1880-1899

June 21, 1842

September 4-12, 1880

•The "first annual convocation at Lakeside".

April, 30 1880

•A post office called “Lake Side” had been opened near the site of the old railroad station. The grounds had been graded, a “neat station house,” a boarding house with twelve boarding rooms on the second floor and a “number of good cottages” had been built. A quarterly conference was held on July 4th and services continued every Sunday until camp meeting.

•John Couch and Albion Ross were the first special speakers but whether the preachers’ tent and the hillside seats were completed in time for camp is not clear from the records. Two large canvas tents were ready for public meetings (and were also used for lodging), stabling was available for the horses and pasturing at a nearby farm.

•Boarding for the day was sixty cents (or breakfast and supper, twenty cents each and dinner, thirty cents).

•The railroad co-operated with the free transport of lumber!

•Four were baptized in Snow Pond (Lake Messalonskee) at that first camp meeting.

•Construction was the word for the next few years with cottages going up constantly.

June 1, 1881

•The second railroad track was finished.

1885

•Meetings were again held over the fourth of July.

•Communion was held that year around tables in the boarding house.

•Thirteen were baptized.

1886

•Rufus R. York was President and O. S. French was Vice-president. They with the rest of the membership decided to let trains stop on the grounds on Sunday for the first time.

•The names of Tozier, Hall, Damon and Wellcome still appear among the local preachers present.

1890

•Hopes were high for the tabernacle to be built.

•Charles L. Merrill of Dover, a prime mover in the tabernacle construction, appears for the first time in the records on October 16 for purchasing President Rufus R. York’s cottage (the present day Clark Cole cottage.) for $125.

1891

•For a year that saw rain nearly half the time, it was a huge year for spiritual growth. Ten to twelve conversions and an equal number of recommitted lives were witnessed along with fifteen baptisms. A large influence stemmed from the young people’s meetings. It is the first time we have mention of the camp meeting and its considerable contribution to the work with youth.

1892

•Forty cottages had been erected and a vote was taken to build a “tabernacle or chapel” before August 20, 1893.

•Thirty-eight preachers were present including Elders E. A. Stockman and W. A. Burch.

•The final Sunday saw 328 teams bring one thousand people with another two thousand arriving by train and even boat.

September 6, 1893

•The forty-by-sixty-foot tabernacle was completed at a cost of $750. According to C. L. Merrill’s youngest son, Arthur W. Merrill, all the lumber (even the shingles) were sawed at his sawmill at Dover South Mills, transported by team to the West Dover station and carried by the Maine Central Railroad to the campgrounds.

•Another six cottages and twenty-five tents made for quite a campmeeting.

•Elders Stockman and Burch returned establishing another Lakeside tradition; that of staff returning year after year.

•Elder W. N. Tenney held children’s meetings including an early morning children’s prayer meeting.

•Twelve to fifteen conversions marked the spiritual temperature of the encampment.

•In preparation for these marked physical improvements the association became incorporated in August. The incorporators are O. S. French, Jessie Gay, I. C. Wellcome, R. R. York, James H. Ames, E. O. Dinsmore, L. D. Small and C. L. Merrill.

•President York stepped aside because of ill health and Elder French became the first president of the corporation.

1894

•Additional horse stalls were erected as well as the outdoor altar on the hillside. Fifteen were baptized following the preaching of H. L. Hastings, Dr. A. W. Taylor, G. L. Young and E. P. Woodard.

•Foreign missions received an advance with the presence of Captain James Spence, the founder of Advent Christian work in India.

•With foresight the Lakeside Second Advent Campmeeting Association of Belgrade gave up the ninety-nine year lease of the grounds and purchased for $1,800 from Charles H. Hallett on October 6, 1896. With the property came a right of way across Hallett’s farm directly down the hill behind the grounds. There was no road at this time along the lake shore.

1897

•No evangelist were invited but the meetings were extended to three Sundays. Forty preachers were present. There were more than twenty-five conversions and fifteen baptisms.

•Clarkson Goud’s wife was healed and the final Sunday service lasted nearly to midnight.

•There appeared in print the fear that the grounds could “…degenerate into a pleasure resort”!

1898

•Mrs. McKinstry lectured.

1899

•John A. Cargile, who came in 1896, returned.

•This is the first year that Elder T. J. Coolbroth, then pastor in Dover, appears connected with the camp, as vice-president and in charge of room rentals.