Newspaper Cutting (Worcester [Massachusetts] Spy) 29/12/1873: 'Reminiscences Of Leicester - No. 19. Rev. Benj. Conklin was ordained Nov. 28, 1763. He was born in Southhold, L.I., in 1732, and graduated at Princeton, N.J., in 1755. He lived single until about thirty-seven years of age, when in 1769 he married Lucretia, daughter of Jonathan Sargent and widow of Dr. Pliny Lawton, by whom he had three children. He lived in a house purchased of his predecessor, from the time of his marriage until he sold it the year previous to his death, in 1798, his wife having died about five years before him. He was a man lively and humorous in conversation, of easy and agreeable manners and social disposition. In his religious views he was not exclusive, and in his political sentiments an ardent and thorough patriot. He was settled at a time when there was great excitement in the country, and a universal discussion upon the science of government, and the absorbing topics of the day could not well be neglected by the religious teachers of the flock, if they were not made prominent subjects in the pulpit. It was fortunate for the happiness and harmony of the town that the pastor and a large majority of the people, comprising almost every man of any influence, were of the same political views, and ready to do all in their power to sustain the measures of the patriots in their contest for liberty. During the stormy times of the revolution many documents emanating from influential men in Leicester went forth to encourage other loyal men in the country, and had no doubt an influence in the promotion of their object. Mr Conklin was independent and bold in his advocacy of the right in the cause of his country, and gave offence by his course to the very few of his parishioners who differed from him. As an illustration both of his liberality in his religious views, as well as his independence, we will venture to repeat an anecdote which has been already related by our historian, but now clothed in the language of a friend in Worcester, to whom we have been indebted for other materials in our sketches. When the second parish in Worcester was organized and the late Dr. Bancroft became its pastor, neighboring ministers and churches, suspicious of his doctrine, turned towards both a decidedly cold shoulder. The exchange of pulpits, a customary expression of fellowship, was refused, and when Dr. Bancroft married a daughter of Judge John Chandler, the knot was tied by the late Hon. Joseph Allen, a magistrate, and not, as was the custom, by a clergyman. The coldness which at the first was chilly enough, became more severe, and spread over a wider surface with no mitigation, for quite an uncomfortable period. Seasons however roll off as well as on, and spring has always followed summer, since the first recorded rainbow was set in the heavens, as a pledge of faith and the emblem of hope. But as in nature so in grace, the stern season of winter never wholly relents, all at one, and the first gleam of mild sunshine broke out as if struggling through the rent of an angry cloud. No astrologer foretold the coming change. In common phrase it happened - that blind solution of events whose connected antecedents are invisible or unobserved - well, it so happened that by illness or absence Dr. Bancroft's pulpit became vacant for a Sabbath, and that the Rev. Mr Conklin was requested to preach in the suspected pulpit, to the not less suspected society. The decision of Mr Conklin was more delicate then, than might now be supposed. Whatever the decision of Mr Conklin may have been, he would naturally dislike to affront his accustomed associates in the ministry, and on the other hand, as unwilling to refuse the gospel to a society who needed it as much as his own. But however he may have hesitated at first, he soon resolved to break the ice half way over, and run for luck the rest, his conscience not misgiving. The experiment was not without hazard. He could not win the smiles of one party except at the cost of a frown from the other, and he soon ascertained by fact what he had wisely suspected in theory, for he was soon rebuked by a brother minister for countenancing heresy by preaching to heretics. Parson Conklin having little hope in controversy when minds are made up, shunned an elaborate defence, saying: "Why, sir, I would preach on Mars Hill if I had a call." The logical inference from the example of Paul at Athens, was too direct to be shunned, and much more likely to be profitable than long hours of earnest altercation. We have now before us a lithograph portrait of Mr Conklin, engraved from a pend and ink sketch drawn by the ready hand of Ralph Earle of this town, the original of which is a creditable specimen of the genius of our local artist. He is represented in full ministerial costume, with well dressed wig, white neckerchief and clerical bib, with a dark colored cloak loosely thrown over his broad shoulders, exposing somewhat his adipose form, and his sober and benignant countenance indicating the peace, calmness and good nature which reigned within. They had three children. Joseph, born in 1770, possessed something of the wild character and unquiet disposition sometimes attributed to ministers' children, and left home when young and nothing was known of him afterwards. Benjamin, born in 1772, spent most of his life in Leicester. He married in 1794 Rebecca, daughter of James Browning of Rutland, an excellent woman from a good family. They had seven children. Lucretia, their eldest, was born in Leicester in 1795, and died young. About 1796 Mr Conklin removed to Templeton, where he purchased a farm and built a house. Here all the rest of his children were born excepting the youngest. Benjamin, born in 1798, married Hannah, daughter of John Woodcock of Leicester, was engaged here several years in the card manufacturing business, and died in 1833 without children. His widow still lives here. Lucretia Sargent, the second daughter, born in 1800, married William Hatch of Leicester, who died recently in Worcester, and she still lives there, having several children. Austin F., born in 1803, married Sophia Hatch, and both are now living in Worcester. They have one daughter, the wife of Edward Sargent, card manufacturer in Leicester and Worcester. George B., the next son, was born in 1805, married in 1834 Susan M. Johnson, and died in Meriden, Conn., in 1864, leaving one daughter. Waldo, born in 1808, was married and had children, and died in Springfield in 1870. Henry, born in 1811, has a family and lives in Worcester. This completes the registry of the children of the second Benjamin Conklin, who was in some respects like his father, being physically of a corpulent tendency, with a quiet, easy and happy disposition. He died in Leicester in 1834, and his wife in 1858, at the advanced aged of eighty-seven. Elizabeth, the only daughter of Rev. Benjamin Conklin, born in 1774, married Wm. S. Harris from Boston, who carried on his trade here as a baker a short time after their marriage, when he removed to Baltimore, where they both died. Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore was the next minister settled over this society. He was a native of Palmer, a graduate of Dartmouth college in 1793, and ordained here in January, 1798. He was a man of strong mind and more than ordinary natural abilities. He had a thorough education, and was careful in the preparation and delivery of all his sermons. In the fall of the same year he purchased of Phinehas Waite the house on the corner of the Oxford road, now owned by Edward Knowles, with fifty-four acres of land, extending on that road as far south as Mr Bond's farm, where he lived during his pastorate of nearly fourteen years. In the ensuing spring he married Phebe, daughter of Thomas Drury, Esq., of Ward, now Auburn, who was an intelligent and accomplished young lady, and made an excellent pastor's wife. They had no children. He was interested in everything that pertained to the cause of education, and was a trustee of the academy for the whole term of his residence here, and taught daily as a preceptor more than a year during the years 1806-7, while he continued at the same time to supply his own pulpit. He was a good teacher as well as minister, being mild, persuasive and agreeable in his manners, and clear and intelligent in his statements. His serious and dignified deportment commanded the veneration of the young, and the respect of all. Having received an appointment in 1811 as professor of languages in Dartmouth college, he asked and received a dismission from a people, who unwillingly gave up one to whom they were strongly attached for what was supposed to be a field of greater usefulness. He closed his ministry in the fall of that year, and we have still, after a lapse of more than sixty years, a distinct recollection of his departure from town, and of the honor we intended to render to one who, though then scarcely in middle life, we considered our venerable minister, as we gave him a parting bow, paraded with our little school fellows on the side of the road to Hanover, as he left us for his new field, accompanied by a goodly number of carriages, filled with more mature citizens, as an escort from the village. He was afterwards president both of Williams and Amherst colleges, and died at Amherst in 1823, at the age of fifty-two years, his wife surviving him until 1857. Although the ministry of Dr. Moore began and ended in Leicester, the most prominent part of his work in life was in other fields, where he attained a name and a history which will place him among the marked men of his time, whose talents and faithful labors have been a blessing to the age in which they lived. D.' Note: The Author 'D' was Joseph Addison DENNY (1804 - 1875).