Joel Manning

500. JOEL7 MANNING (Saml.,6 Saml.,» John,4 Saml.,3 Wm.,2 Wm.1) b. 1764, Aug. 31, at Townsend, Mass. He was residing at Lunenburg in 1788, and at Townsend in the early spring of 1789, but in the latter year he made the journey through the almost unbroken wilderness to Andover, Vt., carrying all of his personal effects in an ox-cart. In Andover he and his brother Samuel had purchased laud the previous year, a total of 200 acres, which lay on East Hill. This land they divided in 1795, and he became sole owner of Lot 14 in the 3d range, which was originally bought of Samuel Hayward, of New Ipswich, N. H., for £35. Joel had learned the trade of a cooper in early life, and in Andover cultivated his farm, but a broader field of usefulness was before him. Andover was then in its infancy, and without a regular church or pastor. The preaching of Elder Aaron Leland, in the adjoining town of Chester, made Mr. Manning a firm Baptist, and when a church of that faith was established in Andover, in 1803, he was one of its founders, and was soon after elected a deacon. He began to preach; was for a time a missionary to Canada, but his future lay in Andover. There, 1806, Oct. 2, he was ordained pastor of the church, a position which he filled almost to the end of his life. It lay with him to build up the young church, and he succeeded so well that it has always remained the leading religious body of the town. "He was," says a biographical article, "a Calvinist of the straightest order, as firm and immovable in his convictions as the rocks which surrounded his mountain home, and honest enough to preach the doctrines of his creed is their most positive sense." He possessed an active temperament, strong will and great energy, and, as no cause ever lay dormant in which he was concerned, affairs of the church under his guiding hand received attention as thorough as it was conscientious. As a preacher he was earnest, logical and effective, as well as a strict disciplinarian; as a man he was straightforward, sincere and a good citizen, and in this dual capacity he exercised an influence upon the minds of his townspeople second to that of no one of his day. He was a captain in the regiment to which the Andover militia belonged, and it is said that his prayers on the muster-field " had never been surpassed for stirring eloquence and patriotism." He was a strong Anti-Mason, an Abolitionist, and a life-member of the Colonization Society founded by Henry Clay. He published a book in support of the tenets of Calvinism, of which the title has not been learned. He was known as " Elder" Manning, and by that name will long be remembered in the town of his adoption. He was elected selectman 1801,'02; treasurer 1804, '05; petit juryman, 1793 and six years after; and representative to the Legislature, 1812. After retiring from the pulpit he went to reside with his youngest son in the neighboring town of Ludlow. He m. at Lunenburg, Mass., 1791, Feb. 17, Vashti Bradstreet, b. 1761, July 2, at Lunenburg; d. 1846, May 15, at Ludlow. Her ancestry was Samuel4 and Dorcas (Spafford), her parents, of Lunenburg; Capt. Jonathan3 and Sarah (Wheeler), of Rowley and Lunenburg; Capt. Moses2 and Sarah (Platts), of Rowley, and Humphrey1 and Bridget Bradstreet. The latter, the American founders of the family, came from Ipswich, Eng., in 1634, in the ship Elizabeth, and settled in Ipswich, Mass. Rev. Joel Manning d. 1841, Mch. 5, at Ludlow. He and his wife are buried in Andover, in the East Hill Cemetery. Ch., b. at Andover.