USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 7
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About the same time in which Rev. Nathaniel Lord preached in Bowdoin and met Mr. Potter, Mr. Job Macom- ber of Middleborough, Mass., came into the District of Maine.2 He was the son of a Congregational deacon, but in 1772 united with the Baptist church in Middleborough
1 Narration of the Experience, Travels and Labours of Elder James Potter, pp. 17, 18.
2 In 1778, Congress having assumed appellate jurisdiction of all maritime causes, as incident to the rights of making peace and war, divided the State of Massachusetts into three districts, the southern, middle and northern. The northern embraced the counties of York, Cumberland and Lincoln and acquired the distinctive name, "District of Maine," which it retained until the separation.
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of which Rev. Isaac Backus was pastor. He was licensed by the church to preach and for awhile devoted himself to missionary work in Massachusetts. He had served in the French and Indian War,1 and according to tradition he served as a chaplain during most of the Revolutionary War. In the autumn of 1782, he came to Maine. He preached awhile in New Gloucester, and in the diary of Mr. Backus, under date of Oct. 2, 1782, is the following record : "Elder Nelson and Jeremiah Basset from Taun- ton church, and Elder Job Seamans and Jacob Newland from Attleboro', met here with our church, to consider a request from the Baptist church in New Gloucester, that we would ordain brother Job Macomber as a gospel min- ister. Upon mature deliberation, we found that their request was not to ordain him as their pastor, and we had not clearness in ordaining him as a minister at large, and so did not do it." .
Early in December Mr. Macomber visited Parker's Island, near the mouth of the Kennebec. Here he found trace of the labors of Rev. Nathaniel Lord. In a letter to Mr. Backus, dated Jan. 7, 1783, he writes : "We found there had been a great and marvelous work begun about a year and a half before; and no Baptist minister being nearer than Nathaniel Lord, hearing of them he went to see them and baptized a large number. I cannot now give you the particulars, but they informed me that about sixty had been baptized on this island and on another some eight miles from them."
It was while he was at Parker's Island that Mr. Macomber heard of a wonderful work of grace at Potters- town, and he hastened thither, arriving Jan. 10, 1783. In his letter to Mr. Backus, Mr. Macomber says : "We found the work had begun eighteen months before, and had been so wonderful among men, women and children, that as they told us, there were none left in the town to
1 A Fourth of July poem by Mr. Macomber, delivered July 4, 1806, makes mention of his war experiences. The edition in the possession of the writer of this volume was published in 1826.
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oppose them." Here Mr. Macomber met James Potter, who told him "he had been a week from his family in a town called Bowdoinham, where there were signs of a great work, some in almost every family being under deep concern for their souls." In this way, doubtless, Mr. Macomber's thoughts were directed for the first time to the place which was to be his field of labor to the close of his life.
Mr. Backus read Mr. Macomber's letter to Isaac Case, who was impressed with the needs of the destitute-fields in the District of Maine. Mr. Case was born in Rehoboth, Mass., Feb. 25, 1761. Serious thoughts, he tells us, were awakened in his mind when he was about nine years of age, and these continued until he was eighteen, when he was led to accept Christ as his Saviour and united with the Baptist church in Dighton. His great desire now was to advance the cause of his divine Redeemer. The claims of the Christian ministry were impressed upon him, but he looked upon himself as unqualified for the work. He could read with difficulty, and how, without an education, could he proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ? His prayer, nevertheless, was, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" He received some encouragement from Joshua 1: 5, "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee, all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee." The words suggested the thought that in God he had such a helper as the great leader of Israel, and for a season the path of duty was made plain. An opportunity was soon presented in which he made a trial of his gift. A meeting was appointed in a small house near his own home, and he was invited to preach. So many came together that the house could not contain the people, and the service was held in the open field. Mr. Case took as his text John 14: 17, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you." In his own account of this ser- vice he says : "I was much straitened, and got through the exercise with difficulty, so that I did not answer my
REV. ISAAC CASE.
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own mind, nor the mind of my hearers. From this cir- cumstance, I was ready to conclude that I was mistaken respecting my duty, and was deceived in my exercise about preaching." He did not, however, wholly relin- quish his thoughts concerning the ministry. He accepted other invitations to preach, but as his efforts were still unsatisfactory to him, he searched his heart, and came to the conclusion that pride ruled it, and that he coveted a greater gift than he possessed. The result was that he resolved to use the gift he had received from God, and leave the result with him. If the Lord gave him only ten words he would speak them, and if he was pleased to give him more he would speak them. "Thus," he says, "I ventured out, not having on Saul's armor, nor with the advantage of being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel ; but I was brought down to the feet of Christ, and was taught of him; was furnished with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."1
Accordingly Mr. Case went from place to place, having at times a good degree of freedom in speaking in public, but at other times having no satisfaction in the presenta- tion of his message. He visited Cape Cod in the winter of 1780-1, and conversions accompanied his labors in Har- wich and Barnstable. In a diary kept in 1783, Mr. Case records his labors as a missionary in the northern part of central Massachusetts, and also in Vermont. He returned to Rehoboth about the last of June, 1783, and during July he was again with the brethren at Barnstable and Harwich. On Monday, August 18, he visited Rev. Isaac Backus at Middleborough. It was doubtless at this time that Mr. Backus read to Mr. Case Mr. Macomber's letter. Its tidings stirred his soul. In this letter he heard a Macedonian cry.
As yet, however, he had not been ordained, and a council with a view to ordination was called by the Dighton church August 28, the council to be held Sep- tember 10. The delegates came together on that day. In
1 Manuscript narrative.
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his journal Mr. Case says : "I told my experience and call to preach the gospel. They all manifested satisfaction. Elder Thompson [of Swansea] preached the sermon from 1. Cor. 4.1, and then Elder Goff, Elder Simmons, and Elder Carpenter laid their hands upon me and prayed. Elder Carpenter gave me a solemn charge. Elder Goff gave me the hand of fellowship."
The day following, having parted with his mother-his father had died six years before-Mr. Case left his home in Rehoboth and started on his "journey eastward." Some time was spent at Newton with Elder Blood. At Haverhill he called to see Rev. Hezekiah Smith, and took breakfast with him. At Brentwood, N. H., he found that Dr. Shepard was absent from home, but conversation with his wife seems to have lightened the burdens, which, as his journal shows, the journey had imposed upon him, for he says, "I found her to be one who loves the truth ; felt more comfortable in mind. The Lord was pleased to solemnize my heart, and enable me to trust in him." Here, and in the vicinity, Mr. Case remained until October 7, accepting invitations to preach which came to him from various places. Continuing his journey, he called on Rev. William Hooper at Madbury. In Berwick he stopped at the widow Lord's. Two of her sons were Baptist minis- ters. "Nathaniel lives with his mother," he records, "but was not at home, having gone to Kittery with Mr. Joseph Crowell." Thither he followed and heard Mr. Crowell preach. He also accepted frequent invitations to make known his own message. "In the border of Fal- mouth, called Stroudwater," he attended the funeral of a child, and preached a sermon. October 19, he was in Gorham, where he preached "to a few people with some freedom," but he had little satisfaction in preaching or talking with them. October 21, he reached Brunswick. Hitherto in his journey he had found a resting place with his brethren in the Lord. At Brunswick he must tarry for the night at the public house. Brunswick at that time was a small hamlet. Only a few of its dwelling houses
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were painted. It had as yet no post office. "When a letter was received from any old home of ancestors in Massachusetts it was brought by some coaster to Maquoit, or by Richard Kimball, who went through on foot, from Portland to Bath, once a fortnight, with the letters in his pocket, a costly luxury, which only the few could afford to receive who could somehow raise the two shillings eight pence postage. A little later, Luke Lombard became the more pretentious and elevated post boy, coming on horse- back, perhaps bringing a welcome copy of the little Boston Gazette, of coarse brown paper, giving what might be learned of their victorious Washington, or the acts of the General Court; leaving the paper at Esquire Dunlap's grocery, where an army blanket could be bought for four bushels of corn, and a pound of tea for $1.50."1 Lamps, and even tallow candles, were unknown; and when the young missionary was shown to his room, a pitch pine knot lighted the way. The next morning, inquiring for some pious people on whom he might call, he was directed to the house of a Mr. Woodward, at New Meadows. Mr. Woodward and his wife received him cordially, and at their request Mr. Case preached to attentive hearers in the afternoon, and also in the evening.
The next day he held a meeting in the afternoon at Mr. Samuel Getchell's house. Hearing that a revival of reli- gion was in progress on Sebascodegan Island, Harpswell, he made his way thither. In the darkness, through the woods, where the trees were blown down across the path, he pushed forward, and reached the place where the meeting was held about the time it was to begin. The leader insisted that Mr. Case should preach. The people listened to the young stranger with eager interest. Hearts were melted. "The Lord sent down the sweet effusions of his blessed Spirit," wrote Mr. Case; and he added this testimony, "The Lord is here of a truth." Several were converted whom the Spirit reached through
1 Rev. Dr. A. K. P. Small's Discourse at the Centennial Anniversary of the East Bruns- wick Baptist Church, Sept. 8, 1885.
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this sermon, among them two brothers, Isaac and Ephraim Hall, both of whom became useful Baptist ministers.
On the following day, which was Friday, he preached in the Congregational meeting-house, forenoon and after- noon, to large congregations. Then he returned to New Meadows, where he met Mr. James Potter.
With what joy Mr. Potter greeted Mr. Case can easily be imagined. "When I heard him relate his exercises of mind to visit these parts," says Mr. Potter, "I rejoiced. I heard him preach with engagedness and becoming zeal for the cause of truth, and glorified God on his behalf. I rejoiced that the Lord had sent him amongst us to preach the gospel, where the harvest was so great and laborers so few."
On the Sunday following this first meeting, Mr. Case and Mr. Potter attended the services of the Congre- gational church in Harpswell. Rev. Samuel Eaton, who became pastor of this church at its organization in 1753, received them "rather coolly," but invited Mr. Case to preach in the afternoon. In the evening they had a meet- ing in a private house.1. The work on Sebascodegan Island now became general. "In almost every family," says Mr. Case, "some were weeping in the bitterness of their souls, others rejoicing in hope."
October 29, Mr. Case visited Bath, where Mr. Potter's labors had resulted in a work of grace. "I found a great blessing," he writes, "in following Christ in the ordi- nance." Returning to New Meadows and Sebascodegan Island, he resumed his labors, visiting from house to house. Tuesday, Nov. 4, was observed as a day of prayer, and in the afternoon Mr. Case baptized a woman, the first convert he had baptized in Maine. At Georgetown he heard Mr. Emerson preach, the minister of the town.
1 In the records of the parish for 1784 there is an item which gives us a hint in refer- ence to the results of Mr. Case's labors in Harpswell. At a meeting of the church held at the meeting-house May 31, 1784, it was voted that the deacons should be a committee to inspect the work of church members, and that the pastor had liberty "provided he sees his way clear, to baptize by immersion those who conscientiously desire it, provided they give satisfaction to the church of their faith in Christ and live holy lives."
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"He preached," wrote Mr. Case, "as if he knew the truth."1 He continued his evangelistic labors during the remainder of the year, preaching here, also at Topsham, Potterstown, Little River, Bowdoinham and Bath, and baptizing converts. Six were baptized by him at Bow- doinham, Nov. 24, 1783.
The Revolutionary War had now come to a close. The definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris, Sept. 3, 1783. The cessation of hostilities followed. The British forces withdrew from our shores, and the American army was disbanded. Only a small part of the territory of the District of Maine had as yet been appropriated by settlers, but the eyes of thousands were now directed thitherward. To encourage soldiers and emigrants, Mas- sachusetts offered to settlers one hundred and fifty acres of land upon the rivers and navigable waters of the dis- trict at one dollar per acre, or one hundred acres of land elsewhere to anyone who would clear sixteen acres in four years. Many Revolutionary soldiers availed themselves of this offer, and the population of the district now rapidly increased.
In the autumn of 1783, Mr. Job Macomber took up a farm2 in Bowdoinham, and brought his family to his new home. In November Mr. Case visited Bowdoinham, and
1 Mr. Emerson was ordained July 3, 1765. "In the midst of the Revolutionary War his salary, which was never more than three hundred dollars, was paid in depreciated paper money, which became at length 'of little value': the public burthens and expenses lay heavily upon the people; the towns and settlements on large rivers and navigable waters were exposed to every annoyance of the enemy, and Mr. Emerson was consequently absent from his people about four years. As soon, however, as the voice of peace was heard, he returned to the bosom of his charge, May 1, 1783. He continued his ministerial labors till 1811, when he received assistance from Rev. Samuel Sewall, previously of Edge- comb. He died Nov. 9, 1815, in the eightieth year of his age." William D. Williamson in Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. 6, pp. 312-314.
? "Probably his first home in Bowdoinham was the farm now owned by Captain Andrew Curtis, a mile and a half west of the village. Captain Curtis has kindly pre- sented to the writer the deed by which Mr. M. sold this farm in 1801, with signatures perfect; also showed him the location of the house and the huge stone heaps laid by Mr. Macomber. He afterward owned a farm one mile northeast of Harward's Station, his grandsons tell us; also that he gave the proceeds of this one to an unworthy son with whom he lived awhile at the village, but who cast off his aged father to be a town pauper ; that the other children gave him a home; that he died at the home of a son, a
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near the close of the month he baptized six persons, who were the first to receive the ordinance in this place. Mr. Case relates the following instance as connected with this baptismal season. "After baptizing five persons who had been previously received as candidates, a woman came forward to the water and desired baptism. She was informed that if she believed in Christ with all her heart she might. She then related what the Lord had done for her soul, which relation evinced that she had experienced a work of renewing and saving grace, and consequently she was received as a proper subject of baptism. While preparing to go down into the water, her husband came forward, filled with anger and great rage, and threatened to kill himself if his wife was baptized. The husband was warned of his guilt and danger, and the wife was bap- tized, and instead of suicide, the man was slain by the law of God and then made alive by the blood of Christ."1 The religious interest in the place continued, and a Bap- tist church was organized May 24, 1784. The town rec- ords show that Mr. Macomber was chosen "town min- ister" at times between 1792 and 1796. He also supplied in Topsham.
Mr. Macomber was ordained as pastor of the Bowdoin- ham church August 18, 1784. The ordination occurred in the open air on a stage erected for the occasion. Rev. Isaac Case preached the sermon, and Rev. Simon Locke assisted in the service.
Mr. Case meanwhile had turned his face to the east- ward. He left Sebascodegan Island Jan. 21, 1784. After stopping at Bath to preach, he crossed the Kennebec on the ice Jan. 24, and preached at Woolwich in the evening. Continuing his journey he preached at Newcastle, Dama- riscotta, Broad Bay (Waldoboro), and reached Thomaston
mile north of Richmond Corner, and was buried beside his wife, in a neighboring yard. The association contributed to his support, and recommended the churches to do the same in the last years of his life." Rev. E. S. Small, Centennial Review of Bowdoinham Association, pp. 6 and 7. Mr. Macomber died sometime between September, 1820, and September, 1821.
1 Case's Journal, Millet's History of the Baptists in Maine, pp. 93, 94.
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on Friday, Jan. 30. Here he found a few pious souls who had spent the day in prayer and fasting in view of his coming. The next day he preached in the afternoon. Three souls were awakened at that first service. On the following day, which was the Sabbath, the house where he preached-the dwelling house of Mr. Oliver Robbins, whose wife was the only Baptist he found in the region- was crowded with eager listeners. In less than three weeks a powerful work of grace was in progress. The first baptism was on Feb. 26, when fifteen were baptized, March 12, sixteen others followed. In April, twenty-five were baptized, and May 23, six others. In a letter dated June 22, 1784, Mr. Case wrote: "I think I have seen more of the power and glory of our God since I have been in these parts, than ever I saw before, poor shelterless souls fleeing to Christ for shelter, and praising the Lord for free grace through the merits of Christ's righteous- ness, which runs down our streets like a mighty stream. The eyes of the blind are opened, and the ears of the deaf are unstopped."
Among those baptized was Elisha Snow.1 He had been a prominent business man, had built vessels and owned many. Though now in middle life, he left all to follow Christ. His children shared in the wonderful work. One of his daughters, Joanna Snow, then seventeen years of age, was among the converts, and June 26, 1785, she became the wife of Mr. Case. When her brothers made
1 "Twenty-two years before this date [1789], nine years before the Declaration of Inde- pendence, Elisha Snow had left his home in Harpswell for Wessaweskeag, now South Thomaston, to engage in lumbering. He bought a tract of one thousand, seven hun- dred and fifty acres of land. There he built a sawmill, and afterward a gristmill. After four years, in 1771, he moved his family to that place. His business prospered. . . . . He had a store, and as a matter of course was a licensed 'retailer of spirits.' Meantime, settlers were flowing into the town of Thomaston, which was incorporated in 1777. Many of the settlers were from the north of Ireland, and therefore the first parish was of the Presbyterian order. But no minister had been settled. At a town meeting in 1783, Mr. Snow was chosen to get the first parish minister. None had been obtained, how- ever, and no religious society had been organized, when Mr. Case arrived. . . . He immediately began to preach in his own town and vicinity, co-operating with his pastor in touring. Four years later, June 11, 1788, Backus says, he was ordained as an itinerant minister at Harpswell .. . . Mr. Snow lived to be ninety-three years old, and died in 1832." Rev. E. S. Small's Centennial Review of Bowdoinham Association, pp. 11, 12.
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objection to the marriage of their sister to a man without property, Mr. Snow replied, "He is the son of a King." Mr. Snow entered upon the work of the ministry, and became a faithful, fearless preacher of the Word.
A church of fifty members was organized May 27. The company assembled in Oliver Robbins' barn. Mr. Case was moderator, and Samuel Brown, clerk. Articles of faith were adopted, and the members received from the moderator the hand of fellowship. Fourteen were bap- tized that day. Mr. Case was elected pastor of the church. The services, held at first in a private house, were soon adjourned to the barn in order to accommodate the increasing crowds that flocked to hear, and baptisms followed in rapid succession.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE ASSOCIATION.
The desire for associational fellowship was manifested very early by the Baptist churches in the District of Maine. The Warren Baptist Association1 in Rhode Island, organized in 1767, was too remote for more than an occa- sional visit by one of the Maine pastors. Nor at first were there enough Baptist churches in the district to warrant the formation of an association. But across the border, in New Hampshire, at Brentwood, there was a thrifty, grow- ing Baptist church, and in connection with this church the churches in Berwick and Sanford organized in 1776 a conference, called, according to Millet,? "the Brentwood Conference." Out of this conference, of which Dr. Shep- ard of Brentwood and Rev. William Hooper of Berwick were the principal promoters, grew the New Hampshire Association in 1785. 3
1 The Warren Association, for nine years after its organization, was the only Baptist association in New England.
2 History of the Baptists in Maine, p. 73. The Brentwood church, which was organ- ized in May, 1771, with only thirteen members, had in 1813 increased its membership, according to Benedict (Vol. 1, 320), to almost seven hundred, including in its membership five branches, Epping, Lee and Nottingham, Hawke and Hampstead, Northwood and Salisbury. These branches extended over a territory whose diameter was upwards of thirty miles and whose circumference was not far from a hundred. Brentwood was their Jerusalem, where "like a bishop, in the midst of his diocese," resided the venerable elder, Dr. Shepard, the pastor of this extensive flock. Benedict adds : "This widespread church, not long since, projected a plan of becoming an association by itself. This plan has not yet been carried into effect, and it would certainly be a preposterous measure. For what is an association, according to the Baptist phraseology, but an assembly of churches ? But the Brentwood church proposes to associate with itself."
8 Backus, in his History of the Baptists of New England (Vol. 2, p. 411, Ed. of 1871), says : "The New Hampshire Association began in 1776." Backus was well informed in reference to our early New England Baptist history, and as will be seen below had per- sonal knowledge with reference to the fact he here records. But Asplund, in his Uni- versal Register of the Baptist Denomination, published in Boston in 1794, shortly after Backus published his history, says (p. 8) that the New Hampshire Association was organ- ized in 1785. Asplund was a careful gatherer of statistics, and in collecting materials
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The meeting of the conference or association in 1784 was at Berwick. Six churches, with nearly four hundred members, were then connected with it. In 1785, the meeting was at Northwood, N. H .; in 1786, unknown; in 1787 at Brentwood, N. H .; in 1788 in Stratham, N. H .; in 1789 at Berwick, June 10th and 11th. The Minutes of 1789,-an imperfect copy, however, -are in possession of York Association, and are the earliest the writer has seen. * Of the eight churches then comprising the associa- tion, five-Berwick, Wells, Sanford, Coxhall (Lyman) and Shapleigh-were in the District of Maine, and Brentwood, Northwood and Gilmanton were in New Hampshire. The total membership was 470, the New Hampshire churches having 244 members, or a little more than one-half of the membership of the association. Rev. Samuel Shepard was elected moderator of the association, and Rev. William Hooper, clerk. Dr. Shepard preached the introductory sermon from 1 Samuel 17: 29. Rev. William Hooper pre- pared the Circular Letter. In the letter the low state of religion in the churches is lamented. The statistics, meagre as they are, reveal the fact that in the decade then closing, the Baptist movement had made only a
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