Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge - Bethel Academy

Delivered at the Centennial Celebration at Bethel, August 26, 1874, by Jacob Brown, Esq. of Illinois

Bethel Academy
By barren rocks and deeply tangled wildwood,
Mid valley, lake and glen;

Here babyhood was cradled into childhood,
And boys grew into men.

Anear the corner of this quaint old building,
With windows all arow;
That sturdy and that stately growing elm-tree
Grew thirty years ago.

The Androscoggin still is flowing sea-ward,
As thirty years ago;
Oft down those gliding waters just at night-fall
I've paddled my canoe.

Westward winds that little silvery brooklet,
In tune to my poor rhyme;
Life's wreck-besprinkled waters still are surging,
Against the shores of time.

I look adown the lane from this old building,
Down to the dusty street;
But gone are all the bright familiar faces
Of those I used to meet.

And stricken dumb is my poor heart with sadness,
Bright boyhood's dreams are fled,
Flowers that bloomed by every wayside,
All are withered and dead.

Poor third soul! The dead may bury their dead.
As soldier brave in flight;
Conquer the red-hot battles of life and learn
To win and love the right.


Thanks to Bill West for hosting the Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. Check out is his blog for more poems and genealogy at West in New England.

Centennial Hymn - Bethel, Maine

Celebrating the first 100 years of my hometown:
From Report on the Centennial Celebration at Bethel, August 26, 1874
Composed for the occasion by Geo. B. Farnsworth, Esq., to the tune of Old Hundred

Centennial Hymn
As, - when to Jacob it was given
To see, mid Eastern deserts lone, 
A ladder reaching up to Heaven
Along whose steps the angels shone, - 

He knew the Lord was, surely, there, 
And what had seemed but wilderness
Now God's own dwelling did appear, 
And "Beth-el," thence, he named the place:

So, when our fathers, eastward led, 
Chanced to this lovely vale to roam, 
Seeing its emerald floor outspread
And spanned by yonder crystal dome, 

Into whose depths the mountains soared
Like heavenly ladders angel-trod, 
They said, "Here, surely, dwells the Lord!"
And named their home the "House of God."

And here, from youth to age, they strove

Their goodly heritage to keep
For Freedom, Knowledge, Virtue, Love - 
Now in the dust all, silent sleep!

May we, their children, aye defend
The heritage they loved so well;
This heir-loom from the Past descend
To children's children, nobler still;

A place for homliest labors meet; 
Ever of manly worth the abode; 
And aye a place of worship sweet, - 
A temple high, - a "House of God!"

Dwell with us, Thou! And when the stone
Shall be, at eve, our resting-place
Heaven's ladder be to us let down, 
And may we see Thee, face to face!

Photos courtesy of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.