USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 16
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 16
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
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HISTORY OF YORK
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."
In the last ninety-six years the building has been twice remodeled, the last time in 1895, during the min- istry of Rev. James Wright, when a bell was hung in the tower in addition to interior improvements. A parsonage was built about 1847, on the site of the homestead built in 1630 by Edward Godfrey on the south side of Meeting House Creek. The plans were made by the then incum- bent, Rev. Isaac Lord, who combined the faculty of carpentering, the trade of his Lord and Master, with that of preaching the Gospel. It appeared to be his special value in church work, as he had spent much of his active ministerial life of fifty years in repairing the churches and parsonages where he was on duty at the time.
Members of this society recall with appreciation the memory of Rev. William H. Strout who was stationed here seventy years ago at the urgent request of the mem- bers. One who has helped to preserve the traditions of social life in York (Miss Ellen M. Dennett), wrote of him:
The people knew him; he had begun as a lawyer, but his natural traits and purposes in life were such as to lead him toward the min- istry. A man of fine qualities, intellectual and moral, and sure of some degree of success in whatever he might undertake. He was allied to York further by ties of family. Mr. Strout was afterward transferred to an Illinois Conference feeling that it would be for the advantage of his four young sons, and his hopes were realized in living to see them develop as young men of marked character and ability.
The enthusiasm of the founders of this church and their successors in devotion to its services is certified by the same authority who relates that John and Jeremiah Lord of the Willows, Cape Neck, walked to church across the Long Sands on Sundays, with their wives, as well as to social gatherings and prayer meetings. On the latter occasions she states that Mr. Jeremiah Lord usually related his religious "experiences" and as he reviewed them his feelings were climaxed in rapturous expressions. Of its earlier attendants from the harbor district, almost exclusively mariners, may be named Captains Joseph Lowe, Edward Lowe, George Donnell, James Donnell and
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LATER CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS
Henry Kingsbury. A very active member of the society from the first was Jeremiah Brooks, before mentioned, who was one of Mr. Maffit's first converts. The early records are in his handwriting. Mr. Brooks was very fond of music, vocal and instrumental, especially the violin, but such was his conviction of the worldliness of it that he cast it aside as an unholy thing (Moody, p. 234).
The following is a list of ministers of the society. In the last part of the year 1829 Rev. John Atkins of Kittery supplied. The first actual pastor was Mr. Cox.
1830
Gershom D. Cox
1869-70
E. K. Colby
1831
M. Hill
1871
Daniel Halloran
1832
A. P. Hillman
1872-74
Ruel H. Kimball
1833-34
P. C. Richmond
1875-77
James H. Trask
1835
Francis Masseure
1878
Joseph Hawkes
1836
W. H. Pillsbury
1879
Daniel B. Randall
1837
H. M. Macomber
1880-81
I. H. Stevens
1838
T. Rawson
1882-84
George C. Andrews
1839-40
H. M. Blake
1885-86
J. A. Corey
1841-42
A. Hotchkiss
1887-92
G. D. Holmes
1843
F. Yates
1893-94
William P. Lord
1844
J. W. Atkins
1895
James Wright
1845
J. Weston
1896-99
William S. Bovard
1846-47
Isaac Lord
1900
C. C. Whidden
1848
John Rice
1901
O. S. Pillsbury
1849
A. Hatch
1901-03
Dudley C. Abbot
1850
John Mitchell
1904
James H. Bounds
1851
John Moore
1905-07
Insley A. Bean
1852-53
F. C. Ayer
1908-09
Albert J. Croft
1854-55
L. B. Knight
1910-12
Arthur J. Price
1856-57
John M. Woodbury
1913-14
Alvin C. Goddard
1858-59
William H. Strout
1915-17
Ambler Garnett
1860
C. Philbrick
1918
T. C. Chapman
1861-62
Nathan D. Center
1919-22
G. B. Cornish
1863
F. C. Ayer
1923-24
H. S. Dow
1864-66
John Collins
1925-27
J. Griffiths
1867
Orange W. Scott
1928-30
B. A. Gessner
1868
W. C. Stevens
1930
J. W. Black
THE COCHRANITES
This delusion did not gain a foothold to any large extent in York, though for some weeks its devotees gath- ered at a barn in the vicinity of Cape Neddick Village in 1818. The principal communities were at Kennebunk, Buxton, Saco and New Gloucester. The founder of this sect, Jacob Cochrane, began his disturbing career in Fryeburg in 1816, and he succeeded in arousing wonderful
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HISTORY OF YORK
interest and securing a large number of adherents in Oxford, Cumberland and York counties. He was about thirty-five years old when he commenced his ministry. In personal appearance he was tall and robust, a hand- some countenance which is said to have indicated more of sensualism than of intellect. Up to the time he con- ceived that he had a "call" to preach, he was engaged in the grocery business and was well patronized. He was considered by his customers as a "good fellow" but rather lazy, and his moral character was at par. That Cochrane did have wonderful hypnotic or mesmeric power is not questioned, but the use to which he put it was, and is, questionable. He soon gained a prominence he did not seek or expect. There were even among his followers some pure-minded and excellent men and women who would take no part in the practices of their leader or his "choice helpers." When it is taken into consideration that there was no pulpit, no singers' seats, but that the master and his flock joined with the sinners and scoffers on the floor, it can be easily imagined that much confusion prevailed. Speaking of this sect, the Newburyport Herald of the early part of 1819 has the following: "We have seen a pamphlet issued by a Baptist minister of regular standing in New Gloucester, Maine, giving an account of Cochrane and his deluded followers. It appears that under the guise of religion they have committed the most indecent and abominable acts of adultery . . . One of the leading tenets was to dissolve the ties of matrimony as suited their convenience and as promiscuous sexual intercourse was tolerated by each male being allowed to take seven wives. It seems that Cochrane, the high priest of iniquity, has had nearly half his female followers for wives in the course of his ministration which has been about two years standing."
In February, 1819, Cochrane was brought before Justice Granger at Saco, charged with gross lewdness, lascivious behavior and adultery by Mr. Ichabod Jordan, and was ordered to recognize in the sum of eighteen hundred dollars for his appearance before the Supreme Court at Alfred, the third Tuesday of May. At that time he was found guilty but left the town and his bail was forfeited. He was apprehended in November and removed to the State Prison at Charlestown. He was in Cape
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LATER CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS
Neddick for a short time in 1834. In September, 1835, he succeeded in establishing a "convent" at Stratham, N. H., at which some of his former York disciples were allowed a "sacred retreat" and privileged to keep the Passover. In 1823, Mr. Samuel Junkins, a follower of Cochrane and a shining light, attempted to build up and control a new sect but did not find great encouragement. He issued the following manifesto: "At the Baptist meeting house in York, On the Lord's Day next this House will be free for the Sons and Daughters of Zion to wait on the Lord and honor Him that hath made them free. Also the Family of Egypt may have another opportunity to come up to Jerusalem to keep the feast in Tabernacles, or if they refuse they must not expect to have any rain of the Spirit on them. Hypocrites, Mongrels and Lepers are desired to withdraw. Samuel Junkins, Servant of the Church of Christ, York. York, August 1, 1823."
This proposed gathering of the children of Zion resulted in the following court action :
At the October term, Court of Common Pleas, Junkins was fined twenty dollars and costs, in all forty dollars, and his wife, Olive, was fined "for disturbing a meeting at the Baptist Meeting House on the Lord's Day."
UNIVERSALIST
At the time when the Methodist and Baptist doctrines were gaining a foothold in York and the desertions from the old church were becoming alarmingly numerous a new doctrine of an all-embracing, liberal type had obtained some vogue, the Universalist, which sought salvation for all mankind. The members formed a society, but whether legally organized is not known. They had elected Alex- ander McIntyre as Clerk and the following named persons were members of it in 1823 : Mrs. Olive Grow, Bartholo- mew Wittum, Henry Holman, Timothy Austin, Peter Grant, Benjamin Lucas, Jr., and Francis Baker.
As was customary, they formally notified the Pastor of the ancient church of their withdrawal from the com- munion but they did not, apparently, come to a serious rivalry with the Standing Order. Probably their meetings were held in private houses or perhaps in the tavern of Capt. David Wilcox who was a Unitarian. Capt. Thomas Savage and Solomon Brooks, Esq., figured conspicuously
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HISTORY OF YORK
in this movement. Nothing further is known of their history. "The Town," said Emery in his "Ancient Gor- geana," "has been generally quite conservative on reli- gious topics, the 'new lights' in belief having failed to penetrate to any considerable extent into this region."
EPISCOPAL
As far as known, about 1648, the service of the Estab- lished Church of England familiar to our forefathers was read for the last time by Rev. Joseph Hull in the little "chapel or oratory" on the corner of Clark's Lane. When Massachusetts Puritans took over the control of the Province four years later they made it impossible by per- secution and other means for anybody but their own sectarian followers to conduct religious services publicly. As a consequence more than two centuries elapsed before the ritual of the Episcopal Church was again heard in the town. The development of York as a summer resort became the occasion to revive at the official seat of the Lord Proprietor of the Province of Maine the public serv- ices of the Established Church which had been decreed to be the official religion of the Province by Charles I. This royal decree has now only a sentimental connection with the reestablishment in the ancient domain of Gorges after two centuries of banishment, of the church service which the first settlers brought across the ocean to plant on a virgin continent.
Right Reverend Benjamin H. Paddock, Bishop of Massachusetts, and Right Reverend Alexander Burgess, Bishop of Quincy (Illinois), with the financial support of summer residents at York Harbor, obtained funds for the building of a church in which the Episcopalian service could be observed. The building of a church was com- pleted in the spring of 1886, and in August of that year it was consecrated under the name of St. George-by-the- Sea. Land for the purpose had been given by Mr. Elias Baker, near the present summer home of Mrs. A. Edward Ells of New York City. The trustees of this church for many years were John C. Ropes and Dr. Charles B. Tower. In 1888 the building was enlarged to seat four hundred people and for some years following services were held during the winter season, but in 1893 they were discontinued as there were few Episcopalians resident in
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LATER CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS
the town. In 1929 the trustees gave the building to the Woman's League and it was taken to the Village where the interior was remodeled to include a kitchen and other accessories adapted to its new uses. It was dedicated October 26, 1929, as the Woman's League Hall of York.
The cornerstone of a new stone church bearing the name of Trinity Episcopal Church was laid in 1908 on a lot situated on the corner of Woodbridge Road and York Street. It was opened for services in August 1909 and presents a picturesque appearance with its ivy-clad walls and substantial construction. It has a seating capacity for over six hundred people. The Building Committee in charge of it was composed of Thomas Nelson Page, H. Blanchard Dominick, Francis Lynde Stetson, William H. Lincoln, E. H. Siter and Elihu Chauncey.
ROMAN CATHOLIC
The large summer influx of adherents to the faith of this ancient religion required facilities for hearing the service of the Mass as the central object of their religion, and in the Summer of 1895 a place for its celebration was found in the second story of Mason's Bath House. Later these services were held in the library, but this arrange- ment met with opposition and further observance of this
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
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HISTORY OF YORK
rite was abandoned for two years. The dance hall of the Albracca was secured for the purpose and continued there uninterruptedly until the erection of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in 1903 on Woodbridge Road. Rev. James P. Gorman, Priest-in-Charge at South Ber- wick, had general supervision of the building of this church and as its pastor said the first Mass. Regular services are held during the Summer season, usually two Masses every Sunday. A rectory was completed and furnished in 1913, and Rev. Dennis J. O'Brien succeeded Rev. Mr. Gorman as Priest-in-Charge.
Contemporaneously with the establishment of services of this church at the Harbor, the first Mass at the Beach was said in Clement's Hall, in August 1895, now known as the Algonquin. During the next two Summer seasons these services were held at Myrtle Cottage, the summer home of Mr. Bernard O'Donnell of Brooklyn, N. Y. The cottage of Mr. Elisha Brown at Dover Bluffs was offered for their use in 1898, and accepted, although the donor was not of that religion. The two following years Mr. O'Donnell's cottage was again made available, and it is said that at the last Mass in August 1900, more than one hundred and seventy-five persons were participants in this solemn rite. Manifestly, these private houses gener- ously donated for the purpose did not furnish the proper religious atmosphere for the observance of the sacred Mass, and a committee of this temporary congregation consisting of the late Hon. John M. Mitchell, Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, Mr. Roger G. Sullivan of Manchester, N. H., and Mr. Bernard O'Don- nell of Brooklyn, N. Y. undertook the responsibility of building a Roman Catholic church to accommodate this large body of worshippers. Land on Church Street was purchased and the attractive church, Star of the Sea, was erected thereon. The first Mass was said in it July 7, 1901, by the Rev. James P. Gorman. A transept was later added and the seating capacity increased nearly eight hundred.1
'Repeated requests have been made to the local priests and to the Roman Catho- lic Bishop of Maine for information concerning the developments in recent years in these parishes, but they have met with no response and these incomplete references to that church are thus explained.
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CHAPTER XI
EVOLUTION OF THE PURITAN SABBATH
The Colonial meeting houses reflected from one genera- tion to another the evolution of the Puritan Sabbath in York from a day of forbidding austerity to one of con- genial relaxation. As the Puritan himself emerged from a stern, colorless existence, so his house of worship devel- oped from an unyielding simplicity of furnishings in the course of three centuries, to a comfortable, convenient and appropriately adorned building. The Colonial Sabbath was ushered in at sundown Saturday night and extended to Sunday midnight, a long week-end of cheerless for- mality at home and marked by a refrigerating aspect in public. Everything was calculated to turn one's thoughts to melancholy and despair. The freemen of York were summoned to the services
By beat of drum Or sounding shell.
As he arrived at the door with his family on horse- back he could look across the road to the burying ground, the pillory, the stocks, and whipping-post in the gaol grounds, and contemplate the sufferings of the living unfortunates, and in the building listen to sermons of the awful sufferings of the damned in eternal fire. If the weather permitted, he would stop to read the public notices posted on the door, such as calls for town meetings, bounties offered for killing wolves, banns of marriage and such like notices of public interest. It was the place where legal announcements required by the Province were tacked up to draw attention of the people. What went on after he had entered and taken his seat before the bell ceased to ring its summons is better told by a contemporary observer from whom this description of services in a Puritan meeting house is taken:
They come together about 9 or before and the Pastor begins with a solemn prayer, continuing about a quarter of an hour. The Teacher then readeth and expoundeth a Chapter; then a Psalme is sung, which ever one of the Elders dictates. After that the Pastor preacheth a
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HISTORY OF YORK
Sermon and sometimes Extempore exhorts. Then he concludes with prayer and blessing.
There is evidence that one of these was called the "Long Prayer" and consumed anywhere from one to two hours in delivery. After this they adjourned for the "Nooning." In suitable weather the families would spend the time in eating lunch, catechising the children on things they had heard of the morning service. Thus they throve, as a minister wrote, "on the Good Fare of Brown Bread and the Gospel." The men of the congre- gation, in separate groups, would not infrequently discuss crops and occasionally trade horses. In 1800 the parish had to wrestle with a question which was described in these words:
To see if the Parish will adopt any measure to remedy the evil example of Peoples tarrying out of doors on the Sabbath after public worship has begun.
Men reluctantly left an argument unfinished to respond to the call for the second service to begin. Our contempo- rary observer continues his story of what followed:
About two in the afternoone, they repair to the meeting-house againe; and then the Pastor begins as before noone, and makes a Sermon. After and before he prayeth. After that ensues Baptisme, if there be any, by washing or sprinkling, which is done from the Dea- con's seate, the most eminent place in the church next under the Elder's seate. The Pastor most commonly makes a speech or exhortation to the Church and parents concerning Baptisme, and then prayeth before and after. Which ended follows the Contribution, one of the Deacons saying: Brethren of the Congregation, now there is time left for con- tribution, wherefore as God hath prospered you so freely offer. Upon some extraordinary occasions, as building and repairing meeting- houses, the Ministers presse for a liberall contribution with effectual exhortations out of scripture. The Magistrates and cheefe Gentlemen first and then the Elders and all the congregation come up one after another, one way, and bring their offerings to the Deacon at his seate and put in a box of wood for the purpose, if it bee money or papers: if it be any other chattle they set it or lay it downe before the Deacon, and so passe another way to their seats againe. Once a moneth is a Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, whereof notice is given usually a fortnight before, and then all others departing save the Church, they receive the Sacrament, the Minister and Ruling Elders sitting at the Table, the rest in their seats or upon forms. All cannot see the Min- ister consecrating unlesse they stand up and make a narrow shifte. The Minister delivers the Bread in a Charger to some of the Chiefe then the rest till all have eaten; In like manner the Cup, till all have
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EVOLUTION OF THE PURITAN SABBATH
Dranke, goes from one to another. Then is a Psalme sung, and with a short blessing the Congregation is dismissed. (Lechford, Plaine Deal- ing, 16-19; comp. Cotton, Way of the Churches, 67-69.)
Boys were always a Puritan problem on the Sabbath. The sermon, depending on the number of "points" to be emphasized by the preacher, would vie with the long prayer in length and this was the signal for activity among the boys and the counter-activity of the tithing man in preserving order among the youth in these depressing hours. For the children it was a day of inhibitions and the slightest deviation from stolid solemnity was checked by a tap of the foot on the floor from the parent or the exhibition of the birch rod as a warning to keep silent. In 1800 the parish discussed some plan to deal with "Boys making a noise and disturbance in going up Stairs in entering the meeting house."
COMMUNION PLATE
The early communion service belonging to the First Parish appears to have been of pewter. In 1760 the par- ishioners voted that the money derived from the sale of its lands should be used in part for the repair of the "Sacramental Pewter" and that the interest of what remained should be employed in the purchase of "Plate," meaning silver vessels for the communion service. In 1771 they laid out more money in "Plate."
CHURCH BELLS
Although the second building had a turret or belfry, the third a steeple and the fourth a steeple, there is no reference to a bell to hang in them until 1749, when the parish voted to "take care & hang the Bell for the Steeple of the new Meeting House." It need not be assumed that a bell was not in use earlier, but the absence of records makes it impossible to verify the belief. Ten years later it was voted to hang the bell in the belfry. This one lasted about a quarter of a century and on March 25, 1788, it was voted to procure a bell not exceeding four hundred- weight. Another one was purchased in 1821, and in 1834 it was considered too small. The parish voted to return it and obtain a larger bell provided money was subscribed for the purpose. It is related that a prisoner who escaped
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HISTORY OF YORK
from the gaol, having listened involuntarily to the notes of a cracked bell, donated a small sum of money due him towards purchasing a new one.
WEATHERCOCK
In 1825 a weathercock was put on the steeple and in 1829 a "breach" was committed on this meteorological ornament. A resident was accused of the act but on investigation was declared innocent. The cause for this act is not stated, but it may be that some indignant mem- ber was humiliated to see this telltale, whiffling thing mounted on the house of worship to prognosticate the weather. Anything new in those days that added a touch of life to the bare walls was considered "ungodly."
MUSIC
This feature of Puritan worship was of the most primitive character and at first consisted of singing Psalms which were "lined or deaconed," that is, a line was read by the deacon and then sung by the congrega- tion. It was a sort of free-for-all in pitch, tune and time. But few tunes were in general use: St. David, Hackney, Litchfield, Martyrs and Oxford being those in use about 1700. Sometimes pitch pipes were used to set the key. Improvement on this slow and painful method of render- ing praise came through voluntary singers joined together to assist in this part of the service. In 1769 the parish voted that the "two hind seats on the Mens Side of the lower floor be appropriated for the use of those persons who will sit in them to promote that part of divine wor- ship of singing." At the beginning of the last century the parish considered the question of building seats for singers in the gallery. They had previously sat in the body of the church in a pew assigned to them. Instrumental music was another new "contraption" which had to endure the objections of the older generation. In 1834 a bass viol was introduced, probably to supplement other instruments already beginning to be used. Capt. John S. Thompson presented this to the church in behalf of Capt. Eliphalet Grover.
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EVOLUTION OF THE PURITAN SABBATH
HEATING
As the early churches had no provisions for rendering them comfortable for occupancy in the winter season, the chill of the damp building, never heated, closed and dark throughout the week, furnished refrigeration enough which even sermons on everlasting hell-fire could not modify. No shortening of the services was indulged in the severest weather. A certain amount of individual comfort was obtained by the use of fur bags into which the feet were thrust, or later by foot stoves. These were small pierced sheet-iron boxes about a foot square which were made to hold hot charcoals. It was not until 1829 that it was "voted to take as much room as was necessary on the left side of the broad aisle to place a stove for heating purposes."
LIGHTING
Ordinarily there was no occasion for the use of artifi- cial lights in the meetinghouses. The services were all held in daylight and it was not until the early part of the last century that evening meetings were held. Candles furnished the necessary light and the usual succession of whale oil and kerosene lamps followed as in private houses. In 1906 thirty-five electric lights were installed.
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