"The Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, Part One

(According to articles in the St. Johnsbury Caledonian newspaper)

By Ken B.

© 2015 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Part One

The February 12, 1875, Issue of the St. Johnsbury Caledonian

 

When my dad (Dick B.) and I made our second research trip to Vermont in June 2008, we spent eight days doing research in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It is the town in which A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob was born on August 8, 1879. And he received his strong Christian upbringing there until he graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in the summer of 1898. After he graduated from the academy, he left the state to go to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He soon thereafter descended into the abyss of alcoholism, where he remained until he finally got sober in June 1935, through the help of God and A.A. cofounder Bill W. 

The St. Johnsbury of Dr. Bob’s youth was an amazing place—largely because of what was called by a number of sources “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury. My dad and I wrote our title Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont after our initial research trip to St. Johnsbury in October 2007. We based the book on our early historical discoveries there, combined with follow-on research done in books and Internet sources. In our book, we provided the testimony of a number of sources as to the nature and magnitude of the impact of “the Great Awakening” on St. Johnsbury. Those sources included: 

1.      Minutes of the Eighty-First Annual Meeting of the General Convention of Congregational Ministers and Churches of Vermont, Held at Barton, June, 1876.

2.      John E. Nutting, Becoming the United Church of Christ 1795-1995. [North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury—in which Dr. Bob’s entire family was actively involved—eventually became, and still is today, a member of the United Church of Christ.]

3.      Arthur Fairbanks Stone, The History of the North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

4.      Claire Dunne Johnson, “I See by the Paper . . .”: An Informal History of St. Johnsbury.

5.      “History of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Saint Johnsbury.”

6.      Edward T. Fairbanks, The Town of St. Johnsbury, VT: A Review of One Hundred Twenty-five Years to the Anniversary Pageant 1912.

7.      Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of the United States and British Provinces, Held at Richmond, VA., May 26-30, 1875.[1]

 One source that we did not quote from in our book was the St. Johnsbury Caledonian newspaper. That was because I did not get into the archives for the newspaper, which are kept upstairs on microfiche in the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, until our June 2008 research trip to St. Johnsbury. The Athenaeum was the school library for the St. Johnsbury Academy during the years Dr. Bob attended and still is the library for the Town of St. Johnsbury to this day. During our 2008 trip, I was able to print out many of the relevant pages of the issues of that newspaper for 1875, as well as for several years before and after that date. We gave one complete set of those print-outs to North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, for the “Dr. Bob Core Library” we founded there in 2008 with the help of the then-pastor, Jay Sprout. And we kept a set for ourselves—which we have never quoted from to date. In the meanwhile, issues of the St. Johnsbury Caledonian dating back to “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury have become available online. And I will be quoting below from the first issue of the paper to be published after the initial meetings of “the Great Awakening” took place February 6-8, 1875. And please see our title Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous for the relevance of the “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury to Dr. Bob’s parents (Judge Walter Perrin Smith and Susan Amanda Holbrook) and to the town of St. Johnsbury in which Dr. Bob was born and raised shortly thereafter.

Now on to the Friday, February 12, 1875, issue of the St. Johnsbury Caledonian and its reports concerning the first events of “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury. Here is the first quote: 

“Religious Meetings”:

“Free Baptist Church.—Meetings in hall of Caledonian Block—(Rev. O. Roys, pastor.)

Methodist Church.—(Rev. D. E. Miller, Pastor.)

North Cong’l Church.—(Rev. Chas. M. Southgate, Pastor.)

South Cong’l Church.—(Rev. E. T. Fairbanks, Pastor.)

Church of the Messiah, Universalist.—(Rev. B. M. Tillotson, Pastor.)

Baptist Church.—(Rev. J. H. Marsh, Pastor.)”

. . . 

The next union religious meeting will be held at the North Church this (Thursday) evening, at half-past seven. It is not expected there will be another mass meeting until next Tuesday evening, although there will be meetings for the young people, and enquirers after …… both Friday and Saturday evenings.”[2]

 There were five Protestant churches in St. Johnsbury at the time of “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury:

1.      North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury;

2.      South Congregational Church;

3.      The Methodist Church;

4.      The Baptist Church; and

5.      The Free Baptist Church.

All five of those Protestant churches had been holding “union meetings” for about six months prior to “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury. The purpose of the “union meetings” was to bring about a revival in St. Johnsbury.

And here is the second quote: 

“The Gospel Meetings.

The religious meetings held in this place the past week by the committee of young men, were very largely attended, and pervaded by a deep religious feeling. The leaders were Geo. Davis of Burlington, Mr. Cook of Ludlow, Messrs. Remington of Fall River and Moore of Boston. These men were ably seconded by Mr. John Sewell of Norwich, and local workers, both clergy and laymen. The plain, simple and attractive way these men had of presenting the Gospel, won the attention and respect of all, and the hearts of many. The town hall was packed with earnest listeners on Sunday afternoon; over eight hundred crowded the South Church in the evening, and nearly as many met at the North [Congregational] Church on Monday evening. Probably as many as seventy arose for prayers, and a goodly number of these declared that they had already given themselves to the Lord. This included heads of families, young men and women, boys and girls.

A most touching incident occurred in the meeting at the North Church Monday afternoon. William Robinson, a man who, as he expressed it, had ‘walked in sinful channels all his life,’ arose, and in the most penitent and broken manner, told his experience, his hope and his joy. The case of this man is most remarkable. A drinker and fighter, those who know him best have considered him a dangerous character. Since the Avenue House riot last fall, in which he was prominent, he has been in jail. The Spirit of God seems to have visited him in prison, and he is now a new creature. Although under the condemnation of the law, he is free in the liberty whereby Christ makes all free who come unto him. He is the happiest man in town. His prayers and praises have opened the prison doors to him as they did to Paul and Silas at Philippi. Sheriff Preston allows him to attend these meetings, fully believing in his sincerity. It is apparently one of those wonderful exhibitions of the power of the Holy Spirit of which we read sometimes, but which few are permitted to witness.[3]

The meetings which comprised “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury continued over many months following the initial meetings February 6-8, 1875. These meetings were referred to by various sources as the “Gospel meetings.” The leaders/presenters of these meetings fell into four groups: 

1.      Members of the State of Vermont Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association;

2.      Christian laymen from Massachusetts—known as “the Massachusetts brethren”—which was where the statewide “canvasses” had begun several years earlier;

3.      Another visiting helper; and

4.      Local workers helping with the “Gospel meetings.” 

 

The State Committee of the Y. M. C. A. was represented by:

1.      Geo. Davis [= George Evans Davis; Capt. George E. (Geo. E.) Davis] of Burlington, Vermont;[4] and

2.      Rev. S. P. Cook (= Silas Parsons Cook) of Ludlow, Vermont.[5],[6]

The Christian laymen from Massachusetts—known as “the Massachusetts brethren”—were: 

1.      R. K. Remington (Robert Knight Remington) of Fall River, Massachusetts;[7] and

2.      H. M. Moore (= Henry Martyn Moore) of Boston, Massachusetts. [H. M. Moore (a member of the State of Massachusetts committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association beginning in 1871) and lay preacher K. A. Burnell of Illinois launched the Gospel canvasses of the New England states beginning in 1871 in Massachusetts.]

The other visiting helper was Mr. John Sewell of Norwich, Vermont.

And the local workers who helped with the “Gospel Meetings” included both clergy and laymen. (As I mentioned above, the five Protestant churches of St. Johnsbury had been meeting in “union meetings,” and the clergy had been meeting to plan for a revival in St. Johnsbury, for about six months prior to the initial “Gospel Meetings” of “the Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury. At the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum in June 2008, I was able to read the handwritten “Minutes” of the Caledonia County Ministerial Association beginning at least six months before February 6, 1875, and continuing until some time after “the Great Awakening.” Although the notes were fairly clearly written, they were somewhat hard to read in that they were in pencil and more than 125 years old. The “Minutes” spoke about planning for a revival around the beginning of 1875.)

A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob stated in his last major talk: “I had refreshed my memory of the Good Book, and I had had excellent training in that as a youngster.”[8] Dr. Bob spoke about some of that “excellent training” in his personal story in Alcoholics Anonymous, but he put a somewhat negative “spin” on it. He wrote: “From childhood through high school I was more or less forced to go to church, Sunday School and evening service, Monday night Christian Endeavor and sometimes to Wednesday evening prayer meeting.”[9] Our book, Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont helps to balance what Dr. Bob called, on the one hand, his “excellent training in” the Bible “as a youngster”; and called, on the other hand, having been “more or less forced to go to church, . . .”

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[1] Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008), xvi-xvii, 1-7: http://www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml; accessed 8/31/2015.

[2] St. Johnsbury Caledonian (St. Johnsbury, Vt.), Friday, Feb. 12, 1875, page 3; left hand/first column: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84023253/1875-02-12/ed-1/seq-3/; accessed 8/28/2015.

[3] St. Johnsbury Caledonian (St. Johnsbury, Vt.), Friday, Feb. 12, 1875, page 3; left hand/first column: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84023253/1875-02-12/ed-1/seq-3/; accessed 8/28/2015.

[4] Capt. Geo. E. Davis was a Medal of Honor winner during the Civil War. [See: “George E. Davis (Medal of Honor)” in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_E._Davis_(Medal_of_Honor); accessed 8/31/2015]. See also this short biography, which mentions some of his work on the State Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Vermont: “Davis, George Evans”: http://vermontcivilwar.org/get.php?input=1653; accessed 8/31/2015.

[5] On Rev. Silas Parsons (“S. P.”) Cook, see, for example: (1) “Silas Parsons Cook” in N. F. Carter, The Native Ministry of New Hampshire (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Co., 1906), 659-60: http://mcaf.ee/193n4i; accessed 8/31/2015; and (2) Minutes of the Eighty-Second Annual Meeting of the General Convention of Congregational Ministers and Churches of Vermont, Held at Bradford, June, 1877. Fifty-Ninth Annual Report of the Vermont Domestic Missionary Society, and Fifty-Seventh Annual Report of the Vermont Education Society. (Montpelier: J. & J. M. Poland, Steam Book and Job Printers, 1877), 88-89: http://mcaf.ee/1ujeta; accessed 8/31/2015.

[6] Franklin Fairbanks of St. Johnsbury was also a member of the State Committee of the Y. M. C. A. at this time. He was elected to the committee at the state convention of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Vermont held at Norwich, Vermont, November 19-20, 1874. See: The Rutland Daily Globe (Rutland, Vermont), Saturday, November 28, 1874, page 2: http://mcaf.ee/0z7ek6; accessed 8/31/2015.

[7] “Robert Knight Remington” in Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts, Volume 1 (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1912), 173-75: http://mcaf.ee/kvt8cp; accessed 8/31/2015.

[8] The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 11-12.

[9] Alcoholics Anonymous, 4^th ed. (New York City: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), 172.