers and one hundred and six inhabitants were
taken prisoners. Thenceforth, as may readily be im
agined, all the frontier settlements were in constant
alarm. In this town, additional fortified houses were
built, not improbably at least one such house in each

17
exposed district. Yet for all that, two citizens were
killed here in 1706; one killed and one carried captive
in 1708 ; two killed in 1709 ; and six in 1710. At length
with the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, the town was per
mitted a season of comparatively peaceful growth, and
having increased to fifty families, was incorporated for
the second time. Yet as late as 1722, the daily military
record of this township runs as follows: "Two men
guarding meeting-house on the Sabbath " ; " Guarded
the people to plough and to plant ' ; "A scout sent up to
the turn of Ware River" ; " Guarded the people fenc
ing their meadows '' ; " Guarded twenty-three men in
making hay."
At last, from 1744 to 1763, came the final struggle
between the English and French, interrupted only by
the brief truce of Aix la Chapelle. A new fort was built
on Coy's Hill, and Brookfield both watched at home
and sent valiant soldiers to the front. In 1763, the
great Treaty of Peace was signed in Paris, and the
French power on this continent, and for the most part
Indian attacks upon the New England colonists, were
at an end.
But even then, it was only the combatants and the
scene of strife which was changed. For, ten years
later, in 1773, came the beginning of the Revolution.
In that memorable year of 1773, the town of Brook
field pledged itself to the town of Boston, " to main

tain in every legal and proper way those rights and lib
erties for our children, which with so much labor, blood,
and treasure were purchased by our ancestors." In
that same year, Brookfield also took unqualified action
against the introduction of British tea. In 1774, the
town raised a company of minute-men, in accordance
with the wish of the Provincial Congress, and in the
following year provided for additional companies. So
that, the news of the British advance on Lexington
and Concord, reaching Brookfield in the afternoon of
April 19th, 1775, three Brookfield companies set forth
for the conflict that very night. In the battle of
Bunker Hill some of those men fought. At a town-
meeting, May 22d, 1776, it was voted, that "this town
will support the Honorable Congress in the measure,
if they, for our liberty, shall see fit to declare the Col
onies independent of Great Britain," — thus anticipat
ing the national Declaration of July 4th, by full forty-
three days. It is on record that, the following year,
fifteen Brookfield citizens enlisted " for the war," and
that sixty-five others were enrolled " for three years "
It is matter of history that, until the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19th, 1781, Brook
field fulfilled to the utmost her patriotic obligations.
' Fellow-citizens, was I not right in claiming that this
is historic ground? Was I not wholly justified irt
averring that what was done in our Brookfield
and especially in this West Brookfield, had its

19
causes far off as well as near, and that its results
were wide and lasting? Of a truth, it requires no
long pilgrimage to bring us to scenes of distinguished
achievement. Here were displayed those qualities
which glorify humanity and sanctify the very soil ; —
courage superlative, discretion consummate, steadfast
ness invincible, patriotism unsurpassed. For one, I
thank God that He gives to us the privilege of mem
ories so inspiring and of associations so honorable.
But we must not permit ourselves to think of the
earlier Brookfield life as wholly absorbed in the sheer
struggle for self-preservation. Besides the most ardu
ous manual labor, and in the midst of almost incessant
conflict with desperate foes, there was a characteristic
devotion to higher ends. In both the first and second
settlements of the town, provision was made for the
building of a meeting-house and the securing of a
minister. Those first two meeting-houses were on
Foster's Hill, the first being built in 1667, the second
in 1719. Toward the salary of the pastor, the General
Court, for many years, made an appropriation of $100,
annually ; but the needful supplementing of that sum,
as well as the building of the meeting-house lts6lf,
came from the willing people. To the meeting-liouse
they added the indispensable horse-sheds, and to the
pastor they gave not only parsonage and barn, but
also wood for sitting-room and kitchen, and land for
cujtivation. John Younglove, the first minister under

20
the first Brookfield settlement, and George Phillips,
the first minister under the second settlement, were
succeeded by other faithful men, including the later
and revered names of Phelps, Foot, Fiske, Snell and
Stone, — the honor of the illustrious line being still
upheld by those who now are pastors within the an
cient bounds.
Nor did the Brookfield citizens overlook the inter
ests of sound learning. During the first settlement, in
struction was given to children gathered in private
houses. As early as 1713, sixty acres of land were set
apart to provide a general income for school purposes.
Subsequently, other plots of land were similarly se
questered, until the total was upwards of two hundred
acres. These lands were leased by the selectmen to
the highest bidder, and the rental applied to the pay
ment of teachers' wages. By 1726, a public school
had been permanently established, and by 1746, a
grammar school was added. In 1748, it was voted that
when as many as fifteen or twenty children could be
conveniently and regularly gathered in any part of the
town, they should be provided with a teacher at pub
lic expense. And this was in full keeping with the
action of the Massachusetts General Court which, in
1636, less than sixteen years after the landing of the
Pilgrims, voted four hundred pounds towards a col
lege, the added gift of John Harvard causing Har
vard College to be established in Cambridge in 1638.

21
Throughout New England, it was the pride of the
new communities to make provision for public educa
tion. Along with the meeting-house went the school-
house, for it was well understood that only on the
basis of popular intelligence and virtue, could the
public well-being safely rest.
Did time allow, it would be both interesting and
profitable to enter the field of biography, and call to
mind the individual heroes and heroines of early years.
But to other occasions like this, that inspiring theme
must be referred.
I may, however, mention two men whose relation
to the Brookfield settlement is, of itself, sufficient to
make the place memorable and its history renowned.
It is, indeed, somewhat notable that here faithful Mas
sasoit exercised his latest dominion, and that here he
died, full of years, in 1662. It is something, also, that.
here King Philip, son of Massasoit, appeared, on more
than one occasion, as the leader of the hostile tribes-
It may pass for what it is worth, that the usurping
Governor, Edmund Andros, who claimed authority
under King James II. visited this town on the 15th of
October, 1688, on his way from New York to Boston.
But of truly serious and worthy moment is it that,
within our Brookfield labored, for a time, John Eliot,
the great apostle to the Indians. In 1649, he wrote
from Roxbury, " There is another aged Sachem at
Quobagud (Quaboag), three score miles westward, and

22
he doth greatly desire that I would come thither and
teach them, and live there." He adds, "There also I
found sundry hungry after instruction." In 1655, Mr.
Eliot purchased from the aborigines a tract of a thous
and acres adjoining Brookfield, for the establishment
of a settlement for Christian Indians, — the General
Court, nine years later, extending the tract to four
thousand acres. The project, however, failed by rea
son of the breaking out of King Philip s destructive
war, and the continuance of French-Indian attacks.
Marvelous were the character and deeds of John
Eliot ! Graduate of Cambridge, England, he reached
this country in 163I, at the age of twenty-seven. Soon
settling as pastor of the church in Roxbury, he de
voted himself, in addition to his pastorate, to the
Christianizing of the Indians. You know the record :
— mastering the Indian language and reducing it to
writing ; translating into that language the holy Scrip
tures and other useful books ; entrusting himself fear-
lesslyto the Indians; imperiled by cold and hunger,
by pestilence and flood ; serving as peace-maker,
counselor, teacher; gathering hundreds of natives into
Christian churches ; and leaving a memory which, to
this day, is a benediction to the world. He closed
his Indian Grammar with these memorable words :
" We must not sit still and look for miracles. Up and
be doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and
pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything."
" Aye, call it holy ground,
" This soil whereon he trod.

23
Here, too, from the rock which bears his name,
George Whitefield, October i6th, 1740, at the age of
twenty-six, preached to the people who gathered from
far and near. What memories rise as that simple fact
is named ! — his birth in old Gloucester, England, in
1714 ; his early fondness for elocution and the reading
of plays ; his residence at Pembroke College, Oxford ;
his conversion under the influence of the Wesleys ;
his devotion to the preaching of the Gospel to the
people ; his repeated visits to this country, both north
and south ; his death in Newbury, in this State, in
1770 ; — a life, in all, of only six and fifty years ! They
say that his eloquence, judged by its effects, was
matchless. When he was only twenty-two the desire, in
great London, to hear him speak, was so intense, that
an assembly would gather at the appointed place be
fore daylight, that thus they might be within sight
and sound. In the open air, in England, Scotland,
and America alike, audiences which were numbered
by the ten thousand. Scholars, courtiers, soldiers,
men of affairs, swayed by his discourse as forests by
resistless winds. Crowds of rough miners, colliers,
turned to such contrition of soul, as he pleaded with
them, that their flooding tears literally washed white
channels down their blackened cheeks. Week after
week, month after month, year after year, it was his
wont, when not actually journeying, to preach, in suc«
cessive discourses, not less than five hours each day.

24
His course was like the shining of the sun across
tumultuous waves. His early entrance into rest, was
with such abundance of sheaves as has been gathered
by few reapers since the world began.
But I must close.
It comes then, Mr. President and Fellow-citizens, to
this, that by reason of an intelligent and reverent re
gard for our historic associations, we are not only to
meet well our obligations toward the past, but also to
strengthen ourselves for the discharge of duty in the
days before us. Throughout the bounds of a settle
ment so ancient, so memorable, so worthy, as that of old
Brookfield ; in each of the towns which are now com
prised within those venerable limits ; there ought to
be, henceforth, a fresh civic pride, and an ennobled re
ligious devotion. We are the heirs of the generations
and the ages. Do suns rise and set in splendor, the
stars reveal their glory, the lordly seasons roll, that thus
we may receive the inspirations of beauty and grand
eur ? But of beneficent import still vaster, still higher,
is that succession of courageous hearts and heroic
deeds by which our heritage, both local and national,
has been so peculiarly enriched. I am accustomed to
think that no other people have such patriotic incen
tives as belong to us. For, what other land was ever
planted with such goodly seed ? What other nation
has been permitted so to expand and gather strength ?
What other demonstration of the possibiUties of pop-

25
ular government, has ever centered in itself so large a
share of the interest, the hope, of the civilized world ?
I speak in a spirit which is far from boastful. Too
long have I lived, too widely have I read the records
of kingdoms and peoples, not to know that where much
has been given, much will be required. Too well have
I been instructed in the elements of sacred verity, not
to realize that in the midst of even the mightiest hu
man achievements, there presides One whose authority
is eternally supreme, and whose law is forever just.
There is a Kingdom of God in the earth. By princi
ples of truth and equity, God governs the world. We
may cherish the presumptions of place and power ; we
may plume ourselves on our vast possessions, our
measureless resources ; we may look confidently to our
defences by land and sea ; but if we put ourselves in
conflict with the Righteous King, we shall be crushed
like an egg-shell against the granite rock. We shall
forfeit our regal inheritance ; we shall lose our coveted
honor ; and, sooner or later, others more worthy will
be raised up to take our place.
Let, therefore, the thoughts, the emotions, the re
solves, of this hour be consecrated to the interests of
the public weal. Let us ourselves be noble, that we
may do nobly for others. Let us cherish whatever
makes for the beauty, the peace, the happiness, the
rightful power, of township, and commonwealth, and
nation, alike. Let us see to it that our public-school

26-
system is defended against assault, our means of high
er education amplified, our institutions of religion up
held and strengthened. Let us reckon the success
of political parties, of infinitely less consequence than
the triumph of sound political and economic princi
ples. Let us count the home sacred, and recognize that
Society's interests are our interests as well. Let us re
flect that while patriotism is a duty, even patriotism is
to be subordinated to that nobler good-will which takes
in the whole family of man.
So shall our relations to past and present and future
be honorable, and the promise to the faithful be richly
fulfilled. Through unnumbered years, these hills shall
be clothed with fruitfulness, and these valleys be filled
with plenty. Through countless generations, strength
and grace shall be the enduement of man, grace and
strength the heritage of woman.
God, even our own God, shall bless us. Our
OFFICERS shall BE PEACE, OUR EXACTORS RIGHT
EOUSNESS. They shall call our walls .'Salva
tion, AND our G.\TES praise !

27

Note. — "Old" Brookfield included the territory now occupied by
the four Brookfields, New Braintree and Warren ; and it is worthy of
special record that the original settlement of the town, and the centre
of the town's most important colonial evenls, were within what is
now the township of West Brookfield. Here were Foster's Hill, the
larger part of Coy s Hill, Wickaboag Pond, and " The Plain." Here
were "Indian Rock," " Warding Rock,'' and " Whitefield's Rock."
Here the first houses were erected, the first corn planted, and the
first Fort built. Here the first school house, and the first two meet
ing houses were located. Here the famous siege was sustained. Here
Whitefield preached.

Remarks of Hon. D. H. CHAMBERLAIN.*

Fellow-Citizens, and Fellow-Townsmen, of
West Brookfield, and you of other Brookfields or
other towns who are joining with us on this occasion —
for I am informed that this company contains others
than natives or residents of this town :
It is a great pleasure to me to meet you to-day. I
might, perhaps, have hoped that I should not be called
on to speak, seeing that my kin has already taken so
large a part in your observance of the day ; but I am
not at all reluctant to add, if I can, to your enjoyment of
this occasion. First of all, let me take the opportunity
to express my sense of the honor done me by the invi
tation of your committee to deliver the address to-day,
a duty which my brother has performed so much bet
ter than I could have hoped to do it.
If this occasion does not commemorate any special
historical event of Brookfield's annals, it is, neverthe
less, a day devoted to the history of Brookfield. We
are engaged in an effort to quicken and stir up a larger
interest in our local history, in that series of events
which, however calm and commonplace in their ordi
nary current, still illustrate the making and growth

"These remarks were made at the after-dinner meeting of the
Quaboag Historical Society June 5, 1895, in the Congregational
church at West Brookfield, following remarks by Hon. E. B. Lynda
and Dr. A. G. Blodgett, of West Brookfield.

30
and method of one of the most characteristic evolu
tions and results of New England and American life, —
the average New England town, the original unit of
our political and municipal life, the first and, in some
respects, the finest fruit of the Pilgrim and Puritan
civic spirit which planted Massachusetts and New
England, and gave the nation so much of its past
and present power, and is destined, I fervently hope
and believe, to continue to uphold and guide our future
progress and greatness.
This is more than a work of mere historical interest.
I venture to call it a duty — the duty of keeping fresh
in our minds, of handing on from generation to gener
ation, the knowledge of the events, the course and se
quence of events, which make the history of our town.
I have called this a duty. Why? Because history is
human experience, and it is as true now as when Pat
rick Henry thundered it in the opening days of our
Revolution — " The lamp of experience is the only lamp
by which to guide our steps in the future." No man
can be wise in the present or prescient of the future,
who is not deeply versed in the past. Our most bril
liant and philosophical American historian has writ
ten : " The Present and the Future are clay in the
hands of the Past." It is a great and memorable
truth. But history is more than mere human experience. It
is the record of the dealings and designs of a Power

31
that is above man and above nations, above all things
earthly or human, the Power that has created all
things — in whose sight a thousand years are but as yes
terday when it is past and as a watch in the night.
Whoever has regarded history with, I will not say a
Christian, but with even a philosophic, eye — from He
rodotus or Thucydides to Bancroft or Motley — has not
failed to find in it not merely the stories of battles and
sieges, of the rising and falling of nations, the triumphs
and defeats of races, the coming and going of dynas
ties ; but through it all, through every change, every
catastrophe, every event, the plain hand of a Provi
dence which is working out its designs, in which men
are but agents more or less conscious of the ends they
are serving.
Such is history — all history — the panorama of man's
marches and counter-marches in the long campaign of
human experience, and the visible tracings of the
lines of what the ancients called Destiny, but we call
Providence. I cannot help being reminded of all this as I stand
here to-day. This whole fair prospect of civilization —
these hills, these plains, these valleys — as we now see
them, if they suggest no very heroic memories, do tell
"us the story of two and three quarter centuries of con
tinuous and not inglorious history, since Brookfield first
became a halting-place in the long " trail " from Bos
ton to the Connecticut River.

32
But I own to another deeper and fonder interest.
Here rest the ashes of my kindred. Here, alas ! already
rest the remains of half my own family ! I can there
fore say of Brookfield as Goldsmith wrote of a fancied
home : "Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see.
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee."
It is, as I have said, two and three quarters centur
ies since Brookfield had a name on the map of New
England. It is two centuries and a quarter since the
close of the first great event and trial in her civilized
history — King Philip's War. With the end of that
struggle the Indian of New England ceased to be a fac
tor of importance in her history. As the Indians dis
appeared from New England after 1675, so they have
disappeared now from the nation, until only a few
broken and melancholy remnants lag superfluous on
the stage, on the extreme Western fringes of our coun
try. Well that it is so !
" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay !"
It was the decree of Providence. No fact is plainer,
no result has been more inevitable or auspicious. It
is easy to sentimentalize over the Indian. It is easy
also to show that he has been wronged. Our fathers
wronged him ; we have wronged him. But it was be
yond mortal power to stay his doom or reverse his
fate. His presence here was incompatible with what I
believe to be God's purposes. The Indian could not

33
submit to the yoke of civilization, and civilization rode
over him remorselessly. I have great respect for all
those who now seek to save him from further wrongs
and to give him another and fairer chance to join
the march of civilization. Your venerable ex-United
States Senator, Mr. Dawes, deserves honor and praise ;
but I should as soon expect to see the sun in these
heavens today stayed or turned back, as to see the In
dians of to-day saved from the extinction which began
here in 1675 and has not stopped for more than two
centuries. From the close of King Philip's War to the peace
of Paris in 1763, were the heroic years in the history of
Brookfield. The courage of Brookfield men was shown,
the blood of Brookfield men was shed, on nearly all
the fields which marked the long military duel be
tween France and England for the control of the con
tinent — at the siege of Louisburg, on the expeditions
against Crown Point and Niagara, on the march to the
relief of Fort DuQuesne, withWolfe at the death-strug
gle with Montcalm on the Heights of Abraham. The
annals of Brookfield in these years, I confess, thrill my
heart and exalt my pride.
Then there is an honorable record in the War of In
dependence, and here on this plain before us, July 4,
1784, — one hundred and eleven years ago — took place
the first celebration in the Brookfields, or in this vicin
ity, of the Independence of these United States.

34
But there was to be another struggle, another crisis,
compared with which all that had gone before, in my
judgment, sinks almost to insignificance — the war of the
Union — the struggle to preserve what more than two
centuries had given us. In this struggle West Brook
field, and I am proud to add, all the Brookfields, did
their duty. Here, as everywhere in the North, we saw
the careless boy changed to a hero in the twinkling of
an eye ; the peace-loving farmer become a knight-
errant of liberty; the timid, shrinking, home-loving
youth suddenly transformed to the gallant soldier
charging under the iron hail at Gettysburg, rallying at
the ill-fated mine of Petersburg, or following the vic
torious plume of Sheridan at Five Forks. How little
we knew the mettle that was in these West Brookfield
boys! We fancied, the world fancied, the South believed,
that patriotism had died out, that Ephraim was joined
to his idols, that Webster's great voice had ceased to
echo, " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable !"
Such an awakening has rarely been seen. "/What
heart here to-day does not rejoice to remember that
West Brookfield was not a laggard in that momentous
hour and in those bloody days !
Yes, your young, generous heroes went forth, but
many of them did not return. They rest in_other soil,
far from their homes. And yet, fellow-citizens, no
monument, no public memorial of granite or bronze.

35
perpetuates their names or testifies our gratitude to
the noblest men our town ever bore ! It is a sad and
inexcusable neglect. I speak of it with freedom and
with a touch of indignation, because the Selectmen of
this town have held for more than twenty years my
written, legal obligation to contribute a sum equal to •
fully one-twentieth of the entire cost of a noble and
fitting monument to the memory of all from this
town who fell in the war for the Union. Until that
memorial adorns your village, I can never think as well
as I wish to, of the public spirit of West Brookfield.
But I am detaining you too long. It was Charles
Sumner who exclaimed in one of those addresses which
fired my young heart as almost no other man's words
have ever done, — " The duties of life are more than
life itself." Do not imagine that the days of heroism
are over; that "renown and grace are dead !" Momen
tous duties press upon us to-day — duties to ourselves,
to our country, to posterity and the world. Foes
armed with weapons as deadly as were ever met on
battle-fields of war are now arrayed against the peace
and honor of Massachusetts and the United States. 1
mean those who would debase our currency, dishonor
our public faith, and bring disaster onus, on our child
ren, and our children's children, by the free coinage of
silver. I offer no apology for referring to this para
mount duty here to-day. It overshadows all other
present issues ; and I should despise myself if, on any

36
fair occasion, I failed to give plain utterance to my in
tense disapproval of this proposition.
But remember that, after all, it is not laws, but men,
that have made New England. It is men, not laws,
that will keep her and advance her fame. " Laws,"
said Demosthenes, " are only tidemarks on the shore."
The tides themselves are the hearts of the people.
The couplet is a philosophic one ; —
" How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!"
But, fellow-citizens, I condense into a word all that
I would have you remember of what I have said, —
Build a Soldiers' monument and vote for Sound
Money.

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