The Meetinghouse under the Ledge, also known as the Old Ledge Meetinghouse,"Old Ledge Church in Yarmouth"
– Congregational Library & Archives was a church that stood in present-day

Yarmouth, Maine Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, twelve miles north of the state's largest city, Portland, Maine, Portland. When originally settled in 1636, as North Yarmouth, Maine, North Yarmouth, it was part of the Massachusetts ...

, between 1729 and 1836. It was the ninth church founded in Maine. Named for the ledge that rises to the west of its former location, only the church's eastern doorstep remains, beside today's Garrison Lane.

History

The meetinghouse was built in 1729, when the town was North Yarmouth,

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

, from material floated down the

Royal River The Royal River is a small river, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 30, 2011 in southern Maine. The river originates in Sabbathday Lake in New Gloucester and ...

from the First Falls and hauled up by

oxen An ox (: oxen), also known as a bullock (in BrE, British, AusE, Australian, and IndE, Indian English), is a large bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castration, castrated adult male cattle, because castration i ...

from Larrabee's Landing, further down Gilman Road, towards Cousins Island.''Images of America: Yarmouth'', Hall, Alan M., Arcadia (2002) The congregation was founded in November 1730, and its first minister was Reverend Ammi Ruhamah Cutter.''Yarmouth Revisited'', Amy Aldredge Some members of the congregation had to travel several miles to attend sermons, some arriving by boat from today's Harpswell."Our Shared History"
– Cumberland & North Yarmouth: A Neighboring History of Two Towns They were armed with

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

s, wary of hostile American Indians. The church was enlarged and had a steeple and a copper banner

weathervane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an list of weather instruments, instrument used for showing the wind direction, direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ' ...

added in 1762. The congregation moved twice after abandoning this church in 1820, and today meets at the

First Parish Congregational Church The First Parish Congregational Church is a historic church at 116 Main Street in Yarmouth, Maine. The congregation was established in 1730, as the ninth church founded in what is now Maine. The current Italianate meeting house was constructed ...

on Main Street in Yarmouth, about north of this location. In 1836, sixteen years after the meetinghouse was both abandoned and Maine's

admittance to the Union Admission to the Union is provided by the Admissions Clause of the United States Constitution in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1, which authorizes the United States Congress to admit new states into the Union beyond the thirteen states that ...

, it was torn down. The weathervane was rescued during the demolition work.''Weathervanes of New England'', Glenn A. Knoblock, David W. Wemmer (2018), p. 186 In 1838, it was mounted as a shipping guide on an iron rod atop the ledge, overlooking the meetinghouse, by a group of Yarmouth residents. They had raised funds to buy the weathervane from Solomon Winslow, who had removed it from the demolition site. The weathervane is now on display at the Yarmouth History Center, but its old supports still exist high up in the woods on the western side of

Lafayette Street Lafayette Street ( ) is a major north–south street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, one block north of Chambers Street. The one-way street then successively runs throu ...

. They are passed by the West Side Trail.

List of pastors

There were five pastors of the Ledge Meetinghouse during its ninety-year operation: * Ammi Ruhamah Cutter (1730–1735) * Nicholas Loring (1735–1763) * Edward Brooks (1764–1769) * Tristram Gilman (1769–1809) * Francis Brown (1809–1820)

Parsonage

The Cutter House at 60 Gilman Road, built circa 1730, is the oldest extant building in Yarmouth. It was originally the

parsonage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, pa ...

of Reverend Ammi Ruhamah Cutter."Yarmouth Historic Context Statement"
– Town of Yarmouth (Cutter was succeeded in the role by Nicholas Loring, who is buried in the nearby Ledge Cemetery.) Perez B. Loring lived there in the mid-19th century.

Cemeteries

Two cemeteries are located nearby. Across Gilman Road from the former parsonage is the small, half-acre 1731

Pioneer Cemetery In the United States, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere, a pioneer cemetery is a cemetery that is the burial place for pioneers. American pioneers founded such cemeteries during territorial expansion of the United States, with founding dates span ...

(also known as the Indian Fighters cemetery), which was the first public burial place in Old North Yarmouth. At the corner of Gilman Road and Lafayette Street is the 2.5-acre 1770 Ledge Cemetery. (Some headstones bear dates earlier than 1770, for many bodies were removed from the older cemetery.)''Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, Maine 1636-1936: A History'',

William Hutchinson Rowe William Hutchinson Rowe (March 6, 1882''Maine Biographies'', Harrie B. Coe (before 1937), p. 135 – 1955) was an American author and historian who lived in Yarmouth, Maine. The town's elementary school, built the year he died, is now named for ...

(1937) Tristram Gilman, for whom Gilman Road is named, was the fourth pastor at the meetinghouse, after the controversial Edward Brooks. He served in the role for forty years, and was buried in the Ledge Cemetery upon his death in 1809, aged 73. His wife, Elizabeth Sayer, is buried beside him.

References

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External links

Official website of today's church
Churches in Yarmouth, Maine Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Churches completed in 1729 18th-century churches in the United States Demolished churches in the United States Former churches in Maine 1730 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies 1836 disestablishments in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Maine Buildings and structures demolished in 1836