A few years ago, Ryan Rindells and I decided to write a book about the complicated friendship between Reverend Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine and his neighbor, Reverend Daniel Merrill of Sedgwick. In the book, you will find this quote from a contemporary of Fisher, Beneezer Price, in a letter he wrote to him:
We are, also in a sense, tho young, the Fathers of an extensive Country – our Faithfulness, & setting a pious example, will effect [sic] the present, & doubtless generations to come.[1]
Here is our synopsis of the book: A narrative lens can illustrate and illuminate a historical period’s unique significance. With deep Puritan roots, Daniel Merrill (1765-1833) and Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) were New Light Congregationalist clergymen born a generation after the Great Awakening, trained at elite theological institutions, who would themselves ignite and experience revival in Maine’s Eastern Frontier, early in the 19th century.
Merrill’s decision to become a Baptist in 1804 was both an effect and a cause of tectonic shifts in the young Republic’s social and religious landscape, including disestablishment, which toppled the power structures of New England’s Standing Order. Disagreement over baptism was a constant source of conflict, yet Merrill and Fisher continued to focus their energies and attention toward familiar endeavors, shared under the broader evangelical umbrella.
Both were characteristically active evangelicals, engaged in a wide array of causes from circuit preaching to temperance and the formation of Bible societies. The mistreatment of black slaves and indigenous peoples were evils which they confronted through preaching, in print, and advocacy. Each contributed to the founding of educational institutions, some of which continue to the present. As “Fathers,” they shaped the communities they served in ways that would extend past their lifetimes, and to regions far beyond New England.
You can order a copy of Fathers of an Extensive Country: The Lives and Ministries of Daniel Merrill and Jonathan Fisher at Amazon.
[1] Ebeneezer Price to Jonathan Fisher, 11/18/1797, JFM 1465.201. Cited in Kevin D. Murphy, Jonathan Fisher, 110. In January of 1823, Fisher records a missionary journey of 167 miles to communities around present-day Dover-Foxcroft, “154 of it travelled upon foot.” He characteristically noted the variety of trees in the region, their growth, and the richness of the soil. He then remarked, “Very desirable it is that as this land shall be sown with the seed of men, it should be sown with the seed of pure religion also. The prosperity of future generations in this state no doubt depends much upon this.” Jonathan Fisher, January 6, 1823, The Diaries of Jonathan Fisher, 588. Taylor, “From Fathers to Friends of the People.”
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