USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 14
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The increase of the denomination continued to be rapid. Young men of piety and promise entered the ministry, the missionaries employed were active and zealous, and as they went everywhere preaching the word converts were multiplied and churches organized. At the meeting of the Lincoln Association at Warren, Sept. 3 and 4, 1806, three new churches, Unity, Columbia and Bluehill, were admitted to fellowship. Four churches were added in the following year, viz., Northport, Montville, Carmel and Surry. But when the association met at Ballstown, Sept. 21 and 22, 1808, ten churches presented themselves and asked admission to membership, viz., 1st and 2d Jefferson, Matinicus, Deer Isle, Stetson, 1st Camden, 2d Camden, Frankfort, 2d Hope, and 2d Vassalboro. "Our hearts have witnessed the glorious effusions of his divine Spirit in the hearts of men," was the language of the Correspond- ing Letter. The additions by baptism were four hundred and ninety-two. Thomaston reported one hundred and thirty-three.
1 Mr. Merrill was a graduate of Dartmouth College. Only two others of the early Bap- tist ministers in the District of Maine, Rev. Peletiah Tingley of Sanford and Rev. Abraham Cummings (Brown University, 1776,) of North Yarmouth, were college gradu- ates. Mr. Tingley, as has been shown, early became identified with the Free Baptist movement, and Mr. Cummings was so little in harmony with his Baptist brethren that he made his ministry a general one without taking a pastorate.
2 Historical Discourse by Rev. William H. Shailer, D. D., pastor of the First Baptist Church Portland, preached in Hallowell, June 20, 1876, at the Fifty-second Anniversary of the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention, Minutes, p. 90.
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HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
Six churches, 2d Palermo, Orland, Belfast, Hampden, Buckstown (Bucksport) and 2d Ballstown, were added at the meeting of the association in Thomaston, Sept. 20 and 21, 1809, and as many more, namely, Dixmont, 1st Steu- ben, 2d Steuben, Trenton, Sullivan and New Charleston, at the meeting of the association at Vassalborough Sept. 19 and 20, 1810. The seed that had been sown brought forth abundantly, and the reaper followed close upon the feet of the sower.
The statistics of Lincoln Association to the close of the decade are as follows :
Ministers.
Churches.
Additions.
Dismissed.
Excluded.
Died.
Members.
1805
14
18
83
42
10
5
897
1806
13
21
81
44
16
8
1151
1807
22
25
63
51
18
11
1135
1808
24
37
492
122
21
5
1767
1809
28
41
186
84
55
14
1974
1810
33
47
183
87
55
14
2301
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CHAPTER X.
FURTHER EXPANSION.
The churches continued to prosper, and new churches were organized here and there as the result of missionary activity. Again there was a call for a division of Bow- doinham Association. At the meeting held at Livermore, Sept. 26 and 27, 1810, it was voted to divide the associa- tion by the Androscoggin river, "so far as said river divides the counties, thence the line which divides the counties of Oxford and Somerset, to be the dividing line"; and liberty was given to the churches near the line to join either association according to their choice. The new organization on the west of the Androscoggin river was known as the Cumberland Association.
The missionary spirit was manifested at this meeting of the Bowdoinham Association. Case and others were pres- ent, full of zeal in behalf of the Master's work. Caleb Blood, the new pastor of the Baptist church in Portland, preached the missionary sermon from Isa. 22 : 23, 24. "After sermon," the record of the meeting reads, "the people contributed with warm and (considering the pres- ent scarcity of money) with liberal hearts; by contribu- tion and otherwise" the sum of $166.66 being placed in the hands of the treasurer.
The scarcity of money to which reference is here made was caused by the embargo act enacted by Congress Dec. 21, 1807, which prohibited any American vessel from sail- ing to any foreign port. A supplementary act, applying to the navigation of rivers, lakes and bays, made the orig- inal act even more stringent and brought great distress to all of our coast towns.
The Maine Baptist Missionary Society met at Readfield
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HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
Sept. 26, 1811. This meeting was in connection with the Bowdoinham Association, but at the meeting of the trus- tees in Livermore in February, 1812, it was voted to hold the next annual meeting "at the house of Elder Norton in Livermore the second Wednesday after the sitting of the Cumberland Association." At this meeting, held Oct. 14, 1812, there was no election of officers according to the record. Rev. Ransom Norton was elected chairman pro tem, and missionary appointments were made. Meetings of the trustees were held Feb. 17 and Sept. 30, 1813. At the meeting held Oct. 24, 1815, it was "Voted, that Bro. Tripp be standing chairman." In the record of this meet- ing we find the first mention of an executive committee. "Voted, that Brethren Haynes, Norton and Chase be an executive committee." Evidently little attention was paid to the requirements of the constitution, but the work went on. There is no record of any meeting in 1814, but a meeting was probably held in connection with the Cum- berland Association, as in the Minutes of the association for 1814 this note is appended: "The trustees of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society have appointed to meet in Livermore the fourth Wednesday in October, 1815."
The Cumberland Association held its first meeting at Yarmouth, then known as North Yarmouth, Oct. 2 and 3, 1811. The following churches were represented : Harps- well, Hebron, 1st Buckfield, Paris, Livermore, New Glou- cester, North Yarmouth, Jay, Brunswick, Portland, 2d Buckfield, Sumner, Bethel, Norway, Minot, Freeport, Pejepscot, Denmark, Number Five, Bridgton, Hartford, 2d Livermore and Bath. The latter church had been organized late in the autumn of the preceding year in connection with the labors of Rev. Silas Stearns,1 and
1 Silas Stearns was a native of Waltham, Mass., where he was born July 26, 1784. He was ordained at North Yarmouth as an evangelist Oct. 22, 1807, and soon after located in Freeport, where he spent two years, his preaching being attended with much success. "But he was unwilling to build on another man's foundation, and learning of a fair pros- pect for gathering a Baptist church in Bath, and stimulated by the wishes and financial help of his intimate friend, Dea. John Stockbridge of North Yarmouth, he entered upon a work which closed only with his life," Aug. 1, 1840. See Rev. Silas Stearns and Some of his Contemporaries, by Rev. O. S. Stearns, D. D., Minutes for 1891.
E
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HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
reported a membership of seventeen. The membership of the association at its organization was 1,165. This included, however, twenty-two members of the Jefferson church, which was not represented by messengers. The additions to the churches by baptism during the year were 102.
The churches remaining in the Bowdoinham Association were 1st Bowdoin, 1st Sidney, 1st Litchfield, Lewiston, Readfield, Fayette, Wayne, Lisbon, Clinton, New Vine- yard, Wales, Mount Vernon, Leeds, New Sharon, Canaan, 2d Sidney, 2d Bowdoin, Belgrade, Hallowell, 2d Lisbon, Cornville, Harmony, Farmington, Monmouth, Palmyra, Piscataquis, New Portland, and 2d Litchfield. The total membership was 1,556, and the number of additions by baptism during the year was 74.
At the meeting of the Lincoln Association at Sedgwick, Sept. 16 and 17, 1812, 243 additions to the association were reported, and the total membership was 2,673. Rev. Henry Hale was employed seven weeks in missionary ser- vice by the association. In 1813, $89.00 were contributed for missionary operations, and twenty-two weeks of ser- vice for such work were secured.
The war of 1812 was now in progress.1 Glimpses of the conflict in which the country was engaged are found in the associational Minutes. But the noise of battle at length was hushed, and the churches again had rest. The general joy was manifested in all religious assemblies. In the Lincoln Association the end of the war was made all the more welcome by a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.
Rev. Daniel Merrill of Sedgwick, writing to Dr. Bald- win of Boston, Nov. 22, 1815, said : "You have no doubt received particulars of the remarkable work of Zion's
1 The war was unpopular in the District of Maine, as elsewhere in New England. The Circular Letter of Cumberland Association referred to "the unreasonable jealousy, acri- mony and illiberality manifested by political partisans," to the "illicit and unwarrantable measures, resorted to to carry their point, to increase a party, or to gain a place of trust, honor or emolument," and to "the divisions and party spirit now predominant among all classes of our citizens, which have wrecked that happy union once so prominent among the only free people on earth."
152
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
King in the District of Maine. In Thomaston, the season past, 50 have believed and been baptized; in St. George, 50 more ; in Nobleborough, 112; in Jefferson, 59; in Bow- doin, 120 or more ; in several towns west of Portland, 150 or 200. And all these in the apostolic way, or rather in Christ's way, were visibly made disciples."
At the meeting of the Cumberland Association in Liv- ermore in 1816, there were added reports of revivals. Brunswick reported 133 additions by baptism, Bath, 80, and Portland, 42. Bowdoinham Association reported 142 additions. At the meeting of the Lincoln Association at Warren, Sept. 18 and 19, 1816, 592 additions were reported. Of these 141 were at Sedgwick, and 117 at Bluehill.
The season of ingathering continued. At the meeting of the Lincoln Association at Bluehill, Sept. 17 and 18, 1817, 330 baptisms were reported, and the total member- ship was now 3,781. Bowdoinham Association, at Fay- ette, Sept. 24 and 25, 1817, reported 301 additions by bap- tism, including 62 in Fayette, 55 in Greene, and 68 in the 3d Livermore. The membership of the association was 2,090. Cumberland Association, which met at Bath Octo- ber 1st and 2d, reported 470 additions and a membership of 1,902.
The trustees of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society held their annual meeting in Buckfield Oct. 15, 1817, and in the report of the meeting is this significant entry : "Voted, that Brother Ripley labor four weeks in Water- ville." The place doubtless had been visited from time to time by Baptist missionaries. A preacher's diary, under date of 1803, tells us of a visit to Waterville, and makes mention of "a meeting kept up by a number of Baptists." Mr. Ripley was not a man who would fail to give heed to a request of his brethren. He was pastor of the Baptist church in Portland, having been ordained a little more than a year before, and was not yet twenty-two years of age. Full of missionary zeal, deeply spiritual, and with an attractive personality, he could hardly have failed to
FIRST CHURCH, PORTLAND.
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HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
win a favorable hearing for the gospel which he loved to preach.
Other assignments were made. Brethren Chase and Roberts were requested to spend six weeks each in the service of the society. Brother Bowles was asked to spend four weeks in the Coos country. Brethren Boardman and Adams were directed to Solon and the adjacent destitute parts for four weeks' service each. Brethren Hutchinson, Macomber and Daggett were assigned to the destitute set- tlements on the Piscataquis river, where five weeks of service was requested of each. Brother Tripp was asked to labor three weeks in Waterford and Norway. Case and Dexter were directed to the Penobscot river and bay, the one to spend eight weeks and the other four in the desti- tute communities there. Brethren Drinkwater and Ricker were asked to labor three weeks each in townships Num- ber One, Number Seven, &c., on the Androscoggin river, and Brother Drinkwater one week in Rome. It was also voted that Brethren Case, Haynes and Houghton should be employed each four weeks below Pleasant river. These assignments indicate the abiding strength of the mission- ary spirit.
The Circular Letter of the Cumberland Association, in 1817, refers to the peculiar blessings which the churches had received in large additions to their membership. "Let us not, dear brethren, grow vain by prosperity, and forget God, the rock of our salvation."
At the meeting of the Lincoln Association at Noble- borough, Sept. 17, 1818, it was voted to divide the associa- tion, its membership then being 3,499. Penobscot river was to be the eastern line, yet churches near the line were to have their choice as to the association with which they would be connected; and the churches comprising the eastern division were called to meet at Bluehill on the second Wednesday in November. This action led to the formation of the Eastern Maine 'Association, which was organized at Bluehill Nov. 12, 1818, with twelve churches, and held its first session at Steuben in October, 1819,
154
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
when three churches were added, making fifteen churches, ten ordained ministers and 1,042 members, comprising the Baptist churches east of the Penobscot river.
In their report made at Livermore Oct. 21, 1818, the trustees of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society referred to the good tidings which their missionaries had brought to them. Work had been performed in the northeasterly parts of New Hampshire and the adjoining parts of Vermont. The back settlements between the Kennebec and the Penobscot are described as "an extended moral waste." In this section there were twenty-eight towns in a cluster in which but two settled ministers were found.
The additions by baptism to the churches in 1818 were not as large as in previous years. York Association reported 101; Cumberland Association, 92; Bowdoinham Association, 292, and Lincoln Association, 128. The ener- gies of the workers in the churches, however, seem not in any measure to have been relaxed.
At the meeting of the New Hampshire Association in Wells, June 10 and 11, 1818, liberty was given to the churches in Exeter and Salisbury, N. H., with other churches desiring to make a change, to withdraw from the association in order to form a new association. Most of the New Hampshire churches in the association in accord- ance with this action withdrew. Accordingly at the meet- ing of the New Hampshire Association in Cornish, June 9 and 10, 1819, most of the churches remaining being in the County of York, the name of the association was changed, and has since been known as the York Association.
The trustees of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society met in Fayette Oct. 13, 1819. The missionaries were voted $4.50 a week, and appointments were made : "Elders Gar- celon and Davison each 5 weeks ; Elder Chase, 6 weeks, and Elder Roberts, 4 weeks ; Elders Hutchinson and Morse each 4 weeks."
At the meeting in Livermore Oct. 6, 1820, the receipts for the current year were found to amount to $314.94, and there were $47.00 in the treasury. The amount voted
155
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
to the missionaries per week was four dollars. Places were selected as fields for missionary labor, and appoint- ments to missionary service were also made. Messrs. Chapin, Ripley and Stockbridge were appointed to revise the constitution of the society and report at the next annual meeting. A communication was received from the Maine Baptist Education Society requesting the trustees of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society to co-operate "with them in preparing a constitution for benevolent societies embracing domestic and foreign missions, education of pious indigent young men called of God to the gospel ministry, and the procuring of a library for the benefit of ministering brethren, together with an address urging the claims of these respective objects." This address was published in connection with the Minutes of the Cumber- land Association for 1820. In it attention was called to the cause of missions in the State and throughout the world, and the importance of aiding the cause was urged. The address closed with the submission of a constitution which was to be used in organizing benevolent work in the churches in aid of domestic and foreign missions, and of educating "persons approbated by the churches as being called of God to the work of the ministry." This was the beginning of a movement which was very influen- tial in developing the benevolence of the churches in the various lines indicated in the address of the benevolent societies.
Added to this address was the announcement that for the purpose of diffusing religious intelligence and of excit- ing and cherishing a missionary and benevolent spirit, "all benevolent societies whose secretary shall notify the secre- taries of the Maine Baptist Missionary and Education Societies, viz., Elder John Haynes of Livermore and Elder Ripley of Portland, shall be furnished gratis with a file of the Christian Watchman and Baptist Magazine."
At the meeting of the Maine Baptist Missionary Soci- ety held at North Yarmouth, Oct. 2, 1821, trustees were
156
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
elected, and at a meeting of the trustees two days later Stephen Chapin was elected president,1 and Messrs. Chapin and Stockbridge were made a committee to "prepare a sys- tem of by-laws by which our library shall be governed." The committee appointed in 1821 to revise the constitution reported, and the constitution as revised was adopted. The missionary receipts for the year were $375.00.
In the Eastern Maine Association, which met at Surry Oct. 3 and 4, 1821, and of which Rev. Daniel Merrill was moderator, much attention was given to the work of domestic missions. It was recommended that each mem- ber contribute regularly to this object, and to observe the concert of prayer for the spread of the gospel on the first Monday afternoon or evening in every month. The asso- ciation took into consideration the destitute region from "the river St. Croix on our eastern boundary, along the most northerly inhabited parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Michigan territory generally and in Indiana and Illinois. What pre- sented itself as being a desirable and practicable event is, that a missionary who has a clear apprehension of the gospel of Christ and of the things of his kingdom, together with sound judgment, a warm heart and good education, should be employed for one year to traverse the above route, keeping the most northerly, passable road, tracing the inlets into the wilderness where small settle- ments are commenced, and where the gospel may seldom or never have been preached; pursuing this route till he shall arrive at the borders of the Michigan territory, then, and afterwards, conform to circumstances, observing, as nearly as the good of the cause will justify, the instruc- tions he may receive."
7
The association approved the proposed measure, "pro- vided there be a probability of bringing it into operation," and appointed a committee consisting of Rev. Daniel Mer-
1 The change in designation from chairman to president is not explained in the records. Mr. Chapin was given the same designation when re-elected at the annual meeting of the society in 1822, and this designation was continued.
157
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
rill, Rev. Amos Allen, Rev. Enoch Hunting, Richard Allen and George Stevens "to put into operation all suitable means to effect the desired object."
The subsequent Minutes do not indicate that the com- mittee succeeded in finding and putting into the field a missionary for the proposed work. It should be remarked in this connection, however, that two of Rev. Daniel Merrill's sons a few years later went to the Michigan territory and there performed missionary service ..
For several years after the large additions to the churches reported in 1817 and 1818, the pastors of the churches were busily engaged in the work of instructing the converts and in giving needed attention to the vari- ous movements for the diffusion of religious knowledge. The lukewarm condition of the churches because of a lack of revivals was deplored, and there was exhortation "to awake out of sleep." At the meeting of the Lincoln Association at China, Sept. 18 and 19, 1822, it was voted to observe the last Wednesday in October following as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, "that a prayer-hearing God may pour out his Spirit and revive the churches and bring sinners to a knowledge of the truth." A like vote was passed by the association at the meeting in Hope in September, 1823.
At the meeting of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society at Bridgton, Oct. 3, 1822, the trustees were directed to apply to the Legislature of Maine for an act of incorpora- tion, "with all the powers in such cases conferred."
The Bowdoinham Association met at Fayette Sept. 24 and 25, 1823, and the committee on the division of the association reported in favor of a division. It was accord- ingly voted "that the churches in the northerly section of this association which may wish to form themselves into a new association be requested to meet by their delegates at the Baptist meeting-house in Bloomfield1 on the second
1 Bloomfield was on the south side of the Kennebec at Skowhegan, and was annexed to Skowhegan in 1861.
158
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
Wednesday in November next, at 10 o'clock A. M., to take into consideration the expediency of such a measure : and if they are of opinion that it is expedient for them to form a new association the present year that they have liberty so to do."
The Missionary Society met in Brunswick Oct. 2, 1823. At this meeting it was voted that the report of the trustees should be printed in the Waterville Intelligen- cer. The amount of money in the treasurer's hands was $355.45.
The desired showers of blessing in Lincoln Associa- tion came. At the meeting of the association held in Woolwich, Sept. 15 and 16, 1824, 1st Nobleboro church reported 131 baptisms, 2d Nobleboro, 90, 1st Jefferson, 56, and the whole number reported by the association was 547, making the membership 2,921. It was a season of great rejoicing as the churches came together in their annual convocation.
At the meeting of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society, held June 24, 1824, in the house of Rev. Isaac Case in Readfield, the act of incorporation,1 passed Feb. 8, 1823,
1 CHAPTER CCIV.
AN ACT to incorporate the Maine Baptist Missionary Society.
SECT. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in Legislature assembled, That John Haynes, Ransom Norton, Oliver Billings, James Garcelon, Cyrus Hamlin, Stephen Chapin, Calvin Stockbridge, Thomas B. Ripley, together with their associates and successors, be, and they hereby are incorporated into a body politic, by the name of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society ; with power to sue and be sued ; to have a common seal and to change the same; to make any by-laws for the management of their affairs, not repugnant to the laws of this State; and to take, hold and possess, any real or personal estate to the value of fifty thousand dollars, and to give and grant, bargain and sell, or lease the same.
SECT. 2. Be it further enacted, That the said corporation may annually elect by ballot, by a majority of the members present, a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and such number of trustees as they may think proper, not less than seven, and such other officers as they may determine to be necessary ; and all such officers, when chosen, may hold their offices until others are chosen in their stead; and in case of death, resig- nation or disability of either of said officers, the said corporation shall have a right in like manner, at any meeting regularly called for the purpose, or at any meeting held by adjournment, as may be most convenient, to fill any vacancy which may so happen.
SECT. 3. Be it further enacted, That all deeds, grants, covenants and agreements that may be made for and in behalf of said corporation shall be executed under the seal of the same, and signed by the president and secretary.
SECT. 4. Be it further enacted, That all the estate of said corporation, both real and 2
159
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
was read and accepted. William Johnson and Adam Wil- son were requested to labor in the employ of the society until the last week in September.
The pastors in many of the churches were now busily engaged in reaping the harvest for which the fields about them were already white. The additions by baptism to the Bowdoinham Association, reported at Jay in 1824, were 458, and the whole number in the association was 2,894. In the letter of that year we have the following record with reference to this evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God in the churches at this time : "In no former year, perhaps, have there been enjoyed so many and such powerful revivals of religion within the bounds of this association, as during the year past. . In Sidney, Readfield, Winthrop, Hallowell, Bowdoin, Lisbon, Liver- more and Jay the good work of grace has been truly powerful and glorious."
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