<\/p>\n
One of Maine’s old towns that has preserved much of its rural nature unmarred by industrial development is the Cumberland County town of Otisfield, 36 miles northwest of Portland. It has recently made news by leaving Cumberland County for Oxford. The territory in which the town is now located was originally granted by the provincial government of Massachusetts Bay to Captain John Gorham for his services in the early part of the long French and Indian Wars in 1699. In 1777, it was reassigned to Gorham heirs, among whom were James Otis, of Revolutionary fame. In fact, Otis was the leading proprietor in fact if not in law, even before that.<\/p>\n
There is preserved the record of a meeting of the proprietors held at the Bunch of Grapes tavern in Boston on October 16, 1776, which attended to the following business. “Voted to employ Mr. Pierce to build a bridge across Crooked River. He engages to build the same and warrant it for five years at his own expense; the bridge to be approved by a committee of the proprietary. On approval, the proprietor agrees to pay him $5 or as they may choose to pay his account for the bridge.<\/p>\n
“Voted to rescind the vote of July 5 relative to 64 100 acre lots to be laid out upon the northeast side of the township, and voted instead to lay out 40 100 acre lots on the northeast side and 24 on the northwest side, and Mr. George Pierce is ordered to run the lines of the second tier of lots agreeable to plan.<\/p>\n
“Voted that Mr. N. Gorham, the late clerk of the proprietors, be desired to deliver the plan and papers relative to said township to S. A. Otis, the present clerk.”<\/p>\n
Now comes the most important part of this old document, “Voted, that the name of the towmship be Otisfield.” So here was one of several instances where a Maine town was named for a prominent citizen of colonial Boston.<\/p>\n
A group of persons in Otisfield are zealous to preserve all items of historical interest about the town. Led by Prof. John Hawkins, retired head of the English Department at University of Maine, Orono and his talented wife, Nellie Pottle Hawkins, the group has restored on Bell Hill in Otisfield, a one room school house built in 1832. Nearby is the carefully restored Bell Hill Church, long closed for regular services, but opened once a year on the last Sunday in July.<\/p>\n
It has been my privilege to attend many of those annual services at the Bell Hill Church, and I am always thrilled by the large attendance which invariably fills the building to overflowing. The restoration has carefully retained the old pews with their swinging doors, the pews beside the pulpit placed at right angles with the main pews, the centrally placed pulpit and as near as possible retention of the old style windows.<\/p>\n
In 1976 the sermon was delivered by a layman, a native of Otisfield who has become one of her most famous sons, Dr. Frederick Pottle, Sterling Emeritus of English at, Yale University, who has won international renown by his annotated publication of the Boswell Papers and by his brilliant biography of their writer James Boswell.<\/p>\n
After the church service, the restored school house was appropriately dedicated by Dr. Sawin Millett, Maine Commissioner of Education.<\/p>\n
If you want to see a well cultivated but still unspoiled part of Maine, pay a visit to Otisfield, especially to the eastern part of that town which borders on beautiful Lake Thompson, which next to Sebago is the largest lake in western Maine.<\/p>\n
I relish seeing now and then some old-time recipes carelessly written on a scrap of paper which would ordinarily be thrown away. Thanks to people who preserve such items we find them often pasted in scrap books and less frequently loose. One such of these loose pieces fell out of a history book I chanced to see recently. This is what this recipe said: “To take out mildew. One teaspoonful chloride of lime in one glass of water. Wet the cloth in this and let it lay a few minutes. If not effective, repeat. Rinse in clean water.”<\/p>\n
Everyone knows that until 1820 Maine was a part of Massachusetts and the laws made by the provincial legislature in Boston prevailed in all Maine towns. It is therefore interesting to note several items in the constitution adopted by Massachusetts when it became a state in the new federation after the American Revolution.<\/p>\n
Of special interest is a small paper bound volume published in Portland in 1802. It carries the title, “Constitution of the State of Massachusetts, together with the Declaration of Independence and Washington’s Farewell Address.” The printer was Isaac Adams, 7 Fish Street, Portland.<\/p>\n
In our time when religion in the public schools has become a heated issue, and the Supreme Court has strenuously upheld separation of church and state, it behooves us to note what that Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 said about religion.<\/p>\n
Its Article II was worded: “It is the right as well as the duty of all men, publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the great creator and preserver of the universe, and no subject of this state shall be hurt, molested or restrained in his person, liberty or estate, from worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or his religious profession or sentiments, provided he doth not disturb the public peace or obstruct others in their religious worship.”<\/p>\n
That is immediately followed by Article III, which said: “As the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government eventually depends upon piety, religion and morality and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of public worship and public instruction in piety, religion and morality; therefore, to promote their happiness and secure the good order and preservation of government, the People of this Commonwealth have a right to invest their Legislature with power to authorize and require the several towns and parishes of the Commonwealth to make suitable provision for the institution of public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public teachers of piety, religion and morality, in all cases where such provision should not be made voluntarily by religious societies.<\/p>\n
“Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns and parishes, or other bodies politic, shall at all times have the exclusive right of electing their public teachers and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance.<\/p>\n
“All monies paid by a subject of this Commonwealth for the support of public worship shall, if he requires it, be uniformly applied to the support of the public teacher of his own religious sect, if there be any on whose instruction he attends. otherwise it may be paid towards the support of the religious teacher of the parish on which his money is raised.<\/p>\n
“Every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves peaceably, and as good subjects of the Commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law, and no subordination of anyone sect or denomination by another shall ever be established by law.”<\/p>\n
That article in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 makes it clear that long before the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted, and seven years before there was any U.S. Constitution at all the state of which Maine was then a part guaranteed to all of its citizens freedom of religion. Every citizen of the state could not only worship as he chose, but he could designate his share of the tax to support the ministry to go not to the town preacher, but to his own denomination.<\/p>\n
That is exactly what happened in Waterville. The Rev. Joshua Cushman was chosen the town minister by vote of the town and he was supported by the state required tax for the ministry. But when in 1818 Jeremiah Chaplin organized the first denominational church in Waterville, the First Baptist, his parishioners could designate their ministerial tax away from Cushman to Chaplin.<\/p>\n
But note this. It was taken for granted that religion was such an important element in the public welfare that no citizen could entirely escape the tax. He was not free to be non-religious in his affiliation. To our forefathers 175 years ago such an idea was unthinkable. That the first amendment was intended to protect the atheist never entered their minds. That interpretation was left for our own more permissive century.<\/p>\n
Now let, us see what that Massachusetts Constitution had to say about education.<\/p>\n
Section 2 of Article V says this: “Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people is necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, among different orders of people, it shall be the duty of the legislature and the magistrates, in all future generations of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, especially the University at Cambridge, and public schools and grammar schools in all the towns.”<\/p>\n
It was that article in the Massachusetts Constitution that compelled every town to have a public school and every town of a certain minimum size to have a grammar school. The early 19th century grammar school was equated to what became the academy and later the high school.<\/p>\n
When that state constitution was framed there was much doubt about the value of the new nation’s money. In fact not until 1782 was there really any new nation to have money. That is why, between the end of the Revolution and 1787, each state had to protect its own currency. Massachusetts did it by this article: “In all cases where sums of money are mentioned in this constitution, the value shall be computed in silver at three pounds eight shillings per ounce (Then about $4.50).<\/p>\n
The Constitution took care that members of the legislature should be men of financial substance. We would regard such a measure today as undemocratic, a repudiation of equal rights. But in 1780 it was decreed that every state senator must have either real estate valued at $300 or $600 of personal property, and that every member of the state House of Representative should have $100 of real estate or $200 of personal property.<\/p>\n
The same principle in lesser amount governed the right to vote. The Constitution said, “Every male person of 21 or more years of age, and resident of this Commonwealth for at least one year, and having real estate that provides annual income of three pounds, or any estate valued at $60, shall have the right to vote in the choice of legislative representation for his town.”<\/p>\n
Finally, note what the constitution said about the governor: “The governor must have an estate of $1000 and must declare himself to be of the Christian religion. ”<\/p>\n
And these, I assure you, were some of the laws that prevailed right here when Waterville first became a separate town in 1802.<\/p>\n
Year: 1977<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1119, Broadcast on March 27, 1977<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27136,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}