Description
"History Talk: A Week in the Life of Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, Reimagined." John Demos, Samuel Knight Professor of American History Emeritus at Yale University on the life of a frontier pastor in early America. June 25, 2016, sponsored by the Bidwell House Museum.
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June 25
History Talk: A Week in the Life of Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, Reimagined. John Demos, Samuel Knight Professor of American History Emeritus at Yale University, will explore the life of a frontier pastor in early America, based on what is known of Adonijah Bidwell (1716-1784), the first minister of Tyringham and one of the earliest in the Berkshires, as well as from accounts of other 18th-century New England pastors. Held at Tyringham Union Church, Main Road, Tyringham. 10 a.m.
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Saturday, June 25
Bidwell House Museum
History Talk: A Week in the Life of Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, Reimagined. John Demos, Samuel Knight Professor of American History Emeritus at Yale University on the life of a frontier pastor in early America. $15/$10 for members. At Tyringham Union Church, Main Road, Tyringham. 10 a.m.
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Article:
Bidwell History Talk Featuring Prof. John Demos
On Saturday, June 25th at 10 a.m award-winning historian John Demos will give a talk A Week in the Life of Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, Reimagined, exploring the life of a frontier pastor in early America. His talk is based on what is known about Adonijah Bidwell (1716-1784), the first minister of Tyringham and one of the earliest in the Berkshires, as well as from accounts of other 18th-century New England pastors.
In 1716, the year of Adonijah Bidwell’s birth, there were no English settlers in Tyringham, or anywhere in the Berkshires. It was a wilderness. Hartford, Connecticut Colony, where Adonijah was born, was a real town, as was New Haven, where Adonijah attended college. Yet Adonijah heeded the call to become the minister of a rough frontier settlement at age 34, and lived, preached, farmed, and raised his family here for the last 34 years of his life. He is recorded to have admitted 90 communicants and baptized 378 children and adults in his time as Tyringham’s pastor. 2016 is the 300th anniversary of Adonijah Bidwell’s birth, and the museum is celebrating this anniversary with several special events, including this talk.
Professor Demos’ research has focused on the life of the common people in 17th and 18th century America, be it the settlement at Deerfield, MA, the community of Cornwall, CT, or others. The outline of Adonijah Bidwell’s biography is known, though less about the man himself. In his talk Demos will draw on the details of Bidwell’s life as well as those of fellow clerics to guide us to understanding the role of the spiritual leader of a community in his day.
John Demos is the Samuel Knight Professor of American History Emeritus at Yale University, and a Tyringham resident. He is the author of numerous books, including The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America, and The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic, a 2014 National Book Award nominee.
The Bidwell House Museum History Talks are held at Tyringham Union Church, Main Road, Tyringham at 10 a.m. $15 per person, $10 for members of the museum.
The Bidwell House Museum is located at 100 Art School Road, Monterey, MA. For more information, please call 413-528-6888 or go to www.bidwellhousemuseum.org.
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Barbara Palmer
Executive Director
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The Bidwell House Museum
100 Art School Road, PO Box 537
Monterey, MA 01245
413-528-6888
email: bidwellhouse@gmail.com
www.bidwellhousemuseum.org
A Colonial History Museum
National Register of Historic Places
An authentic experience in lifeways of the Berkshires in the 1750s
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