Church History of the Town of Searsmont, Waldo County, Maine
[From the Lewiston Evening Journal of 11 August 1914]
The Methodist Episcopal Church: Religious meetings were probably held in Searsmont, as early as 1816 or 1817. In 1829, Searsmont, Belmont, Lincolnville and Hope were set off from Thomaston, and constituted a circuit, with the Rev. Benjamin Jones in charge. The Methodist Episcopal Church was erected in 1845, with the parsonage being built in 1857. The Church was reconstructed in 1879, renovating the interior at a cost of $1,000. There were forty-two pastors from 1829 to 1907, two of which, Oren Strout and Nathan Webb died in Searsmont. [A circuit Preacher would make his rounds on foot or by horseback to the several churches.]
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Searsmont, Maine with it’s Clock.
First Baptist church. The Baptist Society in Searsmont, Maine was the first organized, 1827. Meetings were held in the Town House, or in private residences. Occasionally they were held in the School houses. The First Baptist Church was built in 1845. The contract required that the foundation be laid by June first of that year. The specifications were drawn up by Sumner Pattee,. B. F. Whitten and R. L. Sweetland contracted to built the meeting house. The Church was dedicated on January 13, 1846. The Church was destroyed by fire in 1888. [To date, 2006, no photo has been found of the First Baptist Church of Searsmont, Maine. The building was on the site of the present Town Pump. ]
Searsmont was named in honor of David Sears of Boston, one of the proprietors out of whose lands the estates of the town were carved. His son, David Sears, Jr., in a letter dated Oct.14, 1845, presented to the Town of Searsmont a clock to put in the tower of the Methodist Church, and a bell, to put in the tower of the Baptist Church. If at any time the societies ceased to exist, the clock and bell were to revert to the Town to be used in other ways. The gifts were accepted in a Town Meeting, October 20, 1845.
[The story is told that after the Baptist Church
burned, the bell was damaged, melted or destroyed. The remains of
the bell were melted down and cast into smaller bells with a handle,
likened to a Teacher’s school bell, in at least two sizes. A bell of
one of the sizes was then given to members of the Church, according
to how much money the family had invested in the Church. There are
two known bells in existence, one small bell owned by the George
Gove family, in the Searsmont Historical Society, and a larger bell,
belonging to the Samuel Fowles family, having been donated to the
Lincolnville Historical Society.]
Article reconstructed by Isabel Morse Maresh.
