LEBANON TRUTH SEEKERS: Rochester offers great swimming pools

ROCHESTER — .Public Swim Hours:East Rochester Pool — Mon-Fri 1:15-5 p.m.; Sat-Sun 12 p.m.-4 p.m.Senior Swim (50+): Mon-Fri 12:15-1:15 p.m.Gonic Pool — Mon-Fri 2 p.m.-5:00 p.m.; Sat-Sun 12 p.m.-4 p.m.Hanson Pine Pools — Mon-Fri 2-6 p.m.; Sat-Sun 12-6 p.m.Swimming lessons still have spots available — They are filling up fast so don’t...

LEBANON HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEETING MAY 26TH Focuses on Town's First Pastor, Rev. Isaac Hassey

Town's first minister focus of Historical Society talk

 

 

LEBANON - The Lebanon Historical Society's June meeting is at the Martha Sawyer Library in the Hanson School on Monday at 7 p.m.
The program for the evening will be presented by Marilyn Bolduc and Linda Stesienko, who spent months transcribing a few of the first sermons given by Issac Hassey, the first Minister of First Parish Church of Lebanon in 1765. He fulfilled the requirements of having a minister before the Town could be incorporated.
This Town of Lebanon was incorporated in 1767.

Meetings are always open to the public. 

Thank you Harrison Thorp and The Lebanon Voice for allowing us to repost the agenda for this very special meeting.

HISTORICAL PEOPLE OF LEBANON MAINE, Meet Captain George Fogg Goodwin.

We've been wanting to add a little of Lebanon History to our page. Today I was sent some VERY interesting information on a long ago Lebanon resident!!!
Meet Captain George Fogg Goodwin........
What a brave and accomplished person from Lebanon Maine history!!!
June 23,1864 Shot in the head on the 3rd about 7 miles from Richmond, Captain George Fogg Goodwin, of Co. D, 5th N.H.V. He boldly took up arms to defend his loved country against this most atrocious rebellion of the slav...eholders whom political machinations he had before the war, warmly opposed. He was always ready to follow where the brave Col. Cross dare lead. In Burnside’s bloody fight at Fredericksburg, he was knocked senseless to the ground by a Minie bullet, which severely wounded him in the head. This was a narrow escape from death. Recovering he returned to his company to be with
gallant Hooker in his battle of Chancellorsville, where he was severely wounded in the arm, which compelled him to return home a while when most severe fever almost took his life. He recovered and re-enlisted for three years and gallantly followed his great leader, Grant, to the gates of Richmond, when the fatal bullet spared his life, long enough for him to say, “I die willingly for my country,” thus sealing his heroism and patriotism by his blood. He entered the army in some lower portion and rose by merit. He was 28 years old, unmarried and the only son of his widowed mother till a few months since she preceded him to the other world, dying upon the old homestead at Lebanon Center, Maine. Let his memory be always fresh and Lebanon, proud of such a patriot hero, raise the broken shaft over the spot where in peace he might of slept.

 

Historical People of Lebanon Maine: Meet Lieutenant Jonathan Burrows!

Jonathan Burrows of Lebanon, was the son of Deacon Edward and Mary Burrows. He was born in Lebanon about 1753 and would have reached adulthood just before the Revolutionary War.
Mr. Burrows is of interest in particular because he enlisted in the military three separate times.
Along with 4 brothers and 1 sister, Burrows was baptized by Reverend Isaac Hasey, the first settled pastor of the First Parish Church of Lebanon, on May 23, 1766.
On May 20, 1775, young Jonathan enlisted with Captain Phillp Hubbard's Company and was stationed to Bunker Hill in Boston. The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on the soil of Breed's Hill, but Captain Phillips' Company was not involved in battle on that famous day. The unit was disbanded shortly after that battle took place on June 17th.
Burrows' second enlistment was for a 3 year term, enlisting on March 10, 1776. He had been stationed as a recruiter in Berwick, Maine but he soon marched to Boston and joined Captain Sullivan's company and marched to NY with those troops from which point, they embarked on a sailing vessel and sailed to Albany and were part of the troops that marched on Montreal, Canada. Although Burrows was listed at the time as a First Seargent, a letter is recorded to Valley Forge on January 10, 1778, which describes Burrows as being 23 years of age, 5 foot 8 inches tall and with light eyes and complexion. The letter goes on to say that Burrows was left behind in New Hampshire due to "sickness".
On December 20, 1781, Burrows again enlisted, joining Captain Bowman's Company of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment. He once again did not complete his office, and instead, on March 27, 1783, found a substitute in one Joseph Stephens of Lebanon. Stephens agreed voluntarily to complete Burrows remaining term and stood in Burrows' place until April 15 of 1788, allowing Burrows to return to Lebanon to his young wife, Elizabeth (Witherell), daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Witherell who were among the original settlers of Lebanon. For the remainder of his days, Jonathan Burrows resided on the Witherell-Burrows Farm, serving as Town Selectman  in 1784, 1786, and 1787.
Jonathan Burrows was buried on the long since abandoned plot of the family cemetery in the area once known to locals as "Poplar Hill". His stone has not been well cared for and lies in pieces, but you can make out the words, "Liet. Jonathan Burrows, Died January 2, 1817, Aged 64 years".

It is very interesting that as this piece was being researched, I came upon the information that the First Parish Congregational Church, located on Center Road in Lebanon will be presenting historical programs containing some of the early works of Reverand Isaac Hasey, the pastor who baptized Jonathan Burrows and his siblings. The church's website says thus:  Rev. Isaac Hasey was the founding pastor of First Parish and served in Lebanon, ME for 47 years (1765-1812.) This year marks the 250th for us as a church. In celebrate, we will embark on a sermon series that examines the preaching Rev. Hasey delivered over 200 years ago. The Congregational Library in Boston holds a small number of original Hasey sermon manuscripts. Members of our church and the Lebanon Historical Society have lovingly and painstakingly transcribed five of those manuscripts. Now what was “lost” to the ravages of time is available to us. Maybe you are historically curious as to what was taught at the foundation of our country. Perhaps you wish to compare what has been lose and/or gained over the intervening years. For me, I wish to understand the power of the gospel which set our church on such a faithful course for a quarter-millennium. Join as we look through a tunnel in time to peer at the work of God in us.

photo from First Parish Congregational Church's website

I am so excited to hear that these sermons will be delivered and examined at the First Parish Congregational church this year by Pastor Mark Kraines!!

You can find out more about the plans for these sermons by LIKING First Parish Congregational Church on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Parish-Congregational-Church/150639418336434?fref=ts

Lebanon Residents in History, Marvin T. Goodwin, Died as a Prisoner of War at Fort Sumter, SC, During the Civil War.

In the Newell Goodwin Cemetery, on the Potter's Place Campground Road off of Baker's Grant Road in Lebanon, there stands a rather large monument dedicated to members of the Goodwin family.
There was one name in particular that caught our eye, that of one Marvin T. Goodwin.

The Newell Goodwin Cemetery in Lebanon, Maine

According to his military records, Marvin was born in Lebanon on an unknown date in 1843.
He joined the Union Army and fought valiantly with the 8th Regiment of the Maine Infantry, under the leadership of Colonel Henry Boynton.
Goodwin never rose in rank from Private and was taken prisoner at Drewry's Bluff on March 1st, 1864 as the Union Army attempted, unsuccessfully, to take command of that battlement, during the beginning of the Siege of Richmond, Virginia.

Drewry's Bluff Battlement, Richmond, VA

Goodwin was detained at Fort Sumter, South Carolina until his death on August 10th, 1864 from disentary. He was only 21 years old.

The History of the Church in West Lebanon Maine, by Jean Dimon. (1992)

Prpared by Lebanon resident, Jean Dimon for the Town of Lebanon's 225th Anniversary in 1992.

Presented to Lebanon Truth Seekers for posting by Jean Dimon, May 2015.

History of the Church in West Lebanon, ME

 

The town of Lebanon, ME, to be incorporated, had to have a meeting house and a preacher, so in 1753, one was built on Barley Road in Blaisdell's Corner.  The Rev. Amos Main of Rochester, NH was the first to conduct services. The Town was incorporated in 1767.
 

Photo of the Rev. Amos Main statue, which stands in the center of Rochester, NH.

by photographer J. Stephen Conn

 

The first Baptist to preach in this town, so far as we know, was Elder Pelatiah Tingley, (Yale-1761, Cong. of Free Baptist Church of Waterboro), who came here about 1769 and baptized by immersion, Tozier Lord and two or three others. This was the first baptism by immersion done in this town.

Gravestone of Elder Pelatiah Tingley, Waterboro ME

photo by Jennifer Eastman

 

July 2, 1774, Tozier Lord, at a church meeting in Sanford, stated it was the desire of the bretheren of the branch church in Lebanon to embody in a church by themselves, which was met with approval by the Sanford Church. On August 6, 1774, Deacon Powers reported to the Sanford Church that "The Church in Lebanon is embodied in peace".

In October, 1776, Tozier Lord was set apart for the work of the ministry in the first Parish Meeting House of Blaisdell's Corner. On that occasion Dr. Samuel Shepherd of Brentwood, NH preached from II Corinthians 4:7.  Dr. Shepherd was the leading Baptist minister in NH, a physician, who traveled by horseback with his saddlebags of medicine and his Bible over a wide stretch of country.

In 1776, Tozier Lord ordained Elder Benjamin Randall, who became te founder of the Freewill or Free Baptist Denomination, which believed in the doctorines of free salvation, started in New Durham, NH on April 5, 1780. In 1795 the First Freewill Baptist Church was organized in Lebanon by Elder John Buzzell.

Reverend John Buzzell, founder of First Freewill Baptist Church, Lebanon, ME

Photo: stock photo from Google.

 

November 21, 1799, two native born sons of Lebanon were ordained into the ministry. They were Gersham Lord and John Blaisdell. Elder Benjamin Randall preached on this occaision. Elder John Blaisdell continued to preach in Lebanon until his death in August, 1823.

 

 

 

Grave of Rev. John Blaisdell and his wife Abigail

Cold Springs Cemetery, East Rochester, NH

Photo from Google Images.

 

In 1801, the Society purchased the First Parish Meeting House and moved it to West Lebanon to the approximate site of the second and third houses on Orrel's Hill road. This building was 40 feet long and 30 feet wide and was used as the Baptist Meeting House until 1833.

On August 26, 1831, the members of the Free Baptist Society held a meeting to decide if the Society would build a new meeting house or repair the old one. August 27, Nathaniel Lord, Edmund Cowell, James Stanton, Joseph Lord, Noah Lord Jr., Stephen Dixon, William Wentworth, Isaac Copp, Seth Wentworth and Jesse Furbush met and discussed the question. On September 6, 1831, the Society met again and voted to build a new meeting house. On October 15, 1831, they voted to accept a plan drawn by the committee for a building 50 feet long and 40 feet wide with 16 floor posts, underpinned with split stone, with an inclined floor and two doors. You entered facing the congregation with the pulpit on a platform facing directly between the two doors and a recessed singing gallery above the pulpit. The building had a low pitched roof that leaked badly in every storm. This meeting house would be lit by oil lamps, had small windows, and held 50 pews purchased by the parishoners. The meeting house was dedicated in November 1832 on 1/4 acre of land purchased from Eben Legro, which is still the present location.

In 1844 there were 391 Freewill Baptist members in the four Freewill Churches in Lebanon the four churches came into being because of a disagreement on temperance. In March, 1834, about 40 members requested dismission to organize a church in the north-easterly part of town, and the Second Freewill Baptist Meeting was erected in North Lebanon. The Third Freewill Baptist church was organized at Blaisdell Corner and the Fourth Freewill Baptist Society organized on October 22, 1844, and shared the West Lebanon Meeting House with the First Freewill Baptists. A lack of harmony existed due to a dispute about temperance, slavery, and the way ministers should be supported, as well as what education should be required of them.

On March 10, 1845, a meeting was held to incorporate into a body politic, to be known by the name of "The Proprietors of the First Freewill Baptist Meeting House in Lebanon". On May 25, 1848 the clerk of the church wrote, "... An Academy in process of building to be finished for the fall term of school". On December 14, 1852, it was voted that the men who take care of the House shall ring the bell as long as the preceptors of the Academy are willing.

On December 14, 1854, twenty two members made a request for repairs to be made to the Meeting House and on January 2, 1855, it was voted to raise $400 for those repairs. On June 5, 1855, it was voted to unite the First and Fourth Churches into the Union Freewill Baptist Church, which is still the name used today.

During the repairs, great changes were made with a pitched roof placed over the old roof, new larger windows added, a cupola added, a projection built in the front, a level floor replaced the inclined one, a platform was built in the rear of the church and the pulpit was moved to its present location. The pews were replaced and turned around to face the rear. The singing gallery remained. When the choir sang, all arose and faced about during the singing. This continued from 1855 until 1894. In 1894, extensive alterations were again made. The old stoves were replaced with a furnace installed under the church, the old pews were again replaced, and the chandelier was removed. The organ was placed in the platform to the right of the pulpit and the walls of plain plastering were painted.

 

Union Freewill Baptist Church, you can still see a bit of the old horse barns to the right of the photo. Photo from Google images.

 

April 27, 1833, the old Meeting House was sold to Nathaniel Lord for $52.

March 3, 1846 it was voted to paint the Meeting House. As there is nothing mentioned in the original contract about painting, it seems that the Church must have stood here for 14 years before it was painted.

In 1867, Johnathan Goodwin's buildings burned and sparks ignited several fires on the church roof. James B. Stanton, in his stocking feet, carried several buckets of water onto the roof to put out the fires. The pulpit of the church was made and given by James B. Stanton.

 

The grave of James Stanton sits in a cemetery on Upper Barley Road in Lebanon.

Photo from Google Images

 

These Christians had a real impact on the town. They were against the use of alcoholic beverages, against slavery, and encouraged the young people to improve their education. One young man, born on a farm adjoining the Gully Oven, John Marshall Willoughby Farnham, joined this church, graduated from the Academy in 1851, graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY and gave himself to the life of a missionary. On July 20, 1859, he left West Lebanon and spent over a half a century in China, from 1869 to 1917. In Shanghai, his lifelong friends and pupils gathered on March 9, 1916 to pay tribute to him for 59 years of service.

 

Photos of the Chinese Idol given to Union College, Schenectady, NY

by John Marshall Willoughby Farnham

Photos courtesy of Union College, Schenectady, NY

 

In the fall of 1956, the old wood furnace of the church was removed and replaced with four gas floor furnaces and a wall heater in the back room. In about 1960, a new organ was given jointly by Norman and Dorothy Meader and B.F. and Mabel Powers. In 1973 the interior of the church was repainted, the floors refinished and storm windows installed.

 



 

 

 



Oren Cheney Founded West Lebanon Academy, Became President of Bates College

Oren Cheney was born in Holderness, NH to Abigail and Moses Cheney who were prominent abolitionists. Cheney's father was a paper manufacturer and also a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Influenced particularly by his mother, Cheney developed core beliefs in the causes of abolitionism and temperance. He supported these causes throughout his life as an abolitionist, teacher, Freewill Baptist minister, state legislator, editor of "The Morning Star", an abolitionist paper.
Cheney's father, Moses, was the original printer for The Morning Star newspaper, and he was a friend of Frederick Douglass, the noted abolitionist. The first issue of The Morning Star was published in Limerick, Maine on 11 May 1826. Seven years later the newspaper relocated to Dover, NH and it continued to be published in that town from November 1833 until December 1874. Thereafter it was published in various cities including Portland, Boston and Chicago until its final issue rolled off the presses in 1911.
Young Cheney was educated at the Parsonfield Seminary, (a Free Will Baptist prep school). He attended college at Brown University, and Dartmouth College, where he graduated with the Class of 1839. Cheney had transferred from Brown to Dartmouth after seeing mob violence on campus against abolitionists. The college had many economic ties with slave trade shipping. Cheney believed that Dartmouth was more tolerant of abolitionism.
In 1840 he married Caroline A. Rundlett and they had one child, Horace Rundlett Cheney. Caroline died in 1846, while he was studying at Whitestown.
In 1844 Cheney was ordained as a Free Will Baptist minister. He later attended the Free Will Baptist Bible School in Whitestown, NY to study theology but had to leave following his wife's death in 1846. (This school was later called the Cobb Divinity School).
In 1847, the widower Cheney married Nancy S. Perkins. They had two children, Caroline and Emmeline. Nancy died in 1886.
Oren Cheney was the principal at Parsonfield Divinity, a stop on the Underground Railroad, for several years in the 1840s. He founded the Lebanon Academy on Jim Grant Road in West Lebanon, Maine in 1848.
In 1851 Cheney was elected to the Maine House of Representatives as a Free Soil Party candidate, and was a strong supporter of the Maine State Law in favor of prohibition.
In 1855, Cheney founded the Maine State Seminary, the school that would later become Bates College. He served as president until 1894. The school reflected his personal values: it was open to all students regardless of race, gender, wealth or religion
In 1863, Cheney petitioned the Maine Legislature for a change in the charter to permit a collegiate course of study. He changed the school's name to Bates College in honor of Benjamin E. Bates, the industrialist and philanthropist who made substantial early gifts to Cheney's school.
Cheney had a major hand in founding other schools in the State of Maine, such as the Maine Central Institute (MCI), founded in 1866, and he also helped to form Storer College, a school for freed slaves in West Virginia founded in 1867
The Cheney House, on the campus of Bates College, was built in 1875 when Cheney was president.
In 1892 Cheney married for a final time to Emeline S. (Aldrich) Burlingame, a widow, who survived him.
Cheney served as Bates' president for 39 years, retiring at age 79 in 1894.
Cheney died in 1903 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Lewiston, Maine.
The Cheney House was acquired in 1905 by Bates College. Today it is used as a dormitory, a "quiet house" for 32 students.