Chepachet Free Will Baptist Church -- Diary of Alexander Hatch Morrell, Endnotes

Fragment of a diary of Rev. Alexander H. Morrell,
covering the period May 17th 1882 to July 6th 1882

Morrell House, Storer College. Photo courtesy of Jeff Brooke-Stewart.

2. Mr. And Mrs. Seth Mowry were very active participants in both the Chepachet Meeting House (where Seth Mowry was a proprietor after 1886), and in the Chepachet Free Will Baptist Church. They lived North of the village on what is now Route 102. Seth, whose occupation is given as "Painter" on page 66 of Elizabeth A. Perry's A Brief History of the Town of Glocester, Rhode Island (1886), was the son of Marmaduke Mowry, whose day-book entries show him ringing the Meeting House bell during the 1840's, and the father of Jesse Mowry, also active in the church during the 20th century. Jesse became Forrest Commissioner for the State of Rhode Island.

Home of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Mowry, Victory Highway, Chepachet, north of the Village (2007 photograph). This is where the Ladies Circle met, as set forth in the Diary reference for May 17. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

3. The Rev. George E. Hopkins was born in Foster RI in 1811. He was pastor of the Morning Star church there for 10 years. He was also pastor in West Scituate while at Morning Star. He was pastor of the Chepachet Free Will Baptist, and pastor of churches in Coventry, Westford, and East Putnam, CT. In addition to service in the ministry, he was also a teacher, and was superintendent of Schools in Glocester, Foster, and Scituate. By 1882 he had retired from active ministry, and was apparently residing in Chepachet under the pastoral care of A. H. Morrell. According to Perry, Hopkins was Justice of the Peace in Glocester, RI in 1861. See the Free Baptist Cyclopaedia , edited by Gideon Burgess and J. T. Ward, published in Chicago in 1889 by the Free Baptist Cyclopaedia Company, p.276.

Tombstones of Rev. George E. Hopkins (right) and his wife Eliza C. Hopkins (left), Acote's Hill Cemetery, Chepachet. See Diary entries for May 26, June 2, 4, and 21. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

4. Walter A. Read, a Civil War veteran of Antietum and Fredericksburg, was Postmaster 1866-85, a dealer in coal and wood, and owner of what later became Brown & Hopkins Store. He was a Free Mason, the head of the Republican Party in town, and Rhode Island State Treasurer.

5. Rev. Hiram. E. Johnson was called to the pastorate of the Chepachet Congregational Church in 1879.

7. Edwin J. Valentine and his wife, Adelaide Owen Valentine, were active members of the Congregational Church; Mr. Valentine was also a proprietor of the Chepachet Meeting House in 1882. He was superintendent of the Smith and Sayles textile mill in the village. He donated the tracker pipe organ to the Congregational Church. Both he and Mrs. Valentine were organists. Mr. Valentine became Town Moderator in 1885. He died in 1906; she died in 1914.

8. This is an interesting entry as far as Meeting House architecture is concerned. Early plans suggest that the Meeting House had a raised pulpit to allow the speaker to maintain good eye contact with those in the balcony as well as on the main floor. This pulpit was set up on the North wall. When the tracker pipe organ was installed in 1902, the raised pulpit was removed and a platform to raise the speaker a foot or so was installed. Morrell's diary entry confirms the raised pulpit was in use in 1882. It also reveals a thoughtful personal style; for a funeral service, Rev. Morrell came down from the high pulpit, on to the floor of the Meeting House, so as to be physically among the mourners.

9. Taft's Tavern was located on the southeast corner of Douglas Hook Road and Putnam Pike. It was formerly the home of Samuel Y. Atwell. Built in 1813, it was eventually bought by Royal Taft, and passed to his son Henry H. Taft at the time of Royal's death on May 15, 1878. Henry was the tavern proprietor in 1882, the diary period. The building burned in 1913 and the Chepachet Grammar School, now the Glocester Town Hall, stands near that location.

10. Dorcas Paine is buried in Acote's Hill Cemetery, Chepachet, in the same lot as her brother Dennis and his wife Laura. He may have been the Dennis Paine who operated a Gristmill in Harmony. He is almost certainly the Dennis Paine who lived at one time in a house near the Burlingame Reservoir in West Glocester off of what is now Route 44 just east of Durfee Hill Road. The house was later owned by Nelson Plant, and is no longer standing.

Tombstone of Dorcas Paine, Acote's Hill, giving her death date as May 20, 1882. She was born November 24, 1812. Rev. Morrell preached at her funeral. She is buried next to her older brother Dennis Paine and his wife Laura. See Diary Entry for May 21 and two entries for May 23. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

11. The "Greenwich church house of worship" was probably the Greenwich Street Baptist Church in Providence, gathered in 1871. That this meeting was held at a Providence church is confirmed in the Diary entry for June 2nd. Rev. Mrs. L. Fenner, wife of James M. Fenner (the first deacon of the Greenwich Street Church in Providence), was an evangelist in several New England States, according to the Free Baptist Cyclopaedia, p. 117. Ordained in 1878, she held ministries in Foster, RI, East Putnam, CT, and Starksboro, VT.

12. Thomas Whipple Steere later became a Proprietor of the Chepachet Meeting House and a Deacon of the Chepachet Free Will Baptist Church. He was much involved with the starting of the Old Home Day celebrations in 1906, and served as Chairman of most Old Home Day committees from 1907 until 1927. His picture hangs in an oval frame in the vestry of the Chepachet Free Will Baptist Church. His barn, formerly located on Chopmist Hill Road south of Chepachet, is now a theater on the campus of Roger Williams College. His correct birth date is May 22, not May 24.

Ella Steere, daughter of Thomas W. Steere, in the 1940's. Courtesy of Edna Kent.

13. Rev. Morrell is slightly mistaken here. Thomas Steere's wife was Sara A. Davis, whom he married on February 3, 1877; her birth date is correct.

14. Ella Steere, who married Sabin Steere, was a long term member of the Chepachet Free Will Baptist Church and a proprietor who inherited her father's pew #14, the first one on the right when you enter the sanctuary from the back (south) by the left door. During the 1940's and 1950's, she ran a roadside stand in Cherry Valley (building still standing) where she made and sold superb chowder and clam cakes that had a regional reputation. She married Sabin Arnold Steere, and was the mother of Hortense Steere, a Glocester schoolteacher for over 40 years, who was also a proprietor of the Meeting House and a Trustee of the Free Will Church (which she generously recognized in her will). Ella Steere died in 1957.

North Scituate Baptist Church. Rev. Morrell preached here. See Diary entry, May 28. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

16. Joseph Smith Olney lived across Putnam Pike from the Baptist church parsonage, and a couple of hundred feet to the west. He married Amey Sprague Randall; they were the parents of Louise Olney Young and Walter Mowry Olney (both very active contributors to the early Old Home Days), and of Lydia Annie Olney (active church member for over seventy years), who married John Steere, Proprietor of the Meeting House and Trustee of the Chepachet Free Will Baptist church.

17. Smith Asa Steere operated a gristmill on Gristmill Pond at the confluence of Sucker Brook and the Chepachet River. Mr. Steere joined the Free Will Baptist Church in 1842. He became a Deacon of the church and served as Clerk of the Proprietors of the Chepachet Meeting House for over forty years. He and his wife Mary Phetteplace Steere were in charge of preparing the communion service for many years.

18. George Wheeler Steere, a builder who also operated a dairy farm and sawmill on Sucker Brook, was a Proprietor of the Meeting House. He sawed lumber for the church vestry and donated the tracker pipe organ that was installed in The Meeting House in 1902. He represented Glocester in the Rhode Island State Legislature for many years in the late 1800's.

19. Brother H. Steere was probably William Henry Steere, who went by the name "Henry." Rev. Morrell also refers to him elsewhere as "W. H. Steere." He was a farmer and a lumberman who donated the lumber to build the church vestry. In 2007, the church is building a handicapped person's ramp to the vestry, and stones being used for steps in this project came from his cellar hole. He lived on what is now Old Victory Highway.

20. Rev. Searles B. Young was born at Killingly in 1832. He held two pastorates in RI, at Morning Star in Foster and at the Union church, also in Foster.

Rev. George H. Child was born in Providence, RI in 1827 and was the grandson of one of the founders of Central Baptist Church — for many years an extremely active RI Free Will and later American Baptist church. He was pastor at East Killingly, CT, for five years. Earlier, he had for some years preached and taught among the freedmen in Edgefield, Tenn., near Nashville. Such was the opposition to this teaching, that his schoolhouse was burnt to the ground.

Rev. S. Griffiths was born in Foster, RI in 1837. During a revival meeting in 1871, at the Union Church, Foster, led by a former slave Rev. Thomas Jones, Griffiths felt called to join that church and to begin a preaching ministry. He was later ordained as Pastor of the South Scituate church in June 1874.

Rev. Daniel Green was born in 1779. Ordained in 1846, he became very active in organizing and pastoring Free Will Baptist churches in RI and Eastern Conn. See Free Baptist Cyclopaedia, pp. 722-23 (Young), 117 (Child), 242 (Griffiths), 239 (Green).

21. The Home Mission Society was dear to Morrell's heart. This society was prominent in establishing educational facilities for freed slaves following the Civil War. For example, the previously mentioned Storer College was established by joint contributions from John Storer and the Home Mission Society.

23. The correct spelling is Parkhurst. William R. Parkhurst operated a livery stable (Perry, p. 66). His home and attached barn still stand on Main Street to the east of the stoplight.

24. Born in NH in 1835, Jonathan Brewster was a close friend of AHM and had been assistant editor of the previously mentioned Morning Star publication. He came to RI in 1871 as Pastor of the Free Baptist Church in North Scituate, and was called as Pastor of the Park Street Free Baptist Church in Providence in 1875. He was a trustee of Storer College.

25. Charles Allen Slocum served as Representative of the Town of Glocester in the State Legislature in 1839, and was elected Justice of the Peace in 1848, 1858, 1859, 1867 and 1869. He lived on Dorr Drive.

Tombstones of Charles A. Slocum (left), and his wife Lydia Slocum, Acote's Hill Cemetery, Chepachet. See Diary entries for June 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

26. Captain Cyruss Sturdivant was a well-known speaker for the temperance movement and for prison reform. He was a favorite visitor on the speaker's tour circuit, and was known as "the prisoner's friend." One of his most popular presentations was titled "Murphy's Conversion," and this was indeed one of the programs he gave in Chepachet on June 25th 1882. It described Sturdivant's success in Portland Jail, Me., in introducing to Christ, a prisoner by the name of Murphy, and in reforming Murphy's alcohol habits.

27. Christopher O'Brien lived on the north side of Putnam Pike almost at the top of the long rise leading towards Putnam about half a mile west of the Village. His house still stands.

Home of Christopher O'Brien, Putnam Pike, Chepachet, west of the village (2007 photograph). See Diary entries for May 25 and 26, and for June 5, 6, 8, 16, 17, 18, and 20. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

28. This is William Arnold White, who died June 3rd 1882. His brother, Fenner R. White (who died in 1880) was a textile manufacturer. He served on the Town Council for many years, represented Glocester in the State Legislature from 1878 - 81. He became a Proprietor of the Meeting House in 1867. They were children of Benjamin and Polly White.

29. The residence of Charles Allen Slocum was located on what is now Dorr Drive in Chepachet. It was at this time owned by his son Ziba Slocum. It later was the home of Howard and Maude Farnum. It still stands.

Tombstone of William Arnold White, Acote's Hill Cemetery, Chepachet. See Diary entry for June 7. The large monument to Warren O. Arnold, who is mentioned in Diary entry for June 21, appears in this photograph in the distance directly above and slightly to the right of W. A. White's stone. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

30. Simeon Sweet was a lumber dealer who lived on Main Street across from the cemetery on Acote's Hill in a large house that still stands. The Free Will Baptist Church files contain many invoices for lumber, shingles, and supplies bearing his name.

31. Perry (page 60) lists Marcie [sic] Arnold as a Glocester Public School teacher in 1885.

32. Edward and Mary Atkinson were born in 1864, and were both 17 years old at the time of their marriage by Rev. Morrell. They later lived on the west side of Tourtellot Hill Road in Chepachet in a house that still stands. He became a freemason. At one time, she operated a bakery out of their home. He died in 1934 and she in 1942 (which meant they celebrated more than 50 years of marriage). The guest list of the 1935 Old Home Day records Mrs. Mary A. Atkinson as a guest from Harrisville. They are buried in Acote's Hill Cemetery.

Home of Edward Atkinson, Tourtellot Hill Road, Chepachet. See Diary references for June 12, 20, and 21. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

33. Christopher O'Brien and his wife are buried on the south slope of the old section of Acote's Hill. Rev. Morrell's age for Mr. O'Brien is consistent with the dates on Mr. O'Brien's tombstone. His age for Mrs. O'Brien is not: according to the stone, she was born in 1814, which would make her 66 or 67, not 76, in 1881 when he preached her funeral service.

34. The other Miss Arnold may have been Miss Mary O. Arnold, who in 1885 was serving on the Executive Committee of the Manton Free Public Library, located in Chepachet, or it may have been Ellen Arnold, who was a Chepachet school teacher, although we have her dates of service as 1884-1888.

35. Old maps of Chepachet show a "T. Sweet" on the west side of Tourtellot Hill Road just south of the home of Edward Atkinson. This may well be the home of Timothy Sweet.

Tombstone of Christopher O'Brien and his wife Ann M. O'Brien, on the south slope of the old section of Acote's Hill Cemetery, Chepachet, Rhode Island. See Diary entries for May 25 and 26, and for June 5, 6, 8, 16, 17, 18, and 20. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

36. William Neff lived west of Warren Arnold. He died in 1920 and is buried in Acote's Hill Cemetery.

37. Warren Otis Arnold and Horace Kimball were manufacturers of satinet and cassimeres. They owned the 1814 stone mill on Main Street, still standing and now used as an antique shop. Arnold lived next to the Baptist Parsonage. He was a U.S. Congressman 1887-91 and 1895-97.

Believed to be the home of Timothy Sweet, Tourtellot Hill Road, Chepachet, 2007. See Diary reference June 20. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

38. We are happy to report that Deacon Winsor did recover and lived another 16 years, dying at the age of 83 in 1898. He is buried in Acote's Hill Cemetery.

39. This is almost certainly William A. Goodman, born December 9, 1858, which would make him 23 at the time. He died in 1937 and is buried in Acote's Hill Cemetery with his wife Emma L. Long, who was born in 1860 and died in 1955.

40. There were many Wades in Chepachet in Rev. Morrell's time. This may have been William W, of William Wade, an original member of the Chepachet Free Will Baptist Church. It may also have been Robert Wade, who lived close to Rev. Morrell in a house on the east side of Main Street where the stop light now is. The house was torn down in the 1930's to make way for Freddie Halbig's garage, which now contains a print shop and pizzeria.

41. Rev. Johnson was the Chaplain of the Chepachet Division, Sons of Temperance, No 14, organized in 1872, which met in the vestry of the Congregational Church. Perry, p. 36.

42. James Brown was a Free Will Baptist Church member who became a Meeting House Proprietor in 1878. He was the father of James L. Brown, a partner of William Hopkins in Chepachet's famous Brown and Hopkins Store. Both Misters Brown and Hopkins were long-term members of the Baptist Church and Proprietors of the Meeting House.

43. This would have been District School #11, known as the Brown District. The schoolhouse was located at the southwest corner of Chestnut Hill Road and what is now Brown School House Road, a short walking distance south of the home of James Brown. The schoolhouse building, much modified, still stands as a private dwelling.

Brown School in District #11, at the corner of Chestnut Hill and Brown School Roads, where Miss Lowe was a teacher. Much modified, it is now a private dwelling. See Diary entry for July 4. 2007 photograph by Clifford Brown.

44. Rev. David Powell grew up in western Virginia, opposed secession, joined the Union Army, and later became a Free Will Baptist. He was pastor of churches in West Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and South Dakota. See Free Baptist Cyclopaedia, p. 539.

45. Probably Benedict Aldrich, who had been a member of the Baptist Church since the 1840's. He was also a long-time Proprietor of the Chepachet Meeting House and an officer of that corporation. An 1870 map of Chepachet shows property of B. Aldrich located between George Huntington Browne (later Warren Arnold) and C. H. Bowen, west of where the Baptist parsonage was to be built during the 1870's. Christopher O'Brien lived west of Bowen.