USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > Centennial history of The First Baptist Church of Waterville, Maine > Part 3
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It is interesting to know that Edward Everett Hale was one of the children present on that occasion, and a pleasant coincidence was the passing of the church at that time by the maiden who afterward became his wife. She heard the singing and admired the tune of a certain song, but did not know that the words were written by him who was to be her life partner. Con- gressman Long says, "were we to use the quaint lan- guage of ancient scripture, we should say that an angel came down from heaven and breathed upon his lips, or that a vision came to him, and the Lord in visible form stood before him and bade him write on tablets of stone." The second singing of this wonderful hymn was at a picnic of children of the Sunday School of the Waterville Baptist Church, according to one of the church who lately has left us for the heavenly mansions.
Again quoting Mrs. Morton-"He wrote other hymns
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scarcely less famous while in Andover, the one perhaps most widely known and sung being his missionary hymn 'The Morning Light is Breaking.'
"His hymns, in part, have been translated into for- eign languages, and when in his old age he visited the missionary stations of India and Burmah he heard them sung by the native Christians in their own lan- guages. At about the time he was at Andover he became profoundly interested in the cause of foreign missions and during his whole life he gave largely of his time and means for the furtherance of its interests."
In 1834 he married Mary White Smith of Haver- hill, granddaughter of Rev. Hezekiah Smith, a chaplain in the Revolutionary war. Chaplain Smith, born in Hampstead, L. I., April 21, 1737, baptized by Rev. John Gano, and educated at Princeton, immediately on his graduation undertook an evangelistic tour through the southern provinces. It is matter of interest that he was ordained as an evangelist in the Charleston church, South Carolina, founded by Rev. William Screven, who for his temerity in establishing a Baptist church at Kittery had, with his church, been driven out, and had found a more congenial atmosphere in the South. In 1767, Chaplain Smith, who was then pastor at Haverhill, made a missionary tour in western Maine, and in 1768 he organized a Baptist church at Gorham, and a few days afterward a Baptist church in Berwick, which is now the oldest Baptist church in the state.
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This granddaughter of the Chaplain, who became the wife of our most noted pastor, was a woman of education and refinement as well as of social position, well qualified to be the companion and advisor of a man of his literary attainments, to whom she became a most effective helper.
"While engaged as pastor of the church in Water- ville, Mr. Smith also performed the duties of Professor of Modern Languages in Waterville College. His work both as pastor and as professor was highly appreciated, but his heart and his convictions drew him toward the scenes of his early life and in 1842 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Baptist church in Newton Centre, Mass. Although he resigned that office in 1854, he made Newton Centre his home the rest of his life, de- voting his time to teaching and literary pursuits and preaching as he had opportunity.
"He read easily in twelve or thirteen languages and when he visited me the year he was 85 he brought with him a Russian grammar, which he mastered sufficiently to enable him to read in the Russian Bible. 'O, it is so delightful,' he remarked to me, 'to tackle a new lan- guage. I just love to do it.'
"He published several books, besides editing a num- ber more. In connection with Dr. Baron Stow of Boston, he compiled The Psalmist, considered one of the best of modern hymnals, which held its place in Baptist churches, North and South, for thirty-five years without a rival. He was the author of 150 hymns, as
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was said of him in loving reverence, 'He being dead will continue to speak in songs and hymns and spiritual songs till the praises of the church on earth shall be lost in the transporting hallelujahs of the church tri- umphant in heaven.'
"He was a true minister. Sometimes his family would grudge the time he would spend on some tedious visitor, when we knew how precious his time was; but we were always rebuked for our impatience and made to understand something of the beautiful spirit that seeketh not its own. The keynote of his life was love of service, however given."
It was Saturday, the 16th of November, 1895, that he died, suddenly in a train, in which he was going to a nearby town to preach the next day. Dr. Smith was a friend of the father and mother of a later pastor of the Waterville church, Dr. Phelps, and died just a week before Dr. Phelps, Sr., who was never told of it. Madam Phelps speaking at one time to Dr. Smith "of the blessedness of the next life," he replied, "Yes, but I have found this life very pleasant." Dr. Phelps wrote a poem for the golden wedding of Dr. and Mrs. Smith and Dr. Smith wrote a poem for Dr. Phelps' 70th anniversary.
Dr. Smith's son, Daniel Appleton White Smith, was born here in Waterville and married the sister-in-law of a later pastor of the church, Dr. W. H. Spencer. He entered Waterville College at fourteen "and ex- pressed disappointment that the entrance examinations
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were so easy." After a year here he went to Harvard and graduated there. His theological education was gotten at Newton and it was there he was ordained as missionary to Burmah. At his examination before the ordaining council one of the ministers asked him how he was led to devote his life to the mission cause. He replied, "My father's missionary concerts made me a missionary."
Dr. Smith resigned December 1841, and in the fol- lowing February Dr. D. N. Sheldon was called and soon came. He had entered Williams College in the Sophomore class and graduated with the valedictory oration in 1830. After finishing his theological course at Newton, he was ordained as a Baptist minister, was married, and sailed for France where he was connected with Baptist Mission work, most of the time in Paris. He seized this opportunity to become acquainted with the best French and German literature. At the end of four years, he returned to America and became pastor of a church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before coming to Waterville. While pastor here there was a great re- vival, and he had the privilege of taking into the church sixty-four persons, mostly by baptism. All the time of this revival, he had the efficient help of two of the college professors, Martin B. Anderson, afterward the great founder of Rochester University, and Justin R. Loomis, the eminent mathematician, afterward Presi- dent of the University of Lewisburg.
Like Dr. Smith, he taught French in college all the
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while he was pastor of the church. After eighteen months of service he resigned the pastorate to become President of the College, but still took a very active part in all church affairs, serving often as Moderator of annual meetings, or as chairman of committees, and was always a valued helper. After the resignation of Mr. Crowell in 1851, Dr. Sheldon was approached with the view of again becoming the pastor of the church. The following entry on the church books is found under the date of February 1, 1851-"It was stated to the church by the Committee whose duty it was made to take the preliminary steps in reference to obtaining a pastor, 'that they had had communication with Presi- dent Sheldon on the subject of again becoming our pastor and that he had declined to entertain the ques- tion.' It was, however, strenuously urged by Deacon Stevens and Brother Chick that in order to satisfy cer- tain members of the Society it was necessary to vote a call in form, notwithstanding the certainty that it would be declined-and under these circumstances it was voted to extend to Rev. D. N. Sheldon a call to become the pastor of this church." All efforts to se- cure his services, however, were unavailing. After he left the presidency of the college Dr. Sheldon went to Bath as pastor of the Baptist Church there. It was while he was there that he changed his views and became a Unitarian. He then became pastor of the Unitarian church in Bath, but soon left to come back to Waterville and founded the Unitarian church here
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in 1863. From this time to his death in 1889 he lived in Waterville.
Mr. J. C. Stockbridge, who next came in response to the call of the church, in his reminiscences written long after says: "In the spring of 1844, a few months previous to my graduation from Newton Theological Institution, I received an invitation, written, I think, by Professor Loomis of the college, to supply the pulpit of the church for a Sabbath or two. There was no difficulty in understanding what was the meaning of this invitation. The church was without a pastor and was seeking one. I knew very well that I went as a candidate to fill the place made vacant by the resig- nation of Rev. D. N. Sheldon. It was not long after my return to my studies at Newton that I was invited to become pastor of the church. With sincere diffi- dence and distrust to meet the responsibilities connected with the pastorate of a church occupying so peculiar and so important a position as this church held among the churches of the denomination in Maine, I finally decided to accept the call. I commenced my labors in September 1844, and had all reason to be deeply grate- ful for the gracious reception I met from all classes, not only among my own people, but from the citizens of the town, of all denominations. On the 14th of November, 1844, I was married and brought my wife to the beautiful village. In due time, we had our own home, which we aimed, and I think, with success, to make the seat and center of a generous Christian hos-
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pitality. The ordination was arranged to take place on the 8th of January, 1845. It was decided that as the services of Professor Loomis were in demand among destitute churches, he should be ordained with me and so be qualified to administer the ordinances. The sermon was preached by Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, Jr., son of the first President of the college and then pastor of the First Baptist church in Bangor. I was called to minister to a congregation in many respects unique and unlike any other Baptist congregation in the state. In it there were, if my memory is not at fault, more than twenty educated and professional men and between sixty and seventy college and other stu- dents. Besides these, there were a goodly number of men and women, all of whom might be reasonably sup- posed to have been good judges of preaching. There was no alternative for me but to gird myself for hard intellectual work. For a young man to prepare two fully written sermons every week besides faithfully attending to all the parochial and other work devolving on him, was to make a heavy draft on his nervous resources. The strain continued for three years and I came to the conclusion that I owed it to the church and to myself to make a change. The history of the church since the fall of 1847 when I closed my minis- try, I have always followed with a peculiar interest."
It was while Mr. Stockbridge was pastor of the church that Dr. Adoniram Judson visited Waterville. In regard to this visit, Mr. Stockbridge says: "Dr.
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Judson reached Waterville the 10th or IIth of April, 1846, and was at first the guest of President Sheldon, and then mine. The weather was cold, snow being still on the ground. Outwardly it was not a very pro- pitious climate for one who had spent so many years in the East, and who had but recently come from the "Sunny South." Warm hearts, however, welcomed him to houses and firesides. In visiting Maine Dr. Judson had two special objects in view. He wanted to be brought in direct contact with the students of Waterville College, if peradventure he might speak some words which would arouse thought and inquiry about the sphere of their future toil in the vineyard of the Lord, whether it should be at home or abroad. And then he longed to look upon the early home, and exchange greetings with the surviving relatives and friends of the sainted Boardman, once the beloved hus- band of her whom, as his own tenderly beloved wife, he had early in the September previous laid away in 'a beautiful shady spot' in the cemetery on the lone island of St. Helena. One little incident, I recall, which took place in the sitting-room of my own house. As I have intimated, the weather was chilly, and we had a blazing fire in the open fire-place. I have the impression that it was the first of its kind he had seen since his return to his native country. For a time he eyed the unwonted spectacle of a bright, wood fire with evident pleasure, and then turning to a member of the family, said, 'Will you tell me the name of those things
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on which the sticks of wood are resting in the fire- place? I have never seen a pair since I took my sojourn in Burmah, and really have forgotten what you call them.' The reply was, 'Those are andirons.' The word andirons had completely escaped his recollection.
"I have before me as I write the sermon which I preached April 12, 1846, Dr. Judson being one of my hearers. It is venerable with age and of the tradi- tionally sermonic yellow in hue. The text was 'Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be born again.' I was then a young minister, having been ordained a little more than a year. Perhaps it may not be con- sidered strange if I were a little embarrassed by the thought that I was to preach in the presence of one so honored for great talents, and so venerated for the work he had done. But I tried to remember that I was Christ's servant, and that if I preached the true word of my Master, the service would be as acceptable to my missionary listener as to any member of my own flock. It is not for me to repeat the kind, and I must believe, the perfectly sincere language of commenda- tion of my sermon, to which he gave utterance. It was certainly a word of good cheer and encouragement to which he gave expression. It was my good fortune to be the companion of Dr. Judson in the visit he made to the relatives of George Dana Boardman. I recall many of the incidents connected with that ride, in a sleigh, I think it was-our conversation on all sorts of subjects, the perfectly simple and artless manner of
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my companion-our talks about books, etc., and I espe- cially remember how he gave utterance to the shrink- ing he felt in view of the public and demonstrative way in which he had been received by the Christian people of this country. It was not to his taste, and was a thing that he submitted to, rather than courted, or was pleased with."
"Mr. Stockbridge was a man of fine presence, schol- arly, genial and courteous, and after leaving Water- ville (he resigned and his resignation was accepted in August 1847) held important pastorates and other posi- tions of influence."
Rev. Wm. Crowell came next. He did not stay. two years, and very few united with the church while he did stay. "He was earnest, scholarly and able, but less fitted to be a pastor than an editor, which he was before he came to Waterville," and when he left, he went to St. Louis where he became editor of the Western Watchman.
Saturday, November 8, 1851, "Agreeably to the vote of the last meeting, the brethren and sisters assembled for special prayer that God would guide us in reference to the choice of a pastor. After some time spent in this way it was voted unanimously to extend to Rev. N. M. Wood of Bloomfield an invitation to become the pastor of this church."
This was preceded by another entry November I, 1851-"The chairman of the committee on the supply of the pulpit after some preliminary statements tend-
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ing to show the difficulty of securing a suitable man as pastor, expressed himself favorably in reference to an effort to obtain Rev. N. M. Wood of Bloomfield (Skow- hegan) as pastor. It was at length voted to appoint next Saturday afternoon as the time for a meeting of the church for special prayer for divine guidance in this matter and for ultimate action in reference to Brother Wood."
Thus the record and thus they did when Dr. Sheldon refused their second call.
The call was accepted and Mr. Wood began his work, January 1, 1852, and served the church eight years. Already he had won recognition as among the ablest ministers of the state, was prominent in all de- nominational work, and served as President of the State Convention. "His preaching was clear, strong, direct, scriptural. Profoundly in earnest, he urged with tremendous emphasis, at once, the terrors and the mercies of the Lord, while his known downright integ- rity mightily reinforced his words. Around him as a leader, the strong forces of the church rallied and wrought with a will. His unique personality and his remarkable sermons are still remembered by citizens of Waterville." In the History of Waterville, Mrs. Martha Baker Dunn, writing of the Shakespearean Club which was formed about 1852, mentioning Mr. Wood, says, "It is related of Rev. Mr. Wood, at that time pastor of the Baptist church, a man of strict tenets and naturally lugubrious cast of countenance,
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that he not only excelled but delighted in the repre- sentation of comic parts and did not hesitate to join in a jovial song when his assumed character demanded it."
The years 1852 and 1858 saw powerful revivals. In the first of these Hattie Mayo was baptized, who was living at the time of the church centennial.
Not long after Mr. Wood came to the church, this preamble and resolution was offered at a conference meeting by Dr. Champlin, then Professor in the college and afterward President: "Whereas it has been ob- served that there has been a departure from former days with regard to the attitude during prayer: Re- solved that it is the sense of this meeting that a stand- ing position is most becoming during prayer, and that the congregation be requested to take this position during this service." A week later the resolution was adopted.
Mr. Wood received 135 into the church while he was pastor.
It was just before the Civil War that Dr. George Dana Boardman Pepper came to the church. Dr. Pep- per, whom the church loved and reverenced, they felt belonged to them in a peculiar sense, for (with less than 20 years absence) from 1860 to the time of his death in 1913, he lived and worked among them. Dr. Pepper was a man of rare ability, of friendliness that was irre- sistible and a delicate humor and wit which made him a welcome visitor wherever he went.
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Much of the following concerning Dr. Pepper has been taken from the Biographical Sketch of his son- in-law, Dr. Frederic M. Padelford.
"In February, 1860, he had spent three weeks with the First Baptist church in Waterville, and before the expiration of the visit had been invited to accept the pastorate. He refused to decide the matter before graduation. It was then voted that the position be kept open until summer in the hope that he would ac- cept. 'Town and college are united upon you with singular and happy unanimity,' wrote President Champ- lin, chairman of the Committee. For his part the young divine made a careful study of the leaders of the church. In the summer he accepted the call and entered upon the pastorate in the autumn, being ordained on Sep- tember 6, 1860, Dr. Alvah Hovey, for very many years a close friend of Dr. Pepper's, preaching the ordination sermon. He entered upon his work with an ardor almost feverish, and with a young man's overwhelming sense of its gravity. 'The prayer meetings are a little too cold; I feel very anxious about them. It seems to me they must be improved. The atmosphere of a lit- erary institution is apt to chill social prayer meetings of this sort, but God is mighty enough to warm every- thing and break down everything.' His pastoral work was marked by that fine sense of personal rights that ever characterized the man; 'I do not make a practice of forcing religious, and especially personally religious, conversation upon those whom I meet. If opportunity
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presents I avail myself of it. Medicine loathed does little good. I can do better to get acquainted, learn characters, histories, opinions, events, and thus when interest is awakened, it may be religiously directed. There is a just horror in most minds of official, per- functory love and its manifestations.'
"On Thanksgiving Day, 1860, he was married to Annie Grassie of Bolton, the sister of his chum, her- self a graduate of Mount Holyoke." And what a rare couple they were! In ability, wit, appreciation, initia- tive, she was her husband's peer. Their friendship enriched every life that it touched, their hospitality was a delight and is a tradition.
Mrs. Pepper was by divine right a leading spirit in church, city, state, and missionary circles throughout the East. Her very name brings up a presence that needs no words of eulogy.
Dr. Pepper says of his own work as pastor: "The nation's tremendous struggle for life engrossed much of the thought of both people and pastor, as it did the thought of the whole community and nation. It was felt to be the will of the Master that the great prin- ciples of righteousness involved in the Civil War and the immeasurable interests pending, should be empha- sized by the pulpit, while the fearful sacrifices made by members of the church and society demanded con- tinual words of encouragement, cheer and consolation. Perhaps this, in part, is the reason why there was no larger increase in the membership of the church in those years. The total additions were fifty-three."
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Dr. Pepper's modesty prevented full statement of the work of his pastorate. In the pulpit he was a flaming fire of patriotism, and of the religion of Him who died on the Cross that He might save the world. Every department of the work of the church was made strong, significant, adequate, under very difficult con- ditions. Under him the church rendered to country a full measure of patriotism and to God a supreme de- votion.
"The issues of the Civil War stirred him very deeply and although not physically qualified to serve, he in- spired with his patriotism the goodly company of young Colby men who laid aside Horace and Euclid to take up knapsack and rifle. During the winter of 1863-4 he served for six weeks, the regular period for volun- teer service, under the Christian Commission in Alexan- dria, Virginia, doing pastoral work among the soldiers.
His resemblance to Lincoln at that time was so strik- ing that he was frequently mistaken for the President. The resemblance indeed was more than merely physi- cal; they were alike in the beautiful gentleness of character, in their quiet self-possession, in their quaint humor, in the profound simplicity of their lives. Upon the death of the President, Mr. Pepper preached an impassioned sermon. So vivid was the impression made by this sermon that he was asked to preach it again on the occasion of the Lincoln centenary. There needed not the change of sentence or word, so well had he divined the spirit of the great martyr. In early letters
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one theme is frequently touched upon that is met again and again in later correspondence-in fact, a theme that never seemed long to be absent from his thoughts. -the consciousness of his own spiritual imperfections and the longing for a more complete conformity to Christ. In 1902, he wrote, 'One life nearly gone and I am still so far from Christ.' So far from Christ! And yet when six little school boys in Waterville were asked to write, without consultation, the name of the best man they had ever known, they all wrote the name of Dr. Pepper."
August 27, 1865, Dr. Pepper resigned the pastorate, in order to accept an appointment to the professorship of Ecclesiastical History in Newton Theological Semi- nary, and afterward went to Chester, Pa., to become professor of Systematic Theology in Crozer Seminary. It was from this place that he came to be President of Colby College.
It was some time before a successor to Dr. Pepper was found, Dr. Adam Wilson and others supplying the pulpit and leading the church's activities for the time. February 1867, they called Dr. B. F. Shaw and took this vote, "In case Brother Shaw should not now feel prepared to accept a call to a permanent pastorate, he be invited to commence labor with us immediately, with the understanding that further time be given him for deliberation upon the question of a permanent settle- ment." Dr. Shaw did just that thing, and very soon began work. Later he accepted the call and for two
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