198 THE IKFLUEKCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 



the entire population, save the very old and the very- 

 young, the sick and their attendants, were found in the 

 church every Sabbath. In 1735, during the pastorate of 

 Jonathan Edwards, over 600, out of a population of 

 1,100, were members of the church. For seven genera- 

 tions the impress given by the early settlers has re- 

 mained. Their influence upon the community, and that 

 of the community. upon the state and the nation, may be, 

 in some measure, estimated from the following record. i 

 Among the natives and residents of the town are about 

 354 college graduates, besides fifty-six graduates of other 

 institutions, one hundred and fourteen ministers, eighty- 

 four ministers' wives, ten missionaries, twenty-five 

 judges, about one hundred and two lawyers, ninety-five 

 physicians; one hundred and one educators, including 

 seven college presidents and thirty professors, twenty- 

 four editors, six historians, and twenty-four authors, 

 among whom are George Bancroft, John Lothrop Mot- 

 ley, Professor W. D. Whitney, and J. G. Holland; 

 thirty-eight officers of state, among them two governors, 

 two secretaries of the Commonwealth, seven senators, 

 and eighteen representatives ; twenty-one army officers, 

 including six colonels and two generals; twenty-eight 

 officers of the United States, among them a Secretary of 

 the Navy, two Foreign Ministers, a Treasurer of the 

 United States, five senators, eight members of Congress, 

 and one President. 



If a community produces or fails to produce good citi- 

 zens and able men, the records of the founders will 

 rarely fail to afford an explanation, for the influence of 

 the early settlers continues operative until their descend- 

 ants are displaced by some other stock. It is true the 

 glory is departing from many a New England village, 

 because men, alien in blood, in religion, and in civiliza- 

 tion, are taking possession of homes in which were once 

 reared the descendants of the Pilgrims. But the fact 

 that the character of New England is undergoing im- 



1 Northampton Antiquities, by Rev. Solomon Clark. 



