MAGLEHubbard

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EBENEZER HUBBARD 1783-1858

BIOGRAPHY

From Proceedings, Page 1873-238:

REV. EBENEZER HUBBARD, MIDDLETON. Unitarian, 1821.

REV. EBENEZER HUBBARD died near Nashville, Tenn., 2 September, 1858, aged 74. He was son of Rev. Ebenezer (II.C. 1777) and Abigail (Glover) Hubbard, and was born in Marblehead, Mass., 12 November, 1783. His father was born in Concord, Mass., 22 May, 1758, was ordained at Marblehead, 1 January, 1783, and died December 15, 1800, aged 42. His mother was daughter of Col. Jonathan Glover, of Marblehead. Mr. Hubbard was fitted for college at the public classical school or academy in Marblehead. After leaving' college he studied divinity with Rev. Timothy Flint, of Lunenburg, Mass. (H.C. 1800), who married his sister Abigail. He was ordained pastor of the Second Church in Newbury, Mass., 11 May, 1809. This pastoral relation was dissolved 16 October, 1810; and he was installed over the church in Middleton, Mass., Nov. 27, 1816; resigned his charge 29 April, 1828; was installed at Lunenburg 10 December, 1828. He was always a Trinitarian, as he declared, and, as he called himself, a moderate Calvinist; but was very liberal in his feelings towards Unitarians, and would not infrequently exchange with clergymen of that denomination. In consequence of this a most unrighteous attempt was made, by some of the more rigid Orthodox, to prevent his settlement at Lunenburg, by circulating reports injurious to his moral character. They did not, however, succeed in their plot.

The following extract from an article in the Christian Examiner, for March, 1831, gives a history of this affair: —

"Rev. Mr. Hubbard, a minister of acknowledged Orthodox sentiments, and late pastor of the church in Middleton, was invited to a resettlement in Lunenburg. It was generally known to his ministerial brethren that he was in the practice of exchanging with Unitarians. This circumstance alone induced some Orthodox preachers, in the vicinity of Lunenburg, to make great exertions to prevent his installation. They went to Andover, and earnestly solicited from the Orthodox ministers, in the neighborhood of Middleton, some information derogatory to the character of Mr. Hubbard. False and slanderous reports were invented by an individual in Middleton, and communicated to an Orthodox minister in Danvers, and conveyed by him to the principal agent in this unrighteous work. Rev. Mr. Payson, of Leominster, having obtained the desired misrepresentations, went into Lunenburg, communicated them to an influential family, and requested them to put them in circulation, and conceal the name of the informer. He affirmed that Mr. Hubbard was a bad man, brought up his children to swear, and would prove a curse to the society if they retained him as their pastor. Such reports threw the parish into consternation, and reached the ears of the pastor-elect. He proceeded immediately to the source of the evil, and eventually dragged to light the individuals concerned. By the terrors of the civil law he compelled them to confess their wickedness and agency in the base understanding."

Mr. Hubbard continued pastor of the church in Lunenburg until 20 November, 1833, when his connection with the society was dissolved. He studied medicine, but never practised regularly, except, perhaps, in Boxford, or, rather, in Lunenburg, while he was pastor there. In June, 1838, he removed to the West, and taught school for a while in Trenton, Tenn.; and afterwards in Paris, Tenn. In 1843 or 1844 he removed to Fulton County, Ky., and settled on a farm in Hickman, which a son, dying, left him, and which he called Clergyman's Retreat. For some years he pursued the farming business, overseeing it, and attending to his gardens; while in his leisure hours he read books and wrote sermons, preaching sometimes, but having no charge. He liked the investigation of literary and scientific subjects. He gradually, for three or four years before his death, became irritable and maniacal under a disease of the brain (probably softening), until, in the spring of 1858, his mind was completely gone, so that he did not know his own wife and children; and, becoming very furious, his sons took him, in June, 1858, to the State asylum for the insane, six miles out of Nashville, Tenn., — a fine institution, where he died, not having had, during his stay there, one lucid moment.

Mr. Hubbard married, 10 June, 1808, Charlotte, daughter of Major Joseph Swazey, of Ipswich, Mass. They had nine children, six sons and three daughters, of whom three sons and two daughters are living. His wife died 30 October, 1858, in the seventy-fifth year of her age, having survived her husband not quite two months. The remains of Mr. Hubbard were conveyed to Hickman, and deposited in the family cemetery, with his wife's, at " Clergyman's Retreat," owned by his son Charles.
— Necrology of Alumni of Harvard College. By Joseph Palmer.


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