pulpit orator. But while such discourses and such speakers were heard with instructive profit by their assemblies, the more enthusiastic and heart-flowing preachers, such as George Whitefield and John Murray drew together crowded audiences, and bore off the palm in unwonted triumph. Mr. Winter was a man of piety, faith and prayer, still, he was more of a patriot than a preacher. He loved his country and heartily espoused her liberties. As Maine, during the war of the Revolution, suffered great privations and salaries were paid with difficulty, Mr. Winter joined the army for a period as one of its chaplains. After the war, he was chosen, in 1784, the first representative of Bath in the General Court, and subsequently received five or six other elections to that body. But, at length, he found there was dissatisfaction arising, and “he made a proposal to the town for a dissolution of the relation between them," which was accepted in 1787, and he never afterwards settled in the ministry. He continued to reside in Bath till his death, which occurred in 1826, when he was in the eighty-second year of his age. Samuel, a son of his, succeeded him and was, in 1830, sheriff of Lincoln County.

REV. ALPHEUS SPRING.

REV. ALPHEUS SPRING, Nassau Hall, 1766, and A. M., Dartmouth College 1785, was ordained, June 29, 1768, the second settled minister of Eliot, colleague pastor with Rev. Mr. Rogers. This was a happy connection, for" Mr. Spring was much beloved by his people and highly respected by his brethren in the

ministry." Taken sick of a fever, he died suddenly, June 14, 1791, thus closing an endeared pastorate of twenty-three years.

REV. ALEXANDER MCLEAN.

REV. ALEXANDER MCLEAN, a native of Scotland, and probably educated at the University of Glasgow, was ordained June, 1773, and was the first settled minister in Bristol. The inhabitants in this region were mostly Scotch and Irish Presbyterians, and they were desirous of having a preacher of the same sentiments. Bristol is the ancient Pemaquid, settled between 1626 and 1633, depopulated on the taking of Fort William Henry in 1696, and subsequently lay waste more than twenty years. After it was effectually revived in 1729-30, under Col. Dunbar, the Rev. Robert Rutherford was the first minister who preached in that place, which Dunbar named Harrington. He also named the present Boothbay, Townshend, and Nobleborough he called Walpole. On the eighteenth of June, 1765, Bristol was incorporated as a town, and soon afterwards, voted to build their meetinghouses; one at "Broad Cove" on the easterly side of the town, a league below the present Waldoboro village; another near the fort on the Pemaquid River in the Harrington parish, and the third on the easterly side of Damariscotta River, and northeasterly part of the town, in the Walpole parish, the residue of this old parish being in the present Nobleboro. In the summer of 1766, the meeting-house near the fort was revived and a church the next June was organized by

Rev. Mr. Murray, of Boothbay, "on the Westminster Confession and Presbyterian Rules." As this town was separated from Bristol only by the waters of Damariscotta River, and the people of both towns mostly Presbyterians, they partook largely in each others spiritual interests and affairs.

Always captivated, as the people of Bristol were, with Mr. Murray and his preaching, whenever they had opportunity to hear him, they became remarkably intent upon his discourses and lectures during the revival in 1767 at Boothbay, and numbers of the former town, as well as many in the latter, were the religious converts of that refreshing season, and became members of the new church.

In this happy state of affairs, the people of Bristol became anxious to have the ordinances regularly administered, and to settle a minister, if possible another Murray. Therefore in May, 1770, they wrote to Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, president of New Jersey College (Nassau Hall), for a suitable candidate, and he sent them Rev. Mr. McLean. He was a very serious and acceptable preacher, a devoted Christian and a truly faithful undershepherd. His labors were incessant and anxious, for he was a physician of soul and body. But he undertook too much a man cannot labor in two fields at the same time. The several settlements in the town, moreover, rendered his parochial duties exceedingly arduous, and in a few years he found his health failing and his spirits depressed. Nor did the occasional aid generously furnished him by his people afford the needed relief, and in the

autumn of 1791, he took passage to Scotland, leaving many tearful eyes. He returned the next year much benefited by his journey. In a few years his ill-health returned, and in 1795, he would have taken dismission but for the great attachment felt towards him, and the willingness manifested to procure him a colleague. For that purpose, Rev. William Riddel was procured, and being found acceptable, both to Mr. McLean and the people, was ordained in August, 1760, and the church in its polity became Congregational, in unison with the sentiments of the colleague pastor. In these peace-making arrangements, Mr. McLean gave up his salary, and engaged to preach, when able, in a parish at "Broad Cove," where he resided without compensation. In this and every engagement he was true and faithful, for he had not only preached in that place, but ministered as a missionary to the people in the waste places around him. While on a visit at New Castle he was suddenly taken sick and died. was in 1802, after a ministry of twenty-nine years. His body, however, was removed and interred at Bristol. Mr. McLean was a very sedate, industrious, disinterested and excellent man, greatly beloved and respected. He had intellect and learning equal to the ministerial office he was consecrated to fill, and he wrote and spake with considerable force. But he lacked the fervent spirit, the fanciful thoughts, and the flowing words, indispensable to captivate a mixed audience. Solid doctrine was his forte, and faithful exhoration his gift.

This

THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.

BY HON. WILLIAM WIDGERY THOMAS, JR.

Read before the Maine Historical Society, December 19, 1895.

TWENTY-FIVE years ago there sailed away from the shores of Sweden a little colony of fifty-one Swedes. This adventurous band then left home and country, and faced the perils of a voyage of four thousand miles, and the hardships and toils of making a new home in the wilderness of a strange land without so much as the scratch of a pen by way of contract or obligation, but with simple faith in the honor and hospitality of Maine.

The colony was composed of twenty-two men, eleven women, and eighteen children. All the men were farmers; in addition, some were skilled in trades and professions; there being among them a lay pastor, a civil engineer, a blacksmith, two carpenters, a basket-maker, a wheelwright, a baker, a tailor, and a wooden-shoemaker. The women were neat and industrious, tidy housewives, and diligent workers at the spinning-wheel and loom. All were tall and stalwart, with blue eyes, blonde hair and cheerful, honest faces; there was not a physical defect or blemish among them, and it was not without strong feelings of state pride that I looked upon them as they were mustered on the deck of the steamship Orlando, and anticipated what great results might flow from this little beginning for the good of our beloved commonwealth.