The Church in the Woods
A historical marker was placed on the corner of Main and Greenwood Street to indicate the approximate location of the first church in Eliot.
The marker reads:
17 rods southwest of this spot was built the first meetinghouse in Eliot 1699 – 1732
(Today it is on the lawn of #850 Main Street)
Upon the death of Gov. Hill in 1912, Mrs. Hill donated 8 historical markers to the Town of Eliot. This was one of them.
The first church of Eliot, then called the Upper Parish Kittery, Massachusetts, was a small, log house. It’s measurements were 30’ long and 16’ wide.
The people depended on borrowing clergy from surrounding towns for a short time. Then it was decided that they needed a minister of their own. They asked the selectmen if they could have one. (In those days there was no such thing as “separation of church and state.”)
The selectmen finally invited young John Rogers of Ipswich, Massachusetts to fill the pulpit and he was accepted. He was a direct descendant of John Rogers, the martyr, in London.