The new towns of colonial Massachusetts started as theocracies with church and town businesses intertwined. In fact, one of the requirements for the Rochester grant was that “worship should be established within 4 years”. This was clear in Rochester with the 1699 meeting house serving as a place to conduct both church and town business and the setting aside of “Ministry lands”. Indeed, until 1735, all householders were taxed to support the church.
Due to the close connection of the church to the town, ministers held an important place in the town hierarchy and often stayed on as pastors until they died. The Reverends Arnold, Ruggles and Moore were followed by Oliver Cobb who at the age of 29, first came to the area to preach at the 4th Precinct where a meeting house had been built ( today’s Marion General Store) in 1791 to make it easier for parishioners who lived far from Rochester Center to attend church. The 4th Precinct at this time was not a separate church but rather an adjunct of the First Congregational Church in Rochester Center.
In 1799, after Rev. Moore was dismissed as pastor of the church in the center, Rev. Cobb was asked to become the new pastor there. An agreement was made that he would split his time between the main church and the “Harbor Meeting House.” Basically, he alternated Sundays between the two churches and lived in a home halfway between them on what is now Marion Road.
When Rev. Cobb arrived in the area, he was a graduate of Brown University. After graduation, he was offered two possible positions. One was a church in Rehoboth and the other was one in Rochester. In her history of the area, Mary Hall Leonard writes that the new Reverend asked an “Indian” which town he should pick. As the anecdote goes,” The Indian, Yankee-like, replied with a question, ” What are you going to preach for? If you are going to preach for money, go where the most money is; if you are going to preach for souls, go where the most devil is.” As we know Cobb chose Rochester.
Cobb’s ministry was harmonious and prosperous, adding almost 200 new parishioners to the church rolls. Along the way, he earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Brown. He worked to preserve the records and history of the church in Rochester and continued for many years to preach in both the 1st and 4th precincts until 1827 when it was decided to separate them. At that time, he continued as full pastor of what was now called the South Church, while Rev. Jonatan Bigelow became leader of the First Congregational Church.
In 1837, Dr. Oliver Cobb preached the last sermon in the 1811 meeting house where he had presided for 28 years. After his sermon, the old building was torn down, and the church moved into its new home. Cobb continued to work as South Church pastor until his death in 1849. He is buried in Marion’s Evergreen Cemetery.
By Connie Eshbach