USA > Maine > Oxford County > Bethel > History of Bethel : formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-1890, with a brief sketch of Hanover and family statistics > Part 22
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"And then, one summer evening's close, We left them to their last repose."
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It was dark before the burial was completed, and we were com- pelled to spend the night in the house so lately left by the buried family." He married for his first wife, Alice Bodwell of Methuen, Mass., and for his second wife, Miss Mary Taskett of Bartlett. She died December twenty-first, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, aged seventy-two.
UNIVERSALISTS.
Early in the history of the town, there were those living here who believed in the paternity of God and the fraternity of man, and who could not reconcile this relationship with the idea of future endless punishment. There was not enough of them to effect an organiza- tion or to support a preacher of their own way of thinking, and so for many years they attended the meetings of other denominations and listened to their expositions of the word under mental protest. They believed in going to church and in bringing up their children to go, and as long as they could not have what they wanted, they took what they could get. As time passed, the doctrine which these people cherished, became better known and ministers of this denom- ination were multiplied. Occasionally one of them came to Bethel, and among those who preached here quite early, were Rev. George Bates, Rev. Zenas Thompson and Rev. Thomas J. Tenney. There was an itinerant Baptist minister by the name of Mighill Jewett, who frequently came to this town and preached in the lower parish. He supported himself by such contributions as were made for him from time to time. On one occasion, a text was given him to preach from by Phineas Frost, and the church was crowded, for he was considered an able preacher. But to the surprise of every one pres- ent and to the disgust of many, he preached a strong Universalist sermon, admitting that before that time he had been in error, and that the study of the text given him with the context, had caused him to change his views entirely.
In eighteen hundred and forty-seven, Joseph Twitchell and seven others associated to form an incorporated religious society in the town of Bethel. From the Constitution framed at that time, the first article reads as follows : "The society shall be called the first Universalist Society in Bethel. This object of this society shall be the promotion of Truth." During the next year the Rev. George Bates preached a few Sabbaths at the academy, but they did not establish public worship for want of a suitable house. In eighteen
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hundred and fifty-three a church was erected at an expense of some- thing over two thousand dollars, and the Rev. Zenas Thompson was chosen pastor ; he entered upon his duties in June, eighteen hundred and fifty-four. Under his ministration the society sustained preach- ing through the year, and in autumn of eighteen hundred and fifty- nine, a church was organized consisting of forty-three members. Among those who joined in this movement were Joseph Twitchell, Dr. Almon Twitchell, Joseph A. Twitchell, Albert H. Gerrish, Moses Pattee, Benjamin Freeman, Hiram Young, Eber Clough, Charles Mason, Oliver H. Mason, Clark S. Edwards, Ira C. Kim- ball, O'Neil W. Robinson and Albert Stiles. Rev. Zenas Thompson remained here five years, and accomplished a good work for the church and society. His successor was Rev. Absalom G. Gaines, who was a native of Kentucky. He was a scholarly man and an excellent preacher and pastor. He was much interested in educa- tion, and in every good cause. He remained here several years, was greatly beloved by his people, and respected by every one. The blameless life he led, and the true christian character he ex- hibited on all occasions was well calculated to popularize the faith he held to and the doctrine he preached. Mr. Gaines afterward preached at Mechanic Falls, and subsequently left the State and became President of the Theological Department of St. Lawrence University at Canton, New York.
Rev. Ezekiel W. Coffin, who was settled over the church at Bry- ant's Pond, supplied the pulpit here for a while. Rev. John F. Simmons was settled here for a few years, and then came Rev. William Bosserman, an Englishman. The society became greatly weakened by removals from town and by death, so there was no regular preaching for several years, until Rev. Mr. Barton came. One of the strong pillars of the society was Oliver H. Mason, who died in eighteen hundred and ninety. By the terms of his will he left the Society one thousand dollars, the income only to be used for the support of preaching. By this act, he became a perpetual subscriber to the society' funds.
REV. ZEZAS THOMPSON.
Rev. Zenas Thompson, first pastor of the Universalist church in Bethel, and a resident of the town, was born in Auburn, December fourth, eighteen hundred and four. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage, his first American ancestor, Archibald Thompson, coming from the
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north of Ireland to America in seventeen hundred and twenty-four, and settling at Bridgewater. Capt. John Thompson, the grand- father of Zenas, married Jeanette Allen and moved to Buckfield. Archibald Thompson was a wheel-maker, and made the first spin- ning-wheel ever made in New England. John Thompson of Buck- field followed the same trade. The father of Zenas was Hannibal, son of John before named, and his mother was a Dillingham of Auburn. Mr. Thompson early embraced the Universalist faith, and began to preach when quite young. He had settlements in various parts of the State, in Farmington, Frankfort, Bridgton, Yarmouth, Saccarappa, Augusta, Bethel, Bryant's Pond, Mechanic Falls, West Waterville and Paris, and in several places in Massachusetts. He was among the ablest and best known of the ministers of his denom- ination in the State, a profound thinker, a logical reasoner and gifted as a pulpit orator. He was among the first in Maine to suggest the prohibition of the liquor traffic, and one of its most eloquent advo- cates. He was chaplain of the sixth Maine Regiment in the war of the rebellion, and malaria contracted in the Chickahominy swamps in the Peninsula campaign of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, was the remote cause of his death. He inherited the mechanical genius of his ancestors. He could make an elegant fly-rod or a rifle, and was skilful in the use of both. He had marvelous skill in wood- carving, and seemed to have an intuitive knowledge of almost everything in the department of the useful and ornamental arts. He had social qualities of a high order, and was a most agreeable friend and companion. He married Leonora Leavitt of Turner, and reared a large family. One of his sons, Geo. W., was killed in action during the war, and the other two, Zenas and Fred are engaged in carriage manufacturing in Portland. One of the daughters, now deceased, was the first wife of Prof. Geo. L. Vose, formerlya Maine resident, and another, Mrs. Julia Schayer of Washington, D. C., is a magazine writer of repute. Mr. Thompson died at his home in Deering, November seventeenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two.
Mr. Thompson built the fine house afterwards occupied by Oliver H. Mason. He closed his pastorate here in eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, aud was succeeded by Rev. Absalom G. Gaines, as already stated.
REV. FRANK E. BARTON.
Rev. Frank E. Barton, the present pastor of the Universalist church, was born in Saco, Maine, June twenty, eighteen hundred
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and fifty-two, and was the son of Isaac Somes and Roxanna (Miller) Barton. He learned of his father, the trade of carriage painter at Brownfield, Maine, having previously been educated in the public schools of Boston. Making up his mind to engage in the ministry, he studied theology at the Seminary connected with the Saint Law- rence University at Canton, New York, graduating therefrom in eighteen hundred and eighty-nine. His settlement at Bethel dates from July first of the year last named. He was ordained June twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety. He found the parish much run down, there being no organization and no Sabbath school. The society had suffered severely during the few previous years by removals by death and from the town of many of its most active members. When Mr. Barton came, there were only twenty-five families in sympathy with the church, but in a year the number had been doubled, and the Sabbath school numbered ninety attendants. Mr. Barton is a very popular preacher and pastor, and the society, though not large, is in a very prosperous condition. Mr. Barton married October eleven, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, Miss Fannie Elizabeth, daughter of John and Caroline Fogg of Brown- field. They have one child, Agnes Linwood, born at Brownfield, September eleventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-five.
OTHER MINISTERS.
Several native born citizens of Bethel, and others who have spent more or less time in town and who have entered upon the work of the ministry but have never had settlements here, are briefly men- tioned to close this chapter.
REV. ADDISON ABBOT.
He was the son of Jonathan Abbot, and was born in Albany, but when young his parents moved to this town. He received a good education and was a popular school teacher. He was then licensed to preach and resided a long time at North Paris, where he died.
REV. NATHANIEL BARKER.
Mr. Barker was the son of Samuel Barker, and was born in Ames- bury, Massachusetts, January sixth, seventeen hundred and ninety - six. He came to Bethel with his father's family and spent his youth here. He graduated from Dartmouth College, studied at
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Andover, was ordained and settled at South Mendon. His next settlement was at Wakefield, New Hampshire, in eighteen hundred and thirty-five, where he remained as pastor twenty years. He died at Wakefield, October thirteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three. The following is an extract from Mr. Barker's funeral sermon :
"In the beautiful village of Bethel which lies along the margin of the river Androscoggin, as it winds its circling course, enriching the soil of the intervales, gladdening the heart of the husbandman, mak- ing a scene of beauty and adding not a little to that scenery of vale and mountain which has made this village one of the most delight- ful as a place of resort in the summer months for strangers, who come from far to drink in health and inspiration, and always a glad resort, or better, a home for her sons and daughters who come back to sit beneath the old roof tree, and live over in thought those hap- py days of childhood which the good Lord gave, Mr. Barker was born. For bodily health and vigor, for clearness of thought and lofty aspirations, even the air they breathe must affect the dwellers thereof, and a greater tendency be secured at the start for a health- ful moral state than in some localities. Coupled with this is the character of the first settlers of many of our New England commu- nities, vigorous, stern, unyielding to the storms of nature or of human experience. This was, I judge, particularly true, in the case of Bethel. The very name puts its people under an obligation so to live as to be not unworthy to have the place of their abode called after the first Bethel, where to the weary Jacob came that entrancing vision which led him to cry out when he awoke, 'This is none other but the house of God and this the gate of heaven.'"
REV. WILLIAM R. CHAPMAN.
Rev. William Rogers Chapman, son of Timothy Chapman, was born in Bethel, February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and twelve. He attended the common schools of his native town and fitted for college under the charge of Rev. Jonas Burnham of Bridgton, hav- ing in view at this early date the entry into the Christian ministry. He entered Bowdoin College in eighteen hundred and thirty-three, and after two years joined the junior class at Dartmouth, where he graduated in eighteen hundred and thirty-seven. He taught acade- mies at Wakefield, New Hampshire, and at Bethel, commenc- ing his theological course at Andover, and completed it at New Haven in eighteen hundred and forty. He became the stated pastor for a
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few months of the congregation then worshiping in the Marlboro Chapel in Boston.
In September. eighteen hundred and forty, a number of churches formed what was termed the Garden street chapel in Boston, over which Mr. Chapman was then ordained. During the first year, one hundred and fifty members were added to the church, mostly new converts. After five years of successful labor here, a union was formed with the Green street church, the union being called the Messiah church. Mr. Chapman became the colleague pastor of the venerable Rev. Dr. Jenks. In eighteen hundred and forty-seven, he received and accepted a call from the Eighth street church in New York city. In eighteen hundred and forty-nine Mr. Chapman visited Europe and was absent fifteen months, travelling in Great Britain and on the Continent. While absent he formed the acquaint- ance of many distinguished divines, and in Geneva, his efforts to form a Sabbath school were successful, and will be long remembered.
On his return to his native land, he received several invitations to resettle in the ministry, and accepted the call to settle over the Presbyterian church in Aurora, New York, over which he was in- stalled December twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and fifty. He remained here four years, but towards the close of his ministry he was brought low by sickness, and for some time his life was despaired of. In August of eighteen hundred and fifty-four, Mr. Chapman moved to Hanover, Massachusetts, where, in the space of five months he received twenty-one persons into communion with the Second Congregational church. On the eighteenth of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, he was prostrated with the disease of which he finally died. After lingering through the winter, spring and summer, enfeebled by an organic disease of the brain, toward the last of October, as he was walking through the streets of Hano- ver, he was attacked with a stroke of paralysis and died on the. twenty-fifth of October, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. His funeral at Hanover was attended by four clergymen, and a large con- course of people. Funeral services were again held at Bethel on the twenty-ninth, a sermon being preached by Rev. Mr. Sewall of Paris. His young son, named for his father, was baptized over the coffin.
REV. CALVIN CHAPMAN.
Rev. Calvin Chapman, son of Edmund Chapman, was born in Bethel in eighteen hundred and fourteen. He fitted for college at
REV. H. C ESTES, D. D.
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Millbury, Massachusetts, and graduated from Bowdoin College in eighteen hundred and thirty-nine. He taught a few terms at Gould's Academy, meantime pursuing a course in theological studies at Andover, where he graduated in eighteen hundred and forty-two. He has had settlements at Epping, New Hampshire, at Saccarappa and Foxcroft, Maine, and at Lakeville, Massachusetts. He has also been acting pastor over churches at Eliot, Andover, Standish, Mannsville, New York, and Windham, Vermont. He has been much interested in educational matters and has often been super- visor of schools and on school boards. In eighteen hundred and forty-two, he married Miss Lucy B. Emerson of Parsonsfield, Maine, who died in eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and he then married Miss Sarah A. Ward of Kennebunkport.
REV. LAWSON CARTER.
He was the son of Dr. Timothy Carter, born at Sutton, Mas- sachusetts, in seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and moved with the family to Bethel. He graduated from Dartmouth College, studied theology and was settled in the Episcopal ministry at Alders- bury, New York. He was subsequently rector of Grace church in Cleveland, Ohio.
REV. HIRAM C. ESTES.
Rev. Hiram Cushman Estes, D. D., son of John and Sarah (Andrews) Estes, was born in Bethel, July twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and twenty-three. He was brought up on a farm, but early developed a love of learning and a passion for books. Like many other New England youths, he was obliged to depend mainly upon his own efforts for the means necessary to a course of study, and in his case as in many others, the fact was demonstrated that a deter- mined will is quite sure to open a way. After leaving the town school he attended Bethel Academy, the Turner High School, which was then in charge of John M. Adams of Rumford, now of Deer- ing, and at North Yarmouth Academy, working upon the farm por- tions of each year, and teaching in winter to meet his expenses. He entered Waterville College, now Colby University, in eighteen hundred and forty-three, and graduated with honor in eighteen hun- dred and forty-seven. He studied Theology at the Cambridge (Mass.) Divinity School, and was ordained to the work of the min- istry at Auburn, in this State, May sixteenth, eighteen hundred and
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fifty. For three years, from eighteen hundred and fifty-two to eighteen hundred and fifty-five, he was agent for the American Bap- tist Missionary Union in the State of Maine; settled over the church in East Trenton from eighteen hundred and fifty-five to eighteen hundred and sixty; at Leicester, Mass., from eighteen hundred and sixty to eighteen hundred and sixty-two; at Jericho, Vermont, from eighteen hundred and sixty-two to eighteen hundred and seventy-two ; over the Baptist church in Paris, from January first, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, to July first, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and from September first, eighteen hun- dred and eighty-three, to Sept. eighteen hundred and eighty-five at Winchenden, Mass. While at Trenton he was elected to the Legis- lature in eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, and served as chairman of the committee on Education on the part of the House, to which position he was admirably adapted. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater in eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and never has this important degree been more fitly bestowed by that institution. March first, eighteen hun- dred and eighty-six, he was again called to the Baptist church in Leicester, and his connection with that church still continues. Dr. Estes is a profound scholar, a forcible and interesting writer, and whatever he undertakes to do, he does well. He has written and delivered several lectures which have been highly spoken of by those best qualified to judge. His only published volume is an essay entitled "The Christian Doctrine of the Soul," which appeared in eighteen hundred and seventy-three, from the press of Noyes, Holmes and Company of Boston. It is a duodecimo of one hun- dred and sixty-three pages, and a model of concise and logical writ- ing. It was well received by all denominations of Christians. Several of his occasional sermons have been printed and widely read. He has also prepared and published a history of the Baptist church in Leicester, a work requiring much patient research and admirably done.
Dr. Estes was married December eighteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, to Sophia Bartlett, daughter of Dea. Eli Foster of Bethel, and the following are their children :
į David Foster, b. Oct. 18, 1851. He was graduated from the Univer- sity of Vermont, 1871, and from the Newton Theological Institu- tion, 1874; pursued special studies in Theology at the University of Goettingen, 1878-79; ordained at Manchester, Vermont, August
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19, 1874; pastor of the Baptist church, Manchester, 1874-6; Bel- fast, Me., 1876-8; Vergennes, Vt., 1880-3; Professor and Acting President Atlanta Baptist Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., 1883-6; pastor at Holden, Mass., since 1886. He married May 12, 1880, Effigene Lydia, daughter of Truman Chittenden Galusha of Jericho, Vt., born Sept. 14, 1858; has one child, Walter Dalton Estes, born at Vergennes, Vt., July 22, 1881.
ii Walter Dalton, b. July 20, 1855. He was a young man of great promise, and while a student at law at Richford, Vermont, he drank water from a poisoned well, and thereby lost his life. He died Feb. 22, 1878.
iii Alice Maud, b. Feb. 13, 1874. She graduated from Leicester Acade- my in the class of 1891.
REV. SUMNER ESTES.
Rev. Sumner Estes was the son of Eli and Clarissa (Kimball) Estes, and was born in Bethel, June eleventh, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven. He fitted for college, entered at Waterville, but re- mained only one year. He then commenced preaching and had settlements in Sidney, Rockport and elsewhere. On account of a disease of the throat and other infirmities, he was obliged to give up preaching and is now an apothecary in Sanford, Maine.
REV. ALPHEUS GROVER.
Rev. Alpheus Grover was the son of Jedediah Grover of Bethel. He graduated from Bowdoin College in eighteen hundred and thirty- nine, and later, at the Bangor Theological Seminary. He died at Lewiston on his way home from Bangor, in eighteen hundred and forty-three, aged thirty-four years.
REV. JAVAN K. MASON.
He was the son of Walter Mason of Grover Hill in Bethel. He fitted for college at Gould's Academy, and graduated from Bowdoin College in eighteen hundred and forty-five, and from the Bangor Theological Seminary. He was long pastor of the church at Hamp- den, and later at Thomaston, where he was chaplain to the State Prison. While here he became much interested in the movement for ameliorating the condition of convicts, and for devising means for their mental and moral improvement. He was delegate from Maine to the World's convention, which had these special objects
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in charge. After this he had a long pastorate at Fryeburg, and then removed from the State. He is a man of ability and a faith- ful worker in his master's vineyard. He married Susanna, daughter of Thaddeus Twitchell of this town.
REV. WELLINGTON NEWELL.
Rev. Wellington Newell was the second son of Seth Bannister and Betsey (Kimball) Newell, and was born in Pembroke, N. H., January eleventh, eighteen hundred and sixteen. His father re- moved with his family to Bethel in eighteen hundred and twenty- five and settled on a farm on the north side of the river. Wellington attended the district school, the high school at Bethel Hill and at North Bridgton Academy, and qualified himself as a teacher, in which he was very successful. He was also a good singer, and on winter evenings, taught the old-fashioned singing school. Subse- quently he graduated at the Normal School in Bridgewater, Mass., and then went into business in Boston, where he married Lucinda D. Bradford, and had one son, who died at the age of six months. The mother died two years later. Mr. Newell then came to Bethel, and for a time was employed in the store of Robert and Elbridge Chapman. He entered Bangor Theological Seminary and graduated in eighteen hundred and fifty-five.
At Brewer Village, he was acting pastor for nine years, preaching also at East Orrington. For many years he was a member of the Examining Committee of Bangor Seminary. For two years and a half, that he might be near his mother, he preached at North Water- ford, and after her death, he accepted a call at East Charlemont, Massachusetts, where he was installed in eighteen hundred and seventy-three. In eighteen hundred and seventy-seven he removed to Greenfield and was there over ten years as acting pastor, though his health had been failing for two or three years. In the autumn of eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, he had a slight attack of pneumonia and came to Bethel. In March following, he had another attack, and after this, for much of the time until the end came he was confined to his bed. He died July eighteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, at the residence of his sister, Mrs. Timo- thy H. Chapman. He married a second time L. Amanda, daughter of Rev. Charles Frost who was long the pastor of the First church in Bethel, and by this union there were five sons and one daughter.
He was a very amiable man, always kind and courteous, yet al-
G
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ways dignified. He was thoughtful in the little things of every day life, ever regardful of the feelings of others, and ever ready with his words of kindness, to smooth over the rough places in the pathway of others. He was a good preacher, and under his ministrations the churches over which he presided grew in grace and in numbers. The churches at Brewer Village and East Orrington doubled their numbers while he was with them. The example of a blameless life had much to do with his success as a pastor.
CHAPTER XX.
PHYSICIANS.
T was some time after Bethel was settled before a physician came to dwell in the town. The people got along with very ¿little doctoring, and probably were all the better for it, but in case of accident or severe illness they were obliged to send to Frye- burg for a physician, a distance of thirty miles. A Doctor Martin, a German, was here soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. He came to this country with Baron Steuben and formed the ac- quaintance of some of the soldiers who settled here. But he was a man of intemperate habits to such an extent as to disgust the peo- ple, even in those days of free rum and its liberal imbibition, and he soon went away. Doctor John Brickett, who came previous to seventeen hundred and ninety, was a man of different character. He was a young man of good habits, but the field here was not very encouraging for a man of his attainments and skill. While here he was married at Fryeburg, September thirteenth, seventeen hundred and ninety-five, to Elizabeth Ayer of Haverhill. He soon after re- turned to Haverhill and became a distinguished practitioner.
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