Free Will Baptists developed as a movement in the late eighteenth century in New Hampshire. In 1832, Rev. John Buzzell and several other Free Baptists founded the school in Parsonsfield. The Seminary, at the level of a high school, was the first Free Will Baptist school in the United States and attracted 140 students, both boys and girls, in its first year. The seminary's first principal, Hosea Quimby, was active in many other Free Will Baptist organizations. The Seminary staff and students became deeply involved with the abolitionist movement and operated as a stop on the Underground Railroad in the 1840s, while Oren B. Cheney was principal. Students and supporters aided fugitive slaves from the South in reaching freedom in Canada. From 1840 to 1842, the Free Baptist Biblical School, the first Free Baptist graduate school for training ministers, was located at the seminary (it was later renamed Cobb Divinity School and became part of Bates College).
The burning of Parsonsfield
The seminary in the 1800s
Parsonsfield Seminary burned mysteriously in 1853, at midnight. The overall account of the burning remains unclear, with sources varying depending on the actual occurrences. When recounting its burning, Oren Burbank Cheney stated, "The bell tower flickered in flames while the children ran from its pillar-brick walls.."[2] The fire was believed to have killed three schoolchildren and two fugitive slaves, leading to a brief and unsuccessful investigation. The reason as to why the Seminary burned down remains unclear, with opponents of abolitionism traditionally, but not definitively, held accountable.[3] The seminary would later go on to incorporate into the Maine State Seminary, which early benefactor Benjamin Bates would oppose. He advised Cheney to sell the land in Parsonsfield, Maine, and reconstruct it within the newly developing Maine State Seminary.[4] Afterward, Cheney moved the central campus to Lewiston in 1854 to replace it with a larger Free Baptist school more centrally located in Maine.
Reconstruction and development
In 1857, a smaller seminary building was rebuilt at Parsonsfield. It had a cupola and a weathervane. In 1889, Bartlett Doe, a wealthy San Francisco businessman who was a Parsonsfield native son, purchased the land and donated funds to repair and remodel Seminary Hall, adding its rear wing and front bell tower. His gift provided for the construction of a new dormitory, to which a large annex was added in 1896. He also established a school endowment of $100,000.
Parsonsfield Seminary closed in 1949.[5] The facility was subsequently used by the Consolidated School District until 1986, at which time the school offices moved to new quarters. The two main buildings of the seminary and grounds were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.[5] To prevent the loss of the historic hilltop campus, the Friends of the Parsonsfield Seminary organized to preserve and maintain the property. The non-profit, non-sectarian organization operates the handsome Victorian buildings and grounds for use for weddings, conferences, seminars, and graduations.
↑ Johnnett, R. F. (1878). Bates Student: A Monthly Magazine. Edmund Muskie Archives, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine: Bates College. pp.Multi–source, pp. 164.
↑ Cheney, Oren; Cheney, Emeline Stanley Aldrich Burlingame (1907). The Story of the life and work of Oren B. Cheney, founder and first president of Bates College. Ladd Library, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine: Boston, Mass., Pub. for Bates college by the Morning star publishing house. p.99.
↑ Chase, Harry. Bates College was named after Mansfield Man. Edmund Muskie Archives: National Resources Trust of Mansfield. p.5.
Bates College is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals 813 acres (329 ha). It maintains 600 acres (240 ha) of nature preserve known as the "Bates-Morse Mountain" near Campbell Island and a coastal center on Atkins Bay.
Person Colby Cheney was a paper manufacturer, abolitionist and Republican politician from Manchester, New Hampshire. He was the 35th governor of New Hampshire and later represented the state in the United States Senate.
Oren Burbank Cheney was an American politician, minister, and statesman who was a key figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States during the later 19th century. Along with textile tycoon Benjamin Bates, he founded Bates College as the first coeducational college in New England which is widely considered his magnum opus. Cheney is one of the most extensively covered subjects of Neoabolitionism, for his public denouncement of slavery, involuntary servitude, and advocation for fair and equal representation, egalitarianism, and personal sovereignty.
Cobb Divinity School was a Baptist theological institute. Founded in 1840, it was a Free Will Baptist graduate school affiliated with several Free Baptist institutions throughout its history. Cobb was part of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, United States from 1870 until 1908 when it merged with the college's Religion Department.
Benjamin Edward Bates IV was an American rail industrialist, textile tycoon and philanthropist. He was the wealthiest person in Maine from 1850 to 1878.
George Colby Chase was an American intellectual and professor of English who served as the second President of Bates College succeeding its founder, Oren Burbank Cheney, from March 1894 to November 1919.
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Lane Hall is a later 20th-century neoclassical building serving as the principal workplace and headquarters of the central administration of Bates College, located at 2 Andrews Road in Lewiston, Maine. It has been the principle administrative headquarters of every Bates president since Thomas Hedley Reynolds in 1964. Lane Hall was named after George Lane Jr., who served as treasurer of the college and secretary of the corporation.
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Hathorn Hall is a historic academic building on the campus of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Built in 1857 to a design by Gridley J.F. Bryant, it was the college's first academic building following the move of the Maine State Seminary from Parsonsfield to Lewiston. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The Blazo–Leavitt House is a historic house on Maine State Route 160 in Parsonsfield, Maine, United States. The large two-story house was built in 1812, and is one of the finest Federal period houses in northern York County. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Rev. Ransom Dunn, D.D. was an American minister and theologian, prominent in the early Free Will Baptist movement in New England. He was President of Rio Grande College in Ohio, and Hillsdale College in Michigan. A Discourse on the Freedom of the Will is one of his most notable works.
The Bates family is an American political and banking family from Maine and Massachusetts whose members include a prominent member of the prestigious Hell Fire Club, the 26th U.S. Attorney General serving under Abraham Lincoln, the second Governor of Missouri, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Arkansas, and a prominent textile tycoon who founded the Bates Manufacturing Company and Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. The family includes various merchants, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites.
The history of Bates College began shortly before Bates College's founding on March 16, 1855, in Lewiston, Maine. The college was founded by Oren Burbank Cheney and Benjamin Bates. Originating as a Free Will Baptist institution, it has since secularized and established a liberal arts curriculum. After the mysterious 1853 burning of Parsonsfield Seminary, Cheney wanted to create another seminary in a more central part of Maine: Lewiston, a then-booming industrial economy. He met with religious and political leaders in Topsham, to discuss the formation of such a school, recruiting much of the college's first trustees, most notably Ebenezer Knowlton. After a well-received speech by Cheney, the group successfully petitioned the Maine State Legislature to establish the Maine State Seminary. At its founding it was the first coeducational college in New England. Soon after it was established, donors stepped forward to finance the seminary, developing the school in an affluent residential district of Lewiston. The college struggled to finance its operations after the financial crisis of 1857, requiring extra capital to remain afloat. Cheney's political activities attracted Benjamin Bates, who was interested in fostering his business interests in Maine. Bates donated installments of tens of thousands of dollars to the college to bring it out of the crisis.
The traditions of Bates College include the activities, songs, and academic regalia of Bates College, a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. They are well known on campus and nationally as an embedded component of the student life at the college and its history.
Nathan Cook Brackett (1836–1910) was an abolitionist, Free Will Baptist pastor, first president of Storer College, and chairman and co-founder of Bluefield State College.
Moses Smart (1812–1873) was an American pastor, professor, physician, attorney, and first leader of what was later known as Cobb Divinity School at Bates College.
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