Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 33

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 33
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 33

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).

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THIE COCHRAN DELUSION.

meetings. Elder Phinney had expressed a desire for an interview with this strange preacher. Dinner done, they retired to the sitting-room and engaged in a warm discussion of scriptural subjects. Elder Phinney wished to draw Cochran out, and with all his ability in debate found himself entangled beyond extrication in the arguments of his adversary. He was not converted to Cochran's creed, however. When he became convinced of Cochran's real character he discontinued the conversation and looked sternly upon him. This coldness was keenly felt, and Cochran could not pass it by without notice. Turning to Elder Phinney he remarked that he was sorry that he should be thus held off, whereupon the blunt old evangelist held out his cane, and said: "Mr. Cochran, I don't want you any nearer than that."

As soon as he learned that Cochran had removed to Parsonsfield, he put his old friend, Elder John Buzzell, on guard, and he had so much influence in his town that Cochran could never get a very strong hold there. Meetings were held, however, in several private houses and some converts made. At one dwelling, while the services were in progress, the inhabitants carried two heavy logs and stood them in a leaning position against the door, so that they might fall in and crush those who opened to come out at the close of the meeting. Elder Buzzell openly opposed every demonstration made by the Cochranites, calling the inhabitants of the community together in various districts to warn them against what he believed to be an arch-imposter. Coch- ran challenged this old veteran - not old then -to a discussion, but while Elder Buzzell had no fear, he would not stoop to notice such a man.

At Limington, meetings were held at the dwelling of a native of Buxton, who once lived on Woodsum's hill, below Salmon Falls. Runners were sent down to Buxton and Hollis to advise Cochran's disciples that " Brother Jacob" would hold meetings on such a day and evening. To avoid suspicion, the Cochranites went from home at night and followed a circuitous route to Lim- ington. One of these was a brother of the man at whose house Cochran was to preach. Sister Mercy, the one who alternated between the terrestrial and celestial worlds, was there, ready to soar away or to remain in the body, as the leader of ceremonies might wish; if it was deemed best for the success of the service that Mercy depart, C'ochran gave the signal and away she went -upon the floor. On this occasion, however, she did not go beyond recall, for when the services had closed and the time for rest came, the owner of the house placed a candle in Cochran's hand, opened a sleeping-room door, and with a significant gesture bade Brother Cochran and Sister Mercy "good- night." Before they could close the door, the brother who had come up from Buxton, who had now opened his eyes to the enormity of this system, approached Cochran and delivered himself as follows: "Mr. Cochran, I have believed you to be a good man and have listened to your sermons with interest, but I have discovered your true character and am done with you;

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farewell." With his pipe to solace his grieved soul, he passed the remainder of the night in a chair at the fireside, and at day-dawn went on his way home, a wiser if not a better man. He acknowledged his faults to his neighbors, and warned them to have nothing more to do with Cochran and his deluded followers. This man shook the dust from his feet, moved to eastern Maine, and lived a consistent Christian the remainder of his days.

We have now to do with conflicting traditions. Living authorities disa- gree in regard to Jacob Cochran's last days, and I am unable to untangle the skein. He either returned to Buxton and Saco, after having been once driven away, or some of the transactions to be mentioned occurred previous to his leaving for the back towns; it is, perhaps, of no special interest to our present inquiry to know these particulars.

It is stated on creditable authority that a certain well-to-do farmer on the Buxton road, in upper Saco, who had no fellowship for Cochran, had, for his wife's sake, she being an ardent believer, permitted the preacher to hold meetings at his house. In some inexplicable way, it appears that Cochran became possessed of a considerable sum of money belonging to this man, and as there were grounds for believing that the sly old fox was preparing to leave the neighborhood, the necessary papers for his arrest were made out and placed in the hands of an officer. Those who knew the man were aware that it would be no pleasant task to place the lion-like athlete in custody; but they wished to be forever rid of his presence, and some strong and resolute men determined to serve the papers on him and bring him, dead or alive, into town. The names of these men have been given us, but they are withheld for obvious reasons.

Cochran evidently received some special revelation anent this affair, and made an attempt to escape. He was overtaken by his pursuers somewhere between the Buxton road and Saco river, and after a desperate struggle was locked up. It has been stated that he was tried before Judge Thatcher and sent to the state prison, where tradition has him invent a novel fire-arm, which was patented by his son. Others are equally certain that he escaped from the officers when on his way to prison and went to New Hampshire, where he continued to preach for many years. All with whom I have conversed are agreed that his body was brought to Saco for burial. Some of his disciples wished to have his remains buried in the McKenney neighborhood, near the seat of his former operations, while the inhabitants, who had seen enough of the fruits of the "Cochran craze," determined that his body should not find sepulture in their midst. Tradition says he was buried by his disciples, at night, near one of their dwellings; another has him repose under the cemented floor of a cellar in that district. It may, therefore, be truthfully stated con- cerning this singular man, as of the law-giver of Israel, "No man knoweth the place of his burial unto this day."

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TIIE COCHIRAN DELUSION.

But Cochranism was not extinguished with the death of its founder; the doctrines promulgated by him had taken too deep root. Long before Coch- ran had left the Saco valley he had anticipated what ultimately came to pass and had prepared for the extension of his empire. He saw the importance of introducing a missionary spirit into his system, and preached special ser- mons calculated to stimulate the zeal of his supporters on this line. With the same sagacious perception which had been so prominent a factor of his suc- cess in all his undertakings, he discovered those who had been gifted with natural fluency of speech and encouraged them to go forth and preach the doctrines they had embraced. This many did, absenting themselves from their homes and neglecting to provide for their dependent families and the cultivation of their farms until the inevitable results of poverty, hunger, and cold followed.

These missionaries followed as nearly in the steps of Cochran as their limited ability would admit of, and labored with unabated zeal to recruit with converts the ranks that had been depleted by death and desertions. Among the more notable who went out to plant Cochran's standard, we mention Joseph Decker, who became widely known as the " Massachusetts prophet," Timothy Ham, and Benjamin Goodwin. Two of these were men of remark- able natural endowments, who became able exponents of the peculiar theories received from Cochran. Of others who served under his banner I cannot speak with certainty. The "Massachusetts prophet," of whom more in another department of this book, traveled quite extensively in the district of Maine, and followed the apostolic customs as nearly as possible in a cold climate. These men eliminated from the services held by them the objec- tionable features introduced by Cochran, and succeeded in winning many to the faith. They must have been sincere, for they were ready to endure the most vindictive persecution, to suffer banishment, or die, if need be, for the faith they had espoused.

The matter embodied in this chapter was not culled from dim traditions, that had been handed down from generations enfeebled by age, but has been received from the lips of venerable persons, of unimpaired mental faculties, who had listened to the preaching and witnessed the peculiar practices of Jacob Cochran while he held such a mighty sway in the towns on the Saco. I could have supplemented these statements by quotations from a bundle of yellow documents that were formulated by a magistrate who lived in Buxton at the time these things occurred, but some of these affidavits would be of too sensational and personal a character for my purpose. I have not torn the veil asunder from the top to the bottom, by any means, and have left out enough of tradition and documentary evidence, relating to this remarkable delusion, to fill a volume.

During the time my researches have been carried forward, families whose

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relatives, near or distant, were entangled in the dangerous meshes of Coch- ran's ingenious net, have earnestly besought me not to allow the names of such to appear upon the pages of this book; a natural but unnecessary precaution which had been anticipated.

The result of this wide-spread religious epidemic was far-reaching and ruinous. For nearly three-score years this corroding wave of influence has been creeping downward, keeping pace with the three generations of descend- ants of those who were involved in the original delusive excitement inaugu- rated by the villainous destroyer of homes and human happiness, who, though dead, speaks still through the instrumentality of his influence and by the soul-blight of their posterity, born out of wedlock.

Some of the scenes witnessed in the domestic circles in the Saco river towns were heart-rending. Young wives who had refused to prostitute their principles of virtue, by submitting to the demoralizing practices of the Coch- ranites, were bereft of their children and forsaken. Such were left in sorrow and poverty, and all their remaining days refused to be comforted because those they had loved "were not." An aged and saintly woman was recently visited whose father, once an industrious farmer with a pleasant home, became a public advocate of the Cochran creed, and who, after long neglect of his farm and family to follow what, in his delusion, he called duty, visited foreign lands and eventually died, a stranger among strangers, thousands of miles from home and kindred. As this venerable woman adverted to her childhood days and her father's expatriation, she groaned in spirit and wept; a far-off echo of a voice that had preached pernicious doctrines, but long ago silenced by the paralyzing hand of death.

We know of a sea captain who lived on the west side of the Saco. He had married a beautiful daughter of respectable parentage, and to them two pretty boys had been given. Before Jacob Cochran appeared in that com- munity peace and contentment reigned in that home-circle. But the father, a man of speculative and unstable mind, was swept from his moorings by the sophistry of this imposter and spent the time that should have been devoted to the interests of his family with the followers of the "New Apostle to the Gentiles," as some called him. He had a "spiritual wife" assigned to him, said farewell to Hannah, tore her children from her bosom, and left for the westward, where a community of primitive Mormons had congregated. When these sons had grown to manhood they retained a faint recollection of a mother, and refused to call one by that dear name who had taken her rightful place. They instituted a searching inquiry for their mother's family, came east and visited the old homestead, but, alas! too late to see her who had found a premature grave in consequence of the great sorrow that had fallen upon her heart. Other children were born to the father, in the state of New York, some of whom have risen to eminence among men.

The Mormon Ainvasion.

HE Cochran craze paved the way for a Mormon invasion in the Saco valley. A full-blooded Cochranite made a first-class Mor- mon saint. Jake Cochran was a John the Baptist for the Mormon apostles, who appeared on his old battle-ground and gathered up the spoils. The inhabitants of the river towns, as well as some in the inte- rior, were afflicted with Cochranite grasshoppers, followed by Mormon locusts. Scions cut from the decaying trunk of the old Cochran tree were readily engrafted into Mormon branches, but the fruit was the same; when these had become firmly united, they were transplanted bodily to new soil, considered more congenial to their development, in the state of New York.

Some of the old people, now living, confound the two movements, and we have found insuperable difficulty in sifting the chaff of error from the wheat of truth. It seems to have been a most remarkable coincidence, which has the appearance of concerted action between Cochran and his successors. Almost as soon as he vacated the field, the founders of the Mormon hierarchy invested it. The history of the Mormon church makes Brigham Young come to Maine in 1832 or 1833. The doctrine preached by Smith, Pratt, and Young, in York county, was not of an offensive nature; it was, properly speak- ing, Millenarianism. The excitement was immense. The inhabitants went twenty miles to hear these earnest missionaries preach. A change from Coch- ranism was wanted, and this new gospel seemed to be an improvement. Old wine was put into new bottles, and many drank to their fill. At this time polygamy had not been mentioned. No attempt was made to form an organ- ized church; Cochran had preached against such, and Brigham found these disciples averse to any ecclesiastical government, and waited until he had transported his converts to Manchester, N. Y., before enforcing this part of his creed.

We have not learned how long these Mormon preachers remained here. They had great, covered wagons, drawn by large, spirited horses, in which those who would emigrate were carried away to their settlement. The house built on the Ira W. Milliken farm, just across the Buxton line, was known as the "Temple," and this was the head-centre of the Mormon crusade. It has been said that this place of worship was built for Jacob Cochran and his asso- ciates, but I think this an error. The Mormon excitement spread into every

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town where Cochran had made converts; these had been washed from their moral and rational moorings by the tidal-wave let loose upon the community by Jacob, and the Mormon inundation landed them high -if not dry-in New York state.

The Mormon elders were unwearied in their efforts to enlarge the circle of their influence and to drum up recruits for their semi-religious community. Like flaming heralds, they traveled from town to town, and their evident sin- cerity and unbounded enthusiasm drew thousands to hear them. But there was determined opposition. The ministers of the gospel stood outside and openly warned their people to keep clear of these missionaries of a strange faith. The culminating effect proved that the spirit of the Mormons was identical with Cochranism. Both systems produced the same ruinous upheaval in the domestic circle, and the wreckage of blasted homes was scattered all along the coast where the devastating storm held sway.

But a small proportion of those who espoused the Mormon creed removed to the westward, and many who went returned to their old neighborhoods. So far as we know, husbands and wives, with their children, removed together. While waiting in Parsonsfield for John Edgecomb and wife to make prepara- tions for their departure, some of the inhabitants of the town entered the stable at night and mutilated and disfigured the horses. This cruel trans- action only stimulated the zeal and extended the influence of the itinerant preachers, and many, who had regarded the Mormon innovation with much disfavor, had their sympathy excited for the leaders when they became the subject of persecution. This was but a repetition of religious history. Those who become aggressive opposers of any movement inaugurated in the name of Christianity, however obnoxious its features, engender prejudice against themselves, and, negatively, give momentum to that which they wish to hinder. He who kicks the parent stock scatters thistle seeds and multiplies plants in his field. John Edgecomb was a good citizen and a hard-working farmer when the Mormon preachers came into town on Cochran's old trail. He aban- doned his home and the grave of his only child, and followed the Mormon star westward. His wife soon after died, and when the Mormons removed farther west he came back to his old neighbors, and died near the spot where he had built his first house.

James Townsend went from Buxton with his family, consisting of a wife and four children. He proved loyal to the end; went westward by stages, and built the first hotel in Utah. Only a few years ago he visited the East and called upon his relatives and early acquaintances. He returned to his home in Salt Lake City and soon died, leaving a vast estate.

Some who joined the westward Mormon tide became preachers and trav- eled extensively on our continent and in foreign lands to promulgate the faith held by the church of the Latter Day Saints. Many who removed to the New

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THIE MORMON INVASION.

York settlement went west as far as Ohio, and some of them, after their breth- ren went to Nauvoo, purchased land and became successful farmers there. Near Beaver Dam, Ohio, there are descendants of such, who are well-to-do farmers, millers, and merchants, who stand upon a good social plane in the community. A few only of the original Mormon emigrants are now living, and these are far advanced in life. They left the Saco valley in 1836 and 1837, and are treading the border-land of another world. Those seen when we were in Ohio had long ago renounced the Mormon faith, and were respected members of the evangelical churches. The lessons learned in early life were costly, but practical. Since they were rescued from the cyclone into whose track they had fallen, and the vapors which then enveloped their minds were dispelled, their lives have been useful and unimpeachable. Could the history of their solitary reflections, remorse, and self-reproach be recorded, how sadly impressive would be its perusal !

While sitting of an evening on the rustic porch of one who went West with Joe Smith and his Mormon colony, we conversed about those days. The old man seemed anxious to learn about those he had left behind in early life, his kindred and once dear friends. While thus engaged, he brushed the drift-wood from his memory, and related many incidents in his experience while on his journey West and during his residence in the Mormon community. As I called the names of some of his relatives, then living in Maine, he wiped a tear from his eye and sighed deeply. He remarked that, as he grew older, his desire to visit the scenes of his childhood increased. When I asked why he did not gratify his wish, he said he supposed everybody would call him "an old Mormon," and he could not endure that.

To this venerable man, whose name I promised not to mention in print, I am indebted for much information concerning the Mormon excitement on the Saco river. He said: "We were young then, and the novelty of the doc- trines preached and the attractiveness of the speakers drew us into the trap." His detailed description of the services held by the Mormon elders was deeply interesting. There was still a mystery about the power that attended these preachers. He had thought about it while working at his anvil and when in his field.

Alluding to the old "Temple" in Buxton, where the Mormon apostles held meetings, he said he remembered it well. It was not in the form of an ordinary old-fashioned meeting-house, or chapel, but a dwelling-house, con- taining several rooms, with close shutters at the windows. What he denomi- nated "speaking in tongues" was incomprehensible. All who were present at the services were astonished at the phenomenon, and with one accord admitted that those who exhibited this remarkable gift must have received it from a supernatural source; it could not be accounted for or explained in any other way.

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Those who had been newly converted were as likely to manifest this power as the old experienced preachers. Such would mount a bench and address the assembly in language unintelligible, both to the Gentiles present and to the elders who claimed to be in such intimate relations with the spirit world. Those who spoke in unknown tongues were said to have been as igno- rant of the significance of their discourses as their hearers; they were touched by an inspiration and had no control of their tongues.

There were others who "interpreted tongues." While sitting in silence, such would be suddenly seized with an impulse to speak, and in language sublime they communicated the lofty and profound sentiment of their subject. These interpreters were persons as unaccustomed to public speaking as the first mentioned, and absolutely incapable of using the eloquent and eupho- nious language, in a normal condition, employed by them when interpreting the unpronounceable jargon of those who "spake in tongues." These also professed to be unconscious of what they had spoken, and were considered to be irresponsible by those who heard them.

This mysterious factor, so prominent in the meetings held by the Mormon preachers, convinced many who had been determined opposers of the move- ment that a higher power pervaded the souls of these uncultured converts, and they laid down their prejudices and became nominal believers in the doctrines advocated.

No analysis of this singular system that we might attempt would be favor- ably received by the intelligent public of the present day. The reasons are obvious. Our liberal educational advantages, the extensive circulation of gen- eral literature, and the constant opportunity afforded for an exchange of ideas in the intercourse resulting from modern habits of travel have conspired to foster a spirit of independence in our methods of thinking which gives birth to conclusions that are usually impervious to argument. The conditions that obtained in a rural and primitive community were so unlike those with which the people are familiar today, and so far removed by lapse of time, that the mind instinctively repels any attempt to adduce extenuative testimony, that might have the appearance of an apology, for a people who tolerated such teachings and practices as we have hinted at in the foregoing treatment of our subject. So will it be in the future. We are now winking at customs that would have been condemned by our puritanical ancestors who lived contem- porary with the Cochranite and Mormon delusions that swept the Saco valley sixty years ago. The guardians of public morals had the courage then to bring Cochran to the judgment bar to answer for what they considered to be a violation of the conventional code of propriety, in a small assembly of his own chosen disciples, while today, at the popular watering places, in the circus tent, and upon the theatre stage, semi-nude females are gazed upon by those reputed to be the most refined and cultivated among the respectable, wealthy,

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and religious families of the land without a blush, or any sentiment that could produce one. The school children who walk our streets must needs look upon obscene pictures, displayed on the corners; and when within the sanctified seclusion of the home, the daughters do burn the midnight oil perusing books, the printed pages and illustrations of which are alike unfit to expose to the light of open day.

When our boasted modern civilization shall emerge from its vulgar and uncivilized state, and reach the standard of inward purity and outward modesty enjoined by the sacred volume, then may we survey the past with a conscience unsullied and a vision unobscured by the thick clouds of intemperate indul- gence, and with some claim to superiority throw stones backward and pelt those who lived in glass houses before we were born, and who, being dead, cannot talk back. But while we allow such demoralizing customs as are everywhere prevalent to exist unchallenged, let us not be too severely unchar- itable in our estimation of those whose examples of morality and lives of sobriety would compare favorably with our own, while their responsibility, by reason of their limitations and environments, was a thousand times less.

Plantation

Pastoral Visitation.

HEN Paul Coffin came to Narragansett, No. I, now Buxton, the whole region round-about was covered by a dense wilderness, which was only broken here and there by "openings," where the stout- hearted pioneers had laid the foundation for their prospective homesteads by clearing narrow patches of land and putting up their rude log- cabins. For many years subsequent to his settlement but little change was apparent in the environments of his circumscribed parish; but small increase of the active population. However, the time came when the sons of the new plantation reached man's estate and took to themselves wives of their neigh- bors' robust daughters. These established themselves upon new territory in the adjacent townships and began life for themselves, until there had grown up considerable hamlets, called "neighborhoods," in Little Falls and Little Ossipee.

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Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 33

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