Cobb Divinity School (also known as Bates Theological Seminary or the Free Will Baptist Bible School) was a Baptist theological institute. Founded in 1840, it was a Free Will Baptist graduate school affiliated with several Free Baptist institutions throughout its history. Cobb was part of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, United States from 1870 until 1908 when it merged with the college's Religion Department. The school created one of the first models for a Bible school in the United States. The school had a close relationship with the University of Chicago with many Baptist theology students and faculty going back and forth between the schools.

History

The divinity school was founded by the Free Will Baptists in Parsonsfield, Maine in 1840 as a library department and graduate bible school of the

Parsonsfield Seminary Parsonsfield Seminary, which operated from 1832 to 1949, was a well-known Free Will Baptist Free Will Baptists are a group of General Baptist denominations of Christianity that teach free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can ...

with

Moses Smart Moses Smart (1812–1873) was an American pastor, professor, physician, attorney, and first leader of what was later known as Cobb Divinity School at Bates College. Moses Mighels Smart was born in 1812 in North Parsonsfield, Maine and graduated fr ...

serving as the first leader of the school. From 1842 to 1844, the divinity school was located in Dracut, Massachusetts. In 1844, the divinity school moved again to Whitestown,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and became part of the Whitestown Seminary, where it was known as the Free Baptist Biblical School. From 1854 to 1870, the divinity school was located in New Hampton, New Hampshire, and affiliated with the New Hampton Institute. The school and its library were removed to Lewiston in 1870 and became a graduate school (known as Bates Theological Seminary until 1888) of Bates College. In 1888, it was renamed Cobb Divinity School in honor of Jonathan Leavitt Haskell Cobb (1824-1897), a prominent businessman at the Bates Mill in Lewiston who had donated $25,000 to the Divinity School at Bates. In 1891, President of Bates College

Oren B. Cheney Oren Burbank Cheney (December 10, 1816 – December 22, 1903) was an American politician, minister, and statesman who was a key figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States during the later 19th century. Along with textile tycoon Ben ...

amended the school's charter requiring that Bates' president and a majority of the trustees be Free Will Baptists. Following Cheney's retirement, the amendment was revoked in 1907 at the request of his successor, President

George C. Chase George Colby Chase (March 15, 1844 - May 27, 1919) was an American intellectual and professor of English who served as the second President of Bates College succeeding its founder, Oren Burbank Cheney, from March 1894 to November 1919. Known as "t ...

, and the board of trustees. In 1907, the Maine Legislature amended the college's

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

removing the requirement for the president and majority of the trustees to be Free Will Baptists, thereby allowing the school to qualify for Carnegie Foundation funding of professor's

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

s.Paul Monroe, ''A Cyclopedia of Education'' (Published by Gale Research Co., 1911) Item notes: v.1

pg. 331 Cobb Divinity School was disbanded in 1908, with much of its curricula and faculty and library becoming the Bates College Religion Department. In 1911, the Northern Free Will Baptist Conference merged with the Northern Baptist Conference, now known as the American Baptist Churches USA. Bates remained nominally affiliated with the Baptist tradition until 1970 when the college catalogue no longer described the school as a "Christian college".

Images

File:Cobb Divinity School faculty photo.jpg, Cobb Divinity School faculty, ca. 1895, featuring Professors John Fullonton,

Alfred W. Anthony Alfred Williams Anthony (13 January 1860 – 20 January 1939) was an American author, Freewill Baptist leader, and religion professor at Bates College in Maine. Biography He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on 13 January 1860 to Lewis ...

, Purinton, Howe, and

Benjamin F. Hayes Benjamin Francis Hayes (1830-1906) was a Free Will Baptist pastor, author, principal of the Lapham Institute, and early professor at Bates College in Maine. Benjamin Hayes was born in New Gloucester, Maine in 1830 to Mary (Harmon) Hayes and Re ...

File:Cobb Divinity School; Roger Williams Hall.jpg, Cobb Divinity School building from 1895-1908. Currently Roger Williams Hall on the campus of Bates College File:Oneida Institute, Whitestown, New York.png, School buildings which were located in New York on the former Oneida Institute campus in Whitesboro, New York

Notable people

(1885), pastor, professor, and author *

George H. Ball George Harvey Ball (1819-1907) was an American academic, pastor, writer, and founder of Keuka College in New York. Early life and education George H. Ball was born in 1819 near the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec to American parents from Massachuse ...

(1847), pastor, teacher of President James A. Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield *

John Jay Butler John Jay Butler (April 9, 1814 – 1891) was an ordained minister and theologian in the early Free Will Baptist movement in New England, serving as Professor of Systematic Theology at Cobb Divinity School at Bates College in Maine and later ...

Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...

theologian, professor at Cobb and Hillsdale *

George Colby Chase George Colby Chase (March 15, 1844 - May 27, 1919) was an American intellectual and professor of English who served as the second President of Bates College succeeding its founder, Oren Burbank Cheney, from March 1894 to November 1919. Known as "t ...

, second president of Bates College *

(1846), abolitionist, founder of Bates College * Lewis Penick Clinton (1897), African Bassa prince, missionary in Liberia *

George T. Day George T. Day (1822–1875) was a Free Will Baptist writer, publisher, pastor and professor. George Tiffany Day was born in Concord, New York, in 1822. Day worked in textile mills as a child, and his parents moved to Scituate, Rhode Island, and th ...

(1847), pastor, writer at the

Morning Star Morning Star, morning star, or Morningstar may refer to: Astronomy * Morning star, most commonly used as a name for the planet Venus when it appears in the east before sunrise ** See also Venus in culture * Morning star, a name for the star Siri ...

, professor at Bates * Ransom Dunn (1840), President of Rio Grande College and Hillsdale College, teacher of President James A. Garfield * John Fullonton (1849), Professor and Dean at Cobb Divinity School * Frank Sandford, preacher, founder of "The Kingdom"

References

*Anthony, Alfred Williams, ''Bates College and Its Background'', (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1936).

External links

Cobb Divinity School records at Edmund S. Muskie Archives & Special Collections Library, Bates College
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070927185310/http://www.littleivies.com/2006/04/cobb-divinity-school-bates-college.html Info about the Divinity Schoolbr>Bates Religion DepartmentFormer Cobb Divinity School Building 1870-1894Former Cobb Divinity School Building 1894-1908
{{authority control 1908 disestablishments in Maine Bates College Defunct private universities and colleges in Maine Educational institutions established in 1840 Free Will Baptist schools Seminaries and theological colleges in Maine Seminaries and theological colleges affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA Educational institutions disestablished in 1908 1840 establishments in Maine Universities and colleges in Oneida County, New York