USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Gardiner > Christ Church, Gardiner, Maine : antecedents and history > Part 11
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Church with the right of presentation to the living, according to the practice of Church endowments in England by the successive pro- prietors of the Cobbossee Contee Estate which was strictly entailed, but such provisions being contrary to the genius of all our institutions have never been acted upon or even suggested, and the entail itself was broken many years since.
The Executors of Dr. Gardiner's will delayed for several years after his decease carrying into effect his various bequests to the Church. But in March, 1793, a society was incorporated by the name of the Episcopal Society in Pittston, that name having been given to the Town which had previously been incorporated, embracing the land on both sides of the River. Of the persons thus incorporated, three, Jer'h Wakefield, Seth Gay, and Rufus Gay, are now (May, 1848,) living, but neither attend worship at our Church, the two latter for many years formed about one-third of our communicants. The Society was organized under this act June 1, 1793, when 3 Wardens were chosen. This ante-episcopal number was probably introduced because the Wardens were expected to be assessors, and by the laws of Massachusetts three assessors were requisite for making taxes. As soon as the Parish was organized the Executors of Dr. Gardiner proceeded to com- plete the Church edifice, and the Parish at its first meeting invited the Rev. Joseph Warren to become their minister with a salary for that year of £65 = $216.66. August 22, 1793, the Church, yet incomplete, was burnt by an insane person, named Henry McCausland, who fancied he had seen the Almighty in a vision by whom he was commanded to offer a burnt offering and a sacrifice. The Church was the burnt-offering, and its minister was supposed to be designed to be the sacrifice, and though McCausland spoke openly of what he had done, and described the Lord's appearance, dress, etc., he was not put in confinement. Not finding a conven- ient opportunity to execute his purpose upon the Rev. Mr. Warren and fearing that he should be condemned for not fulfilling the Lord's behest, he determined to execute his purpose upon a woman of the same name. This he accomplished with much deliberation and on his trial for the murder of Mrs. Warren, his insanity being proved, he was remanded to the county jail, where he remained till his death in 1829, a period of 35 years. Immedi- ately after the Church was burnt, efforts were made to rebuild it. Application was made for aid to the Churches in Boston, Salem and Newbury Port, and about $230 were collected in the two for-
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mer places, the greater part of which was contributed by members of Trinity Church, Boston, whose ministers and Vestry had in a circular warmly recommended the object. £131, 18s, 4d were raised by subscription in this neighborhood. The subscription list contains the names of 52 individuals which must have been nearly all the men residing at that time within two miles of the Church on both sides of Kennebec River. This fact alone is sufficient to prove the incorrectness of a prevalent notion that strong preju- dices have ever existed throughout New England against the Epis- copal form of Worship. This is not true of Maine, which was not originally settled by the Puritans, and, though the Puritans brought it into subjection and extended over it their rigid discipline, they have never had the influence here that they had in some other portions of New England.
The Executors of Dr. Gardiner agreed to pay from his Estate towards the erection of the new Church what by estimate it would have cost to have completed the one that was burnt. The arrears of legacy were probably also applied to the same purpose. The Church was small, only 5oft. by 35, and on a cheaper plan than the old one, which had been surmounted with a spire. The whole amount raised was, however, insufficient to complete the building, which remained unfinished for some years. It was, however, used as a place of worship in a few months after the other was burnt. Till the Society could occupy it, they worshipped in an upper story of a building belonging to Dr. Gardiner's estate, and familiarly known for a long period as the Great House, which stood where is now the Gardiner Hotel. In May, 1794, the Parish gave Mr. Warren an invitation to settle as minister so long as they could agree, and voted him a salary of £72=$270 pr. ann'm.
In 1796, an addition was made to his salary of $94.34, on ac- count of the high price of provisions, and on the 20th July of that year he left and went to Portland. He was a man of little educa- tion, and with nothing in his character to command either the re- spect or the affections of the people. Mr. Bowers' ministry dates from the day that Mr. Warren left. He was settled with a salary of $334.33 to be paid to him till three-fifths of the Parish became op- posed to him and he was not to leave without the consent of a majority. He had graduated at Harvard 4 years previously, but was now a middle-aged man. He was supposed to hold Unitarian sentiments, and he mutilated the service at his pleasure. His ser- mons were pleasing, moral, not calculated to affect the heart or
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conduct. He had an irritable temper over which he had little controul and those who should have thrown a mantle over his infirmity delighted to show their power when company was present by touching the discordant string of his irritability, which occasion- ally betrayed him into the use of improper language. Notwith- standing these defects his perfect frankness gained him friends, and, many years afterwards, when he was without employment, he would come down in the summer, and spend a few weeks among his former parishioners, who generally recruited his wardrobe when he left. Judge Sewall of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and who resided at Marblehead, when attending the circuits usually spent a Sunday in this place, where he heard Mr. Bowers preach, and was so well pleased with his discourses that he procured him an invitation to become Rector of the Church in Marblehead, an invitation which he accepted, and he left here in April, 1802. Judge Sewall would probably have thought less of his discourses if he had heard him more frequently, or if he had read the volume of his sermons which were subsequently purchased by subscription, but Mr. Bowers' tall figure and long, flowing hair and awkward ap- pearance, contrasted with his smooth sentences, made his dis- courses, which were very short, appear of more value than they subsequently proved to be. The spiritual state of the Parish may be judged of by the fact that, during the 9 years that Mr. Warren and Mr. Bowers successively officiated here, there was no com- munion plate, nor were the memorials of a Saviour's dying love once administered during that period. Mr. Bowers, at a late period of his life, observed to one, that he had preached down every society with which he had ever been connected.
In July, 1802, the Parish engaged Mr. N. B. Crocker, now Rev. Dr. Crocker of Providence, who had just graduated, to read prayers for 3 months, at the small stipend of $3.50 per week. In 1803, that part of Pittston which lies on the west side of Kennebec River was incorporated into a new town by the name of Gardiner, and in July of the same year the Parish invited the Rev. Samuel Haskell, Rector of Christ Church, Boston, to become their Rector, with a salary of $500, including legacy. Although nothing appears upon the records with regard to house rent till the time of Mr. Haskell's leaving, yet the Parish then authorized the Wardens to settle with him for house rent as stipulated with him by the War- dens when he accepted the invitation to become Rector, provided the sum should not exceed $50 per annum. No care having been
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taken of the Parsonage house built by Dr. Gardiner before the Revolution, it had decayed and fallen down, and Mr. Haskell built for himself a house on the Lot given to him on the top of Lord's hill, which hill and house are about to be removed for the con- venience of the Portland and Kennebec Rail Road. In the spring of 1809, Mr. Haskell notified the Parish that he should leave on the following Ist June. He returned to his early Parish at Rye, New York, where he died some 2 or 3 years since. Mr. Haskell was very regular and exact in performing the service, and, during the early part of his ministry, a set of communion plate having been presented to the Church, the communion was regularly administered. No list of the communicants has been preserved, but they probably at no time exceeded 7 or 8, and a majority of those were men, a sufficient proof of the little progress made by the Parish in spirituality. When Mr. Haskell went away, the Church was closed. The Episcopal Church at that period was, throughout the United States, in a very depressed state. The political predilections of its ministers for the Mother Country where many had been educated and all had received their com- missions to preach the gospel, had produced a strong prejudice against it. There were very few candidates for the ministry, and it was difficult to find suitable clergymen for the best situations. An attempt made about this time by some of the principal men in Augusta to establish there an Episcopal Church was defeated solely by the impossibility of obtaining a minister. This Parish, despairing of finding an Episcopal clergyman, and hearing that Mr. Aaron Humphreys, a Methodist minister, was very popular with that denomination, and liked the Church service, and was willing to use it, voted, May, 1810, to employ him for one year, with a salary of $330 per annum.
In May, 1811, the invitation was repeated for another year, and, in the following June, the Bishop was requested to admit Mr. Humphreys to orders, and he was invited to become their minister with a salary of $330 and a house, or $360 without, at the option of the Parish. From Mr. Humphreys' popularity with the Metho- dists it was thought that many of them would join the Parish, but, so far from this being the case they became more opposed to it, and very bitter against Mr. Humphreys for his desertion of them. Tho' well-intentioned, Mr. Humphreys proved to be a very ordi- nary man with a large family of rude, ungoverned children, not suf- ficiently under controul to enter the house of God with decency.
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It was also discovered that he was deeply embarrassed with debts and harassed by creditors, and, as the Parish did not increase under his ministry, at the Easter meeting in 1813, a committee was chosen to notify Mr. Humphreys that his connection with the society would cease the following April, and that his salary for the year should be raised to $400.
In July a request was signed by a member of the Parish to the Wardens to call a Parish meeting to reconsider the vote dismissing Mr. Humphreys. The meeting was called but the vote was not reconsidered. He was permitted to be absent some weeks during the summer to look out for another Parish, and, during his absence, Mr. Chester Adams, of Vergennes, Vermont, preached here for a few weeks. Mr. Humphreys left in April, 1814, and, there being no prospect of obtaining a successor, it was agreed to continue to raise the same amount of money as had been usual, which, with the legacy, should be appropriated to the erection of a Parsonage House, and the house now occupied by Mr. Pratt was built (excepting the front Room, which was added by an individual of the Parish when Mr. Olney came) with the proceeds. It was also agreed that the Church should be kept open by the Wardens for public worship, the senior warden read the service and procured other members of the Parish to read the sermons. This arrange- ment was continued for some time, but latterly the senior warden read the sermon as well as the service. The Church was regularly opened and the services performed without regard to weather, or to the fewness of the number collected. Occasionally in the sum- mer an Episcopal clergyman preached for one or two Sundays and the Rev. Dr. Tappan and Gillet and some other congregational clergymen kindly accepted the invitation of the wardens to preach for us when they were disengaged. They were always requested to read the Liturgy, but invariably declined ; which was therefore read by the senior warden and the clergyman made a short extem- pore prayer at the close of the service. This practice of lay read- ing has been continued ever since when the Church has been without a minister, and the Church has never been closed at times appropriate to public worship.
From October to Christmas, 1815, Rev. Mr. Leonard of Ver- gennes, Vermont, preached, and received an invitation to settle, but there was a strong minority opposed to him, and he deferred to give a decided answer ; but in a letter dated April 9, 1816, he gave as a reason for not then accepting the invitation that he had
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determined at present not to take holy orders, but intimated that he might accept an invitation hereafter. Mr. Leonard came here as a clergyman, and, I presume, must have been in Deacon's or- ders. His personal appearance was far from prepossessing, and he was aware that there was a strong minority opposed to his coming here.
From 1809 to 1817, there was no Episcopal clergyman resident within the state, with the exception of the short time that Mr. Humphreys was in orders, unless Mr. Hilliard can be considered such. Mr. Hilliard had been ordained and settled at Portland, but he left that Church in 1808, and became a missionary among the Congregationalists, and had not for a long course of years any connexion with the Episcopal Church, tho' in the latter part of his life he professed to have been always attached to the Church, and offered to contribute to the establishment of one near his resi- dence.
In June, 1802, the Parish voted to adopt the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church in the United States and to con- form thereto, but I find no vote requesting admission to union with the diocese of Massachusetts or with the Eastern diocese, but in those days of irregular proceedings the vote passed was prob- ably considered sufficient, as the Parish were duly notified of the meetings of several diocesan conventions in Massachusetts for the choice of a Bishop, and in 1806 they for the first time elected delegates to the conventions of Massachusetts, and subsequently to that anomalous thing, the Eastern diocese. Bishop Griswold also took charge of the Churches in Maine, and visited them pre- vious to 1817. The Parish also contributed to the Bishop's sup- port, but I find only one receipt of the Treasurer of that fund .- When an attempt was made to raise a permanent fund, either by donations or annual contributions, the interest of which should be applied to the Bishop's support, two members of this Parish sub- scribed and paid their subscriptions for a long course of years. Latterly a collection was made at Church, near the time of the Bishop's visit, and given to him, and which was always more than sufficient to pay the extra expense of the Bishop in visiting this Parish. During the latter part of his life his visits were annual.
In the spring of 1817, Bishop Griswold informed the Parish that he had engaged the Rev. G. W. Olney, of Providence, to officiate for them ; but, although Mr. Olney set out immediately, he did not reach here till August, having stopped first at Portsmouth, where
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he preached for Rev. C. Burroughs absent on a journey, and then at Portland, where the Church had been shut up since 1808. After preaching here 2 Sundays, Mr. Olney went back to Portland, and did not return again till October, when he was chosen Rector, with a salary of $700 and the parsonage. Mr. Olney had naturally uncommon powers of voice, which he had cultivated with great care, and had acquired great skill in its management, having, like Whitefield, before he became serious, been a constant attendant at the theatre. He had also great sensibility and excited the sym- pathy of his hearers, and, whenever he preached, drew crowded audiences, the older persons comparing him to Whitefield, whom he was thought much to resemble in manner. He accepted the invitation of the Parish, and was instituted by the Rev. C. Bur- roughs Nov. 17, 1817. Mr. Olney was an inmate of my family from his first coming here till the following spring, when he was married to Miss Clapp, of Portland, whose father was reported to be the richest person in Maine.
Soon after Mr. Olney's settlement one of the Parish brought from Newburyport an account of the Sunday School just established there ; at the same time an article was read from the London Christian Observer stating the benefits arising in England from the establishment of Sunday Schools. An interest in the subject was excited, and it was proposed that we should have one here, there being none in the neighborhood, and I believe, in the State. Mr. Olney was consulted upon the subject, and he took it up so warm- ly as to give notice the next Sunday that the school would be opened the following week, although no encouragement or prepar- ation had been made for it, and the school then opened has been continued ever since, with great benefit to the Parish, and, I trust, also to the Town, for, being for many years the only Sunday School in the place, it embraced children from all the various denomina- tions. At first the school was under the management of middle aged gentlemen, and a portion of Scripture was expounded one Sunday in which the children were examined on the succeeding by the instructors, and when Cummings' questions were published, they were introduced into the school, besides which the children were required to commit to memory portions of Scripture. After- wards female instructors were introduced, and to their devoted labours much of the spiritual growth of the younger portion of the congregation must be attributed.
Some of these teachers felt strongly the responsibility of the task
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they had undertaken, and, besides bestowing much time for prep- aration for their Sunday instruction, continued to watch over and visit their scholars during the week; and one instructor had the satisfaction of bringing every individual of a large class to renew their baptismal vows in the Apostolic ordinance of Confirmation.
Mr. Olney had been here but a short time before his celebrity as a preacher spread through the country. The Church was crowded, the aisles filled, and numbers were baptised and admitted to the communion. So many persons were desirous to attend Church who could not be accommodated that, in December, when Mr. Olney had only been instituted 6 weeks, the Parish voted that a new Church should be built, provided the expense could be defrayed by the sale of pews. The Rev. S. F. Jarvis, of New York, who had a fine taste in Church architecture, to which he had given much attention, and was also skilful in drawing not only the general designs, but also the working plans, kindly offered to draw a plan which with some reduction in size and some slight alterations, was adopted, and, an individual having offered to give the Parish for the location of the Church any land that he owned, a committee was appointed to select the lot, who selected the spot on which the Church now stands. A condition was put into the deed with the approbation of the Parish that the Church to be erected on the land granted, should be exclusively appropriated to the worship of God, and never used for secular purposes.
A ground plan was made of the Church, and 4 pews were set aside as free, and one for the Rector, the others were marked at various prices, from $50 to $250, the aggregate value being $10,290 ; and a sale at public auction for the choice of pews was made on the 2d Saturday of June, 1818. A member of the Parish had previously offered that if the sales amounted to $8000 he would contract to complete the Church for the pews. Notwith- standing the sale was adjourned and the clerk notified the individ- ual members to come and select their pews, the sale never amounted to nearly that sum, but R. H. Gardiner, the individual above referred to, assumed the contract, notwithstanding, and agreed to complete the Church agreeable to the plan adopted, the Parish transferring to him the notes received for the sale of pews, and promising to convey to him the unsold pews when the Church should be completed. The pew notes, with the premiums trans- ferred to him amounted to $5025.84, but notes amounting to $1210.40 were given back to the promisors on account of their 18
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inability or unwillingness to pay, leaving $3815.44 as the amount of good money raised from purchases. The Church cost origin- ally $14171.47, deduct good pew-notes $3815.44, making the cost of the Church $10356.03 more than the sale of the pews. Subse- quently 6 Tombs were built by the same individual at the cost of $303.06. It was intended that the sale of these Tombs should procure an Organ, but before any sales took place, he presented the small Organ now in the Lecture Room, to the Church, and with the consent of the Parish he retained two of the Tombs and the proceeds of the others as sold were appropriated to Church Objects, principally towards the Lecture Room.
The Wardens leased the Old Church to the Town for the term of 20 years to be used as Town House, and received therefor the sum of $400, which was appropriated to the purchase of a bell of which the town were always to have the use on the occasion of notifying meetings of the inhabitants. The Old Church was not kept in good order, and, as the Town increased, the young men became desirous of a better and more convenient Town Hall and the 4th of July, 1833, was celebrated by a bonfire of the old Church.
The corner stone of the new Church was laid on the 31st May, 1819, with the services and ceremonies usual on such occasions, the religious services were principally in the Old Church, and an address on the new foundation was delivered by the Senior War- den. The Judges and officers of the Supreme Court being in town attended on the occasion. About this time, a question hav- ing arisen as to the legal identity of the Episcopal Society in Pittston incorporated in 1793 with St. Ann's Church, Gardiners- town, endowed by Dr. Gardiner, an act was obtained from Massa- chusetts in the spring of 1819, establishing their identity, and giving them the new name of Christ Church, Gardiner. When the new Church came to be occupied a different mode of sup- porting public worship became necessary. Previously the pews had all belonged to the Society, and were rented, and the rents and the legacy paid the greater part of the expenses of the Parish ; the balance was made up by a collection every Sunday at Church, and by small assessments on the parishioners. The Sun- day collection, which at one time was universal throughout New England, became distasteful and was discontinued.
In 1803, when the Town was incorporated, the law of Massachu- setts requiring every Town to support Public Worship was here
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brought into operation and the Town raised $200 annually for the support of Public Worship till the law was repealed ; and, as there was no other religious society in town, the whole went into the Parish treasury. Afterwards, when the Methodist Society was established, individual members, having by law the right so to do, directed that their proportion of the $200 should be paid to the Methodist Society, but the whole amount thus diverted was very trifling. The sum assessed upon the members of the Parish was assessed according to their valuations in the Town Books. This operated very unequally, for one man, having a valuable real estate mortgaged for its full value, was taxed heavily, while another, whose property consisted in notes or similar securities which escaped the eye of the assessor, paid but a mere trifle. This inequality while the amount raised was trifling, was disregarded, but when the assessments of the Parish had principally to be paid by assessments on property, the inequality was felt, and the system had to be abandoned and the present system of subscription, liable to very great objections, was adopted.
Mr. Babcock not liking the Parsonage House, and declining to live in it, and having no taste for the cultivation of a farm or gar- den, advised that the Parsonage should be sold, and upon petition to the Legislature, authority was given by an act passed in 1841, to the Wardens with the consent of the Vestry, to sell the glebe, the proceeds, excepting what was necessary for a parsonage house, to be funded, and the income to be applied to the repairs of the house and support of the Rector. 5 lots were reserved for the erection of a future Parsonage, and the rest sold, excepting a piece, over which the Town had laid a road, but, as it was proved, not legally a road. The sales have amounted to $6185, and the land unsold is worth nearly $2000. The permanent income of the Parish is :
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