History of Androscoggin County, Maine, Part 24

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Boston, W.A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1050

USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > History of Androscoggin County, Maine > Part 24

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class, with, perhaps, one member from outside the college. The committee first names the best debater in each division, regardless of his elocution, and then, out of all the class, selects the eight best disputants, whether successful in their own division or not, for a final "champion debate" that constitutes one of the exercises of commencement week. Care is taken to have all the topics discussed worthy of the student's study. Out of a list presented by the professor in charge of the exercise the students choose one to their taste. Some of the questions discussed have been : The Tariff : State vs. Denomina- tional Colleges; Bismarck or Gladstone; English Ciril Service for the United States; Correctness of the Popular Estimate of Bacon; A Canal Across the Isthmus to be Built by the United States.

The rhetorical exercises of the freshman and sophomore classes include essays and public prize declamations. Each member of both classes after a private drill in speaking participates in the declamations. Each junior debates before the class, writes essays, and prepares an original declamation for a publie prize contest. All the class read their parts before a committee of their own selection, who then choose the twelve best to compete, during commencement week, in respect to composition and elocution, for a first and second prize. The rhetorical work of the senior year consists of criticisms, literary and philosophical, essays, and orations. At the close of the spring term, a senior exhibition is given by twelve representative speakers selected in the same manner as the contestants in the junior prize.

V. Prizes .- The system of prizes established at Bates has been found to be attended with good results. It is as follows: For general scholarship, a first and second prize are given to each of the first three classes ; the first prizes are respectively eight, nine, and ten dollars; the second, five, six, and seven dollars. As it often happens that the best scholars are not the best speakers, these prizes answer a wise end, in honoring merit on other grounds. For excellence in public declamation there is given to the best speaker of the freshman class, at the close of the fall term, and to the best speaker of the sophomore class, at the close of the spring term, a prize of ten dollars each. The successful competitors in the prize debates receive ten dollars each, and the victor in the champion debate, a prize of twenty dollars. The first prize given for the best original declamation by the juniors in commencement week is seventy-five dollars, and the second, twenty. 3 For improvement in English composition, as shown by the essays and original declamations, prizes of ten dollars each are given to the most deserving member of the sopho- more and of the junior classes respectively.

VI. Outside Lectures. - It has come to be a custom of the college to secure from eminent scholars, teachers, and divines, a yearly course of lectures before the students. Some of New England's ablest thinkers and leaders of thought have been heard in this way. These lectures are made free to the public, and

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are highly appreciated by the scholarly element of Lewiston and Auburn, as well as by the class for whom they are more immediately intended. Among those who have been heard are John Fiske, Edwin D. Mead, Phillips Brooks, Edward Everett Hale, Alexander Mckenzie, Ruen Thomas, Professor C. W. Emerson, ex-President Hill of Harvard. In one course, Rev. Selah Merrill, D.D., gave six lectures on Palestine. It has been generally by the courtesy and generous consideration of these eminent men that the students have liad the privilege of listening to their counsels.

VII. Morals and Religion. - The college requires attendance at church, once each Sabbath, wherever the student may elect to go; also at daily morning prayers after the first recitation, and at the public services on the day of prayer for colleges.

The students sustain a Y. M. C. A. and a Y. W. C. A .- the two forming a Christian union for a general social meeting on Wednesday evening. Class prayer-meetings, with more or less regularity, are also held. By reason of these and other direct Christian agencies, a pure moral and religious atmos- phere has, from the first, pervaded the institution. In their guardianship of the moral character of the college, the faculty have not hesitated to be "paternal " to the extent of promptly dismissing any student disposed to spread moral contamination among his associates. Temperance, interpreted to mean total abstinence, is universally prevalent, and, what is possibly more significant, the use of tobacco, while not prohibited by the college, is, by the students' own act, reduced to a minimum, or altogether discarded. At the present time it is believed that not one of the students is addicted to its use. The benefit of a scholarship carries with it a pledge of abstinence from tobacco.

VIII. Interest of the Faculty in the Students. - The personal interest of the faculty in the students, made possible by the size of the classes, can be men- tioned as one of the striking features of the college. Any student is invited to consult freely with the faculty on whatever concerns his welfare as a member of the college. By the free response to this invitation, the faculty are brought to know the moral as well as the intellectual bent of the members of each class. The result is that the student, perceiving that he is an object of interest to his teachers, feels at liberty to seek their advice in respect to his studies, or to ask their aid in his endeavors to get a situation to teach or work. The opportunity is thus presented to the faculty to mingle any word of caution, reproof, or commendation with their favors. The good offices of the faculty invoked and freely extended through the course, are especially sought as graduation draws near, by those intending to teach. It is very natural, too, that members of an alumni thus trained in college should not be restrained from looking to the faculty, at any later time, for counsel or other consideration.

THE ALUMNI. - The whole number of graduates from the college is five hundred and five. The whole number of graduates from the divinity school

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is ninety-four. The whole number of graduates from the institution is five hundred and ninety-nine. The first class, of 1867, consisted of eight; the last, of thirty-three, in 1891. Assuming the average age of the students at graduation to be twenty-three years, the members of the first class would now be in their forty-fifth year. The first nine classes graduated one hundred and two, -that is, about one-fourth of the entire alumni. The remaining three- fourths, therefore, have not yet passed their thirty-eighth year. Eighteen more than one-half of the alumni had graduated in 1881; hence, one-half of the whole number have not yet passed their thirty-third year. These figures clearly set forth the youth of the college and show that but few of its alumni have arrived at the period when distinction usually comes to men. The alumni are not too young to have successfully entered upon the pursuits of life, but are yet too young to have carried off its highest honors.

Interpreted by the callings selected, the alumni may claim to have been rather drawn to positions of usefulness than to those promising renown. Forty per cent. of them have become teachers, and not a few of them teachers of a superior order. Accustomed to teach while in college, on leaving it many of them can at once turn their experience to their advantage in this line of work. Thus it has come about that more city high schools in New England are now taught by graduates of Bates than by those of any other college. Three of the alumni are teachers in Boston, three in Washington, one at Harvard, nine in other colleges, and others are found scattered through the schools of twenty-one states of the Union.

Exclusive of the alumna, although the second young woman to graduate from the college is a preacher, about nineteen per cent. of the alumni have chosen the ministry, or seventy in all. Of these forty-one have entered the Free Baptist ministry, seventeen the Congregational, and twelve that of other bodies. In the first decade, twenty-three per cent., in the second only thirteen per cent. of the alumni chose this profession, a serious decline, although one shared in common with the other New England colleges of our day. Of the remainder of the alumni fourteen per cent. have chosen the law, twelve per cent. medicine, the rest, architecture, civil engineering, journalism, and other vocations.

Alumni Associations. - The loyalty of any alumni to their alma mater may be assumed to exist. The alumni of Bates give to it an ardent loyalty. From association with graduates of other colleges in ways to bring into relief the comparative results of each other's mental training, many of the alumni have taken occasion to report their satisfaction with the instruction, course of study, discipline, spirit, and standards maintained at Bates. Wherever found in sufficient numbers, they have organized alumni associations for an annual reunion and supper, and for fostering the interests of the college. The most important of these associations is the chartered body consisting of all the grad-

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uates, and holding its annual meeting during commencement. One evening of the week is given up to this association for such literary exercises as it may, out of its own members, provide. Two-fifths of the Board of Overseers are now nominated by the alumni, or two out of the five that are annually elected. The acquaintance of these alumni with the internal affairs of the college can hardly be equaled by that of other members of the corporation; and hence the influence of the alumni on the management of the college seems destined to be increasingly controlling and valuable, as their years, with those of the college, ripen into maturity.

PRESENT CONDITION. - The college corporation is now sustaining three distinct departments: The Latin School, with seven instructors and eighty- nine students; Cobb Divinity School, with a faculty of six, and twenty students ; Bates College proper, with ten professors and instructors, and one hundred and forty-six students.1 For the support of these schools the corporation has, besides annual donations from special friends, and the income from room rents and tuition, the interest of above $300,000 of productive funds. Thus, well organized, respectably equipped and endowed, with the confidence of the public, and a commanding reputation for scholarship secured, with an increas- ing circle of friends, and with a faculty whose character is best portrayed by this record of results achieved, Bates College can be said to have started well on a career of service for education, religion, and humanity.

CHAPTER XII.

MASONIC AND ODD FELLOW SOCIETIES.

F REEMASONRY IN ANDROSCOGGIN .- The first Masonic lodge in America, St John's Lodge, was holden at Boston, July 30, 1733, by commission from Lord Viscount Montague, Grand Master of England. The next was St Andrew's Lodge, instituted there, November 30, 1752, by a dispensation from Lord Aberdowr, Grand Master of Scotland. His successor, the Earl of Dalhousie, March 3, 1772, commissioned "Doctor Joseph Warren, Grand Master of all the Masonic lodges in America." After General Warren fell on Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, Joseph Webb, Esq., succeeded him as Grand

1 Figures of 1890.

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Master. The first lodge in Maine was Portland Lodge, chartered in 1762, established in March, 1769. The oldest chapter was Portland Chapter, instituted in 1805. The Grand Lodge of Maine was established at Portland, during the first session of the Maine Legislature, in 1820. The strong men of Androscoggin Valley were heartily in unison with the fraternal spirit and principles of Freemasonry, and in the first decade of this century movements were made culminating in the creation of Oriental Star Lodge in Livermore in 1811, and of Tranquil Lodge now of Auburn. From these have sprung numerous children, and both exist to-day, exercising a potent influence in Masonic counsels.

Oriental Star Lodge, No. 21, F. S. A. M., North Livermore.1-Among the early settlers of Livermore and vicinity were quite a number of persons who belonged to the ancient order of Free and Accepted Masons. Drawn together by a fraternal feeling, stronger perhaps because they were strangers in a strange land, they occasionally met together, when naturally the subject of Masonry would be the topic of conversation. Afterwards there were appointed meetings for consultation or instruction. Finally a general invitation was extended to all brethren residing in the adjoining towns to meet at Stone's Hall, Livermore, March 5, 1811, to take measures towards the formation of a lodge of Masons in that vicinity. After mature consultation it was voted to petition the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for a charter. At a meeting held in July following they received notice that their petition had been granted, and a charter was ready for them in Boston, upon the payment of the usual fee of seventy dollars, granting them full powers as a lodge of Free and Accepted Masons by the name of ORIENTAL STAR LODGE. This charter was received at a meeting held April 21, 1812. It bore the date of June 13, 1811, and was signed by Timothy Bigelow, Grand Master. At the same meeting these officers were elected : W. Samuel Small, W. M .; William H. Brettun, S. W .; Simeon Waters, J. W .; Jesse Stone, treasurer; Sylvester Strickland, secre- tary. This lodge never worked under a dispensation. During the first few years of its existence it had no suitable place for its meetings, and usually met in a private room of a dwelling of one of the brethren, and sometimes in an unfinished chamber over a store. It was determined to erect a building for the accommodation of the lodge, and in 1818 a hall was erected at Stone's Corner, Livermore, at a cost of about one thousand dollars. The lodge was incorporated by the legislature, February 10, 1823, with the right to take and hold for charitable and benevolent purposes real estate to the value of three thousand dollars, and personal estate to the value of five thousand dollars. The original members were Samuel Small, Sylvester Strickland, James Johnston, Oliver Pollard, James Waite, Simeon Waters, Ithamar Phinney, Isaac Root, Isaac Livermore, Libeus Leach, Aaron S. Barton, William H.

1 By S. G. Shurtleff.

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Brettun, Cornelius Holland, Jesse Stone, and Dexter Walker. These either signed the petition or were active in the preliminary measures taken to start the lodge. Many of them were prominent and influential members of the community.

The lodge got well under way and its prospects were looking bright when the Morgan excitement broke ont. Oriental Star felt its disheartening influ- ence with the rest. The excitement even got into the church. Stillman Noyes, James Starr, Sebes Hyde, and Arnold Whittemore, members of Oriental Star, were also members of the Baptist church in Jay. They were notified to withdraw from the order or lose their standing in the church. Of course they adhered to their obligations as Masons, and the church concluded it would not be wise to lose some of its best members. For abont fifteen years following 1830 little or no work was done; but the lodge usually elected its officers and was in condition to do work. While at this time they received no accessions to their numbers they were yet thoroughly imbuded with the spirit of Masonry and some of the most interesting meetings were held during this period.

In 1856 the lodge met with a severe misfortune. On July 26 their hall, with a great part of their furniture, was burned. The loss was but one-half covered by insurance. The lodge immediately voted to rebuild, and a new hall was completed in November, 1857, which, on June 24 following, was solemnly dedicated to Free Masonry by the M. W. Grand Lodge of Maine, Most Worshipful Grand Master Robert P. Dunlap, presiding. November 9, 1875, this hall also, with the furniture, fixtures, and regalia, was destroyed by fire, together with its ancient charter. In no ways discouraged, Oriental Star promptly voted to rebuild on a larger scale. A new hall was erected the next year, and completed so that the annual communication was held in it in October. It was dedicated on June 21, 1877, by the M. W. Grand Lodge of Maine. There were present, on this occasion, Whitney Lodge of Canton, Renel Washburn Lodge of Livermore Falls, King Hiram Lodge of Dixfield, beside delegations from Nezinscot, Evening Star, Tranquil, Rabboni, Asylum, and Blazing Star lodges. The address was delivered by M. W. Josiah H. Drummond, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Maine.

Oriental Star was organized during the early settlement of Livermore. As this section of the state was then sparsely settled, it drew its membership largely from the adjacent towns. But as the country became more thickly settled, new lodges were formed in the adjoining towns, often drawing quite largely upon Oriental Star for membership. In April, 1872, twenty-nine members were dimitted to enable them to organize Whitney Lodge, in Canton. Again in May, 1877, twenty-five more were dimitted to organize Reuel Wash- burn Lodge at Livermore Falls. Few lodges have experienced so many misfortunes or have met with so much discouragement as Oriental Star. It is quite a different thing to build up and maintain a flourishing lodge in the

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cities and larger villages where wealth abounds, to what it is in a sparsely settled farming community. Oriental Star is entitled to much credit for its energy and pluck in meeting its misfortunes so bravely, and so resolutely pushing ahead against adversity. To resist the discouraging influence of the anti-Morgan excitement, to lose two Masonic halls by fire within twenty years, to lose fifty-four members within six years by dimit, and then to retain a membership of ninety and possess a Masonic hall worth twenty-five hundred dollars, and an invested fund of more than one thousand dollars, is consider- able for a small country town of less than twelve hundred population. More than this, in November, 1873, it donated the sum of five hundred dollars to Whitney Lodge, to be used for charitable purposes, according to the usages of the fraternity. Doubtless the prosperity of the lodge was largely due to many prominent and influential men included in its list of membership. Among them may be mentioned Samuel Small, Cornelius Holland, and Reuel Washburn. Samuel Small was a physician of extensive practice, and the first Master of the lodge. He was a man of intelligence and respected by the whole community. He represented his town in the legislature of Massachusetts and Maine, and the County of Oxford in the Senate of Massachusetts and in the Senate of Maine, and was a member of the executive council. Cornelius Holland was also a physician of large practice. He was an active member of the lodge upon its first organization, and was conspienous for his zeal and fidelity to Masonic principles. He was several times elected to the State Senate, and twice elected Representative to Congress.

Perhaps the man to whom Oriental Star Lodge is indebted more than to any other is Reuel Washburn. He was born in 1793; graduated at Brown University in 1814; admitted to the bar, 1817; made a Mason in 1818; elected Master, 1822; D. D. S. M., 1826 and 1827; Grand Master, 1835-6-7; served his lodge as Master seven years, and as secretary eleven years; was a member of both branches of the legislature and of the executive council; was register and judge of probate, and several times a candidate of the Whig party for Congress. During his membership of Oriental Star Lodge of nearly sixty years he was largely instrumental in shaping its course of action, and watchful of its financial as well as of its moral advancement. He took a deep interest in everything pertaining to Masonry, and his invaluable services both in and out of the lodge to promote its usefulness will not soon be forgotten. His ability, integrity, and upright bearing in all of the walks of life gave him an influence possessed by no one else.

Among other prominent members of the lodge may be mentioned William H. Brettnn, an active business man, who accumulated quite a large estate; Sylvester Strickland, a merchant, who was the first secretary of the lodge ; Benjamin Bradford, for nearly sixty years a practicing physician in Livermore, several times elected to the legislature, twice elected Master of the lodge, and

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held in high esteem by the fraternity; Lee Strickland, colonel of the Eighth Maine Infantry ; Major Isaac Strickland, a prominent business man; Joseph Covell, who died while consul to Prince Edward's Island; nor should the name of Moses Stone be omitted, who served as chaplain of the lodge for forty years. Ile was noted for integrity, firmness of purpose, and purity of life. No member was so sincerely and universally venerated and loved by the fraternity. During that dark period of Masonry, the anti-Masonic excitement, he could be seen advancing with a firm and unfaltering step to that Masonic temple where his brethren were assembled, and where he always devoutly and fervently prayed for the perpetuity of the order, and God's blessing upon it. For his moral and Christian character and unblem- ished reputation he was respected by all, and regarded in the order as a pillar of strengthi.

Oriental Star has now a membership of ninety-two. With a lodge on one side within five miles, and on the other side within three miles, its territory is quite restricted, and its membership is therefore smaller than it otherwise would be. The present officers are: Asa G. Timberlake, W. M .; Willie A. Thompson, S. W .; R. A. Ryerson, J. W .; Caleb Smith, treasurer; S. G. Shurtleff, secretary. The living past masters are: Lewis A. Farrar, John D. Hodge, Cornelius M. Holland, Byron C. Waite, Everett L. Philoon, C. H. Boothby, C. E. Knight, M.D., and George Q. Gammon.

Tranquil Lodge, No. 29, F. S. A. M., Auburn. - This lodge never worked under a dispensation. March 18, 1818, a number of brethren met at the house of Bro. Oliver Pollard in Minot (North Auburn), took the necessary steps for formation and elected officers. These were Oliver Pollard, W. M .; Henry Jackson, S. W .; Alden Blossom, J. W .; Enoch Perkins, treasurer; Joseph Keith, secretary; Seth Staples, S. D .; Asa Phillips, J. D .; Hezekiah Bryant, tyler. Beside these were present Lemuel Nash, Thomas Davis, Leonard Richmond, Cyrus Clark, Jacob Hill, Reed Phillips, Aaron Bird, Jonathan Nash, Henry Jones, Jr, Hira Bradford, Oliver Herrick. Opening a lodge of master Masons they voted to apply for a charter, and a petition signed by the nineteen Masons was forwarded to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, which acted favorably on the petition and granted a charter, dated March 11, 1818. March 24, 1819, occurred the first meeting after the arrival of the charter. Officers were chosen and Nathaniel Ingalls was proposed as a candidate. He was accepted and was the first person initiated. From this time monthly communications were held until September 19, when the lodge was constituted by the Grand Lodge and its officers installed.

From 1820 to 1826 harmony prevailed, attendance was large, and good work was done. February 9, 1824, the lodge was incorporated as a charitable institution by the legislature to hold real estate to the value of $6,000, and personal property amounting to $10,000. The membership was widely scat-

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tered; some lived at Turner village and neighborhood, others at Lewiston Falls, and others at Minot Corner, and several fruitless attempts were made to divide the lodge or change the place of meeting. No work was done from June, 1829, to June, 1847, although meetings were sustained until 1831, and August 17, 1843, a fire destroyed the charter. June 23, 1847, the last meeting was held at North Auburn. Officers were elected and it was voted to remove the lodge to "Chamberlain Hall in Auburn, near Lewiston Falls," where, October 13, the officers were publicly installed. The new charter was dated May 20, 1847. From this time the prosperity of the lodge has been contin- uous, the ablest citizens being members, and active in work. Among those removed by death in its earlier years were Mark Hill (1848), George W. Chase (D. D. G. M.), and Dan Read (1853), Gen. Alden Blossom, of Turner, eighty- seven years old, a Past Master (1863), G. F. Newell, Jacob Herrick, Edmund D. Covell, and George C. Cross (1864), C. R. Bowker, G. G. Robinson, Joseph Freeman, Joseph Lufkin, and A. A. Trueworthy (1865). In 1868 died A. II. Small and T. A. D. Fessenden; in 1869 S. S. Bridgham, Lewis Phillips, and R. L. Andrews; in 1870 Hubbard Lovejoy, William Kilbourne, Isaac L. Merrill ; in 1871 J. M. Blossom and J. K. Piper; in 1872 B. E. Lombard and Almon C. Pray, the last a very zealous Mason and master of the lodge. John Penley, for nearly sixty years a Mason, died in 1873. These years have given the greatest mortality among the members in proportion to the number. June 24, 1874, the dedication of Masonic Hall (now used by Burnside Post as a G. A. R. Hall) occurred with the celebration of St John's Day. The Grand Lodge, Ashlar, Rabboni, Cumberland, and Nezinscot lodges, DeMolay, Trinity, Biddeford, and Lewiston commanderies joining in the services. In 1876 an extensive history of the lodge, written by Brother Robert Martin, was published in pamphlet form by the lodge. Up to January, 1875, 931 commu- nications had been held, 333 persons initiated, and 82 applications rejected, and at that date the lodge numbered 198 members.

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History of Androscoggin County, Maine, Part 24

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Boston, W.A. Fergusson & co. Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Boston, W.A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1050