USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > A history of Buffalo : delineating the evolution of the city > Part 4
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Another important event of 1845 was the branching from Trinity of the society which organized the Protestant Epis- copal Church of St. John, and which, three years later, built the fine stone edifice, with a dignified tower, that graced the corner of Washington and Swan streets till it gave place to the Statler Hotel, in 1907. Zion's German Evangelical Reformed Church was a third creation of this year. It was organized by a number of families of the Reformed Church
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of Germany, under the direction of the Rev. J. Althaus, and its first church edifice, dedicated in 1846, was built at the corner of Cherry and Spring streets. Nine years later it built anew on Lemon Street, near Virginia. The original Unitarian church building was enlarged and remodeled, and a building was erected on Vine Street for the African M. E. Church, in 1845.
A fourth Presbyterian society, which took the name of the North Presbyterian Church, was constituted in 1847, and erected on the west side of Main Street, between Huron and Chippewa, the building which it occupied for fifty-six years.
A third St. John's Church-the second German church of that name-was formed in 1847, by a society of the Ger- man United Evangelical denomination. It held services for several years in a public school house and elsewhere, before building for itself. In the same year the German Methodist Episcopal Church was built, at the corner of Sycamore Street and Ash. It was then, too, that the first Jewish congregation was formed, taking the name of Beth El. For some years its meetings were in the upper story of the Hoyt Building, at Main and Eagle streets. Then it bought a school house, on Pearl Street near Eagle, and con- verted it into a synagogue.
Methodism added to its communities, in 1848, the society which built on Pearl Street, at the corner of Chippewa, and which was known for many years as the Pearl Street M. E. Church, but took ultimately the name Asbury Church. Its original membership was drawn from the parent Niagara Street Church.
The first German Baptist Church, parent of five German churches of that denomination now maintained in the city, was established on Spruce Street near Sycamore, in 1849.
In the Fifth Decade .- In March, 1850, the "old and gloomy church building" in which the Rev. Dr. Heacock
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began his pastorate of the Lafayette Street Presbyterian Church was fortunately burned, and, though rebuilt with the old walls preserved, at the small expense of about $9,000, and though its capacity was limited, yet the interior was made, as Dr. Heacock said with truth, "as cozy and pleasant an audience room as we can easily find." This had to suffice for a dozen years.
In June of the same year the corner-stone of the beautiful new St. Paul's, which became a little later the cathedral church of the Protestant Episcopal diocese, was laid, and the building was consecrated in October of the following year. It is generally adjudged to be the masterpiece of Upjohn, the famous architect of New York, and as perfectly proportioned an example of Gothic architecture as can be found. It was built at a cost of something more than $130,000.
The original St. Paul's Church building, now vacated-a framed structure of good appearance, but small-was sold to the German United Evangelical St. Peter's Church, and removed to the corner of Genesee and Hickory streets, where it took the place of the little building which the Methodists had bought from the First Presbyterian Church in 1827, and given to St. Peter's in 1835. Thus two of the pioneer church edifices in Buffalo ended their existence on the same ground, distant from the sites on which they were built as near neighbors.
The church organized in 1835 in connection with the Associate Reformed Church of America had fallen to pieces in 1840, but had undergone a reorganization in 1848, and now, in 1850, it received a pastor, the Rev. Clark Kendall, under whose ministration it acquired strength. In 1857 it was affiliated with the United Presbyterian Church of North America. A Church of the Dutch Reform was organized in 1850, and held services in various places for many years
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before building for itself. In the same year a second Jew- ish congregation, naming itself Beth Zion, was organized, and held religious services in various places for a number of years, but did not build.
With the Rev. George H. Ball as its pastor, then and for many years, the First Free Baptist Church was formed in 1850 or 1851, buying and occupying the original church building of Dr. Lord's congregation, at the corner of Gen- esee and Pearl streets.
The German Evangelical St. John's Church erected a building on Amherst Street, near East, which was dedicated in 1853. In that year the Evangelical St. Stephen's Church society was formed by twenty-one families from the St. Paul's Church of the German United Evangelical body. In the next year it received for its pastor the Rev. Dr. Fred- erick Schelle, under whom, during his ministry of nearly forty-five years, it grew to be one of the largest in the city. Its church edifice was built at the corner of Peckham and Adams streets in 1857. In 1853 the "Old Lutheran" Church of the Holy Trinity sent out a division of its family to found the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Andreas (Andrew), and to build for it on Peckham Street. That, too, was the year in which another colony from the First Presbyterian Church went far northward to establish the Westminster Church. Some years previously the ven- erable Jesse Ketchum, of benevolent fame, had bought a lot and built a chapel on Delaware Avenue, above North Street, and the Westminster society was cradled in this. The chapel was enlarged in 1855, which did not suffice for the new church, and a larger edifice was erected on the same site in 1858-9.
New buildings were erected in 1854 for the First Church of the Evangelical Association, on Sycamore and Spruce streets, and for Grace M. E. Church, on Michigan Street,
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between Swan and South Division. The latter, when dedi- cated, in June, 1855, was free from debt, largely through the liberality of the late Francis H. Root. The beginnings of the Protestant Episcopal parish of St. James are traced to a mission that was established in 1854, on Seneca Street, near Hamburg. A small wooden chapel was built for this mission in the next year, at the corner of Swan and Spring streets, and a permanent church was soon formed.
In the same religious connection another new parish was organized in 1855, by the planting of the Church of the Ascension, which occupied a chapel on North Street, at the corner of Linwood Avenue. A new Presbyterian society, also, was organized that year, which built a chapel on the rear part of a Delaware Avenue lot, midway between Chip- pewa and Tupper streets, receiving the ground from Mr. George Palmer, preparatory, as appeared later, to a much greater gift. Known first as the Delaware Presbyterian Church, this took, a few years later, the name of Calvary Church.
St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1856 by twelve members from Grace Church, and a framed building was erected on Elk Street for its services in the next year. At this time, too, the First German Baptist Church dismissed some of its members to form a second society, which built for itself on Hickory Street, north of Sycamore. It was in this year that St. Paul's (of the P. E. Church) received its chime of ten bells.
From three Sunday School Missions opened in 1857 came three new churches in the city. One, conducted by Methodist teachers, in a brick building, called "Father Ketchum's Church," on the ground given later for the State Normal School, grew into the Jersey Street M. E. Church, which took the name of Plymouth in after years. The Protestant Episcopal St. Luke's Church had its origin in
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another, planted on Niagara Street, at the corner of Vir- ginia, and for which a framed chapel was built presently on Maryland Street. The third was instituted by the Ger- man Evangelical Association of North America, and its offspring was the Krettner Street Church of that body.
In March, 1859, the First Baptist Church, on Washing- ton Street, parted with forty-nine of its members, who went out of it to organize the Cedar Street Baptist Church, build- ing their place of worship at the corner of Cedar and South Division streets, on ground given for the purpose by Mr. John Bush. The First Unitarian Church building was in- jured seriously that year by fire, but quickly restored.
In the Sixth Decade .- The First Free Methodist Church was organized in 1860. It bought a brick building on Pearl Street, near Eagle, used previously as a theatre, and adapted it to a better use. In the next year the parent of the Meth- odist churches of Buffalo, established for thirty years on Niagara Street, but struggling with debt and other diffi- culties for a long time past, was dissolved and its property sold.
Two new church edifices were added to the city in 1862. One of them, a fine piece of architecture, in grey stone, was a munificent gift by George Palmer to the Delaware Pres- byterian Church, which underwent a reorganization at that time and assumed the name of Calvary Presbyterian Church. The other building of the year provided sittings at the La- fayette Street Presbyterian Church for the larger congrega- tion that had waited long to fill them.
St. Philip's Protestant Episcopal Church (colored) was organized in 1863 and acquired a chapel on Elm Street, be- tween North and South Division streets, which a Presby- terian minister, the Rev. Dr. Prime, had built about ten years before.
And now, in 1864, another church society on Niagara
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Street expired, after existing for a score of years. The Niagara Square Baptist Church, first-born of the parent Baptist Church, had promised well in its youth, but lan- guished for some reason in the later period, and could not be kept alive. Its building was sold to the Free Baptist Church, which had previously occupied the building vacated by the congregation of Dr. Lord.
The place of the church which died this year was filled by the birth of another that has been full of life and vigor, under one continuous leader, to the present day. It had its origin in a mission Sunday School, opened by the Rev. Henry Ward. The mission acquired a chapel on Seneca Street in 1865, and became an organized church in 1869, with Mr. Ward for its pastor, as he has now been for more than forty years.
Another event of 1864 was the reorganization of the Beth Zion congregation, upon its fusion with a score or so of Jewish people whose religious beliefs had become more liberal than those of the strictly orthodox. The aim of the new society of Temple Beth Zion, thus formed, was "to effect changes in the ritual and mode of worship, to conform with the development of modern conceptions and Jewish ideas." For a short time the reformed society held services in Kremlin Hall, but soon purchased from Mr. William G. Fargo the building that belonged formerly to the Niagara Street M. E. Church. A second organization of the strictly orthodox Jews under the name of Berith Sholem or Brith Sholem, was formed in 1865.
In 1865 the Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe was chosen to be Coadjutor Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Western New York, and, within the same year, on the death of Bishop DeLancey, became Bishop of the diocese, and fixed his residence in Buffalo.
In this year the Rev. P. G. Cook, as secretary and mis-
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sionary of the Y. M. C. A., established a mission school on Wells Street, from which, after some years, came a Wells Street Church. It was in the Wells Street Sunday School that Miss Charlotte Mulligan organized her "Guard of Honor" Bible class, which took root among the permanent philanthropic and religious institutions of the city.
What seems to have been the first recorded meetings of "Friends" were held at the house of Mrs. Martha Ferris, beginning in 1865. In 1869 they built a meeting-house on Allen Street.
A new church edifice on Main Street, above Huron, erected by the Universalist society, was consecrated under the name of the Church of the Messiah, in 1866. Four years later it was burned, but rebuilt at once.
The year 1867 was fruitful of new religious organizations. The fecund First Baptist Church spared eighty-seven of its members, to go northward and found a church on what was then Ninth Street-the Prospect Avenue of later days. Early in the following year the Ninth Street Baptist (now Prospect Avenue Church) was established in a comfortable chapel at the corner of Georgia Street. At the same time a number of members of the body of Christians known as Disciples of Christ were organizing, at the corner of Ellicott and Tupper streets, the society now constituting the Rich- mond Avenue Church of Christ; and a second German Methodist Episcopal Church, to be named the East Street or Zion Church, was being formed in connection with the First German M. E. Church. In this year, moreover, the Jersey Street M. E. Church arrived at its full organization and acquired a building of its own.
Disaster came to the St. John's P. E. Church in 1868. Its stately building was damaged seriously by fire, consequent on the lodging of a rocket on its roof. Dissension and divi- sion in the society arose, on questions between reconstructing
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the edifice or going elsewhere. One party, with the rector, withdrew, and essayed the establishing of a new parish, under the name of Christ Church. Ground on Delaware Avenue, above Tupper, was bought, where, after two or three years, a chapel was built; but the intended church did not thrive. The St. John's organization was maintained, its building restored, and worship in it continued for a number of years.
The United Evangelical body of German Protestants added to its churches, in 1868, the St. Matthew's, building for it on Swan Street, near the Seneca Street junction; and the First German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church dedicated a new edifice that year, on Michigan Street, be- tween Genesee and Sycamore. A mission Sunday School, opened on Hamburg Street, near Elk, in 1869, by the First United Presbyterian Church, resulted in the planting some years later of the Second Church of that denomination. In 1869 the Dutch Reformed Church built on Eagle Street, near Cedar; and the First Free Methodist Church was housed in a new building on Virginia Street, at the corner of Tenth.
In the Seventh Decade .- The Delaware Avenue M. E. society was organized in 1870, and held services in the Cal- vary Presbyterian Church while a chapel, at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Tupper Street, was being built. The chapel was dedicated and occupied in 1871, and the main edifice, which it joined, in 1876.
St. Luke's Church, of the Protestant Episcopal com- munion, removed its building from Maryland Street to Niagara Street near Maryland in 1870, and enlarged and improved it on the new site. The Rev. Dr. Walter North, still pastor of St. Luke's, began his ministry with it in 1875. Another St. Luke's, of the German United Evangelical body, was organized not long afterward, and bought the
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Hope Chapel, on Richmond Avenue and Utica Street, which Westminster Church had built for Sunday School purposes two years before.
In 1871 the Prospect Avenue Baptist Church opened a mission from which sprang the Emmanuel Baptist Church, organized in 1877 and established on Normal Avenue and Rhode Island Street. A new building for the society now known as the Richmond Avenue Church of Christ was erected at the corner of Maryland and Cottage streets in 1871.
1872 and 1873 were years of exceptional activity among the churches. The parish of St. Mary's on the Hill was formed in 1872; the society, then organized, holding services and Sunday School in the neighboring Church Charity Foundation building until it dedicated its own building, on Easter Day, 1875. St. Mark's Church (P. E.) was cradled the same year in a Sunday School, founded at Lower Black Rock by the rector of Grace Church, and a chapel for the mission was built on Dearborn Street, near Amherst, 1876. From another mission of 1872, the Baptist Olivet Mission, opened in a small building on Delaware Avenue, where the Twentieth Century Club House stands now, came in due time the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church. Still another mission of the same year, conducted by the Y. M. C. A. of Grace M. E. Church, gave rise to the Sentinel M. E. Church, far out on the east side of the city. Moreover, new church buildings were erected by the Asbury M. E. and the First German M. E. Churches in that year.
In 1873 no less than six new churches were planted, either by full organization, or in the seed of a preliminary mis- sion. Four of these were of German membership. A mission chapel on Detroit Street, built by the Young Men's Society of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. John, gave life in the next year to a self-sustaining congregation,
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for which a new building was erected on Broadway near Fox, and which bears the name of the German Evangelical Lutheran Christ Church. From a mission founded by the First Church of the Evangelical Association of North America came the St. Paul's Church of that association, on Grape Street. The German Evangelical St. Marcus Church was organized as a branch of the St. Paul's Church, of the same communion, and held services in a little French Protestant Church, at the corner of Ellicott and Tupper streets, until 1876, when it built for itself on Oak Street, south of Tupper. Salem's Church, of the German Evan- gelical Reformed body, was organized in 1873, and pro- vided with its place of worship, on Sherman Street, between Sycamore and Broadway.
The Woodside M. E. Church, on the Abbott Road, dates from 1873, when the society was organized and a framed building erected, which now looks out on Cazenovia Park. St. Andrew's P. E. Church can be said to have been planted that year, by the opening of a Sunday School, conducted by workers from St. Paul's, which grew into "St. Paul's Free Chapel," built on Spruce Street, near Genesee, in 1875, and that, ultimately, became an organized parish and church. A Free Methodist mission was opened and a chapel built on Clinton Avenue, at Black Rock.
New buildings were erected in 1875 for the Church of the Ascension (P. E.) and for the Second Church of the Evangelical Association. The building of the Jersey Street M. E. Church was reconstructed, after suffering damage from a fire, and the society changed its name to that of Ply- mouth Church. The Jewish Brith Sholem erected a syna- gogue on Elm Street, which it occupied for some years. Its present synagogue is on Pine Street, near William.
A grave event of the year was the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Lord from the pulpit of the Central Presbyterian
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Church, on account of failing health. He had served in it for nearly forty years.
In 1874 the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church, which had its origin, as related above, in 1828, erected a new church edifice and adopted the name of the Church of St. John. It had acquired a vigorous constitution and was active in good work, having founded the Lutheran Orphan Asylum, in 1864, and added a Home for Orphan Boys, at Sulphur Springs, in 1868. A younger St. John's Church, of the United Evangelical denomination at Black Rock, en- larged and improved its church building in this year. Its membership, originally German, was becoming Anglicized rapidly, and is now, says the present pastor, more English than German.
The Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas had its origin in 1874, in a mission Sunday School, established by the rector of St. James Church. A building was erected for it, at 401 Elk Street, in 1879. The Wells Street Church was organized; the Riverside M. E. Church, at Black Rock, dedicated a new edifice; and the Jewish Beth El congrega- tion (orthodox) built its present synagogue, on Elm Street, in 1874.
Two new church societies were organized in 1875. One, which was known during its early years as the Glenwood M. E. Church, took form at a meeting in a private house, and its services were held in private dwellings for a time. The society was not incorporated until 1880, having pre- viously been maintained as a mission of the Delaware Ave- nue M. E. Church, with whose aid it had erected a building on Main Street, in 1879. The other new church was the Third of the German Baptist societies, formed mainly from the First German Baptist Church, but growing partly from a previous mission Sunday School. A new building of the East Presbyterian Church was completed and dedicated in 1875.
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In 1876 the Rev. Charles H. Smith became the rector of St. James P. E. Church, where he ministers still.
The year 1877 was saddened by the death of the Rev. Dr. Heacock. After that sorrowful event the Lafayette Street Church had a succession of good and able pastors; but it never ceased to be "Dr. Heacock's Church," in the thought of those who had known it in the earlier time, until the walls which had echoed his voice were abandoned to a vaudeville desecration, and the church transported to a splendid new home, where a new history was begun.
Fillmore Avenue Baptist Church, growing from a Sun- day School opened on Seneca Street, near the Erie Railway crossing, had that planting in 1877, and received a gift of ground from Mr. A. S. Holmes. The very old St. Peter's Church, of the United Evangelical body (founded by the evangelist, Gumbell, in 1832) built newly and largely in 1877-8, up to which time it had used the original St. Paul's, removed from Main Street in 1850.
Two important new churches were founded in 1879. One was the English Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity-the first Lutheran society in the city that conducted services in the English language, though the Lutherans are said to be more numerous in Buffalo than any other Protes- tant body. It was consolidated with a French Lutheran society, which had erected a building at the corner of Elli- cott and Tupper streets as long ago as 1830, and the new organization held its services there for some time. The other organization of the same year founded the free Church of All Saints (P. E.), at the corner of Main and Utica streets, where the Rev. M. C. Hyde ministered faithfully many years.
The First Church of the Evangelical Association erected a fine Gothic edifice in 1879. In that year the Old Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity lost by death its venerable pas-
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tor Grabau, who came with its pioneer congregation from Prussia in 1839.
In the Eighth Decade .- The Rev. Dr. S. S. Mitchell, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church for a quarter of a century thereafter, was installed on the Ist of November, 1880.
The Buffalo Baptist Union, which seems to have given a great impetus to the missionary and organizing work of the Baptist churches, was formed in 1880, as the result of a meeting held at the house of Thomas Chester, and upon a plan prepared and reported by E. L. Hedstrom and Ray T. Spencer. Mr. Chester was the first president of the Union, succeeded by Mr. Hedstrom, and by P. J. Ferris in later years.
The First Congregational Church was organized in 1880, by members withdrawn from the Lafayette Street Presby- terian Church. Its services were held in McArthur's Hall until the following year, when the Niagara Square Baptist Church building was bought by the society and repaired and enlarged. The Rev. Frank S. Fitch became its pastor in 1883, and remains in the office at the present day. The German Evangelical Friedens Church was formed, by about twenty-five families, in the same year, building for itself at once, on Eagle Street, at the foot of Monroe. The First Unitarian society left its long cherished but inadequate home on Franklin and Eagle streets in this year, to dedicate and occupy a new edifice on Delaware Avenue, where it remained for twenty-seven years.
In 1881 the German Evangelical St. Lucas Church erected a new and larger building to replace the Hope Chapel, on Richmond Avenue, which it had occupied hith- erto. St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church built anew, on Ellicott Street, between Tupper and Goodell ; the Fillmore Avenue Baptist Church built on the ground
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that had been given to it, on Fillmore Avenue, north of Seneca Street; and a new Jewish synagogue was erected, at Clinton and Walnut streets, by the newly organized society of Beth Jacob.
Ninety-six members from the First Baptist Church were the organizers, in 1882, of the Dearborn Street Baptist Church, taking up work which a Sunday School mission had begun in that field some years before. A building for the new church was occupied in 1884.
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