USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > Semi-centennial celebration of the Rondout Presbyterian Church, Kingston, N.Y. 1833-1883 > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02214 7067
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https://archive.org/details/semicentennialce00rond
1833.
1883.
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE
ondont
Iresbyterian Church,
KINGSTON, N. Y.
1833 - 1883
REV. IRVING MAGEE, D. D., PASTOR.
ALBANY, N. Y .: WEED, PARSONS & CO., PRINTERS. 1884.
1515240
CHURCH ORGANIZED
November 1, 1833, with Sixteen Members.
Pastors.
REV. JOHN MASON
1833-1835
REV. WILLIAM REILEY, (Stated Supply,). 1836-1839
REV. JAMES M. SAYRE 1839-1842
REV. JOHN H. CARLE 1842-1847
REV. BENJ. T. PHILLIPS. 1847-1861
REV. WILLIAM IRVIN, D. D 1862-1867
REV. EDWARD D. LEDYARD. 1867-1874
REV. ISAAC CLARK 1874-1882
REV. IRVING MAGEE, D. D. 1882-
Present Membership, 418.
OFFICIAL BOARD.
Pastor- REV. IRVING MAGEE, D.D.
Elders.
WALTER B. CRANE, WILLIAM H. DEGROFF, FRANCIS POWLEY,
JEFFERSON MOCAUSLAND, D. BRAINERD ABBEY, AUGUSTUS W. BRODHEAD.
Walter B. Crane, Edward Tompkins, John R. Stebbins, Charles M. Preston,
Trustees. Edgar Van Etten, Henry M. Crane, John B. Alliger, Lewis B. Van Wagenen, Samuel W. Coles.
SEMI-CENTENNIAL COMMITTEES.
Committee on Invitations.
Walter B. Crane,
Augustus W. Brodhead,
D. Brainerd Abbey, John R. Stebbins, Frank R. Powley.
Committee on Finance. Augustus W. Brodhead,
John B. Alliger, Remsen B. DuBois.
Committee on Programme.
D. Brainerd Abbey, Tracy N. Stebbins, Samuel W. Coles.
Committee on Entertainment.
Jefferson McCausland, Henry M. Crane,
S. Legrand Abbey,
A. A. Crosby, Charles M. Preston, Hiram S. Terwilliger, Lambert J. Dubois.
Committee on Refreshments.
Mrs. Abel A. Crosby, Mrs. Augustus W. Brodhead, Mrs. Chas. M. Preston.
ORDER OF SERVICES.
SUNDAY, Nov. 11, 1883, AT 7:30 P. M. Historical Discourse by the Pastor, Rev. Irving Magee, D. D.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14, FROM 5 P. M. TO 7:30 P. M. Social Gathering in the Church Parlors, at 5 P. M. Refreshments served at 5:30 P. M. Reminiscences and after dinner Speeches.
PUBLIC SERVICES IN THE AUDITORIUM, AT 7:30 P. M. Anthem - " How Beautiful Upon the Mountains." Reading of the Scriptures - Rev. F. Washburn. Prayer - Rev. A. Schriver. Hymn -" Blest be the Tie that Binds." Address of Welcome- Rev. Irving Magee, D.D. Historical Reminiscences - Elder Walter B. Crane. Greetings from other Denominations-Rev. J. G. Van Slyke, D. D., Reformed ; Rev. E. S. Osbon, D. D., Methodist ; Rev. A. K. Fuller, Baptist ; Rev. F. Washburn, Episcopal.
Original Hymn -" O! Jesus of our Worship."
Addresses from former Pastors - Rev. B. T. Phillips, Rev. William Irvin, D. D., Rev. E. D. Ledyard, Rev. Isaac Clark. Doxology.
Benediction.
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE,
PREACHED SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1883,
BY REV. IRVING MAGEE, D. D.
Luke, i : 1, 2, 3.
" Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative con- cerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the Word, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order."
A complete history would be a record of the deeds of all lives. Any particular history, or special fragment of history, is the tracing of certain lives from an initial point along the channel of their movement. Every such initial point is like a spring in the mountain side, from which the living waters flow unceasingly, gathering force and volume as they go, mingling with other waters from time to time, until at last they pour out into the vast ocean of all events.
Our purpose at this time is to note some aspects and appearances of the stream that burst from these mountain sides-or from the bosom of God -fifty years ago.
We stand in these fair summits to-day and call back through fifty intervening years. There are but few voices that make answer. For the most part they are silent, and our call to them echoes back from the voiceless chambers of the tombs. The dead speak more than the living; for in that period of time a generation of living men has passed away, and only here and there one remains, like a radiant, tinted leaf left mateless on the shivering autumn branch.
But distance cannot snatch away the luxury of thought. We are enabled by the magic of historic record to look back through the arching columns of the intervening years, and behold that little group of faithful souls as they knelt there
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Semi-Centennial Celebration.
and fanned with their pious breath that little spark, which flickered, and increased, and blazed, and which burns to-night a beacon upon these slopes, flashing its guidance and warning along the paths which the coming and going generations must traverse. The spark of their kindling has become a center of light and knowledge to-day. The inception was a single beautiful thought in some prophetic soul. Whose it was we shall never know. But, as our minds sweep back through that illuminated corridor, pillared and arched by the toil and growth of each succeeding year, and then peer out into the future, we are enchanted with the contemplation of what one sweet thought can compass and attain.
This, however, we do know. In 1829 two young men were room-mates in an upper chamber in the old Mansion House. The one was a professing Christian, the other, who was the younger, was seeking to become one, and by the guidance and wise counsel of the older he soon realized his desire. These young men were George W. Endicott, from near Salem, Mass., and Walter B. Crane, of South East, Putnam county, N. Y. There, in that simple room, kneeling together, with their arms about each other, they devoted themselves to the work of the Great Master. And there was born first the purpose of rear- ing a church upon this spot. We know of nothing behind it. It is like the drop of water in the bosom of the mountain, before it has reached the spring; having trickled there from the far-off summits upon which the dews of heaven had fallen.
This purpose was talked over with others - particularly with Richard Bolton, nephew of President John Bolton ; Benjamin J. Seward, brother of Governor Seward ; Maurice Wurts, agent of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and others who were equally earnest in the work.
At this time there were not more than six or eight dwell- ings, dotted down here and there along these hills and by the water's edge, where there were storehouses, owned by Abram Hasbrouck, to receive the agricultural products of the
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Historical Discourse.
fertile valleys and rich slopes lying about us, and from which they were shipped by sloops to the New York market. The place at that time was usually called the Strand; sometimes the Landing. But the latter appellation was more commonly given to what is now known as Kingston Point.
The dwelling-houses were not very near each other, but situated where chance or the convenience of the builder dic- tated, on the broken, rocky and picturesque hill-sides that sloped irregularly down to the water's edge. The foremost residence was that of Abram Hasbrouck, Esq. It stood not far from the present post-office, at the foot of the hill upon whose summit now stands the beautiful residence of his son, Mr. Jansen Hasbrouck, who, with his children, are still faithful adherents of the church their ancestor helped to plant. Just east of Mr. Hasbrouck's residence, on the little plateau which is now a garden, stood the old stone farm house in which the Sunday School was at one time held, and was tenanted by John A. Snyder. Another Snyder, Alexander, lived in a house that stood about where the Sampson building is now located. Near it was the hotel of the hamlet, a substantial stone building, called then, as now, the Mansion House, owned by the Canal Company, and conducted by James Wakeman. There was also a house near where the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's office now is, on Lackawanna street, occupied very early by Mr. Murray; and another on the wharf about where the Kennedy buildings now are. In this latter building the first Sunday School of the place was organized. Near the present corner of Union avenue and Rogers street was another, known as the old " Van Gaasbeek house ;" and near where the Ulster and Delaware railroad now crosses Hasbrouck avenue was another dwelling known as "the Miller's house." The most tenacious and intelligent memory recalls no other dwelling this side of the crest of the hill, or nearer than Ponckhockie and Wilbur.
A wonderful change soon came on. The opening of the canal, the discovery in these argillaceous banks, and beneath
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Semi-Centennial Celebration.
these splintered, gray-visaged cliffs, and within the foot hills of the remoter mountains, all the materials of which great cities are builded, brought to that little hamlet of fifty years ago a growth and inflow of wealth as substantial as it was sur- prising. Facts and forces must possess a strange magic that can, in the brief period of fifty years, transmute a little hamlet of eight dwellings, with a few storehouses and sloops, into a busy and populous city, from whose stirring wharves is sent forth the greatest tonnage of any port along the lordliest river of the continent. As if by enchantment the crests and beau- tiful banks were crowned by mansions, and the valleys and slopes were crowded with cottages.
But by far the finest accession was its wealth of souls. The Hollander and Huguenot, with an ancestry of two hundred years behind them, were here, or soon glided down from the encircling hills and plains, at the call of the growing city. The adjacent river counties and all New England sent their strongest and most alert young men and women ; the cities of Pennsylvania and New Jersey contributed of their finest and best to carve their fortunes here and be leaders among the people. Scotland and North Ireland sent their sturdy, strong- sinewed, faith-loving men and girls to plant and build and carry on the great enterprises. And the fertile valleys of Pennsylvania sent up men in whose veins the same blood coursed. With the accent of Scotland came the accent of John Knox; and his faith took root here as readily as heather upon the hills from whence the people came. That the first church planted on this rocky hill-side should have been Presbyterian was as natural, as that the beautiful stream flowing at its base should bring messages from the blue mountain sum- mits in whose mossy glens its springs had birth.
The religious feeling of the community found expression first in the formation and conduct of a Sunday school. In the summer of 1829 the first Sunday school of which we have any record was established. The school was first held in a board- ing-house standing on the dock, about where Dr. Kennedy's
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Historical Discourse.
buildings now are; then in the stone farm-house of Mr. Abram Hasbrouck ; afterward in the school-house which stood upon the rocks above Abeel street, which had been blasted through, where Wurts street now is, directly in front of this building in which we are now assembled. And finally it went into the basement of the Presbyterian Church, then just erected.
The earliest record, August 16, 1829, reads thus : " Present -Teachers, seven male, six female. Scholars, sixteen male, eighteen female."
The superintendents were in order of their service Benjamin J. Seward, brother of Secretary Wm. H. Seward, Geo. W. Endicott, Alexander Snyder, Richard Bolton, Thos. Young. Walter B. Crane succeeded Mr. Young as superintendent in the year 1840, and has continued at the head of the school until the present time, a period of forty-three years. And he stands to-day at his post of duty, always at the front, a patriarch among his fellows, a veritable Christian hero.
Here, then, in the spring time of 1833 we see gathered on these hill-sides a little band of heroic men and women, stand- ing with uncovered heads and uplifted faces, askinga heavenly baptism for a great work upon which they were just to enter.
The absorbing subject of a church organization had been weighed and considered in every light. Messages had gone out in every direction laden with the wishes of this little handful of Christians, and had reached the metropolitan city.
On the third Sabbath of June, 1833, Rev. John Mason came from New York and preached in the school-house. "He was immediately invited, with great unanimity by the people, to continue with them and organize them into a religious society." This invitation he accepted.
About three weeks after this, July 9, 1833, there was held, in that school-house upon the rocks, a little meeting of the utmost significance to all that followed it. It was organized with prayer. " An address to the throne of grace was offered by Rev. John Mason " the record says. Maurice Wurts presided,
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and Richard Bolton was secretary. What royal souls consti- tuted that meeting, with the exception of a few names, we shall never know. Oh, what a pity that we think so little of beginnings. We call our deeds small because we cannot see to the rim of their expansion ; but nothing is small that heaven arches. They thought it not worth while to record the simple names of these lowly men and women, who, with beating Christ- ian hearts, grouped around that sweet purpose fifty years ago. While we here to-day would count the page illuminated upon which their names might be inscribed. But they were, it is writ- ten, " the subscribers and friends to the erection of a new church edifice in Rondout; and Maurice Wurts, Sen., Abraham Has- brouck, John Ferguson, Geo. W. Endicott, Edwin N. Bolton, Alexander Snyder and Walter B. Crane were appointed to act as trustees and building committee of the proposed church."
The water drop of the mountain's heart has found the sur- face. That is the spring, imbedded in the perpetual verdure of venerated names, from which issued the river that is flowing at our side to-day. The meeting was small, as we count numbers, and probably their most sanguine gaze could not discern, in even the far future, the strong and useful church now existing here, grown up from the foundation of their prayers and toil. But the future had in store for them success. And with courage, for it required courage, they went forward to achieve it.
It is delightful to look back upon the faces of those seven alert men as they stand there confronting the new achievement. I can catch the sound of their eager voices as they went from man to man, through the little community, firing them with enterprise, measuring resources, and gathering means for the undertaking. It was no easy matter, for they were neither rich nor great. One word, however, writes the history of the five busy weeks that followed ; that word is success.
Just five weeks after their appointment, August 12, 1833, articles of agreement were made between these trustees and Paoli Brooks for the erection of a suitable building for a Presbyterian church, to be " fifty-six feet in length by forty
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Historical Discourse
feet in width, and twenty-five feet posts.'' It would probably seat three hundred people.
. The work was at once begun, and on the 8th day of October following the corner-stone was laid. During the following winter one of our ruling elders whose white hairs are a crown of glory in this house of God to-day, Wm. H. DeGroff, helped, with his then youthful arms, to quarry the unyielding rocks for its foundations. He has walked beneath the arches of its spiritual shelter ever since; it will afford him peace and repose unto the end.
November 1, 1833, a church was formally organized under the Presbyterian form of government, with sixteen members, and Thomas Young and Phineas Terry as ruling elders. " They were given recognition and encouragement by the Rev. Cyrus Mason of New York, who preached the sermon on the occasion." The names of these sixteen members are forgotten.
November 13, 1833, Rev. John Mason was ordained to the office of the holy ministry and installed pastor of the newly organized church. The service was performed by the following committee of the Presbytery, of New York : The Rev. Ichabod S. Spencer preaching the sermon from Luke 2, 14; the Rev. John M. Krebs giving the charge to the pastor ; and the Rev. Cyrus Mason to the people. Thus fifty years ago on Wednes- day next, the Rev. John Mason began his work as ordained pastor of this church. That is the day we celebrate.
June 19, 1834, the church edifice was dedicated to the wor- ship of the Triune God. The Rev. Cyrus Mason of New York preached the sermon, and Rev. Dr. Gosman of Kingston offered the dedicatory prayer.
The day was clear and bright, the bloom of the fairest month of all the year was there, the blue dome bent over the completed temple, and the hearts of the people were glad. The cost of the building, exclusive of the tower which was added afterward, was about $5,000.
Then the church, fully organized and equipped, began its
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Semi-Centennial Celebration.
career. Then the bud swelled and opened and unfolded, whose blossoming has filled this sanctuary with fragrance and shed its aroma over all the community. It was the first, and . for some years the only church in Rondout. There was a Methodist "class" formed in 1833, "which held its meetings in private houses, at various places from Eddyville to King- ston Point," but their church organization was later ; and still in March 1841, " The Methodist Society of Rondout " was granted, by vote of the board of trustees, "permission to hold their worship in the basement story of the Presbyterian church, at any time when it is not occupied by said Presby- terian congregation." So the record reads. The Methodist church was incorporated July 12, 1841, and the cordial broth- erly love and inutual helpfulness between the two societies continues with wider amenity unto the present day; they celebrating their first inception at almost exactly the same time that we commemorate the full organization of a church.
May 4, 1835, the trustees took steps to give the church civil recognition, as two years before it had obtained ecclesiastical existence. At that date it was incorporated with the following names as incorporators :
" Abram Hasbrouck, Maurice Wurts,
Wilhelmus Hasbrouck, John D. Middagh,
John Ferguson, Jacob T. Hendricks."
"Signed and sealed in the presence of
THOMAS YOUNG, STEPHEN OSTERHOUDT, M. WURTS, JR."
The following are the names and dates of organization of all the churches in the city. The mother of them all was, of course, the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. From the first volume of the church records I quote: "I, Her- mannus Blom, the first preacher in the land of Esopus, preached my first sermon on the 12th day of September, 1660,
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Historical Discourse.
having arrived there on the 5th day of the month in the Company's yacht."
Methodist Episcopal church of the town of Kingston, now St. James' Methodist Episcopal church, January 26, 1830.
St. John's Episcopal church, Kingston, incorporated August 6, 1832.
First Baptist church, Kingston, incorporated August 11, 1832.
Presbyterian church, Rondout, organized November 1, 1833. . St. Mary's Catholic church, Rondout, incorporated 1835.
Methodist Episcopal church, Rondout, class formed in 1833, church incorporated July 12, 1841.
First Baptist church, Rondout, incorporated September 2, 1841, organized February 7, 1842.
Second Reformed church, Kingston, organized January 9, 1849.
Church of the Holy Spirit, Rondout, organized September 11, 1849.
Clinton Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, October 17, 1855.
African Methodist Episcopal church of Rondout, July 26, 1853.
African Union church of Kingston, December 20, 1852.
First Presbyterian church of Kingston, January 4, 1854.
Emmanuel Congregation, Rondout, June 6, 1854.
St. Peter's German Catholic church, Rondout, a parish in 1845 ; first church 1857.
Children's church, Ponckhockie. Sunday School organized June 3, 1855; church built 1871.
Evangelical Lutheran church of the Holy Trinity, January 26, 1862. As early as 1846 they are said to have had a gather- ing here.
Reformed church of the Comforter, Wiltwyck, July 7, 1863.
St. Joseph's Catholic church, Kingston, September 13, 1868. Congregation Anshe Chesed (Jewish), September 1869.
German Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel Congregation, March 31, 1870.
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Semi-Centennial Celebration.
When the church was completed in 1833, the resources of the congregation were pretty well drained. They found it diffi- cult, in addition to their other payments, to raise $250 per annum for the pastor's salary ; the Home Missionary Society supplementing this amount by $150, making the salary $400. I can fairly see brother Crane's perplexed brow as the trustees calmly directed him to " take the inadequate subscription list again and make further effort." And there comes to the front the name, taking willingly the burden which has never since yielded its place, but marches still, crowned with years and blessing, foremost in all deeds of benevolence, love and mercy. That name is the only remaining one of the original little company who banded themselves together for the founding of our church ; whose spirit and energy infused life and gave direction to the dawning enterprise ; whose heart never failed ; whose eye never dimmed before the gloom of its early obscu- rity, struggles and embarrassments ; whose wise counsels and steady hand has grasped the helm and stood over the chart through many a year of storm and peril ; whose means helped to cement the walls of three churches, a part of which he was; whose fittest monument this temple is; whose presence with us yet to-day, sitting calmly aloft amid venerable years, is our joy and most precious gratitude to God; whose humility does not sanction the words of tribute I am now uttering, but whose existence as the only remaining living founder of our church, and whose early, unremitting, continuous and self-sacrificing toil for its welfare, is worthy of the most fitting praise that language can fashion.
There were many others who shared in the great work and share likewise in the honorable praise. Less only in years, not in devotion to the church and noble self-sacrifices for its ad- vancement. Our words cannot gild their tombs nor add lustre to the reverence in which their memory is held. These pages would be very incomplete, however, if they did not contain a mention at least of the following names as among the earliest and most useful friends and members of this church : Tyler
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Historical Discourse.
H. Abbey, Stephen Osterhoudt, Maurice Wurts, Peter M. G. Decker, John McCausland, George DuBois, Gideon Ostrander, Alexander Snyder. Side by side with these was a noble band of devout women : Miss Caroline Wakeman, Mrs. Catherine Schepmoes Goodrich, Mrs. Sarah North, Mrs. Rachel Has- brouck, Mrs. Charles McEntee, Mrs. Brink, Mrs. Endicott, Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs. Alexander Snyder, Mrs. Burgess and many others, who were full of good works and holy zeal, laboring in the beauty of holiness, serving in the temple or sitting at the feet of Jesus, as His sweet will spake unto their hearts. Happy the church that was permitted to feel the baptism of their good lives.
Of this number Mrs. Goodrich still remains with us, the oldest living member of the church, ripe in experience, exalted in Christian character, sitting with saintly patience in the soli- tude of affliction, with her face turned heavenward, waiting for the coming of the Lord.
The Rev. John Mason served the church from November 13, 1833, till November 10, 1835. He organized the church with sixteen members and left it with thirty-eight. He came here directly from the seminary ; he was bright, sharp, gentlemanly, witty and fluent in speech, a fine platform orator, and was called every where for public addresses, which, as also his ser- mons, he gave without using his manuscript. But he paid the too common penalty of erratic genius. His life went out sud. denly while yet young, beneath a cloud.
Then it appears from the minutes of Presbytery, one James Wilson was here and made a report to the Presbytery.
Rev. William Reiley, a minister of the Reformed Dutch church and pastor in Hurley, was " stated supply" of this church from August, 1836, till April, 1839, and served it in connection with Hurley, where he resided. As a man, he was the opposite of his predecessor. He was slow, profound and scholarly. The church does not seem to have increased during his ministry ; only twenty-six communicants are reported.
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Semi-Centennial Celebration.
Rev. James M. Sayre was ordained and installed here Sep- tember 18, 1839, and was dismissed April, 1842. He was a man of fine appearance. He left the church broken in health, and though still living, he has never served any other church. There were then forty-nine members.
Rev. John H. Carle was installed May 5, 1842, and served till April 20, 1847. The record in the trustees' book says, at the close of his first year, " his labors have been greatly blessed. Fifty-nine communicants have been added to the church ; now numbering in all one hundred and eight." Still the number reported to Presbytery at no time exceeded eighty-eight, which was at the close of his ministry. It was during this period (1842) that the church changed its connection to the Presbytery of North river, from the Presbytery of Hudson, to which it had previously belonged. The church at this time became self-sup- porting, having up to this pastorate received aid from the Home Missionary Board, and was able also to increase the salary of its successful minister. Mr. Carle was a man already in mature life, being fifty-five or sixty years of age. He was a good pas- tor and fair preacher. His health, and with it his mind, failed here, and he long ago went forward to the inheritance of the children of light.
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