USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 24
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In Waldoboro Methodism was over forty years moving into the village from the outlying districts, where it established a firm foothold in the first half of the century. The first "class" formed in the town was in the neighborhood of Charles Kuhn (North Waldoboro) by the Reverend William McGray in February 1819. In the March following he organized another class in the Peter
"Stephen Allen and W. H. Pillsbury, Methodism in Maine (Augusta, 1887).
8W. H. Pillsbury, History of Methodism in Eastern Maine (Augusta, 1887).
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Ludwig neighborhood (Winslow's Mills), and in 1820 the Rev- erend Henry True formed a class in the Godfrey Ludwig neigh- borhood (South Waldoboro). The movement in this section was sponsored by Godfrey Ludwig, his son, Aaron, and his two broth- ers, Joseph and James. The class comprised about a dozen mem- bers, and Godfrey was appointed its leader. The first Methodist sermon preached in the town was in 1813 in the Genthner Neigh- borhood at the funeral of Charles Merritt, a veteran of the War of 1812. Again in 1819 in the same neighborhood Cornelius Irish was called from Bremen to attend at the funeral of Mrs. Fannie Well- man. At this time Father Irish left an appointment for meetings. A little revival followed and a class of six members was formed, Mrs. Amelia Merritt, leader. Four of the number were members of the Wellman family.ยบ
Following these beginnings there was incessant preaching in the back-districts and frequent revivals. The nature and scope of these may be inferred from the following brief entries in the records.
In 1819 Rev. William McGray, a revival and two classes organized; 1820, Rev. Henry True, some revival and one class formed; 1824, Rev. S. Bray, revival; 1832, Rev. James Thwing, revival; 1833, Rev. John Cumner, an extensive revival; 1838, John Cumner, prosperity; 1839, John Cumner and Nathan Webb, a year of revival; 1841, J. Harriman and John Benson, a glorious revival; 1842 and 1843, Edward Brackett, a re- vival; 1853, Paris Rowell, revival.
Up to 1828 Waldoboro was a part of the Union circuit. In this year the societies in Friendship, Waldoboro, and Washington were set off and called the Friendship circuit. In 1842 the societies in Waldoboro were set off and called the Waldoboro circuit.
For decades the circuit riders were unable to secure a foot- ing in the village, but the sect grew rapidly in the outlying dis- tricts, where churches and chapels were springing up. All told there were seven of these edifices, and the chapel on Dutch Neck as an eighth was built in part under Methodist auspices. The first of these chapels to be erected was, according to Pillsbury, on the west side of the river. "There was a Methodist meetinghouse built in the western part of Waldoboro and dedicated Nov. 20, 1839, by Reverend Charles Baker.10 The second Methodist Episcopal Church built in the town was at North Waldoboro and was dedi- cated in March 1843 by Reverend C. C. Cone,"11 and the bell was added in 1898. The East Waldoboro Church known as Monroe Chapel was in existence in the early 40's, but the exact date of its erection is not known. This was named after its first preacher, and
9Reverend Orren Tyler, in Pillsbury's History of Methodism.
10The present chapel in West Waldoboro was erected in 1888.
11Pillsbury, Opus cit., p. 78.
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the land was given by Adam Storer in consideration of a dozen eggs. A poor sort of parsonage was built across the road from the chapel in 1849.
In the Genthner Neighborhood at Sprague's Corner the Methodist Chapel was built in 1860-61 with a seating capacity of about two hundred people. This was during the village pastorate of W. H. Crawford. The South Waldoboro Church was built in 1855 by the Congregationalists and was served by Father Sheldon and the Reverend Flavius V. Norcross, but after a few languishing years it was taken over by the Methodists in 1860. Originally this church had a steeple, but this was so weakened by a gale in 1869 that the steeple had to be removed.
The church at Orff's Corner seems to have been built as an investment. It was erected in 1839 by George Genthner who ap- parently calculated on a profit from the sale of pews. A loss was experienced, however, since the sale of pews proceeded very slowly. At Genthner's death only half the pews were sold, and the remainder was disposed of by his widow. In 1873 the high pul- pit was removed, the doors were taken from the pews, and arms substituted. In 1895 the steeple was built and the old lights re- placed by stained glass windows. Before the turn of the century a bell had been secured. The Winslow's Mill chapel was the last church to be built on the Methodist circuit. It was completed in 1894 and made a part of the Waldoboro charge. The bell was not added until 1907.
Thus it was that Waldoboro was ringed by the Methodists and their churches with the village as the promised land in view but not yet reached. The early preachers, lay preachers, and ex- horters in these back-districts were many; there was much coming and going, and the people saw many faces and heard many differ- ent voices. Apart from those previously mentioned there was in the Waldoboro circuit the Reverend Zebulon Davis, born in Friendship, 1816, died in Bucksport, 1882. Converted in 1833 he received the following spring a license to preach, and was active in both the North and South Waldoboro districts. The earliest known circuit rider ministering to the town was Father Cornelius Irish, "an aged and local preacher," who was in and out of the town as early as the second decade of the century. Another early preacher was the Reverend George Pratt, born in New Vineyard, 1812, died at Winterport, 1882. He was a man of limited education but a power in the pulpit, who later became the Presiding Elder in this district. The Reverend Edwin A. Helmerhausen of a Waldo- boro family, born in Jefferson in 1818, converted at Waldoboro in 1841, entered the ministry and ultimately achieved the distinction of becoming a Presiding Elder.
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The earliest documents bearing on Methodist activities in the town are the Records of the Quarterly Meeting Conferences12 of the Waldoboro-Friendship-Union-Washington circuit. These records show the Methodists at work and afford an index to their organization and procedures. A few illuminating excerpts follow: "Beginning Meeting at Church at East Waldoboro, Sept. 21, 1844, M. F. Farrington, Presiding Elder." The Reverend Daniel Clarke was the rider in this circuit at this time. "Voted that the Rev. E. H. Small be employed by the Presiding Elder to labour in this circuit this year." December 7, 1844, the circuit was divided
so far as supporting preaching is concerned, that Bro. Small is to re- ceive his support from that part of the Circuit south of the county road running east and west across the Medomak River - that Bro. Clarke is to receive his support from the other part of the Waldoboro circuit. - Voted that Bro. Clarke remind the stewards of their duty in the Groton and Peter Ludwig neighborhoods.
At Waldoboro, February 22, 1845, Stewards Report: Bro. Clarke has received $119.81, Bro. Small, $42.59. Voted to license William H. Seiders to exhort.
The Reverend Daniel Clarke's claim for the year 1845 was as follows: Quarterage, $280.00; Table expenses, $70.00; Travel expenses, $34.00; House rent, $15.88; Fuel, $14.00; whole claim, $418.36.
In 1849 conferences were held at West Waldoboro, the vil- lage, East and North Waldoboro, east and west side (Orff's Cor- ner). Active members in the circuit in these years were Godfrey and Aaron Ludwig, Joseph Bornheimer, Jacob Hoch, George Ludwig, George Wallis, George Newbert, Jacob Hoffses, Elijah Miller, Jacob Bornheimer, Reuben Orff, Thomas Mink, Joseph Ludwig, Solomon Orff, and Gideon Hoch. The stewards made the rounds of the circuit once a quarter and "received what the people are willing to give the preachers." According to the records B. F. Sprague, a local figure, was a licensed preacher in the 1850's. Sunday schools were conducted in connection with each church and were zealously attended. In June 1853 the school at East Waldoboro had fourteen officers and teachers, sixty-seven schol- ars, one hundred and seventy-five books in its library, and an an- nual budget of $23.70. It is also interesting to note that like the Baptists the Methodists maintained some degree of discipline over their members, and that in 1853 Godfrey Ludwig and George Wallis "were brought to trial."
During the many years of the growth of the church in the town the Methodist preachers were not treated with fraternal courtesy by either the settled ministers or their people, and were
12Records in possession of Dr. Wm. H. Hahn, Friendship, Me.
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not found worthy of brotherly recognition. It was doubtless due to this quiet, persistent hostility that the village remained a sealed area to the Methodists for so many decades. But at long last the central district, ringed with firmly established little parishes, and with a small nucleus of the lesser folk in the village as members of the church, gave ground, and the Methodists broke in. An ar- ticle appeared in the town warrant at a meeting of December 20, 1845 "to see if the town will allow the Methodist Society the use of the town house as petitioned for by Watt Gibbs and others." This sect was now so strong in the back-districts and controlled so many votes that the action on this article was favorable. Thus it was that meetings were started in the village. The first preaching was by Gilbert Ellis13 a local exhorter in the town house and around the village. He was active until the next regular conference of the Church in June. At this session North Waldoboro and the village were connected, and B. B. Byrne was appointed pastor with Father Ellis as a supply. During this year "their labors were blest, souls were saved and two classes were formed, one in the village and the other on the Union road."
The first service held in the town house "was announced by one, Albert Johnston, ringing a bell upon the street during the day, the service being held in the evening." At the close of the first year of such services a hall was secured in the village for wor- ship, and at the next conference at Bucksport, July 1856, the Rev- erend William H. Crawford was sent to Waldoboro. The early members of the village church included families by the name of Johnston, Miller, Ludwig, Neubert, Creamer, Gibbs, Achorn, Heyer, Richards, Schwartz, Keizer, Mink, Benner, Kuhn, and Winslow.
In 1857 the construction of a church in the village was be- gun. A lot was secured on Friendship Road and a building was erected at a cost of $4000. The trustees who were chosen and who were instrumental in building the church were John Heyer, James Ludwig, Gilmore Miller, Martin Mink, and W. H. Schwartz. It is stated by Samuel L. Miller14 that some of these men "put nearly all their means into this work." The church was dedicated Oc- tober 28, 1857, by the Reverend George Pratt. A revival followed and the first convert in the new church was "Dr." Daniel Wing, the herb vendor and doctor of Lower Friendship Road. Of later changes and additions the Reverend Oren Tyler, pastor, 1885-88, writes: "Repairs have been made from time to time, but this year [1887?] we have expended some $1200 and are not yet through.
13Reverend Orren Tyler, "Origin and Progress of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Waldoboro, March 1855 to Jan. 1, 1885," from Allen and Pillsbury, Metho- dism in Maine.
14Samuel L. Miller, History of Waldoboro (Wiscasset, 1910), p. 221.
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During the pastorate of C. L. Haskell, 1879-1881, a fine organ was purchased at a cost of some $600. The church has often been blest with revival and the members are looking to a bright future."
The roll of pastors of the village church is as follows: Wil- liam N. Crawford, 1856-1859; Cyrus Phenix, 1859-1862; Phineas Higgins, 1862-1863; L. L. Shaw, a few months only; A. R. Lunt, 1863-1866; John N. Marsh, 1866-1869; George A. Crawford, 1869- 1871; M. W. Newbert, 1871-1873; John Collins, 1873-1874; J. P. Simonton, 1874-1877; Seth H. Beale, 1879; C. L. Haskell, 1879- 1882; William L. Brown, 1882-1885; Orren Tyler, 1885-1888; J. R. Baker, 1888-1889; E. H. Haddock, 1889-1892; D. B. Phelan, 1892- 1897; T. J. Wright, 1897-1899; F. L. Hayward, 1899-1900; J. A. Weed, 1900-1902; J. E. Lombard, 1902-1905; L. L. Harris, 1906- 1908; N. R. Pearson, 1908-1910; Harry Hill, 1910-1912; Sydney O. Young, 1912-1914; Herbert F. Milligan, 1915-1917; Oscar G. Barnard, 1918-1924; W. R. Patterson, 1924-1927; H. O. Megert, 1927-1930; Alex. Stewart, 1930-1931; Alfred G. Davis, 1931-1936; Oscar G. Barnard, 1936-1942; J. Clarke Collind, 1942-1947; Chester P. Duncan, 1947-1948; Philip Palmer, 1949-1953. It will be noted that these pastorates were short, the longest being that of the gen- erally beloved Pastor Barnard, a descendant of an old Waldoboro family, who served the parish in two pastorates, which ran into a total of twelve years.
In the mid-nineteenth century there were thirteen churches in Waldoboro, one Lutheran, one Union chapel, two Congrega- tionalist, two Baptist and seven Methodist. After the lapse of nearly a century, the Lutheran and two Methodist buildings are closed, and the latter are in ruins. A small Baptist society or group retains some degree of organization in South Waldoboro, and the pastor of the village Methodist church again rides the circuit, serv- ing four parishes each Sunday. The Lutheran church is preserved by the German Protestant Society as an historic landmark, and the once proud and dominant Congregational church has been demolished to make way for a new high school building. Today there are five ministers resident in the town, but the older parishes have shrunk to ghosts of their former selves. These facts bespeak more potently than any narrative the decline of faith and the abandonment of the churches by generations that are losing sight of spiritual values and forsaking the unchanging certainties that were so real to their fathers.
XXXVII ANNALS OF THE 20's AND 30's
One generation passeth away, and another genera- tion cometh.
ECCLESIASTICUS
TH HE ADVENT OF THE THIRD DECADE of the century marked the tun- ing-up period of the town's Great Days. Small industries were expanding; population was providing large reservoirs of sturdy laborers; capital was accumulating in the hands of the bold and the competent; the number of able and enterprising men in the community was being swelled by new arrivals, young men of ex- ceptional power, hungry for the fleshpots of fortune. The period of economic isolation was over, and vital impulses were driving the citizenry headlong into new ventures with a passion and zeal never witnessed before or since in the town. The Puritans and a few of the Germans were to furnish the brains for the new era; many Germans and some Puritans the brawn necessary for implement- ing the new dreams.
The rise in population from 1810 to 1820 had represented a sound but not impressive growth, in fact, an increase of less than four hundred souls in ten years. This gain, however, does not fur- nish any index to the birth rate in the town for there was no dimi- nution in Teutonic fecundity, but the death rate among children whittled down the increase remorselessly. The census figures for the year 1820 reveal 745 children under ten years of age. By the time this generation had reached the age of sixteen its numbers had been reduced to 385. There was also a constant draining off of German farmers to new and cheaper lands in the more interior and undeveloped areas of the Province. However, Miller's figure of 2449 for the 1820 census cannot be reconciled with photostats of the Federal census schedules which give the population of the town as 2502.1
These figures may be broken down into further classifications which will throw some light on the family, racial, and social pat-
1Bureau of the Census, Wash., D. C.
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Annals of the 20's and 30's
terns of the town in the year 1820. At this time there was a total of 382 households with an average of between six and seven mem- bers. The number of persons living in English households was 692. In the German homes there were 1810. The size of individual fam- ilies varied little between the two races. For example, there were seventeen members in the household of Colonel Isaac G. Reed; fourteen members in Mary Thompson's; thirteen each in the house- holds of Betsey Farley and Abner Pitcher, and twelve in those of Denny McCobb and Isaac Simmons. In addition to these excep- tionally large units there were six families of eleven members; five of ten members, twelve of nine, and sixteen families of eight mem- bers. The remaining households stood within the range of from one to seven members.
Over one third of the German population was concentrated in sixty-five families. There were twenty-six households of nine members, twenty-one of ten members, ten of eleven members, four of twelve members, two of thirteen members, one of fifteen and one of sixteen members. The largest home unit was that of Jacob Ludwig, Jr., with sixteen members. By 1820 some of the old Broad Bay families had expanded into sizable clans. Ignoring numbers lost by death and migration, there were in the town one hundred and six Kalers, eighty-eight Benners, eighty-three Millers, sixty- two Minks, sixty Storers, fifty-eight Ludwigs, fifty-six Creamers, fifty-two Shumans, forty-one Achorns, forty Genthners, thirty- eight Hoffses, thirty-seven Schwartzes, thirty-six Feylers, thirty- four Levensalers, thirty-two Kuhns, and thirty-two Orffs. These sixteen clans alone accounted for 855 of the 1800-odd Germans in the town, and there were other clans falling not far short of those named. For some time these clans had been concentrating in given districts, and as their numbers in any area became preponderant, their names became affixed thereto as in the case of Gross Neck, Genthner Neighborhood, Orff's Corner, Weaver Town, Black Town, Mink Town, Benner Town, and Farnsworth District.
This census was the first to classify in a general way the popu- lation by occupations, but the classifications used are too general and overlapping to furnish a vivid picture of the town's economic life. If a man engaged in both farming and ship carpentry, and many did, he is listed in the schedule as a farmer. Under the head- ing commerce, it is not possible to distinguish a common sailor from the keeper of a general store; under manufacturing, the ship- builder cannot be differentiated from the tanner or the miller. Such a classification is not helpful, but taking them as given for whatever they may mean, there were 394 families listed as engaging in agri- culture, 38 heads engaged in commerce, and 57 in manufacturing.
The census schedule of 1820 lists seven slaves in the town. This term requires a little clarification. In New England slaves
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suffered no greater hardships than hired servants. They could own property and were admitted to church membership. Family rela- tions were seldom disturbed, although sometimes small children were given away like kittens or puppies, especially if they were an encumbrance. In Waldoboro the extent of slavery is not definitely ascertainable, but we must assume that there was slavery, since seven "slaves" are listed in the schedules. Since such a status had long been illegal in Massachusetts, it is possible that some of the other blacks in the town were slaves, but were not reported to the census taker. That slavery should linger so long after having been outlawed is not surprising, for with so many ship captains moving about in the slave ports of the world, it was inevitable that slaves would be purchased and ultimately brought home just as were curios and luxuries.
Ezekiel Winslow had in his home one black girl under four- teen, possibly a slave. Captain Charles Samson had one slave woman between fourteen and twenty-six years of age, and one slave woman over forty-five. Peter "Purkins" (probably Perkins), living in East Waldoboro, had five slaves on his farm, all males with ages rang- ing from twenty-six upward. Dr. Benjamin Brown's slave man was no longer living, and his wife, "old Prue," is listed as a "foreigner not naturalized." Peggy Neubert had in her household one "for- eigner not naturalized," possibly a colored person, and Richard W. Cargill in the village area had "five foreigners not naturalized" on his place. Whether these were colored or what their status was is unknown.
The assessors' valuation of property in the town for the year 18222 shows that nearly every citizen was a landowner, and seldom, indeed, was there a farm of less than fifty acres. Some of the hold- ings in the northern sections of the town embraced as many as three hundred acres. By 1820 horses had become rather common, there being one to every third farm. Samuel Morse, John Stahl, Charles Benner, John Benner, and Friedrich Schwarz had two each, while Eliphalet Hale, the local post driver, was the owner of five. For tax purposes horses were valued at $35.00. Oxen, of course, were very common. There was a yoke on practically every farm. Nineteen farms had two yoke, while George Achorn and John Levensaler worked three yoke on their farms. There were in all 502 oxen owned in the town with an assessed value of $50.00 per yoke. There was at least one cow in every stable. Average herds were from five to seven head, while the largest in the town, that of Andrew Genthner, consisted of twenty-four head. Everybody had a pig; most folks had two, while John Kinsell with a herd of twelve had more than any other in the town.
2Schedules in my possession.
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Annals of the 20's and 30's
In these days the local economy was in the matter of basic needs self-sufficient. The major activities were agriculture and shipbuilding, but these were supplemented by a great variety of little businesses, each on a small scale meeting one or another of man's varied necessities. These mills were scattered all over the town and were of a diverse variety, gristmills, sawmills where shingles, staves, barrel heads, clapboards, lumber and ship timbers
The Old Town Pound Constructed in the 1820's
were sawed out, carding mills and clothing mills. The town is ringed with ponds from its southwestern line all around the com- pass to its southeastern border. Streams large and small flow in all directions through the area feeding or draining these ponds. At every place on every stream, big and little, where a dam could be erected and a little millpond flooded to furnish a little power, al- beit only seasonally, there was a mill or some little industry re- quiring power for its operation. There were in all thirty-seven3
3 Assessors' books of 1822.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
of these little industries or mills which represented a tremendous outpouring of individual energy, skill, and initiative.
The major emphasis for many years had been shifting from the little streams to the big stream. By 1820 vessels were on the ways all along the banks of the Medomak, and they were in men's minds aplenty as well as in the river. Ships were to evoke the great up- surge of energy that by the mid-century was to bring to the town proud renown in the annals of American shipping, and ships were to furnish the foundation of the fortunes of many of the village squires. For some time the local surplus of capital had been flow- ing into vessels. By 1820 nearly a score4 were owned in the town, with a total of 2253 tons. The largest individual investors were Friedrich "Cramer," owning 195 tons, and William Sproul, own- ing 172 tons. These figures perhaps do not reveal the full tonnage of ship property owned in the town.
Carriages, too, were taxable and reflect the new pattern of so- cial life. The common folk still rode horseback, but not the vil- lage grandees. There were in all thirty-six carriages in the town of all degrees of serviceability and splendor. Henry Flagg and Ben- jamin Brown owned chaises valued at $125 each, but Squire Farley's widow, Betsy, topped them all with an equipage valued at $150.
During the second and third decades of the century it may be said that the influx of the Puritans ended. The last of those com- ing were certainly not the least, for among them were some of the town's major spirits in the days of its glory and greatness. It was in the autumn of 1823 that Joseph Clark came from Jefferson with all his worldly wealth in his pocket and in the pack on his back. In his fifty years of residence in the town he built and launched a fleet of forty vessels. At the time of his death in 1875 he had become the wealthiest man in this section of the state and "towered far above any in his county."5
George Allen had come to Waldoboro a little earlier than Mr. Clark and was prominently identified with the life of the town in its flowering period. He maintained a jewelry store, served as Col- lector of Customs, was a pillar of "the established church," and cashier in the Medomak Bank for forty years. His home was on Main Street, the house now owned by Ellie McGlaughlin. His grandson, Professor Allan R. Benner, shortly before his death, gave me the following excerpt from Deacon Allen's papers:
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