Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 99

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

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 99

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

830

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

In October, 1846, the Sons of Temperance, Division No. 44, was organized here with eighty-eight members, and in 1850 Watchman's Club, No. 71, was formed, with the declared aim to procure the enact- ment of more stringent liquor laws.

RELIGIOUS HISTORY .- The town of Winthrop was but three weeks old when the people took public action to establish religious observ- ances. At a legal town meeting, held May 27, 1771, John Chandler, Timothy Foster and Jonathan Whiting were appointed to hire preach- ing for eight Sabbaths, and to raise £20 to pay for it. Within the next four years Thurston Whiting was the only preacher whose name is recorded. The money to pay the minister was raised by tax, but in 1776 eight prominent men in town, among them Benjamin Fair- banks and Stephen Foster, jun., were excused from paying the preach- ing tax on account of their scruples.

By a vote of the town Jeremiah Shaw was hired to preach, and the house of Squier Bishop was designated as the place for meetings. It was also voted to repay Mr. Shaw four shillings that he had paid for a guide through the woods.

In response to a wide-spread desire for some religious organization, an ecclesiastical council composed of delegates from churches in Harpswell, Pownalborough and New Castle, was convened in Win- throp September 4, 1776, at which a covenant and articles of faith were subscribed to by twenty-six persons, who were duly declared to be a church of Christ. Rev. Jeremiah Shaw was preaching here at that time and the new church at once gave him a call to its pastorate. This call was followed by a legal vote of the town offering him £60 a year and two hundred acres of land, and £15 per year additional after five years' service, all of which he declined. After an occasional ser- mon from Reverend Emerson and Mr. Whiting, the town offered Zaccheus Colby £80 per annum to become their preacher, and his ex- penses in coming, but he, too, declined.

In 1779, " voted to divide the town into two parishes by an east and west line." This was the first step toward the ultimate separation of the town.

The continued efforts to secure regular preaching were finally re- warded by an agreement with Rev. David Jewett, of Candia, N. H., who was installed January 2, 1782, and died February 28, 1783. For the next seventeen years this church was vacant, with the exception of occasional sermons by Rev. Ezekiel Emerson and Rev. Samuel Eaton. In 1786 an unsuccessful offer of £125 a year, to be paid in corn at four shillings, rye at five shillings per bushel, and beef at three pence per pound, was made to a Mr. Cram to come and preach. It was decided to make no effort in 1788 to have preaching, but two years later it was voted to raise £60 to hire preaching, and " that each

831

TOWN OF WINTHROP.

man who shall wish to be exempted from the above sum shall make his plea and that the town will vote them clear or not as they shall think proper." Thirteen men made pleas and were exempted.

A house of public worship, thirty-six by forty feet, on lot No. 57, was ordered and partly built by the town in 1774, but never finished. However, this house must have been used, for :- " Voted, November 21, 1782, to move the meeting for public worship from the meeting house to Mr. Chandler's and Mr. Whiting's the coming winter, every other Sabbath at each place." In 1781 the town was divided into " two parts for public worship as the water divides it." and in 1786 it was decided to build the South meeting house (in what is now Win- throp), fifty by forty feet. This building was completed in 1794, when, by vote, the Baptists were invited to use the house two Sab- baths out of five. There is no record that they accepted this offer, but it is a pleasure to record the breadth of religious sentiment im- plied in this invitation; for it indicates a corresponding breadth of in- telligence and thought in other directions, which the subsequent his- tory of this town has certainly shown.

Readfield was taken from Winthrop in 1791, and in 1799 the legis- lature authorized the sale of the minister's lot, and the division of the proceeds between the two towns for the support of the ministry. The share Winthrop received-$840.85-was placed at interest. This fund afterward became for a whole generation the source of much trouble. In 1797 the town voted not to raise any money for preaching. The next year it was voted not to hire Jotham Sewall or any other can- didate to preach, and in 1799 the vote was not to raise any money for preaching.

An act to incorporate the First Congregational Society in Winthrop was passed by the general court, January 31, 1800. The ninety incor- porators were composed largely of those belonging to no church. The same winter Jonathan Belden, a graduate of Yale, received a call from the new church and was ordained. At the next town meeting it was voted to let the Congregational society have the house on con- dition that the society should finish the building and keep it in repair for the use of the town, which had no other place for its public meetings.

For reasons not fully apparent, this society was, by request, dis- solved by act of legislature in 1806. Rev. Jonathan Belden's health failed after five years' service, when the church extended a call to Rev. David Thurston, which was supplemented by the civil authority of the town and thus recorded: " Voted to give him a call to settle in said town in the work of a gospel minister, and to give him $400 a year so long as he shall continue our minister." He was ordained in 1807. This church instituted a Sabbath school, August 7, 1808, the first in Maine, and probably the first in New England.

832

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Rev. David Thurston served this church the long period of forty- four years. So thoroughly was he identified with the intellectual and moral growth of the town for more than a generation, that he became familiarly and affectionately known as "Father Thurston." The re- markable fact that in the formation of a Sabbath school he thought and acted so much in advance of his time, was characteristic of his entire life. He was a pioneer in the anti-slavery reforms, and to his activity and zeal as an abolitionist has been attributed the dissatisfac- tion in the Congregational society that resulted in his resignation, Oc- tober 15, 1851.

The church was severely exercised by the events which followed his resignation, several prominent members deeming it a duty to withdraw, some uniting with the Litchfield Congregational church. The logic of events vindicated "Father Thurston." His ability was good, his heart was large and warm, and his loyalty to what he be- lieved to be right was as unflinching as ever went into the makeup of a martyr. He preached last in Litchfield, where he died, May 7, 1865. His successors have been: Reverends Rufus M. Sawyer, 1851; Samuel D. Bowker, 1860; Thomas K. Noble, 1863; Edward P. Baker, 1865; Richard W. Jenkins, 1874; Warren F. Bickford, 1876; William F. Obear, 1871; James B. Hawes, 1885; Perley J. Robinson, 1888, and Charles W. Porter, 1891.

The present church edifice was built in 1824, and has been remod- eled and improved from time to time. The vestry in the village, built in 1860, cost $1,200. The society also own the old Thurston parson- age, for which they paid $2,000, and another in the village, purchased of W. E. Whitman, for $3,000.

Daniel Noyes Carr, for nineteen years a deacon in this church, was born in Newburyport, Mass., June 29, 1789. His father, Richard Carr, was a shipbuilder, but Daniel's tastes did not incline him to that trade, and when a young man of about twenty four, he removed to Winthrop, and established himself in business as a hatter. He erected and occu- pied the building next to the present post office, and by his industry and business tact soon began to lay the foundation of a handsome competency. On February 16, 1815, Deacon Carr married Mary Joy, of Winthrop, who was born June 5, 1794. Mrs. Carr was intellectually a very superior woman, and to her aid and advice her husband attrib- uted a large share of his success in life.

In 1820, declining to wait for a good cause to become popular, he led the way that others were soon to follow, and established the first temperance hotel in the state. This decisive step, taken in the face of a local sentiment that regarded the use of spirits as almost a family necessity, well illustrates the character of the man; for once convinced that a habit or custom was wrong, no earthly power could prevent him from enrolling himself on the side of the right. He conducted his

Daniel Gar

833

TOWN OF WINTHROP.

hotel on the temperance plan for twenty-nine years, during which time many distinguished travellers were his guests, and retired from business in 1850, when he converted his house of entertainment into a private residence.

Though a strong abolitionist, Deacon Carr never mingled actively in politics. The church was his sphere of work, and from 1832, when he joined the Winthrop Congregational church, to the day of his death he was an eminently conscientious Christian in his every word and deed. He was made deacon in 1835, and held the office until 1854, when, becoming disaffected with the church on account of "Father Thurston's " dismissal, he resigned. He took letters to the Litchfield Congregational church, attending that house communion Sundays, and in the interim worshipping at the Winthrop Methodist church, in which he was a regular pewholder.

Deacon Carr was a man of active, genial spirit and unusual liber- ality. His hospitality was boundless, and was extended to rich and poor alike, with strict impartiality. He might have made more money than he did had he been less open-handed; but his soul was above small things, and whoever sought a favor of him, which it was con- sistent for him to grant, was never denied. He was a constant attend- ant at church and the weekly prayer meeting, and was always ready to take a part. Against all forms of lewdness, violence and oppres- sion his stand was bold and decided, for he was essentially a law-abid- ing citizen, and walked fearlessly in the sight of his fellow men. He left an unblemished reputation for fairness and integrity in all his business dealings, and at his death, February 2, 1862, was sincerely mourned by the entire community.

His wife survived him until January 14, 1878. Their children were: Mary A., born December 13, 1815, died November 23, 1826; Daniel N., born April 15, 1818, died May 15, 1825; Hartford J., born September 13, 1820, died July 21, 1822; George W., born April 17, 1824. died May 4, 1849; Sarah B., born June 19, 1826, died March 2, 1885; Daniel H., born February 2, 1829, died July 1, 1831; and Helen A., the only surviving child, who was born February 3, 1833, and wlio, as a consistent and beautiful Christian character, and an ardent and liberal supporter of the church, follows worthily in the footsteps of her parents.

Jesse Lee, the first apostle of Methodism in Maine, entered on this great circuit September 10, 1793, and preached in Winthrop, probably in the Fairbanks neighborhood, October 21st following. Five years later Lee brought to this town with him the great Bishop Asbury, who thus recorded the event in his journal:

" We rode that evening to Winthrop, where meeting was appointed in the Congregational house. As the day was damp and myself sick, Brother Lee preached, and the people said it was a good time. I

834

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

found father Bishop *, at whose house we stayed, his son and wife, ex- ceedingly kind. This part of the district of Maine is settled with people from the south of Massachusetts and some from New Hamp- shire."

No good cause could ask for nobler heralds than these two men. A Methodist class was formed in 1794, under the labors of Rev. Philip Wager, in the Fairbanks neighborhood. Nathaniel Bishop and Seth Delano and their wives were the leading members. For the next twenty years the Methodists did what they could, but were not able to sustain regular meetings. During the years 1806, '7 and '8 there was preaching once in two weeks, in the school house in th esoutheast part of the town. In 1811 the Massachusetts legislature incorporated the Methodist Society in the town of Winthrop, which demanded, in 1816, the interest on the ministerial fund toward the support of their Methodist preacher. The town refused this demand, and in 1819 the parish sued the town and obtained final judgment. This, however, did not settle the matter, the general sentiment of the town being that the money should never go to any one denomination. After over ten years of dispute and bad feeling, the town had the good sense in 1832 to agree on a compromise, by which the interest on the minis- terial fund has since been applied to the support of common schools.

Through the unremitting efforts of Nathaniel Bishop and a few others, a movement to build a church in the village was brought to a successful point in 1825, when the site of the present church was se- cured, and the corner stone laid June 24th. The frame was put up at once, but before the roof was on Bishop Soule, who was on his way to conference, preached there, July 3d. The house was soon com- pleted, Rev. Stephen Lovell preaching the dedication sermon Novem- ber 23d, and the next year he was appointed to this church. The class at that time numbered twenty-one.

During the pastorate of Rev. D. B. Randall, in 1842, the Congre- gationalists joined with the Methodists in series of union revival meetings, resulting in large accessions to both churches. A parsonage was built in 1849. In 1851 the Maine Conference held its twenty- seventh session in Winthrop. While Rev. J. H. Jenne was in charge, in 1854, the church building was enlarged, and the next year new furniture and an organ were purchased. In the fall of 1886, through the special efforts of the pastor, Rev. C. E. Springer, a fine bell was placed on the church, in a new tower built for its reception. July 8, 1890, Winthrop was touched by a cyclone that swept this new tower from the church, landing it on the corner of Chester Shaw's house, about fifty feet away, fatally injuring Mr. Shaw's mother.

The following ministers have been stationed on this charge from 1826 to 1892: Stephen Lovell, Moses Hill twice, E. Crooker, G. Greeley,

* Nathaniel Bishop, a local preacher.

835

TOWN OF WINTHROP.

D. Fuller, A. Caldwell, C. P. Bragdon, E. Hotchkiss, A. P. Hillman, Abel Alton, J. Cleaveland, D. B. Randall, E. Robinson, A. F. Barnard, George Webber twice, Charles W. Morse, Parker Jaques twice, C. Munger, J. H. Jenne, Stephen Allen twice, C. C. Mason, Ezekiel Smith, James McMillan, P. E. Brown, F. C. Ayer, A. R. Sylvester, James Nixon, jun., David Church, G. F. Cobb, C. E. Springer, T. F. Jones, C. E. Bisbee, O. S. Pillsbury and E. T. Adams.

Liberal theology was first preached in Winthrop by Universalist ministers, who came occasionally and spoke in school houses. In 1818 Moses Johnson, John Morrill, Jacob Nelson and thirty-eight others living in the towns of Winthrop, Readfield and Wayne, formed what they called the Union Society, and legally organized themselves into a body corporate. A Mr. Mace was their first minister. The number of members increased so that in 1837 the First Universalist Society of Winthrop was organized, with Rev. George W. Quinby as preacher. The neat and commodious church building now standing was built in 1838, and Rev. Giles Bailey was ordained as pastor in 1839.

Up to 1842 no regular church had been formed, but in June of that year twelve people perfected a church organization. In the autumn of 1842 Mr. Bailey was succeeded by Rev. Frederic Foster for two years. George W. Bates and D. T. Stevens were the next pastors, till 1853, when O. H. Johnson began a very successful pastorate of seven years, followed by Reverends Goff, George W. Quinby, A. Bosserman, who came in 1872, and S. P. Smith, from 1878 to 1882. In 1887 religious services were resumed in this church under the auspices of a religious society organized in November of that year, and named the Church of the Unity. Philip S. Thatcher, of the Unitarian church of Augusta, was the first preacher, and drew large and attentive au- diences. He was succeeded by Rev. Charles Burrington, Frank A. Gilmore, F. L. Pugsley and others, all Unitarians.

In 1791 Elder Potter, a Baptist, preached at East Winthrop a few times, and created a Baptist sentiment there. The number of fami- lies inclining to this sect gradually increasing, but not sufficiently to form a church in Winthrop, they became an important branch of the Baptist church in Readfield, and so continued for over thirty years. This state of things could not last. The growth of population, and of substantial prosperity, rendered the demand for a church at East Winthrop imperative.

In 1823 the Baptists were joined by the community at large, and a duplicate of the Baptist church on Winthrop street, in Hallowell, was erected, costing $3,000-a large sum for those days. The following are the names of some of the foremost workers and payers: Benjamin Perkins, Captain Jonathan Pullen, Colonel Thomas Fillebrown, Luke Perkins, Jonathan Whiting, Eben, Benjamin and Alden Packard, William Richards, Isaac Wadsworth, Elder Houghton, Joel and Moses

836

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

White, Thomas Lancaster, Simeon Cary, Deacon Wood, Eben Blake and Oliver Wadsworth.

Professor Stephen Chapin, of Waterville, preached the dedication sermon, November 19, 1823, and the singing by the choir had been very carefully prepared. The place had so many excellent singers that it became a serious question who should have the honor of sitting at the head of the soprano seat. A committee decided upon Mrs. Simeon Cary. Years after, her son, Nelson H., married Maria Stock- bridge, another local celebrity in music, and Louise Cary, the world renowned singer, was their daughter.

On the 22d of June, 1824, a church was organized, consisting of thirty members of the Readfield church, whose homes were in Win- throp. Phineas Bond, a licentiate, preached to 129 members the first year, and in May, 1825, Elder John Butler, the first pastor, was in- stalled, and served the church for seven years. He was followed by Rev. Samuel Fogg, R. Lowe, Rev. Joshua Millett, Rev. John E. Ingra- ham, 1836; Rev. Daniel E. Burbank, 1839; Franklin Merriam, 1840, and Rev. Sampson Powers, 1849. C. W. Bradbury was the next preacher, and in 1858, during the pastorate of his successor, Rev. Hosea Pierce, the church was altered to its present form. The pastorate of Rev. A. Bryant commenced May, 1869, and closed February, 1874; Rev. W. T. Whitmorse was pastor from May, 1874, to December, 1876; Rev. A. R. Crane, supply and pastor from December, 1876, to July, 1890; and Rev. Joseph M. Long commenced his pastorate in December, 1891.

The Catholics of Winthrop, very few in number, were originally attended by priests from Augusta, Waterville, Lewiston and Skowhe- gan. They had no regular pastor until 1886, when E. F. Hurley formed the society and held services in the town hall. The erection of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic church, on Lake street, was be- gun under his supervision in 1887, J. W. Matthieu, of Farmington, architect and builder, and cost $4,000. The society numbers thirty-five families-about 235 persons. The present pastor, Rev. N. J. Horan, came in 1888.

METCALF NEIGHBORHOOD .-- This locality received its name by the settlement here in 1789, of Deacon Joseph Metcalf, who built that year the first cabinet shop in Winthrop, and worked in it, making fur- niture and chairs, for over sixty years. He died on the old place in 1849. The shingles laid by the deacon's own hands on the north side of the shop roof in 1789, are still a fair protection from the weather, after an exposure of three years more than a century. The shingles on the south side of the same roof have been twice renewed. Deacon Metcalf's grandson, Joseph L. Metcalf, resides on the old family farm. There was, on John Blunt's farm, an old ashery that was run down be- fore 1790.

837

TOWN OF WINTHROP.

The Metcalf neighborhood, full of historic interest, has the oldest burial place in Winthrop, about forty rods east and a little south of which Squier Bishop, the second settler in town, with many square miles of land to select from, built his house and made his home-the house which became famous as being the first tavern, and in which was held the first town meeting. Only a short distance from. Deacon Metcalf's cabinet shop another hardy settler, Colonel Fairbanks, also entertained travelers in a house that is still standing, and it is very probable that Talleyrand and the Duc D'Orleans, during their trip through Maine, in 1774, rode one morning from Hallowell and stopped at the colonel's to breakfast on their way to Portland. In this vicin- ity is also standing the house in which Livy Morton, grandfather of the vice-president, lived, and where Levi P. Morton's father, Daniel O., was born in 1788.

Three-fourths of a mile north of the burying ground stood the first church, built in 1774, but never completed, used several years for meet- ings, and torn down in 1786. This was indeed the most central and the most important settlement in town for many years.

Some of the second and third generations of these rugged settlers were: Benjamin Southworth, Columbus Fairbanks, William Brown, Lazerus Ramsdell, Captain H. N. Dudley, James Lyon, Joseph Carl- ton, Ebenezer Morton, Aden Stanley and his sons Morrell and Lem- 11el, Moses H., Joseph A. and Isaac N, Metcalf, Cephas Thomas, John E. Snell and his brother Elijah, John Kezer, Asa Fairbanks, Alfred Smith, Benjamin R. Prescott, Gorham and John O. Wing, James B. Fillebrown, Stephen and James Pullen. Isaac Briggs, John Williams, William Bearse, Martin Cushing and Austin Alden.

MILLS AND MANUFACTORIES .-- The imperative wants of a new country are something to eat and a place to live. To supply these demands saw mills and grist mills are almost indispensable. On the water power between the two ponds in Winthrop village have been built at least six of these useful lumber mills. The first was built by John Chandler, where the woolen factory stands, and was running in 1768. Hushai Thomas built the second saw mill, on the third dam. It had its day, and was all gone before 1820. The next was known as the Sewall mill, and was built on dam No. 3, belonging to the cotton company, of which Stephen Sewall was for many years the agent. This mill stood on the east side of the stream, five or six rods south of the present old grist mill. Samuel Bonney was connected with it more or less for fifty years. William C. Fuller and Noah Currier also ran it. Benjamin Dearborn built on the old Perley canal a saw mill which he afterward moved to the Cole dam, No 4. Nathan Howard and Isaac Bonney bought this mill of Dearborn. Mr. Bonney ran it till 1834, and three years later Luther Whitman bought it. After the destructive fire of 1853, in which this mill went with the rest of the

838

HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Whitman buildings, he built, on the east side of the stream, another saw mill, which was also burned.

The first grist mill in town was built by John Chandler, according to the terms of his land contract, probably in 1768, and stood facing the road, on ground where the woolen mill is. It was removed when the cotton company bought the property, in 1809, and another was built by John Chandler, jun., on the west side of the stream, about five rods below where the present brick building, formerly a grist mill, stands. The third grist mill was built on the Perley canal, and the fourth, now standing, was built by Captain Samuel Clark and Oren Shaw. After being operated by various parties, the last being Reuben Fuller, it was sold by E. Miller Clark to Levi Jones and Philip C. Brad- ford in 1871. It contained three runs of stones, with bolts for making flour, which used to be done with profit, but that day had passed. After doing a large custom and feed business for a little more than ten years, Levi Jones sold the property to the Winthrop Mills Com- pany, which needed the water right.

One of the curiosities in the early history of Winthrop was the canal, which, in 1806, Nathaniel Perley, a lawyer from Hallowell, cut from the North pond, crossing the street just east of the hotel, bring- ing water to a grist mill, which he built where dwelling houses now stand, south of Main street. Benjamin Dearborn was the miller till the cotton mills company bought the canal property, when the canal was filled up. The grist mill machinery was taken to Monmouth, and Mr. Dearborn moved his saw mill to the stream about 1830.

The only grist mill in operation in Winthrop in 1892 belongs to D. H. & J. W. Maxim, and is only adapted to grinding coarse grain. In one part of it is machinery for making sash, doors and blinds. The mill is situated on the west side of the village, and commenced doing business in December, 1891.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 99

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