History
The history of the people of God at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Winn, Maine, is somewhat fragmentary with the earliest records to be found in the Parish Register beginning in 1868. The Parish Register records a service on the Sunday after Christmas, 27 December 1868, at which an offering of $1.43 was received.
The town of Winn was a bustling metropolis in the early days of St. Thomas’ Church. Known as Five Islands in those early days, Winn was at the northernmost end of the navigable portion of the Penobscot River and was the center of the social and commercial activities for northern Maine in the days before the advent of the railroads. There was a large hotel, a tannery, a dock for river vessels, and a skating rink; and Main Street was a busy shopping center with many retail establishments including a fashionable millinery store.
The beautiful little wooden church, built in the Gothic style, had an unknown designer. Timbers, planking and finish trim were cut from logs at the large mill in East Winn and were floated by barge down the Mattawamkeag River to the Penobscot River to a landing near the building site, high on the banks overlooking the Penobscot. The church was originally brown in color, and it was known as “The Little Brown Church” until the early 1950’s, when the parishioners voted to paint it white. White it remained until the renovations of the mid-1980’s when it was painted gray to match the old school which had been moved up the hill and joined to the Church as St. Thomas’ Parish Hall.
The belfry was originally on the liturgical “east” end of the Church until the 1900’s when it was moved to the “west” end at the entry. Its bell was given to the Church after it had served its usefulness in the old tannery.
The church building was consecrated by Bishop Neely on 12 September 1872, to the Glory of God and in honor of St. Thomas the Apostle. The cost of the original Church was $1,500.00, given by an anonymous benefactor, a woman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Clergy of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church 1868 – current
The Reverend Thomas Marsden, 1868-1870
The Reverend R. U. B. Webster, 1870-1871
The Reverend Clarence Winship Colton, 1873-1875
The Reverend James Davies, 1875-1877
The Reverend Robert Wyllie, 1877
The Reverend Frederick Pember 1880-1883
The Reverend John Howard Veazey, 1883-1886
The Reverend Lyman H. Merrill, 1887-1889
The Reverend A. Allerton Murch, 1889-1893
The Reverend Harry Hudson, 1893-1899
The Reverend James C. Quinn, 1899-1900
The Venerable George S. Robinson, 1900-1928
The Reverend Andrew Edward Scott, 1915-1918
The Reverend Alfred Martin, 1918-1919
The Venerable John deBedrick Saunderson, 1928-1934
The Reverend Joseph Harold Bessom, O.H.C., 1935-1936
The Reverend Frank E. Blaikie, 1936-1937
The Reverend Henry Mason Palmer, 1937-1940
The Reverend Herman Ebert, 1940-1942
The Reverend Arthur M. Cooper, S.S.J.E., 1942-1945
The Reverend Arthur B. Dimmick, 1948-1952
The Reverend Paul Everett Bourne, 1955-1957
The Reverend Harold Anthony Hopkins, Jr., 1957-1961
The Reverend Robert E. B. Hall, 1958
The Reverend Carl Asa Russell, Jr., 1961-1963
The Reverend Kenneth Lewis Lindsey, 1963-1967
The Reverend Robert Mitchell Butler, 1967-1970
The Reverend Edward Pearson Todd, 1970-1972
The Reverend Leopold Damrosch, 1972-1975
The Reverend David Paul Illingworth, 1975-1980
The Reverend Robert David White, 1981-1985
The Reverend Cleon Marrion Ross, 1985-1987
The Reverend Donald Edwin Fowler, 1987-199
The Reverend Bradford Duff Clark, 1991
The Reverend Canon Derek Leslie Bugler, 1992
The Reverend Leigh Axton Williams, 1992-1994
Under lay leadership, 1994-1997
The Reverend Howard Vandine, 1997-2000
The Rev. Patricia Handloss, 2000-2002
The Rev. Dr. Richard Johnson, 2002-2004
The Reverend Carolyn Metzler, 2004-2009
The Reverend Virginia Urbanek, 2009-2011
The Reverend Amelia Hagen, Summer of 2011
The Reverend Levering (Lev) Sherman, 2012-2014
The Reverend Robert Ficks, 2014 -2020
The Reverend Leslie Nesin, 2014-
