History of Methodism in Maine, 1793-1886, Part 65

Author: Allen, Stephen, 1810-1888; Pilsbury, William Hacket, 1806-1888
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Augusta, Press of C. E. Nash
Number of Pages: 1146

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Till the death of his wife he preached nearly every Sabbath. On many of his charges he was very successful. His first term on Dixmont Cireuit was one of great revival. His wife died April 28, 1883.

As a preacher, Brother Day may be rated above the average. Of his character and standing, no more need be said than that he has been almost unique in amiability, single-mindedness and unobtrusive- ness. His great drawback has been diffidenee.

(2.) REV. ABRAHAM PLUMER, was born in Buekstown, (Bucksport) Maine, October 30, 1809.

He moved to Lee Plantation, (Monroe) when two years old. He was converted October 20, 1829, and joined elass on Unity Cireuit. He was baptized in the spring of 1830, and joined the church in Belfast ; was licensed to preach June 1835, and in due time was ordained Deaeon by Bishop Hedding, and five years later was ordained Local Elder.

He took work under Presiding Elder in 1838, and labored eleven years in New Hampshire. He then returned to Maine in 1849, where he has been thirty years engaged in pastoral work ; and since has resided in Damariseotta, doing much ministerial work in destitute communities

(The writer has been requested to furnish an autobiography ; with which request he complies with some misgiving, lest his intent be misjudged.)

(3.) WILLIAM HACKET PILSBURY was born in Buekstown, (now Bucksport) August 24, 1806.

His early training was under Puritanie regime at home and in sehool ; a formula which meant something. It was not only theoretical but practical, and which, however slurred and spurned, was much more effective in the right direction, and more promising in its results than the no system of no training, by the fireside, in the common school or the Sunday school, in the present mature age, and of which a modern reviewer writes: "Scorn it as may those who never knew

REV. W. H. PILSBURY.

what it was, the Puritan Sunday made men, thinking men, strong men, who in the world looked always to something beyond the approval of their fellows, felt always that there was somewhere some one who knew what they were in their hearts. It made a large part of what is worthy in onr institutions and our men, in New England and New York, in Virginia and the Carolinas, and throughout the growing Union."

In 1817, my father being in business in Charleston, South Carolina, whither my grandfather had gone years before, the family moved to Charleston. There I attended school till 1820, when I was taken into a book store, a newly established branch of the honse of Matthew Cary of Philadelphia, where I remained till 1822, when my father, with family, returned to Bucksport.

In 1823 I went to York county, where in Sanford and in Shapleigh, I served as clerk till 1829. While at Emery's Mills in Shapleigh, in 1825, under the ministerial labors of good Warren Bannister, I was converted, since which change, I have never, for a day, forgotten to pray. I never used intoxicants or tobacco, though handling many kegs of one and hogsheads of the other ; nor was I ever mad or foolish or " ambitious of manhood" enough to be profane.

In 1829, I went to Kent's Hill, Readfield ; that good man, Merritt Caldwell. being Principal, where I remained till 1834. My first attempt to preach was at Phineas Higgins' appointment, in 1830 or 1831, in the Atkins school house in Mount Vernon. Of course I remember nothing that I said, but I do remember, I was discreet enongh not to make a long talk.

In 1830, during a vacation, I was with Greenleaf Greely some three months, on Vienna Circnit, where I remember preaching, or trying to preach, in Mercer, in Vienna, and at Farmington Falls.

In 1834, I was admitted, on trial, in the Maine Conference.

I have never been tempted to seek to "shine." The reader may say : "the absence of ambition was, perhaps, consequent upon a well grounded conviction of the futility of the attempt." Very well, and 'tis a pity that others who have indulged the vanity, have not been taken the same way; then, withont the D. D. shining corona, they might have been of more use in the positions they were competent to fill, and might now be held in higher esteem among those whose judgment is worthy of respect. Nevertheless, I think I so chose because of a wish

MRS. MARY S. PILSBURY. WM. J. DODGE.

and aim to share the approbation of God rather than the praise of men. I have this conviction, that, under the circumstances, I have done what I could. If asked, " would you be willing to live over again?" my answer would be : "Thy will, O Lord, not minc be donc." If asked, " with your experience would you not make a better show of another probation?" my ready answer is: " humanity is so circum- stantial, moving as it is drawn or repelled, as the mind from its present standpoint may look at it, that, though I might profit by experience at some points, I might fail at an equal number of points where experience was wanting."

Though this item may have been already extended beyond the writer's privilege, he asks to be allowed a concise statement of the cheerful willingness of the companion of his early manhood, his prime and now of his ripe years, in taking upon herself, more than fifty-two years ago, the self-denial, the poverty and toil of such a companion- ship ; when the situation was much less inviting or endurable than in this age of comparative ease and better accommodation.

He took her from a home of plenty, as of rare, wide-spread family sympathy. She took upon herself cheerfully, the toil, self-denial, and sacrifices necessarily attendant, in those times, upon an itinerant life, as though trained to toil and poverty.

As a matter of course and almost of necessity, more was expected among the people then of an itinerant pastor's wife than now ; but she was ready to meet all demands without parleying.

Nine years of District service, such as they, and the mode of travel- ing, were then, were additional embarrassments, but of all this, though heavy to be borne, she did not complain. With the care of thirteen children, she looked upon the demands of the several relations sustained, as in the Divine providence.

She coveted not ; but was ever ready, not only to divide her last dollar, but her last dime, and then, if need be, to contribute the last half. Indeed she has known no stint save an empty hand and a husband's impoverished pocket. Saying less, the writer could not feel that his duty was done.

(4.) WILLIAM J. DODGE was born in the town of Adams, Massachusetts, in 1795.

When about a year old his father moved to Grantham, New Hampshire, and, after about five years, he settled in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. He remained there about six years, when he moved to Prospect, District of Maine. He now resides in Searsport.

WM. J. DODGE. REV. CALEB D. PILLSBURY.

When twelve years old he commenced to learn the shoemaker's trade ; and three years later he learned the tanner's trade.

February 2d, 1815, he married Miss Betsey Colcord, and during the same year there was a great revival at Mount Ephraim, (now North Searsport) and himself and wife were converted, and joined the church.

In the same year a Bible was given to him, which he read through nine times in twenty years. He has always adhered to temperance. principles ; nor has he ever used tobacco. He has ever been true to. Methodism, and the interests of the church. He has taken Zion's. Herald fifty-five years. He has helped to build six Methodist meeting- houses, and owns pews in each of them. He is an 1812 pensioner.

A few years ago, on his way home with a load of goods, his. frightened horse threw him to the ground, injuring him severely, from which injuries he has never fully recovered.

His wife died sixty-three years after marriage. To them were born seven sons and seven daughters, nine of whom, in 1882, were living in six States. Eleven were married, to each of whom, on the marriage occasion, he gave one hundred dollars.

Preachers were always welcome to his home. He had four sons in. the army. As a Justice of the Peace he married thirty-one couple, and gave to each a Bible.

(5.) REV. CALEB D. PILLSBURY was born in Kingfield, Maine, December 13, 1817. His educational advantages were such as he obtained from public schools, and Farmington Academy.

He made a profession of religion and united with the Methodist Episcopal church, in the fall of 1837, under the labors of Revs. Theodore Hill and Thomas J. True. About two years later he was licensed to preach, and commenced traveling in 1842, occupying the position of second preacher on Fairfield and Sidney Circuit, Rev. S. Bray being preacher in charge.

At the Conference in 1843, he was received on trial. In July, 1845, he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Janes, and Elder in 1847, by Bishop Hamline.

In 1848, he was appointed to Machias Mission ; but, in consequence of a severe run of typhoid fever, he did not fill the appointment. He labored, however, the latter part of the year in Hudson, and Bradford, organizing classes and establishing a charge which still appears in the list of Conference appointments.

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REV. ALBERT CHURCH.

In 1857, he was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference, of which he is still a member. He took a superannuated relation in 1882.

While in the army as Chaplain, in 1864, he was captured with the Regiment which he served. Though treated respectfully, generally, while a prisoner, he has never fully recovered from the results of hardships endured.

November 7, 1839, he was united in marriage with Miss Orpha M. Curtis, in Kingfield, Maine, who has cheerfully shared the toils, as she has rejoiced in the vicissitudes of the itinerant's life ; and they are, together, passing to the close of life in full hope of a blissful immortality. :

(6.) REV. ALBERT CHURCH It may be supposed that many changes will have occurred in the course of fifty odd years. The aspects of our work at that early date, were, in many things, in marked contrast with the present. Whether or not the change has been, in all cases, for the better, may admit of question ; but it is quite certain that with many of them, the present incumbents of the ministry, at least, are quite satisfied. This will be found true in regard to the size of eircuits. Few would be willing to receive an appointment to a charge embracing five or six, or more towns, with several preaching places in each for either the Sabbath or week days, and requiring perhaps fifty miles travel per week on horseback, every round. The work was performed on horseback either because of the state of the roads or the poverty of the preacher, which did not allow him the luxury of a carriage. An early preaching place may be thus deseribed :

After a ride of five miles from the highway, by a mere path through the forest, a clearing of a few acres was reached, where a few families lived in log houses. In one of these, so low as to just admit of standing upright, a congregation gathered, seated on the bed and on planks or slabs resting on shingle bolts, until the space was filled. To these, the preacher would talk, while the close attention showed that the message was not in vain.

My experience in regard to parsonages is also an illustration of the advance of the work in our Conference. That into which we moved on our marriage, was a small one-story house of two rooms, and an addition in the rear for bed-room. We had only one end of the house, the other half being occupied by another family. Our space consisted of one room, which, beside being our sleeping room, must answer all domestic purposes, and was my only study. Our only chance for storage was a low attic and a small eellar, reached by

REV. ALBERT CHURCHI.

passing through the room of the other family. A room about cight feet square was our spare bed-room.

Another residence early in our experience was a parsonage, a very low building of only two rooms, from one of which a small room had heen partitioned, barely sufficient for clothing and storage, and was the only chance for such nse. The only other building was a small one barely sufficient for a horse and a shelter for dray and a carriage. Our room was warmed by an open fire-place, and by this all the various operations of domestic life must be performed.

During the winter, what time I could have at home, which was not employed in cutting wood and getting it into the house,- our only shelter for it- to save my wife from exposure, and in shoveling snow, must be spent in this one room. I said what time! How much this would be may be inferred, when I say the work of a circuit embracing five towns must be attended to.

Such, with little variation, and in some cases, no improvement, were our first residences ; and I have no reason to think ours any exception. Fuel often came to the door in what was called sled- length. just as cut and loaded in the forest. It must be fitted for the fire, in the open air, and often remain there until wanted for use, regardless of the weather, for there was no shelter for it other than our living rooms.

This is not complaint ; it is late in the day to murmur over inconveniences and exposures that were cheerfully borne. But perhaps some ambitions young writer is eloquently declaiming, the former days were better than these. But as the old man enters his well appointed study, and looks over his comfortable parsonage, he may be pardoned if he asks, wherein?

The advantage of the past is surely not apparent, as we accompany the young minister in his visits to the members of his church and congregation ; nor as we are seated and listening to a well prepared sermon in the neat church that has taken the place of the kitchen and log house. And the old minister may be allowed to exult some- what in the tokens of progress, and joyfully to say, the Lord is indeed in our midst.

Another question of some interest, which has now been fully adjusted, is that of an Educated Ministry. Something of the feeling in regard to this, may be learned from the following incident :

On one occasion I lingered after my class meeting, to converse with an aged mother in the church, and gain light in experience and duty.

REV. ALBERT CHURCHI.

I referred to my convictions in regard to entering the ministry, and to my want of qualification for the work, specially to my deficiency in a literary and professional training, and remarked that some friends had advised me to go through college, or at least to Andover. She, with much fecling exclaimed : "how many souls you might lead to Christ, while studying for the ministry ;" - an expression often used at the time, in arguments against theological institutions, and training for the ministry, and as often fully answered. I referred to Andover, for at that day theological institutions were not only unknown among us, but, when, at a later date, an attempt was made to establish one, a sharp controversy sprang up in regard to the utility of them, and even the moral and the religious influence of such schools, was involved. The discussion originated on this wise :

There had been organized in the New England Conference, a society termed the Junior Preachers' Society of the New England Conference. This society requested LaRoy Sunderland to prepare an essay on the Education of the Ministry. The essay was afterwards published in the Quarterly Review for October, 1834. He asks in the prefatory part of the essay, " why no kind of study, either literary or theolog- ical, has ever been required as a preparation for actual service in God's sanctuary ?"

The policy of the church had been to educate men in the ministry for the ministry. The controversy was continued by strictures in the Quarterly for January, 1835, from Dr. Reese of New York, and a reply in a later number, from Sunderland ; to which the Doctor rejoined ; and this for the present closed the discussion. The church was not then nor has she ever been opposed to the education of her ministers ; but she did not readily endorse the theory of Dr Porter of Andover, and of Dr. Sunderland, that a three or four years course of preparatory study at a school was a necessity. The underlying thought in the constitution of the church is indicated in Chapter Second of Part Second of the Discipline ; and the advantage of study and education is thus stated by Dr. Wheedon, in his inaugural, as Professor of Ancient Languages, in the Wesleyan University : "It is scarcely necessary at this day to urge the particular importance of the knowledge of the original scriptures to a theologian. One language there is indeed of special importance to him, the venerable Hebrew. It speaks to us from the glooms of farthest antiquity, like the voice of Omnipotence from the cloud wrapt Sinai, and yet he says : 'Nor would I assert that no one can be a successful minister of the cross,

REV. CHARLES B. DUNN.

without the ability to read the scriptures in their own dialect.' The name of many a burning light in the church, through every age of her history, beams forth in glorious refutation of such an assertion." As the final result, the Concord school and ultimately, the Boston University stand forth to attest that a hand Divine has shaped the destiny of the church.

(NOTE : With much truth it may be said to men of this generation, "other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors." It is not denied that the men of this generation do appreciate the toils and self-denial of the Pioneers ; but query, do they properly estimate and duly appreciate? Suppose they had been derelict ; what then might have been instead of what now is, as a heritage? Who, but the All- knowing can answer? Would there have been any labors to enter into ! But enough of this for the present, perhaps you say, and so says the Editor.)

(7.) CHARLES B. DUNN was born December 10, 1815, in the town of Alexander, Washington county, Maine. He was educated in the town schools, and Washington Academy, in East Machias.

His early opportunities were narrowly limited ; but, if a boy aspires to knowledge, he will find a way to get it. There was in the town an old teacher, a University graduate, who apparently knew everything, except how to use his knowledge to advantage.

This kindly old man was ever ready to help the studious, whether in or out of school. During the long summers, though the boy diligently labored on the farm, all his leisure moments, with this aid, were devoted to study. What he acquired of Latin and Greek was in this way. Even in the logging wood the long evenings were devoted to study.

His parents being Methodists, the circuit preachers made their home with them ; and gave the boy the use of their books ; which was of great advantage; as, when he entered the ministry, he found himself quite well posted in the required studies.

Charles first became interested in religion when about fourteen years old, under the labors of Rev. B. D. Eastman ; but, not joining the church, he, in great degree, lost his interest. When about eighteen years old he again found favor with God, and was received as a probationer, and when about twenty he was admitted to member- ship in the church, and when about twenty-one he was made class . leader.

REV. SETH H. BEALE.

Being the youngest son his destiny seemed to be, in time, to take his father's business. With this in view he married Miss Olive A. Scribner, and settled, as he supposed, for life, in the old homestead ; but he soon found that to enjoy religion he must be more extensively active in the church. With this in view he asked and obtained a local preacher's license, and preached nearly every Sabbath in parts where no one else could well go; but, after two years the Conference sent a preacher, and a circuit was formed.

In 1842, he was admitted to the Annual Conference and appointed to Houlton Circuit.

In 1885, because of declining health he was superannuated, and settled in Hampden, where any one who desires may find him.

(8.) REV. SETH HOWARD BEALE. The subject of this sketch is at the time of writing, (February, 1887) the oldest member of the East Maine Conference, in the effective ranks, and there are but four members who entered the ministry prior to him. He was born in Sidney, Maine, April 3, 1815.

He came of good Methodist stock, whose record stands the test of closest scrutiny. He was converted in January, 1830; and early began to feel the stirring of the spirit to the work of the ministry. He was a student at Kent's Hill from 1835 to 1838. In 1836, he was licensed to preach, and employed his gifts as opportunity offered, while teaching at Provincetown, and Truro, Massachusetts. After one year's labor at the latter place, under the Presiding Elder, he joined the Providence Conference, and in 1841, was reappointed to Turo.

In 1842, his appointment was to Barnstable, and in 1843 he was transferred to the Maine Conference.

His ministerial record covers a period of forty-seven years in the itinerancy. His influenee has ever been on the side of temperance and prohibition, and during the civil war he was several months at the front, in the service of the Christian Commission. Of strong physical powers, correct habits, and prompted by unswerving fidelity to Christ and the church, these years of active service have been crowned with gracious revivals, in many charges, and more or less conversions in nearly all of them.

Over a wide range of territory be has been a well adapted camp- meeting worker ; always ready to conduct special religious services ; of apparently exhaustless resources ; and every time the right man for the place.

Reo Seth Ho Beale

ORRINGTON CIRCUIT.

CHAPTER VIII.

(1.) The following is from an original and well preserved book of record, kept in Orrington.

"The rise of Methodism on Orrington Circuit, appears to be as follows : in the year 1793. the Rev. Jesse Lee came to Penobscot river, and preached several times in different places ; and, being requested either to stay and serve the people, or use means to furnish them with another of his own denomination, some time after the Rev. Joshna Hall was sent, who continued his labors several months, and was instrumental of a number of awakenings. The Rev. Philip Wager succeeded him in serving the people three mouths.

"He was followed by Rev. Enoch Mudge, who established a church in the town of Orrington, according to the Methodist discipline ; and first administered the Lord's Supper on the twenty-seventh of November, 1796 ; " and later the following appears :

" At a yearly Conference, holden at Canaan, New Hampshire, June 12th, 1806, this circuit was divided into two circuits ; the western side of the river taking the name of Hampden, and the eastern, with a part of Union river Circuit annexed, taking the name of Orrington Circnit ; which circuit, before division, appears to have included Orrington, Hampden, Stillwater, Candeskig, Bangor, Eddington, Frankfort, Buckstown (Bucksport), Jordan's Brook, Orland, Colburn- ton, with other localities ;" and later, in 1816, Penobscot, Sedgwick and Surry ; Enoch Mudge, Timothy Merritt, and subsequently, John Atwell. 1813 ; Cyrus Cummings, 1814 ; Joshna Nye, 1815 and 1816; and others not so well remembered, having served as preachers ; and Joshna Taylor, 1797 and 1798, Presiding Elder on Maine Circuit (?) Joshna Soule, 1803, Presiding Elder on Maine District ; Oliver Beale, 1808 to 1811, Presiding Elder on Kennebec District.

The record book named is really a Steward's Ledger, and a model book, on which the entries of receipts from the several localities, and the disbursements are neatly entered and carefully balanced at each Quarterly Conference, extending from 1797 to 1838; and on which, in proper order of time, an entry appears as follows : "Quarterly Meeting, Sep. 3, 4, 1814, omitted by reason of the British troops being among us." The following record also appears :

" At Maine Annual Conference, August 14, 1828, Orrington and Bucksport, (meaning North Bneksport) Circuits were re-united."

ORRINGTON CIRCUIT.

The church in all its parts and departments continued to grow and tlirive till 1842, when it was made the field of labor of the good brother who was " as sure that Christ would come, to call home those who were watching for his coming, and to judge the world, in 1843, as of his justification or sanctification ;" which good brother, without reservation, carly and late, and everywhere, made this his theme, and who, wlien admonished, by the Bishop, as requested, by the Conference, in 1843, threw the entire responsibility of his heresy npon the "fathers."

In 1842, when Rev. Gershom F. Cox was appointed to Orrington, it was one of the strongest, most loyal and harmonious churches cast of the Kennebec river.

During the Conference year he much more than doubled its nominal class membership; but weakened the church in the same ratio.

Milllerism, earnestly inculcated from the pulpit, in the home, and everywhere by the way, by a man who knew that success depended more upon emphatic absoluteism of appeals to the emotional than to mental, wrought disastrously ; vitiating the faith of but few of the reliable members ; but neutralizing their power and influence, by the addition of hundreds, who were only Millerites, thereby unnerving the steadfast and immovable, and making them powerless, except to hold the citadel, which they nobly did.

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History of Methodism in Maine, 1793-1886, Part 65

Author: Allen, Stephen, 1810-1888; Pilsbury, William Hacket, 1806-1888 Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Augusta, Press of C. E. Nash Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Allen, Stephen, 1810-1888; Pilsbury, William Hacket, 1806-1888
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Augusta, Press of C. E. Nash
Number of Pages: 1146