USA > Maine > History of Methodism in Maine, 1793-1886 > Part 6
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Reverand Paul Coffin, pastor of the Congregational church at Buxton, while on a missionary tour through the interior of Maine, has the following record in his journal, namely : "June 23, 1796, Philip's Gore (Otisfield). 'Heard Stephen Hall (Hull) the Methodist. The whole (discourse) was juvenile, not accurate or instructive, either in language or sentiment." 4
About the same time, Miss Nancy Woodward, afterwards Mrs. Wm. Caldwell, while earnestly seeking salvation, received great help from the instructions of Reverend Stephen Hull as a circuit preacher. " His prayers and exhortations were like apples of gold in pictures of silver ; his discourses were very pathetic."
A good judge of preaching, who heard the Hulls at Farmington, made the following record in his journal : "Elias and Stephen Hull are fine looking men and good preachers." 5
Stephen Hull is reported to have followed the example of his brother Elias, and to have entered the ministry of the Congregational church. His subsequent history is unknown. Probably his life went out in .darkness.
JOSHUA HALL.
Joshua Hall was born in Leceister, Sussex county, Delaware, October 22, 1768. He experienced religion in Kent county, in 1787. He was admitted into conference, at New York, in 1792, and appointed to Croton circuit, New York.
In 1795 he was appointed to Penobscot circuit, Maine. For a more particular account of Mr. Hall, the reader is referred to the second part of this volume, prepared by Rev. W. H. Pilsbury.
JESSE STONEMAN.
We find but a meager account of Jesse Stoneman. He was received on trial in 1793, and appointed to Clarksburg. From that time his
4 Collection of Maine Historical Society, IV, p. 302.
" Journal of Honorable William Allen.
.
37
STONEMAN. STEBBINS.
conference record is as follows, namely ; 1794, continued on trial, but appointment not entered in the minutes; 1795 (admitted to full connexion), appointed to Litchfield, Connecticut ; 1796, Portland, Maine ; 1797, Kennebec circuit ; 1798, Readfield circuit ; 1799, Ohio. From this time till 1806, he probably traveled western circuits in Ohio, and Pennsylvania, though his name does not always appear on the list of appointments, - probably through mistake. Mr. Stoneman located in 1806, after thirteen years' service on extensive and widely separated circuits.
CYRUS STEBBINS.
Cyrus Stebbins was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, October 30, 1772 ; he joined the conference, July, 1795, and was appointed to Warren circuit, Rhode Island. In 1796, he was ordained Deacon, and appointed to Readfield circuit, Maine, with John Broadhead ; in 1797 he was appointed to Pittsfield circuit, Massachusetts, with E. Stevens ; from this time till 1805, he received appointments in New York city, Brooklyn and Albany. In 1805, he withdrew and entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and served as rector of St. George's Church, Schenectady ; Christ Church, Hudson, and Grace Church, Waterford, New York, where he died February 8th, 1841. 6
Dr. Stevens thus describes Mr. Stebbins :
He was a pungent and powerful preacher; some of his sermons were often recalled by our older ministers in New England; one of them particularly, preached under the old homestead of Pickering, on the text, "These mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me." The whole assembly stood appalled at the declarations of divine wrath against all ungodliness; trembling spread throughout their midst, and many went home to call on God, and prepare for his coming retribution.
Had he remained in the itinerancy, his peculiar talents would have secured for him an extended influence and usefulness, much beyond what he attained in the Episcopal church. It is evident that Mr. Stebbins, in leaving the Methodist itinerancy, left the sphere of his greatest success.
AARON HUMPHREY.
The first account we have of Aaron Humphrey is in the records of the Readfield Quarterly Conference, held at Readfield, April 12th and 13th, 1796, where his name appears in place of Elias Hull, as one of
6 Minutes of the Conferences, and History of Old Sand Street Church, Brooklyn.
38
HUMPHREY AND BROADHEAD.
the preachers on that circuit. At the following conference, he was received on trial, and appointed to Kennebec circuit.
In 1798, he was received in full connexion, and appointed to Bath and Union, and subsequently was appointed to Norridgewock, Hallo- well, Readfield and Livermore circuits, successively ; in 1809, he located, and soon afterwards entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; in 1810, " Christ Church," Gardiner, having been closed during the year, was opened under the ministry of Aaron Humphrey, who more than a year afterwards was admitted to "holy orders." Mr. Humphrey left the church in Gardiner in 1814.7 No further account is recorded of Mr. Humphrey.
JOHN BROADHEAD.
John Broadhead's name is endeared to New England Methodists. He was born in Smithfield, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, October 5, 1770. Like most of the distinguished evangelists noticed in these pages, he was blessed with the lessons and example of a pious mother, and was the subject of deep religious convictions when but a child. "He has been heard to say that he never forgot the impressions made upon his mind, while kneeling at his mother's feet, learning his little prayers." This early seriousness disappeared amid the gayety and temptations of youth ; but about his twenty-second or twenty-third year he became a regenerated man.
He entered the itinerant service in 1794 ; his first circuit was that of Northumberland, Pennsylvania.
In 1795, he was appointed to Kent, Delaware. The next year, he was appointed to Readfield, Maine, then one of the only three circuits in that Province.
In 1797, he was appointed to Lynn and Marblehead, Massachusetts. The next year he labored on Warren circuit, Rhode Island. In 1799 he returned to Maine, and labored on Readfield circuit. The next year, he was appointed to New London District, Connecticut, and superintended the labors of Ruter, Branch, Vannest, Sabin, Ostromder, and other "mighty men." In 1802 he traveled the Vershire District, chiefly in Vermont. The next year, he was appointed to Hanover, New Hampshire, and the three following years, he had charge of the New Hampshire District.
He returned to Massachusetts in 1807, and traveled, during two years the Boston District, with a host of able men under him, among
7 Frontier Missionary.
39
JOHN BROADHEAD.
whom were Pickering, Webb, Munger, Steele, Kibby, Merwin, and Ruter. The next four years he was appointed, respectively, to Portsmouth and Newmarket, after which, he was for four years, on the superannuated list ; but took an appointment again in 1820, at Newmarket and Kingston, as colleague of Joseph A. Merrill. He was now advanced in years and afflicted with infirmaties, and his subsequent appointments show much irregularity. In 1821, he was again snper- annnated, but took an appointment the next two years as colleagne of Phineas Crandall, at Newmarket ; the ensuing three years, he was on the snpernnmerary list, bnt labored as he was able, at Newmarket and Epping. New Hampshire. In 1827, he took an effective relation to the conference, and labored two years respectively at Newmarket and Poplin, New Hampshire. The following two years, he was left with- out appointment, at his own request. In 1831, he was again placed on the supernumerary list. In 1833 he resumed effective service, and was appointed to Salsbury and Exeter, New Hampshire ; the next year, supernumerary, in which relation he continned until 1837, when he once more entered the itinerant ranks, and died after a year's service at Seabrook and Hampton Mission, New Hampshire.
He was forty-four years in the ministry, forty-two of them in the east, laboring more or less in all the New England States.
He died April 7, 1838, of heart disease, from which he had suffered for a number of years. His departure was peaceful and triumphant.
Broadhead was a true christian gentleman, unaffectedly dignified, and of a temper so benign that all who approached him loved him, and even little children fonnd in him an endearing reciprocation of their tender sympathies ; he was universally a favorite among them.
Such was the esteem entertained for him, by his fellow-citizens of New Hampshire, that besides important offices in their state legislature and executive council, and a term of four years in Congress of the United States, his consent alone was necessary to have secured him the supreme office of the State ; while in civil positions, he retained unabated, his spiritual zeal. While in Washington, he maintained, at his lodgings, a weekly prayer-meeting, which was composed of his fellow-legislators ; and on Sabbaths, he preached, more or less, in all the neighboring Methodist churches.
As a preacher, he possessed more than ordinary talents ; his clear understanding, combined with quick sensibilities and a vivid imagina- tion, conld not bnt render him eloquent on the themes of religion.
He was six feet in stature, with an erect and firmly built frame, and
40
BROADHEAD AND TAYLOR.
he retained to the last the dignified uprightness of his mien. His features were well defined ; his forehead high and expanded ; his eyes dark, large, and glowing with the benevolence of his spirit. In fine, he was one of the noblest men in person as he unquestionably was in character. 8
JOSHUA TAYLOR.
Joshua Taylor was born in Princeton, New Jersey, February 5, 1768. A strictly moral education in his childhood, and especially the example and instruction of a devoted mother, imparted to his mind an early religious bias. The death of his mother, when he was about twenty years of age, led to an earnest religious awakening. He wept and mourned, and struggled with doubts and temptations. In February, 1789, he attended a Methodist prayer-meeting, and remained after the close of the meeting with a few who remained to pray. While the company were singing, light broke in upon his mind and he went home rejoicing.
Some months later, he was induced to exhort in public, and soon the way was opened before him for more important labors. In 1791 he joined the conference on trial, and was appointed to Flanders circuit, New Jersey ; the next year to Fairfield circuit, Connecticut ; after- wards he traveled successively, Middletown, Granville, and Trenton circuits, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. These were extensive circuits, requiring long journeys and much labor.
In 1797, the Province of Maine was made a district, with three circuits, and Mr. Taylor was appointed the presiding elder, and also preacher in charge of Readfield circuit.
His labors in this district were exceedingly arduous. The district extended from the Saco to the Penobscot rivers, including all the intervening region. Much of the country was newly settled ; the roads were rough ; the rides long and hard, and the lodgings in log cabins were far from comfortable. The people, however, did the best they could to entertain their itinerant guests. The most serious difficulty, was the hostile spirit he encountered from some who professed to be christians of the Calvinistic creed. "The quarterly meetings," writes Mr. Taylor, " were scasons of refreshing. The heavenly baptisms on these occasions, fully compensated me for all I had ever done or suffered for the cause of God. Revivals occurred, and many friends to the cause were raised up." During the year 1799, Mr. Taylor was
8 Stevens' History, slighty abridged, Vol. III, pp. 499-504,
Chicago Photo-Gravure Co.
Rev. Joshua Taylor.
AGED 82.
41
J. TAYLOR.
drawn into a printed controversy with a Congregational clergyman, in which he did good service to the cause of truth as well as to Methodism. This controversy is more particularly described in Chapter V.
During the year 1800, Bethel circuit was organized. This circuit contains most of the region bordering on the upper Androscoggin.
During this year, he attempted to introduce Methodism into Castine, but was rudely repulsed, with threats of violence, and was drummed out of town by a clamorous mob. In 1801 he was appointed presiding elder of Boston district, having under his charge such men as Joshua Wells, Joshua Soule, George Pickering, Thomas F. Sargent, and Thomas Lyell.
In 1803, he was again appointed to Maine district, then numbering eleven circuits.
In 1804 and 1805, he was stationed in Portland. He entered upon his work, " trusting in the Lord for his support and success." At his coming, the society consisted of eleven members, of whom all but two were women. He succeeded in providing the first house of worship, and the members of the society were largely increased in number under his labors. In 1806, he was compelled, by failing health and domestic circumstances, to locate. 9
Mr. Taylor opened a private school in Portland, and continued in the work of teaching about eighteen years, preaching on the Sabbath in the vicinity as occasion required.
In 1824, he removed to Cumberland, and took the pastoral charge of the small society in Cumberland and Falmouth, till about 1839, when he returned to Portland, and there passed the remaining part of his life, greatly esteemed by all who knew him.
In 1847 he was readmitted to Maine Conference as a mark of respect for his venerable character and his former valuable services, and his name was entered upon the list of superannuates. At the next session of the conference, while present in the conference, he was suddenly smitten with paralysis, and conveyed to his home in a helpless con- dition. From this stroke he never recovered. His mind remained calm and peaceful, and after a protracted period of physical prostration, he quietly passed to his rest above, March 20th, 1861, aged ninety- three years, one month and fifteen days.
During Mr Taylor's residence in Cumberland, he lived as a model pastor, exerting a salutary influence through the whole community. His house was open with generous hospitality, and all who needed religious sympathy or advice found a cordial welcome. When in the
9 From Stevens' Memorials of Methodism, pp. 150-162.
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TAYLOR AND MERRITT.
feebleness of age, he came back to the city to die, he was the same serene christian, standing on the sunny bank of Jordan, with a kind greeting for all who called upon him. The esteem in which he was held in the city, was shown at his funeral. High dignitarics were present. The Mayor of the city had been his pupil. When the funeral procession left his residence, on Ifigh street, the bell of High Street Church first struck, to be answered, in solemn peal, by nearly all the bells in the city ; and when the procession left Chestnut Street Church, the First Parish bell announced the fact."10
Joshua Taylor was small in stature, of a clear, orderly and methodical mind, of sound judgment, and a warm heart. IIe was a kind, generous neighbor, a sympathizing friend and a faithful minister of the gospel. His labors were extensive and useful. His memory is held in high esteem by all who knew him.
TIMOTHY MERRITT.
Timothy Merritt 11 was born in Burkliamstead, Connecticut, October, 1775, and trained in the " nurture and admonition of the Lord," by devoted parents who were early members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in that State:
About the seventeenth year of his life, he experienced the renewing grace of God. Religion entirely imbued his nature, and marked him, from that period to his death, as a consecrated man. Enoch Mudge, who first led him into the pulpit, and who held with him, during life, the communion of a most intimate friendship, says : "I became acquainted with him at his father's, in the town of Burkhamstead, in the year 1794. I was introduced to him as a pious young man of great hope and promise to the infant church in that vicinity. After the forenoon Sabbath services, he accompanied me about five miles, to another appointment, and probably, for the first time, took part in the public exercises of the sanctuary. He had before been in the habit of improving his gifts in private and social meetings. He entered the traveling connexion in 1796, and was stationed on New London circuit, which was about three hundred miles in extent.
"The next year, 1797, he joined me in my labors on Penobscot circuit, in the Province of Maine. His presence to me was as the coming of Titus. We entered, heart and hand, into the arduous labors
10 Essay of Rev. C. F. Allen, Maine Methodist Convention, 1871.
11 Abridged from Stevens' History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Volume III, page 409 et seq.
43
J. MERRITT.
required of us in that new country, when we had to cross rivers by swimming our horses, and thread our way into new settlements by marked trees. The Lord gave him favor in the eyes of the people, and he was greatly encouraged and strengthened by a good revival in which much people were added to the Lord. Here our sympathies and christian friendship were matured and strengthened as the friend- ship of David and Jonathan."
The next year, 1798, he was sent to Portland circuit, where he continued two years. In 1800-1801, he was on Bath and Union circuit, and in 1802 on Bath station.
In 1803, he located, residing in Bowdoinham upon a farm, where he remained till 1817, when he again entered the itinerancy.
The fourteen years of his location were years of great toil and hard- ship. He did not locate to leave the work, but to relieve the infant churches of the burden of supporting him and his growing family. Besides the constant and arduous labors required for his own support, he filled appointments in different towns, constantly on the Sabbath, and delivered occasional week-day lectures. As most of the stationed preachers were unordained, he had to visit the societies to administer the ordinances, and assist in organizing and regulating affairs neces- sary for for the peace and prosperity of the cause. Occasionally, he attended quarterly meetings, for the presiding elders, from twenty to a hundred miles from home, holding meetings on his way. He went to appointments in canoes, and skated to them in winters on the streams and rivers, ten, twelve or fourteen miles.
When he re-entered the traveling connexion in 1817, he was stationed in Boston. He continued in important appointments down to 1831, when he was stationed at Malden, and devoted much of his time to the editorial duties of Zion's Herald.
In 1832-1835, he was in New York as assistant editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal. Thence he returned to the New England Conference, and was stationed at Lynn, South Street, where he remained two years. His health failing, he received a superannuated relation which continued till his life closed, at Lynn, Massachusetts, 1845, aged seventy years.
Timothy Merritt possessed rare intellectual vigor. His judgment was remarkably clear and discriminating, grasping the subjects of its investigation, in all their compass, and penetrating to their depths. His favorite subjects were the great doctrinal truths of religion, and his object was to ascertain and prove the relations of fundamental
44
MERRITT. YALLALEE.
doctrines to experimental and practical piety. This was the distinguishing characteristic of his preaching.
The doctrine of christian perfection was his favorite theme, and he was a living example of it. "Holiness to the Lord," was his constant motto. He was emphatically a man of a single eye - a man of one work. He literally forsook all, to follow Christ, and seek the salva- tion of his fellow-men. Both his mental and physical system were formed for the work. He had a muscular energy which was fitted for labor and fatigue. His mind was of a thoughtful and serious turn, and of great activity. He was constantly grasping for new subjects of inquiry and new scenes of usefulness. In prayer he was grave, solemn, and fervent.
When his physical energy gave way, his mind felt the shock, but in his failing health and strength, patience had her perfect work.
No man of his day had more prominence in the Eastern churches, for either the excellence of his life or the importance of his services, than Timothy Merritt. "His influence was wide and blessed, and his memory is precious."
His published works are, The Converts' Guide and Preachers" Assistant; Christian Manual ; Discussion against Universal Salvation.
ROBERT YALLALEE.
Robert Yallalee was born in Neweastle, Northumberland county, England, in 1766. He commenced preaching when he was twenty-two. years old.
In 1796, he was ordained Elder by Bishop Coke, for the Foulah Mission, Africa. In company with others he embarked for Sierra, Leone, where they arrived in due time, and were warmly greeted by the converted natives. War some time afterwards broke out, and this, together with other circumstances, rendered it necessary for the missionaries to leave.
Mr. Yallalee sailed for America and joined the Methodist itinerants of New England, in 1796, and was appointed to Provincetown, Mass. In 1797, he was sent as colleague of Joshua Taylor, on the Readfield circuit, Maine, and the next year, of Aaron Humphrey, on Bath and Union eireuit, Maine.
In 1799, his domestic circumstances compelled him to locate. He resided in Saeo, Maine, till his death, usefully employed as a local preacher. He founded the church in Saco, and planted the germs of many others while traveling in that state. He received Joshua Soule
-
45
FINNEGAN. JAYNE.
into the church. He died July 12, 1846, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
He was a mau of but ordinary talents, but of an excellent heart. His death was attended with the peace and victory of faith. 13
JOHN FINNEGAN.
John Finnegan was born in the town of Caran, connty of Tyrone, Ireland, May 29th, 1767. He was converted iu the twentieth year of his age ; sailed for America June 8, 1791 ; arrived at New York on the 12th of August following. He began his travels as a preacher in 1795, and labored two years on Otsego and Newburg eirenit, New York.
In 1797, he came to New England and traveled Portlaud eireuit with N. Snethen ; Penobseot eireuit with E. Mudge ; Bath and Union cireuit with C. C. Smith ; afterwards, Needham, Warren and Green- wich circuits. In 1802 he returned to New York and continued in the itinerant service, oeeupying many important fields of labor, excepting three years of location, till 1827, when his name appears in the list of superannuates. He died suddeuly iu 1838.
" John Finnegan is well remembered in New England, a man never to be forgotten by those who knew him ; a unique eharaeter, one of those original minds whose strong peculiarities found a congeniality in the peculiarities of Methodism. He was a good man and feared not death."14
PETER JAYNE.
" Peter Jayne was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1778, and converted in his sixteenth year. He began to travel as a preacher of the gospel when eighteen years of age, and for teu years labored with great ability and snecess in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New York. His appointments were as follows : 1797, Middletown, Conu. ; 1798, Pleasant River, Maine ; 1799, Granville, Mass. ; 1800, Dnchess, N. Y. ; 1801 and 1802, Brooklyn, N. Y .; 1803 and 1804, Lynn, Mass. ; 1805 and 1806, Boston, where be died in the faith aud peace of the gospel, September 5th, 1806, at the age of twenty-eight. His death, iu the vigor of his faculties, and at the period of his greatest promise, was an oeeasion of universal mourning among his brethren in New England, for he was a well beloved hope of the church, a man of rare abilities and excellent qualities. His mind was capacious and
13 Stevens' Memorials, p. 362.
14 Ibid.
46
J. SOULE.
critical, his information extensive, his style severe and forcible, his piety profound and uniform, and his manners were distinguished by frankness and sincerity. His ministry produced a strong impres- sion. "15
JOSHUA SOULE.
Joshua Soule occupies a prominent position in our denominational history. He was born in Bristol, Hancock county, Maine, August 1, 1781. About 1795, his father's family removed to Avou, then a new settlement on Sandy River ineluded in the Readfield circuit. Enoch Mudge and other traveling evangelists came to this neighborhood preaching the word of life among the sparse habitations. "Joshua Soule," said Mr. Mudge, " had a precocious mind, a strong memory, and a manly, dignified turn, although his appearance at first was exceedingly rustic." His opportunities for mental improvement were meager. The doetrines of the gospel as exhibited by the Methodist preachers, arrested his attention and eommended themselves to his judgment.
In June, 1797, after seeking reeoneiliation with God, through Jesus Christ, with a broken and eontrite heart, he found peace in believing. The ehivalric zeal and energy of the Methodist itinerants, who had brought the word of life to his distant home, found a responsive sympathy in his youthful heart, and was congenial with those habits of adventure and exertion, to which his frontier life had habituated him. He longed to share their heroic labors, and to go forth "into all the world" proelaiming the joyful sound of the gospel. The Divine Spirit selected and annointed him for signal achievements in the ehureh. He was then (1798) about seventeen years of age. Joshua Taylor, who was Presiding Elder in Maine about this time, perceived beneath the rudeness and rusticity of his appearance, those elements of promise which have sinee distinguished his eareer, and took him under his care as a travelling companion and assistant.
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