Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
Bethlehem_. It was edited by the Universalist pastors. A third parish
had been founded, and the Rev. H. G. Smith became its pastor. He was
associated with Messrs. Miner and Brooks in the management of the paper,
each contributing over his own signature. About the year 1842 the
Unitarian ministry was suddenly rent by one of its ministers, in
ability, magnetism, and rhetorical skill without a peer among his
brethren,--the Rev. Theodore Parker. He had adopted German rationalism
in regard to the Bible and Christianity, and by the boldness of his
utterances and the felicity of his manner was rapidly forming that
radical wing which to-day appears to dominate in the Unitarian body.
Such a leading was not likely to be restricted to any one sect. Was it
to enter and change the character of the Universalist movement? The Rev.
Mr. Smith showed that he was thoroughly imbued with the new doctrine;
and he was rapidly making converts among the younger members of his
ministerial fraternity. Rev. Messrs. Miner and Brooks, fully persuaded
that the new idea was a false one, thought that they foresaw that its
free acceptance by the Universalist ministry and people would at an
early day endanger the stability of their church. They met the issue
without reserve and with no regard to consequences personal to
themselves. In the pulpit and in the paper they vigorously protested
against the course of Mr. Smith. An anxious discussion followed, and it
spread. It was taken into the ecclesiastical body, the Boston
Association, where a resolution deprecating and protesting against the
"deistical innovation" was passed by a strong majority. This was in
1847. A few years later the writer of this inquired of the Rev. Thomas
Whittemore in regard to that rationalistic excitement. His answer was,
"Miner and Brooks took it in hand at Lowell and the Association killed
it." This episode apparently weakened the Universalist cause in Lowell.
The writer is one of the large number who have no doubt that the
promptness and thoroughness of the Lowell pastors averted a calamity.
May 1, 1848, Mr. Miner was called to the pastorate of the School-street
church, Boston. Having the entire confidence of his renowned senior, the
Rev. Hosea Ballou, he rapidly worked disaffection out of the parish,
thoroughly organized it, got the more than confidence of its leading
members; and he has carried it forward to the present day with a degree
of high success seldom paralleled in any denomination. In the early part
of the year 1851 his people decided to enlarge the edifice. The closing
of services while the reconstruction was in progress gave Mr. Miner an
opportunity to recruit his wasted strength by European travel. In June,
1852, Rev. Hosea Ballou died full of honors. Another call upon his
administrative ability as president of Tufts College led to the
settlement of associate pastors. But, apart from these interludes, Dr.
Miner has been the sole pastor since the death of Mr. Ballou.
In the movement to found Tufts College, of the very small number of
devoted friends, Dr. Miner has not occupied a second place. Subscribing
himself liberally, a few of his parishioners felt the contagion of
example and made generous pledges. The Rev. Otis A. Skinner, D. D., was
the first agent for collecting funds, and with heroic perseverance in
this pioneer work he raised the larger part of $100,000,--the minimum
upon which the work could begin. This, however, was but a beginning. The
assets to-day are not far from one million dollars. The influence of Dr.
Miner in reaching this result has been pre-eminent. The corner-stone was
laid in 1853. Mr. Miner giving the address. On the death of its first
president, Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, D. D., Mr. Miner was constrained to
accept the presidency. He was inaugurated, July 9, 1862. Previous to
this, the principal trust, he had served the college as trustee,
secretary, and treasurer. It was largely by his devices that the money
was raised to meet the current expenses during the infancy and the
poverty of the institution.
In 1863 Harvard College conferred upon him the honorary S. T. D. He had
received the honorary A. M. from Tufts in 1861; and that of LL. D. was
conferred by Tufts in 1875. His presidency continued till 1875, at which
date he acceded to the urgent call of his parish, and resigned the
presidency of the college and took the sole pastorate of his church,
which, in 1872, had dedicated the large and costly temple at the corner
of Columbus avenue and Clarendon street, in which it has worshiped from
that date to the present. Again his labor was effective. Out of the
pulpit as well as in it, giving his heart and energy to its interests,
the old parish entered upon a new era of prosperity. A pastor does well
who holds to himself one generation. Dr. Miner now has under his
influence a third generation, and the "spell" is not weakened. In the
period of his pastorates, he has conducted more than one thousand eight
hundred funeral services, and solemnized more than two thousand five
hundred weddings.
On removing to Boston, in 1848, Mr. Miner found himself in the center of
new calls upon his "many-sided" talents. He was seen to be financier,
organizer, popular leader, platform orator. Thence "missions" multiplied
and increased. The limits of this sketch permit but the baldest
statement of his labors, all of which he has rendered with singular
skill. Of course he was put upon the school board of the city. Then the
state made demands, and he is now serving a second term of eight years
on the state board of education. At a dinner given in his honor on
occasion of his departure for a short period to California, the then
Gov. Washburn bore testimony to the inventiveness and far-reaching
wisdom with which he was aiding to advance the educational interests of
the commonwealth. He has been six years chairman of the board of
visitors of the state normal art school. He has served as one of the
overseers of Harvard College. He is one of the "hundred orators," having
delivered the Fourth of July oration in Boston in 1855. Add to such
duties constant lecturing before lyceums, temperance meetings, and peace
societies, his frequent addresses at academic commencements, and
membership of various associations which we have not space to
mention,--how so many offices can be discharged, and all with
acknowledged fidelity, is a question that perplexes. In the way of duty
he has made enemies. But neither friends nor foes ever accused him of
seeking any of these high responsibilities. In every instance the
position sought the man. His pre-eminent gift has seemed to the writer
to consist in speaking to a point and with a view to a particular
effect. When he appeared before the legislative committee to plead for a
state grant to Tufts College, the committee unanimously reported in
favor,--one of the members adding that the eloquence with which the
claim had been urged had convinced the committee that it _was_ a claim.
The late Samuel Burbank of Lowell gave the writer this incident: Dr.
Miner had occasion to address a meeting of stockholders of an insurance
company whose affairs had got into a bad way. When he was through, the
late Samuel Lawrence, turning to Mr. Burbank, said: "That is the
Universalist minister,--well, if he will abandon his pulpit he may have
charge of any of our manufactories at any salary he may ask."
Like his faith, Dr. Miner's interest in the temperance reform is a "born
conviction." From his youth to his present hour, he has never wavered in
his belief that the drinking curse is the giant evil. In the pulpit, the
lyceum, the caucus, on the platform, he has labored to create and
enforce law to resist the ever threatening danger. In politics he makes
it the chief state issue, and in 1878 was the candidate of the
Prohibition party for governor of Massachusetts. In 1867 he led before
the legislative committee the protest against the repeal of the
prohibitory law, in opposition to the efforts of Gov. Andrew. His speech
on that occasion has become an arsenal of facts pertaining to the ethics
and the practicability of the statute. Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.,
said to the writer of this: "Your Dr. Miner has made a great speech,--a
very great one: it will never be answered." For ten years he has been
the president of the Temperance Alliance. In token of his great service
before the legislature, the Alliance presented him a costly Dore Bible.
He also had another "token" in the shape of threatened violence and the
defacement of his house. This was meant as dishonor. Dishonor? Could the
apostle articulate his thought, for what titles Jerusalem could have
conferred would he exchange the "forty stripes save one?"
But in all these varied toils, his church and faith have had the
uppermost place. By instinct and habit an extemporaneous speaker, the
one field he has least worked is that of literature with the pen. An
occasional article for the church periodicals and a Sunday-school manual
have at times occupied him. But most of his published works were spoken,
and taken down by reporters. He is one of some half-dozen Boston
preachers who are favorites with the reporters of the Boston dailies.
"Old Forts Taken," his latest publication, was the rhetoric of his "off
hand" speaking, save as the transcript of the reporter may have been
revised. But, whether laboring by speech or pen, he has never permitted
any duty or position to hold other than a second place beside his duties
to the church of his love.
In the movement which has transformed the once scattered societies of
his denomination into a compact, organized, and working church, no one
has rendered a more effective service. Of its first Home Mission he is
literally the pioneer. No one more faithfully represents the
controversial and aggressive spirit of the doctrines of his Church; but
no one has done more to make that church effective for practical
righteousness and Christian worship. He has now reached the decline, not
of his powers, nor of his zeal, nor of his work, but only of his years.
May the evening of his days be as serene and pleasant as his youth and
maturity have been industrious, faithful, and true.
COL. HENRY O. KENT.
BY H. H. METCALF.
Among the best known of the representative men of New Hampshire, Col.
HENRY O. KENT of Lancaster is conceded a prominent position. The Kent
family is of English origin, the first of the name in this country being
among the settlers of old Newbury, Mass., in 1635. John Kent, a scion of
this stock, died in 1780, at Cape Ann, Mass., aged eighty years. His
son, Jacob, born at Chebacco (now Essex), Mass., in 1726, settled in
Plaistow in this state. In 1760, a regiment commanded by Col. John Goffe
was raised in New Hampshire for the invasion of Canada, one company of
which was officered by John Hazen, captain; Jacob Kent (above named),
first lieutenant; and Timothy Beadle, second lieutenant. This regiment
marched to Number Four (Charlestown), cutting a road through the forest
to the Green Mountains, and thence to Crown Point on Lake Champlain,
where they took water transportation. After a successful campaign they
returned through the wilderness, _via_ the Newbury meadows or the "Cohos
country," with the fertility of which region Lieut.-Col. Jacob Bayley,
Capt. Hazen, and Lieutenants Kent and Beadle were so favorably impressed
that they determined to return and found a settlement. The project was
soon carried out, Bayley and Kent locating on the western, and Hazen and
Beadle on the eastern, side of the river, from which settlements sprang
the towns of Newbury and Haverhill. Jacob Kent died at Newbury, in 1812,
at the age of eighty-six years. He was a noted man in his section,