USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Jersey City > History of the First Presbyterian Church of Jersey City, New Jersey : in four discourses preached in the month of July, 1876; also, the discourse preached at the close of services in the church building, Sunday morning, April 29, 1888 > Part 5
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mous sum of $42,000. This led to the determination to re- move. It was hoped that the sale of the property would pay the debt, buy the new ground on Fifth Avenue, and build the church. The result was a great disappointment in this respect. But that was the expectation. As already inti- mated, up to May, 1844 (a full month after our Committee had been appointed to buy the church if possible, and to transport it), the congregation of the Wall Street church had by no means decided to relinquish the old material and to build entirely anew. Under that date I find the New York Building Committee, Messrs. Geo. B. Butler and A. R. Thompson, with the architect, proposing a plan for building a house of worship in either Gothic or Grecian style, in an enlarged and much improved form. It was to be 125 x 65 feet, with a tower 225 feet in height, and was to be constructed from the old material, at a cost of $34,000. The Building Committee presented the proposal, but made no recommend- ation. So the matter stood until the meeting of the New York Trustees, June 20, 1844, when the Building Committee from Jersey City presented the formal offer to buy and trans- port the edifice. The proposal, after its reference to the New York Building Committee, was finally accepted. The contract was signed Wednesday, July 10, 1844, on their part by J. Kearney Rodgers, President of the Board of Trustees in New York, and on our part by Oliver S. Strong, President of the Board of Trustees in Jersey City. The price of the building as it stood was not at first agreed upon. The offer on their part was to sell at $3,300. On our part the Com- mittee was authorized July 3, 1844, to offer $3,000, but if $3,300 was demanded, to take it for whatever it could be bought and also to contract for the removal of the church when purchased, and for its erection in Jersey City. The price finally agreed upon in the contract was $3,000. By a record in New York of August 23, 1844, the sale included the following items, viz .: " The building, the iron railing on the east side of the building, the stone wall connected with the church and said railing and also the coping and flag-
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ging, the fixtures of the said church, including stoves, cush- ions, lamp, chandeliers, and carpets; it being understood that the tablets, bell, iron safe, and communion service, are exempted from the sale "; and the cash was to be paid on the 20th of August of that year. This money was advanced by Messrs. Dudley S. Gregory and David Henderson on a bond given them by the Trustees of the Jersey City church. It was also stipulated in the contract "that the purchasers shall remove the building and the rubbish created by taking down the same by the first day of September, 1844"; i. e., in about eight weeks after the contract was signed.
To complete the history of the case as to New York, I should add just here that the First Presbyterian Church of New York, having now disposed of their Wall Street edi- fice, of course decided to build entirely anew, and that the sale of all the Wall Street property brought the sum of $148,000. The corner-stone of the new church at the cor- ner of Fifth Avenue and Twelfth Street was laid Sept. 17, 1845, just after the removal and erection of the Wall Street building to Jersey City, the congregation worshipping mean- time in the Union Theological Seminary Chapel in Univer- sity Place. The church was finished at a cost of $55,000, and was dedicated Jan. II, 1846, Dr. Phillips delivering the dedication sermon from Ps. cxxiv. 1-3, " If it had not been the Lord, who was on our side," etc .*
This is the place to state, in reference to the legal aspects of the sale, that it has been rumored that there was some legal objection raised against the sale of the Wall Street property to persons out of the State of New York, and that a decision was rendered establishing the legality of the sale. If there had been such a question raised and such a decision made, it would have been interesting and desirable to have it on record. And I was desirous of discovering the facts. But after various inquiries in the proper places, I do not find any stable ground for such a rumor. And I am in-
* Disosway's " Earliest Churches," p. 142.
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formed by Judge B. F. Randolph, who has kindly made the search, that if any such decision was rendered it has not been recorded. The only two facts which I have been enabled to discover having any bearing on this subject, are in the records of the trustees of the First Presbyterian . Church of New York. The first is under date of June 20, 1844-at the same meeting when our trustees made offer to buy the church. It is there stated, after referring our application to the Building Committee, that the Committee advised, " That a petition be made to the Chancellor of New York in relation to the sale of the church and grounds in Wall Street, praying such an amendment as the Counsel of the Board may advise, and for a confirmation of the sales already made at auction." The other is under date of April 8, 1846, where the form which had been adopted for a deed of pews in the new church building on. Fifth Avenue, to such as had owned pews in Wall Street, is recorded. In that form of deed these words occur :
" WHEREAS, The corporation of the First Presbyterian Church of the City of New York, upon their application to the Court of Chancery of the State of New York for that purpose first had, and the order of said Court thereupon granted, did sell and dispose of the property of said cor- poration, situated on Wall and Nassau Streets in said city, and with the money received from the sale thereof did purchase other property on the Fifth Avenue of said city and erect thereon their present church "; "And, whereas," etc.
This shows that some application for leave to sell was made. But it is believed to have been the application made under the ordinary requirements in such cases, and not because there was any special doubt or difficulty in this case which called for a special decision.
I return now to the re-erection of the edifice in Jersey City. The sale being now effected, everything was ready for the transfer. The next point was where to put the building. It was not at once decided to place it where it now stands.
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First Presbyterian Church of Jersey City.
On the contrary, the first idea was to set it facing on Sus- sex Street. And for this purpose, as the Jersey Associates had so liberally provided for church buildings in the way already mentioned, and as the Presbyterians had resigned the ground already donated to them to the Reformed Dutch congregation, application was made by Messrs. D. S. Gregory and Henry Southmayd for a like favor now. This application was very generously granted, on condition that the trustees of the church should make the formal application and give an acknowledgment of the receipt of the lots, so that no new donation of land should be expected for the same denomination. The grant of land this time was not, however, of four lots, as had been the case pre- viously to the other churches, but of two lots, it being understood that two other lots besides should be given by friends of the enterprise. These friends were found in the persons of Mr. D. S. Gregory and Mr. David Henderson. Each of these gentlemen gave one lot. Thus four lots were obtained facing on Sussex Street. Soon, however, this purpose was altered, and it was decided to make the church face on Washington Street. But on this spot the Asso- ciates had no lots. An exchange, therefore, was effected. Messrs. Henderson and Gregory held four lots on Wash- ington Street (viz., Nos. 41, 43, 45, and 47) adjoining the public square. They each gave one lot. In addition to these, Mr. Gregory gave a deed to the church for the other two lots (Nos. 43 and 45), and, by request of the Trustees of the church, the Associates then gave in exchange to Mr. Gregory for them, two lots (Nos. 27 and 29) on Sussex Street. Thus the four lots on Washington Street, with only a light ground-rent of $60 per annum, owned by the estate of W. W. Woolsey, and which had always existed upon the prop- erty, became, by three deeds, the property of the Presbyte- rian Church.
But even now the location was not fixed. It was next thought best, if possible, to place the church on Grand Street, especially as, two years before, the citizens, by a
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vote, had acceded to a proposal granting leave to the au- thorities to modify the public square. Hence, on the 28th of April, 1844, it was resolved by the Trustees " that the President of the Board be authorized to address a commu- nication to the Mayor and Common Council of Jersey City, proposing an exchange of the property on Washington corner of Sussex Street, now owned by the church, for the southwest corner of the public square, bounded by Wash- ington and Grand Streets, for the purpose of erecting their church thereon." But this proposal produced a loud clamor. Improper motives were insinuated. And the result was that the Trustees, under date of May 3, 1844, directed the President to withdraw the application, and the following letter was addressed to the Mayor and Common Council of Jersey City :
" TO THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF JERSEY CITY : " Gentlemen :- By direction of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Church, I respectfully beg leave to with- draw the proposition made by them in the communication addressed to you on the 24th ultimo, in reference to an exchange of a portion of the public square for an equal portion of ground belonging to them. The Trustees hav- ing learned, with regret, that in making this proposition improper motives have been imputed to them in certain quarters, and being unwilling that the object in which they, with others of their fellow-citizens, are engaged should be connected with anything which might, in the slightest degree, lead to an excited and perhaps uncharitable discus- sion amongst any portion of the community, they take this the earliest opportunity to put the vexed question at rest. The Trustees, however, respectfully beg leave to state, that in making the said application to the Common Council they neither asked a favor from, nor sought to obtain any advan- tage over, the people; but believing that the proposed modification of the public square had long been considered by a majority of the citizens as a desirable improvement of
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the same, they merely renewed a proposition which had been acceded to by the city authorities about two years ago, after having been sanctioned by a vote of the people.
" I am, Gentlemen, " Very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "OLIVER S. STRONG, President."*
This ended the proposed change and brought the matter back to the former purpose, and the church was built where it now stands.
The transfer was a great undertaking, and was watched by many with marked interest. It was done under the super- . vision of Andrew Clerk, Esq., the architect whom you have all so well known as a resident among us and member of this congregation.+ All the materials were brought over the ferry in carts by Mr. Richard Bumsted, of Jersey City, the builder, who still lives among us. An arrangement was entered into with the Ferry Co. to transport the materials at five cents a load. And it may give you some idea of the work to know that the company issued 7,456 tickets ($372.80) for this purpose. The process of removing began in July and ended in September, 1844. The faced stone was regularly marked as it was taken down, and after being brought over was deposited in the lot now occupied by the "Club House,"¿ and each stone as needed was put up again in its original position. The stone containing the tablet marking the date of erection was, however, a new piece. It was brought from Belleville in the winter, and such was the state of the roads that the truck lay mired for a consider- able time · until assistance could be obtained to extricate it. The inscription was cut on the ground here. Mr. Andrew Clerk, the architect, had been appointed on July 9, 1844, to superintend the whole work of erection, and the church was
* No date in the printed form, but doubtless of May 3, 1844.
t Since deceased, 1886.
Į A.D. 1876.
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. built. upon the basis of a plan submitted by him at the same meeting. At the close of his labors a very gratifying reso- lution of approval was tendered him for the care and success which had been shown in the work, and also for the liberal terms on which he gave his services. The contractor for the mason work was Mr. Wm. Bumsted, of Jersey City, and the carpenter work was assigned to Mr. John M. Trimble, of New York. The contract required in both cases that the work should be finished by April 15, 1845. The whole con- tract for transporting and re-erecting amounted to $13,394. This was exclusive of the basement, which it was decided to add to the original building.
The work of erection having been started, Messrs. Strong, Gregory, and Henderson were appointed, Sept. 11, 1844, a committee to make arrangements for the laying of the corner-stone. And on Monday afternoon, the 30th of Sep- tember, 1844, the ceremony took place. In the previous week there had appeared, in the public prints, the following article :
"'THE NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH'
in Jersey City is in the process of erection, and will be a sub- stantial stone edifice of imposing appearance. Its dimen- sions are 62 by 72 feet inside the main room ; the tower and vestibule occupying 18 feet in front. The height of the steeple from the ground will be 180 feet. Taken as a whole, it will not be exceeded by any church in this State in propor- tions and beauty. The contract for the work is in the hands of faithful men. The site is fronting west on Washington Street, which street is 80 feet wide; south, along Sussex Street, north, on one of the public squares, and is surrounded by shade trees of considerable size. The ground was given by the Associates of the Jersey Company and by two of our citizens. The Trustees are making preparations to lay the corner-stone, with religious ceremony, on Monday after- noon, the 30th inst. . . . . The first church erected by the Presbyterians in this place . was transferred to the
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Reformed Dutch Church, which congregation now occupies it, and, we are happy to say, are in a prosperous condition. As the city and suburbs have more than quadrupled in in- habitants since then, there being now about 5,700 inhab- itants therein, we hope the new undertaking will be blest with permanent success. It will be recollected that the materials are those of the Wall Street church, New York, and when rebuilt in Jersey City it will present the same appearance as the old church, will contain the same pews, and be furnished in the same manner. . . . . It will contain, in addition, a commodious and dry basement for church and school purposes, and the steeple will be altered so as to ad- mit a clock for the benefit of the city." #
I have searched diligently, but can find no published ac- count of the laying of the corner-stone. But from the testi- mony of living witnesses and other sources of information, I have ascertained the following facts : On the day appoint- ed, Sept. 30, 1844, the ceremony took place. A platform was erected on the south side of the building site, where the exercises were conducted. The Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., of Princeton Theological Seminary, who, as pastor of the church, had laid the corner-stone of the building in New York in 1810, was expected, as had been publicly an- nounced, to perform the same service on this occasion. He was, however, detained; and the Rev. John Johnstone, the pastor in Jersey City, took Dr. Miller's place, and laid the stone. It was the stone immediately under the right-hand pillar as you enter the middle door. Within the stone was deposited a wide-mouthed jar, made for the purpose, at the pottery in Jersey City, and in which were deposited news- papers and periodicals of the day together with a number of new silver coins of the year obtained from the U. S. Mint by Mr. Oliver S. Strong. Several addresses were made, and prayer, of course, was offered, including that of dedication ; but I have not been able to ascertain by whom these ser- vices were performed.
Thus the corner-stone was laid, to the hearty satisfaction
,
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of those engaged in the enterprise. It was to them a new pledge of the speedy fulfilment of their wishes.
Here I must pause for the present. In one more discourse I hope to complete this history with an account of the church's completion, its growth in members, its officers, and other incidents.
To how many has this sacred enclosure been a place of peace and blessedness! The scenes which then occurred are gone by. And many who had a part in those scenes are gone from here. May God so bless His word here preached to us that we shall meet the beloved ones of God, gone before to the land of rest and glory. Let us rejoice that amidst all the strange and unexpected changes among our Lord's churches here on earth, prosperous or adverse, nothing is unforeseen by Him. Men's plans and efforts are all under His control to establish His Gospel and to provide for the edification and comfort of His people in Gospel truth. The opposition of men or their concurrence all fall within His purposes. And however weak may be the in- cipient efforts to build for His praise, or however inter- mitted and interrupted the progress, He can exceed His people's hopes, and " bring forth the topstone with shout- ings of Grace, grace unto it."
:
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First Presbyterian Church of Jersey City.
SERMON IV.
" He reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court-gate : so Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."-EXODUS xl. 33, 34.
" I will wash mine hands in innocency : so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Thy wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth."-PSALM xxvi. 6-8.
" How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house : they will be still praising Thee. For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."-PSALM Ixxxiv. I, 2, 4, II.
" In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid, in the month Zif : And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul (which is the eighth month) was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it."-I KINGS vi. 37, 38.
I HAVE quoted these passages of Scripture that you may see how God's faithful people and God himself also both turn with delight to the earthly tabernacles built for His worship. In the passage from Exodus you observe how plainly the heart of man and the heart of God unite in their deep interest in the place. The work on man's side, long continued in preparing it step by step, is finished, and the house built for God is ready for His occupancy. And man waits and watches for God's entrance. He does not need to wait long. At once God marks His approval of the event in a ready entrance into this abode prepared for Him by human hands. No sooner is all ready, than "the cloud covers the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle." So true is it that although " heaven is God's throne and the earth is His footstool," yea, even that " the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him," yet there have been spots on this earth where God has loved
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to dwell, and which " He has desired for His habitation." And note, too, in the other texts, how, from that time for- ward, both turn to the same places, the house of God at Shiloh, and its successor, the temple at Jerusalem, with the liveliest interest. On the one hand, mark the longing of David (the true representative in this respect of all God's people) for that sacred place. "Lord ! I have loved the habitation of Thy house and the place where Thine honor dwelleth." See how he delights in these earthly places where God makes His abode (for that is the true meaning of the word ' tabernacles '): " How amiable are Thy taberna- cles, O Lord of Hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. A day spent in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the courts of wickedness." And, on the other hand, see how the Lord reciprocates this fervor of zeal in His people toward the places of His manifested presence, in His notice of the very materials of its construc- tion and of the progress toward completion of His earthly habitation. Its very stones are precious in His sight. For you see from the last text above given, that the Holy Spirit does not hesitate to take space in the Holy Scripture to re- cord the laying of the foundations of the temple of the Lord, and then also to mark how it progressed in building, the time which its building occupied, and its completion in all its parts. Surely, then, there must be a good service ren- dered in noting these things in other earthly temples of the Lord.
Let us, then, turn once more, and see how this work pros- pered with us.
I have already brought the history up to the laying of the corner-stone in Jersey City. From that time the building went forward without interruption until it was completed in the following May (1845). It was erected exactly as the building had stood in Wall Street, with the following excep- tions :- I. The basement. This had not existed at all in
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New York, and was added to the building by the Jersey City congregation, at a cost of $842. It must be noted here, also, that the six pillars in the lecture-room (viz. : those on the two sides), are relics from the old Reformed Dutch church (South), at the corner of Liberty and Nassau Streets, New York, which was bought and transformed into the,New York City Post-office .* The three middle pillars were new. The audience-room in the basement was originally not so deep by seven feet as it is now ; and there was, besides, only one small room in the southeast corner, which served for the pastor's study and also a trustees' room ; the rest of the space in the basement being unoccupied, except when, for some years, it had rooms fitted up in it for the sexton. The fine study and church parlor which we have now, were put in a number of years afterward. 2. The length of the building was short- ened by one window, or seven feet, for the purpose, I believe, of bringing the building within the lots appropriated to it. The width was diminished one and a half feet. 3. The mason informs me that the steeple was exactly as it stood in New York, with the exception of the changes necessary to intro- duce the clock, and that it remained unfinished all the winter of 1844-45, but was completed before the dedication. 4. The former copper gas-pipes were excluded and sold, and the handsome chandeliers were altered to hold oil-lamps. This continued until 1852, when the Jersey City Gas Co., then just established, introduced their light by putting in new pipes, and again utilizing the fine old bronze chandeliers on the reopening of the church on that occasion, Sunday even- ing, December 19, 1852. The opportunity was used by the pastor for preaching a sermon from our Lord's words in John viii. 12: " I am the light of the world." 5. The clock was added, and the bell in the steeple was new: the sum of $500 having been voted toward it, which was afterward in- creased to $622 when hung. The clock was put up by Mr.
* Statement by Hon. D. S. Gregory and by Mr. Erastus Randall, of Jersey City.
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S. Penfield, at a cost of $450. The money for it was raised by a general subscription at first, and afterward supple- mented by a grant from the City Council with the under- standing that the bell should be rung in cases of fire.
Two sad accidents marred the satisfaction with which this building was seen slowly rising. The first occurred in New York during the taking down of the building. Con- trary to the order of Mr. Bumsted the contractor, who was obliged to be absent in the early hours of that morning, owing to the hurrying of the work on this side of the river, the workmen had carried up a heavy chain cable to the top of the wall for the purpose of pulling the wall down. This chain they had coiled up, leaving the end of the chain hang- ing over. Two men stood within the coil. By some means
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