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FIRST CHURCH CHRONICLES
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Gc 974.702 R58rob 1838642
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01126 1440
. .. .
THE PRESENT CHURCH BUILDING
First Church Chronicles 1815-1915
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF THE
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
BY
CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON
ROCHESTER THE CRAFTSMAN PRESS
1915
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/firstchurchchron00robi_0
CHRONOLOGY AND CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction 9
1815-1816. Beginnings. II
1816-1821. The First Pastorate. 21
1821-1824.
Dr. Penney Takes Hold 42
1824.
The Church Behind the Court House. . 50
1825.
Some Important Events. 59
1822-1826.
The Sunday School. 61
1826-1829.
Subjects of Thought. 64
1830-1832.
A Revival and an Accident. 72
1832-1833.
Dr. Penney Leaves . 81
1833-1835.
Tryon Edwards Comes. 85
1836-1839. Troublesome Questions.
91
1836-1844.
A Vigorous Church 97
1845.
Choosing a New Pastor 107
1845-1847.
Dr. McLaren. 109
1847. Interesting Correspondence. II2
1848. Dr. McIlvaine . II5
Church Life in the Middle of the Cen- tury .. II7
1849-1859.
Some Events of Dr. McIlvaine's Pas-
torate. 124
1860. An Important Year.
1861-1863. Dr. Pease and His Death 132
I34
1864-1865.
Dr. Beadle.
138
1866-1868.
Mr. Wines . . 140
1868-1870.
Without Pastor or Church. 144
1870-1871. Planning for a New Building. 149
5
Chronology and Contents
PAGE
1870. The Coming of Mr. Robertson.
152
1871-1872. Cornerstone Laying and Dedication of New Church.
I54
1870-1877.
The Pastorate of Mr. Robertson 162
1878-1886.
Dr. Robinson as Pastor
167
1887-1900. Dr. Millard.
175
1901-1909.
Dr. Miller 18I
1909-19II. Temporary Supplies . I88
19II. The Beginning of the Present Pastorate 190
Notes.
195
Present Officers of the Church. 196
Former Officers of the Church
199
Index of Names. 200
6
ILLUSTRATIONS
-
FACING PAGE
The Present Church Building.
Title
Rochester's First Church Edifice 24
Rev. Comfort Williams. 40
The Church Behind the Court House
52
Seating Arrangement, 1848.
120
Interior of the Present Church.
178
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First Church Chronicles
I
Introduction
It may seem no great thing to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of a church. What is a century of Christian fellowship-one century, when one is dealing with eternal verities in their action and reaction upon a section of mankind? Yet, it takes only nineteen such periods to get back to the time when Jesus was preaching, and even one is sufficient to substi- tute forest conditions for the splendor, roar and self-confidence of a city.
Measured, then, by the events that may trans- pire in it, a century is an immensely important span. None of the great businesses of modern Rochester traces its local history back so far; no bank, no newspaper, no typical industry of the' city reaches back a hundred years. But the Church-the expression of an eternal rela- tion, of a heart-need and heart-yearning-that,
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changing little, bridges the century easily. Through all the long period lies, clear and shin- ing, the trail of its career.
The simile is not inapt. The path, started uncertainly in the forest, leads, worn by the feet of many, into a city. And still its pil- grims go trooping on, the light of faith upon their faces. As from the beginning, they go with gladness, their burdens lightened by the path,-as the Master promised,-and little children running at their side. Whatever the distractions beside the way, the Path still draws its pilgrims. Under the music of its songs, the hush of its prayers, the admonition of the beloved leader, they hold to the Path. Very beautiful, as one looks back, are the graves of those who died upon the way; very significant and prideworthy are the branching paths, of those who left the Mother-trail in order that they might break new paths that should lead also to the Goal.
It is the history of this Mother-trail of the community,-begun in a forest hamlet and car- ried thence through village, town and city- which this chronicle would trace.
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II
Beginnings
Rochester in 1815 was a community of about three hundred people. Most of the buildings-small frame structures, one to one and a half stories high-were between the site of Powers Block and the bridge over the river. A frog pond was where the Court House yard now is; east of Clinton Street and north of Main was mostly forest; west from Washington Street there was a swamp, and beyond that lay the forests again. On Washington Street hill, where Mrs. Craig's house now stands, the Seneca Indians had celebrated heathen worship, with the sacrifice of a white dog, as lately as 1813.
In this little frontier community dwelt at least two pious women-Mrs. Hamlet Scrantom and Mrs. Wheelock, whom an early history describes as "women of faith and prayer." Mrs. Scrantom had a daughter, Delia, whose attractions won the heart of Jehiel Barnard; and so-we may suppose with no great dif- ficulty, for he seems also to have been a pious soul-his future mother-in-law secured Jehiel's consent to the use of the room, fourteen by twenty-two, over his tailor shop, for religious
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services. The shop was between the Four Corners and the present entrance to the Arcade. The services in this small upper room were conducted by Mr. Barnard himself and by War- ren Brown. They consisted of singing, prayer, scripture and the reading of a printed sermon. The singing, we are told, was mainly by Jehiel and Delia, and though the hymns of those days were lugubrious, these duets so prospered their love that theirs was the first marriage to be celebrated in Rochester.
Naturally, first religious services were of a strictly union character. Silas O. Smith, an Episcopalian, had brought out from Massa- chusetts three Books of Common Prayer, and these were used when there was no preacher. But after a few months of faithfulness on the part of the congregation preachers did begin to come-sometimes a Baptist from Pittsford, and sometimes a Presbyterian, Rev. Reuben Parmelee, from Victor. Those were the gala occasions, and on such days the congregation moved down to the lower floor.
On the first day of May, 1815,-the date we celebrate-these faithful fathers and mothers of the church met in the village schoolhouse, pursuant to a notice that had been given at preceding Sunday services, for the purpose
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of incorporating a religious society. They selected Otis Walker and Hastings R. Bender to preside, and adopted a certificate which recited that the corporation should be known in law as " The Trustees of the First Pres- byterian Society of the Town of Gates." The certificate, acknowledged before Gibbons Jewett, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, names Elisha Ely, Otis Walker, Henry Don- nelly, Francis Brown, Charles Magne and Orrin E. Gibbs as trustees, and is signed by Messrs. Walker and Bender, in the presence of O. E. and Oliver Gibbs. It is interesting to note, as perhaps a significant sidelight on the character of the times and the people, that the papers were recorded in the office of the County Clerk on July 5th at 6 A.M. The Clerk's office was in Batavia, for at that time Genesee County extended east to the Genesee River.
After these papers had been duly filed, the Presbytery of comparatively metropolitan Ge- neva appointed a committee to meet in Roches- terville, on August 22d, to consider the expediency of actually establishing the pro- posed Presbyterian church.
To prepare for the coming of this committee there was called " a meeting of the professors
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of religion and of these desirous of becoming such," to be held at the schoolhouse August 18, 1815. The minutes of that meeting read:
The Reverend Comfort Williams being present was chosen Moderator. Mr. Brown was chosen Scribe.
The meeting was then opened by prayer by the Moder- ator.
It was motioned and seconded that the church to be formed in this place be upon the Presbyterian plan.
Voted for Presbyterian. Oliver Gibbs
Voted for Congregational. Capt. Donnelly Mr. West
Mr. Brown
Mr. Magne
Mr. Ely
Mr. Lay
Voted to meet on Tuesday, 22 August, 1815, at IO o'clock A.M. for the purpose of examining candidates for church fellowship.
At this time the committee of Presbytery would be present. That committee con- sisted of Rev. Reuben Parmelee, the preacher who had occasionally come from Victor, Rev. David Fuller, and Deacons Samuel Stone and Isaac B. Barnum.
The meeting was held, Mr. Fuller acting as moderator and Mr. Parmelee as scribe; and the Revs. Comfort Williams and Eleazer Fairbanks, who were present, were duly in- vited to sit in council. The moderator opened
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the meeting with prayer. Then " the articles of faith and covenant contained in the Utica Magazine, No. 4, October, 1813, were adopted, with the addition of two other articles of practice." These were approved by the six- teen persons whose names are hereafter given, and who, "having professed their faith and entered into a covenant with God and one another were incorporated and constituted into a regular church of Christ." To this church was given the title, " The First Pres- byterian Church of Gates in Rochesterville." " An appropriate sermon was preached by Mr. Fairbanks, from Ephesians II, 20, 21, 22. After which, Oliver Gibbs and Daniel West were chosen Deacons, and Warren Brown and Henry Donnelly were chosen Elders, and ordained and set apart to their respective offices by prayer and a charge, agreeable to the directory of the Presbyterian Church. Elisha Ely was chosen Clerk of the church .* " These were the first church officers of Rochester. A year later, Dr. Gibbs was chosen treasurer of the church.
Following are the interesting Articles of Faith to which the members subscribed :
* The quotation is from the original minutes, signed by the moderator of the meeting.
First Church Chronicles
I. You believe that there is one and but one God, who is the creator, preserver and governor of all, and possesses every natural and moral perfection.
2. You believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect rule of faith and practice.
3. You believe that God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one, the same in essence and equal in every divine per- fection.
4. You believe that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
5. You believe that God created Adam perfectly holy and made him the representative of all his posterity.
6. You believe that by Adam's fall, all his posterity are born wholly depraved, and they are justly liable to endless punishment.
7. You believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and man, hath by His death made an atonement for the sin of the world.
8. You believe that God hath purposed to apply the atonement to those only who were predestined to be holy and to be heirs of eternal glory.
9. You believe that the foundation of the elects' acceptance with God is Jesus Christ in whom they become interested by faith alone.
IO. You believe that in order to exercise any gracious affection a sinner must be renewed by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.
II. You believe that God hath covenanted to bring all His elect to His heavenly kingdom.
12. You believe that the church ought to require a credible profession of holy love of all whom they receive to their communion.
13. You hold that adults who have not been baptized and the children of professing believers are the proper subjects of baptism.
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14. You believe that God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, who will then receive the righteous to endless happiness and sentence the wicked to endless punish- ment.
There were, also, twelve Articles of Practice, to which the first members had to put their names. These were:
I. You believe that a church consists of a number of visible saints, united and bound by a covenant to walk together according to the Scriptures.
2. You believe the members of a church are bound to watch over each other with great care and tenderness; and to admonish, reprove and discipline such as trespass.
3. You believe heresy and unchristian conduct to be trespasses against the church.
4. You consider the church has a right to determine what is heresy and unchristian conduct.
5. You believe that none ought to bring a complaint against a member before the church unless they think there is ground of complaint and evidence of the offence, nor until they have taken the private methods to con- vince and reclaim him.
6. You believe that a church ought not to receive a complaint against a member, unless it be brought by two or three who testify that the private methods to reclaim him have been taken and that he will not hear them, and that he ought to be called to account by the church.
7. You believe the church ought to excommunicate every member who persists in heresy or unchristian conduct after dealing with him according to the Scrip- tures.
8. You believe that excommunicated persons may not
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be restored but upon a public confession of his sin, a profession of repentance and a reformation of his con- duct.
9. You believe that family prayer is an indispensable duty of believing parents and guardians and all those who have the direction of a household.
IO. You believe that parents and guardians are under solemn obligations to labor to restrain their children and dependents, especially those who have been baptised, from all sinful and unlawful amusements, and both by precept and example to instil into their minds a sacred observance of the Lord's day and the worship of His house.
II. You believe the church ought to direct in singing the praises of God.
12. You consider it expedient for the church to obtain the advice and judgment of other churches in important and difficult cases.
After these Articles of Faith and Practice the candidates entered into the following cove- nant:
You do now, one and all, in the presence of the heart- searching God and before angels and men, choose the Lord Jehovah to be your God and portion, and you heartily receive the Lord Jesus Christ for your Redeemer and Saviour, and the Holy Spirit for your Teacher and Sanctifier. You do wholly renounce the services of Satan, and you covenant to yield an universal obedience to all the divine commandments. You do submit your- self to the government of Christ in His church and to the regular administration of it in this church. You do covenant to attend the worship and the ordinances of the gospel with this church so long as God in His providence shall continue you in this place. And you
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promise to be accountable to this church so long as you live unless you be regularly released from your relation to this particular church. Thus you covenant and promise to do so far as God shall give you light, oppor- tunity and ability.
Sixteen persons subscribed to these Articles and Covenant, and by so doing became the first members of the First Presbyterian Church. These members, seven men and nine women, were: Oliver Gibbs, Daniel West, Henry Donnelly, Warren Brown, Elisha Ely, Charles Magne, Aaron Lay, Jane Gibbs, Elizabeth West, Hannah Donnelly, Hannah Ely, Huldah Stoddard, Polly Magne, Sarah Lay, Sibel Bickford and Arbela Starks.
The population of the village at this time was exactly 331, so that a membership of six- teen appears to have represented only about one in twenty persons. In fact, it repre- sented an even smaller proportion, for the parish was not confined to those who were gathered in the forest clearing beside the Genesee. The society was the only religious organization in a tract of four hundred square miles, though not in the center of that tract, and no church meeting could be legally called unless notice had been sent to the settle- ments on "the ridge " in Gates and in the
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east part of Brighton. Indeed, the second meeting of its Session was held on the " Brighton ridge."
The sixteen original members represent only ten different names. Of these there are to-day descendants of one in the Brighton Presbyterian Church, and a descendant of another in the Central-both churches that are ecclesiastical children of the First. Most interesting, also, is it to observe that, out of the sixteen, one was subsequently excommunicated, another " dropped from the rolls at her own request," and that only four remained in the church until their death. Yet the church grew stead- ily in numbers and in power.
With the beginning of the new year, on January 17, 1816, the First Presbyterian Church of Gates, in Rochesterville, installed a regular pastor. The choice was Rev. Comfort Wil- liams, who had had a church in Ogdensburg paying him the princely salary of $600 a year, and who had been invited to sit in the council which decided that the Rochesterville church should be established. He had preached in the village several times during missionary journeys through Western New York in the preceding two years.
It is worth while to note at this point that
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the wise Providence which guided the growth of Rochester not only caused the organiza- tion of the first religious society in the same year that the first tavern was opened, but brought to the community its first settled pastor in the same year that its first lawyer came and that its first newspaper (the weekly " Gazette ") was published! It cannot be said that the community did not start fair.
III
The First Pastorate
As may be imagined, the installation of the first pastor in a frontier settlement was a great event. The exercises were under the auspices of Geneva Presbytery. Following is the program which was carried out, in an unfinished frame store belonging to William
Noble, on Carroll Street: Rev. Aaron C. Collins presided; Rev. Joseph Merrell made the introductory prayer, Rev. William Clark the installing prayer, Rev. Reuben Parmelee of Victor, who so well knew local conditions, gave the charge to the pastor, and Rev. James H. Hotchkin, who afterward wrote the history of the churches of Western New York, delivered the charge to the people. The sermon (from
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Colossians IV, 17) was preached by the Rev. Ebenezer Fitch, D.D., of West Bloomfield, who for twenty-two years had been first president of Williams College. The conclud- ing prayer was made by the Rev. F. Pomeroy. Half a dozen other ministers, including Messrs. Fuller and Fairbanks, were present besides those who had places on the program. The service was held at II A.M.
On the day preceding, i.e., on January 16th, the Presbytery of Geneva had met to receive Mr. Williams into its membership. The pro- ceedings appear to have been enlivened by an undertaking to examine him " as to his sound- ness in the faith "-a course, the Session Book notes, to which "Mr. Williams strongly objected, as being 'unpresidented.'" How- ever, the fathers of Rochester Presbyterianism proposed to run no risk, and the prospective pastor was compelled to give "a reason of his hope " and to read " a part of a discourse." After that he was received.
The date of the installation missed by only five days the pastor's thirty-third birthday. Comfort Williams was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1808, and then had attended Andover Theological Seminary for two years. His grandson, Charles M. Williams of Roches-
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ter, has pictured him as youthful in appear- ance and rather small in stature, with a prom- inent aquiline nose, thin sensitive lips, a smooth face, high forehead, brown eyes, and brown- black hair. His father had been of the little company who responded to the alarm at Lex- ington and had fought at Bunker Hill. Doubt- less there was something of that spirit in the son, who left effete Ogdensburg to come to infant Rochester.
The new pastor preached at first in Barnard's tailor shop, and occasionally at the residence of Enos Stone, sometimes in the house and sometimes in the barn. Stone was the local agent of Colonel Rochester, and his residence was on South Avenue, about where the New Osborn House now is. Later the people met in the First District Schoolhouse, on Fitzhugh Street opposite the present Court House. The congregation was summoned by a tin horn, and for the hymns a tuning fork gave the key.
It was naturally desired to secure a church, but as the money for this purpose (about $2000 for building and lot) could not be raised in the ordinary way, a stock company was formed to advance it. This money was "to be repaid from the yearly rent of the slips," so
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insuring " comfortable seats," and relieving the independent little community, much to its credit, from asking that assistance from outside for which, as a missionary enter- prise, it might have made a claim.
In January, 1817, just a year after the pastor was installed, Moses Chapin, acting as agent for the company, which was an association of thirteen members called the Rochester Meeting House Company, made a contract with Col. Rochester for the purchase of a lot. This was located on what is now State Street, where the present American Express office is. Possession was immediately secured and a frame building, 40 by 50 feet in size, was erected so promptly that in May, 1817, only four months later, Mr. Williams was able to preach the inaugural sermon in it. As the site of the building was low and wet, the structure was placed on posts, or blocks, and these having no walls between them, services were frequently enlivened by the grunting of pigs and the barking of dogs beneath the floor. The pigs especially, it is said, delighted to rub their backs on the joists.
The Session records of these early days contain many items to which a quaint phrase- ology and the lapse of time lend interest:
24
SKETCHED BY KY.ALLING FROM NOTES MADE BY STEPHEN Y. ALLING WHO WORSHIPED IN THIS CHURCH NOVEMBER 22 nd. 1821
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ROCHESTER, N.Y. FIRST SERVICE MAY 1st 1817
DRAWING MADE BY OSCAR J. HEICH, ARCHITECT.
ROCHESTER'S FIRST CHURCH EDIFICE
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At a meeting held March 18, 1816, a long list of rules was adopted. Among them were the following:
That the regular meetings of the church shall be holden on the first Monday of each month at 3 o'clock P.M.
That members from sister churches shall not have the privilege of communing with us more than nine months, without uniting with the church by taking upon them the covenant, after an examination, unless some satis- factory reason shall be given why they should not thus unite.
That the expense of the communion table shall be defrayed by a voluntary contribution from the members at each communion season.
An entry of August 2, 1818, reads, “ Everard Peck was appointed a delegate to the synod to be held at Auburn, on Wednesday, to con- sult about establishing a Theological Semi- nary." The ordeal of examination by the Session before joining the church is indicated in a typical minute dated April 1, 1816: " Azel Ensworth from the church in Palmyra, Nancy Elliot from the church in Rome, Lucy Williams from a church in Wethersfield, and Patty Stone expressed their desire of becom- ing members of the church in this place. They gave a reason of their hope, were exam- ined as to their experimental and doctrinal · knowledge of religion, and approved." An entry of March 25, 1819, is, "The church
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resolved to observe the recommendation of the General Assembly, and once a quarter assemble with their baptized children to enforce the mutual duties of parents and children, and explain the obligations result- ing from the ordinance of baptism."
In September of 1817 the Brighton Church was formed as an offspring of the First,-a quarter of the original membership of the mother church leaving the original trail to break this new path. The four who went were Daniel West, Warren Brown, and Henry and Hannah Donnelly,-one of the two first Deacons and the two first Elders of the First church; but they went with their pastor's blessing and he even helped them to start the church. Donnelly and West were at once made Deacons of it.
On the opening of the first Sunday School, the session records contain this entry: "April 26, 1818, a Sunday School was opened to-day for the instruction of children in the first principles of religion. About sixty attended." The school met in the summers, in the dis- trict school house on Fitzhugh Street; but it was suspended in winter, when the roads were bad. Yet the teachers took their work most seriously as the " Bye-laws and Regula-
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tions," adopted " in full meeting of teachers, May, 1818 " shows:
Ist. Any person may become a teacher in this school upon being recommended by one of the teachers and signing his or her name to the bye-laws and pledge an- nexed.
2d. Every teacher shall consider him or herself bound to use every exertion to increase the numbers and pro- mote the general prosperity of the school.
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