USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > A history of Norway, Maine : from the earliest settlement to the close of the year 1922 > Part 13
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REV. REUBEN MILLNER.
Reuben Millner, born in Yorkshire, England, April 11, 1780, was undoubtedly one of the best pastors the Norway society has ever had. He came here in 1838, and his pastoral labors extended over a period of sixteen years. In 1840 there was a revival. The total membership rose to 50, the largest it ever had. He died in 1850. He was twice married. His first wife was a Nova Scotia lady; his second, Fanny Hillman of Martha's Vineyard, who had one child by him, Charles G. Millner, who settled in New York.
In 1889, a new Baptist church was erected on Cottage Street in the village. Several prominent citizens who were not members of the society, among whom was the author, generously assisted in erect- ing the pretty little meeting-house. The pastor from the South Paris society conducted the Sunday services. Since then the society has prospered. The membership which in 1884, when the historian of the Centennial History thought the society in process of extinction, being then only nine, has been increased.
REV. EDWARD S. COTTON.
Edward S. Cotton was settled over the society in 1901. He was an able preacher, a learned Biblical scholar and an excellent citizen. He not only had the confidence and love of the members of his society, but the respect of all classes in the community. His wife was also a zealous worker, both in the society and in such organizations as the W. C. T. U. and Ladies' Aid societies. Both were very popular here. Mr. Cotton's pastoral labors closed in Norway in 1908. He died in a few years after he went away.
THE METHODISTS.
The Pingrees who settled in the northwestern part of the town, appear to have been zealous Methodists. The first conference of the society in Norway was held in 1819, at the house of Stephen Pingree, at which his youngest son, William, born in 1792, was licensed to preach. He married Eleanor, daughter of Joel Stevens.
Benjamin Stevens, son of Jonas, who had removed to Otisfield, was licensed to exhort in 1818 and in 1823. He married Susan Saw-
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REV. B. C. WENTWORTH
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yer. Quarterly conferences were frequently held in Norway after 1820.
William Yates of Greenwood, a farmer, was licensed as an ex- horter and later as a preacher, in his and the neighboring towns. He probably was the same one of that name who was a settler in Norway in 1818. His service in the denomination was so long that he became known as "Father Yates." Another preacher of that faith in Greenwood, and surrounding towns, whose labors continued through such a long period as to merit being called "Father" was Elder Edward Whittle.
A meeting-house was built in the village about 1837, and the next year the chapel in the French neighborhood at the four corners which gave its name to the little hamlet that grew up around the meeting- house and the school-house. A parsonage was subsequently built at Noble's Corner. The meeting-house of the Methodists in the village was after some years acquired by the Congregationalists.
The association in the village having lapsed, a class was formed in 1876-Rev. John B. Lapham, the pastor of the society at South Paris, taking charge of it. During the pastorate of Rev. Fred C. Rogers, there was a great revival in South Paris and Norway, and in a short period the Norway village Methodists were strong enough to maintain preaching at home, and build a place of worship. The church edifice was constructed on the corner of Beal and Lynn streets in 1880, near which a parsonage was afterwards built. The society is now (1922) in a very prosperous condition, as much so in fact, as any of the other denominations.
Rev. Mr. Rogers was undoubtedly the ablest preacher and organ- izer the society here has ever had. He was a fine pulpit orator and was very popular with his parishioners and the people who knew him. Among other prominent ministers of the denomination were Rev. O. H. Pillsbury, Rev. Mr. Smith, Rev. Mr. Nichols and Rev. B. C. Wentworth. Mr. Wentworth took an active part in all reform movements and for sustaining the Maine Prohibitory Law. Every Methodist minister here has been a strong advocate of prohibition.
THE EPISCOPALIANS. CHRIST CHURCH (EPISCOPAL).
Services were begun in Norway during the spring and summer of 1896 when the Very Rev. Henry Morton Sills, D.D., Dean of St. Luke's Cathedral in Portland, visited Norway and baptized five per- sons in the Methodist church. In April, The Rt. Rev. Henry Adams Neely, Bishop of Maine, made his first visitation, and confirmed seven persons. In May, 1896, The Rev. Marcus H. Carroll, then recently graduated from the Gen. Theological Seminary and ordained to the deaconate in Saint George's church, New York, was sent by the Bishop to take charge of the work of the Episcopal Church in Norway. The services were at first held in Ryerson Hall. The following year steps were taken for the building of a church. The minister-in-charge was assisted by the Rev. Hudson Sawyer of Auburn, in raising the neces- sary funds, a lot secured on Paris street at the corner of Green, at a
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cost of $400; in the course of the succeeding fall and winter the church was completed, at an expense of $2,000. The architectural plans were the gift of Mr. Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, of the firm of Cram, Wentworth and Goodhue, Boston-a personal friend of the Rev. Mr. Carroll. The lumber for the frame of the church was donated by Wilson Brothers, who at that time were engaged upon the project (later abandoned) of building a street railroad from Norway to Waterford. The Altar was given by a church woman of Philadelphia; the altar hangings by the Massachusetts Altar So- ciety, and the vessels and linen for the Holy Communion by other friends of the mission. The Rev. Charles L. Hutchins, D.D., of Con- cord, Mass., donated copies of his musical edition of the Hymnal for the use of the Choir. The organ and pews were the gift of St. Luke's Cathedral in Portland. Unfortunately, the early records of the Mis- sion having disappeared, it is impossible to give exact data of many interesting events. The church was consecrated in February, 1898. Bishop Neely was the consecrator, and was assisted by visiting clergy from various parts of the Diocese of Maine, among whom were Dean Sills of the Cathedral, the Rev. Charles Ogden of Portland, the Rev. R. W. Plant of Gardiner, the Rev. Hudson Sawyer of Auburn, the Rev. Ivan C. Fortin of Lewiston, and the minister in charge.
In August, 1898, Mr. Carroll, who had been recently married to Miss Octavia Bickford of Norway, resigned his charge and was ap- pointed minister of Trinity Chapel, Woodfords.
Since the year 1898, Christ Church has had no settled minister. Services have been held at intervals during the summer months. At one time for two or three years, Archdeacon Seymour had charge of the mission. Services were quite regular during his charge, but he was not a resident.
In spite of all drawbacks from the infrequency of the services a little band of faithful and devoted people have labored steadily for the good of the Mission, preserving its organization and contributing to its support.
THE CATHOLICS.
Until the year 1893, the Catholics of Norway and vicinity were visited at irregular intervals by priests from Portland and Lewiston. In April of that year, Rev. Fr. M. D. Summa, of the Dominican Fathers of Lewiston, gathered the Catholics of the two towns at the home of John J. Emely in South Paris, and arranged to have mass said there once each month. This was continued until August, 1897, when a chapel, newly erected on Alpine street, was dedicated by Very Rev. Michael C. O'Brien, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Maine. In this church mass was said once or twice each month for several years.
In the year 1900 the Catholics of Norway and vicinity were put under the care of the pastor of Yarmouth, at that time Rev. James A. Flynn. Some years later the sanctuary of the chapel having been de- stroyed by fire, the building was removed to the corner of Pleasant and Charles streets, near the Fair Grounds, and remodeled.
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REV. FATHER JAMES E. REDDEN RECTOR ST. CATHERINE CHURCH
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While under the charge of Rev. Joseph D. Quinn, Norway and its mission were separated from Yarmouth and Rev. Joseph Drolet was sent here as resident pastor. Two years later the territory was again attached to Yarmouth until a residence on Paris street in Norway was purchased and the Rev. Philip J. Boivin came here.
Called away by his duties as chaplain in the U. S. Army, Father Boivin was followed by Rev. Charles J. Cassidy, who, because of his ill health, gave place to the present rector, Rev. James E. Redden. The society is now in a flourishing condition and the services at its little church are as well if not better attended than any of our religious denominations. It is very fortunate in having so able and popular a pastor as Father Redden. He is not only a good pastor to his people, but a good man and a good citizen.
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CHAPTER XXII.
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL TEACHERS
Side by side, the church and the school-house, New England in- stitutions, have come down to us from the earliest times. Harvard University, the oldest educational institution in the United States, was founded in 1636-six years after Governor John Winthrop came with his colony and settled in the vicinity of Boston.
The leaders of the Pilgrims, Elder William Brewster, Governor William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Samuel Fuller, Robert Cushman, William Mullens and John Carver, were educated men who knew the value of education. While in Holland the Pilgrims,-the fathers and mothers-largely probably the latter-taught their own children at home. As soon as they were well settled in the New World they undoubtedly established schools. For many years after their settle- ment at Plymouth, their records were very meager, but we find in
PROF. OZIAS WHITMAN
MRS. IZAH T. WHITMAN
1635 an order of the General Court that a certain orphan minor with his mother's consent, should be put out to a woman "to keep him at school two years." This shows that the Pilgrims had established schools at that time and probably they had been in operation for many years.
When the first settlers came to Norway they brought with them the customs and ideas of citizenship of the well-established communi- ties in which they had lived. They regarded the education of their children next to being able to provide their families with subsistence. We accordingly find them early contributing of their slender means for their children to attend private schools. The first one we have any mention of, was that taught by Mrs. Susan (Burns) Everett, while her husband, Peter Everett, lived near Norway Center about the summer of 1790-and after the United States census for that year was taken. It was taught in the Everett house. Abigail Symonds, from Bridgton, a sister of the wife of Lemuel Shedd, was the second
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GRADUATING CLASS OF 1890, NORWAY HIGH SCHOOL
STANDING, LEFT TO RIGHT : GEORGIA BRETT, CORA BELLE SHEDD, ROBERT FULLER, FREELAND HOWE, JR.
ANNIE YOUNG, WINNIE FOSTER, FRANK T. BARTLETT, MABEL TRAFTON, VERNE M. WHITMAN, LILLIE ANDREWS.
. ONILLIS
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female teacher. She taught in the summer-perhaps in 1792-her school being in Jonathan Cummings' new barn. The next winter Job Eastman, who had married a sister of the proprietor of the Cum- mings tract, and moved to the Cummings place where he lived for several years, taught the "first man's school" in what is now the town of Norway. He taught winters for several years thereafter in the first school-house, built in 1794, on the Amos Hobbs lot. It ap- pears that Miss Symonds taught the summer terms of the schools in the liew school-house, and probably for a number of years, after her first term. We would like to know what was her subsequent history, but nothing further relating to her has come down to us.
The school-house in the Pike's Hill district, where there was a large number of Parsonses, Milletts and Pikes, was built about 1800; the one in the village on the site of the upper primary, in 1805; in the Jones district in 1806; at Fuller's Corner in 1807, and the same year the one on the ridge east of Nathaniel Bennett's.
David Noyes, a brother of Ward Noyes-elsewhere mentioned- came to Norway in 1804. He was then a little more than fifteen years old. He soon commenced teaching, which he followed both win- ier and summer till 1815, when he retired from school teaching and engaged in farming, surveying, conveyancing, and afterwards in tav- ern keeping. At first he taught in the rural schools, but afterwards in the village-his summer terms being private schools. In 1816 the first school-houe built in town was destroyed by fire, but the next year it was rebuilt.
Rev. Noah Cressey, pastor of the Congregational Church society during a part of this period,-he came in 1806,-had supervision of the town schools. He also taught both in the town schools and took pri- vate pupils from this and other towns. The following taken from David Noyes' history is the best representation of the educational conditions in Norway at that time, and is worthy of reproduction here: "Previous to his (Mr. Cressey's) coming into town, our schools and all educational affairs, were at a low ebb. Our school-teachers were picked up wherever they could be found, and many of them were very limited in their literary acquirements. The first settlers had found it hard to get along and support their families and erect com- fortable buildings, and in most cases were unable to incur much ex- pense in educating their children, although they felt anxious to do all in their power, still there seemed to be something wanting to pro- duce the desired effect. But Mr. Cressey seemed to be instrumental, under Providence, in greatly improving affairs, in regard to education. He went into our town schools as a teacher, winter after winter, five and a half days a week, and wrote his two sermons in the evenings and on Saturday afternoons. As soon as he moved into his house he took many scholars there and instructed them in all the different branches of education, usually taught in our best academies, and par- ticularly such branches as were necessary to fit them for teachers. It was but a few years after he came among us before we had good teachers of our own, to instruct all our own schools and as many more to send into the adjoining towns. He thus gave a strong and lasting impulse to education, the effects of which were felt for many years and in some degree to the present day. He visited all of our schools
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GRADUATING CLASS OF 1896, NORWAY HIGH SCHOOL STANDING, LEFT TO RIGHT : GRACE HOLDEN, ALICE ROUNDS, LOUISE BRADBURY, LULU PACKARD, AGNES ROUNDS, AMBROSE WARREN SITTING : VICTOR M. WHITMAN, MAE HOLD OLDEN, MILDRED BISBEE, HARRY NEVERS
HISTORY OF NORWAY
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with a fatherly care and his influence was great and useful. The writer received much of his education from Mr. Cressey and will ever retain : lively sense of his kindness." Among Rev. Noah Cressey's private pupils were Hon. Timothy J. Carter and Dr. John Grover of Eethel, Levi Stowell of Paris, and Rev. Sylvanus Cobb of Norway.
From what is here said of Mr. Cressey it appears what I have long felt and known both as teacher and school officer, that there is more in the teacher or officer, who is thoroughly fitted in every respect for his or her work, than all the new-fangled and expensive systems of teaching which were ever invented.
Norway, about 1820, was a land of teachers. The author of this work soon after coming here had heard it from the oldest inhabitants, that in the Jones district alone, after the coming of Mr. Cressey, and his early labors in the schools, nearly half of the young men and women were school teachers and for a long period thereafter Nor- way was noted for its excellent teachers. A list of their names, did we have them, would furnish several pages of as interesting reading as any part of this history.
It has been said that the Jones district was noted for its large number of teachers. Considering its remoteness from the village, and being a sparsely settled community, this is a remarkable fact. Among its teachers were Dr. Moses Frost, Joshua Frost, Henry Upton, afterwards a lawyer, Elijah Upton, later an editor and publisher, David F. Noyes, postmaster, Ford J. French, Benjamin French, O. A. Fuller, college professor, and D. B. Holt, Simeon W. Pierce and William Pingree, preachers. How many female teachers there were we have no means of knowing, but there must have been many. This is certainly a great record and reflects lasting credit upon the early settlers in that section.
Next to Rev. Noah Cressey in scholarly attainments and interest in educational matters was Rev. Charles Soule, a descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrim George Soule. A graduate of Bowdoin, and the Andover Theological School, in 1826, he accepted the principalship of North Bridgton Academy, and subsequently had a pastorate in Bridgton. He came to Norway in 1836 and was here nine years. In 1846 he taught as principal, the "Norway Female Seminary," with Emily Bailey, teacher of music, and Ann N. Deering, painting and drawing. How long he taught here after that year is somewhat un- certain, but it was not over two years, if as long as that. Mr. Soule was a man "of fine literary taste, and a ready writer of both prose and poetry." His going away was a great loss to the town.
The accounts that have come down to us of the village schools for . the thirty years intervening between the time David Noyes quit teach- ing and went to farming, to the time of Mr. Soule's teaching, is ex- tremely fragmentary and uncertain, and just at what time, what would be called today a High School, was established is more uncertain still.
Schools of higher grade than the common schools-depending upon the qualifications of the instructors-were undoubtedly taught, but
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GROUP OF TEACHERS
LEFT TO RIGHT : INEZ M. STUART, HELEN S. SWAN, VIRGINIA DECOSTER, NELLIE L. ANDREWS ANNIE PARKER
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these must have been of temporary and uncertain tenure or something tangible about them would have come down to us.
Rev. Cyril Pearl, who had taught a "Grammar School" at Buck- field, was a resident here in 1845. Probably he taught such a school in Norway Village.
The Norway Liberal Institute was incorporated in 1849, but it had been in operation for two years previously. Ebenezer P. Hinds had been the principal with a full corps of assistant teachers. It started with 174 pupils. Its success was notable from the beginning. Jacob W. Brown, afterwards a practicing attorney at Buckfield, was the first assistant principal. Mr. Hinds, the next year went to South Paris as principal of the Oxford Normal Institute, and was succeeded here by Jonathan G. Eveleth. In 1850 Mark H. Dunnell took charge of the Institute as principal. In 1852 Mr. Dunnell went to Hebron Academy, and was succeeded by William D. Putnam. In 1865 Byron D. Verrill became the principal of the Norway High School, the village district having purchased the Institute building and changed the name of the school to the one it bears today. Among the notable teachers of this institution worthy of mention are Byron D. Verrill, George F. Leonard, Ozias Whitman, Charles A. Stephens-afterwards serving on the board of school committee with the writer-Orville W. Collins, O. M. Metcalf, Verne M. Whitman and Maurice H. Small. This institution is a college fitting school, and since it was established a long list of Norway boys and girls have gone from here to many universities and colleges where they have taken high rank and graduated with the highest honors.
Ezra F. Beal in early life was a successful school teacher-his particular liking being for mathematics.
William Whitman Hobbs was one of Norway's noted school teach- ers. He taught not only here but in the larger towns of the county. While teaching in Andover he became acquainted with the lady whom he afterwards married. Probably none of the instructors of his time excelled him in energy and force of character. He led a com- pany across the plains to California soon after gold was discovered there. He afterwards served with great distinction as a deputy sheriff and as representative in the Legislature.
His brother, Henry H. Hobbs, was also a successful teacher. It is related that while teaching on Paris Hill, one of the scholars left the school without permission on the last day of one of the terms. On the first day of the next term, seeing this pupil in his seat, he was reminded of the scholar's delinquency, when Hobbs promptly called him into the floor and flogged him. His daughter Kate was one of the best teachers in the rural districts of her time. She married Robert N. Millett, a graduate of Colby and a teacher of note in the higher institutions of Vermont. .
Dr. Osgood N. Bradbury and William P. French were teachers who attained great popularity in their younger days, and both served on the board of school committee. The latter's daughter, Augusta, taught so long in the rural schools, that several years ago she was granted a state pension. Mrs. Kate (Frost) Jones was a successful school teacher for many years before her marriage, and Mrs. Izah T. (Hatch) Whitman for a long period as assistant in her husband's
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ELIZABETH O. LASSELLE
GERTRUDE O. GARDNER
NELLIE C. DINSMORE JESSIE L. DINSMORE
ANNIE B. LAFARRIERE
CORA BELLE SHEDD
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high and academic institutions in Maine and Minnesota. If it were practicable to mention all of Norway's worthy teachers their names would fill a small volume.
Two teachers in the Norway Village schools (June, 1922) deserve especial mention. They are Gertrude O. Gardner and Elizabeth O. Lasselle. The former was born in Buckfield-the latter in Norway. Both began teaching very young and have been in continuous service in the primary schools for more than twenty-five years. Both have kept pace with the times, are particularly adapted to their special field of labor, and are thoroughly appreciated by school officers, par- ents and pupils. They have been offered and accepted positions in the New Bedford, Mass., schools at salaries high school teach- ers have formerly obtained, which demonstrates their worth as instructors more than any commendation of the author.
There are others, who are remembered for their faithful efforts and lasting regard. Among them are Richard E. Clement, who be- came distinguished as an educator in New Jersey; Fred H. Gibson, now judge of the municipal court of Cloverdale, California; George H. Shedd, for many years in the successful practice of medicine at North Conway, N. H .; Arthur F. French, whose early death cast a shadow over the hearts of all who knew and loved him for his manly qualities; Herbert L. Russell, college graduate, and successful high school teacher; Cora (Shedd) Cummings, Annie (Lafarriere) Wingate, Nellie L. Andrews, Annie Witt, Helen S. Swan, postmistress for some 16 years here, Susan (Millett) Lombard, Edith (Farnham) Knightly, Virginia DeCoster, Jessie L. (Dinsmore) Whitman, Nellie C. (Dins- more) Haxby, Inez (Stuart) Cummings, Edith (Stearns) Bartlett, Annie (Parker) Gayton, Ella F. (Moulton) Harriman, Mattie F. Brooks, Winifred L. Evans, Franie (Jones) Holmes, Ada H. Tucker, Lillian (Johnson) Pride, Clara A. (Noyes) Gerry, Estella M. Pike; Mattie D. Tracy, Agnes E. Sanborn, and Ellen C. (Stevens) French of a family of nine girls, noted for their charming manners and as successful school teachers.
The old school districts have been abolished, and no schools are taught in many of the school-houses. There is little or no interest taken in them by the people who live in the vicinity where located and they are consequently going to ruin and decay. It is pathetic in the ex- treme. In these portions of the town the scholars are transported to the village and into other sections where schools are in operation. The management of school affairs is in the hands of a few and often incompetent officials, and it is very questionable, whether in the good attained, any real improvement has been made over the old system, which didn't entail one-quarter of the expense of today for running the schools, and that sent out into the world as large if not a larger number of men and women who have attained prominence and suc- cess, which after all is the true test of any system.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
ANNALS FROM 1825 TO 1875.
1826
Increase Robinson opened a public house. He had enlarged his dwelling-house and fitted up the place for the accommodation of travelers .- Asa Barton began the publication of the Oxford Observer at Norway this year. The newspaper press and material were moved from Paris Hill in an ox-cart in the night. Norway people elated. Paris Hill people indignant .- Dr. Jonathan S. Millett began the prac- tice of medicine here .- William Pierce, "a very upright and industri- ous man," died June 3d, "aged 40," from effects of an injury received while felling trees .- David Frost, one of the first settlers on Frost Hill, died March 12, aged 83 .- Ebenezer Cobb, a Revolutionary sol- dier, died May 9th, aged 70.
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