Tory Hill Meeting House

     Driven by my previous investigations into Reverend Paul Coffin, I wanted to see where he might have preached if he had just lived another year. I visited Tory Hill Meeting House, also known as the First Congregational Church of Buxton at Tory Hill, after work the same day I went to the fountain memorial. Unfortunately, my timing was once again terrible - there was a funeral in progress. That blew my chances of getting in, but since my nephew was married here last summer, I had seen it once already.

      

      So, I roamed around a little and checked out the adjacent South Buxton Cemetery, which dates from the first year Reverend Coffin preached in Buxton in 1761. Paul Coffin and his family are buried in the cemetery. The meeting house sits on the corner of Route 112 and Woodman Road - another connection to the Coffin/Woodman family. I took a drive and when I returned the church was empty, quiet and locked. I could only find one way to get a photo of the inside, so I walked up the inclined cellar door and snapped a photo of the interior, still bedecked with funeral flowers.

      The Tory Hill Meeting House opened in 1822 on the site of Buxton's first log church, and is one of four structures in Buxton listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It almost didn't get raised, though. In keeping with the rum-soaked times, those who raised a building were supposed to be supplied with rum to fortify them for the work. The rum had run out in Buxton, but "Suddenly a great shout arose from the people, for coming around the corner with a 10-quart pail of rum was Pastor Levi Loring. He was the man of the hour, endearing himself to his people by “caring for their thirst as well as their souls.”'

http://www.toryhillchurch.org/about-us/history/

What is ironic is that the congregational church was the site of impassioned meetings during the social reform era, so there were temperance meetings held in the church not terribly long after it opened with the aid of a pail of rum.

     It was presumably named Tory Hill because the Reverend Coffin and many parishioners were royalists. The church was a center for town activities other than just church services for its first forty years, as it was the only church in town. One of its most well-known events was (and is) the performance of "The Old Peabody Pew", which was written by Kate Douglas Wiggin, better known for "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". Kate Douglas Wiggin is said to have based part of her play on the Tory Hill Meeting House, and she did readings there. The play is still performed to this day every December; she is buried in the churchyard.

     The building is historically significant for being at the center of most of the town's history. During the town's centennial celebrations, people met at the church to proceed behind the cemetery to a field where the celebratory feast was set up. Joshua Chamberlain was a guest of honor and spoke at the centennial.

     The church and the activities held there knitted together a rural community and gave the town a venue to explore social issues of the day. It saw the town's baptisms, funerals, and most of life in between. It continues to be a vital part of the Buxton community.

Sources consulted include:

http://www.toryhillchurch.org/about-us/history/

http://www.buxtonhollishistorical.org/images/buxton_bhhs_page_tour.pdf

http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/22391

http://books.google.com/books?id=FLITAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false