Our First 150 Years

This history, written by Clyde Russell, was originally published, ca. 1978, in a booklet entitled “The First 150 Years of the Winslow Congregational Church.” In 2026, the text was lightly edited and the annotations in brackets added. The list of ministers at the end has also been updated. We plan to update the entire history before the church’s bicentennial in 2028.

The first Congregational minister came to Winslow in 1790. He was Joshua Cushman, and he was employed by the Town of Winslow, which included what is now Waterville and Oakland. He was 36 years old, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a graduate of Harvard, and he had had a year of post graduate study with the Rev. Ephraim Boggs. When Waterville and Oakland separated from Winslow in 1802, the town continued to employ him until 1814. Then it gave him $1200 as severance pay.

While he was preaching, Joshua Cushman was elected three times to the Massachusetts legislature. His preaching was so liberal that some people said he was the first Unitarian minister; after he left the ministry he attended the Universalist Church in Waterville.

After he stopped preaching, he served in the United States Congress as a Representative from Massachusetts. He voted against the admission of Maine to the Union, if it was going to mean admitting Missouri as a slave state. He was an unusual combination — a Congregational minister who was a Democrat. [After Maine became a state, he was elected to the Maine legislature.] He died right in the well of the Maine House of Representatives, and his body lies in the tomb across the street from the State Capitol.

The Winslow Congregational Church never built or bought a church building. When the Massachusetts law required the town to employ a “gospel teacher,” meeting houses were built in 1797 on both sides of the Kennebec. On the east side of the river, the land was donated by Arthur Lithgow. Both buildings were financed by selling the pews. The deeds to the pews were recorded in the town records. Whoever owned the buildings, the pews belonged to the persons who had paid for them. When there began to be town offices, they were in the meeting house and remained there until the 1880s.

Sixty-six years after the meeting houses were built, the unknown author of “Talk About Winslow,” [a series of columns about Winslow history published in the Eastern Mail, a Waterville newspaper, in early 1864,] wrote:

The meeting house was built so far as to erect a frame and cover it with boards, clapboards, and shingles in 1797. It was also glazed and the pews made on the floor. A pulpit was also made. There was neither plastering, paint, not even lathing. Many who read this will remember gazing on those naked beams and rafters as they entered the house of worship; and also that the attention of young persons and children in summer was frequently diverted from the solemn truths uttered by the preacher to the swallows that flew and chirped in the open spaces above, unmolested.

For an account of the beginnings of Congregationalism in Winslow, there is a letter written by Grandmother Abiel Paine to her grandson in 1850:

In the spring of 1818, the Massachusetts Missionary Society sent a missionary to Vassalborough [now spelled “Vassalboro,”] by name Rev. Thomas Adams. Very soon after his arrival Deacon Talbot called upon him to let him know our state and invite him to visit us.

The young man called at the Paines’ in July and by November 1 was ready to establish a group of Christians in Winslow as a branch of the Vassalboro church, which in turn was a branch of the Hallowell church.

In June 1819, Mr. Adams helped found “The Female Benevolent Society of Winslow and Clinton for Support of the Gospel.” (Benton Falls was then a part of Clinton). The name has been shortened to “The Female Society of Winslow for the Support of the Gospel” and the society is commonly referred to as “The June Meeting.” Its annual dues are still 25 cents and it prides itself on being one of the oldest women’s organizations in the United States. On May 18, 1828, a Sabbath School Society was founded, its members being the leaders of the branch church. Finally, the Vassalboro church dismissed 42 members of its branch in Winslow to organize their own church.

An ecclesiastical council of ministers and lay delegates from Winthrop, Hallowell, Norridgewock, Bloomfield [which is now part of Skowhegan], and Vassalboro met on August 27 in the schoolhouse across the road and weighed the qualifications of the members of the proposed church and of the minister, Mr. William May, of Winthrop. (His brother, Seth, was to become a justice of the Maine Supreme Court.)

The next day, [August 28, 1828,] they met in the meeting house, constituted the church, and ordained Mr. May. Thirteen men and 29 women had been members of the Winslow branch of the Vassalboro church, but only eight men and 22 women became members of the new church. Thus, the only voting members were Deacon Peter Talbot, Frederic Paine, Suprelit Wilmouth, Jonathan Garland, Asa Burnham, Thomas Rice, David Garland, and Robert R. Drummond. Of course, the women were members and were listed among the men, but they did not vote or hold office any more than they did in town meeting. For almost 20 years there were rarely more than seven votes cast on any issue.

Mr. May was only a moderate success. The church didn’t discharge him, but it made clear to him that at least some of his congregation thought that he had missed his calling. He resigned [on October 30, 1932]. The town had not forgotten Father Adams, and he was available. There was correspondence between him and the church and a subscription paper was circulated with the result that 36 members of the church and parish pledged enough money for Mr. Adams so that he could preach part time in Winslow and part time in Waterville. Nothing came of it and for two years and a half, the church was without a minister.

There were strong minded men among the eight brethren. When the church abruptly sent its second minister, [Henry C. Jewett,] on his way, Deacon Talbot and his wife transferred to the Waterville church. When Squire Rice deplored the action of Robert Drummond in working on the Sabbath, there was a series of meetings and not until some new, more liberal members joined was the case finally dropped.

David and Jonathan Garland were two of the eight founders. Thomas Garland joined later in the year and during Mr. Jewett’s ministry [July 1835 – April 1842], he was elected deacon. When Deacon Talbot resigned in sympathy with Mr. Jewett, Thomas was left the only deacon and for a while was moderator and clerk, besides.

After Mr. Jewett left, John Perham supplied, and the church issued him a formal call. He declined it, but continued to preach and was popular and influential. [He served the church from December 1842 to July 1844.] He proposed a set of resolutions on temperance and slavery which were unanimously adopted. They were extreme; they pledged the church to withdraw its fellowship from, not only slaveholders, but anyone who advocated the slavery system.

After Mr. Perham left, Samuel Garland, one of David’s sons, proposed that the resolutions be rescinded. Only Thomas and Jonathan voted to hold fast to the resolutions. At the same meeting, the church voted to call Albert Cole, [who assumed the pulpit in March 1847]. Only Thomas and Jonathan dissented.

While Mr. Perham was here, 23 members joined the church in one day, July 16, 1843. Seven of the new members were men, of whom two would become deacons — Williams Bassett and Charles Keith. Within two years of his joining, 20-year-old Timothy Paine, at that time a student at Colby, requested dismissal because his views on some of the articles of faith had changed. The church patiently tried to compose the difficulty — after all, Frederic and Abiel, his parents, had been prime movers in founding both the branch church and the Winslow church.

Finally, Timothy, his sister, Caroline, Mrs. Eunice Stratton, and Mrs. Caroline Evans were not dismissed; they were all excommunicated on August 8, 1846. They all joined the Swedenborgians, or “New,” church, which seemed to be much more liberal than the Winslow Congregational Church at that time. It was a time when Winslow was without a minister. Timothy became a minister in the “New” church in Massachusetts and received an honorary LL.D. [doctor of laws degree] from Colby in 1875.

On June 29, 1844, Thomas Rice gave the church a new communion set, consisting of “2 tankards, 6 cups, 2 plates, and one vase or bason.” The church gave the old set to Brothers Rice and Paine “so that they could bestow it to some destitute church.”

We don’t know what was really the cause of the quarrel between Thomas and Jonathan Garland and the rest of the church, but there was a quarrel with a stream of accusations against the church collectively and as individuals that are only alluded to in the records kept by Williams Bassett, now deacon and clerk. When Mr. Cole left [in November 1850], the only objection to resolutions of regret were by Thomas and Jonathan. Finally, on February 23, 1852, the church demanded that Thomas retract “all his allegations” and stated that until he did, the church was withdrawing fellowship from him as a member. Six weeks later, they dealt the same way with Jonathan.

David Shepley, a graduate of Bowdoin and Andover Theological Seminary, came here from a 20-year pastorate in Yarmouth and stayed almost 11 years, [from September 1851 to June 1862]. During that time his salary was increased from the usual $300 to $380. After he had been here three years, he bought a house for $850. When he went back to Yarmouth, he sold it for $1000 to a syndicate of church members and parishioners who wanted it for the new minister, John Dinsmore, [who served from June 1862 until September 1880]. Mr. Dinsmore may have bought out the syndicate, for when he left, he and his wife sold it to another syndicate who gave it to the church. It continued to be the parsonage until, at a quarterly meeting September 29, 1965, it was voted to sell it.

The church is said not to have been painted until 1836, though a steeple was put up in 1830 and remained until 1884. Some time before 1876, a chapel was erected, probably east of the parsonage. In the winter it must have been easier to heat than the meeting house and it was much used for weddings, funerals, and all sorts of meetings, including Sunday services.

A year and a half after Mr. Dinsmore began his ministry, he proposed that the Sunday afternoon service be discontinued so that he could preach to a branch church to be established in North Vassalboro, where services could be held in the members’ homes. The church lasted for about ten years and then Mr. Dinsmore began to preach Sunday afternoon in Benton Falls. Except for a period from 1905 to 1912, the churches continued to have the same minister until Mr. MacMullen left, almost a hundred years later. [Howard K. MacMullen was pastor from September 1971 to November 1973.]

In 1900, the church was remodeled. It was turned 90 degrees to the right, so that it faced Lithgow Street; the gallery was replaced by the floor of the sanctuary; the box pews were removed; and the ground floor was divided into three-rooms, a library, and a kitchen. Colored windows were installed. The cost of the whole project was about $3500.

Since the church now had a vestry, there was no need of a chapel, and in 1903 the church sold it to the town for $500 and it was moved to where it is now. The town used it for municipal offices and a library.

The first annual meeting at which supper was served was in 1905. Four years later “The Ladies Sewing Circle of the Congregational Church and Parish” was organized. It was “for sociability and for helping to meet the expenses in repairs and improvements on the Church and Church Property.” The initiation fee was 10 cents. The name has been changed to the Women’s Fellowship. In 1912, it had 33 members, perhaps most of them farmers’ wives.

Down through the years, the contribution of the women has been essential, but, until after the Civil War, largely unrecorded. In 1884, there was a committee to take down the steeple. They left a record of their doings and one item is significant:

Voted that the committee heretofore acting shall consult with the ladies, who have a fund raised by Fairs and Sociables to repair church and if satisfactory proceed to repair inside of house in such manner as may be agreed upon.

In the annual meeting of 1909 it was voted to have a report of the Sewing Circle and the Christian Endeavor Society at future meetings. The CE Society had been founded in Portland as a youth organization; in Winslow, it eventually replaced the Sunday Evening prayer meeting. As it existed in the ’20s, different members took turns conducting the meeting. It was a cardinal principle of the Society that every one should take some part, aside from singing, in every meeting. Young people got used to hearing their voices in a public meeting, whether they offered a brief prayer, a “testimony,” or read a verse of scripture from the back of the hymnbook.

There was a mid-week prayer meeting, conducted by the pastor until some time in the ’30s.

In 1909, the present pews were bought. Up front, there was a single pulpit in the middle of the platform. In front of the platform, on the main floor was a table. Behind the pulpit were three chairs. The organ was in the choir loft, against the back wall.

For ten years or so after the church was founded, the congregation sang psalms and hymns without any instrumental accompaniment. Then Cyrus Howard bought the church violin and learned to play it. George Patterson, then clerk, was enthusiastic about the organ that was used in 1878, when the church was host to the Somerset and Kennebec County Conference, but it was probably borrowed for the occasion. A Mason and Hamlin organ was played for the first time April 2, 1893, probably by Julia Patterson; at least she was playing it 30 years later when Doris Russell began a term of some 40 years as organist.

The church bell was bought from a Methodist church in Lubec in 1935.

At the annual meeting of 1945, the Christian Endeavor Society and the Sewing Circle announced that they had bought 100 folding chairs for the church vestry. Before that the vestry furniture had been settees, painted a kind of battleship gray and unpainted table tops and trestles which, when not in use, were stored in the downstairs foyer. The furnace burned wood, which was piled up in the cellar until it was used. At the same meeting it was voted to buy an oil burning furnace.

In 1947, the church raised $2300 to pay for an electric organ. It was put in the space to the left of the pulpit and the pulpit and much of the woodwork was painted white. In 1951, the whole front of the church was redesigned according to plans supplied by a church architect in Portland and the colored glass which had been installed 51 years before was removed.

The merger of the Congregational-Christian denomination with the Evangelical and Reformed church in order to form the United Church of Christ [in 19757] caused slight controversy in the Winslow church. In all, the church voted six times on it, always in the affirmative, and usually by a unanimous vote.

In March 1949, the church accepted a set of by-laws, which provided for two significant changes: The office of deacon was diminished in power and prestige. Up to 1910, there had never been more than two deacons at a time. When they were elected, it was expected that they would serve for life. The new constitution prescribed that there should be at least four deacons at a time and that after two four-year terms they should be ineligible for re-election for at least a year. A church council was established to supplement the quarterly meetings. In 1966, a Memorial Fund was established, with a committee to accept and distribute gifts to the church.

In 1964, the church was incorporated with a constitution that greatly increased the responsibilities of the trustees.

Perhaps the Sunday School during the late 1950s and early 1960s was as large as at any time in the life of the church. There was talk of building a parish house, but the expense seemed beyond our means, so Sunday School classrooms were built in the basement at a cost of $6000. They were dedicated December 4, 1960.

In 1967, the town moved its municipal offices to Benton Avenue and deeded what had once been the chapel back to the church for $1. The church spent $1300 from the sale of the parsonage in renovating the chapel and in cleaning and decorating the sanctuary. Forty-four hundred dollars more from the same source was used to cover the church with aluminum siding.

During World War II, a Men’s Club was organized, which prepared and served its own monthly suppers and then listened to varied programs, usually lectures. It thrived until the mid-’50s. The Kum Dubble Klub (1950 – 1964) was for young married couples. For years, the Sewing Circle sponsored occasional suppers and a Christmas Fair. In August 1973, a Blueberry Festival was introduced, which was primarily intended to raise money, but which brought the whole church together in a common enterprise.

It would be a thankless and an impossible task, in such a brief account as this, to relate the contributions of all the individuals — men and women — who did much to keep this church alive for 150 years. The more that were mentioned, the more there would be that were left out. Some of the most valuable service was not of a kind that even the most efficient clerk would record.

It is appropriate to list the ministers who, with their wives, kept the light burning. They brought us dreams, showed us our duty, and revived our energies. They christened our children and they buried our dead. Like the members of their parish, they had their failings and their differences, but they loved their Lord and served Him.