RUMFORD – Two hundred years ago on Aug. 5, six people met and affirmed their Christian beliefs, forming the Congregational Church of Christ. They had names like Graham, Farnum, Hutchins, Whittemore and Hinkson.

Now, 200 years later, with the name of Rumford Point Congregational Church, the current membership is celebrating the bicentennial of the congregation’s birth.

“It’s hard to believe that people so long ago met and wanted a place to gather and to worship,” said Louise Morton, coordinator of the church’s bicentennial party.

For a few years, members of the new church met in each other’s homes. A church was then built, but caught fire and burned down soon after.

For the next 17 years, Congregationalists went back to meeting in each other’s homes until the Rumford Center Town House, about five miles east of the current church, was built. The congregation continued to grow, until in 1864, the present church was built at the intersection of Routes 2 and 232.

According to a church history, the cost of construction was $3,000, “by people who were by no means rich.”

A church bell arrived for the belfry from Boston around 1870. Soon after, in 1879, the last year-round minister resigned, resulting in regular services held only in the summer months until 1940 by seminary students. In 1940, a full-time pastor was installed and year-round services resumed.

Frequently throughout the years after 1940, the pastor who served the Rumford Point Church, renamed to the First Congregational Church of Rumford in 1925, also served as pastor to second church in the area.

The current minister, interim pastor Michael Johnson, also serves the Locke Mills Union Church.

Church members built the nearby parsonage in 1963. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

No one is quite sure when the impressive black weather vane perched atop the steeple was added, but in December 2000, a heavy storm knocked it off the top of the steeple. A part of it impaled the church roof.

Last year, a new weather vane was installed.

Over the years, a variety of updates and additions were made, including installation of a furnace in 1930 and construction of a basement dining room in 1962.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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