NEW IPSWICH IS OLD (Part 1)

Pretty Village Among the Hills of New Hampshire.

August 24, 1900

   RECEDED and stimulated by the recent "Old Home Week" celebrations and observances, the 150th anniversary exercises of this town to be held next Tuesday, will take on a zest that should make them a event more memorable than anything that has ever before happened here. As to attendance, it is expected that the presence  in the state of so many of its sons and daughters will contribute to the numbers who are expected here, and for whose entertainment such preparations are being made. 

   The anniversary exercises are to be on two days, Sunday and Tuesday, Different in character, each will have an important and significant place in the record that shall be written of the coming week. The town was a stronghold. of the old orthodoxy of the fathers, and holds to it today, and the anniversary doings would not be complete without a religious side to them. Accordingly, it was not strange that the announcement circulars of the anniversary should be thus introduced: 

"To the early settlers of New Ipswich Sunday was the important and highly honored day of the week. It seems, therefore, eminently fitting that the of our anniversary should include a Sabbath Service."

   This service will be held at 10:50 A. M. In the Congregational Church, where so many families of the town worship, and where their ancestors paid their devotions. The church has no settled Pastor, and so it is that there will be present a large number of out-of-town clergymen to participate in the doings of the forenoon. The Invocation will be by the Rev. W. I. Thompson, a former pastor of the Baptist Church, and now a resident of the town. The singing will be by a mixed choir that has been drilled  by Mrs. Hattie Gates McKown in some of the tunes and words used years ago. There will be no organ used at this service, and the accompanying music will be by an orchestra of six men from Ashby, Mass to do this work, and who play the old aggregation of instruments used in church Choirs many years ago. The musical side of what will surely be an interesting service will be under the direction of Mr. William Willis Clarke of Boston.

    Address will be given by the Rev. Calvin Cutler of Auburndale, the Rev. C.E.P. Bancroft of Andover, Mr. Herbert of Boston and the Rev F, W.  Green of Middletown, Ct. The addresses will be largely of reminiscent character, though Mr. Green has been asked to speak on "The Increasingly intensifying Power of a Christian Ancestry," and for inspiration for such an address he may find ample material here.

   In the town is owned a copy of an original print, made in 1548 in London, of "The First Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus Upon the Newe Testamente". It has be been asked that this be used at the Sunday exercises, and that the selections from the gospels be read from this ancient book. It is a matter of familiar history how these books were ordered chained to the pulpits of the church in England when change in royal succession gave the right of Bible reading to the people. This book was ordered to be placed on every pulpit with every Bible.

   Monday is to be visiting day, and it is hoped and expected that many will be here to renew their friendships of the past and quicken again their old associations.

Congregational Church

James Roger diary entry

September 2^nd 1908 (Wednesday)

Fair,  Cool and cloudy wind west.  David, H. Royce & Whittemore repairing Cemetery roads.  I cut and trimmed several lots.  Got a letter from Jessie saying she had been to Boston seeing Alice off.

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