Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 27

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Maine > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 27
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 27

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).

We have found no record pointing to a house built for public worship in which these two early ministers officiated. If any such existed, every indication that marked its site was long ago swept away. It was the universal custom for the English church to bury the dead in the parish churchyard. If in this early parish there was a house of worship, the bodies of the planters or their children who died before the submission to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts were probably interred around it. If any such graves have been, or can be found, then we may with some claim to probability point to the spot where the first meeting-house built in the Saco valley stood.

Following this early period of which we have written, the churches built and the ministers employed were for and of the " standing order." The pastors and their congregations were of regular hornbeam, puritanical material, described by an old settler of social habits as "sanctimonious and solemn as etar-ni-ty." In the grants of township lands by the General Court the pro- prietors were required to build a meeting-house and settle a "larn-ed orthodox minister " within a specified time.

The Rev. Thomas Jenner, a Puritan minister, was preaching in Biddeford in 1641 and remained two years. Then came one George Barlow, an untitled exhorter, who, for some reason, became unpopular-he probably cast out the devils in some other than an orthodox name-and they would "away with him." The commissioners forbade him to preach or prophesy any more under a ten-pound penalty.

At this day the Court had the control of ecclesiastical affairs, and when, in 1643, the town was found to be destitute of a minister, the commissioners ordered, while at court in Wells, that Robert Booth, a citizen of some educa- tion, "have liberty to exercise his gifts for the edification of the people." Assisted financially by an annual appropriation voted by the town, and volun- tary contributions, he "held forth " as preacher for some years. Those he could not edify he probably mortified.

Then came Rev. Seth Fletcher, a man who had the faculty of making a community kettle boil wherever he went. He was hired by the town in 1666,

EARLY CHURCHES AND MINISTERS.

and is said to have continued for several years, which I doubt. Rev. William Millburn was the minister in 1685, and in the year following a manse was ordered built for his residence. His salary was to be paid in beef at a shill- ing and sixpence per pound ; pork, at the same price per pound ; wheat, four shillings sixpence ; Indian corn, three shillings ; butter, five pence per pound ; boards, eighteen shillings per thousand ; red oak staves, sixteen shillings. As he and family could not eat all of these, he became, perforce, a speculator. From 1688 the Indian troubles prevailed for nearly twenty-nine years, during which no records were kept.

When the town was reorganized in 1717, the Rev. Matthew Short, a Harvard graduate, was acting as chaplain at Fort William. But the settlers who had long been in exile and had just come back to their bush-grown plan- tations were without means to pay for preaching, and in 1722 petitioned the Court to grant them £40, " as it had been pleased to do for some time," for the support of their minister. From 1723 to 1726 the Rev. William Eveleth preached half of the time at Winter Harbor for twenty-six pounds a year. Rev. Marston Cabbot came in 1727, and was offered a conditional salary. He was evidently a single man, hence they would pay him £80 per annum and board; or, if he should procure a housekeeper, the town would build him a parsonage and grant him 100 acres of land for his glebe; or, would pay him £110 and let him provide for himself, He tried it about two years without the housekeeper, manse, or 100 acres of land and the town paid Captain Sam Jordan £35 per year for his board. In 1729 Rev. John Moody was the tem- porary minister, but declined to settle permanently because he was too young and had not finished his education.

The first church known to have been organized in the Saco valley was the Congregational body in Biddeford, formed by council April 30, 1730, and was composed of thirteen charter members. Samuel Willard* was ordained pastor in September of that year. He died suddenly of throat distemper after a very successful service of eleven years. We subjoin the names of the thir- teen original members, and of the twenty-four additional male members who united under the ministry of Rev. Willard, as their names will be of interest to their descendants :

JOHN GRAY, SAMUEL JORDAN,

JOHN SHARP, BENJAMIN HALEY,

NATHAN WHITNEY, RISHWORTH JORDAN, JOHN SMITH, ANDREW STACKPOLE,

SAMUEL SCAMMAN, ROBERT EDGECOMB, BENJAMIN HILL, JOHN SMITH, JR.,

* REV. SAMUEL WILLARD was great-grandson of Maj. Simon Willard, one of the first set- tlers in Concord, Mass., a man of considerable note. His son, Rev. Samuel, an eminent man, was acting president of Harvard College. John Willard, father of the minister, was a college graduate, but settled in the West Indies as a merchant, and there, at Kingston, Samuel was born in 1705; was educated under the care of his uncle, Josiah Willard, of Boston, and gradu- ated at Harvard in 1723. He married Abigail, daughter of Samuel Wright, of Rutland, Mass., by whom he had five children, two of whom were eminent divines and one president of Harvard.

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SAMUEL HINKLEY,

DANIEL SMITH,

ABIAL HILL,

HUMPHREY SCAMMAN,

JOHN TREWORGY,

BENJAMIN NICHOLS,

EBENEZER HILL,

JAMES CLARK,

SAMUEL SCAMMAN, JR.,

PENDLETON FLETCHER, MOSES WADLIN,

WYATT MOORE,

THOMAS GILPATRICK,

NATHANIEL WHITNEY, JR.,

THOMAS EMERY,

BENJAMIN HILTON,

JOHN MURCII,

JOHN STACKPOLE, JR.,

JOHN TARR,

EDWARD CHAPMAN,

JOSEPH GORDON,

MARK SHEPARD,

ROBERT WHIPPLE,

MAGNUS REDLON,

EPHRAIM STIMPSON.

Rev. Moses Morrill, the successor of Mr. Willard, came fresh with his Harvard laurels from Salisbury, Mass., in 1742, and had a successful pastor- ate of thirty-five years.

The Rev. Nathaniel Webster was ordained as Mr. Morrill's successor in 1779, and settled with a salary of seventy-five pounds voted by the town to be paid in produce as follows : "45 bushels of corn at 4 S ; 4 bushels of rye at 5 s ; 400 pounds of pork at 5 d ; 50 pounds of wool at I s, 8 d ; 50 pounds of flax at 8 d; 100 pounds of butter at 8 d ; 4,046 pounds of beef at 20 s per hundred-weight ; I quintal of fish at 21 8 ; 2 tons good English hay at £3."

The first deacons of this first church were Eben Hill and Benjamin Haley, who died at Cape Breton, 1745, and was succeeded by Simon Wingate. Dea. Hill was succeeded by Moses Wadlin in 1749, and in 1754 he was followed by John Stackpole, Jr.

We have no record to show when the first meeting-house in the Saco Val- ley was built. Church Point is mentioned in 1642, in bounding land at Win- ter Harbor, and it has been assumed that a house of worship stood here. Was it not named Church Point for one Captain Church ? We do know that a Congregational meeting-house was built at Winter Harbor about 1660-66, in which the people were seated according to rank, as was then the custom. Land was procured from Benjamin Haley in 1719 for a meeting-house and place for burial, and the building, 35 by 30 feet, was ereeted near where the old graves may now be seen.

The inhabitants on both sides of the river were in one parish until 1752, when Sir William Pepperill gave four acres of land for a meeting-house, school- house, and a burying-place, and those on Saco side were set off by themselves. A house was put up, and after several years, by piecemeal, it was finished. Here the Biddeford pastor officiated at stated seasons until 1761, when Rev. John Fairfield became the settled pastor. But nine persons united with the church during his service of thirty-six years, and in 1798, he asked to be dismissed. His very reasonable request, though coming late, was reasonably acceded to, and the parish did worse than "jump out of the frying-pan into the fire" by the engagement and settlement of Mr. Whiteomb, whose intem- perate habits are said to have been a reproach upon his calling and a great injury to the church. From 1810 to 1825, Rev. Jonathan Cogswell was the

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pastor. When he entered upon his duties there were but twenty-eight members in the church, but during his ministry there were many accessions.

The first deacons of the Saco society were Amos Chase and Gershum Billings, chosen in 1763. The charter members of this church were as follows :

JOHN FAIRFIELD, ROBERT PATTERSON, JR., AMOS CHASE,

ROBERT EDGECOMB, ROBERT PATTERSON, ANDREW BRADSTREET,

MAGNUS REDLON, SAMUEL BANKS,

GERSHUM BILLINGS.

TRISTRAM JORDAN, THOMAS EDGECOMB,

At the ordination of John Fairfield the town provided a public dinner, which was prepared by Ebenezer Ayer, to which ninety guests sat down. Among the provisions were a barrel of beer, two gallons of rum, and two quarts of brandy. We see that the world moves, for such entertainment on such an occasion would not be allowed today.

BUXTON CHURCHES.

First Congregational Church. - Ministers of the gospel were in Narragansett, No. 1, as early as 1755 ; probably several years before. The first meeting-house was to be of hewed timber, thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide; to be nine feet in height, the roof to be boarded and short-shingled. This rude building was erected on the public lot laid out by the proprietors for the purpose. There is no record to show that it was formally dedicated. Those who assembled within these "hewn" timber walls probably sat on blocks sawed from the trunks of trees. Alarmed at the outbreak of the war between France and England the settlers deserted their plantation in 1744, and did not return until the spring of 1749. They found their little chapel in the wilderness undisturbed, but going to decay. The necessary repairs were made, and a minister engaged-Rev. Joshua Tuffts-who remained two years. He is the first preacher whose name has come down to us. About the time of the organization of the church a second and larger meeting-house was built on the same lot. The old house was given to Samuel Merrill as a recognition of his generosity in opening his dwelling for religious meetings before they had any public building for the purpose.

Paul Coffin preached his first sermon here, Feb. 8, 1761, being twenty- three years of age, and was ordained Mar. 9, 1763.

On the day preceding the ordination, two ministers and their delegates from Wells started on snow-shoes through the wilderness to assist in the ser- vices. They lost their way and when night came on found themselves on the bank of Saco river, some distance above the settlement of Narragansett, No. I, in the plantation of Little Falls; and there they passed the night, suffering from cold, hunger, and want of sleep. They reached the meeting-place the next day, and, according to the records, filled their respective places on the

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ordaining council. In the minutes written by Mr. Little, the scribe of the occa- sion, we learn that " a very plentiful entertainment for the council and strangers was provided at the expense of the proprietors, whose various and generous cares for the felicity of the inhabitants of this place in erecting a spacious meeting-house, and in the settlement of the gospel ministry among them, we take notice of with abundant pleasure." There was no meat for the ordination feast and Moses Emery went into the forest with his dog and soon brought down a moose; this was dressed and served to the brethren present, and was probably washed down with strong drink. Mr. Coffin was settled for life. There were not more than thirty families in the plantation, and these living in log-houses. His salary was always small and in the time of the Revolutionary war, about eight years, he did not receive twenty dollars in specie. He became a farmer and from the soil of the "ministerial lot " he procured the most of the provisions for his family. His sons assisted when of age to do so and his daughters were taught to card, spin, and weave.

The new meeting-house was not supplied with glass windows when Mr. Coffin commenced preaching in it and the congregation sat on planks sup- ported by saw-blocks until 1790, when the floor (or ground) was marked off for the pews. There was no pulpit, and, hence, we may fancy the learned preacher standing on a rude and unsteady platform of rough plank with his Bible on a small table or stand. Here came the founders of the township; the fathers and mothers of the first generation of sons and daughters born there. The members of the church and congregation were, many of them, men of strong minds and possessed of sound common sense, but they were uneducated and without polish. The preacher looked from his rude rostrum upon a motley group, variously attired, hard-handed, and bowed with toil. To the minister these men and women looked for instruction for themselves and their children ; and they were not disappointed, for he was faithful to his mis- sion - warning and rebuking with all authority and meekness. He had a colleague appointed in 1817, and preached his farewell sermon in 1820.

The church records show that during his ministry in Buxton he solemn- ized 483 marriages and administered the rite of baptism to 794 persons.

Rev. Paul Coffin was born in Newbury, Mass., Jan. 16, 1737, old style, and died June 6, 1821. He was a graduate of Harvard College, and able to read the Scriptures in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, to which he added a knowledge of the French, which he wrote and read with facility. He was always a diligent student, and prepared his sermons with great care. In his pulpit he was argumentative and displayed an earnestness that won and held attention. "He measured men's minds with precision, and entered into their motives as one acquainted with the world "; a lover of good society and hospitable. When informed by his physician that he was near the end of his earthly pilgrimage, he replied: "I did not think I was going so soon; but I

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believe I have that faith which will carry me to Abraham's bosom." He was buried in the churchyard.

"Remote from towns he ran his goodly race, Nor e'er had changed nor wished to change his place ; Unskillful he to fawn, or seek for power By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.

"But in his duty prompt, at every call, He watch'd and wept, he prayed and felt for all ; And, as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies,

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way."

The house built by Mr. Coffin was of two stories and stood end to the road. The front door opened upon a green lawn. When his son David built the new house the mansion was removed and has since been occupied by Joseph Garland; probably the oldest two-storied house in Buxton. In this house he spent the greater part of his long life ; here his children were born, and here he and his companion died. Before the house was removed the study was in the southwesterly room in the second story; in the northwesterly room as the house now stands.

Freewill Baptist Church .- This organization was originally a branch of the Gorham church and did not become a separate body until about 1800, when they built the edifice long known as the " Brook meeting-house," about one mile east of the present village of Moderation, near the Peter Staples homestead. To this sanctuary those in sympathy with the Freewill Baptists came from near and far -from Standish, Hollis, the "Spruce swamp " neigh- borhood, and Shadagee .* Here were assembled the old-fashioned saints, the very "salt of the earth," to worship God in humble simplicity, and here were they instructed by the founders of the denomination, Benjamin Randall, David Marks, and John Buzzell. This house was dedicated in 1806, and continued to be occupied by the society until the "Great Reformation" of 1834 under the preaching of Elders Joseph White, Clement Phinney, and Jonathan Clay. Meetings were held in the Boulter schoolhouse, which was situated where the Bonnie Eagle and Gorham roads cross between West Buxton and Bog mill. At this time Elder Mark Fernald, of the Christian connection, rode into town on horseback and preached the word of life powerfully to the anxious gath- erings. In closing a discourse he said: "The ministers the Lord sends will be a blessing ; those sent by the devil will prove a curse." One of the most efficient factors in this wide-spread revival was the wife of Gideon Tibbetts, then in the beauty of young womanhood, who was often heard singing the

* I shall spell this name as pronounced by all the early inhabitants, and leave Chateaugay and Chautauqua for the etymologists to quarrel over.

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praises of God when on her way to the meetings. Many who afterwards became pillars in the church were converted in this reformation. The early records were lost, and we cannot learn the names of all. But few are now living.

The membership of the church was so increased by the fruits of this spiritual harvest that it was deemed best to divide the body and organize a second church at East Buxton, and on April 8, 1834, this was effected. About this time Dea. Joseph Hobson leased the society a lot on the hill above his house for a new meeting-house, and the present building was erected, and dedicated in 1836. It was enlarged, the carpenter work being done by Nich- olas Manson, in 1847.

The church-bell, still hanging in the belfry, was the first brought into the town, and weighs about 1,000 pounds. It was hung by a wooden yoke secured by iron bands, and its sweet, musical tones have been listened to by the old fathers and mothers who now rest upon the hill-brow opposite; by the youth whose sun went down while it was yet noon, and by many whose early years were spent on the banks of the Saco, now far away and going down the un- steady stair of enfeebled age. The inward ear of memory recalls the echoes heard reverberating among the hills of Hollis and Buxton, on those clear, calm summer mornings, calling, calling, come to the house of prayer.

"Those morning bells! those morning bells! How many a tale their music tells Of youth, and home, and that sweet time When last I heard their soothing chime."

The lease from Deacon Hobson, lost for many years but recently recov- ered, conveyed to the society a drive-way all around the meeting-house after the addition was put on in 1847, and the original fence at the rear of the . house was on the boundary line.

Rev. Andrew Hobson, a man of fine physical proportions, classical feat- ures, and attractive as a preacher, was the first pastor after the dedication of the house at West Buxton. Then came a young man fresh from his academic class, but with a consecrated heart; a man who was abundant in labors for the salvation of the people. He was so much in earnest that when visiting he was seen to run from house to house. He was not strong, and by over devotion to what he called duty sank down to death. By his request, his remains were buried just behind the pulpit on the church lot. A chaste mon- ument, suitably inscribed, was erected at his grave, and all neatly enclosed by a latticed fence. Flowers were planted upon his lonely grave by those who were led to Christ under his loving ministry, and a well-worn path, pressed by the feet of hundreds who, at the close of the services, gathered about the little yard, led to the sacred spot. Alas! the greed of man has disturbed his chosen place of rest, and his bones have been removed across the river to the public cemetery.

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EARLY CHURCHES AND MINISTERS.

Rev. John L. Sinclair came to West Buxton with his wife and little son in October, 1843, and boarded with the family of Deacon Hobson for several months until they went to house-keeping. He was the son of Joseph Sinclair, of Meredith, N. H., where he was born July 10, 1809 ; was baptized by Elder Benjamin Manson, at the age of twenty-one; licensed to preach in 1832, and June 30, 1835, was ordained and settled in Lynn, Mass. During his ministry he preached as pastor at Hopkinton, Manchester, Lowell, Biddeford, and Sandwich. He was a man of tall, commanding form, strong, comprehensive intellect, armed with deep, far-reaching voice. He was not ashamed of manual labor and upon the Moses K. Wells farm, adjacent to the village, swung the keen-edged scythe across the grass-laden intervale, and with strong arm tossed the well-made timothy upon the bounding load. He died at Lake Village, N. H., Aug. 16, 1888, leaving a widow who survives (1894.)

We remember Elder Sinclair well, but have not ascertained how many years he was pastor at Buxton. On either side of the pulpit sat his deacons, Hobson and Leavitt, who were accustomed to "improve" after the sermon, the former in stammering accents, the latter in slow and measured sentences. How Simon Palmer would shout, while the humorous Doctor Peabody laughed in the singing seats!

Some of the brethren would be overcome by their own personal devil, called by way of courtesy "the old inimy," and occasionally "fall from grace." Then followed neighborhood gossip, church meetings, "mauling" of the offending member, a forced confession, forgiveness but not forgetfulness, and renewal of covenant.

It was said that wicked boys, bent on mischief, knowing that "Uncle Steve " Eastman had a crusty temper, would torment him while about his work until he flew into a passion and gave utterance to words not commonly used in prayer, and then circulate the report that the old man had been "cussin' and swearin'." This usually culminated in a church meeting to which brother Eastman went and acknowledged his faultiness. The same boys, still pos- sessed of the devil, would hide behind piles of lumber until the old man came out, looking sour and crest-fallen, and then approach-not too near, I tell ye-and ask him what they "church-mauled" him with. It was reported that he once said, in reply to an inquiry from some of the inquisitive ones, that the church made him "confess a hundred things he was not guilty of." If that was true, it was a shame.

How well we recall the conventional testimony of "Uncle Bill " Stevens, uttered in a sharp, grating voice! His text was: "He that cracketh the nut receiveth the meat." How one of "Uncle Jerry" Hobson's shoes did creak when he came down the aisle! Eben Sawyer always had his hands full of fingers and his pumpkin-seed boots full of toes; so had his sister, Joanna Hanson. Archibald Smith, the bell-ringer, was red-faced, with a back as straight as the

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inside of a barrel stave. "Squire" Vaughan, full of courtly grace, walked to his seat with great dignity of bearing. Mark Came hurried in with a bustling, business air. Tobias Lord, with a shock of white, bushy hair surmounting his towering forehead, reached his pew with resolute, formidable stride. "Major" Hobson moved down the aisle with a moderate, swinging gait. Abram L. Came was very erect, serious, and dignified. "Jim" Field wore side whiskers curled about his cheek. Ivory Clark's suit of "pepper-and-salt" always appeared strained. Simon Palmer wore his front hair "banged," while Deacon Leavitt exposed a shining crown. "Uncle Daniel" McCorrison moved at snail-pace and snored during sermon-time. Horatio Bryant invariably took a morning "nap" in church. Little Jonah Johnston was bedangled in a long, blue, swallow-tailed coat, and was never without a tear in his eye. Joseph Decker, portly, and serious-looking, was as regular as a clock in his habits, but boiling over with pawky humor. Mrs. Wells, with her gold-bowed spec- tacles, and Mrs. Butler, the teacher of children, were full of grace and politeness.

Those were the good old days of two sermons and noon-time intermissions when the brethren sat on board-piles and compared notes about farm work and political issues, while the good old dames and young damsels within doors gathered in clusters to nibble carraway-seed cookies and smell "laylock " and "merrigold " bouquets.

On a balmy summer morning some indecorous boy, when on on his way to the sanctuary, was beguiled into "by and forbidden paths" at the river- side, and there caught a sand-peep, otherwise "steelyard bird." This he carefully hid in his pocket, loitered until the congregation had been seated, crept into the vestry, and when the preacher had got well under way, clapped the half-fledged prize upon the long, broad balustrade just back of the "body pews." "Peep-peep-peep," and he began to run from one side to the other. The people turned their heads to discover the cause of this interruption; the preacher paused in the midst of his discourse and " Ryal" Tarbox, the sexton, hastened back to oust the intruder. Now came the climax of the singular performance. Stepping upon the long vestry seat the clumsy old sexton entered upon the race. The bird was nimble and elusive; it would spread out its little wings and run, screaming, sharp and shrill, peep-peep-peep, while its pursuer, all out of breath, capered about with out-stretched hands, ready, but not able, to catch the tempting game. Meanwhile, the service at a stand- still, or sit-still, while Peabody, looking down from the singing seats upon the ludicrous race, was convulsed with laughter. At length the poor, exhausted bird was seized and "cast out o' the synagogue," and the preacher went on ; while poor Ryal, red in the face, was panting like a hart. The boy who caused this episode was not a bad child and became a man of respectability and enterprise.

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Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 27

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Portland, Me., The author Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424