Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

[323] and elsewhere, established a Sabbath-school, and subsequently made arrangements ‘to have preaching one evening in a week, and to this end permission was asked to occupy one of the rooms in the Putnam School-house.’ In 1827 a meeting-house was erected on the northeasterly corner of Cambridge and Fourth streets, which was dedicated on the tenth of October in that year. This house was of wood, 66 feet in length, 46 feet in breadth, with a steeple about 100 feet in height, and cost, with its bell and furniture, about nine thousand dollars; it was burned, with all its contents, April 14, 1837. With commendable spirit, the society erected a new house on the same spot, of brick, 70 feet in length, 54 feet in breadth, with a convenient vestry in the basement, which was dedicated Jan. 11, 1838. The church was formed Sept. 3, 1827, which was publicly recognized by a council convened for that purpose four days afterwards. The first pastor of the church was Rev. John E. Weston, who was ordained Oct. 10, 1827, having preached to the society for several months previously. He was a graduate of the Newton Theological Institution, and was a faithful minister of the church. He resigned April 4, 1831, and was invited to take charge of the Baptist Church in Nashua, N. H.; but ‘in the month of July in the same year’ he was unfortunately drowned at Wilmington, Mass. Rev. Jonathan Aldrich, B. U. 1826, a graduate of Newton Theological Institution, who had previously been pastor of a church in Beverly, entered upon his labors here June 2, 1833, resigned June 19, 1835, and took charge of the First Baptist Church in Worcester. Rev. Bela Jacobs, formerly pastor of the First Baptist Church in Cambridge, was installed here Aug. 23, 1835. His pastorate had a tragical termination on the morning of May 22, 1836, when, as he was about to leave his carriage, at the door of the meeting-house, his horse suddenly started, ran a few rods, dashed the carriage against the Univeralist Church, ‘at the same time throwing him against the corner with such force as to fracture his skull;’ he survived about an hour, and entered into rest. Mr. Jacobs had resided in Cambridge eighteen years, and was universally respected and beloved. His death was sincerely lamented, not only by the people of his charge, but by the whole community. Rev. Nathaniel Hervey, a graduate of Newton Theological Institution, who had been settled at Marblehead, was installed Sept. 18, 1836, and closed his ministry here Sept. 1, 1839. He was afterwards settled for a short time at Andover, and soon afterwards died, of consumption, at Worcester. Rev.