BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
Hosea Ballou was born, April 30th, 1771, in the town of Richmond, New
Hampshire, a small village situated in the county of Cheshire, in the
southern part of the State; at that time little more than an uncleared
wilderness. The site of his birth-place is now a most attractive and
lovely valley, scooped out from the rough hills and mountains of the
Granite State, and known as Ballou's Dale; surrounded by the most
romantic scenery, the beauties of which he used to dwell upon in after
years, and to sing their praise in verse. The neighboring country is of
a bold and rugged character, and is to this day but thinly settled. It
was here that he first drew breath in an humble cottage-home among the
hills.
The influence of nature in the formation of character has been much
insisted on by metaphysicians, and not without ample reason. The
qualities of men are found to assimilate very closely to the
characteristics of the country they inhabit. Thus the mountaineer is
bold, rugged, hardy, independent, and fond of liberty. In Europe,
surrounded on every hand by despotism, Alpine Switzerland has preserved
its political independence for ages. But especially is the power of
natural scenery witnessed in the nurture of deep religious feeling.
"The groves were God's first temples."
The first prayer uttered by man was breathed to his Creator in a garden,
among the olive trees of Eden. The disciples of our Saviour listened to
their Lord in the deep wilderness, in the awful solitude of rugged
mountains. In the heart of mighty forests and by the shores of
ever-rushing rivers, the littleness of man, contrasting with the
grandeur of creation, speaks to his awakened soul of the omnipotence and
goodness of God. Where men are banded together in great cities, in the
midst of splendors and triumphs of art, they are apt to feel a pride and
self-reliance which abandon them in the face of nature. Apart from the
frequent spectacle of man's handiwork, the dweller in the country learns
how all human skill is impotent to imitate the smallest feature in the
great work of creation; to create the lightest blade of grass that bends
in the summer breeze; to fabricate even the minutest grain of sand that
sparkles by the river shore. Then, as he lifts his eyes from earth to
heaven, and beholds at night the starry host above him wheeling
unerringly upon their appointed courses, his mind cannot but
acknowledge the existence of God, and the immeasurable greatness of his
attributes.
It will be seen, in the course of this narrative, that the influences we
have alluded to must have produced a powerful effect upon a mind
constituted like that of the subject of this biography.
In relation to the genealogy of the family, we have it in detail as far
back, on the paternal side, as his great-great-grandfather, Matteaurian
Ballou,--so the name was spelled by him,--who came from England, though
a Frenchman by descent, about the year 1640. He occupied a portion of a
royal grant of land, about that time purchased from the Narraganset
tribe of Indians, by the agent of the crown. This tract was situated in
the present State of Rhode Island, where descendants of the family still
reside. This Matteaurian Ballou's oldest son was named John, whose
second son was named Matteaurian, who, also, had a son named
Matteaurian, who in turn had eleven children,--six sons and five
daughters. The youngest of the family was named Hosea, the subject of
these memoirs.
His father, Rev. Maturin Ballou, was remarkable for his unostentatious
manner, his forgiving spirit and meekness, and the strict consistency of
a life devoted, as he truly believed, to the service and glory of his
Divine Master. He remained a highly respected and influential member of
the Baptist church until the time of his death, at the age of eighty-two
years. When his son differed from him so materially in faith, though it
sorely grieved the parent's heart, it never for one moment influenced
him in his affection for his child. His conduct towards him was
uniformly kind and solicitous, as was also the son's regard for his
father of the most loving and respectful character. Whenever referring
to his father, the subject of this biography never failed to do so with
that respect and honor for his memory that was ever cherished by him,
and which formed a beautiful trait of his character.
In this connection it may not be inappropriate nor uninteresting to say
a few words concerning the brothers and sisters of Hosea, the youngest
member of the family. Benjamin, the oldest, was a man of strict
integrity, and possessed a penetrating and powerful intellect. For some
years the power of early influences and associations moulded his life,
and he preached the Baptist religion, but was subsequently converted to
Universalism, by his younger brother, Hosea, and lived and died in its
faith, continuing to the good old age of eighty-two years. This was the
grandfather of Rev. Dr. Ballou, of Medford, Mass.; Rev. William S.
Ballou, of Strafford, Vt., and Rev. Levi Ballou, of Orange, Mass.
Maturin was the second son, who was also a Baptist minister, of strict
morality and honorable career, but who died at the early age of
thirty-five years. In his manuscript, Mr. Ballou says, relative to this
brother: "He grew very liberal in his sentiments towards the last of his
labors, and was one of the most loving and devout Christians that I ever
knew." David was the third son, and he also preached the Baptist faith,
but, like the eldest brother, was ere long persuaded of the truth of the
doctrine of universal salvation, which he preached for many years,
possessing a strong and well balanced mind, and powerful argumentative
abilities. He died at the age of eighty-two. This was the father of Rev.
Moses Ballou, of Bridgeport, Ct. The fourth son was named Nathan, a man
of remarkable mental and physical strength, who gave his attention
mainly to agricultural pursuits, and who lived to be nearly eighty years
of age. This was the grandfather of the present Rev. Russel A. Ballou,
of West Bridgewater, Mass. Stephen was the fifth son and combining many
of the best qualities of his elder brothers, and possessing a most
upright and conscientious disposition, was yet remarkable for the
endowment of a large degree of native wit and good humor. He also
devoted himself to agriculture, and lived to nearly the age of seventy.
All of these brothers were possessed of a handsome competency, realized
by their own economy and industry. The daughters were variously
espoused, and lived, all but one, who died at the age of twenty, to be
venerable and honored in years, and with a numerous offspring.
On the maternal side, these children were descended from Lydia Harris,
daughter of Richard Harris, who, like his ancestors, was a Quaker. His
forefathers came to this country to escape the persecution of the
seventeenth century in England, when the infatuated and tyrannical
Charles was oppressing his subjects by restricting the freedom of
industry, and billeting soldiers upon the people in times of peace; when
the private papers of citizens were searched on mere suspicion, and when
the bigoted Laud ruled with as high a hand and reckless a purpose in the
church, as his royal master did in the state. Citizens claiming the
right of freely uttering what they honestly believed to be true, on the
subject of religion, were fined, whipped, and imprisoned. Ministers and
educated citizens were branded on the forehead, their noses slit, and
their ears cropped, for dissenting from Popish rites and ceremonies. To
escape such intolerable persecution, Quakers crossed the ocean. But,
alas! persecution followed them even in the wilds of America.
Individuals who had left home, friends, country and all, to gain the
privilege of worshipping the Almighty after the dictates of their own
consciences, did not hesitate to deny others that privilege for which
they had themselves sacrificed so much, simply because they differed
from them in form of faith.
We should not omit to mention in this place the remarkable degree of
affection that ever actuated the subject of this biography towards each
and all of the members of his father's extensive family; and this
feeling was reciprocal too; especially have we personally observed this
on the part of the brothers, whom he frequently visited, through the
entire period of their lives. Much older than himself, as far back as
our memory of them extends they were venerable and grey-haired men, and
treated Hosea more like a son than a brother. Their meetings together,
from time to time, were reunions of great satisfaction and happiness.
Fully admitting his superior scriptural knowledge and judgment, they
delighted to converse upon the theme of religion, and mutually to
express the strength of their faith and the joy they found in believing.
It was this younger brother who converted them to the belief of God's
impartial and free grace, and they died at last with their minds freed
from every doubt as it regarded the subject. One or two of these
brothers had believed what was called Universalism quite as early as had
Hosea, but they had believed it as it was then taught on the old
Calvinistic principle, which made it in reality anything but
Universalism. It was from this ill-defined platform, this faith of
inconsistencies, that Hosea brought their minds to embrace that creed
which is now acknowledged as the doctrine of the Universalist
denomination. When he spoke to them and of them, it was with that tender
and affectionate regard with which his heart was ever filled to
overflowing.
I have taken some pains to state the foregoing facts of genealogy thus
carefully, merely for the sake of completeness, and not for the purpose
of establishing the fact that the family is "an old one." The idea that
to be able to trace back one's pedigree any great length of time,
imparts any degree of merit or distinction in itself, is a palpable
absurdity, inasmuch as the further back we refer ourselves in our
origin, the more nearly do we approximate to the same ancestry with the
veriest serf in the world. Sir Thomas Overbury said of a man who
boasted of his ancestry, that he was like a potato plant,--the best
thing belonging to him was under ground! Mr. Ballou was no pensioner
upon the dead. The laurels that surrounded the brow of his riper years
were self-earned, and worthy of emulation.