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Religion at Bowdoin College: a History

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Religion at Bowdoin College: a History Bowdoin College Bowdoin Digital Commons Bowdoin Histories Special Collections and Archives 1981 Religion at Bowdoin College: A History Ernst Christian Helmreich Bowdoin College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoin-histories Part of the Cultural History Commons, Higher Education Commons, History of Religion Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Helmreich, Ernst Christian, "Religion at Bowdoin College: A History" (1981). Bowdoin Histories. 6. https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoin-histories/6 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections and Archives at Bowdoin Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Bowdoin Histories by an authorized administrator of Bowdoin Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. I JK ^^^^ Hl< istian Helmreich Religion at Bowdoin College: A History Ernst Christian Helmreich Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of History and Political Science Emeritus Bowdoin College Brunswick, Maine 1981 Cover photograph by Stephen E. Merrill Bowdoin College Archives, Special Collections Printed by J. S. McCarthy Co., Inc., Augusta, Maine ISBN: 0-916606-03-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 81-71331 Copyright 1982, the President and Trustees of Bowdoin College All rights reserved To Bowdoin Students Past and Present "The history of man is inseparable from the history of religion." Justice Black in Engel v. Vitale Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation http://archive.org/details/religionatbowdoiOOhelm 9 Contents Foreword vii Preface ix Chapter I The Founding of the College 1 Chapter II The College Under Way 9 Chapter III The College and the First Parish 1 Chapter IV College Regulations and Their Enforcement 35 Chapter V Religious Societies 49 Chapter VI The Building of the New Chapel 63 Chapter VII Endowments and the Issue of Denominationalism 89 Chapter VIII Religious Life at the College, 1867-1917 107 Chapter IX The Sills Era 131 Chapter X The Recent Decades 153 Illustrations following page 88 Notes . 169 Bibliography 201 Index 207 Foreword After a distinguished career of over forty years as a Bowdoin teacher and scholar, Professor Helmreich has made yet another important contribution to history with this study of religion at Bowdoin College. In it, he teaches us much that we did not know about the lives and concerns of the men and, recently, the women who, for nearly 200 years, have assumed the responsibility for guiding this college. From the founding of the institution to the present, religion has been a concern of Bowdoin presidents and of many members of the student body, faculty, and the Governing Boards. More difficult to trace, but clearly discernible here, is the story of how these people perceived religion, how they felt religion should or should not be realized at the College, and how their views changed over the years. This would not be a true account of men and women as we know them if, in confronting religious issues, they were not serious, compelling, and dedicated — and even, at times, puzzled and perhaps absurd. So are they revealed in the events chronicled here. This is, I believe, as much a portrait of human nature as it is a history of a college addressing itself to religion in the chapel program, in the curriculum, and in the daily lives of its members. At this time when there is a renewed interest in religion on the campus and in the nation, it is well to be reminded of our past, of how we have fared in our efforts to give expression to religious values in our public .and private lives. We are, therefore, in debt to Professor Helmreich for devoting a part of his retirement to playing once more the teacher and the historian and for playing those important roles with such distinction. A. LeRoy Greason President of Bowdoin College November 1981 Vll Preface Having completed my volume on The German Churches Under Hitler: Background, Struggle, and Epilogue (Detroit, 1979), I wanted a problem to work on where all the primary sources were at hand. It occurred to me that a study of religion at Bowdoin was such a topic. The subject had the fascination of being an aspect of the history of the College where major changes had taken place, where one epoch had ended and another had begun. I knew much about what had happened in respect to religion at the College since I came to Bowdoin in 1931 ; I knew very little about what had gone on before. While the various histories of the College and of its leaders touched on religion at Bowdoin, I soon discovered that there was much more to be learned about it. What was the status of religion at Bowdoin when the College opened its doors in 1802, and how, why, and when were changes made that have led to its present status on campus? It took pages to deal with religious matters in the first printed by-laws of the College; to- day there is one sentence forbidding the imposition of any creedal tests in the choice of officers and faculty or the admission of students. Practically all historical writing about Bowdoin has been done without footnotes, and I early decided to follow a different practice. Readers have a right to know where the material was found and how com- plete it is. Such references will also be of help to others in carrying on research on subjects not directly connected with Bowdoin. What happened at the College occurred at other institutions as well; Bowdoin did not stand apart but was in the mainstream of collegiate education in the United States. After completing a book an author always has many people to thank. The staffs of the Hawthorne- Longfellow Library, of the Business Office, and of the Registrar's Office invariably have been helpful. It is not out of ingratitude that I do not name them personally. I must, however, single out Mrs. Mary H. Hughes and Dianne M. Gutscher of Special Collections at the library for particular thanks. They have been tireless in helping me find my way through the rich source material which is available. I also wish to thank President Enteman for his interest during the early stages of this project, and especially President Greason, who read the manuscript and IX arranged for the necessary funds for its publication. I trust these funds will be repaid, probably very gradually, as the book is sold. At the College Editor's Office, Peter H. Vaughn and Susan L. Ransom have been most cooperative in seeing the volume through the press. As always, most thanks are due to my wife, Louise, who has helped with all the work and editing which goes into preparing a manuscript and getting it into print. Ernst C. Helmreich Bowdoin College Brunswick, Maine August 1981 I. The Founding of the College Bowdoin College was founded in an age of religious indifference. The religious excitement of the mid-eighteenth century, aroused by the revival- istic preaching of the Great Awakening, had been dissipated by the disrup- tions of the Revolutionary War. The deism heralded by the leaders of the Enlightenment had challenged old religious orthodox views. Skepticism was rife and church attendance at a low ebb. 1 The settlements on the frontier brought new problems for the churches, and the District of Maine was part of the frontier of that day. It was sparsely settled, the number of organized churches small. In 1784 there were only thirty-one settled Congregational and Presbyterian ministers in the district. There was a well-established German Lutheran church at Waldoboro, but no Catholic churches, although there were a few Catholic mission stations with their small number of Indian converts. Six Quaker societies existed with probably around a thousand members. Baptists had made their appearance at Kittery in 1681, yet it was not until 1767 that they founded their first church. By 1784 there were six Calvinistic Baptist societies in the district, as well as a number of Free Will Baptist churches. This split among the Baptists, like the growing move- ment towards Unitarianism in the Congregational societies, added to the religious diversity in Maine, a diversity enhanced in the last decade of the century by the preaching of Methodist circuit riders. 2 In spite of the en- croachments of these other religious groups, Congregationalism remained dominant. The "establishment," to borrow a modern term, was Congrega- tionalist, and it was these leaders who initiated and carried out the found- ing of Bowdoin College. The first evidence we have of an interest in establishing a college in the District of Maine is an act submitted to the General Court of the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts by a representative from Lincoln County in 1787. The preamble stated: Whereas the surest and most durable foundation of true and-rational liberty is best promoted and secured by a cultivation of the means of virtue and knowledge, and a general diffusion of them among the 2 Religion at Bowdoin College: A History great body of the people; and by making these means easily attainable, especially by the poorer classes in the community. And whereas these important purposes are best answered, by seminaries for literature being erected, and adequately endowed and supported in various parts of the state, upon the broadest basis of liberal prin- ciples and equally open to people of every class and denomination for the purposes of education. To this end a college, holding the name of Winthrop, honoring a family long prominent in the affairs of the commonwealth, was to be established.
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