Lincoln County Historical Association (LCHA) is pleased to announce receipt of a $4,000 grant from the Davis Family Foundation that will allow for a phase one archaeological survey of the site of the Reverend Jacob Bailey's 1770 Anglican Church of St. John on Common Road in Dresden.

The work will be done by retired Bates College Professor James Leamon, retired archaeology teacher Norman Buttrick, both state certified historical archaeologists, and one professional excavator/lab assistant in early July. This is the same team that spent many years excavating the grounds of our 1761 Pownalborough Court House recovering evidence of the earlier Fort Shirley. The curious public is invited to visit the site Tues., Wed. and Thurs. (July 8, 9, and 10) between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m..

Through this preliminary exploration we hope to gain valuable information about the architecture of this early church. Little information about the church is known except for its dimensions (32'X60'), that it was wood-framed on a stone foundation, and that it had glass windows and a tower or steeple. Artifacts such as hinges, glass, religious artifacts, pipe stems, buttons, and broken tools in the builder's trench, and perhaps even rum bottles left behind by the builders, will help us gain an understanding of Jacob Bailey and his church during those tumultuous years just before and during the American Revolution.

Jacob Bailey, from a poor family in Rowley, Mass., attended Harvard College on scholarship graduating in 1755. Classmates who later also played a role at Pownalborough include John Adams, Jonathan Bowman and Charles Cushing.

After time spent teaching and as a Congregational minister, Bailey converted to Anglicanism. He was sent here in 1760 to preach by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the missionary arm of the Anglican Church. After holding services first at Fort Shirley, and then in the decrepit and abandoned Fort Richmond, and then in the Pownalborough Court House, Bailey finally was able to hold services in his own St. John's Church in 1770. Soon a parsonage with three acres of fenced gardens and a well was built nearby.

As the American Revolution played out, Bailey was forced out of the community and went to Nova Scotia in 1779. By 1784 vandals had stolen the windows from the church. The roof was reported coming down in 1785. A combination of decay and scavenging probably soon took the church.

A stone foundation and an area of plain fieldstone grave markers are all that seemingly remain today. The site is now held by the Trustees of the Dresden Church Fund, who, along with the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, are also providing support for this survey work.

For more information visit the Lincoln County Historical Association Web site at

www.lincolncoun

ty history.org .