Henry Jones, Reformer

PASTOR HENRY JONES, REFORMER by Peter Dannenberg

By 1810, turbulent social changes challenged old institutions, beliefs, and values. Westward expansion led to more self-reliance. Growing cities, immigration, freeing slaves, and early factories in northern states brought unprecedented changes in personal behavior and culture. Reformers aimed to improve individuals and society.

The Second Great Awakening was a time of religious revivals and new denominations. Churches were moral, educational, and societal leaders. A rift grew between established churches in older, prosperous regions and those on the hardscrabble frontier. Traditional ministers urged obedience to leaders and laws. Newer denominations and liberal preachers wanted widespread changes.

In January 1827, Henry Jones was ordained. He became Cabot’s Congregational pastor, at 75% of full time. His annual

salary was $225, half grain, half money. The salary ended in May 1832. Reverend Jones lived in Cabot for some

years after, while an itinerant preacher. Until 1839, the congregation could not afford a salaried minister.

Henry Jones became a Mason in Waitsfield in 1815. He gave up membership in 1828, convinced some rituals and oaths violated Biblical teachings. Anti-Masonry feared secrecy and elitism of Masons threatened democracy. William Palmer became Vermont’s governor on the anti-Masonic ticket four times, 1831 to 1835. In 1832, Vermont was the only state won by William Wirt, the anti-Masonic candidate for president. Henry Jones condemned Masonry in writings, sermons, and meetings. In 1826, he wrote a pamphlet, "An Exposure of Free-Masonry."

Reformers also deplored alcohol abuse. John M. Fisher wrote about early Cabot, "Cider and whiskey were the staple commodities of the times, and were regarded very much as United States currency in these days. No farmer thought of beginning winter with less than twelve or fifteen barrels of cider, and one or two barrels of whiskey in his cellar. No occasion was perfect without it. It was indispensable at friendly visits, at births, weddings, funerals, raisings, bees, and when the pastor made a call. When the ladies collected at a quilting, every time they rolled the quilt, all must take some toddy. Frequently when this process had been repeated three or four times, the ladies were ready to stop work, tell stories, and have a good jolly time.”

Henry Jones organized Cabot’s first temperance society in 1826. Fisher speculated, “Perhaps whiskey having been used so long as a common beverage, it was thought best not to break off too short on the start; not to stop too sudden, as the reaction might be hurtful. It was not a total abstinence society, but simply required of its members to keep an account of the number of times they drank during the month, and report at the next monthly meeting. This society kept up its organization 5 years.”

The Vermont Society for the Promotion of Temperance started in 1828. Henry Jones became a traveling temperance lecturer. He sold publications, collected donations, and lectured in churches and public places in northern states.

Pay was small, travel on bad roads, and hours long. Listeners wanted information and entertaining long, dramatic, powerful talks. Sometimes, opponents would disrupt talks of reformers with noise, projectiles, and threats. In an 1833 letter, Jones wrote he had little time to study the Bible and learn about the new anti-slavery movement.

Most Vermonters opposed slavery. Vermont’s constitution had the first antislavery clause. In 1819, the Vermont Colonization Society started. Members urged owners to free slaves gradually, for resettlement in Africa. They proposed government compensation for freeing slaves.

Anti-slavery advocates thought slavery must end sooner, without deportation. The Vermont Anti-Slavery Society began in 1834. It was the first state society to call for immediate emancipation. Henry Jones was among the founding Board of Managers.

William Lloyd Garrison was the well-known abolitionist editor of The Liberator. In December 1833, he formed the American Anti-Slavery Society. It used nonviolent protest, made speeches, produced antislavery literature, and boycotted cotton and other products that used slave labor.

On November 15, 1833, Pastor Jones wrote Garrison and co-publisher Isaac Knapp. The letter was hand-carried to Boston by “Mr. (Israel) Cutting, one of our Cabot merchants” with $10 for handbills published in the summer, two books, and a subscription to The Liberator. Jones offered to become a traveling agent for the new national anti-slavery society; he was not hired.

In mid-1834, there were abolitionist societies in Cabot, Danville, Peacham, Walden, Barnet, Ryegate, and 14 other Vermont towns. By the end of 1836, Cabot Anti-Slavery Society had 300 members. In 1837, there were 89 Vermont anti-slavery auxiliaries, with 5,000 members.

Jones read lay preacher William Miller’s 16 articles in a Baptist paper, the Vermont Telegraph. The series began in May 1832. Miller believed the Millennium was near; he criticized established churches. Miller began to attract a following. Jones and Miller corresponded for years about Biblical prophecy and social reform. Jones agreed with much of Miller’s teaching, which launched the Adventist movement, but not Miller's prediction of advent coming in 1843.

Jones combined Millerism, Biblical prophecy, anti-slavery, temperance, and anti-Masonic ideas in lectures, writings, and sermons. Several churches banned his abolitionist talks.

Jones became a Secretary of the First General Conference of Adventists, October 14-16, 1840, in Boston, at Hime’s Chapel. He moved to New York City to be editor of Second Advent Witness, a magazine, in August 1841. He was an Adventist theology author, editor, and speaker. The Reverend Henry Jones died in 1880.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawed slavery in 1865. Other social reform movements improved education and expanded legal rights of women, prisoners, the mentally ill, and the poor.