METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (SOUTH WATERFORD, ME.)
Records, 1764-1871.

MANUSCRIPT NUMBER 223

ACCESS: Unrestricted

REPRODUCTION: All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

COPYRIGHT: Information on copyright (literary rights) available from repository.

CITATION:  Methodist Episcopal Church (South Waterford, Me.) Records, MSS 223, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. 

Methodism reached the village of South Waterford, Maine in 1802 with the itinerant preaching of the Rev. Joseph Baker.  By 1806 Waterford was a part of the Poland Circuit of the Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  The first Quarterly Conference meeting was held in 1816 in the barn of resident Josiah Shaw.  Construction on a church sanctuary located at Mutiny Corner began in 1818 and finished the following year.  In 1826 Waterford, Bridgton, and Sweden were separated from the Poland Circuit to create the Waterford Circuit.  The congregation continued to grow and in 1835 a larger building was built closer to town.  The sanctuary was destroyed by fire in 1844 and rebuilt in 1845.  A parsonage was added in 1850.   By 1869 the Waterford Circuit was located within the Gardiner District of the Maine Conference.  The church, part of a charge with Sweden, was closed in 1905.

The collection consists of one bound volume listing marriages and probationary members of the church, as well as a ledger fragment kept by Mr. Joshua Dungin.

The bound volume lists marriages that were performed from November 1862 to November 1869 by five pastors: T. Gifford from November 1862 to January 1864; Gershom F. Cobb (b. 1833)  from June 1864 to April 1866; John Gibson, who emigrated from England, from June 1866 to September 1866; John Rice (b. 1810) from July 1868 to April 1869; and J. Irving Cummings for November 1869.  The inside front cover and first page of the marriage section contain a short list of pastoral visits and supplies to be ordered from Boston.  The list of probationary church members extends from 1844 to April 1871 and includes the probationer's name, marital and baptismal status, and the date of acceptance into church membership.  Some membership transfers are also noted.  The entries for the marriages and probationers are written in ink.  The notations of visits and supplies are written in pencil.

The ledger fragment consists of three sections of entries: dates, expenditures, and measurements.  The birth and death dates for Josiah Ellsworth (1764-1849) and his wife, Sarah (1766-1833) are listed, as well as dates ranging from 1803 to 1845 for seven sets of initials.  Expenditures are kept for the period 1831 to 1861.  Two contracts are also noted: an arrangement with Francis Barker to rent a house and an agreement with Royal Warren to keep Sarah E. for one dollar a week.  The last section is dated 1803 and lists measurements for lumber.  Nothing further is known regarding Joshua Dungin.

CONTAINER LISTING

Box/Folder        Description                             Date

1/1               Church register                         1844-1871
1/2               Ledger fragment                         1764-1861