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JUBILEE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 34TH STREET REFORMED CHURCH OF N.Y. CITY
Gc 974.702 N422ner 1755439
M. G.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01150 2868
JUBILEE.
THE
50th Fiftieth Anniversary
OF THE
ORGANIZATION
OF THE 34th Thirty-Fourth Street
REFORMED CHURCH
OF ---
NEW YORK CITY.
DECEMBER 14-21, 1873.
NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE CONSISTORY. 1874.
1755439
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CHURCH, CORNER OF BROOME AND GREENE STREETS,
TURNER DEL.
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/jubileefiftietha00rile
W.HO NHAN DI
THIRTY-FOURTH STREET REFORMED CHURCH.
PREPARATION.
MARCH 5, 1873. The following preamble and resolution were adopted by the Consistory :-
" Whereas : Fifty years have nearly elapsed since the organization of our Church and its establishment as a prominent branch of our Zion in this city, it is considered meet and fitting that suitable notice should be taken of the same; therefore,
"RESOLVED: That a committee be appointed to devise suitable measures and plans to celebrate the semi-centennial of our Church, and report at as early a day as possible.
Elder Camerden and Deacon Searle with the Pastor were appointed such committee.
At the next meeting of Consistory, April 9th, the committee proposed the outline of the services very nearly as they were celebrated in De- cember.
September 15, 1873, the detailed plan was proposed and adopted.
In November about seven hundred copies of the following circular were sent to the former and present members of the Church.
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THE CONSISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH ST. REFORMED CHURCH.
Greeting: To those who have been, or are members or attendants of that Church, or of Livingston Church, or of Broome Street Church, of New York City.
About fifty years ago a small band of faithful Christians organized the BROOME STREET REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH. Watered with their tears, and sustained by their prayers, it grew, and became a powerful Church in cur denomination. Since then many of its mem- bers have been removed by death, many have become connected with other branches of the Church in this city or in other places.
We desire in December to celebrate our Jubilee, to recall the good- ness of God, who has kept us for half a century, and given us so many tokens of his favor, to gather at the Church as many as possible of those whose interests have been with the Church, while it was located in Broome Street, or since its removal to Thirty-Fourth Street, or with Livingston Church with which a union was effected in 1860. We desire to renew the pleasant memories of former years, and re-establish the bonds of Christian communion.
For this purpose we very cordially invite you to be present at the anniversary services, which are to be held in the Church, No. 307 West Thirty Fourth Street, New York City.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14th, 1873.
10-30 A. M. Historical Discourse by the Pastor.
Address by Rev. F. N. ZABRISKIE, D. D., formerly pastor of Livingston Church.
7-30 P. M. Reminiscences of Church Sunday Schools by Rev. PETER STRYKER, D. D. Address by Rev. H. D. GANSE.
MONDAY, 7 P. M .- Sunday School Jubilee.
TUESDAY, 7-30 P. M .- Social Entertainment by Ladies of the Church.
FRIDAY, S P. M .- Service Preparatory to the Lord's Supper.
SATURDAY, S P. M .- Communicants' Prayer Meeting.
SUNDAY, 10-30 A. M .- Communion of the Lord's Supper.
It is our desire to bring this invitation to every person who is or has been connected in any way with our Church ; but as many of them are . scattered and have passed beyond the reach of the Consistory, we shall deem it a great favor if those into whose hands this circular may fall, will tell others of the services, or inform us of their whereabouts that we may address them personally.
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We trust that the recollection of the past, the brightening of the bonds of Christian fellowship, and the rehearsal of the favor of the Lord our Shepherd, who has so graciously led us, may bring delight to your hearts and honor to the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
CONSISTORY.
Pastor :- ISAAC RILEY, 344 West 32d Street. Elders : HENRY CAMERDEN, JR., 358 West 31st Street. P. M. DRAKE, 323 9th Avenue, N. HILL FOWLER, 331 West 31st Street, JOSEPH GOETSCHIUS, 410 West 44th Street, HARVEY MINER, 265 West 20th Street. Deacons : D. W. MEEKER, 242 West 34th Street, W. H. ROOME, 310 West 4Sth Street, H. A. SEARLE, 157 West 44th Street, J. D. SECOR, 405 West 28th Street, E. VANDERBILT, 370 West 35th Street.
(On the fourth page of the circular was a picture of the Broome Street Church.)
On the evenings of Nov. 17th and 24th and Dec. 8th enthusiastic meetings of the congregation were held, and large committees were appointed to carry out the plan for Tuesday evening's sociable.
The Sunday School appointed committees to co-operate.
After a severe storm on Saturday, Sunday the 14th broke clear and pleasant, and this favorable weather continued through every meeting.
CELEBRATION.
On Sunday morning a very large audience assembled. The front of the pulpit platform was adorned with exotic plants ; the desk was orna- mented by a beautiful boquet, and a large photograph of old Broome Street Church was hung in front surrounded by a frame-work of au- tumn leaves. On the ornamental screen-work back of the pulpit vases of flowers, ferns and trailing vines were arranged, and in the centre was a large wreath surrounding the numbers 1823-1873, all of natural flowers. After the opening piece by the choir, Rev. Henry V. Voor- hees, pastor in Broome Street in 1855, now of Nyack, conducted the devotional exercises and read the eighty-fourth Psalmn.
This was followed by singing a hymn prepared for the occasion by Rev. Dr. Stryker :
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JUBILEE.
By Rev. PETER STRYKER, D.D.
We sing the mercy of the Lord To us his people shown ! O, let us join with sweet accord To make his goodness known.
And as we come with joyful heart Our grateful songs to raise ;
Do thou, Great God, thy grace impart, And fill our souls with praise.
We celebrate our Jubilee ; For fifty years ago Our fathers planted this old tree, And thou did'st make it grow.
And now beneath its foliage fair We gather at this shrine,
The fruit of love again to share, And sing of grace divine.
Roll gently onward, stream of Time, And on thy bosom bear Us and our children to that clime Beyond the reach of care,
Where all the fathers we shall meet Joined in the church above; And bending at the Saviour's feet Shall celebrate his love.
Rev. Dr. Zabriskie then gave a history of the Livingston Church. After prayer by Dr. Stryker, the following hymn, also written for the service, was sung :
THANKSGIVING.
By Rev. ISAAC RILEY.
O Holy God, Eternal King, Thy name we bless, Thy praise we sing; Thy sovereign glory we adore, Thou God art Lord for evermore.
The changing years have come and gone, Thy love no change hath ever known ; Thy holy name, O Lord, we bless, For mercies rich and numberless.
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We bless Thee for Thy constant care, For labors crowned, for answered prayer, For comfort, peace, and hearty love, For hopes of holy rest above.
Thou art our fathers' God, O Lord, Their strength, their shield, their rich reward ; Thou art our hope, our joy, our rest, In Thee our hearts are ever blest.
O Light Divine, whose golden rays Have brightened all the vanished days, Shine still along our earthly road, And guide us on to heaven and God.
The benediction was pronounced by Mr. Voorhees.
In the afternoon at the regular Sunday School prayer meeting, many of the old superintendents and teachers were present, and an hour was spent in the most delightful interchange of feeling and in devotion. At half past seven Sunday evening the church was crowded to over- flowing. After the devotional exercises, Rev. H. D. Ganse, pastor of the Madison Avenue Reformed Church, made an address as the representa- tive of the scholars of the old Broome Street Sunday School. Dr. Stry- ker then gave a history of the Sunday Schools of the Church. The singing for the evening was mainly by the scholars who filled the gal- leries of the Church ; they were led by the efficient Church choir com- posed of members of the Sunday School under the direction of Mr. E. P. Pitcher the Superintendent.
A Sunday School jubilee was held on Monday night. A wide plat- form was built from wall to wall, at the pulpit end of the Church, large enough, as was thought, for all the scholars; but at the meeting it was more than full, a number of classes being obliged to sit in the pews be- low. The audience-room was filled in every part. Short speeches were made by Rev. B. C. Lippincott one of the old scholars, and Rev. Dr. Stryker, and by the former Superintendents, Messrs E. Overton, Overbaugh, C. C. Overton, A. C. Stryker, Goetschius and Halsted. Presents were given to some of the teachers, and then the scholars were taken to the Sunday School room, where refreshments were liber- ally distributed. On Tuesday evening the ladies of the Church gave a reception in the lecture-room to the old members. The room was finely decorated with a profusion of greens, flags and mottoes, and the
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portraits of all the former pastors greeted the eyes of their old friends and associates. Refreshments were furnished with overflowing bounty. A warm-hearted address of welcome was made by the pastor, Mr. Ri- ley, and happily responded to by Rev. Mr. Voorhees. The Church was thrown open and very excellent vocal and organ music was given.
On Wednesday evening a delightful prayer meeting and reunion of the Sunday School was held in the lecture-room, attended by a large number of the old teachers and superintendents.
On Friday evening the Preparatory service, and on Saturday the communicants' prayer meeting were held, both services being well at- tended.
On Sunday morning the communion of the Lord's Supper was cele- brated. A larger number of communicants were present than had been for some years previous, and ten persons were received to the membership of the Church. Ten, by a noticeable coincidence, is within a fraction the average number of persons received at each communion during the fifty years of the existence of the Church.
Dec. 26, 1873. The committee made a final report giving a history of the services, and an account of the expenditures.
The Consistory then adopted the following resolutions :
RESOLVED: That the thanks of this Consistory in its official capacity be presented to the ladies of the Church and congregation, for their generous and bountiful entertainment of our old friends and associates on Tuesday evening of the jubilee week ; also to the young ladies and gentle- men comprising the Young Attendants' Committee, for their kind care and attention in supplying the wants of our visitors, and to the congre- gation generally for the noble and generous manner in which they met the views of the Consistory and supported them in carrying out the ju- bilee services of the week.
RESOLVED: That the Pastor present the thanks of the consistory to Rev. Drs. Stryker and Zabriskie and Rev. Messrs. Voorhees and Ganse for their kindness in being present with us, and doing so much toward making our jubilee exercises pleasant and interesting.
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. BY REV. ISAAC RILEY.
Text, Isaiah 65: 22. As the days of a tree are the days of my people.
The objects of nature are often used in the Bible as symbols of hu- man and divine institutions. I take the comparison given in these words as suggesting the figure under which to speak of the history of our church. I do this the more readily on account of certain thoughts connected with the words as they are used by the prophet. The people spoken of here were the people of God. They are now represented in a very important sense by the Church. After all that the Lord has done for us in this church, we may reverently and humbly say we are part of God's people.
The Prophet had been speaking of dark days in the past; of former troubles, the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. We too have seen days of darkness, pain and perplexity. But in all those trying times the Prophet could speak of the Seed of the blessed of the Lord, for whom there was an abiding purpose of mercy in the heart of the Divine Protector. My friends, this Church has never lacked tokens of the favor of God.
The expression, the days of a tree, means continuance of growth, vig- or and beauty, not merely length of days, but long life filled with signs of flourishing strength, leaves and blossoms to gladden the sight, and fruit for food and blessing. God grant that these words may be an augury for the future of this beloved church, a promise which shall every day find new and illustrious fulfillment, that we may be found resplendent with the beauty of every Christian grace, and full of all the fruitage that can give comfort to man or glory to God !
And the Prophet speaks of a new heaven and new earth in which the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Let this too be a type of our experience. so that turning to-day from the past we may enter on a future more and more marked with the signs of the Divine Benediction filled with favors so rich that all the past shall be forgotten in the fulness of present delight leading up manifestly to the day when
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there shall indeed be a new heaven and earth in the presence of the King Eternal even Jesus Christ our Lord.
In giving an outline history of the Church I shall speak first of all of its surroundings, the condition of the city in which the tree was planted.
The Church was organized on Wednesday, December 10th, 1823. Mod- ern New York dates from about 1820. First a Dutch colony, then Eng- lish, then an American town and city, it began at that time to take on its metropolitan character, so that the life of our Church begins with the new life of the city. In 1823 the city had to wards, now it has 24. The population was about 140,000,* it is now about 1,000,000. The Directory had 24,460 names, that for 1873, 228,161. The Mayor of the city was William Paulding. Richard Riker was Recorder. The Sheriff was Peter Wendover, grandfather of Mr. Peter Wendover Bed- ford, who was for a number of years an efficient deacon in this church. In a map of the city published in 1829, the part marked as occupied is bounded on the north, beginning at the North River, by Great Kill Street, now Gansevoort, by Greenwich Lane now Greenwich Avenue, Wash- ington Square, and North Street, now called Houston. Broome Street, the old name of which was Bullock Street, was on the outer edge of the city proper. On the west from St. John's church to Greenwich village there were scarcely any houses, the mansion of Colonel Richard Varick stood solitary on Richmond hill near the present corner of Varick and Charlton Streets.
Broadway was quite well built up as far as the stone bridge over the canal from which Canal Street takes its name, but was an unpaved road bordered by scattered houses from that point up to the Sailors' Snug harbor on Captain Randall's farm near where A. T. Stewart's store is. From there it continued as a narrow causeway over low ground as far as the U. S. Arsenal grounds at the present Madison Square. The Bowery was the great street. It was the old Stuyvesant farm-road (the word Bowery-road meaning farm-road. ) It ran up to the junction of the Bloomingdale road where the Cooper Institute now stands, just by the celebrated pleasure resort called the Vauxhall Gar- den. Thence the two roads ran together to the Arsenal grounds, where they separated into the Bloomingdale road and the old Boston stage
*The census of 1820 shows 123,706; for 1825 166,685.
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road, which went on over the famous "Kissing Bridge" at 72nd Stree:, and winding about the hills ran through Harlem. On this road came all the travel from New England.
A commission was appointed in 1807 to report some plan for arrang- ing new streets. The old plan seems to have been to follow cow paths and farmroads and lines, but in 1811 the commission reported adopt- ing the present admirable arrangement for Streets and Avenues, to be laid out above the part of the city then occupied. They began their work after several years of opposition from the farmers, through whose lands the streets were to run. When our Broome Street Church was built, Greene Street was opened only to Fourth. First Avenue was opened to Bellevue, where the hospital now stands ; Second Avenue to Kips Bay ; Fifth Avenue, once called the Middle road, was a coun- try road from Inclenberg Hill to Harlem; Sixth Avenue was opened from Carmine Street to Greenwich Lane, six blocks, Eighth Avenue, from the head of Greenwich Lane to McCoomb's Lane; Ninth Avenue, as far up as 28th Street: Avenues A, B, C, D, 4th, 7th and IIth were not opened at all.
A member of this Church present with us to-day, who came to live in Amos Street, in 1826, tells of going soon after with a friend into the country to gather blackberries somewhere not far from 20th Street.
The only houses in Bond Street were three new ones just built on the north side. Many families resided on the line of Herring Street the present Bleecker Street, which was a part of the main road from the city to Greenwich Village. The favorite street for shopping was Greenwich. The Battery was the chief pleasure resort. In Broadway and Greenwich Street and in the cross streets as far north as Cham- bers most of the best families resided.
In the Evening Post of 1823 there was an earnest discussion over an ordinance lately passed forbidding burials in the city, and many complaints at being obliged to go three miles and a half out of town to a cemetery opened in the country between 5th and 6th Avenues and 40th and 45th Streets.
There were 9 Dutch Reformed Churches, now there are 22, there were 10 Baptist, now 31, 14 Episcopal, now 73, 11 Methodist, now 50, 14 Presbyterian, now 49. Beside these there were other places of wor-
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ship making a total of 82, now there are 359. (See Appendix Note A.)
There were in 1823, 4 public schools, the first having been opened May 17, 1806, in Madison Street near Pearl. Now, including the Col- lege, Normal and Primary Schools, there are Ico.
There were 14 Banks, now 79.
There were published in this city, 6 morning papers, 4 evening papers, 7 semi-weekly, 16 weekly and 5 magazines. Total 38, against 347 pub- lished now.
At that time water was supplied from pumps and springs and carried about on carts, and sold by the pailful. The Croton was introduced in 1842.
The city was lit with oil lamps. Lamps and candles were used in private and public houses. It is a coincidence that just 50 years ago, March 1823. the "New York Gas Light Company " was organized, with a capital of $1,000,000, to supply the city south of Canal and Grand Streets. The Evening Post of June 10, 1823, expresses the hope that gas will be furnished before winter. But the company did not begin to lay pipes till 1825. The first house lit was No. 7 Cherry Street the resi- dence of Samuel Leggett, President of the company.
The year 1823 was marked by the last visitation to the city of the yellow fever, and it was a time of terror and distress. The plague began June 17th, and lasted till November 2nd, between which dates 240 per- sons died. It began in Thames Street and extended through the city, until a board fence was built across the island from river to river, just below the Park. All who could, fled from the city to the country vil- lage of Greenwich. The banks were removed to the street which still re- tains the name it received then of Bank Street. The custom house was removed to Greenwich, and even the Brooklyn ferry boats ran up there daily. The late Dr. Charles King speaks of riding on horseback that year, from the corner of Bleecker Street and Broadway across open commons to Greenwich Village.
The suddenness of the flight may be judged from a fact stated by Rev. Mr. Marselus, formerly pastor of the Greenwich Church, and still living, " that he saw corn growing on the present corner of Hammond and 4th Streets on a Saturday morning and on the following Monday Sykes and Nillo had a house erected, capable of accommodating 300
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boarders." (Stone's Hist. of N. Y., p. 378, quoted from the market book of Thos. F. Devoe.) In later years the fever was stopped by the quarantine established on Staten Island in 1821.
The next year, 1824, the city was all agog with the visit of Lafayette, who in the 86th year of his age, after nearly half a century's absence, returned to visit the country for which he had done so much. He was greeted with a magnificent reception.
In 1825, the Erie Canal, 393 miles long, was opened, having been begun 1817. This great work has more than any other one thing con- tributed to the growth and prosperity of New York.
In the message sent to Congress by President Monroe within a few days of the time this church was organized, he says, " that the United States Foreign Ministers had been instructed to propose to other gov- ernments the proscription of the slave trade." He also speaks of Coun- cil Bluffs, just opposite the present city of Omaha, as "the most west- ern post" occupied by our army.
I have been interested also in noting some items concerning the state of other nations.
Napoleon died two years before (May 5, 1821 ) having been banished to St. Helena in 1815. The Jesuits and the Bourbons with Charles X. (1821-30) were re-established in France, as they came so near being again this year.
George 1V. (1820-30) was on the throne of England, (and that coun- try was at war with the Ashantees as they are now.) It was a time of great political disaffection in England and distress in Ireland. They were just feeling the reaction from the long wars with Napoleon.
Spain was in the same kind of triangular conflict as now. The Spanish and Portugese possessions in North and South America were just becoming independent ; the last foothold on the continent was lost to Spain in 1826, just as its last foothold on an American island is so near being lost to-day.
In 1822 the Greeks declared their independence of Turkey. Forty- five and fifty years ago this city was immensely stirred up by sympathy with the Greeks, and I find the matter of a collection in their behalf considered by our Consistory.
The English conquest of India was in full tide.
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The first steamship, the Savannah, 350 tons, from New York to Liv- erpool in 26 days, July 15, 1819, crossed the ocean four years before. The first steamboat was put on the Hoboken ferry in 1823. (The Cler- mont, the first steamboat ever made, sailed its first voyage up the Hudson only sixteen years before Aug. 7, 1807.)
The date of our organization was six years before the use of steam on an American railroad. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. ured an engine at Honesdale, Penn., in 1829. One ran in the Mohawk Valley in 1833. It was 21 years before the invention of the telegraph, May 22, 1844.
The Bible Society was 7 years old. The American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions was 13 years old.
The Boston Tract Society organized 1814, was merged into the American Society in 1825.
The New York Sunday School Union began in 1816. The Amer- ican Sunday School Union began in 1824.
The first Total Abstinence Society was formed in 1826.
I come now to the more immediate history of the Church-to the pic- ture, of which what I have said may be considered a kind of setting.
On the 9th of Jan. 1822, a Missionary Society was formed at the suggestion of Rev. Pascal N. Strong, one of the pastors of the Col- legiate Church. (1816-26.)
The second Article of the Constitution is, "The especial object of this society shall be to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ, agrceably to the standards of the Reformed Dutch Church, to establish new Churches, and to furnish the means of grace to such destitute congregations within their own bounds or elsewhere, as may be languishing for want of re- lief."
(" Minutes of the proceedings of the Board of Managers of the Mis- sionary Society of the Reformed Dutch Church.")
The board of thirty managers of this society were chosen the next year, as the Synod's "Standing Committee on Missions."
Jan. 28, 1822. It appears from the record on the book of the society that "the Rev. Robert Maclean (from London) who is desirous of unit- ing himself with the Reformed Dutch Church, and of establishing a
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congregation in this city under their jurisdiction, to be a missionary under the direction of the Board, was to be located somewhere near the junction of Grand Street and Broadway," and it was resolved that he be " employed for three months, at the rate of $50 per month."
Mr. Seymour P. Funck (called also Vonck and French) a licentiate from the seminary at New Brunswick, was employed at the same time. He was sent, as the record says, " to be located somewhere about the arsenal near Love Lane, in the suburbs of the city of New York." The arsenal was at 25th Street, Broadway and Madison Avenue, where the House of Refuge was established in 1825, and Love Lane is now called 2 Ist Street. The following minute appears on the record of the Classis of New York February 19, 1822 : "The Rev. R. McLean being present submitted credentials of his ministerial standing while in England, and of his dismission from the Church to which he formerly belonged, which documents were read and being deemed by the Classis amply satisfac- tory, Mr. McLean having subscribed the formula was admitted a mem- ber of the Classis."
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