USA > Maine > Knox County > Warren > Annals of the town of Warren; with the Early History of St. George's, Broad Bay and the Neighboring Settlements on the Waldo patent > Part 28
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Waldoboro', apprentice to R. Crane, in or before this period set up his business here as a shoemaker, but after some years removed to Waldoboro'. Matthias Comery, a brother, brought up by P. Sechrist, settled and built where he now resides, but not till the commencement of the succeeding period. Amasa Russel, also from Waldoboro', took the farm previously set- tled by William Morman, where he still resides. John Flack came from Marblehead, built the house now owned by O. L. Kelloch, and removed to China. Zipha Swift came, in 1800, from Canton, Mass. to Cushing, and in 1804 removed to the farm now owned by Ira Robinson in this town. William Jackson, much employed with the whip-saw before that instru- ment was superseded, settled on the farm previously occupied by W. Perham. William Hays, an English gardener em- ployed by Gen. Knox, about this time, took on shares the farm of the then late William Kirkpatrick, and, several years after, settled in the north-west part of the town.
It was in this period, also, about 1802, that Holbrook Mar- tin, a hatter from Concord, Mass., in partnership with Jack Douglass, a colored man from New London, erected a shop and commenced the hatter's business. After a short time, Martin removed to Camden, and Douglass for a time carried on the business in company with Isaac Brakely, also a color- ed person from Poughkeepsie, N. Y., who ultimately bought out Douglass ; both living, whilst they remained in town, on the place now owned by Alexander Libbey, 2d. Douglass was celebrated as a violinist, and took a bass viol to meet- ing, the first musical instrument except a pitch pipe ever used in public worship here.
For the new roads laid out in this and the subsequent periods, the reader, is referred to Table I, at the end of the work. Some changes, during this period, occurred among the officers of the militia. Col. Head and Major Bracket having resigned, Samuel Thatcher was chosen colonel, and Joshua Adams and Joseph Maxey, majors ; Jesse Page was appointed adjutant. A company of artillery was organized in this town and Thomaston, of which Ebenezer Thatcher of the latter place was chosen captain, Dr. Isaiah Cushing, of the same town, lieutenant, and D. Patterson of Warren, ensign. It was furnished with two brass four-pounders, for which a gun-house was erected near Capt. Wyllie's. Of the militia of Warren, the western company was still commanded by Capt. W. Blake, and the eastern by Capt. A. Davis. A com- pany of light infantry in Camden, commanded by Capt. Erastus Foote, and a company of cavalry, mostly in the same
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town, were also attached to the regiment. Regimental mus- ters were held in Warren and Thomaston, alternately.
About this time, also, a band of music, in connexion with the militia, was organized, one half at Wiscasset and the other in this town. The branch in this town consisted of J. and D. Lermond, J. Flack, J. G. Mallett, and A. Davis, Jr. on the clarionet, J. Wyllie, Jr. and J. M. Gates on the bas- soon, John Beguey, (a young Frenchman from Bordeaux, then living with Col. Thatcher,) on the octave flute, and J. Wetherbee, on the bass drum. They were instructed by Job Plympton of Franklin, and continued their services at regimental musters and on other public occasions for a few years, when, some leaving town, and others going to sea, the band was broken up.
St. George's lodge of Free-masons, was instituted in the town in 1806, and, for some years, contributed by public processions and orations, to swell the number of gala days then in so much request.
The prosperity of the period we are speaking of, was not confined to this town and river, but left its traces in the civil and ecclesiastical condition of the neighboring places. On the 7th of Feb. 1803, the town of Cushing was divided by the river, and the eastern part incorporated into a town by the name of St. George. Hope was also incorporated, June 23, 1804. A Congregational minister, Rev. Thomas Coch- ran, was ordained at Camden, in Sept. 1805; and, in the following year, Rev. Henry True, at Union. These, togeth- er with the installation of Mr. Johnson at Belfast, were favor- ably regarded by Mr. Huse ; whose exchanges had hereto- fore been confined, chiefly, to Messrs. McLean of Bristol, Parker of Dresden, and Packard of Wiscasset. Mr. Henry H. Cheely preached two years at Thomaston, but relinquish- ed the profession, and became a grocer near Tileston's wharf, Boston. The Lutheran minister at Waldoboro', Rev. Mr. Ritz, preached only in the German language ; though he had the good sense to advise his parishioners to abandon their German schools, and give their children an English educa- tion. Unlike some of his predecessors, he was a man of unexceptionable character .*
When first called upon by the neighboring clergy, Mr. Ritz, was able to converse with them only in Latin. The nearest approach to levity we have ever heard of him, is contained in the following anec- dote. Mr. Demuth, had, in some way taken offence, and refused to speak to him. Mr. Ritz, in company with a friend, passing him one
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In some of the neighboring towns, the Methodists had now become numerous. There were few, however, of that de- nomination in this town ; but of the Baptists, the number was larger. The rise of the latter denomination in this part of the State, was effected through the instrumentality of Elder Isaac Case, who Nov. 4th, 1783, performed at Harpswell, the first baptism by immersion, east of Gorham. In January, 1784, he went eastward as far as Newcastle, where he met two messengers from Thomaston on their way to invite him to come to that place. He went, and preached his first sermon there, Jan. 31st, awakening three persons. The wife of Oliver Robbins was said to be the only pious Baptist then in these parts. But many converts were soon made, and several backsliders reclaimed. Among the latter, was Elder Elisha Snow, who had, we believe, been employed as a preach- er at Framingham, and other places in Massachusetts, but who, during the distractions of the Revolution and the cares inci- dent to the business he carried on, had become engrossed in the affairs of this world to the exclusion of those of religion. He at once became the friend and coadjutor of Mr. Case, and continued in the ministry to an advanced age. Mr. Case remained in Thomaston about 8 years, preaching in that and the neighboring settlements, and the islands in Penobscot Bay.
Messrs. Case and Snow visited this town as early as 1784, and made some converts ; the first of whom was, it is be- lieved, the elder Stephen Peabody. Their number, however, was not large, and they attended meeting and joined the church in Thomaston. This church was organized in Oliver Robbins's barn, May 27, 1784. Dissatisfaction at the location of the meeting-house in Warren, and perhaps with the minis- ter settled in 1795, led others to attend the meetings of these zealous apostles, whose solemn appeals, based upon doctrines of awful import, could scarcely fail to make an impression. Converts were gradually multiplied, till, on the 2d August, 1800, a church was here organized, consisting of 14 persons. These were, it is believed, James Fisher, Thomas Robinson and wife, Reuben Tolman, Archibald Crawford and wife, Alexander Kelloch, Jr., Marlboro' Packard, Nathan Bucklin and wife, Lore Alford, Hannah Lawrence, John McIntyre, and Sally Eastman. Being few in number, and not over wealthy, they were unable to settle a minister, and for a season were
day in the usual manner without a nod, the friend observed, " there goes Mr. Demuth." "Nein, nein," said the minister, " nicht Meister Demuth, Meister Hochmuth."
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occasionally assisted by Elders Fuller of Hope and E. Hall of St. George. In 1801, they applied to the town to exempt them from the ministerial taxes, and to refund the sums pre- viously paid. Both requests were refused ; but, in the follow- ing year, the town increased the ministerial tax by $35, and allowed the Baptists to pay their portion of it to Rev. E. Hall. The year following, they, with others in Cushing and St. George, petitioned to be incorporated into a separate religious society. Their petition, not without some opposition on the part of the town of Warren, was granted, and an act passed, June 22, 1803, incorporating " The Baptist Religious Society in Warren, Cushing, and St. George." The first meeting of this society was held at the meeting-house in St. George, on the 6th of September following ; and meetings were annually held in that town or at Warren until 1807, when a separate religious society was formed in St. George, and most of the members in that town and Cushing withdrew from the parent society. Under this act of incorporation, and without any change of name, the society has since held its meetings here, and constitutes what is usually termed the Baptist Society in Warren. The act contained the names of 87 persons, of whom those belonging to this town, were L. Alford, J. Fisher, N. Buckland, Archibald Crawford, N. Buckland, Jr., R. Tol- man, D. Snow, J. McIntyre, N. Peabody, R. McIntyre, A. Kelloch, Jr., D. Vose, R. Hall, H. Libbey, J. Payson, I. Lib- bey, J. Counce, D. Libbey, P. McIntyre, H. K. Dunbar, T. Parsons, and A. Dunbar. Thenceforward, while Mr. Huse's salary was paid from the proceeds of the fishery, the Baptists were allowed to draw a proportionate sum according to their valuation, from the same fund. Bishop Cheverus of Boston, who made his first visit to this country in 1798, having now revivified the faith of his Catholic brethen scattered over the country, and formed a society at Newcastle, John O'Brien of that denomination, was, in 1805, also allowed his proportional part of the fish money for his own minister. There were one or two other Catholics in town, but no application was made on their behalf.
In the Baptist denomination, at this time, such was the want, and perhaps the appreciation, of learning, that very illiterate persons were employed in the ministry. But so far from being disguised, the want of learning was often boasted of, as a proof that the preacher was divinely called and supernaturally qualified for his work. Two religious parties were formed, the difference between which was widened by mutual prejudice and occasional collision; the
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one rejoicing in the clearness of head, the other in the warmth of the heart, and each stigmatizing the other's reli- gion as learned coldness, or misguided fervor. In 1803, the Rev. Andrew Fuller was induced from a sense of duty, rather than from any prospect of gain, to take the pastoral care of the church in this town, which he continued to exer- cise in an eminently satisfactory manner till his death in 1820. Meetings for worship were held in dwellinghouses, school-houses, and barns, till 1806, when a small meeting- house was built near the site of school-house No. 6, and the first meeting held in it on the 6th of December. Mr. Fuller received the money allowed his society from the proceeds of the fishery, which rose with the increase of its members from $35 in 1804, to $149 in 1820. As the church embraced many members belonging to Hope, Union, and other adjacent towns, he probably received contributions from them, and occasionally also from the brethren in this town, in addition to the above sum ; as we find the church voted, Dec. 5, 1807, " to raise money for Elder Fuller by subscription." The understanding was, that he should have a living from the society here, for preaching one half of the time, with liberty to spend the other half elsewhere; and for aught that appears on record, these contributions, with what was received from the fishery, were all that the society paid for that purpose. But in 1809, a vote was passed to give him $180 for preaching three quarters of the time, or thirty-nine Sabbaths, and, in 1811, this sum was raised to $200. From that time, the society annually voted that the money received from the fishery should be paid to the Rev. Mr. Fuller ; and this by private contributions, was increased, it is said, to $250 for a time, and ultimately to $300. With this provision for his support, he was able to devote his whole time to the service of the society here, with unabated fidelity to the last.
The first deacons of the church were J. Fisher and Archi- bald Crawford, chosen Sept. 6, 1800. To these were added Thos. Dagget, of Union, April 30, 1808, and Thos. Robin- son, Feb. 3, 1810. Deacons Crawford and Robinson were succeeded, Sept. 5th, 1817, by Calvin Crane and Lore Alford. On the 2d of Jan. 1819, John Miller was chosen deacon in place of Dea. Alford, deceased. Those who have since been elected to that office are M. Packard, Jr., Wm. L. Starrett, and Wm. H. Webb, April 3, 1830; Duncan McCal- lum, Aug. 6, 1842; Mero Kelloch and John Watts, Sept. 3, 1842, the last of whom at his request was excused from
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serving. Saturday church meetings for conference and mutual edification were usually held once a month, and still continue. In 1809 and '10, most of the members belonging to Hope and the eastern part of Union, 17 in number, were dismissed at their request to join the church in Union ; and in 1815 and 1824, several others, to constitute new churches in Thomaston and Waldoboro'.
After the death of Mr. Fuller, Rev. John Wakefield was employed as pastor from 1821 to 1827. For his support, $215 were voted the first two years, and $250 in the subse- quent years. His education was higher, and his style of preaching more polished, than that of his predecessors. Mr. D. Dunbar, after hearing one of his earliest sermons, ironically, but prophetically, remarked to the writer, " we are going to be as proud as any of you, and have learned ministers."
Mr. Wakefield's ministry, though zealous and successful, was not without its difficulties and cares. In 1822, meetings were held in various parts of the town, by Rev. Abiezer Bridges, a Free-will Baptist, who made many converts in the northern and eastern parts of the town; and among them were some of Mr. W's church. On the 22d of Sept. of that year, a Free-will Baptist church, consisting of two male and five female members, was organized, and has continued to thrive and languish by turns, with or without preaching, to the present time. This has contained, in all, 20 male and 29 female members, of whom 8 of the former and 11 of the latter still remain. At its institution, this church adopted the New Testament for its creed, and was soon after admitted as a sister church, into the Montville quarterly meeting.
The zealous assiduity of Mr. Wakefield, stimulated per- haps by the temporary antagonism of these two societies, having impaired his health, his place was, for a time, supplied by Rev. Reuben Milner, and more permanently by Rev. Daniel Bartlett ; who, at the meeting of the Lincoln Association with this church, in Sept. 1827, having attended as messen- ger from the Penobscot Association, and been instrumental in awakening some of the young people in this place, imme- diately received an invitation to become their pastor, By his efforts and those of Rev. Samuel Fogg prior to Mr. B's re- turn, an extensive revival took place, and 90 members were added to the church. The society having become too numer- ous to be accommodated at their house of worship, and em- bracing many men of wealth, a new meeting-house, that which they still occupy, was built at the expense of $5400, and dedicated, Nov. 11, 1828, The land on which the house
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stands, together with a bell soon after purchased, cost $500 more; and the whole expense was defrayed by the sale of the pews. A small organ was added in 1847. Mr. Bartlett was an affable, agreeable man, and a zealous advocate of the temperance reform, which being new, caused some disaffec- tion among his supporters. He served the church with a salary of $300, till 1833, when his place was supplied for one year by Rev. Horace Seaver. The next pastor was Rev. Phinehas Bond. His labors began in 1835, with a salary of $365, and ended in 1841, when he removed to Fayette. Under his ministry, in 1838, forty-four were added to the church. His services were highly appreciated, at least by a portion of his society, and his removal was the cause of some dissatisfaction. Rev. Silas Ilsley became pastor in 1842, with a salary of $600. Previous to and at the time of his arrival, the Washingtonian movement, and other efforts in the cause of temperance, had greatly excited the public mind, and given a serious turn to all classes of the people. Many additions were made to the churches in this town, particularly the Baptist, which in a short time, under the strenuous efforts of Mr. Ilsley, received an accession of more than a hundred members. Rev. Abraham H. Granger, the present incum- bent, commenced his labors here, in the fall of 1843. He was ordained Nov. 2d. and his salary, at first $400, is now $500 a year. In 1845, the church reported 262 members, and is the most numerous and wealthy religious society in the town.
The following are the articles of faith, adopted by this church at its organization, and which remained unaltered, till June 3, 1848, when the church voted " to adopt the arti- cles of faith and covenant as revised by the Convention."
Articles of Faith .- " Having been enabled by divine grace to give up ourselves to the Lord, we account it a duty incumbent upon us to make a declaration of our faith to the honor of Christ and glory of his name, knowing that, as with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, so with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. We believe that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God. We believe there is one only living and true God. We believe the important doctrine of three equal persons in the Godhead, - eternal and personal election, - original sin, - particular redemption, - free justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, - efficacious grace in regeneration, - the final perseverance of real believers, - the resurrection of the dead, -the future judgment, -
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the eternal happiness of the righteous and everlasting misery of the impenitent. We also believe that baptism and the Lord's supper are ordinances of Christ to be continued until his second coming, and the former is requisite to the latter ; that is to say, that those are to be admitted into the communion of the Church and so to partake of its ordinances, who, upon profession of their faith, have been baptized by immersion in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."*
From the history of this society, which has led us into an anticipation of time, we now return to note a few incidents in the period to which this chapter is devoted. On the 29th of January, 1803, the house built by John Lermond, Jr. on the farm now owned by William Watts, but at that time by Robert Porterfield, was consumed by fire. The night was cold and windy ; Porterfield came home late, and, with the rest of the family, was in a sound sleep. John Rokes, who boarded there and had a large quantity of corn in the cham- ber, awaking in the night, heard the crackling of fire and the parching of corn, made an ineffectual attempt to rouse the family, and, seizing the pails, repaired some distance to a spring for water. This was covered by the drifting snow, and before he could return, and effectually rouse the family, who had again fallen asleep, it was too late to save the house or any part of its contents. Insurance against fire was then un- known in the place; but the generous contributions of the people, in those days, seldom failed to make up, often exceed- ing, the actual loss.
The fulling-mill, grist-mill, and bridge, at the village, were, in May, 1804, swept away ; and the materials, together with large quantities of cloth, carried down stream and strewed along its banks, or fished up as they floated in the current. The town voted that the plank and timber should be collected by labor taken from the road tax, appointed Life Wilson agent for rebuilding the bridge, and empowered the treasurer to borrow, if necessary, $100 for that purpose.
In the carly part of 1805, the canker-rash made its appear- ance here, and continued its ravages through the spring and summer. Many children and several adults died with it,
1801 and 1805 were remarkable for the destruction of nearly all the spruce and a great part of the hemlock in this vicinity by the larvæ of an insect, which preyed upon the
* Millett's His. Bap. in Maine. Benedict's His. Warren Bap. and Free-will Bap. Ch. and Soc. Rec., &c.
24
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buds and leaves for two or three years, and then disappeared. They were less than an inch in length, suspended themselves by a thread while descending, and so numerous that persons employed in felling trees, would find their clothes almost covered with them, The loss of the spruce was considered a great misfortune at the time ; but, as the commercial difficul- ties that followed, rendered spars of less value, and, as the dead timber was cut off for kiln-wood, and the lands cleared up, or covered with a young growth of hard-wood, the town, perhaps, gained as much as it lost. A troublesome disease among neat cattle, called the hoof-ail, became common about this time, and continued for many years.
An unusual display of the Aurora Borealis was wit- nessed here on the evening of Oct. 22, 1804, which was first observed in the E. and N. E., and soon after extended to the N., N. W., W., and S. W., shooting up from near the hori- zon in vertical streaks to the zenith, where a luminous cloud was formed, curling and rolling like smoke, and soon after dissipated in quick and repeated coruscations. The emana- tions continued with more or less brilliance from 7 o'clock till 10, and more faintly till midnight. Of this kind of phe- nomena, first observed in this country in 1719, similar dis- plays have been witnessed here, at various times since, par- ticularly Jan. 25, 1837, when the light was mostly of a dark crimson, tinging the snow with the same color. On the 6th of Feb. 1805, a slight shock of an carthquake was felt in some places, and lasted about two seconds. On the 16th of June, 1806, there occurred a remarkable eclipse of the sun, which, at Boston and places farther south, was total. Here, a small portion of the sun's northern limb was visible at the time of its greatest obscuration. The day was clear and cloudless, and the constantly increasing gloom, during the first half of the eclipse, was awfully sublime, as if the source of day was about disappearing forever. The fowls took to their roosts ; the birds began their evening songs ; the cattle gazed with astonishment and concern; a sudden chill pervad- ed the atmosphere, and many were the colds caught in gazing at the phenomenon. Particles of dew, partially illumined by the fading light, were observed in the air, proceeding from no cloud ; and the largest of the stars became visible. This eclipse formed an epoch among farmers, who used to date from it the commencement of those cold seasons, which, with some exceptions, continued with increasing severity, for 10 years. Some mistook the antecedent for the cause, and supposed the eclipse had produced some derangement in
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nature, which would forever preclude the return of the hot seasons and rich harvests of former times. Nor was it view- ed without some remains of that superstition, which, in an- cient times, supposed the sun
" from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and, with fear of change, Perplexes monarchs."
Some of the Germans in Waldoboro', were said, in accord- ance with a superstition brought from the father-land, to have covered their wells, lest they should be poisoned with the dews that fell during the eclipse, and to have hesitated whether to allow the cattle to feed till it was dried from the grass.
The prosperity of this period was chequered by many casualties. In 1801, Capt. Roland Kirkpatrick was knocked overboard and drowned whilst sailing from one of the south- ern ports to the W. Indies. He had previously commanded the coaster 'St. George,' of Thomaston, but was at this time, mate with Capt. Norton. A Mr. Kinney, a native of St. George, residing in Warren, was lost overboard Jan. 6th, of the same year ; and David Hall died of fever at Jamaica about the same time. June 10th, 1802, Mr. John Paskiel fell from the bridge at the lower falls, and was so injured that he died within a few days. In Sept. of the same year, James Gerrish, a person of dissipated habits, committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree in J. Andrews's pasture near the potash works. In July, 1804, Mr. Hanson, a man of business in Thomaston, was killed by a fall from a horse, near Mr. J. Page's. On Sunday, Aug. 26, 1804, two boys, Cornelius Butler, son of Asa Dunbar, and George Moriston, residing at the time with J. Carven, and belonging to a high- land Scotch family, of which there were several then living in one of Knox's houses in Thomaston, went with two others to the river, and put out into the stream on a raft which they constructed. In returning to the shore, the raft parted and they were both drowned. Their companions escaped to tell the sorrowful news, and the body of one was soon found, the other on the Wednesday following, having then risen to the surface. Charles Sidensberger, from Waldoboro', who had settled on the farm now owned by Wm. Jordan, was drowned in the river, Nov. 23, 1804. On the 2d of April, 1805, Lewis, a son of John O'Brien, 17 years old, was instantly killed by the accidental discharge of a musket. A funeral discourse was preached at the house, in August
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