USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay Harbor > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 17
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Southport > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 17
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 17
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When he first went to Newburyport, one who opposed his settlement passed him a text, as he entered the church one Sabbath morning, to test his qualities. Mr. Murray, when in the pulpit, unfolded it, laid his own notes aside, and gave his congregation such a sermon as disarmed all prejudice, and caused the Rev. Mr. Parsons to say that Murray had not been surpassed since the days of the apostles. Many clergymen were jealous of his ability. The Rev. Mr. Smith, of Portland, wrote in his diary, in 1772, that he had raised a "sad toss" among his people by not inviting him to preach, and at another of Mr. Murray's visits, in 1787, again writes : "A great uproar about Murray's not preaching." An old writer mentions the fact that once in Brunswick he noticed the church " blocked up," in addition to its foundation, in several places. He asked the reason, and was told that it was done as a safeguard against occasions when Mr. Murray came along and preached there.
But of all his opponents in the ministry none were so bitter and unyielding as Dr. Samuel Spring, of Newburyport, who was a man of ability and also of strong prejudices. He made a place for himself in history by being chaplain to Arnold's
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forces on that memorable campaign against Quebec. He once left the room, on an occasion when they were together, just as Mr. Murray engaged in prayer. A rhymester composed the following :
" Parson Spring began to fling, And seemed to be in a hurry, He couldn't stay to hear him pray, Because 'twas Parson Murray."
Later Doctor Spring published a book of his own writings, and Mr. Murray, in witty retaliation, wrote upon the fly leaf of a copy :
"What mortal power, from things unclean, Can pure productions bring ? Who can command a vital stream From an infected spring ? "
Insinuations have sometimes been made against Mr. Mur- ray, as though something dark or hidden or irregular existed in his character, and during his lifetime he was widely charged with having forged his license to preach, and his name is recorded in the printed "Extracts of Minutes " of the Presby- tery of Philadelphia as a deposed minister. The facts, how- ever, are capable of explanation, and since the decease of Mr. Murray and those who opposed him, perhaps from jealous motives, later writers have simply made brief mention and explanation of the charges and passed them by as both techni- cal and trivial. It appears that when prepared for his license he took issue with certain ministers of the Presbytery of Ballymena in Ireland, and with some warmth charged them with defection in doctrine. For this reason he went to Eng- land for his license, which he obtained from the class of Wool- lers, at Alnwick, Northumberland. On his return his creden- tials were questioned and he sent his papers to Edinburgh to be attested. Two young ministers, friends of his, attested a certificate as "moderator " and " clerk " of a Presbytery. This was untrue on their part, and later, when the matter was brought up, they besought him not to expose them as it would ruin their position and prospects in the church. Rather than ruin them he made an attempt to support the paper as genu- ine, and for this he was accused of forging his credentials. In mature years he always lamented the indiscretion of his youth.
1
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BOOTHBAY CENTER. The First Congregational Church and Cemetery, Soldiers' Monument, Residence of John K. Corey and Schoolhouse.
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The Philadelphia Presbytery deposed him, after having given him certificates of the highest character, when he was and had been for several months preaching in Boothbay. This they did in a very irregular way, without giving him notice or fol- lowing regular procedure in such cases. The proceedings were published in the Massachusetts Gazette of May 12, 1768, together with a manifesto from eleven ministers who publicly withdrew all fellowship with him. He prepared his "Appeal to the Impartial Public," and the "Presbytery of the East- ward " took up the case and in 1771 annulled the censure and always sustained him in good and regular standing. He never, however, outlived the prejudices of some of his fellow clergy- men, which, perhaps, he never would have encountered had he been a man of mediocre ability, even though other condi- tions had been as they were.
During his entire pastorate at Boothbay Mr. Murray was persistently sought by other and larger places to come and settle with them as pastor. In 1774 the congregation of the late Rev. John Morehead in Boston expressed a desire to set- tle him as successor. The previous year he had declined a large salary and settlement at Portsmouth, N. H. For some reason he loved the people and the place of Boothbay beyond any others. Society nor salary could not tempt him to remove from his eastern isolation, where he enjoyed the dis- tinction of being pastor of the most easterly situated Protes- tant Church in America. "There," he wrote to a friend, "I find my comfort, and, I hope, my God; and there I see less danger of being a stumbling block in Zion, the very idea of which to me is worse than death."
The pastorate commenced in Boothbay in 1766, practically ended in 1779, at which time Mr. Murray went to Newbury- port and commenced his labors in the Presbyterian Church there, becoming its settled pastor in 1781, in which capacity he continued until his death, March 13, 1793.
At the dedication service in the Boothbay church in 1766, he had preached from the text : "Come over into Macedonia and help us." The first years of his settlement in Boothbay he made his home with his cousin, Col. Andrew Reed. On December 15, 1772, he married Susanna, daughter of Gen.
13
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
William Lithgow, of Georgetown. They had three children, all born in Boothbay : John Wentworth, born in 1774 ; Kath- erine, born in 1776 ; Robert L., born in 1778.
After marriage he lived while he remained in Boothbay at the parsonage on Pisgah, built upon the land left for that purpose by the unfortunate Edmund Brown. John Leishman was builder, and it was considered in those days of rude abodes an imposing structure.
The first Congregational Church at the Center stood where the present one does. It was about forty by sixty feet in size and two stories in height. There were two vestibules and three entrances, at the east, west and south. From a large hallway stairs went to the gallery. The pews were seven by nine feet in size and the backs came just about to the shoulders of a person of medium height ; they had seats on three sides with a door opening to the aisle. There were gallery pews on both sides and a singing gallery at the south. The pulpit was at the north. The finish throughout was of pine moulding, in the panel style of architecture so prevalent in those days. When the new church was built the old one was taken down and moved to East Boothbay, where it may now be seen in Adams' shipyard, used as a workshop and model room. The first par- sonage was built where the present one stands. It was voted at the annual meeting in March, 1796 :
" To build a ministeral house on the Commons. That said house be 36 feet long, 26 feet wide and eight foot post. Said house to be finished in a good workmanlike manner, nearly in the form of Mr. Jno. Sawyer's house at the Harbour ; voted three acres of the south part of the Commons be appropriated for the use of said house."
The first church was built by Samuel Adams, as leading carpenter, and the parsonage was under the direction of a building committee, composed of William McCobb, Samuel Montgomery and Ichabod Pinkham, and for the latter a build- ing fund of £200 was appropriated. The parsonage was removed to the street east of the Common, when the pres- ent one was built, and is now owned and occupied by John S. Spinney.
Before passing from Mr. Murray's pastorate to the subse- quent history of the church, his fixed method of visitation
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among his people may be mentioned. It is given as noted by himself.
" 1st. Salute the house. 2d. Compare the lists with the family-mark them who can read into-Catechisables-Cov- enanters-Church members. 3d. Address, first, the children to engage in early religion ; second, young ones to reading, secret prayer, the Sabbath, public worship, ordinances, good company, good houses, good tongues, love and concord, fidel- ity, conversion. 4th. Address parents, first, about their spiritual state; second, secret devotion ; third, family wor- ship, government, catechising ; fourth, Sabbath, public wor- ship, sacraments ; if church members, see what profit-if not, remove objections ; if in error or vice, convince, reclaim ; if in divisions, lieal ; if poor, help; lastly, exhortations to all- pray."
Mr. Murray's popularity never waned while in the Booth- bay parish, and the only reason for changing his field of labor to Newburyport was the solicitation of his family and friends to have him go to a place of greater personal safety, as the war was then raging and British aggression along the coast, particularly in our harbor, was frequent, and he had, from his well-known ability and influence among the people, always preaching a gospel of staunch patriotism in addition to his other teachings, become a special target for the enemy. Soon after the close of the war he published two political pamphlets, one entitled "Tyranny's Grove Destroyed," and the other, "The Altar of Liberty Finished," both of which enjoyed a broad circulation."
We now find the people of Boothbay impoverished by war, taxed heavily for its support, its able-bodied men in the field, cropping, fishing, lumbering, every visible means of support cut off, and the men themselves paid in a depreciated, almost worthless, currency, that we have seen in our municipal chap- ter once voted as an alternative of " seventy-five for one hard dollar." On top of this they had lost their central power of inspiration when Mr. Murray went to Newburyport. That church never again reached in interest and influence what it had been under him. A few bright spots reappear in its his- tory, notably in the pastorates of Rev. Isaac Weston and Rev. David Q. Cushman.
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
It is evident that only occasional preaching was had for some time after 1780. In 1783 the sessions of the church was declared a committee to employ a minister, during the summer only, "as far as £100 will go, or serve, or extend." Under this vote a Mr. Merrill may have been employed, for we find a vote in the annual meeting for 1785 " not to employ the Rev. Mr. Merrill any longer than the committee had agreed." In 1785 William McCobb and John Murray were a committee to procure preaching, for summer only, and thirty pounds was raised for support. The next year a committee was chosen to employ a minister, for trial only, with a view to settlement. Sixty pounds was raised and the Rev. Mr. Williams was employed for six months. In 1788 John Murray was chosen agent to "go to the westward and procure a minister who may be settled for life." In 1789 Rev. Jonathan Gould, who, evidently, had been preaching here at times, was engaged for " one year from date of his first coming here." Seventy-eight pounds was voted him, he to find his own board. At a meet- ing March 14, 1791, it was voted not to settle Mr. Gould, or to employ him longer, but a vote of thanks was given him and a disclaimer that his dismissal was for any moral fault. The objection was doctrinal.
The record shows no regular preaching until November 15, 1795, when the Rev. Pelatiah Chapin was engaged for one year, at four dollars per week and board for himself and horse.
On November 21, 1797, a call was given Rev. John Sawyer, of Oxford, N. H., which was accepted, and with his family he came to Boothbay the following March. The parsonage then being completed received them as its first occupants. He received $333.33 per year and house rent, with an additional one hundred dollars for the first year for moving expenses.
The church was in a declining state. No religious revival had occurred since that of Mr. Murray, thirty years before. The Lord's Supper had not been administered for twenty years. It was still Presbyterian, but there was no Presbytery in Maine with which it could unite. In Mr. Murray's time they had belonged to what was known as the Presbytery of the East- ward, but they were now in the position of an independent church. William McCobb and seven others, in 1798, applied
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to the Lincoln Association, representing the disordered state of religious affairs, and requested the aid of the Association in organizing a Congregational Church.
On September 20th of that year a Congregational Church was organized out of the remains of the ancient Presbyterian Church and Rev. John Sawyer was installed as pastor. On that day eight, members of the earlier church were examined and subscribed the articles of faith and covenant. They were John Beath, John Leishman, Samuel Montgomery, William McCobb, John McCobb, Rachel McCobb, Mary Knights and Mary McCobb.
Mr. Sawyer was settled with the express provision that he could cancel his engagement at any time, by accompanying his resignation with his reasons for requesting it. This he did, and his reasons, at length, appear in the early book of town records. They were concisely and ably written, the principal among them being the extent of the liquor traffic in town and the lack of sympathy in his church with his efforts for a better state of affairs. Mr. Sawyer's pastorate was about seven years in length, he preaching his farewell sermon in October, 1805. He was a man of great strength of character and would have performed valuable moral and religious work had he been properly supported by his church. He went into Penobscot County, then new, as a missionary ; was one of the founders of the Theological Seminary at Bangor, dying in the town of Garland somewhat past his one hundred and third year.
In 1807 Doctor Rose was directed by vote of the town to engage Rev. Jabez Pond Fisher to preach one year. He remained with the church until October, 1816, when, upon his request, the town granted him dismission. A call was then extended Rev. Jonathan Adams, a native of Boothbay, then settled at Woolwich, which he declined.
It is uncertain as regards the disposition of the old Murray parsonage on Pisgah. It may have been disposed of when the new one was built, in 1796, near the church, but probably still remained church property, for a reference indicates that Mr. Fisher lived on Pisgah, at least a part of the time. His suc- cessor, Rev. Isaac Weston, lived at the Center, but the strength of the Congregational Society was at that date and continued
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
to be at the Harbor. The separation of the Baptist Society, a little before the opening of the century, had drawn away nearly all of the Back River support and a greater part of that north of the Center. This impression is reinforced by the record, showing many midweek services being held at the house of Deacon Ebenezer Fullerton, at the Harbor.
Mr. Weston first came among the people of Boothbay as a missionary at the beginning of the second half-century of the church. Between sixty and seventy converts were made and added to the membership, His work was only secondary to that of Mr. Murray. He was a man of pleasing address, good abilities, and popular with all the people, in and out of the church. From Boothbay he went to Cumberland, where, in addition to his pastoral cares, he did considerable literary work of note. Bibliographies credit him with five publications of importance. His first sermon in Boothbay was on September 25, 1817, and his last was at the centennial observances of the church, September 23, 1866. His pastorate ended in 1830; being, practically, the same length of time covered by Mr. Murray, and ranking below that pastorate only in popularity and results.
Rev. Charles L. Cook was called August 10, 1830, ordained October 6th, and for irregularities dismissed and deposed November 5, 1832.
Between the dismissal of Mr. Cook and the installation of Rev. David Q. Cushman, February 7, 1838, Rev. Thomas Bellowes, Rev. Joseph W. Sessions and Rev. Nathaniel Chap- man supplied until May, 1835, when Rev. Henry A. Merrill occupied the position for one year, followed by supplies through 1837.
Mr. Cushman's pastorate lasted until May 15, 1843, at which time it ceased for lack of proper support and failure on the part of the parish to fulfill the obligations into which it had entered. The early part of his ministry in town was accompanied by a great revival of interest and accessions to his own and sister churches. His work was harmonious, and recommendations followed him from the parish and district council to new fields of labor ; but at the last of his ministra- tion, by no fault of his, one of those waves of laxity and
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depression, which had been at times upon the church in earlier days, swept over it. Mr. Cushman was a practical man and a devout Christian. He did great service to the educational interests of the town, and, in after years, completed a history of the Sheepscot settlement, a valuable and authentic work.
Rev. William Tobey followed, in 1844, continuing until the early part of 1848. He is said to have been one of the ablest pastors ever connected with that church. Rev. Samuel L. Gould, a nephew of the Rev. Jonathan Gould, who was pastor in 1789, next came, in June, 1848, and remained three years.
Mr. Gould was followed by Rev. Jonathan Adams, on October 18, 1852, remaining until 1858 ; several months at the last of his engagement the services of his son, Rev. Jonathan E. Adams, then recently graduated at Bangor and pastor of the Harbor Society, were substituted. October 31, 1861, Rev. Horace Toothacher commenced his work and continued until 1864. Mr. Toothacher was the last pastor to receive his entire support from the old society. At the end of his term it had reached its ninety-eighth year. Rev. Leander S. Coan was the first pastor whose ministrations covered both parishes. It fell to his lot, while thus engaged, to furnish the centennial sermon upon the observances of the day, at the church, September 23, 1866. This sermon was largely historical and was pre- served in pamphlet form. From the beginning of this dual work by Mr. Coan until the close of the pastorate of the late Rev. R. W. Jenkins, December, 1883, the plan was regularly followed. Since that only occasional services have been held there. For this divided pastoral care the record of the Second Society will afford the list of clergymen.
Early in 1848 occurred an exodus of considerable magni- tude. Forty-eight members took their dismissal in a body for the purpose of organizing a church at the Harbor, and from that time until 1875 dismissals frequently occurred for the same reason. The present church was built in 1848, two years after that of the new society. A spirit of rivalry may be suspected in this action, though records are silent, and, if in a sense competitive, it was evidently good-natured. The parish organization is still maintained, and the income from
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
rental of the parsonage is judicially used in preserving in good repair the society's property.
THE BAPTIST SOCIETY.
The prefix "Freewill" to a branch of the Baptist denomina- tion became attached about 1780. At that date Elder Benja- min Randel, of New Durham, N. H., is said to have first preached the doctrines that led to this distinction. Elder Randel had two great qualifications as a leader : an industri- ous, energetic worker and a great organizer. At first he gathered a church in his own town, and then, with the aid of two or three associates, extended his work rapidly. In 1781 churches of this denomination were collected in New Glouces- ter, Parsonsfield, Hollis, Woolwich, Georgetown and Edge- comb.
The practice of Elder Randel as he traveled through the country was, as fast as people embraced his doctrines, to gather a company of them within reasonable limits under the general name of a monthly meeting. A certain number of these monthly meetings assembled once in three months and held a quarterly meeting. When enough of these branches became established the quarterly meetings combined became a yearly meeting. The whole body was considered one church, but the term "church" was not accepted until 1809, when it was substituted for that of "monthly meeting. " Regular quarterly meetings were first established in 1783, at New Dur- ham, New Gloucester, Hollis and Woolwich. Many of the society had originally been Calvinistic Baptists, and conse- quently close communionists, but at a quarterly meeting in Gorham, December, 1785, they voted to open their commu- nion to other denominations. By 1820 four yearly meetings had been established ; one in New Hampshire, one in Vermont and two in Maine, one of the latter being called the Gorham and the other the Edgecomb. This last held its meeting one year at either Woolwich or Edgecomb and the next at Farm- ington.
It is, therefore, a matter easily to be understood why the Freewill Baptists showed so much early strength in Booth- bay, when it is seen to what extent their doctrines had taken
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root in the adjoining town of Edgecomb. Elder Randel on his earliest circuits came often to that town.
Public and family records show that he preached and baptized converts in Boothbay as early as 1790, perhaps ear- lier. In June, 1798, thirty-five taxpayers in Boothbay peti- tioned the General Court for incorporation of the Baptist Society, but it failed of enactment, which is not surprising from the fact that the entire society in Maine, numbering some 2,000, were refused incorporation in 1804. Soon after that date they began to incorporate as distinct societies. In the first book of town records may be found the earliest request of members of this society in Boothbay to be relieved of their ministerial tax, which went to the support of the Congrega- tional Church, and to be allowed to use it themselves.
"Gentlemen Selectmen of Boothbay your Petitioners find- ing it their duty to request your Honours to discharge us the subscribers from paying the Ministers Rates, that is to say the Revd. Mr. Sawyer his salary as we have joined in the Society called the free will Baptists and are desirous to pay our Minis- ter Rate into that society to which we think it our duty to attend, and if you do not see fit to set us off into a society, we request you to deposit our proportion of Ministers rates to our committee who we trust to lay it out to pay or defray the expenses of our Elders who we think is the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Being in duty bound to God shall ever Pray.
Joseph Stover
*Timothy Dunton Joseph Giles
*Eph™ Alley Aaron Sherman
Giles Tibbetts
*Roger Sherman
Benjn Hutchings
*Eleazer Sherman, Jr.
Solomon Pinkham
*John Alley, Jr.
*Stephen Lewis
*Eleazer Sherman
*William Lewis Joseph Pinkham
*Elisha Sherman Samuel Perkins John Giles Solomon Pinkham, Jr.
*James Tibbetts
*Lemuel Lewis
*Isaac Lewis Ichabod Tibets
*Benjn Kenney Calvin Pinkham, Jr.
*Joseph Matthews John Barter, John Barter, Jr. John Lewis
*John Southard Ruggles Cunningham John Webber Timothy Stover
Nathaniel Tibbets.
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
"This may certify that the names above writen consisting of professors of a Baptist Society are members of the Baptist Society has and do steadily and do Conscienciously attend public worship in the Town of Boothbay both before and since the first of December 1799.
Boothbay March 14th, 1800.
Giles Tibbets Clerk of Said Society.
" The above recorded by the request of Mr. Timothy Dun- ton & others."
The foregoing list of names is the same as that of 1798 which petitioned for incorporation. An act of incorporation was obtained by the Baptist Society of Boothbay February 23, 1809. The incorporators were the names in the foregoing list marked by an asterisk (*), together with the following : Israel Dunton, Benjamin Kelley, Samnel Smith, Timothy Dunton, Jr., Stephen Lewis, Jr., Joseph Lewis, John Matthews, Ben- jamin Lewis, John Brown, Jr., John Farnham and Asa Hutch- ings, "together with such others as may associate with them and their successors, with their families and estates."
The first meeting of the new society was called by a warrant issued by William McCobb, justice of the peace, to Stephen Lewis, Jr., a member, to meet at the schoolhouse on Back River, near the house of John Southard, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, Thursday, February 1, 1810. Samuel Tib- betts was moderator and Samuel Loomis, clerk. The date of the annual meeting was fixed on the first Monday of March. No regular organization as a church occurred until November 18, 1826. This was done by a committee appointed by the Edgecomb quarterly meeting and consisted of the following persons :
Males.
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