History and Archives: A Partnership

Historical and Archival Records

Workshop participants from Maine and Massachusetts

Marlene and ohers at Torsey Memorial UMC

 Recently Marlene and I represented Peoples UMC at the most recent meeting of the New England Conference of Archives and History workshop and semi-annual meeting held at the Torsey Memorial UMC in Readfield. Representatives from Belfast, Augusta, South Paris and Readfield participated at this meeting for the first time. Those having been on the commission or members of the Society who are long time members included folks from Merrimac, Massachusetts, Poland and Corinna, Maine and another person from Vermont. The workshop was presided over by Kara Jackman, Archivist for the Conference, whose office is at Boston University. The workshop was co-lead by Nancy Noble, Archivist for the Maine Historical Society. Nancy is also a member of the Long Island UMC and serves as the secretary for the General Commission on Archives and History. After Lunch, prepared by members of the church, both the NEUMC Historical Society and the Archives Commission shared meeting time. This meeting was presided over by Rev. Margaret Bickford from Rumney, New Hampshire.

Nancy Allen and Nancy Noble

These groups only meet twice a year and the membership decided that the next meeting should be in October and held in Western Massachusetts. The purpose of this would be to encourage people from all over the Conference to participate.

Kara Jackman

Nancy Noble and others

For we first timers the workshop proved to be very valuable. Both presenters, Kara and Nancy being archivists concentrated on record keeping. Kara began the program with a power point presentation titled, Records Management at Your Church. One of the points she made was that if a church closes the records need to be sent to the New England UMC Archives for proper storage. She also said that if churches merge then records should either be transferred to the archives of the surviving church or the new church that may result from the merger, otherwise they too should end up in archives in Boston. In the meantime she also said that records should be maintained in an orderly fashion and that if anything goes to Boston she only needs one copy of whatever may be on the archival list. I handed her a copy of the Peoples history, From a Seed Grew Roots, and she said that was not what she was looking for since it was a perspective on history. She has it anyway.

This comment, if I interpreted it correctly, led me to think about the relationship of archives to history and vice versa. One cannot work without the other. Archives have no value if they just sit and are never revisited. History cannot be written without the records that have been kept. Archival materials have no value unless someone meaningfully interprets what has been reposited in the archives. I think that is recognized by the History Society and the Archives Commission meeting together.

Rev. Margaret Bickford

After lunch Rev. Margaret Bickford presided over the meetings of the NEUMC History Society and the NEUMC Archives Commission.


Sanctuary at Torsey Memorial

Dr. Torsey

 

 

 

 

 

Following the meetings those in attendance were taken on a tour, first to the Sanctuary of this church. Certainly much older than Peoples the sanctuary is a wonderfully bright place to worship. While the building is old the set of drums at the front of the church that is presently presided over by Rev. Desi Larson, looks to be modern in its spiritual demeanor.

Entrance to Kent's Hill School

Embedded in loor

Once our brief tour at the church was complete we then went down the road to Kent’s Hill School which once served as the Wesleyan Seminary for ministerial training. Kent’s Hill while serving as a private high school for 250 Coeds still has a United Methodist connection.

John Tyler shows bell chord at Kent's Hill

 

 

East Readfield getting new roof

Jesse Lee sign

 

Modern conveniences

Jesse Lee

Once we were done at Kent’s Hill we then travelled to the East Readfield Methodist Meetinghouse. This is a church that dates back to Jesse Lee and is still used by Readfield Methodists during the summer months. While in meeting the Society had donated $1000 to the new roof that is presently being installed. The meetinghouse itself dates to 1795 and is the oldest surviving meetinghouse in the state of Maine. While the building is quite small it has been maintained well and makes a fascinating visit.

Musical instruments

Stone plaque identefying Oldest Methodist Meetinghouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the tidbits I discovered in the brief history of the Torsey Memorial was that Pastor Tom and Kelly’s eldest daughter, Patsy, was the youngest person to receive her certificate as a lay speaker at age 12 while growing up in that congregation. I was also told by John Tyler of the Readfield Church that it was while a member of that church that Pastor Tom received his calling to enter the ministry.

 

 

 

 

In the months ahead we on the Archives committee have our work cut out for us in better organizing our own archives and would encourage anyone interested in that task to contact myself, Art Tordoff, or any of the others on the committee which includes Chris Ward, Rosemary Herd, Doreen Gay, Betty Smith, and Marlene Tordoff with others who assisted us during our 175^th celebration.