USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > Centennial history of The First Baptist Church of Waterville, Maine > Part 5
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As has been said, the Meeting House was built in 1826. From time to time after that in the Warrant calling The Baptist Society of Waterville and the Pew Owners together, is an article "To see what measures are necessary for repairs on the Meeting House," "To see if they will vote to repair the Baptist Meeting House
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in said Waterville," and "To see if the Society will direct that the stoves be placed in the body of the Meet- ing House and take any other measure to increase the warmth of the house." Then in the meetings there are such votes as these: "Voted, that the Standing Com- mittee be and hereby are authorized and directed to make all necessary repairs on the Meeting House, in- cluding painting"; "That the Society approve of the improvement of the Meeting House"; "To raise $400 to repair the Meeting House, $250 of which shall be raised by a tax on the pews in the Baptist Meeting House which are sold, and $150 shall be raised by sell- ing pews in said House belonging to the Society and Pew Holders which have hitherto remained unsold"; "Voted, That Professor Champlin be authorized to re- move the stoves into the body of the Meeting House and close up the gallery doors, as soon as he shall have obtained funds sufficient for doing the same, without bringing any charge against the society."
Perhaps what Professor Champlin himself has to say of it may explain this somewhat, and the Meeting House as he viewed it at the time. "When I first vis- ited Waterville in 1839, a year or two before I took up my residence there, I remember the church struck me as quite a primitive structure, made after the old style, as a sort of double decker with a plentiful supply of large port holes all around, for letting in the light however, not for discharging missiles. At that time the walls were glaring white without curtains or blinds,
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the windows fulfilling the most approved conditions of health by letting in abundance of light and air. Soon after, by the efforts of some of the ladies, the walls were tinted with a green wash, and after this had been pretty largely transferred to the heads and coats of the occupants of the wall pews, the remainder was washed off and the paper put on which, abating the loss of sundry stripes and peelings, has remained to the present day. The first real change within my remembrance was the bringing of the stoves from the entry into the audience room. There seemed to be a fear that if the stoves were inside, the hearers would be so comfortable and enjoy themselves so well in carnal things that they would not properly enter into the worship of God. The stove pipes entered the room through holes in the par- tition and went meandering the whole length of the house, ornamented at every joint with tin pans and dippers to catch the drippings, and finally disappeared from mortal view through the ceiling. After the stoves had been brought in, the pipes continued to drip and after I had sat for several years longer in a highly favored position under the drippings of the sanctuary, the pipes were changed and allowed to discharge their creosote into chimneys on the sides of the house instead of on the heads of the worshippers. In the meantime, the pews above and below had been remodelled and as I think, greatly improved. Formerly, to say nothing about the pews below, the backs of which were nearly high enough to hide behind, the floors and seats in the
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galleries were so low that the boys were completely concealed behind that formidable breast-work and the heads of the singers in the choir could scarcely be seen, and the voice of Father Jewett and the solemn tuning of the violin 'cello seemed almost to come from a sub- terranean vault."
Of some of the changes made in the early days, or at least in the days preceding 1875, the Waterville Mail gives the following: "Several changes have been made in the house since it was built. As originally con- structed all parts harmonized and were thought to be in excellent taste. The pulpit was high to give the ' speaker the command of the galleries as well as the lower floor. The first change was to lower the pulpit and this was repeated two or three times, until finally, notwithstanding the galleries were changed, the speaker could hardly see his hearers in that portion of the house. Then they blotted out the window in the rear of the pulpit, with its drapery of green and its carved orna- ments, and left a broad expanse of blank wall, which was not agreeable and they were compelled to build a recess to get rid of that defect. The pews, too, were all built over at a certain time, making them more un- comfortable to sit in than at first and bringing the pillars of the gallery into some of them in a provoking way." And so it went on and on, until in 1875 it was felt that radical changes on the building must be made. One who could look back many years writes at that time: "But that old church! We've scolded about it,
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and laughed at it; visitors and new comers derided it and us with most refreshing frankness, but we didn't mind. We knew all about it. None of these things moved us. But at length the last Sunday came-and then we for whom the years had been gathering pre- cious associations within those four walls found how dear they had grown to us. Ah! that last Sabbath! A shadowy audience unseen by the preacher filled the pews. Old scenes, old faces, rose before the mind- a vast multitude that no man could number."
When at last they really decided to make the changes, all went into the work with enthusiasm. They pledged sums which in many cases meant large personal econo- mies and sacrifices. The pledges were to be paid in three instalments, one each year. The old vestry was sold, and there were built the central vestry just back of the audience room and the classroom on either side of it, the pastor's study and the room for the library. The south classroom, now occupied by the Beginners' Department, always went by the name of Dr. Hanson's Classroom, because it was there that his large Sunday School Class met, and wonderful was the teaching they enjoyed. The north classroom was the kitchen and was also used as the room for the infant department of the Sunday School. In the church, the organ was brought from the gallery and placed on the present platform which was built for it.
While the men of the church were working up their plans and subscriptions, the women were also busy.
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Of their work Miss Plaisted's description will a little later be given.
The rededication of the church took place December I, 1875. Dr. Pepper, this time preaching the sermon, came from Crozer Theological Institution to do it. The entire cost of the repairs had been nearly $17,000 in- cluding the furnishings, all of which had been provided for. The pastor, Dr. Merrill, offered the prayer of dedication and the benediction was pronounced by the venerable Rev. Thomas Adams, D.D., of Winslow, who had performed the same service for the first dedication of the house in 1826. At a November business meet- ing of the church preceding the dedication, "Deacon J. H. Hanson moved that the renovated house of wor- ship be made a free church. Passed."
The next change of any extent was made in 1889 and 1890, when "important improvements on the in- terior of church and vestry were made." Corrugated iron ceilings were put in both. "These ceilings, com- bining beauty with firmness and durability, are com- paratively a new thing," and "the Waterville Baptist church has the first placed in a church in this state. The walls and trimmings in both church and vestry have been handsomely frescoed and painted." These "special repairs" cost $1,456.72 and that year the church and congregation raised according to a summary made out at the time a "social reunion of the Baptist church was held in commemoration of the important improve- ments just completed" :
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Raised for our church $5,790.97
city 587.25
state 547.32
"
country 650.21
the world 488.51
Total for the year 1889, $8,064.26
Again in 1904 it was deemed necessary to enlarge the vestries. This time the cost was only $2600. The north vestry room was put on and the dining room and kitchen were moved down stairs into the basement.
These were the changes of most consequence prior to those made in 1917. It is scarcely necessary to men- tion the "whirlwind canvass" which was made by the church at that time and which was preceded by the two or three weeks of a getting ready that led up to the final successful result. All remember, too, that Sun- day, the last day when the canvass closed with praise and thanksgiving because of that success. More than the $12,000 asked for had been pledged and the new Sunday School rooms were assured. Single pledges up to $1500 had been received, but as often happens, many of the largest gifts in the Master's sight were gifts of the smallest amounts of money.
The first mention of women as helpers in the church is found early in its annals. "Thus the present ma- hogany pulpit in the meeting house was made by Messrs. Asa Bates and Owen. Including the removal of the
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first pulpit, the railing, the work and plastering up the place of the windows behind it, the whole sum paid was $90.00. This sum was raised for the purpose by vol- untary subscriptions among the ladies of the church and society. The pulpit was first used in its present station January 1, 1837."
The Baptist Society of Waterville in a meeting June 1, 1846, "Voted to blind all the windows in the meeting house. Dr. Appleton as a committee in behalf of the Female Benevolent Society, offered to blind the meet- ing house without any expense to the Society. Voted, that the thanks of the Baptist Society of Waterville be presented to the Female Benevolent Society for their very benevolent act in presenting a set of blinds for the meeting house."
Artemus L. Boutelle writes to his room-mate, Jan. I, 1834: "You will be glad to hear that a number of young ladies of the village have formed themselves into a 'Female Missionary Society.' Their object is, by the product of their needles to educate a Burman child. There is quite an interest in the subject at present. I hope it will continue."
July 2, 1857, "On motion of Professor Champlin, Voted, that the thanks of this church be presented to Mrs. Appleton and Mrs. Plaisted for the very neat and substantial carpet which they have laid down in this house of worship." "Voted, that the above vote be communicated to Mrs. Appleton and Mrs. Plaisted by the church clerk."
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Long years intervene before church or other records hold any more concerning the work of the Female Benevolent Society or any other similar organization, but they must have been doing something, because women are always at work in the church. They always carry the church on their hearts and with their hands they always hold it up.
When they do appear again in the records it is under the name of the Ladies' Baptist Social Union, and hid- den under this pseudonym they have wrought mighty works and carried heavy burdens. There happened, at the time of the church repairs in the year 1875 to be in the church congregation, several unusually bril- liant women, and they set these bright wits of theirs at work to see what they might evolve to unite pleasure and profit with the getting of money and helping the church in this emergency. The story of their success and the first ten years of the resulting society has been most interestingly told by Miss Florence Plaisted, one of the prime movers in the work. Lack of time is the only reason for omitting any part of the tale, but listen to some of her words. "On a rainy October evening just ten years ago, a few women were collected in the old vestry, circled about the old stove, that some of us remember so well-the old stove that always would roast its immediate neighbors, while the inhabitants of the remote corners sat shivering in their seats-the old vestry where our feet were frozen and our heads baked simultaneously, but a delightful old vestry for all that.
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And the purpose for which these ladies had come, with dripping waterproofs and umbrellas, through the storm and darkness, unaccompanied by any of their natural protectors, was to organize the society whose decennial we celebrate tonight. All great historical crises have their causes in a train of events gradually leading up to them, and some one has said that to relate the whole history of anything it is necessary to go back to the history of the world. But in tracing the origin of our society, we only purpose to go back to the first months of the year 1875, leaving uninvestigated the remote causes that existed in the several thousand years between that and chaos.
In the early part of 1875 the question of remodel- ling the church was being seriously agitated, and while the men were earnestly pondering ways and means therefor, there came into the minds of certain women a desire to reform the sociables which indeed stood in sore need of reform, and had become a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance-in fact, had nearly ceased to be observed at all.
So there were meetings and discussion and the mat- ter was brought before the ladies at the missionary meeting, and a committee appointed to devise plans for a new order of sociables. Each family in the congre- gation was visited to awaken their interest in the move- ment, and finally, on the evening of January 29, 1875, the decisive hour arrived, when the originators of the new project were to see their efforts crowned with suc-
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cess or defeat. The plan for the revised sociable em- braced a literary program consisting of an original paper, selected readings, music-a supper and an ad- mission fee. This last daring innovation on established custom was by some looked upon a little doubtfully as possibly fraught with danger to the welfare of the so- ciety, but was finally insisted upon by the reformers as an indispensable part of the new order of things.
Two committees of six each, one to attend to the supper, the other to the mental entertainment, had been provided. These committees were to serve all winter, and the sociables were to be held once a fortnight. A treasurer had also been appointed to receive the antici- pated funds.
Everything then was in readiness for that first even- ing. The vestry had been made to look as attractive as possible, the supper committee were busy in the little kitchen, the first number of the Comet-as the new publication was styled, was in the hands of the editress, and with trembling hearts, almost terrified at their own audacity, the instigators of all this waited the event.
And will those of us who were present on that occa- sion ever forget the joyful success of that first soci- able? How all the people came-church and congre- gation, Institute and College, young and old, all were well represented.
Everybody enjoyed it and "The Comet" was pro- nounced a most delightful feature of the evening.
An old note book chronicles the second sociable as
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more of a success than the first, and adds, "$18.00 taken at the door, making $36.00 now on hand." The same note book records "218 present at the third soci- ble." That must have made the old vestry pretty full.
Doubtless this success was mainly due to the impetus given by the thought of the new church. It was under- stood that the money thus raised was to be used for some special thing to be the gift of the sociable, and all were glad to do their part to make the gift a worthy one. And the common interest in a common cause was also an influence drawing the people together. In March Professor Elder kindly gave us an illustrated stereopticon lecture which added $50.00 to our fund. The last sociable of the season was held June 4, just as work was beginning on the church, and was appro- priately devoted to reminiscences connected with the old church and old times. Mr. Wing read a valuable article on the early religious history of Waterville and many interesting memories were contributed to our paper from near and far, most of which were after- ward published in the Mail. When our sociables were resumed in October the church was nearly ready for occupancy, and the purchase of pulpit furniture had by common consent been designated as the use to which our money should be put. For this we had more than enough. But cushions were also needed and there was no money for them in the hands of the building com- mittee. Encouraged by our success of the preceding winter, our souls were fired with the ambition to get
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these also. To cushion the lower part of the house would cost nearly $500.00. We were sure we could raise this, but it would take time and the church was very soon to be dedicated. We could not be reconciled to the idea of bare, cushionless seats at those dedication exercises, so we boldly rose to the occasion, and deter- mined to run in debt and a vote of the sociable gave formal expression to the desire to provide both pulpit furniture and cushions for the lower part of the house.
And it was felt that in assuming the grave respon- sibility of so great a debt we ought to have some organ- ization on which to depend, so it was also voted to form a society, and the inevitable committee was appointed to present a plan of organization. This committee pre- sented before the ladies convened in solemn conclave on the rainy evening before mentioned, a constitution which after discussion and modifications was adopted, and thus the society with the long name was brought into existence. Who knew it would survive to cele- brate its tenth birthday?
This long name seems to be rather a stumbling block to some and we doubt if half the members of the society know the full name of the organization to which they belong. But we couldn't help the long name. It was a union, it belonged to the ladies, it must be social, and it must be Baptist, so we have the Ladies' Baptist Social Union." This does very well for formal notices, etc., but for ordinary purposes the public seems to demand a shorter title and we are variously called sewing soci-
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ety, aid society, etc. Sometimes bills and receipts are made out to us vaguely as Baptist Ladies, or more broadly as "The Ladies." This you see is quite in- clusive.
One gentleman made out a bill to the Ladies A. F. B. C. We didn't know what he meant by these initials and when the next bill was made out to the Baptist L. F. L. concluded he didn't either, but put down any portion of the alphabet that came handy. But it doesn't make any difference and we believe our credit is good under all our aliases.
"The new church (now no longer new) was dedi- cated December 1, 1875, and on the evening of that day a mammoth sociable gave house warming to the new vestry.
Then rumors of an approaching Antiquarian Supper filled the air. Dishes of old-time blue were sought to deck our tables, and garments of antique cut borrowed to adorn ourselves. With what anxiety did we look forward to our first appearance as public entertainers on so grand a scale. Did we not confess to one an- other afterwards that for three weeks our slumbers were nightly haunted by visions of blue dishes! Our musical people prepared a concert to be given in the new vestry, or if this were crowded, in the church." A programme of this "Greate Antiquarian Supper" is still in existence. Listen to part of it-
N. B. Ye door latch will be histed in ye old Vestry at earlie candle lite, and Deacon Ichabod Crane and
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Eliakim Prandy will be on hand to lite you acrost as you finish supper-
N. B. Ye supper will be hot and toothsome, and you shall have a plentie.
N. B. In ye new vestry some of ye Continental sol- diers belonging to Col. Slocum's Volunteers will be ready to see you and tell you ye latest news from York State, as you shall come in after supper-
After the first part of the program, consisting of seven numbers-
N. B. Ye singers and players will stop a few min- utes to gain breath and such of ye young men and women as have brought in doughnuts in their pockets from ye supper can now eat them-
N. B. Any old ladys, whose footstoves need fresh coals can now have them taken in from Dea. Crane's kitchen, as his wimmen folkes will keep a big fire on purpose-
At the end of seven more numbers, there follow more N. B.'s, thus: N. B. All ye singers will have on theyer beft cloze-N. B. All ye who are so blessed as to have good lungs and religious training are desired to stand up and helpe singe ye last tune-N. B. We shan't have any spinnet, as Ezekiel Prindle won't lend his'n-
This "last tune" which must be sung without the aid of Ezekiel Prindle's spinnet was "Should auld acquaint- ance be forgot."
Miss Plaisted goes on with her narrative:
"Our tables were set in the old vestry which we will
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remark for the benefit of those too young or too lately come among us to remember, stood just north of the church with a little space between. Each family in the neighborhood had lent its quota of lamps for the occa- sion, and a motley collection they made ranged around the church on the front of the gallery.
Again our fondest hopes were crowned with success and the multitudes came to our supper and concert. The vestry overflowed into the church and though the lamps there had gone out, (your historian never knew exactly how those lamps went out), they were easily relighted. Well some of us remember how that was done and also how the gallery was speedily cleared of the boys who rushed up in force as soon as the church was opened. For with that primitive method of lighting the church where a chance movement of a careless arm might send a kerosene lamp dashing down on to the audience below, the only safety lay in keeping the galleries empty.
Happily we have changed all that now.
This entertainment added about $100.00 to our fund. Not so successful was an excellent lecture on "The Old Fort" given in the town hall a year after this. There came on that evening one of the deepest of snowstorms and small was the audience. Only few ladies were present and most of those got stuck in a snow drift on the way home but were fortunately extricated without injury. Our sociables transferred to the new vestry were maintained with varying success. The Comet
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appeared at regular intervals for some time and was always good. More than one poem found its way from its columns to the Atlantic Monthly and a considerable addition to our funds was made from the publication in that and other periodicals of articles which made their first appearance in the Comet. Of "Grandmother Grey" by one of our best contributors, which went from the Comet to the Wide Awake, the editor of the Lit- erary World said, "Lucky is the magazine which can get such poems. A finer one we do not know-musical, true and tender!" And the editor of the Zion's Advo- cate told your historian that he had found this poem copied in every one of his exchanges from Maine to Georgia.
Your historian is happy to be allowed to announce publicly for the first time, she thinks, that the author of this poem, "Grandmother Grey," is Mrs. Mary Keely Taylor, wife of Prof. Taylor of Colby College and daughter of Prof. George W. Keely, who belonged to the Baptist Society in Waterville.
Our society had begun its career with $64.00 in its treasury, which remained after the purchase of pulpit furniture from the proceeds of the preceding winter's sociables, and it flourished so well financially that in less than three months after its formation it had added enough to this to pay its debt. Then we ordered cush- ions for the gallery, thereby incurring an additional debt of $200.00. This was more slowly paid, but by means of our sociables, papers, membership fees, some
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lectures kindly given by Mr. Merrill, Professor Warren and others, some entertainments by the children and a few donations from friendly purses, we were able to send off our last payment on March 22, 1877, and then freed from debt were ready to turn to other work.
During the first year the society held no meetings for sewing but at the beginning of our second year it was voted to engage in this work and a committee was ap- pointed to have charge of this department.
While our debt remained unpaid we expended no money for materials, but used only such cloth and partly worn garments as were given us. Since then we have expended quite a little sum each year in this work and have never had to refuse an application, because of an empty treasury. Once a call for help came when there was nothing in the treasury, but an unsolicited contri- bution coming just then from one of our most liberal friends gave us the means to answer it.
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