USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 23
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The temperance stand of the church continued to be up- held with unflagging vigilance. This need only to be illustrated by a case of typical action. "Dec. 2, 1843. Voted that the church withdraw fellowship from George Kennedy and Ambrose Weeks on account of charges preferred against them for their disorderly walk as professors of religion, and that four weeks be allowed them to come before the Church and make acknowledgement."
The first systematic method of financial support was "to assess each male member a shilling and each female a sixpence." Later the town was divided into nine districts and a member col- lector was appointed for each district. Members were apportioned
4Meaning the Reverend Wilson with whom she was having her trouble.
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their subscriptions and this apportionment was made according to property and the ability to pay. Augustus Welt was the chair- man of the first Apportionment Committee. The church began its support of foreign missions in 1843 and raised $37.28 for this purpose that year. The same year Deacon Jacob Shuman laid down his duties as clerk after a service of seventeen years. The office was assumed by Henry Kennedy who held it until the year of his death in 1875. Despite this fruitful era in the life of the church the Rev- erend Wilson's work was done, and he was succeeded July 30, 1846, by the Reverend O. B. Walker from the Baptist church in Dover.
In this era the Sunday service was an occasion when numbers gathered regularly from all parts of the town, four, six and eight miles away. The system of soliciting support for the year 1843 shows to what degree the Baptists had extended themselves into the various districts of the town in a period of twenty years. This year John A. Benner was collector on the west side of the river; Augustus Welt in Deacon Shuman's district (east side above Winslow's Mills); Henry Kennedy in the village; Stephen Hoffses in Deacon Sweetland's district (South Waldoboro); Stephen Bickmore on Jones Neck; Nathaniel Hunt in his district; Gardner Shuman in the Feyler district, and Samuel Lowry in the Goshen district. No mention is made of the Genthner Neighborhood, Winslow's Mills, Orff's Corner and North Waldoboro which at this time were well defined bailiwicks of Methodism.
One of the points of pride in the new church was a magnifi- cent chandelier. The church was lighted at first by candles with sconces, then by little oil lamps, and then the chandelier. When the old Boston Theatre was dismantled, one of the fine cutglass chan- deliers which had been imported from England was purchased for $500.00 by Mrs. Elizabeth Gurney (née Kinsell) of Boston and given to the church. This remained a fixture until Josephine Belt of Auburn purchased and presented to the church its present chan- delier. This gift of Mrs. Gurney's served to lighten somewhat the burden of inferiority which the Baptists suffered in the near pres- ence of the local Congregational ascendancy.
The pastorate of the Reverend O. B. Walker extended from 1846 to 1850 and during this period there were only four acces- sions to the church. In 1847 the membership totalled two hundred and five. The church school, headed by a superintendent, had twelve teachers, ninety-five scholars and a library of ninety-five books. Discipline continued in the tradition of the Wilson regime.
Brother Hiram Shuman was excluded for unchristian conduct to- wards Brother William Shuman; Brother Thomas Soule for intemper- ance; Brother Alfred Bateman for the sin of intemperance; Sister Eliza-
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beth S -- for violation of chastity before marriage and Brother Thomas Haupt for his entire violation of church covenants and obligations.
These and other exclusions cut seriously into membership, which by 1849 had dropped to one hundred and seventy-four.
In January 1850 the Reverend Walker offered his resigna- tion and in March the church "voted to invite the Rev. Edward J. Harris to become our minister." He came from the church in Exeter, New Hampshire, and began a promising pastorate, during which twenty-nine new members were added to the roll. His mis- sion came to an end, however, with his death on September 4, 1852. The church allowed his widow the full salary for the un- finished quarter of the year and purchased the stone which marks his resting place in the Lutheran Cemetery. During his pastorate no exclusions were recorded, and one of the church's charter members, Deacon Jacob Shuman, was received back into church fellowship. The Reverend L. C. Stevens from Pembrook, New Jersey, and the Reverend Jacob Tuck followed one another in swift succession. The Stevens' pastorate of less than a year added five new members. In 1852 the membership had risen to one hun- dred and eighty-seven, and the budget had reached the sum of $600.00. By 1854 the pastor's salary had attained a level of $400.00.
The pastorate of the Reverend Tuck, beginning in 1853, ter- minated in 1855. That year the Reverend Joseph Kelloch of South Thomaston came to the church for a period of four years. His evangelical power may be inferred from the fact that he added ninety-six new members, many of them village folk and among these some old familiar names, Mrs. J. Tyler Gay, Ann Young Chapman, Horace Flanders, Horace Marble, John Schweier, J. Warren Hall, John B. Stahl, Silas Stahl, Mrs. Daniel Castner, Luella Austin, and Adolphus Ritz, names which evoke childhood memo- ries in the hearts of many of us still living. In March and April 1855 there were forty-two baptisms, and thirty in May. Augustus Welt was elected a Deacon on December 27, 1855. In January 1856 the Baptist church in South Waldoboro was organized and the parent church thereby lost about thirty of its members residing in that section of the town. The Reverend William Corthill was the first pastor of this branch church, serving from 1856 to 1860, and the Reverend Sydney E. Packard was its last minister, begin- ning his pastorate in 1903.
During the 1850's the village church was supported by parish taxes similar to the old ministerial tax, members of the church, of course, being the only ones so taxed. This levy was assessed by a committee, and members refusing to pay rendered themselves li- able to the disciplines of the church. In 1856 the first extensive alterations were made in the meetinghouse. The whole building
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was raised about four feet to give greater height to the vestry and a tall, slender steeple was added in which the town clock was later installed. This addition remained until new and sweeping altera- tions were initiated in 1889. These changes were effected at a total cost of $2800. The pastor's salary was raised in 1857 to $500.00. In March 1859 the Reverend Joseph Kelloch was called from his fruitful ministry to the second Baptist church in Rockland. He was followed in Waldoboro by the Reverend Mr. Carleton for a short pastorate of eleven months.
During the War between the States the pulpit was served by A. H. Estey who came from the church in Alna (1860-1865). In this period twenty-six new members were added, among them Dorothy Howard (Mrs. Adolphus Ritz), who had been baptized a Methodist. Discipline, which had been relaxed somewhat in the 50's, seems to have been resumed in the 60's as an answer to the more liberal trends in morals and behavior. In the war years Sister Mary Jane Feyler, Brother Martin Bornemann, Sisters Edward Achorn and Hulda Stahl were excluded.
In May 1865 the church voted to receive the Reverend H. B. Marshall of Buxton Centre as its pastor at a salary of $550.00 per year. During his three-year pastorate fourteen new members were added and the church faced its first serious heresy which was vig- orously countered, even to the point of excluding the wife of a wealthy and influential deacon, Sister Sedona Welt, who was ex- cluded from the church in 1865 "for embracing Spiritualism and for forsaking the meetings and ordinances of the church." Sister Rosalinda Benner was excluded for the same reason, while Sister Clarissa Shuman was denied fellowship "for the use of her abusive and slanderous tongue," and Sister Genthner "for using profane language and for her unchristian walk and conduct before the world.'
Spiritualism was a fad that seemingly intrigued the whole town at this time, and the oral tradition has recorded some weird manifestations, such as one related by Edna Young to the effect that her father on occasions bound Dr. Eveleth securely in his chair and the knots would invariably become untied. The focal point of this infection seems to have been Medomak Terrace, and more specifically the houses of Mrs. Eliza Gracia and Augustus Welt.5 Mrs. Gracia did not believe in spirits, or if she did, regarded their work as that of the Devil. Hence it was a favorite pastime of the mediums in the Welt house to keep the spirits busy in Mrs. Gracia's home, rattling the dishes in her cupboards and revealing their presence in other insistent and unfriendly ways. The most sensitive and powerful medium was Clara Welt. On one occasion
"The homes of Mrs. Sarah Lash and George Coward respectively.
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when Eliza had gone to a Wednesday evening prayer meeting, Aunt Frank and the Welts decided they would tip tables at Mrs. Gracia's, but here the spirit gave evidence of such power that one table followed the medium right around the room and would not let her go. Thereupon the party, having conjured a power that could not be controlled, broke up in great fright.6 After the me- dium, Clara, became married to Edward Chapman he would not permit a continuation of her powers as they invariably left her exhausted. This fad covered a considerable span of years and led to further exclusions in the church.
As the years passed the world was becoming more as we know it today, a more worldly world than the Baptists could pos- sibly approve of. It kept edging in on their strict moral code, and the church sought to restore the behavior of its more modern communicants to the good old straight and narrow patterns of acceptable conduct. Accordingly on September 25, 1865, it issued the following defiant manifesto to this world becoming steadily more sinful:
Whereas - we believe that secular labor, riding, walking, or visiting for pleasure or pastime on the Sabbath, dancing, playing chance games, drinking fermented liquors as a beverage, and engaging in any loose or immoral conduct whatever, are not only derogatory to good morals, but especially antagonistic to the Cause of Religion, Therefore
Resolved, That all Church Members who engage in any of these practices, or allow their children to do so, if it is in their power to pre- vent it, shall accordingly be considered subjects of censure and strict disipline.
The above resolves were passed by the Church, Oct. 9, 1865. Attest. H. Kennedy, clerk.
There was an immediate example given of the Church's reso- lution in such matters, for on the same date it was "voted to exclude Sister Martha Kuhn for . . . attending the dancing school."
On the 22nd of February 1866, it was voted to receive as pastor Dr. David W. Hodgkins of the Cannon Street Baptist Church, New York City. April 5, 1866, "Brother Elijah Morse and Mrs. Kimball investigated for spiritualism." May 27, 1866, "Miss Maggie Cook, a colored girl, related her Christian experi- ence and was received as a candidate for Baptism." Sept. 1, 1866, "Voted to exclude Deacon Augustus Welt from the fellowship of this church for breaking the Church covenant."
The Reverend Henry Stetson from Hudson, New Hamp- shire, served the church as pastor from 1868 to 1872. Twenty-seven new members were added in this period, among them Mrs. Joseph Clark (Mrs. Frank Hutchins), and Samuel Flagg. Total church
"Oral tradition of Frank Welt who as a boy had observed these phenomena.
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membership was one hundred and sixty-six, and the salary paid the pastor had been raised to $800. The Sunday School had grown steadily and at this time had an enrollment of one hundred and thirty. On April 15, 1872, the church suffered the loss of another of its deacons when Alexander Young fell from a building and was instantly killed. The Reverend Stetson accepted a call to New Gloucester in 1872, and W. G. Goucher came from Kenduskeag to serve a brief pastorate of two years, and added six new members to the church.
Following the Reverend Goucher the church in 1874 ambi- tiously called the Reverend Luther D. Hill from the church in Reading, Massachusetts, and agreed to pay him $1000 a year. Dur- ing this pastorate further changes were made in the church edifice. The annex was built on the south end of the church making room for the choir behind the pulpit. Previously the choir had been housed in the "gallery" at the northern end of the edifice. A pipe organ was purchased and installed for $1000. The exterior of the church was painted and the interior frescoed. These additions and alterations were effected at a total cost of $2000. In this decade the Baptists reached the peak of their wealth and influence. The Hill pastorate continued for four years and added forty-eight new members, including many prominent village folk, among whom were Daniel W. Castner, Mary Ann Jackson, Lincoln L. Kennedy, Sarah Young, Sewell Hatch, Mrs. Lincoln Waltz, and Herbert Weaver. On October 13, 1875, the church suffered the severest loss in its history in the death of General Henry Kennedy, who through hard years had unswervingly supported the church with his counsel, prestige, and wealth.
In March 1879 the church called as its pastor the Reverend Silas P. Pendleton of the Messiah Baptist Church of Philadelphia. His pastorate extended to April 1880 and added three new mem- bers to the church. It was also the last of the experiments of call- ing ministers from the larger city churches, for Pendleton was followed in 1880 by the Reverend Albert A. Ford of St. George. His pastorate of four years saw the inclusion of thirteen new mem- bers, among whom were Ira Ritz, Irene Wyman, James Castner, and Dr. and Mrs. Eben Alden. It was in 1880 that the last cases of discipline occurred. Rufus Achorn, Alvin Welt, and S. E. Weeks were faced with charges of "cherishing a spirit of bitterness to- wards the church, non-attendance and hurtful talk." The first was excluded, the second appeared and answered charges, and they were dropped. Brother Weeks faced similar charges, and at an evening meeting in the vestry on January 18th brought against the church "without provocation the wicked and insulting accu- sation of erecting an altar to Baal and worshipping the same." He appeared in answer to the summons and "time was given him to
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make an acknowledgement to the Church." Within the month he had asked for forgiveness and the charges were dropped.
In the year 1880 a further program of major repairs and changes in the church edifice was initiated when it was "voted to repair the vestry and lay the floor in brick or maple." This was a propitious time for undertaking big projects, for in August 1884 the Reverend James Graham from the church in Meredith, New Hampshire, had assumed the pastorate. This was a mellowing pe- riod in the history of this congregation, for the Reverend Graham was in every respect a Christian leader and perhaps the greatest figure in the church's ministry, genial, kindly, wise, balanced, and able in the pulpit. From 1884 to 1891 he continued in the service of the church, beloved by its members without exception. During his ministry forty-five new members were added, mostly local village folk, among whom were Sydney Packard, Captain Eugene Wade, Olive Burkett, Mary E. Castner, Mary B. Gerrish, Edna M. Young, Clara Gay, Dora Gay, Dr. Marcellus Palmer, Captain and Mrs. Albion F. Stahl, Elden Welt, Annie Sanborn, Guy Waltz, Grace Chapman, and Georgia Sproul. In 1886 the church num- bered one hundred and thirty-two members, and a salary of $700 was paid to the pastor. The old discipline was a thing of the past; an era of assurance and good feeling began; the church was expe- riencing a deep confidence in its resources and power, and a pro- gram of extensive renovation in the church edifice was initiated.
This program when completed left the church in appearance as it stands today. Prior to this time steps at the front of the struc- ture rose to the level of the sanctuary, which one entered directly from without, while the top of the north gable was surmounted by a tall, slender spire which housed the bell, below which, in an oriel window-opening, was the town clock. Old pictures of the building give the impression of a successful and lovely architecture. But change was the order of things, and the graceful spire and the clock came down. The outside steps disappeared; a square tower was added to the front of the building and the steps to the sanc- tuary were laid in an inner vestibule. The tower covered the whole center front of the church, housing the bell and culminating in a steeple above the belfry. The building was painted and the inte- rior refrescoed; a new carpet was laid and the present-day circular pews replaced the older, straight, boxlike pews, which one entered through a door at the end which was secured by a wooden button. The old Boston chandelier in the sanctuary was replaced by the present one, the gift of Mrs. George Belt of Auburn. The stained glass windows were furnished by F. M. Whipple of Boston, and two of them were memorials, one the gift of Mrs. George Weaver and the other of the young people of the Society in memory of a former associate, Miss Abbie Jackson.
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"The plans and specifications were furnished by the well known Portland architects, Fossett and Thompson. . . . The car- penter work was by S. O. Waltz and Sons ... and the frescoing by C. M. Emery of Rockland ... Austin and Waltz furnished the carpets." The entire project was under the supervision of a com- mittee of six members of the church, Lincoln L. Kennedy acting as chairman. The changes were effected at a cost of $5000, of which sum $2500 was raised in 1889, and a tax of $700 was levied on the pewholders to pay for the new pews. On completion the church was rededicated. Nine Baptist preachers participated in this service.
The attendance during the day was large, in the afternoon every seat being filled. The church choir was at their best and gave some fine se- lections. Mrs. Belt (Josephine Clark) of Lewiston sang a solo which enchained the attention of all present. The sermon by the Rev. T. F. White, Bath, was a calm and thoughtful discussion of the nature and value of true worship.
The Reverend James Graham ended his pastorate in July 1891. It had been a bright afterglow in the history of the church, and the twilight period was now at hand. Relentless economic changes were in full swing. In the town decline was a general con- dition; in the church age was removing the faithful and wealthy from the scene. Many were removing to places of greater economic promise. An old Waldoboro religious landmark vanished forever on July 5, 1889, when Rudolphus Ritz, his wife, Ira, and Maria Ritz were given their letters to the church in Framingham. In the summer of 1938 a Ritz revisited the old scenes in the town, at- tended church and "staid for sabbath school." In 1891 Miss Mary A. Jackson, organist in the church for many years, was succeeded by Annie Sanborn of gentle and gracious memory.
In September 1891 the Reverend G. W. Ellison of Brent- wood, New Hampshire, became the pastor of the church. He was early appointed a committee of one to solicit funds for the pay- ment of the balance due for repairs. This unjust commission led to the resignation of a promising pastor at the end of his first year. He was followed by the Reverend G. W. Hill of Winter Harbor, a quiet, scholarly gentleman who remained in Waldoboro until October 1900. No new members were added during his pastorate, and losses were steady through death and transfers. Financial sup- port weakened. In 1897 the pastor's salary was $600.00. In 1899 female members were allowed to vote in the business affairs of the church.
The pastors during the period of decline came and went. They were earnest and hard-working men, but the set of events was against them. Religion was minus its old certainties and its
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old appeals. The roll of the pastors follows: H. B. Tilden, 1901- 1904, two members added; George F. Sibley, 1904-1909, twenty- five new members; Frank H. Pratt, 1909-1915, thirteen new mem- bers; Willard P. Palmer, 1915-1918, twenty-seven members; Lewis W. West, 1919-1920; Stephen H. Talbot, 1921-1922, twenty-one members; Guy C. McQuaidee, 1923-1928, thirty-two new mem- bers. During this pastorate the centennial of the Church was cele- brated with the ordination of the pastor, and with a large attend- ance of pastors and delegates from the churches in the Association. The sermon was preached by the Reverend A. B. Lorimer of West- brook, and the "Rev. C. W. Walden of Damariscotta officiated in the impressive laying on of hands."
In the twentieth century the church suffered a steady de- cline in membership. Its roll of resident members in 1909 was seventy-eight. In 1941 the figure stood at eighty-six, forty-four of whom were nonresident. Although the Baptists were compelled, as were the Methodists, to strike root in the outlying districts, they managed to secure an earlier toe hold in the village, and in consequence never resorted to an elaborate building program in the surburban areas. Exceptions were the church in South Waldo- boro built in 1856, and St. Paul's Chapel on Dutch Neck erected in 1885-1886, a joint Baptist-Methodist enterprise, but largely pro- moted by two Baptists, Captain William Keene and the Reverend James Graham. In the main the Baptists once established in the village, wisely concentrated their efforts in a central church, and even though in a weakened state in comparison with their former strength, they still maintain their position as one of the stronger churches in a town where the decay in religious interest has been steadily going on for over half a century.
The Methodists entered Maine in the late eighteenth cen- tury, and the Province proved a fertile field for their endeavors, but their expansion was not an easy one. They found the Con- gregationalists organized in all the more important towns, occupy- ing a position buttressed by constitutional and legal safeguards. The creed of this latter sect was based on the Westminster Confes- sion. The sermons were written essays flavored with Calvinistic doctrine which imparted a somber hue to community religious life. Only the larger centers were supplied with pastors, and none other was deemed qualified for the task of ministering to man's spiritual needs. This meant that the established church was inactive in the rural districts where the tide of population was at this time rising. All this was the antithesis of Methodism. It was ready and willing to carry the word to the poor and the lowly in the outlying dis- tricts, and to this end it employed a lay ministry, which was ener- getically active, following an itinerary without a stipulated salary,
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calling the people in apostolic fashion rather than waiting for them to come seeking the gospel.7
The field was white for the harvest when Jesse Lee, founder of Methodism in Maine, reached Boston on July 9, 1790. Lee was a Virginian who experienced the state of grace in 1776. Yankee hospitality may not have been in line with his expectations, for in Boston he found no house open to him, in consequence of which he preached to three thousand on the Common. In 1793 he set out from Lynn for Maine. His outfit was the inevitable saddlebags stored with a Bible, hymnbooks, a few other books and a needful supply of clothing. He first preached at Saco, from whence he moved rapidly along the coast, preaching two or three times in a place and then passing on. Between the 15th and 25th of Septem- ber he was in Waldoboro. Passing on to Union he preached in the barn of Rufus Gillmore, then up the Penobscot, from whence he cut back westward across the interior. Says Lee, "I was a perfect stranger and had to make my own appointments. I preached al- most every day and had crowded assemblies to hear." The first circuit set up was west of the Kennebec, the Hallowell-Readfield- Sandy River circuit. In 1796 came the Bath circuit which reached eastward along the coast to Union. Timothy Merritt, a collab- orator of Lee, was on the Bath-Union circuit in 1800-1801. Thus it was that the word was brought and Methodism was founded in Maine.8
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the circuit riders were prowling periodically in the outskirts of Waldoboro. It was here only that they could strike root in the face of the varied forms which opposition can assume. These noisy and persistent leaders of Methodism were denounced as "wolves in sheep's cloth- ing and intruders unto other ministers fields of labor." They were treated by the established clergy with cold disdain, and by some of the laity even more harshly. Joseph Taylor was drummed out of Castine, and Enoch Mudge, another prominent preacher, harassed by unjust civil prosecution. In a measure the Methodists laid them- selves open to derision and ridicule, for their preachers made no pretense of high, literary culture. They were crude in speech, and the rules of grammar were conspicuously ignored in their exhor- tations.
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