USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 14
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Portland, many local people adhered to these doctrines as early as 1786. Thirteen years later services were held in a cooper shop, and occasional preachers from Connecticut and Massachusetts visited Portland, although churches and meetinghouses were forbidden them at that time. Once the society was organized, it did not take the Universalists long to raise a church structure. In April, 1821, at a parish meeting, it was voted to pur- chase land for the erection of a church; less than four months later this building was dedicated. By 1860 a movement was begun to establish a second Universalist church in the city; the next year a temporary organiza- tion was established, and meetings were held but in four years this second society was suspended. During the last decades of the 19th century the First Universalist Parish became the present Congress Square Universalist Church, and present-day All Souls and the Church of the Messiah were organized.
Portland Unitarians, long a dissenting factor in the old First Parish Con- gregational Church, were officially recognized in 1825, when the First Parish joined with other liberal New England churches in the formation of the American Unitarian Association. Unitarianism, however, had played an important role in Portland's religious life since the late 18th century. As early as 1792 Thomas Oxnard was preaching its doctrines; originally an Episcopalian who headed a small local society, Oxnard had become instilled with Unitarianism through the writings of the Englishmen Lindsey and Belsham, and attempted to convert the Episcopal society to that belief. He was unsuccessful, but when the society dismissed him as speaker, a few Uni- tarian-minded members followed him and attended meetings he led in a near-by schoolhouse. Thus, the sparks kindled by Oxnard were ready to be fanned into a brisk flame with the ordination of Ichabod Nichols, the liberal assistant of Doctor Deane of the First Parish Congregational Church. In 1835 members of Unitarian First Parish Church formed a second society, purchasing a former Methodist church, and installing as their first pastor, Jason Whitman, general agent of the American Unitarian Association. Twelve years later under the direction of Ichabod Nichols another Unitarian society was formed; in April, 1849, W. H. Hadley was invited by them to become missionary-minister for local Unitarian work. By the following August an act of incorporation had been passed in the Maine Legislature placing the local Unitarian societies under the direction of the Portland Ministry at Large. A year later the Nichols-sponsored so-
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ciety had erected a new chapel. In present-day Portland, Unitarian congre- gations worship in the old First Parish Church and in Preble Chapel.
First introduced into Maine at Bath in 1805, Swedenborgian doctrines found a sincere follower in Portland's Doctor Timothy Little, a leading physician and surgeon of the town, who was converted in the winter of 1824-25. Early meetings of the first group were held in private homes, later they were conducted in the vestry of the Chestnut Street Methodist Church; in June, 1829, the first public meeting of the new Church took place. By 1831 followers of the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg had permanently organized under the name of the Portland Society of the New Jerusalem; in 1836 the parish was incorporated under the laws of the State, and a year later the first church building was erected. Portland Sweden- borgians were honored in 1854 when the general convention of the new Church met with the Portland society in this city. The present Church of the New Jerusalem dates from the spring of 1910.
Mormonism made its appearance in Portland a few years after the found- ing of the sect in 1830, three years after Joseph Smith is said to have dis- covered the Book of Mormon engraved on thin gold, near Palmyra, New York. The city's Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, a so- ciety, is a part of the Salt Lake City mother church's missionary system.
Catholicism in Portland had its inception with the advent of missionaries, particularly Father Sebastian Rale, who visited the mainland and the is- lands of Casco Bay as early as 1698. With colonization of the Province of Maine, a few families, mostly of Irish descent who found conditions in Massachusetts unfavorable to the practice of their faith, settled in this eastern region. They were served by occasional missionaries en route to and from the Indian missions of the Kennebec and Penobscot river valleys. The first permanent Catholic church in Maine was established at Newcastle in the first years of the 19th century by Father Jean de Cheverus, later to be the first Roman Catholic Bishop of New England. Official records show that Father James Romagne, who was stationed at Pleasant Point, baptized children in Portland in 1811, 1812, and 1815. Bishop Cheverus visited Portland in 1813 and nine years later the town's 43 Catholics petitioned Bishop Cheverus for a local parish. To comply with their wishes, the Bishop himself came to Portland to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in a pri- vate home; at the same time he administered Baptism and Confirmation. Soon a Catholic society was formed; it was visited regularly by Father Denis Ryan, the pastor of the parishes at North Whitefield and at Damari-
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scotta, and by missionaries on the way from Boston to Eastport. When Bishop Benedict J. Fenwick visited Portland in 1827 there were nearly two hundred Catholics in the local parish.
Although the early Catholics were not numerous or wealthy, their great hope was to have a church; in those days it was considered dangerous to show them friendship, but John Fox, a Protestant, disapproved of this con- duct. He sold them land on the corner of Gray and State streets in 1829 and gave them a donation for their first church, St. Dominic's, which was erected at once; Holy Mass was offered November 1, 1830. The first resi- dent pastor was the Dominican Father, Charles Ffrench, an English con- vert, appointed by Bishop Fenwick in 1828. When this first church was erected, Portland Catholics were under the Bishop of Boston, but it was decided by the Holy See in July, 1853, under recommendation of the Bishops of the United States in council at Baltimore, that a new Diocese of Port- land be established. This was to include the states of Maine and New Hampshire; Father David W. Bacon, of Brooklyn, New York,. was ap- pointed the first Bishop in 1854, consecrated in April, 1855, and a month later he took possession of the See of Portland. By this time there were 1,600 Catholics in the city.
Catholicism continued to expand, and in 1856 the Cathedral Chapel on the site of the present one was completed; at the same time the founda- tion of the Cathedral itself was laid. The construction of the latter build- ing dragged on, interrupted by the Civil War, and later when the devastat- ing fire of 1866 swept across the city, the Chapel and part of the walls of the Cathedral were consumed. "Courage and Hope" was the motto of Bishop David William Bacon, who gathered his flock in the sheds of the Grand Trunk Depot and accepted plans to rebuild. A temporary chapel was erected on the site of the present Kavanagh School; rebuilding of the original chapel was completed in December, 1866. The cornerstone of the Cathedral proper had been laid in May, 1866, and blessed by Bishop Bacon; after the Portland fire rebuilding commenced, being pushed vigorously forward the next three years. The church was ready for solemn conse- cration in September, 1869. This day of sacred and impressive ceremony was climaxed with near tragedy, when a severe wind and rain storm in the evening blew down the tall steeple over the main tower; it hurtled across the street, smashing a roof-top. The present steeple, crowned with a gilt cross, was completed a month later.
Portland's Catholic churches today number eight: the Cathedral of the
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Immaculate Conception, St. Dominic's, Sacred Heart, St. Joseph's, St. Patrick's, St. Christopher's, St. Louis' for Poles, and St. Peter's for Italians.
A Hellenic society was organized in the city about 1922, by a group of 50 Greek residents; they had no meetinghouse at first, but were afforded the use of a church by the officials of St. Luke's Episcopal Cathedral. In 1924 the society purchased the historic Presbyterian church at Park and Pleasant streets. The church today is known as Holy Trinity, Hellenic Orthodox.
Adventism in Portland was unknown prior to 1839, but about this time William Miller, a New York farmer, came here and gave a course of lec- tures on Second Adventism. By 1850 the Church of the Second Advent had been organized, holding their meetings in a hall, with B. B. Morgan as their first pastor. Although several local sects have from time to time en- tertained Adventist beliefs, they have held various names, and had varia- tions in holyday observances; some, called First Day Adventists, observe the Christian Sunday, others known as Seventh Day Adventists keep the sabbath or Saturday. One of the early 'Sisters' of this latter church, Ellen G. Harmon, lived in Portland; when 17 years of age she began to receive visions which she related to friends at a local meeting. Sixty Portland peo- ple who believed her to be divinely inspired, indorsed her visions as the work of the Lord. Later Miss Harmon married Elder E. G. White, and together they traveled throughout the world in the interests of Seventh Day Adventism. The White Memorial Church and the Advent Christian Church are active in present-day Portland.
An association of Spiritualists was formed here in 1850; the society had no regular speaker, nor any adopted creed, believing in spiritual manifesta- tions and communications with the departed whom they visualized as being in constant sympathy with the living. Today their ceremonies are still con- ducted without regard to established ecclesiastical ritual. The present First Spiritual Society meets in a local hall.
The first local Lutheran society was formed when a group of Scandina- vians started meetings in old Mechanics Hall in 1874; later the meetings were held in Scandinavian Hall. The society's first minister was N. Elle- stad. In 1877 the First Lutheran Church was erected, and services were con- ducted alternately in Norwegian and English. The early Lutheran congre- gations were composed principally of emigrant Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and settlers from German Schleswig-Holstein. Present-day Lutheran serv- ices are conducted in three churches: First, Immanuel Lutheran, and St. Ansgars.
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Portland's first Christian Science services were held in a hall of the Calhoun Block in 1894, although the First Church of Christ, Scientist was not organized until two years later. A Second Church was organized soon after, holding services in the Perry Block; this group, however, was dis- banded in 1903, and its members joined with the original society. A church was erected in 1915 in which services of the combined societies have since been held.
Portland's Jewry for many years was without a synagogue and the ser- vices of a rabbi. For some time meetings were held in the homes of the earlier Jewish arrivals; eventually a small temple was built. The first re- ligious teacher was Rabbi Lasker. Within a few years a second small house of worship was erected on Fore Street and a Hebrew School formed, as well as charitable organizations to care for Jewish needy. About 1902 the city's first major synagogue was built, thus climaxing the first era of Jewish history in Portland. With the completion of this synagogue Portland be- came a center of Jewish activities in the State. Rabbi H. Shohet, a scholar well known in America and abroad and the author of important works on the philosophy of the Talmud, was secured as presiding pastor of the new temple. Jews today worship in the Shaarey Tphiloh, Etz Chaim, and Anshei Sphaard synagogues. These synagogues are united in a Jewish Community Council, founded in 1929, which engages a spiritual leader for the Jewish community. In 1938 the former Knights of Pythias building on Cumberland Avenue was purchased and remodeled into the Portland Jewish Community Center for the social and club activities.
Many unusual incidents have been etched into Portland's religious pic- ture. In the early 1900's when Frank W. Sandford was gathering con- verts to join his so-called 'Sandfordites' or 'Shilohites,' a group of his ad- herents came to Portland on an odd mission. The 'Sanfordites' had been in- duced by their leader, self-termed the modern 'Elijah' commissioned by the Lord to go forth and convert the heathen, to pool their earthly belongings in a common fund. They had been waiting at Shiloh, their hilltop temple in Durham, for the end of the world which their leader had assured them was soon to come; when this ultimate event failed to materialize, Sandford announced that the Lord had commissioned him to journey to distant lands for conversion of the natives. Aboard three small ships the 'Sandfordites' sailed from Portland for Jerusalem. Guided by 'Elijah,' who had a flowing beard and was garbed in a purple robe and a sailor hat, the religious sea- farers soon met with stormy seas, strong winds, and numerous mishaps; lack
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of food forced them to return to Portland Harbor in October, 1911. Per- haps this society, the Church of the Holy Ghost and Us Society, was the most important of Maine's many strange sects; it flourished with most fervor at the turn of the last century, becoming national in scope. How- ever, the modern 'Elijah' was jailed two months after his arrival in Port- land, convicted as responsible for the death of six of his flock during the ill-starred voyage because they had been denied proper care.
Aside from religious groups interesting mainly for uniqueness, Port- land can boast of the first radio parish in the United States. Formed in 1926 by the Reverend H. O. Hough, the First Radio Parish of America, through the facilities of Station WCSH, a local broadcasting unit, has be- come a household word in thousands of homes. The broadcasts are designed primarily for persons who have no opportunity to attend regular church services; the parish is now supported by nine denominations.
The Bible Society of Maine was established in Portland in 1809; it dis- tributes thousands of Bibles annually in more than 50 different languages. This society was the fourth of its kind in the United States and in 1816 it became auxiliary to the American Bible Society.
Portland has had several religious groups or classes that were active in past years, some of which still continue. Most widely known of contem- porary groups is the Thirteen Class, headed in 1906 by Henry F. Merrill of the St. Lawrence Congregational Church where class meetings are still held. Today this class, which makes no distinction as to race, creed, or color in its membership, has about three hundred men in active attendance. A clubhouse is maintained on Custom House Wharf.
In Portland there are also meetinghouses and halls of many associations and missions: the Missionary Alliance, Salvation Army, Volunteers of America, Church of God [Pentecostal], Jehovah's Witness, Sail Loft Mis- sion, Disciples, First Church of the Nazarene, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Gospel Temperance Mission, Portland Seamen's Bethel and Mariners League, and Bethel Mission.
IDIOn
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HUMISTON-
TRANSPORTATION
Highways
Prior to 1790 Portland's means of land communication were merely woods' trails, weaving from point to point near the shore whose occasional sand beaches afforded a natural highway. These trails of early Colonial days, blazed by the Indians and later by huntsmen, were gradually widened by use, and after official action on the part of the authorities, became ac- cepted roads. The absence of numerous settlements, coupled with the roughness of the terrain and the distances to be traversed, were conditions which postponed the development of land travel in the frontier Province of Maine. Serious road building was hindered by the prevalence of Indian wars, and the poverty of the first communities; as a consequence all long distance trips were made by water.
The first improved road in Portland of which we have record is Fore Street, which was in time paved with cobble stones. When the Commis- sioners of the Colony of Massachusetts came to the Province of Maine to hold court, they could get no farther than Wells because of bad roads; in 1653 the Massachusetts government ordered that the inhabitants of Wells, Saco, and Cape Porpoise should make "sufficient highways within their towns, from house to house, and to clear and fit them for foot and cart be- fore the next county court, under the penalty of ten pounds for every town's defect in this particular, and that they lay out a sufficient highway for horse and foot, between towns and towns within that time."
A few years later Falmouth and Scarborough were bidden to make their roads passable; as the population and business of old Falmouth increased, it became necessary to improve further the facilities of travel. An early road was laid out from the ferry-way in Cape Elizabeth past the lighthouse and the head of Pond Cove, bending westerly across the cape directly to
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Spurwink River, which was crossed by ferry about a mile from its mouth. This road, known as the 'King's Highway,' was taken by Thomas Smith, the young parson of the First Parish Church when he journeyed to Boston on horseback in 1726; it was 20 miles longer than the present road. Much of the land travel in frontier Maine was done in the winter, as the other seasons were occupied with efforts to raise farm products and in making 'home' merchandise. Winter was the time for visiting and undertaking trips to distant towns to find markets for commodities; during the cold months the roads were no longer "seas of mud with archipelagoes of tree- stumps," but were frozen highways, as were the streams.
Sleigh travel appeared locally at an early date; the pung drawn by two horses, and the 'pod' by one, were in general use about 1700. The pung, when loaded for a journey, must have presented an interesting spectacle. In the body of the vehicle sat the farmer's wife with maybe a child or two bundled up in blankets and mittens against the cold. Around them were heaped the things they had prepared for sale: cheeses, dried herbs, bundles of knitted stockings and mittens, vegetables, flax, and other essential com- modities of domestic growth and manufacture. The farmer himself jogged alongside. To the side of the pung were securely tied a huge round chunk of frozen bean-porridge and a hatchet with which to chop off a piece when hungry. This porridge was prepared some days in advance of the journey by the housewife, who then set it out of doors to freeze.
The first U. S. Census in 1790 lists only a single highway within the District of Maine, running along the Atlantic shore east from Boston as far as Wiscasset. Three years later a road was laid out from Portland through the townships of Gray, New Gloucester, Greene, and Winthrop to Hallowell, thence to Augusta; in 1799 a road was built to Bridgton and in 1802 extended to Waterford. Joseph Barnard, an old postman who car- ried the mails on horseback, operated the first passenger stage service be- tween Portsmouth and Portland in 1787. It was a crude two-horse wagon affair, and Barnard's curious advertisement read: "Those ladies and gen- tlemen who choose the expeditious, cheap, and commodious way of stage- travelling will please leave their names at Motley's Tavern." Departure was on Saturday morning and the destination was reached on Monday.
The first four-wheeled carriage owned in Portland was driven by the early Quakers, 'Aunt' Sarah Horton and her husband, when they ac- companied their preachers through the interior. Regular passenger service by coach from Portland to Boston was inaugurated in 1818, with three
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trips a week, and the town soon became a center of coach travel. By the time Portland became a city, 14 years later, there were 12 lines in operation, five arriving and departing each day. The principal terminals were the Elm Tavern, formerly at the corner of Federal and Temple streets, and the American House, where the Clapp Building now stands. The journey to Boston consumed two days, with an overnight stop at Portsmouth. When speed was desired, there was an 'express' that left Portland at 2 a. m., pull- ing into Boston at 10 p. m. with cracking whip, blaring horn, and cargo of satisfied and shaken passengers.
Bridges
Bridges have been a necessity in the development of the transportation facilities of Portland which is nearly surrounded by water. Many of the early spans were often built and owned by private parties under a grant of some sort from the Massachusetts Colony. Thomas Westbrook, the King's mast agent at Stroudwater, was instrumental in building a bridge over Fore River in 1734; this was the first bridge of size to connect the city with other shores. Originally 640 feet long, it was made a toll bridge in 1749, and came under the jurisdiction of Portland when it became a separate town 37 years later. Tukey's Bridge, leading eastward from the city, was opened to traffic in September, 1796; named for Lemuel Tukey, one of its early toll-collectors, it did not become free until 1837. Tukey's Bridge was re- built 61 years later, and an iron draw was put in. The original Vaughan's Bridge, the western artery, was put in place in 1800 and named in honor of William Vaughan, its chief advocate. It was unique in construction, built of cob work like a wharf, and filled with earth; in 1908 it was replaced with a modern iron structure.
The original Portland-South Portland Bridge was built on piles and completed in 1823; it was freed from tolls in 1851 when its maintenance de- volved upon the county. The railroad tracks crossed this span, and at one time pedestrians had to traverse a hazardous grade crossing, the whole bridge long being known as 'The Gridiron of Death.' The present struc- ture, termed the 'million dollar bridge,' was opened in July, 1916. Martin's Point Bridge, finished in 1828 and made free 32 years later, is a State bridge extensively rebuilt in recent years. It has a length of 2,050 feet. In 1806 a span was built to connect Portland and the village of Deering; always a free structure known as Deering's Bridge, today, because of reclamation of the
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western end of Back Cove, it is an ordinary street with no vestige remaining of the ancient span.
Waterways
Prior to the coming of the first steamboat, small sloops and other sail- rigged boats took passengers though there was no regular schedule from the port. Reverend Thomas Smith in his journal often mentions trips to Bos- ton by water, sometimes consuming two or three days; in September, 1736, Smith notes a trip he made from Boston in 17 hours. This mode of travel lasted until about 1822 when Captain Seward Porter placed an engine in a flat-bottomed boat and inaugurated a service to North Yarmouth and the islands of Casco Bay. Porter christened his boat the Kennebec, but popu- larly it was dubbed the 'Horned Hog.' In July of the following year this enterprising skipper purchased the first real steamer ever to come to Maine, The Patent, 100 tons burthen, which made the trip from New York to Portland in five days. Ten years later the Chancellor Livingstone, built by Robert Fulton, was running between Portland and Boston. It was a wood burner, and the fuel was piled on the open decks near the three stacks, with no protection from the belching sparks. With a bowsprit, three masts and a jibboom, the craft presented a formidable appearance plowing the water at an average speed of nine miles per hour.
The historic arrival in 1853 of the Sara Sands, the first transatlantic liner to steam into this port, gave Portland a sharp impetus in the direction of regular transoceanic passenger service. Cannon boomed an echoing welcome and bells pealed throughout the city as the boat nosed through the island channels under the command of the local mariner, Captain Washing- ton Ilsley. A lavish banquet, with at least 92 delicacies and a lavish supply of beverages was spread in old Lancaster Hall for the captain, members of the crew, and local notables.
The Portland Steam Packet Company put their first boat, the Commo- dore Preble, on the Boston run in 1844. Later this firm was known as the Portland Steamship Company, finally evolving into the Eastern Steamship Line. By 1891 the Allan Line was running steamers from this port to Liver- pool, and six years later the Dominion Line was operating from the Grand Trunk Wharf; after the opening of the Grand Trunk Railroad to Montreal in 1853, ships from Europe discharged thousands of immigrants here for transportation over that line to Canada and points west.
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