Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 33

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

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" This may inform Friends that A- W- has so far deviated from the good order of Friends as to keep company with a young woman not of our society, and going to training as a spectator, and is not in the use of plain language or dress, for all of which he has been labored with, without the desired effect."

The military training was another constant temptation, especially to the younger Friends, and any violation of Friends' testimony against war was " dealt with " vigorously. One Friend, who had served in the revolutionary war, as had a number of Friends before becoming members, was " disowned " for receiving a pension from the govern- ment for his services. Again, it is recorded that a certain Friend " has deviated from the good order of Friends in apparel and conver- sation, and he sayeth that if called upon he thinks he should bear * There was originally a large body of Friends at Wilton, in Franklin county, though there has been no meeting there in many years.

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arıns. For these causes he has been labored with to no satisfaction."

The early records also show that a great effort was made to keep the members of this society free from the use of intoxicating liquors, and that, too, when there was no general sentiment against their use; and it is certain that their example has had much to do in forming the present sentiment in the state. At the very beginning of the century we find members were disowned not only for drunkenness, but for the use of liquors. Still farther, the little details of every day life were looked after with minuteness, and none were allowed to stand before the world as Friends if their public life did not stamp them as worthy of the name.

This meeting in Litchfield has continued uninterrupted since its start in 1803. The meeting is now called West Gardiner preparative meeting, making one of the subordinate meetings of Winthrop monthly meeting, which is held in West Gardiner, in second, fifth, eighth and eleventh months. David J. Douglas now resides within the limits of this meeting. As chairman of the committee on gospel work for New England yearly meeting, his field of work is through- out the yearly meeting. He has for many years been an earnest and active minister of the gospel.

WINTHROP PREPARATIVE MEETING .- A statement in the journal of David Sands probably gives us the earliest recorded reference to the rise of Friends in Winthrop, where is now one of the most flourishing meetings in New England. In the year 1777 he wrote: " We went to a new settlement called Winthrop, where we had divers meetings. Here were several convincements, and many that appeared seeking the right way." So far as we know there was not a single Friend in this township before David Sands' visit, and it is directly to his preaching and influence that we trace the convincement of all the original mem- bers of this meeting. A number of the most prominent men who were brought to adopt the principles and practices of Friends through the work of David Sands had served in the revolutionary war. Among these was Stewart Foster, whose father had received from the gov- ernment a large tract of land on condition that he would settle in the township with his family, which he did. During the war Stewart Foster had been taken prisoner and was confined on board an English prison ship. One dark night he and another prisoner jumped over- board and swam to the shore, and so escaped in safety to their own homes. After his return to Winthrop he settled on the farm now owned by Hannah J. Bailey, where he reared a large family of boys and girls. After his convincement he continued through his long life to be a faithful Friend and a steady attendant of the meeting.

Another convinced member and former soldier was John Whiting, who lived not far from the so-called Snell school house. He was a

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

very genial, cheerful man, much loved and respected in the neighbor- hood. He was a good example of a gentle, sweet Christian, and though he lived to be old, he was considered " very young for such an old man." He was chosen to act as clerk during the first year of Leeds monthly meeting in 1813, and was always a strong man in con- ducting business.

Ezra Briggs was one of the first Friends in Winthrop. A Friend minister, doubtless David Sands, came to his house one day and had a " religious opportunity " with his family. The service over, the minister started on his way, but had not gone far before he came back and said, " Ezra, it is high time thee requested and became a Friend;" this advice was followed and for the rest of his life Ezra Briggs was an active Friend. He acted as clerk at the first session of Leeds monthly meeting, was appointed an elder, and was prominent in all the business of the meeting.

We find from the journal of Joseph Hoag, the famous preacher and traveller from Vermont, that he visited Winthrop in the summer of 1802. He makes the following entry under the date of 7th mo., 25th: " After a meeting at Leeds we rode to Winthrop: here we found a little company of goodly Friends among rigid Presbyterians. We had a large and favored meeting here."

In these days, when such harmony prevails among different sects, it will do no harm to call to mind an anecdote which the oldest may still remember. The Presbyterians above referred to were building a church or, as Friends would have said, a " steple house " in Win- throp. The men sent out to invite the neighbors to the "raising" were strictly charged to ask no "Quakers." The day came for the raising, and sad to relate, for lack of men or for some reason the frame fell back and killed three men. The Friends rejoiced that they had received no invitation. The next day an effort was again made to raise the frame which had so disastrously fallen, when a part of it once more fell, very nearly killing another man. As superstition still lin- gered in the minds of some, it would not be strange if the Friends drew their own conclusions.

The first regular meeting for worship was established in Winthrop in 1793; nine years later, in 1802, a preparative meeting was started, being subordinate to the Sidney monthly meeting, which was also be- gun that year, Stewart Foster being the first representative from Win- throp to Sidney monthly meeting. Six years later the meeting became very small and came near dying out. Sidney monthly meeting records for third month, 1808, have the following entry: "The com- mittee to visit the meeting at Winthrop report that they have visited that meeting and think Friends there are not in a capacity to hold a preparative meeting to the reputation of society, which the meeting accepts, and after due consideration thereon discontinues said pre-

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parative meeting." The Friends at Winthrop continued to attend the Sidney monthly meeting until 1813, when they were included in the new monthly meeting held at Leeds and Litchfield.

About this time the Friends at Winthrop began to increase in num- bers, and the meeting, which seemed likely to have a short existence, showed signs of strength and vigor, so that in the year 1816 it seemed best to grant them a preparative meeting, this time subordinate to Leeds monthly meeting, on whose records is the following minute: "8th mo. 16th, 1816. Friends at Winthrop sent a few lines to this meeting requesting the liberty to hold a preparative meeting at that place, which after consideration this meeting concludes for them to hold on 4th day of the week. Paul Collins, Moses Wadsworth and Joseph Sampson were appointed to attend the opening of this meeting."

This was the turning point in the history of this meeting. Since the above date the course of the meetings has been a progressive one. Three times it has been necessary to replace the meeting house by a larger one, and the present large meeting room is filled on the Sab- bath. The first Friends' meeting house in Winthrop stood on a piece of land owned by Stewart Foster, nearly opposite the location of the present meeting house. This was a very small house. It was warmed by the old-fashioned "potash kettle," as were all the early meeting houses. A framework of brick was built up about two feet in circu- lar form; in the front of the brick work was a door to receive wood, in the back an opening to apply a smoke funnel; over this brick work a large iron kettle was turned, bottom up, which served as cover for the " stove." Those who desired had " foot warmers," or bricks or soapstones for their respective seats. A partition was arranged fastened to a beam in the ceiling by hinges, so that the whole parti- tion could swing up and be fastened, making the whole house into one room, while the same partition could be let down when the men and women Friends desired separate rooms for business meetings. Some still living remember the stuffed arm chair near the stove, in which the wife of Stewart Foster used to sit.

This house was sold and has since been used as a blacksmith's shop. The house which was built to take its place was across the road, where the present house stands, and was larger than the former one, being about twenty-four by thirty. One Friend thought the house was too large, but it was not very long before this was sold for a dwelling house, and a still larger one raised on the same spot; and this last in its turn gave place to the present imposing and still more spacious one, which was built in 1883, as it appears in the illustration on page 292.

This meeting has been in a growing condition throughout nearly its whole history. Though it has raised up few who were specially endowed with a gift for the ministry, yet it has always had a goodly number of strong, active, spiritual members. Reuben Jones, whose

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

home was in Wilton, after living in Leeds for a few years, moved to Winthrop in 1839. He was a minister of considerable strength and for fully thirty years he sat at the head of this meeting and frequently preached to the people. No less than 412 ministers from other meet- ings have attended the meeting at Winthrop and have stirred the hearts of Friends there by their messages of love, often borne from lands far away.

In the year 1873 a general meeting was held in Winthrop, at which time the spirit of the Lord was abundantly poured out. Fully three thousand people attended the meetings in one day and many souls were brought from darkness to light. This is certainly one of the most memorable dates in the history of the meeting, and since

this time the meeting has almost constantly grown in size and in life. Charles M. Jones and Harriet Jones were the only ministers living within its limits until 1887. During that year Jesse McPhearson, from North Carolina, settled with his family at Winthrop, where he has ever since resided, giving his whole time to the work.

While Winthrop meeting has not produced many ministers, it has had a good number of influential men and women, such as Friends call " weighty members." Prominent among these have been Charles M. Bailey, who has been very useful in evangelizing work and has largely assisted the cause of education. Moses Bailey, for many years clerk of the quarterly meeting, was a splendid example of a strong, pure hearted, earnest Christian, one who adorned the name "Quaker."

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Hannah J. Bailey, wife of the latter, has exerted a wide Christian influence, filling important positions in her own religious society, as well as in other organizations, using her means freely for the advance- ment of good causes, and showing herself a broad minded Christian woman.

Levi Jones has, through his long and busy life, been very active in the affairs of the church, and has illustrated the Quaker idea of a business man.

Here, as in all the other meetings of the county, there has been work done which no pen can record, an influence has gone out which no human eye can measure, and lives have been lived here the worth of which only the Divine Father knows. To a casual observer there would seem to have been a decided change in views and methods during the hundred years of this meeting's existence, and so there has in appearance, but in heart, in purpose and in hope there has been little or no change. The fathers wrought in their way; the chil- dren work for the same end differently, but as sincerely.

MANCHESTER PREPARATIVE MEETING .- In 1832 a new preparative meeting was established in what is now the town of Manchester, though it was then a part of Hallowell. This meeting has at various times been called Hallowell, Kennebec and Manchester preparative meeting. There had been Friends in this region for a number of years before the meeting was begun. These Friends had been a part of Litchfield preparative meeting. Paine Wingate, one of the first to settle northeast of the lake, had married a wife from among Friends, and it was not long before he found himself of her views and became an active Friend. Proctor Sampson, a son of Joseph Sampson, the first member of Leeds meeting, brought his young bride to this shore of the lake and made the second Friends' family. Jacob Pope came about the same time and gradually others came, while still others joined the society, being convinced that their neigh- bors' faith was the true one, from the life and character of the persons professing it.

These Friends felt the need of a house where they could hold a meeting of their own, and so avoid the long ride to Litchfield twice in the week, and in 1838 they became numerous enough to have a meet- ing established in their midst. During that year a meeting house was built, where, though changed, it still stands on the summit of the high hill at the northeast end of the lake. (Nearly all the Friends' meeting houses in the county have been on or near the bank of some body of water.) The committee to build this house reported that they contracted to have it built for $985, and we find from the records that these Friends had much difficulty in raising this amount at that time. There was no minister in this meeting for many years. Week after week the Friends here, as in all the early meetings, met together

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to worship. They did not listen with critical ear to the nicely turned sentences of some teacher humanely wise, but

" Lowly before the unseen Presence knelt Each waiting heart, till haply some one felt On his moved lips the seal of silence melt.

" Or, without spoken words, low breathings stole, Of a diviner life from soul to soul,

Baptizing in one tender thought the whole."

Some here as elsewhere may have thought of business or other things of this world, but the ideal was a glorious one and was attained by many a true, sensitive soul, all open to the divine touch.

For many years Paine Wingate, a good, upright man, sat at the head of this meeting. Like Winthrop meeting, this has received messages from a great number of ministers from other places, and though there have been few of its members especially endowed with a gift for the ministry, there have been many raised up whose lives have been influential in a more or less extended degree. Alden Sampson was for many years a prominent member of this meeting. Widely known as a business man, he was also a man whose influence was far reaching in the line of religious activities, giving of his means and his energy for bettering the world. I. Warren Hawkes has for some years held an active place in the work of the society here and he is a minister approved by the church, being a man of deep piety and sincerity.

In 1839 Leeds monthly meeting was changed in name to Litch- field, and still later it has been changed to Winthrop monthly meet- ing. In the year 1841 Vassalboro quarterly meeting was divided, and from the meetings at Litchfield (now West Gardiner), Leeds, Hallo- well (now Manchester), Winthrop, Sidney, Belgrade, Fairfield and Saint Albans, a new quarterly meeting was established called Fair- field quarterly meeting. This meeting has had the following clerks: Samuel Taylor, jun., 1841-2; Sage Richardson, 1842-64; Alden Samp- son, 1864-7; Moses Bailey, 1867-81; I. Warren Hawkes, since 1881.

SIDNEY PREPARATIVE MEETING .- The Friends' meeting was begun in Sidney in 1795, the preparative meeting being granted them in 1800; a monthly meeting was established in 1802, called Sidney monthly meeting. This was for the accommodation of Friends in Sidney and Fairfield, being held alternately at each place. Phineas, Jeremiah and Obed Buttler, with their respective families, were the earliest Friends in Sidney, they being Friends when they moved into the town. Then a number of families came there from Sandwich, Mass., among them Isaac Hoxie and family, Benjamin Wing, Adam and Stephen Wing, also John Wing Kelley, and their families.

Most of the money for the first meeting house was raised in Sand-

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wich, the heads of the various families in the town doing all the car- penter work themselves. This house stood until 1855, when it was torn down and built over into a new one. Edward Dillingham was another useful member in the early days of the meeting; he finally moved to Saint Albans. Deborah Buttler was an acknowledged min- ister, while Daniel Purington generally had a message for the meet- ing, though he was not an appointed minister. Samuel Pope was an elder of prominence in somewhat later times, and Mary Alice Gifford, a highly gifted and endowed minister of the gospel, a woman of great faith and of unblemished life, lived in this meeting during the pres- ent generation, until she felt her place of labor to be in Newport, R. I., where she spent the remainder of her valuable life, which ended in the spring of 1889. The Friends in Sidney have been few in num- ber, but a meeting has always been held there since it was first begun in 1795. Sidney monthly meeting includes the Friends in Fairfield and is still held, as at first, alternately at each place.

In 1801 a meeting for worship was begun in Belgrade. Calvin Stewart and Samuel Stewart, with their families, were the earliest Friends in the town; Eleazar Burbank, a revolutionary soldier, was another of the first Friends in this meeting, but he was afterward dropped from the society for receiving a military pension from the government. Samuel Taylor was the first minister in this meeting; he was a very good man and a good preacher of the gospel, having had a deep Christian experience, and he had the approval of all who knew him in daily life, or who heard his words of love. The Friends who lived in Belgrade had no separate meeting for business, but were joined with those who lived in Sidney. This meeting was always small, and gradually decreased in size until it was closed in 1879; its members having died or moved into other places.

A meeting for worship was begun in the city of Augusta, 8th month, 1888, and another in Hallowell the same year, both of which are now under the care of Winthrop monthly meeting, and though small in numbers they are in a flourishing condition. The meeting at Hallowell is about to construct a commodious meeting house.

More than a hundred years have passed since the members of the Society of Friends began to organize themselves in this county. They were then very few in number, comprising only one distinct monthly meeting in the county and only one preparative meeting was estab- lished before this century began. At the present date there are two quarterly meetings, composed of seven monthly meetings, which in turn are composed of fourteen preparative meetings, enrolling a mem- bership of 1,033, most of whom live in Kennebec county. It is cer- tain that the Friend of to-day is, in appearance at least, unlike the Friend of one hundred years ago, and it is a question whether the heads of the first families here would recognize that they were among

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their own people could they return to the meeting houses where they so faithfully worshipped a century ago. The onward movement of the years has brought change everywhere, and the Friend who seemed a century ago so unmindful of the transitions going on about him has been swept on by the wave, which now at its flood has left nothing unstirred. The question still remains, have the members of this so- ciety been true or untrue to the legacies of the fathers? and while the outward, the externals, have in a measure felt the touch of time, have they guarded as their dearest and truest possession the spirit of truth bequeathed by those who gained it at so dear a price? We have no right to speak here more than our own opinion, and that is that the " live members," to use an expression which carries its own mean- ing, are to-day, as they always have been, seeking to hear and obey the true Voice, are seeking to have their lives shaped and moulded by the ever living Christ, who stands as their Redeemer, their Saviour and their constant Teacher. They have the faith and the hope and the love which characterized their predecessors-

" And if the outward has gone, in glory and power The Spirit surviveth the things of an hour."

CHAPTER XIII.

HISTORY OF THE COURTS.

BY JUDGE WILLIAM PENN WHITEHOUSE, Of the Supreme Judicial Court.

Juridical History of the County .- Early Tribunals .- The Superior Court of the Province .- Supreme Judicial Court .- Costumes of Early Magistrates .- Su- preme Court Justices from Kennebec County .- Court of Common Pleas .- Court of Sessions .- County Commissioners .- Probate Court and its Chief Officials .- Municipal Court.

T' HE judiciary is the conservative force that maintains a just and stable relation between other branches of the government. It is the indispensable balance-wheel of every enduring political system. All the functions of government are performed with an ulti- mate reference to the proper administration of the laws and the im- partial distribution of justice. But like every other permanent insti- tution of government the judicial court is found to be the outgrowth of the experience and conflicts of men in their efforts to preserve the rights of property and maintain social order; and a knowledge of its growth and development is essential to a full apprehension of its authority and influence.

The juridical history of Kennebec county is not wholly separable from that of the entire state, for prior to 1760 the District of Maine constituted but a single county, the county of York. The history of the early jurisprudence of Maine is mingled with that of Massachu- setts, whose jurisdiction extended over the territory of Maine for more than 150 years prior to the separation in 1820. But the story of the patient and heroic efforts of the early settlers of New England to establish and maintain in the wilderness institutions representing all that ages had done for human government will never cease to interest their descendants. From the time of the first settlement on our coast to the time of the purchase of Maine by Massachusetts, in 1677, the records of judicial proceedings in the state are but fragmentary. On the 21st of March, 1636, a court was held at Saco by Captain Wil- liam Gorges, deputy of Sir Ferdinando, who had taken possession of the province lying between the Piscataqua and Kennebec rivers. This court was composed of four commissioners and is said to have

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

been the first legal tribunal constituted by authority which existed in Maine. It assumed jurisdiction over the whole province, not only of the rights of parties, but of matters of government. Actions of tres- pass, slander, incontinency, and for drunkenness and " rash speech " were frequently brought, and generally tried by a jury of six or more persons. This tribunal was of a primitive character and the pro- cedure marked by great directness and simplicity. Among the crim- inal records we find, March 25, 1636: " John Wolton is by order of court to make a pair of stocks by the last of April or pay 40s. Sd. in money. Also he is fined 5s. 8d. for being drunk."

In 1639 Sir Ferdinando obtained a charter which conferred upon him unlimited powers of government, and named his territory the " Province of Maine." Thomas Gorges, a lawyer educated at the Inns of Court, and the first and only one (unless we except Thomas Mor- ton, who was driven out of Massachusetts in 1645) who resided in Maine for the first hundred years after its settlement, was appointed deputy governor, with six councillors. They composed not only the executive council for the province, but a court for the trial of all criminal offenses and for the settlement of all controversies between party and party. They also had probate jurisdiction. The first ses- sion of this court, held June 25, 1640, has a record of administration on the estate of Richard Williams, being the first granted in Maine. There was also a complaint in the nature of a bill in equity relating to the title to a thousand clapboards. Besides this court and an in- ferior court in each section of the province, commissioners correspond- ing to the modern trial justices were appointed in each town for the trial of small causes, with jurisdiction limited to forty shillings, from whose decision an appeal lay to the higher court. But as a result of the controversy which raged among the rival claimants to authority over the province, the administration of the law continued to be un- certain and feeble until in 1677 Massachusetts purchased all the inter- est of Gorges in the province of Maine for £1,250.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 33

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790