A Preacher Against War
The Rev. Stephen Bemis, 1798, Took His Stand in 1812
THE Reverend Stephen Bemis, whose Bible and family register are preserved by the College that sent him forth in the Class of 1798, was born at Westminster, Mass., September 10, 1774. He was the eighth of the nine children of William Bemis, who was born in Cambridge in 1725 and in 1738 came with his parents to the wilderness on the northern slopes of Mt. Wachusett: the third family to clear a homestead in what was then Narragansett Township No. 2. In measure, his record is typical of the men of Dartmouth who graduated near the close of the 18th century.
He was raised on a stony, subsistence farm by earthy, religious, hard-working parents whose ancestors had been among the first settlers of the Bay Colony. Doubtless he had more than his share of youthful labor, for three of his half-brothers died in childhood and the fourth, Joshua, thirteen years his senior, after army service during most of the Revolution, had married and was settled in Dummerston, Vt., by 1783.
Such book-learning as Stephen had before he tramped to Hanover was acquired during short terms in a district school, home study by the light of a tallow dip, and the help of an understanding country parson. How the idea of going to college came to him, how the venture was financed, and when the decision was made can only be conjectured. By 1794 his father was 69 hard years of age. His younger sister, Annis, had just married the village blacksmith, Joseph Beaman, installed him in her father's house, and begun to raise a family that eventually numbered eleven children. Before Stephen was graduated, William Bemis had deeded to his youngest daughter the dwelling, barns, home lot, and farm of 110 acres - her husband paid the taxes.
Young Bemis probably traveled to Dartmouth over the old drover and stage route that ran from Fitchburg through Ashburnham, New Ipswich, Peterboro, Upper Hillsboro, Washington, and Lempster to the crossings of the Connecticut River below Windsor. Possibly he turned north at Washington Cross Roads, following the upland valleys through Newport and Enfield to Lebanon over cart tracks more in the trace of the present day "Dartmouth Highway" than were the paths followed by the southern New Hampshire and Vermont cattlemen of his time. He journeyed on foot, under pack, the 120 miles from his home to his objective. His four years of hard study, Spartan living, and rough play at Dartmouth, under the inspirational guidance of the few professors in that small college, firmed in the youth those strong convictions, public spirit, and Christian ideals which thereafter marked his life. He graduated in 1798 with a standing and reputation that won him appointment as a tutor for the next year.
During the latter part of 1799 and all of 1800 he studied for the Congregational ministry under the Rev. Joseph Lathrop at West Springfield, Mass. Early in 1801 he was called to the First Church at Harvard, Mass., where he was ordained on June 3, 1801 to succeed the aging Rev. William Emerson. His salary was $460 per annum, plus ten cords of good walnut or oak wood to be cut and piled in his shed each winter. Harvard church was then the center of a widespread parish which included much of today's Fort Devens Reservation, Harvard township, and outlying areas. The people of this region were hard-bitten, independent, free-thinking Yankees. William Bemis, Stephen's father, died at Westminster in November 1801. Late that year Stephen bought of his predecessor, William Emerson, the home and tillage that were thereafter to shelter and sustain his family. (To be sure of his daily bread in those times, a country minister had to farm as well as preach.) Purchase of the large, square parsonage was motivated, in part, by the need of lessening the burdens on his widowed mother, and by previously formulated plans for his own marriage.
The young clergyman was as busy in private as in public life. In the fifteen years between 1802 and 1817 he acquired three successive wives, seven children, and two foster daughters. At Springfield, Mass., on February 13, 1802 he married Sophronia, daughter of Capt. Phineas and Sabina (Wright) Chapin, whom he had squired while he was a theological student. Her immigrant ancestor, Samuel Chapin - memorialized in bronze by St. Gaudens' "The Puritan" — came to Roxbury before 1638, and was a pioneer leader in the Connecticut Valley from 1642 to 1675 as a church elder, deacon, magistrate, legislator, counselor, and partner of the Pynchons in their widespread ventures. Her son, Hon. Stephen Chapin Bemis, was born on November 28, 1802. Sophronia died at Harvard on September 10, 1804, six weeks after the birth of her namesake daughter.
Almost four years after the death of his first wife Stephen undertook a second matrimonial venture. On April 20, 1808 he wedded Susan Chaplin, the 28-year-old daughter of the minister at neighboring Groton. Soon after, he brought back to Harvard his two infants who had been in the care of their maternal grandmother on Chicopee Street. Susan bore him two sons, Daniel Chaplin on May 1, 1809 and William Lawrence on September 21, 1810; but died on October 5, just two weeks after the arrival of her second baby.
His third wife, to whom he was married on December 8, 1811, was born Rejoice Wetherbee in 1780. She was the widow of Dr. Warren Olds, by whom she had two daughters, Clarissa and Melissa, who came with her to live in the Harvard manse. During the next six years she presented her second husband with a son and two more girls. This son, Lothrop, died near the close of his first year, but the other children of Stephen Bemis all lived to maturity. Rejoice survived her husband for 29 years and now rests beside him and her two predecessors in the village churchyard.
True to his indoctrination, Stephen took an active part in town affairs from the beginning of his pastorate. He was a member of the school committee, competing ith local Shakers on Harvard's educational policies; helped foster a lending library; was vocally prominent in town government; and while maintaining the dignity of his calling, encouraged and assisted social gatherings. He was a forceful, eloquent speaker both in and out of the pulpit, thanks to natural talents and his Dartmouth training. An ardent Federalist, in the difficult and threatening days of the Napoleonic era he stood firmly by his convictions. (The footstone on his grave may have been kicked out of plumb during the 1852-1865 controversies between North and South, his eldest son then being a powerfully combative Jeffersonian Democrat.)
By one vote, on June 18, 1812 the Congress had declared war between the United States and Great Britain. The decisive "Aye" for this act was given by a Rhode Islander who had gained his seat in Washington by the slimmest of majorities. A large proportion of New England men opposed hostilities, some because of the nation's unpreparedness, others because they deemed France the greater enemy. On August 20, 1812, from the high pulpit in Harvard church, Stephen Bemis preached against this war, citing chapter and verse to support his arguments on practical, moral, and religious grounds. Time has somewhat confirmed the soundness of his thinking. Then, his sermon flamed bitter controversies in his church; brought him, by a close vote, a resolution of censure at the next town meeting; and after a stormy winter, resulted in submission of his resignation as Harvard's minister on April 9, 1813. A goodly part of the congregation upheld his position and admired his courage. Many of the townsmen of his own and of other religious persuasions decried his stand. After two months of bickering the church accepted his resignation on June 13, with regret, and with commendation for his services as pastor.
For Stephen Bemis the ministry was thereafter an avocation. From time to time he "filled in" at nearby churches, but he devoted most of his time to husbandry, farming his acres, helping to educate the young, working for civic betterment, and engaging in politics without seeking office or private gain. Harvard town was dear to him, and honored him - once the war was over. Characteristic of him was a letter which he sent to his eldest son, then 15, who had gone to work in a Chicopee store. It ends:
". . . Having given you as good an education as I could, and your time, I must leave you under Providence to make your way in the world as well as you can. Be sober, industrious, honest, and frugal. On these virtues your success and your prosperity depend."
These precepts were cherished by Stephen Chapin Bemis. By following them he later became a prominent merchant, inventor, manufacturer, and financier; the war-time mayor of his city, legislator, and honored citizen despite physical and temperamental handicaps.
Reverend Stephen Bemis died at Harvard, November 11, 1828 "at about 22 minutes past 3 in the afternoon, aged 54 years, 2 months, and one day," according to the entry registered in his Bible that is now in the College archives at Baker Library. The foundations of a good life, discovered by him so long ago on Hanover Plain, continue to be the firm, granite base for the aspirations and works of succeeding generations in the Dartmouth fellowship.
