Church History

Edgecomb Community Church existed as Edgecomb Congregational Church as early as 1783, according to early town records and the journal of Moses Davis, an original member. The first meeting house, now the Edgecomb Town Hall, was built in 1794, and the church held its first services there until the time of the American Civil War. Subsequently, services were held in the central hall on the second floor of the Old Eddy School. The present building, begun in 1877, was dedicated on February 15, 1882. It is in this historic structure the church has met ever since. Our church is on the National Register of Historical Places.

Worship at the church is held on Sunday mornings at 9:30; and is led by Reverend Katherine Pinkham.

It was a cold day in December 1881, and work on the new Congregational Church in Edgecomb was nearly done. The only thing remaining for the carpenters to do was to add the finishing boards on the inside of the windows.

Since 1860, the Church had been holding services upstairs at the Eddy School. They hoped to be able to celebrate their centennial in 1883 in the new building. Land had been donated, and the foundation for the church was laid in 1877. The building was erected, and all the outside work was competed at this time. For lack of funds, work did not resume until November of 1881.

Rev. Charles Holyoke ministered to a small congregation which had to struggle to raise the $3,500 needed for the new building. Contributions had been received from churches and pastors around the state, and from friends here, and former residents. Much of the labor was donated.

William Henry Decker, local builder, had been working with a group of carpenters who came from Lisbon Falls. Seeing that the work was nearly done, he left to notify the Parish Assessors. At that point, one of the men began to sign his name to the underside of the last finish board for the front window. In bold and generous letters, the other workers’ names were added: E.E. White, F. Day, Chas Reid, E. Philbrook, Fred Philbrook, Nat Williams, and Joseph Jeriman. They carefully dated their work, December 7, 1881, and hammered the board in place.

The dedication of the new church was held that next February. At the 1882 Parish Meeting it was voted to sell pews to raise the remainder of the money needed. The pews were to be sold in installments – one fifth down, and the balance in yearly payments with the interest added. The prices ranged from $25 to $60. (The expensive pews being just in front of the furnace register) Stoking a wood-burning furnace did not ensure a warm church. In 1888, the Assessors were authorized to “box up the furnace under the church in some manner, that the heat may be sent up into the house.”

That window board, autographed in 1881, was disturbed – probably for the first time – this December (1994) as the windows got much needed puttying, sanding, scraping and washing. May it serve as a reminder of that long, continuous line of dedicated men and women who came before us, making sacrifices of time and money, so that our generation, and the ones to follow, might have a special place in which to gather for worship.                                                                                                

– Ruth Bryant Dec. 21, 1994