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ennial.
First Presbyterian Church
NEWBURGH, N. Y.,
NOVEMBER 13TH,
1784 -- 1884.
4.702 .35ne 12197
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
For the purpose of historical accuracy, the corrections of errors found in the following pages, are here inserted:
Page 11. For E. G. F. Marsh, read E. J. F. Marsh. For Evanston and Everston, read Evertson.
Page 12. For Robert C. Rankin, read Robert G. Rankin. Henry
Page 12. For Grisworth, read Griswold.
Page 12.
Page 12. For Thomas P. Fish, read Thomas F. Fish.
Page 12. Strike out the following names in the list of Trustees:
Tice, Samuel Nichols, Abel Belknap, Eli H. Corwin.
Page 12. For Chas. H. Johnes, read Chas. A. Johnes.
Page 12. For John Bubois, read Dubois.
Page 13. For Ackman Speir, read Aikman Speir.
Page 46. For last sentence, substitute: This was a token of grateful remembrance from Miss Julia Ferguson, a parishioner of the late Rev. Dr.
John Johnston.
Gc 974.702 N435ne 1512197
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1784.
1884.
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
NEWBURGH, N. Y.
1784-1884
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REV. WILLIAM K. HALL, D. D, Pastor.
NEWBURGH, N. Y .: Journal Printing House and Book Bindery. 1884.
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH .- 1884.
PASTOR, REV. WILLIAM K. HALL, D. D.
ELDERS,
JAMES O. CONKLIN, DANIEL S. WARING, M. C. BELKNAP,
CHARLES E. SNYDER, MARTIN L. LEE, JOHN SCHOONMAKER,
R. HOWELL. GEORGE BARNES.
CLERK OF SESSION,
M. C. BELKNAP.
DEACONS, HENRY W. SIGLAR. WILLIAM C. BELKNAP, JOHN C. HASBROUCK.
Treasurer of Church Fund,
.
JOHN C. HASBROUCK.
TRUSTEES,
WILLIAM O. MAILLER, M. C. BELKNAP, JOHN SCHOONMAKER, SAMUEL STANTON,
ROBERT WALSH, HOWARD THORNTON, STEPHEN KING, DAVID CARSON,
JONAS WILLIAMS.
President of Board of Trustees, . WILLIAM O. MAILLER. Clerk and Treasurer, M. C. BELKNAP.
1512197
A meeting of the Officers of the Church was convened at the Parsonage, Wed- nesday evening, September 24th, for the purpose of considering the question of celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the organization of the Church.
Upon motion the pastor was chosen Chairman and Howard Thornton Secre- tary.
It was resolved that the hundredth anniversary of the Church be marked by some appropriate services, and that a committee be appointed by the Pastor to make arrangements for the same ; that this committee consist of five persons, two Elders, two Trustees, and one Deacon; that the Pastor be Chairman, ex officio of the Committee; that the date of the Celebration be fixed by the Committee.
The following persons were appointed-Elders D. S. Waring and M. C. Bel- knap ; Trustees W. O. Mailler, and J. Schoonmaker ; Deacon J. C. Hasbrouck.
It was furthermore resolved that upon the occasion, memorial tablets to the two deceased Pastors of the Church, Rev. John Johnston, D.D., and Rev. W. T. Sprole, D.D., be erected in the Church, and that the Committee be authorized to consult a competent architect with reference to materials and design.
A meeting of this Committee was held Monday, September 29th. John C. Has- brouck was chosen Secretary.
Upon motion, it was resolved that the preparations for the Church Centennial be apportioned to five committees, viz .:
Cominittee on Programme and Invitations.
Committee on Tablet.
Committee on Finance.
Committee on Reception. Committee on Decorations.
That the Pastor appoint the Chairinen of these Committees and that the Chair- men select such members of the Congregation to co-operate with them as they may deem advisable.
The following appointments were made :
On Programme and Invitations, Win. O. Mailler.
On Tablets,
M. C. Belknap.
On Finance,
D. S. Waring.
On Reception,
J. Schoonmaker.
On Decoration,
J. C. Hasbrouck.
PROGRAMME.
Sunday, November 9, 10.30 A. M. Historical Discourse, by the Pastor, Rev. Wm. K. Hall, D.D.,
Thursday, November 13th, 2.30 P. M. Anthem. Reading of the Scriptures, Rev. J. O. Denniston. Prayer -- Rev. Irving Magee, D.D. Hymn. Address of Welcome, ยท . Rev. William K. Hall, D.D. UNVEILING OF MEMORIAL TABLET.
Memorial Address upon Rev. John Johnston, D.D. Rev. S. I Prime, D.D. Address-Rev. John Forsyth, D.D. Hymn. Memorial Address upon Rev. W. T. Sprole, D. D. Hon. E. L. Fancher, LL.D.
GREETINGS :
From Presbytery of North River,
Rev. F. B. Wheeler, D.D.
From Calvary Presbyterian Church, Rev. J. Searle. From Newburgh Ministers and Others.
Hymn, (Composed for the occasion by Rev. F. B. Wheeler, D. D.) Benediction.
Thursday Evening, 7.30 o'clock.
Anthem. Doxology.
Invocation, Rev. J. Macnaughtan.
Reading of Psalm. Hymn. Reading of Scriptures.
Prayer, Rev. J. Searle. Sermon-Rev. Howard Crosby, D.D.
Prayer,
Rev. F. B. Savage.
Hymn. (Composed for the occasion by Rev. J. Macnaughtan.) Benediction.
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Preached Sunday, Nov. 9, 1884. BY REV. WILLIAM K. HALL, D. D.
DEUTERONOMY Xxxii: 7-" Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he will show thee, thy Elders and they will tell thee."
This song of Moses which he gave to his people as his long and eventful life drew to its close is characterized by the intensest desire for the glory and honor of God. Beautiful as it is in its imagery, vigorous as it is in its diction, elevated as it is in its sentiment, the beauty, vigor and elevation of the spiritual that per- vades it, particularly impress us. His soul is on fire with its zeal for the God of Israel. The memories of what God had done for their fathers move him with the deepest longing and solicitude for their grateful obedience. He must give one more testimony before he lays down his earthly work to the goodness and mercy of God and warn them against the forgetfulness of it. It is to be his last testimony, his final appeal. Into this sublinie ode or "Song," as it is called, fromn which the text is taken, all the energies of a genius inspired to the utinost reach of its powers are thrown.
I have chosen it simply for the spirit it breathes upon us and for the suggestion it gives of the witness the history of our Church will present to us of the gracious goodness and preserving grace of God. We are to take together a rapid view of the century's life this Church has lived. As we do it let us hear the voice of this past of the generations gone who with their fathers and elders are bidding us to be faithful to our God and obedient to His Word.
Before beginning this historical review, it is proper for me to say that I shall not burden your minds or weary your patience with many statistics or dates. Only those that are absolutely necessary to place before you a clear and continuous record of the Church life will be presented. It is the purpose of the committee to have printed for preservation and future reference a full report of all the exercises of this Centennial Anniversary. In that report will appear inany things of a sta- tistical nature omitted in this discourse, including a complete list of the officers of the Church.
A little more than a twelve-month has passed since Newburgh celebrated the Centennial that commemorated the closing events of the Revolution. A few months only elapsed after the encampments upon these surrounding hills were de- serted by the disbanded patriot army when this Church had its fornial, legal exist- ence. Its history, therefore, is cotemporaneous with our national history. But previous to this time for nearly a score of years, there had been a religious organ- ization here composed of those who were by education and conviction of the Pres- byterian faith-or in the language of those days, "in communion with the Church of Scotland." It was an informal society, somewhat irregular and incomplete as to its ecclesiastical structure, and constituting hardly more than an outlying mission station or district. But it was so far independent as to have its own Board of Trustees and the management of its own temporal affairs and the freedom of co- operating with other neighboring societies in the choice and support of a ininister. We find that according to the Ministers of the Marlboro Society in the year seven- teen hundred and seventy-three (1773) it united with that society in procuring the supply of a Minister for both congregations for a very brief period. It appeers however to have been in their earlier years, in more cordial and active sympathy with the old Church at Bethlehem-the venerable inother of all the Presbyterian Churches in this region. To her it looked for religious aid and oversight and from her it received co-operation in supplying the religious needs of this then sparsely settled district.
Through the long gloomy years of the Revolution and amid all the distractions incident upon the long encampment of the army in its vicinity, this feeble congre- gation continued to maintain its existence, thougli having no pastoral supervision other than that given by an elder-William Lawrence.
Immediately after the close of the war the organization "strengthened," as the Historian of Newburgh tells us, " by the addition of several persons who became permanent residents on the disbandment of the army, obtained the building which
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had been erected by the army as a storehouse for clothing, where it appears to have held public worship in the winter of seventeen hundred and eighty-three (1783), or spring of seventeen hundred and eighty-four (1784)." We learn from the Church Records that Divine service was held in this building in seventeen hundred and eighty-four, and that on the twelfth (13th) day of July of that year this feeble flock formally organized itself as a Presbyterian Society under the laws of the State, enacted the preceding April. It elected as its Trustees, Adolph Degrove, Daniel Hudson, Thomas Palmer, Joseph Coleman and Isaac Belknap. Who or how many constituted this corporate Society we do not know. Its roll of member- ship has not been preserved. We judge that they must have been weak both in financial means and in members, as they were unable to provide for the entire sup- port of a Minister. In the February of the following year, they united with the congregation in New Windsor, the compact to continue for seven years, "for the purpose," as the resolution stated, "of promoting the preaching of the Gospel."
From 1785 to 1796 the Rev. John Close was the stated supply. He was suc- ceeded by the Rev. Isaac Lewis, who served also as stated supply until the year of 1800. On May 6th, 1801, the Rev. John Freeman was installed pastor over the two Congregations. He resigned his charge in 1804, and was succeeded by the Rev. Eleazer Burnet in the following year, whose brief pastorate was terminated by death one year later. On the 5th of July 1807, the Rev. John Johnston was or- dained and installed pastor over the two Churches and continued to hold this rela- tion until 1810, when the union was dissolved and the Newburgh congregation having acquired sufficient strength to support alone a pastor secured exclusively his services. Thus for more than forty years the Society had continued its uninter- rupted life, and for twenty-six years as a legally incorporated organization, and had not been able during all this period to furnish the support for a Minister. We can infer from this the degree of their feebleness and measure of their poverty as well as their pluck and their pertinacity. The history of the early beginning of other denominations among us that date back to those early days show also how hard was the struggle for self-continuance. When we turn to secular history and learn that the first settlers here upon this patent, the "Palatines." who in their places of nativity had occupied lands of the richest and finest soil, were discour- aged from obtaining a livelihood on these, then sterile hills, sold their farins and emigrated to more attractive fields, we can understand with what severity of toil and with what patience of spirit their successors endeavored to maintain existence. Glad enough these few earnest spirits must have been to secure that old shabby store- house from the Commissary General for a place of worship. And doubtless it was with devout thanksgiving to God they took possession of it and occupied it as their Church home. Such was their poverty that even the Church building, erected eight years afterwards upon the same site, was left in an unfinished condition. It was hardly tenable. Dr. Johnston tells us in his autobiography that "it was with- out galleries, plastering or pulpit-a mere shell, and that he often preached stand- ing on a carpenter's bench with a few boards on which to rest the precious Bible." And the Bible which he used is the Bible now before ine, from which the Scripture lesson has been read this morning. The historian of Orange County tells us that "the congregation was too poor to finish the building and place pews in it, and that the plan devised to seat it was, that every person who chose to do so, should have the privilege of putting up his own pew, with a choice of location for so doing." As the pews varied in form and size according to the taste of the several owners, the appearance presented must have been very strange and grotesque. And not only did these few Christian families have to contend with poverty. The community was pervaded with a spirit of irreligion and infidelity. The openly avowed infidels were sufficiently numerous and strong to form a Club or Society for the dissemination of their opinions ; to hire a man, a certain apostate minister, upon a stipulated annual salary, to give public lectures on the Sabbath upon the teachings of Rousseau, Paine, Voltaire and others, and to support a weekly news- paper devoted to their cause. Their attacks upon Christianity and the Christian Church were inost virulent. So notorious was the place for its wickedness, for its open flagrant vice as well as for this determined spirit of opposition to the Chris- tian religion and its institutions, that the friends of Mr. Johnston, hearing of his purpose to accept the call to a pastorate here, remonstrated with him and begged him to reconsider it. His biography states that his mother wept and besought him not to locate in such a wicked place.
It was in the midst of such surroundings and in the face of such obstacles that this little band of Christian disciples failed not through all the years to bear heroic
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witness for the truth and with steadfast zeal to maintain their foothold as a Chris- tian Church.
When Mr. Johnston came to Newburgh though the leaders of this infidel party had died and its strength and inembers had considerably diminished, yet the baneful effects of the influences that had long been at work remained. There was a widespread apathy and indifference to the cause of religion. In the young par- ticularly these effects were marked. The few people who cordially welcomed him and were eager to co-operate with him were chiefly those of advanced age. The Church at no time had numbered inore than sixty-five, and only numbered thirty- seven when he assumed the charge of it. So we can understand how, under all these combined circumstances, the outlook must have been very dark and discour- aging to this young man entering upon his first pastoral charge.
But it was not long before the outlook brightened. The spirit in which he had undertaken his work, which was indicated by the text he chose for his first serinon -"Brethren pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified among you," was communicated to the faithful few who stood around him. Earnest prayer, accompanied with the faithful preaching of the Word of God, soon produced a marked change in the inoral tone and religious life of the community. I judge from all that I have been able to gather from written record and from conversation with those who had personal acquaintance with Dr. John- ston. the members of his flock and others, that he was not by mental nature or habit a disputant. He did not love controversy. He preached the Gospel in its simplicity, confident that it would win its own triumphs, giving no heed to the attacks that were made upon it by unbelievers. In this respect he differed froin his predecessors and from ministers generally who came occasionally for a Sabbath to preach in Newburgh. They thought that it was their first and imper- ative duty to expose the falsity of these infidel teachings, and to reason down and away these fatal errors that had acquired such dominance in the community. His reliance was upon the Word of God as the instrument of the Divine Spirit for enlightenment and conviction, and upon prayer for the blessing of the Spirit's pres- ence and aid. The practical and sanctified wisdom of such a course was soon made apparent. His people were spiritually quickened. The attendance upon Divine service was greatly increased. He had instituted a weekly prayer meeting, which was held in the homes of his people. A larger place was soon found to be neces- sary. A chapel or lecture room was built for the purpose. And thus the good work begun went steadily forward-until in the fifthi and sixth year of his pastorate there was a large and genuine revival of religion. It was the first revival of reli- gion Newburgh had ever witnessed. The faith of Christians was greatly strength- ened. The Churchi was enlarged by the addition of many earnest converts, among whoin was one who afterward became a very successful minister of the gospel, and another the wife of a devoted missionary. Three years later his ministry was blessed with another spiritual refreshing, when nearly fifty more were added to the church, among whom was one who became a minister of the gospel. In look- ing over the records of the church and Dr. Johnston's own inemoranda of inter- esting events in his ministry, I noted that there were seven such marked events in his ministry, and I was impressed with the fact that among their garnered fruit were so many that became afterwards Preachers of the Word and Elders of the Church- a fact in which the faithful and grateful Pastor found great joy.
Time does not allow ille to give you any detailed account of the long and suc- cessful ininistry of this servant of God. Nor does it allow ine-if I were adequately furnished for the task-to give you a description of his character. Others more capable of doing this than myself, who were personally observant of some of that work and were intimately acquainted with the inan will speak to us at the Meino- rial service, on Thursday next, and to thein are committed this duty and privilege. It is only proper for me to remark, in a very general way, that the Church during the pastorate of Dr. Johnston-this honorary title was conferred upon him in the latter part of his ministry by Lafayette College-was lifted out of insignificance into prominence, out of weakness into commanding strength ; that whereas there were less than two-score communicants when he became its pastor, there were years when upwards of four hundred were reported as its membership to the Pres- bytery. The church roll has the names of nearly a thousand that were added to it during his ministry. It became the source and center of a powerful influence in the community. With the efficient aid of Churches of other denominations that were from time to time organized as the population increased, it elevated decidedly the moral tone of the community. The drift of public sentiment was entirely
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changed. Newburgh became as distinguished for its sobriety as before for its drunk- enness. for its morality as before for its vice, for its Sabbath keeping as before for its Sabbath desecration, and for its religious spirit as it had been before for its infi- delity.
And to this day it has retained these changed features of public and social life. Once, twice the Church building was enlarged to accommodate the increasing con- gregations. In the summer of 1837 a second Presbyterian Church was organized, and mainiy through the urgent and oft-repeated appeals and earnest personal ef- forts of this zealous pastor. It was his heart's desire to see the Kingdom of God advancing in this region, and it had long been his cherished wish to send out a colony from his own Church to plant another of a like faith and order in Newburgh. This second Church, largely in consequence of the agitations that arose over the division of the Presbyterian Church into the Old and New Schools, which took place at this time, did not gain a firm footing. It had for a while a languishing ex- istenee and then died. At the start it united with the New School branch, and by this it alienated some of its prominent members and withdrew itself from the active sympathy and aid of the mother church, which had by a very decided majority voted to continue its organic relations with the Old School. Dr. Johnston's pas- torate extended over a period of forty-eight years. during which more than fifty Ministers preached for a longer or shorter time in Newburgh, with all of whom he had maintained most friendly relations. Between him and his nearest clerical neighbors, the Rev. Dr. McCarrell, pastor of the Associate Reformed Church, and the late Dr. Brown, pastor of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with the former for thirty-three years and with the latter for thirty-nine years, there existed without interruption or jar the most cordial Christian friendliness and Christian courtesy.
For such a useful, honored life and for such a glorious, imperishable work we can best voice our praise and gratitude in the inspired words which he chose as a text for a series of discourses delivered only a few months before his death, in which he reviewed his ministry. It is the twenty-first verse of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, "Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, Ainen."
Dr. Johnston's death occurred on the 22d of August, 1855, and on the 19th of the following December the congregation called the Rev. S. H. McMullen to the vacant pastorate. Mr. McMullen had been for some months the assistant of Dr. Johnston and had greatly endeared himself to inany of the people. A remonstrance, how- ever, from the minority against his settlement was presented to the Presbytery, which had such weight with that judicial body that it hesitated to put the call into the hands of the young pastor-elect. The commissioners appointed to prosecute the call before the Presbytery decided to delay until receiving further instruction froin the congregation. The call was renewed. But the Presbytery deemed it in- expedient to settle Mr. McMullen under all the existing circumstances. The con- gregation did not further press the matter.
On the 27th day of August, of the following year, 1856, forty-five members re- quested dismission from the Church to constitute another Church, and the request was granted. It was at this time and with these persons together with others that soon joined them that what is now Calvary Presbyterian Church was organized. On the 10th of September following, a call was made out to the Rev. W. T. Sprole, D.D., and on the twenty-eighth day of the ensuing month he was installed pastor of the church. He came having had a large and ripe experience from a ministry in Philadelphia, Carlisle and Washington, and from the Chaplaincy and a Profes- sorship at West Point Military Academy. He was a man richly endowed with men- tal gifts, of commanding personal appearance, of strong individuality and possess- ing many rare and amiable qualifications for a successful minister of the Gospel. But I must not yield to the inclination to enter into any just description of the elements of power that an analysis of his character would present. This is not the hour and I am not the person to speak in detail of one whom so many of you knew so well and loved, whose ministrations were blessed to your spiritual good, and whose name will be cherished among your most tender and sacred memories. Fitting words regarding his life and character will be spoken by one whose loving hands have already sketched a vivid portraiture of them in a Memorial which is the beautiful tribute of warin personal friendship.
With the settlement of Dr. Sprole the church entered upon a fresh and invigor- ated life. His pulpit abilities attracted large congregations. The old meeting
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house which even in Dr. Johnston's time had been too limited in its accommoda- tions for the congregation, proved now wholly inadequate to their needs. The question of building a new one had been agitated as far back as 1827. At that time the Board of Trustees resolved that one should be built, but fortunately with the proviso if it could be done " with unity, peace and harniony." The inatter pro- gressed so far that arrangements for services in the Academy while the new build- ing was being constructed were proposed. There is a very significant though rather unsatisfactory note appended to the minutes recording the resolutions upon this subject: "Owing to circumstances not necessary to inention there was nothing done about building a new meeting house."
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