Parishioners of Wiscasset’s First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, are celebrating their 250th anniversary. If you haven’t done so already mark Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 9 and 10 on your calendar. If you’re from away, the church is just off Main Street next door to Lincoln County Courthouse at the head of the town common.

In anticipation of the celebration, the membership has been sharing stories from the church’s vibrant past at their weekly service. With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to travel back to Aug. 6, 1873 when the congregation celebrated the church’s Centennial. This event, too, required months of planning the Elders of the church having to rely on the postal service to get the word out. What was kind of surprising to me is the celebration didn’t take place on a Sunday as one might expect; it was held mid-week on a Wednesday. That day was chosen because it marked the original date the membership gathered to adopt their church covenant.

The Rev. William Henry Bolster was pastor during the Centennial celebration. As it was, Pastor Bolster was still rather new to the Wiscasset community. He’d been installed as minister not quite 14 months earlier on June 11, 1872, which was the same day he was officially ordained. Bolster was attending Bates College in Lewiston when he got “the call.” After graduating from there, he enrolled at Bangor Theological Seminary. Pastor Bolster was new to Maine’s Midcoast and rather young, too. He’d just turned 28 when his Wiscasset ministry began.

This being his first church, the fledgling preacher was no doubt eager to please his congregation of 85 or so members, two thirds of whom were women. It must have been challenging for him, perhaps even a little strange having arrived as he did from Western Maine, Oxford County with its lush forests, lakes and hills. He had been born and brought up at Rumford Point, a small settlement along the shores of the Androscoggin River. I’m pretty sure Rev. Bolster was married when he arrived here in Wiscasset more commonly known then as the Shire town of Lincoln County. His wife Marilla, who was four years younger, had six children by him. Rev. Bolster’s Wiscasset ministry lasted four years, which was about the average stay for a minister here. After leaving, he remained in Maine and over the course of his career ministered to four other churches. Later in life, he and Marilla returned to Oxford County where Rev. Bolster died at age 68. He and his wife are buried in South Paris.

In his book “Ye Olde First Parish, – History of the First Congregational Church” the late Rev. Dr. Harold “Hal” Tucker compiled a number of interesting facts about the colorful Centennial celebration. Rev. Tucker served as minister here from 1985 to 1994. A native of New Jersey, he was born in the town of Millville, famous as the home of Wheaton glassware. His family moved to Taunton, Massachusetts when he was a youngster. As a young man, Tucker attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, graduating with his bachelor of arts degree in 1958. Like Pastor Bolster, he went on to Bangor Theological Seminary but then furthered his education at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana where he received his doctoral degree. Rev. Tucker devoted several pages to the Centennial celebration noting the day of the celebration was “blessed with excellent weather,” sunny but not too warm. The sanctuary was decorated with evergreens, oak leaves and colorful blossoms from early spring flowers. An archway had been erected behind the pulpit and behind it was a list of the 10 pastors who had served the church.

Other information about the Centennial appears within Fanny Chase’s “History of Wiscasset at Pownalborough.” From these sources we learn the 100th anniversary was more of a reunion reuniting past ministers and their families, in addition to other former members of the congregation. Among the guests were two other men of the cloth, Rev. Uriah Balkam and Rev. George Street. Rev. Street had presided behind the pulpit from 1864 to 1871, while Rev. Balkam with his trademark long sideburns had ministered here from 1844 to 1854.

Rev. Balkum left behind an interesting legacy. After leaving Wiscasset, he continued his ministry in Lewiston serving as pastor of the Congregational Church on Pine Street until 1870. During the Civil War, Rev. Balkum had answered the call to the colors volunteering to preserve the Union. In 1863, he was promoted to Chaplain of the 16th Maine Regiment. Two years after the war in 1867, Rev. Balkam received an honorary doctorate from Bates, where he taught theology. His life ended rather tragically in 1874 when he was thrown from his horse on his way to the college. His wife Martha had died 25 years before in 1849 while he was still ministering in Wiscasset.

Picking up where I left off: During the afternoon of the Centennial celebration, the congregation and their many guests, close to 300 folks in attendance, moved from the parish hall down High Street to a reception held on the grounds of Capt. Richard H. Tucker’s home. The landmark mansion overlooking Wiscasset harbor, now a museum, is better known today as Castle Tucker. Dr. Sidney B. Cushman presided at the reception introducing guests. Alpheus Spring Packard, a professor at Bowdoin and a son of Hezekiah Packard, the church’s second pastor, gave the keynote address at the luncheon.

Just a word or two about Dr. Cushman, he practiced medicine in Wiscasset and Boothbay for over 50 years. Traveling by horse and buggy, day or night in every kind of weather, Dr. Cushman treated all manner of fevers and illnesses, set broken bones and delivered hundreds of babies, too. His brother, the Rev. David Quimby Cushman, was well known, too, having researched and written “The History of Ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle.”

The Congo Church’s Centennial celebration concluded with everyone once more gathering at the church for an evening service of “praise and prayer.” The service concluded with a special hymn, written and sung by Annette Hubbard Hobson, “a daughter of the church.” Mrs. Hodson was the wife of Francis Orville Hobson of Wiscasset. It was Francis’s uncle, Isaac Townsend Hobson, who owned the sprawling sawmill on Hobson’s Island, today called White’s Island. Francis worked in the mill’s office after graduating from Bowdoin, Class of 1861. He and Annette sang in the church choir and Annette belonged to the Ladies Organ Society. Francis must have had a nice voice since he’d been a member of the Chapel Singers at Bowdoin. Always one to credit my sources, I found this and other information about Francis Orville Hubbard’s life in the “Obituary Record of the Graduates of Bowdoin College” published in 1914, the year of Francis Orville Hobson’s death.

Annette Hubbard Hobson had a knack for writing verse and published a number of poems. Her hymn which lacks a title was reprinted in Fanny Chase’s book and goes like this:

O Thou! Before whose endless days

All time and seasons are the same,

Help us a right to sound Thy praise,

And give fit glory to Thy name.

A hundred years of grace and love!

How great the sum, how small our worth!

Thy church in grateful wonder bow’d

Recounts Thy mercies since birth

May this Thy plant a cent’ry old,

Blossom to-day in praises sweet;

Our hearts uplifted to Thy throne,

Lay the rich garland at Thy feet.

The music the organist played to accompany Mrs. Hubbard’s hymn is a mystery. Perhaps she sang it to one of the popular tunes of the day.

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register-Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset. Contact him at pdivece@roadrunner.com