One of the treasures protected by the Kennebunkport Historical Society is a record book kept by Rev. Silas Moody of the covenants, baptisms, marriages, etc. of the Church of Christ in Arundel from 1771-1815. The book went missing for 100 years but was returned in 1915 by a woman who came upon it in Fryeburg, Maine and realized its historical significance to Kennebunkport.

The first church in town was built at Cape Porpoise Square in 1727. Thirty-five years later, inhabitants of the more recently populated upper part of town wanted a church nearer to them. Taxpayers would not vote to support two churches or to have the church building moved to Burbank Hill. The disagreement heated up.

On April 28, 1763, Rev. John Hovey’s Cape Porpoise church burned to the ground. At first, the fire was thought by some to be a fortuitous accident, but it soon came to light that two boys had set the blaze on the instigation of adults residing in the upper part of town. Nobody was ever prosecuted. Cape Porpoise residents were outraged when the town voted to build the new church at Burbank Hill, now Town House Corners. Rev. Hovey was dismissed in 1768, but voters could not agree that he should be paid for services rendered. Several interim pastors came and went. Discord raged on.

Harvard educated Rev. Silas Moody finally accepted the call to the Upper Arundel pulpit in 1771, but only if Rev. John Hovey was swiftly paid all that was owed to him. Once the town agreed, Moody further united the congregation by choosing Rev. Hovey’s son as one of his deacons. Rev. Moody married the daughter of Rev. Daniel Little of Kennebunk. They raised their family in an extinct farmhouse ½ a mile west of the church on what is now called Log Cabin Road. Reverends Silas Moody and Daniel Little each read the new Declaration of Independence to their flocks for the first time.

South Congregational Church was built 1824, splitting the congregation in half. Burbank Hill Meeting House was torn down, and a smaller church that still stands was built in its place in 1842.

How fortunate we are to be able to read those handwritten entries scribed by a wise man more than 250 years ago.