USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 23
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A manuscript in Mrs. Lowell's collection, without date but probably written in the 1850's by a zealous communicant, throws some light on the history of the church and its leaders. "The Free Will Baptist church in Anson," runs this account, "was organized about the year 1795 by Eld. Ward Lock and others. Eld. Lock was the first preacher of Free Will Baptist doctrines in Anson, the Lord blessed his labors in the conversion of many souls. Eld. Isaac Allbee and his wife were convertea in that reformation. Some few (years) after the reformation Father William Paine put on Christ in all of his ordinations and
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took his stand on the walls of Zion and was a faithful and efficient laborer in the vineyard of the Lord and remained such until he was called from labor unto reward. He had the over- sight of the church with the help of Eld. Isaac Albee and the church prospered and be- came a large church but they were not without their trials. After many years the church became divided and subdivid- ed and remained in three dis- tinct branches for some years. At length the Lord revived his work amongst us glori- ously and the three branches hove down their organiza- tions and all came together again and were organized into one church and so re- main. The Lord has blessed MARY ELLA (PURINGTON) LOWELL them from time to time and has added to the church of such as we hope and trust will be saved."
As to the services of Elder Ward Locke, this account is at variance with other authorities, who ascribe the organization of the church to his father, Rev. Edward Locke. Probably the two co-operated. The older of the two preachers was much at Farm- ington from 1793 on. Probably the divisions and subdivisions, referred to, were largely town groups - one from New Portland Hill, another from Embden in the vicinity of the meeting house, and the third near North Anson village.
The church flourished in a decidedly religiously-minded community, where there was eagerness to advance in active service. This is shown by many certificates of qualification. One of them which has been preserved was given "by consent of the church of Anson Nov. 3, 1842, "over the signature of Joshua Hilton, "church clerk" setting forth that "Collamore Puring-
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ton is a regular member and in good standing in the free will Baptist Church in Anson. And we believe that he is cauled of god to preach the gospel. And for his Accommodation we Voted in Church Meeting that he improve his gift as god shall call him."
During the same period a Freewill Baptist mission society was organized with rather an elaborate constitution, rigorously en- forcing attendance at meetings and contributions to the cause. The name was so long that the writer of the constitution repeatedly abbreviated it to "F. W. B. F. M. S."
Mrs. Leonard Walker, daughter of Isaac and Rispah Albee, and mistress of the fine brick house nearby, used to narrate events of the quarterly meetings when the meeting house would be packed and the hospitality of neighbors taxed to the utmost to entertain them. She had as many as 75 people to dinner and others, including the Given Campbells, had as many more.
The Sunday services, with preaching forenoon and afternoon, were weekly events of social as well as religious importance to worshippers from Anson, Embden and New Portland. In later years Benjamin Albee led the choir. He brought a violin to use in giving the singers the key note. There was much curiosity and likewise antagonism in the congregation over this innovation.
The church was an arbiter of family and neighborhood disputes. Its elders and deacons summonsed witnesses, heard testimony and sat in grim judgment. The character and out- come of one of these wrangles are indicated by a paper, dated Oct. 11, 1848, and signed by Lovina Walker (1794-1881). She was the wife of Deacon Joseph Walker and daughter of Rev. Isaac Albee. It is addressed "To the Freewill Baptist Church of which I am a member; and sister Purrington" and reads :
"I hereby assert that I never have been satisfied with sister Purrington, relative to the difficulty now existing between us. But I frankly comply with the report of the last Q M Commit- tee. Viewing them to be good substantial men, and men of good understanding and sound judgment. For as I have done I now say that I an sorry I told sister Purrington what I did. And further confess that I have had unpleasant feeling towards
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sister Purrington ; and a part of the church for approbating her in the course she has taken; I now ask your forgiveness."
But this was by no means a solitary example of the exercise of judicial function by this church. The Lovina Walker manuscript, brought back from Oregon, is quite in line with papers from the old armored chest of the Hilton family. In it were several papers about neighborhood grievances. These show there were combative members within the fold, zealous in self-defense, conducted, as Olive Jordan on July 31, 1836, ex- pressed it "in Gospel order." In a petition which the clerk was requested to read at the close of service on that day, she represented that "certain reports against my Christian character have been circulated by members of your church and as my declaration of innocence does not appear to satisfy, I DO hereby enter my complaint against all such as have retailed stories of Slander against me Un-Scripturaly and I DO request that the Clerk of your said C. give sufficient notice to my ac- cusers in a public meeting that they may appear at your church meeting with their evidence if such they have; for I am resolved to Defend my character against so flagrant an attempt to prostrate it."
The records do not disclose the sequel of this gage to battle, advanced so bravely and so candidly by a woman. Possibly such frontier squabbles were not unusual. The same year on August 11, Humphrey Purington, subscribing himself as "a friend to the church," addressed "the first freewill Baptist church of Anson. It is with unpleasant feelings," he wrote, "that I have to complain to the church of any of its members, but such is the case that I feel it my duty to inform you against John Pain Esq a member of your church, my charges against said Pain is that his sheep has damaged me by Destroying my oats & peas in the judgment of disinterested men to the amount of $3.75. said Pain neglects to make me satisfaction that which I have a right to look for from a neighbor much more a professor of religion. Furthermore when we informed him of the damage done by his sheep & wished him to come to see us, we received an answer back that was calculated to stir up the feelings of nature · and to wrong the truth. We are in the flesh & liable to err but
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on sober reflections the Christian will see the path that is marked out for him to travel in."
In January of 1836, the ruling body of the church addressed an erring member of their flock. "You have made a good profession." wrote the clerk, "by being baptized and gaining the church. Since that time you have reptly transgressed and we have as often reproved and admonished you.
"We hav thaught proper to say to you that we hav no fellow- ship nor membership with you as a Christian til you returne with a humbel confession tho god only knows our feelings on this occasion. Ritten on behalf of the first church of anson."
In July, 1837 there was a meeting of Freewill Baptist society in Anson at the new meeting house to settle a difficulty between James Paine (1789-1860), a younger brother of Rev. William, and Wm. B. Paine (1814-1888), a son of Rev. John Paine. James and William B. were both brethren of the Church but William B. was a grand nephew of James. There is a more or less fragmentary record of the proceedings before "a select committee consisting of Bros. Isaac Albee, Joshua Hilton and Amaziah Getchell." After the opening prayer, this line occurs in the records: "A motion was made by the chairman of the referees to add two to the referees" and two Elders, one of them Elder Williamson, were "accordingly added." The complaint. when read, disclosed a disagreement over William's services on his uncle's farm from which a physical struggle in the barn resulted.
William Paine had been engaged in April to work for ten months. If he was "turned off" by his Uncle James he was to have $14 a month but if he "went off of his own accord" he was to have only $6.00. "Sometime in April" ran the written complaint, "William grew self important and was saucy & found fault with the living and so continued." On one Monday morning James forbade him before witnesses to go to work.
"I was measuring oats in the granary," James Paine in- formed the tribunal. "Wm. came in and said, 'you turned me off because you thought it would be an advantage to you.' I don't know as I answered him but was still measuring oats. The
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next thing I knew he had me by the shoulders and twitched me clear across the barn which is thirty feet. Neither said any- thing. At the door he twitched me down and struck me once with his fist and I think one knee came on me."
There was more scuffling on the barn floor, according to the complainant, over possession of a broom. "He (William) bruised my arm," the charge continued, "lamed one of my hips and I wore a plaster 2 or 3 weeks. Doctor never examined it. Made the inside of my arm black and blue so the hip. I offered to settle with him. He said he would never pay me a cent. I told him I would settle for $10.00."
Several witnesses were on hand to testify - Levi Andrews, who had worked for James frequently but not "since his last marriage (to Dorcas McCoy) and never found any fault with the living." Levi had seen William Paine in April. "Told him he (William) was large and heavy - I guess he lived well. Asked him if they lived well to James Paine's. He said they did." Moses Bunker, a witness, testified that William was at his house in the winter and told him that "Uncle James kept him high." There was testimony from Isaac Albee, Thomas Gray (1801-1888) and William and Nahum Quint, rather in favor of "Bro. Paine," the complainant. Jeremiah Thompson, "after a good deal of dealings found no fault with him and found no cause for difficulty."
How the church "referees" composed this wrangle between Brethren James and William Butler Paine the record sayeth not. Likely enough in the end there were reconciliation and forgiveness as both went on their useful ways in the community. James and his second wife, considerably younger then he, lived into the 1860's and raised a good family. His embattled nephew married a Farmington girl. In 1854 they migrated to Eden Prairie, Minn. Of their five children, one died when a young man, at Little Rock, Ark. Another son, John Allen, died a bachelor at Eden Prairie. Three daughters married and made their homes at or near Minneapolis.
It was long after and well toward Civil War time, when the decline of the Old Brook meeting house was beginning to be apparent. Mrs. Sarah Paine records that in 1860 the worship-
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pers were few at Sunday meetings. North Anson village had been flourishing in trade and population. It was more favorably located. New Portland people tired of going that far to services and began to think about having a church of their own. A petition to this end, signed by J. Carvill, C. Hutchins, William Walker, Enos Hutchins and others, was presented to the Anson quarterly meeting in May, 1860. The trend of migration from the farms in adjacent towns to the Golden West as a land of opportunity had set in strongly. Church meetings were gradually abandoned and the Freewill Baptist society at North Anson now provided with a meeting place, was proving a suc- cessful rival. By 1877, a church room was built over the Bunker Block on Main street in that village. Sharp tongued town folks spoke of the abandoned old Brook meeting house as "God's Barn."
Some two years thereafter, having long viewed the vacant meeting house across the road, Given Campbell and son, Dan- ville, who then owned the pioneer Joseph Walker homestead, bought the Old Brook church property. They engaged Cephas Walker, now of Madison, a greatgrandson of pioneer Joseph. With a gang of men Cephas dug under the old church, hoisted it with jacks and levers and placed it securely on great log skids or "shoes." Then word was sent in early summer far over into Embden for men to come with every available yoke of oxen.
And they came of an early summer morning, alert with interest in the moving bee. Every ox in the community was utilized even to the wild two-year olds, chained in between the older and steadier burden bearers from the countryside. Two- wheeled carts, loaded with shovels, crowbars and logging chains, rumbled out of lane and crossroad.
Toward the east the sun was not very high before a multitude of husbandmen and wide-eyed lads, the writer of these lines among them, had rendezvoused on the gentle hillside by the meeting house front. With much geeing and hawing, thwacking and bradding from goadsticks, steers and oxen were deployed into two long lines - one on either side of the structure. Rat- tling and hooking of great chains were features of the busy din.
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After quite a period of preparation - to make sure all was ready - Cephas gave the awaited signal.
Again the thwacks and brads from goad sticks on many glossy flanks and one hundred oxen pressed shoulders to their wooden bows. Leader chains tightened under the motive power. The two long teams made headway and the old church, with creaks and groans of ancient timbers, followed. Before the sun was low over the gravel bottomed eddy, of prolonged utility as a baptismal font, the white meeting house had ridden on its wooden "shoes" down through the front yard of yore, across the highway, and turned on to the knoll where it stood and still stands as a serviceable barn.
That is the picturesque - and who shall not say, also the pathetic - side of the finale. But who shall measure the limits of wholesome influences wrought and set in motion by that pioneer church society? Who can measure the uplift from pioneer preaching for near a century or consider hallowed domestic ties sealed at its altar - reaching into the hearts and augmenting the happiness of successive generations - and question but what the Old Brook meeting house lives on ?
CHAPTER XIX
EMBDEN'S RURAL ELDERS
Although no meeting house and spire were raised within Embden borders, devout preachers were never lacking. The town's every neighborhood of early days had one or more rural elders of persuasive faith - men with a gift for exhortation. They expounded picturesquely. Austere example enforced the spoken word and their hearers gained a livelier hope if not a more profound theology.
The Seven Mile Brook neighborhood with its group of militant elders by no means circumscribed the Embden list of those who went forth to spread the Gospel. Up and down the town were alike Methodist and Freewill Baptists of abounding faith and distinctive personality. They held forth in the schoolhouses, ministered by the local firesides and shared in the arduous tasks of the farm. The humble, earnest careers of these several elders make an inspiring page. Some, like Rev. John Rowe (page 155) and Rev. Elias Hutchins Thompson from adjoining acres near the Kennebec, and Rev. Thomas Blake Spaulding (1801), a Methodist of southwest Embden who went to Milo, made their reputations outside the town. One at least - Rev. Francis B. Dunlap (1819-1841) - was of the Universalist church. He sleeps near the Canada Trail in the old Hodgdon graveyard of · middle Embden. Rev. Hartwell Churchill lived several years in the Dunlap neighborhood before he went away to Michigan and to a Freewill Baptist pastorate.
Both Dunlap and Churchill were near the dwelling place of Elder Job Hodgdon (1786-1877), a circuit rider who long years upheld the Methodist banner among his neighbors and in ad- joining towns. Elder Job, a farmer, was likewise a carpenter as was Rev. Oliver Moulton (1804-1851) over in northwest Embden. Until recent years at least there was a New Portland barn still standing that Rev. Oliver built. He preached in the northwest neighborhood long before the days of forest encroach- ment. He was a member of the Lexington-Embden Freewill
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Baptist church, organized at Lexington Oct. 24, 1839, with Elder John Lennan as moderator. Services were held alike at the Tripp schoolhouse below Hancock pond and at the Lexing- ton schoolhouse north of Hancock pond. Elder Samuel D. Millay ministered to this people in 1839 and on. The record of one service states that "Elder Millay met with us and broke bread to the church and washing of feet and had a heavenly setting together." Later Elders Benjamin Gould and Samuel Savage conducted services there frequently till about 1860 the "Lost Nation" schoolhouse in Concord became a more favorite religious center. Methodist services were held occasionally by Elder Hodgdon and others at the Moulton-Greene schoolhouse (district No. 10) farther south by Embden pond.
Residents along the Kennebec generally attended church at Solon and many of them lie in the two cemeteries of Solon village. After he removed to northeast Embden Dr. Edward Savage continued to preach but appears to have associated him- self also with worshippers at Solon. A young Freewill Baptist preacher came down from Concord about 1850 and for quite twenty years tilled an 180-acre farm that Fletcher Thompson had occupied before him - just below the fork of the road by the present Embden depot and south of Elam Stevens. This was Rev. Samuel Savage (1820-1897), during all his life there- after regarded rather as an Embden parson. A bill of sale for $1,930.28 that George E. Savage (1845-1922), his only son, gave on Feb. 2, 1869, for agricultural implements, farm produce and livestock, indicates that Rev. Samuel and his wife planned to reside there the remainder of their days. The legal instrument drawn by Lawyer Ware at North Anson specified notes for $1,200 the son had given, payable in annual installments of $100 and interest and a balance of consideration for the support of his parents. Rev. Samuel and his son afterward lived at North Anson where the preacher died. The bill of sale, together with the inventory that embodies interesting details, is recorded in the town books.
Rev. Samuel Savage - more frequently spoken of as "Elder" as were most of the local preachers in early days - appears to have been a successful farmer. He was also of wide reputation
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in his ministerial calling. He attained popularity as a marrying parson. In this role he had active rivals in Elder Benjamin Gould, Jr., who in later years moved up from Gould hill into middle Embden, and from Jesse Lee Wilson. Couples came from afar to have Elder Samuel join them as man and wife. Now and then, as Embden records demonstrate, Elder Samuel journeyed to New Portland and to other out-of-town points to officiate at weddings.
The fees for these services were by no means lucrative but were welcome. In Elder Samuel's day the preachers were getting a larger share of the weddings. Previously there had been a marked preference for marriages before a civil magistate - usually the town clerk.
Samuel Savage and his twin brother Isaac were born in An- son, where their father, Jacob, 2nd., lived before taking his family to Concord. His grandparents were Isaac, one of the pioneers from Woolwich, and Deborah (Soule) Savage. Through the latter he was a Mayflower descendant. The Elder married in 1844 Olive R. Whittier (1822-1908). They have no living descendants. Their son George E. Savage spent the last three years of his life at Norridgewock. He had a daughter Isar (1868-1887).
Although a contemporary of Elder Savage during many years of their ministries in Embden, Elder Job Hodgdon (also in early times spelled Hodsdon) belonged to a previous generation. He was a virile man out of Rochester, N. H., his native town, and his children and grandchildren after him were virile men and women. His father, Jeremiah Hodgdon, Jr., was a corporal in Capt. Mclellan's patriot company of 1779. His grandfather, Jeremiah, Sr., had been a settler at West Gorham fifty years earlier. The Hodgdons of colonial times - a family of ancient lineage - came to America from Herefordshire, England.
Corporal Jeremiah Hodgdon died when Job was a lad. The latter's widowed mother "bound him out" to a joiner. When 21 years old he received a small kit of tools from his employer and started for himself. Before long he had married Sarah Beauleau, by whom he had two children - Benjamin and Hannah L. (Mrs. David Young of Embden). Like Levi Berry
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of Embden, who was then resident of that part of New Hamp- shire, young Job enlisted as a soldier in the War of 1812. Ile saw no actual service as the war ended when he had been in
"ELDERS" JESSE LEE WILSON AND JOB S. HODGDON, METHODIST PREACHERS, AND SAMUEL SAVAGE, FREE BAPTIST PREACHER.
camp little more than a fortnight. His wife died about that time when Job was plying his trade not far from the road to Dover down which before many years numerous "colonists" were passing on their way to Embden and Concord. Among these were Joseph Felker (then spelled Fulker) of Barrington, a brother of Mike Felker, who settled in the Queenstown neighbor- hood.
Joseph Felker had a daughter Margaret (1793-1878) whose first husband, a sailor, was lost at sea. She was left with three sons - Richard, Felker and William Smith. Companions in bereavement Job and Margaret were married in 1815. Their two families of five children were soon enhanced by the birth of their own son James (1816-1903) from whom came the Hodgdons in Embden. During the twelve ensuing years Elder Job advanced in the Methodist church and worked at his trade near Rochester. Meanwhile his father-in-law Joseph Felker, veteran of the Revolution, was having a hard fight for livelihood in middle Embden. He had traded farms with Reuben Savage and was settled upon Lot 47, which, under his improvements, had become known as "The Mansion Place."
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Thither came Elder Job Hodgdon in 1828 with his second wife Margaret, his children, her children and their son, James. They became a part of the Joseph Felker household and lived there and cared for them till Joseph and wife passed on. Elder Job's daughter, Hannah L., married in 1831. Few, if any, of the many descendants from her and David Young remain in Embden. Ten years later James Hodgdon married Nancy (1823-1883) daughter of Richard Delling (1793-1869). After the death of the Felkers, Elder Job resided with his son James. who had taken up a farm No. 50 just north. There the preacher built a carpenter shop. Members of the Hodgdon family still have tables and stands that were fashioned at his bench.
James and Nancy (Delling) Hodgdon had thirteen children and most of the eleven surviving sons and daughters established their families in the town. These were :
George H. (1843-1870) died suddenly of heart's disease while hunting.
Hannah M. (1845-1916) married in 1863 Benson S. Gray, son of Wesley of the Embden John Grays. They lived in Concord with his parents till Benson purchased the Joseph Felker farm No. 47 and framed a new house to live in. Then he was one of Embden's conscripts for the Union armies and lost his life at the battle of Winchester. After the war his widow married Benjamin Young.
William S. (1846-1863), a corporal in Company F, 20th Maine Volunteers, fell during the first day at Gettysburg.
Henry G. (1847-1921) married a daughter of J. Williamson Moulton. They dwelt in the 1880's on a farm west of the Trail and a little below his father.
Mary A. (1849) married Ai Moulton and during much of her widowhood has resided on her husband's farm close to the Concord line. She has been a forceful character in her community and is one of Embden's noble women.
Josephine S. (1850-1916) married Charles Hutchinson and resided at Portland, where both of them died.
Edwin W. (1852-1924) married Carrie Hilton and at one time occupied Lot No. 57 north of his brother Henry but died at Mannville, R. I.
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James L. (1854) married Etta Rowe of Concord, and is a resident of Solon. His son, Allen Hodgdon of Embden, married Maud, the daughter of Lowell E. Ward formerly of Embden, and now of Charlestown, Mass., and a granddaughter of An- drew J. Libbey.
Emma B. (1856) married Melvin Berry. They reside on the former William Atkinson farm, which is also a part of the old time Hodgdon neighborhood.
Charles A. (1858) lives at Rinelander, Wis.
Allen D. (1860) resides at Tomahawk Lake, Wis.
The Hodgdon neighborhood of middle Embden has endured into the third generation from Elder Job. A number of his great-grandchildren still live there or near-by. Wallace Hodg- don on the farm with Melvin Berry is one of them. Willis L. Hodgdon (1889) of North Anson and a graduate of Anson Academy, 1908, is another. Like his father, Henry G. Hodgdon, he has been active in Free Masonry and in 1926 was appointed district deputy grand master. The Hodgdons have remained very largely an Embden family. The marriages of James' sons and daughters, it might be noted, were in the main with house- holds that were or had been of Embden.
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