A Sketch of Early Primitive Baptist History in the State of Maine

"When this State was yet but a part of Massachusetts, and occupied only by scattered settlements, here and there, at the most advantageous points, it was penetrated by the Baptist preachers of the bordering States; who, gathering strength as they advanced, soon traversed its length and breadth, and preached the gospel at all the principal places. Like all pioneers, these preachers were a race of hardy and enterprising men. Laboring among pioneers in the settlement of the country, they brought them selves into sympathy with their hearers, by the exhibition of the same bold, decided spirit. They attacked the consciences of men very much as the woodsman attacked the trees. They laid the axe to the root with a vigorous hand, and as blow after blow was dealt home, the forest re-echoed with the sound.

"At this distance of time, and after so great improvements in the condition of the country and of society, it is hardly possible to conceive the difficulties which they encountered, and the suffering which they endured. Without public conveyances, or even well-defined roads, they had to track their way as best they could, through long distances, from settlement to settlement, or penetrate the unbroken forest to some remote logging camp, now, perhaps, the site of some flourishing village. In all these places they sowed the seed of the Word with a liberal hand; committing it to the waters, confident that it would appear again after many days. And so it did. The early Baptist fathers performed in Maine what Whitefield, Tennant, and Edwards did in many of the other States. They broke the formalism of the old Puritan churches, and revived the fast vanishing doctrine of the new birth."

Some of the pioneer preachers were patrons and correspondents of the Maine Baptist Herald; among them was Elder Henry Kendall, whose autobiography, published in 1853, gives an interesting account of what he and others of the pioneer preachers suffered.

David Benedict's General History of the Baptist Denomination, published in 1813, lists three associations in existence in the "District of Maine." They were the Lincoln Association, organized in 1804, having 51 churches and 2,673 members in 1812; the Bowdoinham Association, organized in 1787, having 1,456 members, 28 churches and 24 ministers in 1811; and the Cumberland
Association, organized in 1810, having 1,165 members, 24 churches and 24 members in 1811. In addition, there were churches in the District of Maine which held membership in the New Hampshire Association, organized in 1785.

On July 17, 1824, the first number of the Maine Baptist Herald was issued. This was the first paper, coinciding fully with the faith and practices of the Primitive Baptists, ever published in the United States.

Constitution of the Maine Old School Predestinarian Baptist Association: The brethren first met together in the capacity of a yearly meeting with the First Baptist Church of Whitefield, August 25, 1830. Among those present were: Elder Joseph Bailey, Enoch A. Glidden, John Potter, Levi Moody, and William Peasley, from the Whitefield Church; Elder Asa Wilber and Elijah
Hammond, from the church in Sidney; and Elder Joseph Macomber, Deacon Oliver Fuller, and brother Uriah Capen, from the Jay Church.

Primitive Baptist ministers who labored in the State of Maine included John A. Badger, Richard Bran, Forrest A. Chick, Hiram Campbell, Leonard Cox Jr., Levi Moody, Samuel Trask, Z. M. Beal, Joseph N. Badger, F. W. Keene, William Quint (we have his journal), Nathaniel Lord, Daniel Whitehouse, Philander Hartwell, Henry Smith, William Batchelder, Joseph L. Purington, William J. Purington, Elihu Purington, James Steward, Joseph Bailey, Joseph Macomber, William Burbank, Richard B. Tobie, and Asa Wilber.

This page maintained by: Robert Webb - (bwebb9@juno.com)