USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
184
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
and then have him over-reach and out-do them in trade. Although there was a settlement between the two factions, it does not appear that there was a reconciliation.
Things went on till 1759, when in April the Rev. Ebenezer Town- send was brought here by Phinney and Morton. The old colonial law of the times said that the ministers, settled by the Proprietors of the towns granted by the General Court, in order to be entitled to the settlements made for the ministry, must be "learned orthodox min- isters." Mr. Townsend was not an educated man ; had never studied theology ; or been ordained, or licensed to preach, by a council; and moreover, Mr. Lombard had not been dismissed from his charge, and the disaffected had no permanent organization, or legal existence ; therefore, the clergymen of the neighboring towns refused to ordain Townsend. Consequently, Capt. Phinney and Capt. Morton took the thing into their own hands, and as Parson Smith says in his quaint way, "April 4, 1759, Mr. Townsend was ordained in Gorham. Capt. Phinney prayed before the Charge and Capt. Morton gave it, and Townsend did all the rest." Thus Mr. Townsend was settled over the disaffected portion of Mr. Lombard's society. It is probable that this was the first lay ordination that ever took place in New England. It was something new, and very strange for a minister of the Gospel to be inducted into office in olden times, without the aid of clergymen.
We have no record of the settlement of salary voted Mr. Townsend by his parishoners. There was an attempt made to compel Mr. Lombard, by a suit-at-law, to give up the parsonage to Mr. Townsend, (carried on by Phinney and Morton, and which was tried at York). The Court decided in favor of Lombard, who remained in possession, and Townsend had to be provided for otherwise.
We know but little of Mr. Townsend before he came to Gorham. He came here from Newmarket, N. H., where he was in 1756. The History of the Free Will Baptists puts him down as a "New Light Congregational Clergyman." This could not be so, for he had never been ordained or licensed, and the New Lights did not make their appearance for many years after this time ; but he might have been an exhorter on his own account. Report says that he was a pious, good man. He purchased a house, and one hundred square rods (ten rods on the street, and running back ten) of land on King street, of Nathaniel Whitney. The lot was opposite the house of Nathaniel Frost, which would place his house on the thirty acre lot, 8, just north of the house where Isaac W. Dyer now lives, and opposite the house lately owned by Daniel Billings.
185
MINISTERS.
We know of Mr. Townsend's having but one child, Isaac, who was born in Newmarket before the family came to Gorham. After the death of his father he went with his mother to Newmarket. In the time of the Revolution he enlisted as a soldier ; was taken prisoner and carried to Halifax. He was baptized into the Free Will Baptist Church by Rev. Mr. Randall, and finally settled in Wolfboro, N. H., where he was a preacher for many years ; and died when about ninety years of age. He often said in his old age that he remembered living in Gorham ; that Thomas Mclellan was his playmate, and lived not far from his father's ; (Thomas was the son of Hugh, and lived in the brick house above the village, not far from where we place Mr. Town- send's house,) that his father went with the Gorham men to the Great Meadows to cut hay, where he caught a severe cold, which brought on a lung complaint, which latter terminated in his death. Also he remembered that he was buried in the orchard at the Corner, below the meeting house, under the apple trees. This spot is where the Methodist church now stands, where a number of our old settlers were buried. In another chapter will be found mention of the Gor- ham people going to the Great Meadows, now Fryeburg, to cut hay for their stock, about the year 1762. Mr. Townsend was a shoemaker by trade, and in addition to his clerical duties, he had to work out by the day among his parishioners to eke out his slender means in order to support his family. He died Sept. 22, 1762.
In regard to the lawsuit brought against Mr. Lombard by Phinney and Morton, we find the following in a memoir of the then Attorney General of Massachusetts, Hon. Jeremiah Gridley : --
"About the year 1760, a Mr. Lombard, the settled minister of the Gospel in Gorham, upon some uneasiness which arose between him and the people of his charge, had a difficulty they could not settle ; they mutually agreed to dissolve the connection, and the parsonage being valuable, and under culture, he was to have its improvement until they should settle another minister, and Lombard, who was a gentleman of education, gave a bond in the penal sum of two or three thousand pounds to Morton and Phinney, two of the Elders, or Deacons, that upon their settling another minister he would deliver up the parsonage. In the space of a year or two, an illiterate man (Townsend) received a call to settle with them and become their min- ister. None of the neighboring ministers or churches would assist in his ordination, and thereupon the church proceeded to ordain him in the Congregational way, by the imposition of the hands of Morton and Phinney. Afterwards a suit was brought upon the bond of Lom- bard at the Court of Common Pleas; the case was argued largely by counsel, and Mr. Lombard added something to what his counsel had said, to show that the man inducted to office was not the minister meant
186
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
and intended by the bond. The verdict was against Mr. Lombard ; he appealed to the Supreme Court, then held at York, and employed Mr. Gridley for his counsel; Mr. Gridley introduced a plea, reciting the grant of the township, with the reservation of a parsonage for the use of a pious, learned and orthodox minister, and averred that the town had not settled such a minister. The counsel for plaintiffs replied, that they had settled another pious, orthhdox minister, omit- ting the word learned. The answer was adjudged insufficient, and judgment was rendered in favor of Lombard."
Thus the matter dragged on for some time. Mr. Lombard on Jan. 20, 1762, on receipt of his salary in full to May 6, 1762, discharged " the Proprietors from all further demands on them, or their heirs, from him, or his heirs, for salarys forever." His final separation from the church took place Aug. 15, 1764, when a council met, united the two churches (Mr. Townsend having died), and dismissed Mr. Lom- bard. Dea. Alden in his Diary says : " 1764, Augt. 15, The Union of the two Churches this day. The Rev. Mr. Elvens preached from Luke 2d, 10 to 15 verses. Ye Council consisted of ye following Churches; Rev. Mr. Elvens, Mr. Morrel and Rev. Mr. Coffin."
Previous to his coming to Gorham, Mr. Lombard had preached at Provincetown, and perhaps at some other places. After his dismissal from the church in Gorham he left not only the Congregational min- istry but the denomination as well ; becoming an Episcopalian. Mr. Lombard seems to have had a sufficiency of the ministerial life, for from that time on we find him engaged in public life and in private business. Whatever may be said of his popularity as a preacher, there can be no doubt as to the favor and esteem in which he was held by all as a man of public business. He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace, and was employed by the Proprietors of Gor- hamtown, to a large extent, in looking after their lands and affairs. He was the town's first Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts ; being elected in 1765, the next year after his leaving the ministry, and was four times reelected ; viz. in 1767, 1768, 1769 and in 1780. In 1774 and 1779 he was the delegate to the Provin- cial Congress; the second time, helping to form the State Constitu- tion of Massachusetts. Mr. Lombard was chairman of the Commit- tee of Safety and Vigilance in 1772 and '76, and was active in the cause of the colonies during the war of the Revolution. He was also Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1776 to the date of his death, which occurred in 1781.
The next preaching in Gorham was by Rev. Peletiah Tingley, who was born in Attleboro, Mass., about the year 1735. He was gradu-
187
MINISTERS.
ated at Yale College in 1761, and studied theology two years. He entered the ministry of the " old standing order, sadly backslidden in heart," and after preaching a year or more, in Gorham as a candidate, declined in 1766 an invitation of the town to settle here. While reading his sermon, one warm summer day at Newmarket, N. H., his notes were blown from the desk. From this he inferred that grace in the heart was more reliable than a manuscript on the desk. He became convinced of his spiritual destitution, and by prayer and supplication, sought and found a deeper work of grace. He was living in Sanford, Me., when a Baptist church was organized there in 1772, and became one of its first members.
After a lapse of some three years the town and parish, by a nearly unanimous vote, agreed to settle Rev. Josiah Thacher as their minis- ter on the following terms : he was to have £100 lawful money as a settlement, and £80 per year as long as he remained settled over the parish.
Rev. Josiah Thacher was a native of Lebanon, in the State of Connecticut, and a graduate of Princeton College, New Jersey. He was a descendant of Anthony Thacher, one of the early settlers of New England. The records of the town of Bedford, Mass., show that that town gave him a call to settle there at, or near, the time of his acceptance of the Gorham call. The Bedford records say, "we sent the call, but on account of the badness of the roads and great distance, Mr. Thacher did not receive our letter till after he had accepted the call from Gorham." Mr. Thacher preached in Gorham on trial the first time, on Sunday, Oct. 19, 1766, in the forenoon, from the text, Mark, Ioth chap., 21st verse; in the afternoon, from Rev. 3d chap., 28th verse. He was settled in Gorham as pastor about a year later, on Oct. 28, 1767 ; and for several years his minis- trations were entirely acceptable to his people.
About the year 1773, and for a few years following, much disturbance got into the religious matters of the town and parish, in consequence of the springing up of the New Lights and Come Outers, as they styled themselves, and their refusing to pay ministerial taxes for the preaching of Mr. Thacher. Many efforts were made to get rid of Mr. Thacher and many charges were brought against him to that end. Town meetings were held and committees chosen to oust him but in no way could they force him. He knew he had his rights, and that the law would sustain him, but when a committee of discreet men were chosen, who called on him in a proper manner, they found him ready and willing to meet them and a compromise was made
188
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
satisfactory to all. Mr. Thacher was dismissed from the ministry on April 28, 1781.
In regard to one charge brought against Mr. Thacher in respect to his sermons, as being "barren, lifeless, and unprofitable," we find the following in a letter written by one of his people to her sister in Barnstable, "Tell cousin James Smith's wife I never forgot what she said to me, that I must write concerning religion, but I was loath to write that I did not well like my minister, though when I came home the first time I heard him, I thought I could not be content to sit under him, and it came to my mind, 'Despise not small things,' which made me to think I did not well to be uneasy. He has been dismissed two years."
Like his predecessor, Mr. Thacher on his retirement from the ministry, entered public life. He represented the town in the General Court eleven years between 1783 and 1798. He was State Senator one year, and Judge of the court of Common Pleas for fifteen years, from 1784 to 1799, the year of his death.
Although Mr. Thacher was not acceptable to his people as a min- ister, he was much respected by his townsmen as a man and citizen. In his change from the Reverend to the Honorable, he lost none of his dignity. He was said, by those who remembered him, to have been affable, courteous and dignified, fond of amusements, and ready at a joke, and that when he came out with his old cloak on, with the red side out, the man or boy that got the best of him was smart. About that old cloak ; it was blue, with a lining of bright red. It is said that when on business, the blue side was always out, then it was the Hon. Mr. Thacher, dignified, always courteous, and polite to all, but when the red came out, a good story or a joke at some one's expense was sure to follow.
Mr Thacher was fond of agricultural and horticultural pursuits. He owned the thirty acre lot 14, opposite the Congregational church (west), and cultivated about fifteen acres in field and orchard. His orchard and garden were equal, if not superior, to any in the County. The best apples then known, a great variety of pears, some ten dif- ferent kinds, cherries, plums of several kinds, with grapes were to be found in his grounds. In those days fruit was rather scarce and a great temptation to the boys, old and young. Mr. Thacher was remarkably liberal, but this did not exactly satisfy -stolen fruits were sweetest. Some curious anecdotes were told of night adventures in stealing from, and protecting the orchard ; as being fired on with fine salt, instead of shot ; and of keeping watch in a hogshead through
189
MINISTERS.
the bunghole, and the boys coming up behind, and rolling the cask, Reverend and all, down through the orchard, and the trick taken so kindly as to result in a general invitation to the boys to come on and help themselves to all they wanted. It was characteristic of the man to acknowledge a good joke, and give in when fairly beaten. He was an honest man, a good husband, kind father and neighbor. He died in Gorham, Dec. 25, 1799.
In the warrant for a town meeting, to be held on the 14th day of June, 1781, we find this article, " To see if the town will concur with the church in sending an invitation to Mr. Joseph Litchfield to preach for them two months, to begin as soon as he can get here, and to see what method they will take to acquaint him therewith, pay and pro- vide for him. And also to see what method they will take to supply the pulpit for the future." In accordance with the above it was " Voted to choose Mr. Austin Alden as a committee to provide a minister to supply the pulpit in this town for two months by writing to him, and to agree with some person to board him at the town's expense." And it was also voted to raise fourteen pounds with which to pay the said minister.
Aug. 13, 1781, Austin Alden was chosen to go and request Mr. Caleb Jewett of Newbury Port to come and preach in Gorham for three months, and if Mr. Jewett's engagements were such that he could not come, then Mr. Alden was directed to get the best advice he could, and apply to some other minister. A short time afterwards, an invitation was extended to Mr. Joseph Litchfield to come and preach in Gorham for three Sundays. On Oct. 15th, by a unani- mous vote, it was decided "further to improve" either Mr. Caleb Jewett, or Mr. Joseph Litchfield, as a candidate; and also that Austin Alden wait on Mr. Caleb Jewett, and invite him to come and preach for six months. Col. Edmund Phinney's was selected as a boarding place for Mr. Jewett, and thirty-five pounds, lawful money, was raised for the support of the Gospel. A few days later Mr. Alden was further instructed in regard to procuring a minister ("if Mr. Jewett cannot be obtained "), as follows : he was to proceed to the westward, and take the best advice he could get, and procure a minister to preach in the meeting house for ten months.
On Jan. 28, 1782, the town " Voted unanimously (except one) to concur with the church in requesting Mr. Caleb Jewett to settle in the work of the Gospel ministry in this town". One hundred and thirty-three pounds, six shillings and eight pence was voted as a settlement for him, and a committee, composed of Capt. John
190
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
Stephenson, Mr. Prince Davis, Capt. Samuel Whitmore and Capt. Samuel Harding, was chosen to join the committee of the church, in waiting on Mr. Jewett and receiving his answer.
As there was an apparent prospect of having a regular settled minister again, the town now settled up its ministerial bills, incurred since the dismissal of Mr. Thatcher, as follows :
£. s. d.
To Edmund Phinney, Esq. for boarding ministers 17-11-8
Mr. Josiah Thatcher
Dea. Jas. McLellan
Dea. Eliphalet Watson
entertaining ministers I-16-0
66 keeping minister's horses 9-0
his mare to Newbury after a minister I- 4-0
George Hanscom
66 boarding a minister 5-0
Amos Whitney
66 cash lent for expenses after a minister I- I-O
Moses Noyes
his mare to Newbury after a minister I- 4-0
" William Wood
" cash lent for expenses after a minister 16-0
" Heman Bangs " cash lent for expenses after a minister, and to pay a minister 9-4
Austin Alden
" procuring ministers and expenses 2- 9-2
Mr. Jewett must have had a presentiment of his future lot in Gorham, for he refused to accept this call to settle here.
A committee was chosen in November, 1782, to procure a congre- gational minister to preach in the meeting house in Gorham, on probation with a view to settlement. The inhabitants of the town appear to have been very much determined to have Mr. Jewett, for March 25, 1783, he was again invited to preach in Gorham for six months, and in the following August he received a second call to settle in the work of the Gospel ministry in Gorham. In addition to the sum for settlement (£133-6-8), it was voted to give him a yearly salary of ninety pounds, lawful money, and twenty-five cords of wood per year, for his own use, hauled to his own door, as long as he remained settled in Gorham. Also, that as soon as Mr. Jewett should be settled, the hundred acre lot and the thirty acre lot belonging to the parsonage should be fenced. Mr. Jewett this time accepted the call, and at the next town meeting, held in October, it was voted to provide for Mr. Jewett's ordination council at its own expense ; and that Col. Edmund Phinney attend to the affair. Mr. Jewett was accordingly ordained in Gorham over the church, Nov.
191
MINISTERS.
5, 1783. Parson Deane of Falmouth says, "1783, Nov. 5. I attended Gorham ordination; eleven ministers on the Council. Mr. Fairfield, first prayer ; Mr. Lancaster preached from these words - ' If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ'; Mr. Browne, the charge ; Mr. Gilman, the right hand of fellowship; Mr. Coffin, the last prayer."I
In the same letter, from which we have already quoted in this article, Mrs. --- says, "We had a minister ordained this month, one C. Jewett, a fine man. I hope he will prove a blessing and that decayed religion will revive under his ministry.
" It has been the practice of the place for parents to own the cove; nant and have their children baptized. There are counted to be near a third of the people to be Separate Baptists and some of that party are become what is called Shaking Quakers. I think they are a most monstrous deluded set of people. The performances at their meetings consist in dancing, hideous howlings like wolves, standing on their heads, pretending to speak in unknown languages and the like ridiculous behavior. I take them to be the people that Christ warns us of when he saith, 'Take heed that you be not deceived. Then if any man shall say unto you, lo here is Christ or there, believe it not; for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and show great signs and wonders, if it were possible to deceive the very elect. Beloved I have told you before, if they say behold he is in the desert, go not forth, or in the secret chamber believe it not.'"
We can hardly wonder at Mr. Jewett's declining his call at first, and the only strange thing about it is that he ever should have accepted such a bed of roses as the parish must have offered at that time.
Caleb Jewett was born in Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 15, 1753; and was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1776. After coming to Gorham to live, he purchased his house and sixty acres of land of Mr. Samuel Crockett, shipwright, Aug. 16, 1784, for the sum of three hundred and eighty pounds. This is the house on Main St., long known as the " Henry Broad house," and lately occupied by Mr. Graffam. Nov. 27, 1794, Mr. Jewett purchased of Thomas Bangs the thirty acre lot, 110, the corner lot, bounded southerly by the county road, westerly by the two rod road running northerly past the David Elder farm, and easterly by the Coburn lot. The town, apparently, was not much better in the way of promptly settling its
I Mr. Fairfield was of Saco, Mr. Lancaster, of Scarboro, Mr. Gilman, of No. Yarmouth, Mr. Coffin, of Buxton, and Mr. Browne, of Stroudwater.
192
HISTORY OF GORHAM.
bills for ministerial services at that time, than are some parishes at the present day, for Mr. Jewett was kept so short, that for lack of the money due him, he could not settle his bills with Mr. Crockett, and was obliged to pay him interest, which latter the town afterwards allowed and paid.
After many troubles with his church and parish, Mr. Jewett's parish- ioners grew weary of him, and he of them. He at last consented to resign his office, provided the town would pay him a specified sum of money and exempt his property from taxation for a certain num- ber of years. This the town finally agreed to do, and on his receiv- ing a copy of the vote, Mr. Jewett replied in writing as follows :
"I accept your conditions and resign my ministerial office, and consider it my jubilee. Multum Gaudio ! Gaudio Multum ! So I subscribe myself as one worn out in the service of God, and yours.
Caleb Jewett."
He was dismissed on the 8th of Sept., 1800, and died in Gorham, on the 16th of April, 1802.
After an interval of about three years Gorham again settled a min- ister, the Rev. Jeremiah Noyes. At his ordination, which occurred on Nov. 16, 1803, the services were as follows:
Introductory Prayer, Rev. W. Greg, Cape Elizabeth.
Sermon,
Rev. T. Miltimore, Scranton, N. H.
Consecrating Prayer,
Rev. Thomas Lancaster, Scarborough.
Charge, Rev. Paul Coffin, Buxton.
Fellowship of Churches, Rev. Elijah Kellogg, Portland.
Concluding Prayer, Rev. Caleb Bradley, Falmouth.
Mr. Noyes was born in Newburyport, and was graduated at Dart- mouth College in the class of 1799. While living in Gorham he mar- ried Miss Lucy Johnson of Salem, to whom he was published August 30, 1806.
Warned by past experiences, Gorham people were bound to take no chances as to troubles with their ministers for the future. Here- after, if a minister was unpopular with the people, he must take his dismission, and leave at once. In accordance with this feeling, the chief condition of Mr. Noyes's settlement was, that whenever two- thirds of the legal voters of the parish should request it, at a legal meeting held for that purpose, he should offer his resignation; six months notice to be given. There was no need, however, for this pre- caution in the case of Mr. Noyes, for after four short years he died, Jan. 15, 1807, being but twenty-eight years of age ; much mourned and universally regretted.
REV. ASA RAND.
193
MINISTERS.
Rev. Asa Rand was the successor of the lamented Mr. Noyes. He was offered as a salary six hundred and eighty dollars per year, for four years, and six hundred, annually, thereafter, which offer he accepted, and was ordained here Jan. 18, 1809. He was a native of Rindge, N. H., and was a graduate of Dartmouth College, class of 1806. He was a very grave, solemn, austere man, spending a large part of his time over his books and studies. The town is deeply indebted to him for much of its high religious and moral character. He highly disapproved of the "half-way" covenant, which had been adopted "in order to meet the request and afford some church privileges to the timid, but apparently, sincere." This was chiefly to secure the benefit of the rite of baptism for their children, while they themselves were not, strictly speaking, church members. Mr. Rand said he wished his people to be either in, or out of the church. In consequence of this, the half-way covenant was abolished, nearly all who had subscribed to it coming into full communion with the church. Under his care the church was greatly revived and strength- ened, nearly a hundred souls being added to it. During the pastorate of Mr. Rand, and at least as early as 1815, the children were all gathered at the house of the pastor every Saturday afternoon, and thoroughly catechised by him. The very little ones were gathered about Mrs. Rand and received their instruction from her. This was, doubtless, the seed from which sprung the now flourishing Sunday School. Mr. Rand's health becoming poor, and his voice failing, he felt obliged to resign his charge, and was dismissed June 12, 1822.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.