Parsonsfield Seminary

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Parsonsfield Seminary
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	Parsonsfield, Maine
Coordinates:	43°45′46″N 70°56′20″W / 43.76278, -70.93889Coordinates: 43°45′46″N 70°56′20″W / 43.76278, -70.93889
Built/Founded:	1855
Architect:	Unknown
Architectural style(s):	Colonial Revival, Italianate
Added to NRHP:	June 20, 1986
NRHP Reference#:	86001339 [1]
Governing body:	Private

Parsonsfield Seminary, founded in 1832, was a well-known Free Will Baptist school in North Parsonsfield, Maine, in the United States. The first principal, Hosea Quimby, was active in many other Freewill Baptist organizations.

Contents 1 History 2 Notable alumni 3 See also 4 References and external links

[edit] History

The Seminary was deeply involved with the abolitionist movement and was a stop on the Underground Railroad, while Oren B. Cheney was principal in the 1840s. Parsonsfield Seminary burned mysteriously in 1854, allegedly by opponents of integration. Over the next 100 years similar arson incidents occurred at black and interracial schools all over rural New England including the Watchman Industrial School in Rhode Island in the 1920s.

After it burned, Bates College (the Maine State Seminary) in Lewiston was founded in 1855 to take its place as a larger and more centrally located Free Baptist school. Regardless of this fact, a smaller seminary building was rebuilt in 1857 on the same site in Parsonsfield and existed until 1950s when it closed as a school. From 1840 to 1842, the Free Baptist Biblical School, a Free Baptist graduate school for training ministers, was located at the Seminary (the school was later renamed Cobb Divinity School and became part of Bates College), .

Part of a series on Baptists

Historical Background Christianity · General Baptist · Particular Baptist

Doctrinal distinctives Prima and Sola scriptura · Ordinance · Offices · Confessions · Congregationalism · Separation of church and state

Pivotal figures John Bunyan · Andrew Fuller · Thomas Helwys · John Smyth · Charles Haddon Spurgeon · Roger Williams

Largest associations American Baptist · Baptist General Convention of Texas · National Baptist · Progressive National Baptist · Southern Baptist Convention · European Baptist Federation This box: view • talk • edit

The Seminary buildings are still maintained by the Friends of the Parsonsfield Seminary. The school is located on Route 160 in Maine. The school was also known as the "North Parsonsfield Seminary."

[edit] Notable alumni

• Oren B. Cheney, abolitionist, Principal of Parsonfield, founder of Bates College
• Person C. Cheney, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire
• Lorenzo De Medici Sweat, U.S. Congressman

[edit] See also

• Bates College
• Cobb Divinity School
• Lapham Institute
• Maine Central Institute
• Storer College

[edit] References and external links

• Robert Greenleaf Leavitt, Maude Lougee Boothby, Dr. Bernard L. Towle, and Kate E. Barker Thursto. History of Parsonsfield Seminary: 1932 Centennnial Edition (1932).
• Musical Spoons at Parsem. Site about Parsem, History, and Musical Spoons played at Parsem, Parsonsfield, Maine.

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