FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   >>  
the National League, and the secretary bears testimony to his unfailing interest in the good work, to his thorough sympathy and hearty cooeperation in all efforts to mitigate the evils of intemperance. No member of the League devoted more earnest zeal and self-sacrificing labor to promote the reforms initiated by the League. He was a member of the Public School Association, and a postal-card invitation to a meeting of that Association, on Saturday last, bore his name in connection with that of the Rev. Edward Everett Hale and several other gentlemen. On Wednesday last Mr. Webster was out. On that evening he was feeling a little ill, and postponed engagements which he had made for Thursday. He supposed his illness only temporary, and expected to be out on Friday and again on Saturday. When his family retired Saturday night they bade him good-night, and he told them that he felt better. At three o'clock in the morning they were awakened, and, hurrying to his room, found that he apparently had difficulty about breathing, and in a few minutes he passed quietly away without speaking. Mr. Webster was a member of the New or Swedenborgian Church, and held to that faith very strongly. He was a believer that departed spirits still hover about their friends and assist them in the good which they are endeavoring to accomplish. If such be the case, many a good cause in Boston to-day is being helped by his presence, although he is gone from us forever. IN OLDEN TIMES. In Wickford, Rhode Island, is what is claimed to be the oldest Episcopal church in America. It was built in 1707, and was once stolen and transported a distance of seven miles. It was originally built on what was then called McSparren Hill, but in the course of seventy-five years the population had changed so that most of the worshippers came from Wickford, seven miles away. The proposition to remove the church was first made at a vestry meeting, but was so bitterly opposed by the few members who yet remained on McSparren Hill that the Wickford faction resolved on a _coup d'etat_. The road from where the church stood to Wickford was all down hill. They mustered their forces one evening, collected all the oxen in the vicinity, placed the house on wheels, and, while the opposing faction were soundly sleeping in their beds, hauled the holy edifice to the spot where it now stands, and where it has since remained. As it was utterly impossible to move the house
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   >>  



Top keywords:

Wickford

 

church

 

member

 

Saturday

 

League

 

Webster

 

remained

 

faction

 
evening
 

McSparren


Association
 

meeting

 

Boston

 
called
 

presence

 
forever
 
originally
 

distance

 

Episcopal

 

oldest


seventy

 

America

 
stolen
 

Island

 
claimed
 

transported

 

helped

 

remove

 
collected
 

vicinity


wheels

 

forces

 

mustered

 

impossible

 

utterly

 

opposing

 

edifice

 

stands

 
hauled
 
soundly

sleeping

 

proposition

 

vestry

 

worshippers

 

population

 

changed

 

bitterly

 

resolved

 

opposed

 

members