USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 14
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 14
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HISTORY OF YORK
rassing. But if peace cannot be maintained without the sacrifice must be made. The consequence is risked and a kind Providence trusted for the reimbursement of my future expenditure. I therefore consent to give you another $100 of my salary.
Respectfully yours,
M. DOW
York, Nov. 14, 1825.
In 1826 withdrawals still continued, but notwithstand- ing this discouraging situation a meeting held November 6, 1826, considered the subject of providing additional musical facilities for the services. It was hardly a time to indulge in singing paeans. In 1827 the withdrawals went merrily on, in larger numbers than before, including that of Timothy Lyman (son of the late pastor), and in October of that year the hard hit parish once more sent a com- mittee to ask their pastor to relinquish a further part of his salary. Mr. Dow agreed to "accept what sum the parish was able and willing to assess for him." But in 1828 and 1829 the ebb tide continued to flow, and it was evident that something radical must be done to save the "ancient and respectable parish" from being bled white.
On November 2, 1829, Mr. Dow, reading the hand- writing on the wall, addressed a short letter to the parish suggesting that "in view of all circumstances the minis- terial connection between us should soon be dissolved." The parish promptly concurred in this request. A council of delegates from the churches of Northampton and Portsmouth, N. H., Wells, Kittery and the Second Parish of York, Me., met on November 18, 1829, and solemnly consented to the severance of the relations which had become impossible of continuance. They reported that neither party was to blame for the situation. They also expressed the hope that the Society "in view of Mr. Dow's advanced age as well as in view of his peculiar affliction" would give him pecuniary assistance as an act of justice in his declining years. The parish postponed action from time to time on this particular recommendation.
Mr. Dow took charge of a parish in Hampton Falls, N. H. after leaving York and died May 9, 1837, at Plais- tow, same State.
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REV. EBER CARPENTER
In calling a successor to Mr. Dow, the parish, mindful of the awkward situation in which they had been placed by an indefinite contract with Mr. Dow, instructed a committee to offer the succession to Rev. Eber Carpenter at a salary of four hundred fifty dollars per annum and "that the connection which may be formed between them shall be dissolved at the pleasure of either party on three months previous notice." Mr. Carpenter accepted by a letter dated Salem, January 22, 1830.
The thirteenth pastor was the son of Reuben and Miriam Carpenter, born in Vernon, Conn., June 24, 1800, and was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1825. Thence he went to Andover Theological Seminary, grad- uating three years later. He was ordained as pastor here February 17, 1830.
The usual financial difficulties arose. The parish undertook to induce Mr. Carpenter to accept certain rents of parish property with certain voluntary monies raised by subscription in full for his salary for that year. In reply to this Mr. Carpenter gave the proponents an answer which for frankness must have produced some- what of a shock. An abstract of it reveals the following situation: He stated that the parish had land worth in rentals $100 a year and a fund exceeding $2,000 which was not to be applied to the expenses of the parish until it should amount to $4,000. Against this was a debt of $1,000. "The members of the parish," he said, "are few in number & broken in spirit. From this view it is at once evident that the parish is in a state of considerable embarrassment. And this embarrassment has been some- time constantly increasing while the ability to bear it has been diminishing and the ground to support it undermin- ing and at the same time no policy has been pursued which has had the effect to free the parish from the evil of which all its members are deeply sensible. An examina- tion of these facts has produced in my mind the conviction that some new policy must be adopted and adopted soon or the parish will experience a fatal shock if something is not done speedily. The independent customs of our pious fathers will expire and perhaps the goodly house which they erected and in which they freely and devoutly worshipped will be for the moles and the bats." After
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HISTORY OF YORK
this broadside he told them frankly that it was their duty to raise the parish fund to its required limit of four thousand dollars so that it could be available for parish expenses. As a contribution to this end he offered to relinquish one hundred dollars of his salary for the current year on two conditions. First, that the fund be completed to the stated sum within three months. Second, that his salary be paid regularly in full in quarterly payments. He concluded this sensible and helpful advice with the following paragraph: "present appearances are such that I deem it my duty to the parish as well as to myself to give notice that my contract with the parish must termi- nate three months from this date if the conditions specified above cannot be complied with."
It must be assumed that this definite language ren- dered the hearers speechless, as the record states "no vote was taken in relation to the above communication." On October 22 following, a committee reported that the parish fund amounted to $4,096.06 and that the trustees should be called upon to pay the income of it towards the pay- ment of the minister's salary. Mr. Carpenter did not carry out his threat to resign and in April 1832 he offered to again relinquish one hundred dollars of his salary for that year. A readjustment of his contract was proposed by which he was to receive four hundred fifty dollars per year and the parsonage; while he was to relinquish the rentals of parish property and pay eighty dollars as rent for the parsonage. This proposal was not accepted by the parish and the parish offered four hundred dollars in lieu of four hundred fifty dollars as a permanent salary with the above provisions.
On October 22, 1833, Rev. Mr. Carpenter, probably discouraged by the fluctuations in the ministerial finances and in accordance with his contract, gave the required three months' notice that he wished it terminated on February 17, 1834. The parish requested him to remain two months more. To this Mr. Carpenter acceded as a temporary expedient, without a renewal of the contract. He continued in this manner until September 1835 when a council was called to dissolve the ministerial relations, which was done. He was at heart loath to leave, and not feeling equal to the delivery of his farewell address, he asked a ministerial brother to do it in his stead. While here he married Narcissa Lyman.
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A local historian states that "he was a robust character and gained the regard of a part of his parishioners to such an extent that a number of children were named for him." (Moody, History, p. 219.)
He was editor of the National Preacher from 1853 to 1857 and died in Boston, Mass., October 21, 1867, aged sixty-seven years.
In March 1836 Rev. Elisha Rockwood was invited to come as a candidate for settlement but nothing eventu- ated, and on June 18, 1836, Rev. Mr. Herman Vaill was called at a salary of five hundred dollars and house, but he also declined. Another effort was made August 18, 1836, when the Rev. Harrison G. Park was proposed in a warrant, but the parish voted in the negative on his name.
REV. JOHN HAVEN
On October 18, 1836, Rev. John Haven was called at a salary of five hundred dollars yearly and the use of the parsonage, shed and half the barn. He accepted by letter dated October 26, 1836, and became the fourteenth pastor in lineal succession. He was a recent graduate of Amherst College of 1834. His pastorate was short and uneventful but marked by a personal grief in the death of his wife, shortly after he settled here. She was the first to be buried in what was then the new cemetery. On November 23, 1840, Mr. Haven asked to be relieved from further connec- tion with the church "in consequence of the exposure of this place to the cold, damp winds from the sea." He stated that in the spring and fall months in easterly storms he suffered from "pains about the lungs and irrita- tion of the organs of speech." He was afraid that this constant trouble would be "opening the way for a pre- mature grave." The church accepted his resignation and a council was called to dissolve the connection. Mr. Haven died in October 1867 and was buried here. Following the departure of Mr. Haven the parish turned once more to Rev. Mr. Carpenter, perhaps with a view to make amends for their former shortsightedness in their dealings with him. On February 6, 1841, the parish, by a vote of fifteen to thirteen and twelve not voting, voted to call Rev. Eber Carpenter to settle. Under date of February 22, 1841, Mr. Carpenter replied in a long letter detailing the reasons for declining the invitation. It related mostly to
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his former experiences in the parish including attempts to reduce his salary from the sum originally agreed upon. He reminded them that they had paid more to his prede- cessor and successor than they had paid to him, and that he and his family had contributed four hundred dollars to the parish fund and that he actually received but three hundred seventy-six dollars per annum. We may assume that the parish had been taught a valuable lesson. He gave them a mild reproof for this tendency and advised them against frequent dismissions of pastors as contrary to the spirit of Christianity. In conclusion he politely declined the call and asked that his letter be spread upon the records, in justice to himself. This was done and fifty copies of it were ordered printed for the use of the parish, but this vote was rescinded "and the whole sub- ject indefinitely postponed." The letter was less damag- ing in the records.
REV. JOHN L. ASHBY
Another Amherst graduate in the person of Rev. John L. Ashby entered into pastoral relations here beginning July 7, 1841, and continuing until February 27, 1849, when he was dismissed at his own request. He died in Washing- ton, D. C. in 1881, aged seventy years. Nothing of unusual interest occurred during the pastorate of Mr. Ashby, the fifteenth in lineal order.
REV. WILLIAM J. NEWMAN
The pastorate of this clergyman began July 11, 1849, and was terminated by death March 5, 1850, at the early age of thirty-eight years. He was the son of Mark and Sarah (Phillips) Newman of Andover, Mass., where he was born October 26, 1811. He was a graduate of Bow- doin College and of the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1835. He married Caroline Savage Cooper November 28, 1836, and in 1837 had a call to the pastoral charge at Stratham, N. H., where he remained twelve years. Thence he came to this church, and during his brief ministry he came to be greatly beloved by the people.
REV. JOHN SMITH
This clergyman, the seventeenth in succession, began his pastoral relations October 9, 1850, and they were con-
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tinued until March 20, 1855, when he was dismissed at his own request on account of the ill health of his wife. This was his last settled pastorate. His son, Walter M. Smith of Stamford Conn., a summer resident and President of the York Historical Society in 1902, was the presiding officer at the two hundred fiftieth anniversary exercises of the usurpation.
REV. WILLIAM A. HATTON
The eighteenth pastor of the parish began his services as stated supply in June 1855 in the stirring political atmosphere preceding the Civil War. He was a native of Kingston, N. H. where he died at the close of a vigorous and honored old age. His pastorate lasted until July 1858, a period of three years.
REV. WILLIAM W. PARKER
The pastorate of this, the nineteenth in line of settled ministers, began December 28, 1858, and lasted for two years. Nothing remains of record or recollection to dis- tinguish his short term of service.
REV. RUFUS M. SAWYER
This minister was from Somersworth, N. H. and came as stated supply, after an interval of nearly a year, October 1, 1861, and his pastorate is described by one of his successors as "a precious memory to many among us." It covered the entire period of the Civil War and his patriotic fervor in that epochal struggle was an inspira- tion to all. The same authority credits his ministerial zeal with "a revival of religion still remembered, some of whose fruits have been a blessing to the church ever since." Termination of his pastorate took place in July 1866 by dismission by mutual consent.
REV. JOHN PARSONS
The twenty-first pastor, who came from Kennebunk- port, succeeded to the charge of the parish December 26, 1866, and continued until June 10, 1869, when he was dis- missed by agreement. The pulpit remained unoccupied by a settled pastor but services were continued by weekly supplies, during which time a desirable successor was sought among them.
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HISTORY OF YORK
REV. BENJAMIN W. POND
He was installed as pastor in May 1870 and continued in that relation as the twenty-second in succession until September 1873. It will thus be seen that since 1800 there had been twelve changes in the pastorate, giving an unusually numerous turnover in the pulpit, making an average pastorate of six years.
REV. DAVID B. SEWALL
The twenty-third minister was installed as acting pastor December 3, 1873, and entered upon the longest pastorate of any of his predecessors or successors in the last century. Doubtless the people had become satiated with the frequent changes which had developed into a continuous procession of installations and dismissals. He served with great satisfaction to the parish for a period of fourteen and a half years when advancing years overtook him. He resigned June 24, 1888, to the great regret of the townspeople. His place remained unfilled for two years except for the temporary employment of Rev. Warren and Rev. C. C. Bruce.
REV. GEORGE M. WOODWELL
On February 19, 1890, the twenty-fourth pastorate began with this clergyman, formerly of Wenham, Mass. He was invited to serve for a year at a salary of nine hundred dollars and his contract was extended yearly until April 9, 1894, when the parish voted not to employ him for the ensuing twelve months. Temporary supplies ensued and on November 26, 1894, Rev. Josiah P. Dicker- man of Foxboro, Mass. was invited to assume the pastor- ate but he declined. For several months thereafter the pulpit continued to be filled by supplies.
REV. MELVIN J. ALLEN
On April 27, 1895, the parish terminated this unsettled condition and on that date voted to call Rev. Mr. Allen as the twenty-fifth lineal successor in the office of pastor. He remained four years and resigned April 10, 1899, effective three months from that date.
REV. SIDNEY K. PERKINS
This well remembered minister came from West Springfield, Mass. to this town in response to a call dated
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October 14, 1899, to assume charge of the parish at a salary of nine hundred dollars per annum with a parson- age. He accepted the following month, closing that cen- tury in the history of the parish and beginning the twentieth century as the twenty-sixth pastor in its history. In 1901 his salary was raised to one thousand dollars. His association with the church and town is well known to many of the older generation now living and numbers of the younger generation. His address on the churches and ministers of the town of York in 1902 at a commemorative service in the First Parish Church evidences his interest in the old town and the story of his predecessors. He resigned January 30, 1910, effective three months from that date, according to the terms of his settlement.
RECENT PASTORATES
Rev. F. L. Garfield of Castleton, Vt., twenty-seventh pastor, accepted a call voted November 7, 1910, and remained until December 25, 1915, when he resigned. An interval of two years without a settled minister followed, when Rev. H. S. McCready of Livermore Falls, Me. was called June 1, 1917, being the twenty-eighth pastor in succession. He resigned August 16, 1918. Rev. Harold G. Booth followed as the twenty-ninth pastor, having been called to the office February 17, 1919, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum. He did not accept until July 31, 1920, and resigned April 8, 1922. The present pastor, Rev. Albert S. Hawkes, of Lexington, Mass. was called September 9, 1922, as the thirtieth pastor at a salary of eighteen hundred dollars and the parsonage. It will thus be seen from the date of the first pastorate to the present time (a period of two hundred ninety years), the average length of service for the thirty pastors is a trifle less than ten years.
CHURCH OFFICERS
What records of the First Church survived the destruc- tion of the town in 1692 went up in smoke when the par- sonage was burnt during the incumbency of Parson Moody. It is, therefore, not within the power of the author to furnish any accurate or continuous lists of those leaders in religious affairs in the town who occupied places of trust in the government of the church. There were two
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HISTORY OF YORK
classes of officers chosen by the members: Elders and Deacons. The office of Elder, which ranks above that of Deacon, was held by the following persons: Joseph Say- ward, before 1721 and until his death in 1742, is the first one whose name has come down to us as holding that position; Samuel Sewall, Joseph Holt and John Bradbury, 1753; Abiel Gooding, 1754; Richard Milberry, 1776; Jonathan Sayward and Joseph Simpson, 1781. The earli- est names of Deacons which have come down to us from civil records are those of Abraham Preble (the second), Arthur Came, Rowland Young and Arthur Bragdon who were probably in office about the beginning of the eight- eenth century. The present existing records begin in 1731, at which time John Harmon was Deacon, and the following appear in chronological order as occupying that office: Joseph Holt, 1736; Samuel Milberry, Jeremiah Bragdon, Joseph Simpson, Jr., and Jonathan Sayward were Deacons in 1754; Wigglesworth Toppan, 1768; Michael Wilson, 1776; Francis Raynes, 1778; John Sewall and John Bradbury, 1781.
These officials were chosen by the members of the church to fill vacancies by death or resignation and often there was opposition, occasionally due to personal antagonism.
I56
CHAPTER IX THE CHURCH GLEBE AND PARSONAGE
THE PARSONAGE
From the earliest days, as soon as conditions made it possible, Godfrey exhibited his practical interest in public affairs by donating land as a glebe for the support of the ministry. While Hooke and others were bewailing the "low state of the Gospel," meaning the failure of the Puritan propagandists, the founder of York was making it possible to house and sustain a minister. It was not till 1641 that the Grand Patent was divided in severalty and the allotments definitely fixed by metes and bounds, and this may be considered a date for the establishment of a parsonage. A chapel had already been built and, following the English custom, a vicarage (or "parsonage" in the American nomenclature) followed as a matter of routine. It was built prior to 1636. The location of this house was undoubtedly on the site of the later parsonage occupied by the Rev. Samuel Moody. This was, of course, some considerable distance from the chapel of 1636, but ministerial land was the only proper place for it. All other land in the Lower Town was held in fee simple by indi- viduals. The only thing we know about it is that it had three chimneys, which fact shows that it must have been a house of comfortable dimensions. Godfrey had given six acres of meadow land, the income from which was to be used towards the upkeep of the structure. From the existing records this first building, described as a "very good howse" in 1648, lasted more than fifty years, and may have survived the destruction of buildings at the Massacre. In a paper prepared by Godfrey for the Council of State, after his return to England in 1657, he speaks of "a House for the worship of God, (and) Indowment of Minister," (Egerton Mss., British Museum, 2395). This refers to the original chapel, still in use then, and the Parsonage with the minister's land, or glebe, given by Godfrey (Mass. Arch. iii, 238).
When the final arrangements were completed with Samuel Moody to undertake charge of the parish it is
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HISTORY OF YORK
possible that one of the conditions required by him was the construction of a new parsonage. Rev. Mr. Dummer had lived in his own house on Alcock's Neck. Whatever the conditions, the town determined to provide a new parsonage suitable for the occupancy of the young clergy- man and his bride. On November 16, 1698, the town took the following action:
Voted that there is a whous to bee built forthwith for the yous of the Ministry upon the Townes Land, the Demensions as foloeth: Twenty Eight fout in Length and twenty fout wied with a Lentoe att on End twelve fout wide: the whous to be two Story high with three fiere pleses.
It does not appear that these brave words, consider- ably misspelled, were translated into terms of construc-
THE MOODY PARSONAGE, 1715 Lindsay Road
tion, and it is probable that Mr. Moody, with his usual charitable inclinations, accepted the old house and con- tinued to live in it for seventeen years. In March 1715 "the house being built for the parsonage" is mentioned, indicating that the vote of 1698 was then being carried out (Deeds viii, 174). In anticipation of the completion of it the town took the following action:
Votted that when there is a New house bult for the Minestry the house that our Minester Now lives in and all the Land belonging thereunto
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on the Southwest side of Nicholas Sewels Tanyards: and on the South- east side of the Town way to the Meetting House Crick shall be sold (for and att the Best advantage for the use of this Town of York by the Selectmen of said Town).
Six years later, owing to the Indian Wars, it was con- sidered necessary to fortify it as a means of defense against attack, and on August 30, 1721, the town took the following action regarding it:
V otted that Mr Joseph Sayward shall have the full Mannagement to buld a suffisant fortification about our Passonage House of ten foot high and fifty foot square, with two Good basstins or flancers of ten foot square, all to be bult of Squar hud timber of ten Enches thick to be bult forthwith and said Sayward to Keep a Just and fair accoumpt of the Cost and Charge thereof and the said Mr Sayward shall be allowed and Paid for said work by the Town: to be bult with Pine and hemlock timber.
2ly - it is also Votted that our Selectmen forthwith Raise a tax of sixty Pounds upon the Poles and Estates of the inhabitance of this (town) of York: for the payment of the abovesaid Work according to the Usall way or methurd of Reasing money to defray Town Charges: and if any Person or Persons bring any timber well hued fit for said work Eight day after this date, they shall be allowed nine Shillings pr tun.
Thus secured against external dangers the parsonage survived for a score of years to be destroyed by an internal hazard. On April 1, 1742, the church records stated that it was "providetilly Burnt yesterday" and the Boston News Letter account said it was "occasion'd by a Fire left in his Study." A meeting was called next day to consider "Building a Parsonage House in the Room of the former one." After several adjournments the parish decided to build a new one thirty-six feet long, thirty-two feet wide, two stories high and sixteen feet stud, and "that the same shall be set up upon or near the spot where the other Hous stood." As this house was unforti- fied the parish voted on May 31, 1744, "that there be a Board Garrison Built round the Parsonage House with Two Substantial Flankers on the opposite corners." In 1749 Indian troubles having practically been eliminated, the church met to consider taking down these "fortifica- tions." Presumably this was done with the usual rapidity which characterized the execution of all their votes. Thus denuded of its military character this house continued its purely ecclesiastical purpose.
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HISTORY OF YORK
THE GLEBE LANDS
The original gift of Edward Godfrey for glebe land for the parish was six acres of meadow and a small parcel of marsh land at the branching of the river about which he, in 1646, and Rev. Joseph Hull had a lawsuit. Mr. Hull probably claimed personal title to the marsh which had been assigned to him by Godfrey, and refused to turn it over to his successor. The parson lost his suit.
On July 5, 1653, the following additions were made to Godfrey's gift:
Wee the Selectmen of the Town of York have given unto the Town- house for the use of the Ministry a certain parcell of Marsh Lying about John Pearses Cove above it, and joining unto William More on the other side containing one acre or thereabouts.
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