History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

36 HISTORY OF ISfORTHAMPTON. [1V25.
most honored, respected and influential men in tlie town.
Col. Stoddard also belonged to the Puritan aristocracy.
His father was the well-beloved and venerated minister,
and to the confidence and popularity commanded by his
own talents, were added the inherited dignity and esteem
that descends from father to worthy son. During these
ten years Mr. Stoddard was elected representative seven
times, and Mr. Parsons three.
other coutrover- Tliis, howevcT, was ouly oue among the
sies. Testimony many disscusious that had occurred in the
of Jonathan Ed- . .
,
, ^ r- . i
commuinty, since the first controvers}^ m
^j^rjjg
which Edward Elmore was charged with
having caused a disturbance which created "'a breach or
rent in the town concerning the Lord's dayes meetings."'
Rev. Jonathan Edwards bears the following testimony : —
"There were some mighty contests and controversies among them,
in Mr. Stoddard's day ;
wliich were managed with great heat and vio-
lence : some great quarrels in the Church, wherein Mr. Stoddard, great
as his authority was, knew not what to do with them. In one ecclesias-
tical controversy in Mr. Stoddard's day, wherein the church was divided
into two parties, the heat of spirit was raised to such a degree, that it
came to hard blows. A member of one partj' met the head of the
opposite party, and assaulted him. and beat him immercifully. * *
There has been for forty or fifty years, a sort of settled division of the
people into two parties, somewhat like the Court and country party, in
England, (if I may compare small things with great). There have
been some of the chief men in the town, of chief authority and wealth,
that have been great proprietors of their lands, who have had one party
with them. And the other party, which has commonly been the greatest,
have been of those, who have been jealous of them, apt to envy
them, and afraid of their having too much power and influence in town
and church." ^
History corro bo- While the previous history of the town too
rates the State- plainly Corroborates the general statements
^ards. of Mr. Edwards, no evidence has been discovered
in any way bearing upon the cause
of the bitter contest to which he alludes. One or two con-
troversies crop out as the record advances, and in them all
an evident jealousy between clans or parties is plainly no-
ticeable. A difference of opinion whether upon an ecclesi-
astical or any other question, so ])ronounced as to lead to
1 Dwight's Life of Edwards, pp. 463, 464.