USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Wales > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 17
USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Monmouth > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 17
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It was far into August, 1798, when Asbury, worn
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with excessive labor, and suffering the intense penalties of exposure to all kinds of weather, came beating through the woods, guided by the indefatigable Lee. In Asbury's journal, under the date Wed., Aug. 22, is this entry: "We rode through the woods to the An- droscoggin river, thence to Lewiston, where our ap- pointment for preaching had been made at 2 o'clock, and another at 4 o'clock. No one attending at 2 o'clock, we came on to Monmouth, Thursday, Aug. 23d. I was at home at Brother Fogg's .* He and his wife are pious souls. Such, with an increase, may they live and die! I preached in the open meeting-house, to a congregation of people that heard and felt the word. My subject, Ephesians, 6: 13, 18-Wherefore take unto you the whole armor,' etc. I was raised a a small degree above my feeble self, and so were some of my hearers." Raised above his feeble self, indeed! No one who found a place in the congregation that damp, sultry August day, ever forgot the wonderful eloquence and power of the preacher's words. If he was raised a small degree above his feeble self, what must have been the strength of his discourse! Early that evening he left Caleb Fogg's, weary, faint and sick, but urged on, as ever, by an unremitting zeal and purpose. They reached Winthrop, where an opportu- nity had been made for an evening service at the Con- gregational church. Here the bishop's strength utterly failed, and he was obliged to lay on Lee the duty of conducting the service. Resting one day, he pressed on to Readfield, finding a passage, as he assures us in his diary, "as bad as the Alleghany Mountains and *Caleb Fogg.
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Shades of Death." Here he rested until the next Wednesday, when the conference-the first held in Maine-opened, with hundreds in attendance. At the close of this conference, which undoubtedly was, as an able writer has claimed, the most wonderful gathering that had ever been held in Maine, Bishop Asbury turned back toward the western states to complete his annual round of thousands of miles, and the ministers, nine in number, hastened to their respective fields, Taylor returning to this circuit, assisted by Jesse Stone- man.
In 1799, John Broadhead was appointed to the cir- cuit, with Nathan Emery as co-worker. The field was not a new one to Mr. Broadhead; he had been here three years earlier as colleague of Cyrus Stebbins. Broadhead was a remarkable man. Of his native abil- ity nothing more need be said than that, notwithstand- ing the unpopularity of the sect to which he belonged, he was, after his removal to the State of Massachusetts, elected to represent a district in the legislature, placed in the executive council, and sent to Congress for a term of four years, and, as a climax, was offered the nomination for Governor of the Commonwealth, by the leading party, which he refused. His associate, Na- than Emery, a youth of nineteen years, was the son of the first settler in Minot, Me. The following year found Epaphras Kibby, for whom Dr. E. K. Prescott, E. K. Blake, Capt. E. K. Norris and other descendants of the primitive Methodists were named, on the circuit, with Comfort C. Smith, who, six years later, withdrew from the conference and settled on a farm at North Wayne, assistant. Mr. Kibby came to this field greatly
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depressed in spirits. He was only nineteen years of age, and separation by so great a distance from his home in Connecticut, brought about strong symptoms of that highly disagreeable, but never fatal,. malady- homesickness. It was Bishop Asbury's custom to send his young men into this wild field to test their loyalty and inure them to the hardships of an itinerant life. If their zeal was unabated at the end of a year's service here, they could be trusted with any pastorate. Kibby was converted in his sixteenth year, and was almost immediately urged into evangelistic work, and now, after two years' service near home, was sent to the ordeal for a thorough test of the metal of which he was composed. Weary, faint and sick at heart, he sat one day in the high pulpit of the old Center meeting- house, which was completed that year, and occasionally occupied by the Methodists, almost ready to give up the field and return to his home. He had preached every day in the week except Saturdays; had travelled alone in the severest weather through almost impene- trable forests; slept in log cabins, barns, outdoors, any- where that night found him; had traversed hundreds of miles of territory, praying and conversing with people of all classes, and, as yet, could see no favorable result, or even indications. He was about to preach a funeral sermon. The mourners were already in their seats,and the congregation fast assembling. All at once the spirit of God seemed to descend upon him and the en- tire congregation. It was a veritable repetition of Pentecost. A young couple, fashionably attired and genteel in appearance, entered the room and took seats near the door. The lady appeared to be mentally dis-
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tressed, and trembled noticeably as she sank into her seat. "Without an audible expression," says a writer who recorded the event, "her countenance and demean- or exhibited unutterable feeling, and the whole audi- ence seemed to share it." The young minister. a moment ago discouraged and filled with fearful appre- hensions, now arose, filled with the power of the spirit. "As he advanced in his discourse," says the same writer, "exhibiting the mercy of God, the feeling of awe, which had hitherto absorbed the assembly, seemed to change; a glad and grateful emotion spread through the congregation; a bright and glorious expression shone in their faces. The lady, with streaming eyes and overflowing heart, found peace with God, and seemed transfigured before them. When they arose to sing, she united with them, and as they were rendering the last words of one of Charles Wesley's hymns,
'Give joy or grief, give ease or pain, Take life or friends away, But let me find them all again, In that eternal day,'
said the lady, 'I sung myself away, and should have fallen, had not some one set me down.'
She then told the people what the Lord had done for her soul. Her husband, near her, was smitten down and dropped upon his seat. The presence of God seemed to overshadow the place, and the assembly was overwhelmed. * The influence of this remarkable meeting spread like a flame through the town and neighboring villages." A young man in the congrega- tion from Hallowell invited Mr. Kibby to preach in his town, and this led to the establishment of Methodism
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in that place. By this demonstration of the divine presence "the sinking heart of the young minister was established forever."
The lady whose conversion was accomplished by this remarkable manifestation of spiritual power was Mrs. Lydia McLellan, a lady who was destined to occupy a more prominent place in the history of Maine Meth- odism than any other person of her sex; and the man who, under the touch of God's hand, exhibited such signs of weakness, was Gen. James McLellan, the noted millionaire.
Mr. McLellan was born in Gorham, Me., May 15, I777. He was the son of Elexander and Margaret (Johnson) Mclellan, and a direct descendant of Hugh McLellan, the bold Scotchman who settled in Gorham when it was known as Narragansett No. 7, and whose name has been made immortal in history and romance as the hero of the war with the Narragansetts.
He married, Dec. 19, 1797, Lydia Osgood, daughter of Stephen and Mary Osgood of Tewksbury, Mass .. and settled in Monmouth immediately after his mar- riage. On the brow of the hill a few rods south-west of the residence of Mr. Joseph Given, he erected a large house in which he resided until 1806, when he exchanged places with Capt. Ephraim Wilcox, of Bath, and re- moved to that city. He there engaged in West India trade and ship-building, and amassed a large fortune. In the war of 1812, several of his vessels, of which he built forty-six, were captured by British men-of-war, involving him in a loss of half a million of dollars. From this loss he soon rallied, and became one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Bath. He
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was appointed Brigadier-general of the State Militia, a position well fitting one of his fine physique and digni- fied bearing. Although not in youth a professed Christian, he, in later years, when burdened with the care of a large commercial business, saw that "one thing was needful," and although raised almost to the highest eminence of social and military greatness, sought God as one who recognized the truth of the teaching "there is no respect of persons" with Him. Said one of his enthusiastic brothers, "General Mc- Lellan sought God like a little child," He was greatly assisted in his religious lite by his wife, who, after re- moving to Bath, remained true to her God and her elected denomination. She was, with one exception, the only person in the vicinity adhering to the princi- ples of Methodism. In company with her faithful colleague, she conducted class-meetings and social services with unremitting regularity, in the face of opposition and apparent barrenness of results. Years passed before her labors were rewarded in the conver- sion of a single individual; but the reward came; and to-day two towering pinnacles resting on the edifices that her influence founded, attest her fidelity, and point their slim fingers to the mansion that she now inhabits.
They had eleven children, three of whom were born in Monmouth, and one of whom (Peter O.) married the lady who, after his decease, became the wife of Prof. Packard of Bowdoin College. Another (Hannah Eliza) married Rev. J. B. Hustead of the Methodist Conference, a third (Louise H.) Col. Edward Harding of Bath; and another, Dr. Henry R. Rogers of Dun- kirk, N. Y. Their youngest daughter, Nancy Osgood,
11
The Gen. McLellan House. DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1866
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married Sylvanus W. Robinson, of Litchfield, and another died in New Orleans, of cholera. Gen. Mc- Lellan was a cousin to Rev. Elijah Kellogg, the famous writer of books and stories for youthful readers.
On Thursday, Aug. 5, 1800, Jesse Lee again visited Monmouth. At eleven o'clock he preached "at the house of Mr. Blake," and at the meeting-house at 4 o'clock. "The large congregation," writes he, "was deeply affected." It is generally supposed that the Mr. Blake, at whose house he preached, was Phineas Blake of East Monmouth; but no evidence exists to prove that it was not John Blake, who lived on Norris Hill, and who was, also, a zealous Methodist. Admit- ting that the distance from the church to the eastern part of the town made it inconvenient for the people of that settlement to attend regular services, and that the sermon preached at Mr. Blake's was for their benefit, we have no very conclusive evidence, when we consider the fact that in those days people thought nothing of trav- elling ten miles to hear so noted a preacher as Jesse Lee. In the opinion of the writer, the service was held at neither of these places. The old Methodist meeting-house was never thoroughly finished, and in bad weather it afforded about as much protection against the elements as an umbrella frame stripped of its covering. At such times the people resorted to the nearest house-that of Asahel Blake, who was another member of the church and a lay preacher. The infer- ence to be drawn from this record in Lee's journal is that a shower drove them to seek shelter at Mr. Blake's in the forenoon, and that the afternoon being clear,they repaired to the church, only a few steps away.
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The year 1801 brought Asa Heath and Oliver Beale to the circuit. As one of these men, in later years, be- came a permanent citizen of Monmouth. and reared a family which was for many years connected with the leading institutions of the town, it is in keeping with the arrangements and object of this work to devote here a few paragraphs to a consideration of his career.
Rev. Asa Heath was born in Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York, July 31, 1776. He was of English descent. His parents were members of the Congrega- tional church, and from them he received a thorough Christian training. When he was thirteen years old. he was led, through the influence of a brother who had been converted under the labors of Freeborn Garrettson, to give his heart to Christ, and make an open profession of religion. Three years later, we find him apprenticed to a blacksmith of Cornwall, Conn. At the age of twenty-one, he had served his time, acquired a trade. and was ready to make a start in the world. His mas- ter, having found him honest, faithful and industrious, offered him fair wages and good prospects to remain in his employ. He accepted the proposition. and set- tled down to his old forge and anvil. But here he was not to remain. A broader field lay open before him, and a higher calling was to be given him. After a long struggle. to repel the conviction that haunted him, he finally yielded, and, in 1798, committed himself to the Conference held that year in New York, on trial. He was accepted and assigned to the Pomfret circuit. How little he thought, while journeying towards his appointment, harassed with a sense of weakness and fears of failure, that before leaving his first appointment
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he would, in God's hands, perform a work worthy of a life of patient toil. On the 27th of December, 1798, he spent the Sabbath with Rev. Joseph Mitchell of Stockboro, Vt., and preached a part of the day. It was well for him, as it is well for us all, that he could not fathom the depths of futurity. Had he known the influence of that sermon, his whole future life might have been spoiled with pride and self-conceit. A half century later the venerable and celebrated Bishop Hedding arose at the opening of a session of the Maine Conference, over which he was presiding, and said that as this was probably the last time he would be called to preside in the state, he wished to say that he had always been pleased to visit the Maine Conference, for it was by one of its venerable members that he was led to seek Christ; and pointing to Father Heath, he ex- claimed, "He is the man." As an unconverted man he had listened to that sermon at Mr. Mitchells, and had yielded to its influence on his mind.
In 1799 Mr. Heath was appointed to the Kennebec cir- cuit in Maine. In 1800 he was ordained Deacon, and appointed to Portland. In 1801 he was assigned work on the Readfield circuit as auxiliary to Oliver Beale. He was married this year to Miss Sarah Moore, daughter of Hugh Moore of Buxton." In 1802-3 he was appointed to the Falmouth circuit. In 1804-5 to Scarboro. Here he remained twelve years as local preacher, only preaching occasionally. The pay he had received for his services did not meet the wants of his family, even while practicing the most rigid economy. Often
*Three of Hugh Moore's daughters settled in Monmouth-Jane, who married Dr. James Cochrane, Sr,, Mary, who married Daniel Boynton, Sr , and Sarah, who married Rev Asa Heath.
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the Methodist preachers did not receive one hundred dollars per annum, for their services. They did not enter the ministry for the emolument or advantages it offered. Nothing but love for Christ and pity for the unsaved led them to abandon every comfort, and sub- ject themselves to taunts, ridicule and hardships for the itinerancy. It was with many misgivings that Mr. Heath returned for a time to his trade, to support his family and provide means for their sustenance while he again engaged in ministerial work. He did not allow himself any rest in all those years, but, in addition to his work at the forge, taught district schools and sing- ing schools, and preached at Portland, Saco, Scarbo- rough and Buxton. In 1812 he was chaplain at one of the forts near Portland. Having secured, by diligent application to these diversified pursuits, a promise of support for his family, he made application to the Con- ference in 1818 for re-admittance. He was received, after which he was returned to Scarborough, where he remained until 1823, when he purchased the farm in Monmouth now owned by Sanford K. Plummer and again located. Atter this we find him agent of Maine Wesleyan Seminary, in 1830; appointed to the Fayette circuit in 1832; Milburn circuit (now Skowhegan) in 1833; Industry circuit in 1834; Sidney circuit in 1835; Windsor circuit in 1836; East Hallowell in 1837, and Gray in, 1838. In 1839 he received a superannuated relation, and retired to his farm in Monmouth. As a citizen of this town he enjoyed the fullest confidence, respect and good will of his townsmen.
Mr. Heath was a man of prepossessing appearance. He was rather short, but symmetrically built, and inclined
REV. ASA HEATH.
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to be handsome, and had, when young, a charming voice. His sermons were models of clear, instructive, logical thought. He was a Methodist minister of the primitive type; but, unlike many of his contemporaries, was quiet and unexcitable. He always wore the broad- brimmed hat and long cut-a-way coat of the Quaker, a costume that many of the early Methodists adopted, and one that was singularly adapted to his unassuming manner and mild, genial disposition. In the pulpit he was calm and moderate, but always pointed and con- vincing. During his last years, having devoted his life to a nobler purpose than the accumulation of wealth, he was largely dependent on his children for support. The loving hearts of his daughters prompted them to assist by making coats for a wholesale house, at a mere pittance each, sewing them entirely by hand. The old gentleman, knowing the temptation to perform the work hastily under such circumstances, admonished his daughters to do the work as carefully as though they were receiving an adequate return for their ser- vices, saying, "You don't know, girls, what poor man may buy that coat." He removed from Monmouth to Standish in 1844, where he died Sept. 1, 1860, aged eighty-four years, sixty of which had been spent in the ministry. A short time before his death he preached
in the vicinity of his home, with unusual interest.
On
returning to his home, he remarked to his family that he never enjoyed such a day before, and should never expect to enjoy such another season this side of Heaven, and that this was probably his last sermon. On the following Tuesday, he was prostrated by sickness, and after seventeen days of great suffering, passed away
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with words of rapture upon his lips. "All bright, shining," were his last words.
He left seven children, one of whom was Jonathan. who, for many years, was secretary of the Monmouth Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a sketch of whose life will appear in another chapter, and another the grandfather of Hon. H. M. Heath of political fame.
And now we come to the year 1802, a date memo- rable in the history of the town and the history of Methodism as well. The New England Conference, which then embraced, as its name implied, the entire association between Nova Scotia and New York, came to Monmouth to hold its annual session. Bishop As- bury, the pulpit orator of more than national fame, had for weeks been working his way along, on horseback. from South Carolina, to attend this assembly of his young ministers and circuit riders in the Eastern states. He was joined in Baltimore, it is supposed, by Bishop Whatcoat, who had been ordained as an assistant to the rapidly failing "pioneer bishop" only a few months before. For a long time, preparations had been going on for the reception of guests. Since the conference of 1798 the church had been growing in all the Eastern states, and there was every reason to expect a large attendance. Capt. Sewall Prescott's house, the build- ing on High St. now commonly known as the "Old Fort," was selected as the place of meeting, rather than the meeting-house, because there were more houses near it where the preachers could be accommodated, and more particularly on account of the unfinished con- dition of the meeting-house. The house was a new one, built only the year before. In the second story
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was a long hall running the entire length of the build- ing, and occupying one half of its width. On three sides benches were built into the wall to accommodate spectators, and the main floor gave abundant room for dancing and other amusements. In this room was conducted the New England Conference of 1802. In Bishop Asbury's journal we find this entry: "District of Maine, Tuesday, June 29, 1802. We stopped at Falmouth, and within sight of Portland. Although we rode thirty miles, I was obliged to preach; my subject was 2 Timothy 4: 7,-'I have fought a good fight,' etc. Wednesday, 30th. We had a racking ride of about forty-five miles to Monmouth; our breakfast we took at Gray, and dinner with Mr. Bradbury at New Glou- cester. Thursday, July 1. Our conference continued three days. We had fifteen members and nine proba- tioners. The married preachers who came deficient to our conference received about one hundred and twenty dollars; the single brethren, about sixty-two dollars, and the probationers a small donation of about two dollars each, which came from far. We had three sermons. The whole of my doing was to read two letters, exhort a little and examine the deacons. Samuel Hillman, John Gove, Gilman Moody and Joseph Baker whom Brother Whatcoat ordained. The business of our Conference was concluded in great peace and order. I can rejoice that by supplies from Baltimore and New York Conference, added to those of the Dis- trict of Maine and Boston, we have a goodly number of faithful, zealous young men. '
Sunday, July 4th opened serene and beautiful. At an early hour the roads were filled with men, women
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and children, all bending their steps up the hill towards Capt. Prescott's. Dust-covered horsemen, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by a wife or daughter sitting on a pillion behind, and clinging with both arms around the driver, emerged from the woods in all directions, and came cantering up the rough road with a pace moderated to the sanctity of the day. Men dressed in long, straight-cut coats buttoned close to the throat, and wearing broad brimmed hats, joined the procession from houses adjacent to the Captain's. These were the preachers and circuit riders; some of them having ridden hundreds of miles to be present. Here and there among the throng appeared a huge, plain bonnet of the "shaker" species, surmounting, to the utter obscuration of the wearer's face, a "meekly folded shawl," or kerchief, and a Quaker-styled dress. These were the mothers of the church, conservative of the form and custom, as well as of the spirit, of Meth- odism. As the morning expanded, and the sun lifted toward the point of turning, the groups became larger, and the space between them less, until the road was well filled with the moving multitude. But for the unusual quietness of demeanor, and the deep solemnity that seemed to rest on all, and even to pervade the inanimate objects of nature, an observer might have supposed that a Fourth of July celebration was to be held at Capt. Prescott's new house; and, indeed, it was such a celebration as the day demands. Far better were it for our people, our institutions and our country if the day we celebrate by burning powder and blow- ing fish-horns could be set apart as a day of national thanksgiving and praise to Him who gives us our
Captain Prescott's Tavern.
-
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liberty amd preserves us in its enjoyment.
Arrived at the house, as many women as could be accommodated, found seats in the hall and in rooms below, while nearly three thousand persons stood out- side, intent on hearing the word.
Five sermons were preached during the day; and all the time the eager thousands, protecting themselves as best they could from the penetrating rays of the sun, waited to hear and see more of the eloquent preachers. How like the sermon on the mount it must have seemed! The services concluded with a love feast, the administration of the sacrament, and the ordination of five elders, Comfort Smith, Epaphras Kibby, Daniel Webb, Asa Heath and Reuben Hubbard. Kneeling outside the door, in the presence of that large con- course, they bent their heads to receive the imposition of hands by the venerable Asbury, and arose to go from this "season of refreshing" into the hardships and dan- gers of new, and in many instances barren, fields, car- rying into effect the parting prayer of the bishop, "May they open the door of the church of God in discipline, and the way to Heaven by preaching the gospel."
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