Parsonsfield Seminary , which operated from 1832 to 1949, was a well-known Free Will Baptist school in North Parsonsfield, Maine , in the United States . Also known as the North Parsonsfield Seminary, its preserved campus of four buildings is located on State Route 160 near the New Hampshire border. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places .
19-596: 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 ,
38-597: A Free Will Baptist and was ordained a minister in 1792. He preached extensively throughout New England . In 1798 Buzzell and his family moved to Parsonsfield, Maine where he continued his ministry and where he helped found the Parsonsfield Seminary . Buzzell wrote extensively and co-founded the Morning Star newspaper in 1826. He was first editor of his denomination's "Morning Star" paper, which position he held seven years. John Buzzell died in 1863 at
57-609: A call for readers to boycott the Eastern Railroad - a remarkable step at that time. As the public mood became more receptive to the abolitionist message, the circulation figures picked up. While continuing to fulfill its original function as official organ of the Free Will Baptist denomination, The Morning Star continued its vociferous anti-slavery campaign right up to the end of the Civil War , condemning
76-531: A giant sin against God, and an awful crime upon man. Thus we feel ourself, and thus we teach our children to feel, and dying we will teach them so. Possibly owing at least partly to the Star' s influence, Dover was the first town in New Hampshire to send strongly abolitionist representatives to the State Legislature, and one of the first in the U.S. to send an openly abolitionist senator to Washington, in
95-551: A great extent, indirectly, on slave labor in the South. Burr's principled move plunged the newspaper rapidly into crisis. Publication had to be suspended for a while because the New Hampshire State Legislature refused to grant The Morning Star an Act of Incorporation on account of the paper's campaigning activities. The abolitionist message did not go down well with readers. Sales plummeted, and
114-562: A political stance was widely considered to be respectable in America. The first issue was published in Limerick, Maine , on 11 May 1826. Seven years later the newspaper relocated to Dover, New Hampshire , and it continued to be published in that town by Moses Cheney from November 1833 until December 1874. Thereafter it was published in various cities including Portland , Boston , New York and Chicago , until its final issue rolled off
133-406: The age of 96. This biographical article about a person in connection with Christianity is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . The Morning Star (19th century U.S. newspaper) The Morning Star was a weekly newspaper owned and published by Freewill Baptists in 19th-century New England , which campaigned vigorously for the abolition of slavery long before such
152-669: The children ran from its pillar-brick walls.." 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. 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
171-508: The death of the editor Samuel Beede in March 1834, however, control was passed to William Burr , who immediately re-launched The Morning Star as a newspaper that would campaign vigorously and tirelessly for the complete abolition of slavery. This was a remarkable position for an American publication to take at that time, especially in an overwhelmingly white town where the major employers were large cotton mills : Dover's prosperity depended to
190-591: The editor was denounced by delegates to the 1837 General Conference of Freewill Baptists , who put forward a motion calling for the paper to cease its campaign against slavery "so as to avert from the denomination the public odium heaped upon abolitionists, and to reconcile the disaffected members." The motion was defeated. In 1841, in protest at the authorities' refusal to act to prevent attacks on black people and abolitionists in segregated railway carriages (including highly publicized incidents involving Charles Lenox Remond and David Ruggles ) The Morning Star printed
209-447: 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 ). 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
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#1732780023339228-505: The iniquities of slavery with eloquent and rousing rhetoric. As an example, when Oren B. Cheney took over as editor in October 1853, he announced his arrival with a thunderous anti-slavery editorial: We shall speak against slavery, as we have hitherto done. We can find no language that has power to express the hatred we have towards so vile and so wicked an institution. We hate it. We abhor it. We loathe it. We detest and despise it as
247-533: The land in Parsonsfield, Maine , and reconstruct it within the newly developing Maine State Seminary. Afterward, Cheney moved the central campus to Lewiston in 1854 to replace it with a larger Free Baptist school more centrally located in Maine. 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
266-484: The person of John Parker Hale . When, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln visited Dover to canvass support in the presidential elections of that year, editor William Burr was among those invited to join him on the speaker's platform. Later editors of the Star included George T. Day and George H. Ball . The Bates College Special Collections library contains a complete collection of original bound editions of The Morning Star . This Morning Star has no connection with
285-402: The presses in 1911. An early editor was John Buzzell , who was also partly responsible for the foundation of the paper. Until 1834 the newspaper concerned itself mainly with religion, and largely kept out of politics. When it commented on slavery it took a conservative attitude, with editorials denouncing radical abolitionists and counseling "the exercise of moderation and charity". On
304-715: 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. 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. John Buzzell John Buzzell (1766–1863)
323-522: 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. The facility was subsequently used by the Consolidated School District until 1986, at which time
342-605: 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 ,
361-697: Was an early proponent of the Free Will Baptist Church , a Christian author, and a preacher. John Buzzell was born in Barrington, New Hampshire in 1766. "His attainments were above average, early becoming a teacher of common schools. He along with Dr. Moses Sweat, and Rev. Rufus McIntire, founded the Old Parsonsfield Seminary, the first school of his denomination ". After befriending Benjamin Randall , Buzzell became
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