Radio Script #550

Little Talks on Common Things

November 4, 1962

You have often heard it said that there is no quarrel quite so bitter as one between brothers. That is why the grandchildren of Confederate veterans still feel bitterness toward Yankees. A Civil War is always a war between brothers. But I have come to believe that just as bad as a family row is a church row, and I assure you the differences of opinion within our churches are much milder and more easily reconciled today than was the case a century ago.

More than once the old time church quarrels found their way into print. In the 1870’s when the Waterville shirt maker, Charles Hathaway, led a faction against his Baptist pastor, Rev. Henry Burrage, the two disputants whacked at each other in the public columns of the Waterville Mail. Hathaway did what, in slang terms, we often tell a complainer to do. He went out and hired a hall where he proceeded to conduct his own religious meetings. He implied that Burrage didn’t recognize truth when he heard it, and on his part Burrage accused Hathaway of distorting the facts. It was quite a row while it lasted.

Sometimes those engaged on the losing side of a church controversy published a book to defend their action, and not infrequently subsequent events proved the losing minority to be right. Yet we would consider it most unusual not to say unchristian, to burst into such public print on a strictly denominational matter today. Churches may still experience internal dissension, but they no longer wash their dirty linen in public.

A few weeks ago there came to my hands a little clothbound book of more than 200 pages, recounting a controversy that split wide open the Second Parish Congregational Church in Augusta 121 years ago in 1841. The book was published by the Augusta printers, W. R. Smith and Co., and carried the following title: “Scenes in a Vestry; being an account of the Late Controversy in the South Parish Congregational Church, in Augusta.

Reported by D. C. Weston, Esq. Then follows a Bible quotation from Exodus: “Write this for a memorial in a book.” Let us see what had happened to cause Weston to turn out 200 pages of print. In October, 1838 the South Parish Church, at the instigation of its pastor, Rev. Benjamin Tappan, had passed resolutions on the subject of dancing. The resolves pointed out that no Christian could conscientiously attend a public ball, and that it was even their duty to refrain from private dancing in a home. When it became apparent that the resolutions were not uniformly observed by all members of the church, a committee was appointed in 1840 to investigate and make appropriate recommendations.

The committee reported in favor of sustaining the resolutions and the church adopted that recommendation by a vote of 25 to 1. The original resolution and the subsequent confirmation were then distributed in a printed pamphlet. Within a few weeks it became known that Mrs. Nathan Weston, wife of one of Maine’s leading citizens,Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court, had allowed and actually encouraged dancing by a group of young people in her home. After several church meetings, where discussion became more and more heated, Mrs. Weston was brought up for church discipline as was also her son, D. C. Weston, who in defending his mother had made some decidedly uncomplimentary remarks about her accusers, Pastor Tappan and his brother, Deacon Tappan.

The resulting hearings lasted several months with numerous sermons, and church members violently took one side or the other. It was a serious issue. The authority of the Church to discipline its members in relation to dancing, card playing, and other social diversions was questioned. But on the other side was the fact that the Second Parish at Augusta had been historically a creedless church, leaving wide latitude to its members to conduct themselves according to their own interpretation of the Bible. Finally, when Judge Weston saw that the vote would certainly go against his family’s conscientious belief, he announced that he, his wife and his son were withdrawing from the church. Amazingly the church took the stand that any member, having once entered into covenant with the church, could never withdraw voluntarily so long as he continued residence in the parish. So they proceeded to cast a solemn vote, excommunicating the three Westons.

Of course in a place the size of Augusta the proceedings could not be kept secret,and the weight of opinion outside the church was strongly on the side of the Westons. Because they felt that blatant injustice had been done, the son, D. C. Weston, decided to air the whole case in public print. Hence this book of more than 200 pages.

The Westons were educated persons. Judge Nathan Weston, the father, was a graduate of Dartmouth, and the son graduated from Bowdoin in the very year when his father was made Chief Justice, 1834. The woman in the case also came from a distinguished family. Mrs. Weston had been Paulina, daughter of Judge Cony, and she had married Judge Weston in 1809.

The book records the testimony verbatim, including cross-examination of the witnesses. Judge Weston was a skillful lawyer, and though the rules of court procedure did not apply in a church trial, he blasted Pastor Tappan and his deacon brother with searing scorn. But often the Judge struck a higher note. At one point he said: “The fanaticism of the present day is more prominent in the Christian Church than elsewhere. Reason, common.sense,the philosophy and physiology of mind and body, are entirely lost sight of, and everything is received with distortion. The remark of our Savior, ‘Ye strain at a gnat and swallow a camel’, was never more applicable. The weightier matters of love to God and one’s neighbors are forgotten in the hue and cry over artificial diligencies. In a recent address our pastor went so far as to suggest that Christians ought never to smile, and that to laugh would be flagrant outrage. It is this spirit that attacks the innocent amusements and gaities of life.”

Now note something else that Judge Weston said. We are likely to assume that the farther back we go in the history of American churches, the stricter we find the discipline. That is not true. Listen to Judge Weston: “In the good old days 0f our fathers many were the holidays and frolics. Farmers had their huskings; Christmas had its sleigh rides and its evening sports. Beneath the delighted eyes of gray-headed Christian parents the young people made merry in song and dance. Yet in those days the Sabbath was strictly observed. The Bible was a familiar book, to young and old alike. If any, in view of these facts, still maintains that amusements are sinful, I fear it is useless to attempt to introduce a single ray of light through the armor of impregnable prejudice.”

As for Mrs. Weston, it seems she had invited an organization of the church youth to meet in her home and had permitted them to dance. Instead of repenting in sack cloth and ashes, she openly avowed she would do the same thing again. Because she was known throughout the community as a woman of piety and deep Christian principles, it was unbelievably harsh treatment to exclude her from the church. But that is the way many a church acted in the 1840’s when the spirit of stern discipline among church members swept the land.

Judge Weston lived for many years after that unfortunate affair. He Was still living thirty years later, when North published his great two volume “History of Augusta”. You can read a calm, factual account of this church trial in North’s history, but I assure you it is not nearly so lively as the blow by blow account in D. C. Weston’s Scenes in a Vestry.

While we are talking about Augusta, let us skip forward 31 years and take a look at the ads in the Kennebec Journal on January 13, 1871. By this time you know very well that I hold a certain view about social history. If you want to know what a Maine town was like 90 years ago, don’t depend on the news stories in its paper. You will get a much better conception of life in the place by paying attention to the advertisements. In 1871 men and boys wore reefers in the winter, and they could get them cheap at Bosworth’s. Williams and Greenwood proclaimed: “Now is the time to buy a first rate cook stove for $22.” If you wanted to travel in style, you could obtain either a harness or a leather-covered trunk at Hamilton Turner’s. John D. Arthency had genuine Belfast, Harpswell and Freeport clams, and he would give you a supply of clam water for your chowder if you bought half a peck of clams. Henry Hest offered new styles in candy, including candy toys, and he would make a neat wedding cake on order. While R. C. Clement specialized in West India goods, Mrs. Gill made fashionable cloaks and sold Butterick patterns.

Evidently an Augusta music teacher considered it easier to train women’s voices than men’s. G. W. Lancaster’s ad said: “A class in the elements of vocal music will open on January 14. Tickets for the course: ladies $1.50, gentlemen $2.00.”

Of course the hotels had spacious ads. The Mansion House, W. M. Thayer proprietor, announced that it now had bathrooms and assured a Warm meal to guests who arrived on the evening train from Boston, no matter how late that train.

The ad for the Augusta House was accompanied by a large picture. The ad said: “This modern hotel contains 110 rooms, large parlors, reading rooms and a billiard hall. There are sample rooms where commercial travelers can show their goods without extra charge. This house was the first in the capital city to reduce prices, the first to establish free hacking service to and from the depot, the first to have free sample rooms. Transient rates are from $2.00 to $2.50 a day, including meals. Special rates to persons staying for a few weeks or months.”

The Market Square Grocery offered something new: corn syrup for buckwheat cakes. Gould and Adams boasted that they were now making sausage by steam. D. W. Viney had reopened an eating house known as Somes’ Saloon on Water Street and pointed to a special dining room for ladies upstairs. Johnson Brothers had Pure California Wines at one dollar a quart, but how a person bought a bottle legally under Maine’s Prohibitory Law the ad did not say.

There was a big out-of-state ad, inserted by no less a person than the famous New York millionaire, Jay Cooke. He offered at a price of $900 the new 7% bonds of the Central Railroad of Iowa. “Sell your government bonds and buy rails”, urged Cooke.

Collier and Gardiner sold union-made sleighs, and Westerbury  wanted you to try his new cough candy.

Finally, note what you could do with savings in 1871 & the Augusta Bank interest was paid at the rate of 7% a year.

Year: 1962