USA > New York > A history of the purchase and settlement of western New York : and of the rise, progress and present state of the Presbyterian Church in that section > Part 23
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In 1803 and 1804, no appointments for this field were made, or, if made, were not fulfilled. In 1805 and the early part of 1806, Mr. Cram was again in the employ of the Society for a period of six months, but his field was extensive, and his labors in great part directed to the benefit of the Indians. In 1807, Rev. Amos Pettengill and Rev. William Riddell were employed in missionary labors, each, six months ; but mostly, if not wholly, on an adjoining field. During the latter part of 1807, and the year 1808, Mr. Joseph Merrill, then a licensed preacher of the gospel, spent forty- five weeks in missionary service, mostly, if not wholly, on this field. In 1808 and 1809, other missionaries were employed to
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labor in New York, but whether any of them, except Mr. Samuel Parker, a licensed preacher, were occupied on this field, is not known to the writer. Mr. Parker spent some time, during three years, in missionary labor in Western New York. He was again commissioned for six months ; and Mr. Robert Hubbard, also a licensed preacher, for three months, which commissions they ful- filled in 1810. In 1811, Mr. Parker, then an ordained minister of the gospel, was appointed to labor six months, as a missionary, on the head waters of the Susquehannah and Genesee. From this period the attention of the Society was directed to other fields, and no more missionaries were sent to Western New York. Messrs. Merrill, Parker, and Hubbard, remained in the region, and were settled as pastors of the churches.
The reports of these missionaries are evidential of the importance and value of missionary labors. Mr. Avery, in his report, says : " In traversing this great region, I have had the satisfaction to find the people, in general, well disposed towards missionaries. They came out with cheerfulness ; they heard me with patience and with avidity, and, in some places, with anxiety and tears. It has been affecting to see women hastening to meeting, in a dark evening, through deep mud, by the light only of a brand of fire. Infidelity, which early claimed this region, and erected its standard here, has been made to feel very powerful opposition from heaven. When the enemy came in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard against him. It has lost some champions : its crest is lowered." Mr. Merrill remarks : In the different places in which I was called to labor, I uniformly found a kind reception : people were attentive and solemn ; Christians were mourning and hunger- ing for the word, and often with tears of gratitude they would ac- knowledge the benevolence of those who were mindful of their spiritual wants." Mr. Parker says, "I have been kindly received wherever I have been, and, generally, have had full and attentive assemblies. Many have expressed gratitude for the benevolent at- tention of the Society in sending the gospel among them, and ex- pressed a desire for its continuance." In his report for 1811, Mr. Parker notices that at Warsaw, during the winter, thirty or forty persons had obtained the hope of salvation through the Redeemer.
Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society.
This Society was organized at Spencertown in the county of Columbia, February 21st, 1798, by a convention of ministers and laymen convened for the purpose, and was denominated, " The Congregational Missionary Society originated in the counties of Berkshire and Columbia." The design of the Society was declared to be, "to propagate the gospel in the new settlements and among
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heathen nations." Rev. Ephraim Judson of Sheffield, Mass., was the first President. The funds of the Society soon enabled them to commence missionary operations on a small scale, and the atten- tion of the Society was in a particular manner directed to Western New York and its vicinity.
In the summer of 1798, Rev. Beriah Hotchkin entered on a mis- sion of eight weeks' continuance, commencing his missionary labor in the county of Delaware, and proceeding onward to the Genesee river, at that time the utmost limit of white population. Mr. Hotchkin was one of the trustees of the Society, and in connexion with the performance of missionary labor for the spiritual benefit of the inhabitants, it was an object with him to explore the whole field, as far as was practicable, to enable the trustees, in their sub- sequent appointments of missionaries, to give them proper direc- tions respecting the fields of labor to be occupied by them. Simul- taneously with the mission of Mr. Hotchkin, Rev. Joseph Badger performed a mission of ninety days' continuance in the region bor- dering on the Susquehannah river, partly in New York, and partly in Pennsylvania.
The attention of this Society to Western New York, as a field for missions, was continued for some years. The latest notices which have come under the eye of the writer relate to the year 1813, and up to that period, the information is imperfect. It ap- pears, however, that missionary service, by this Society, to the amount of one missionary for about half of the time, was expended on this field. As missionaries employed by the Society from time to time, on this field, are found the names of Rev. Messrs. Joseph Avery, Jacob Catlin, Samuel Fuller, David Perry, Aaron Bascom, Samuel Leonard, David Porter, David Harrowar, Jeremiah Os- borne, Hezekiah N. Woodruff, Reuben Parmele, William J. Wil- cox, Allen Hollister, with licentiates, Abiel Jones, Jonathan Shel- don, and Thomas Hardy. No doubt there were others, but from the imperfection of the writer's information, they cannot here be noticed.
Hampshire Missionary Society.
This Society was organized at Northampton, Mass., in the month of January, 1802, by a convention of clergymen and laymen, con- vened for the purpose. "The object and business of the Society," as expressed in the constitution, was "to promote the preaching and propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ among the inhabitants of the new settlements of the United States, and the aboriginal natives of this continent." His Excellency, Caleb Strong, governor of the State of Massachusetts, and a resident of Northampton, was elected President of the Society, and continued to sustain that office
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for a number of successive years. The attention of the Society was directed to the destitute settlements in Western New York, and missionaries were sent to this region, by the Society, for more than twenty years. The information which the writer possesses is imperfect. It would seem, however, that the Society expended missionary labor on this field, to average from six months' to a year's service of one missionary annually. Among the mission- aries, are found the names of Rev. Messrs. Samuel Taggart, Timothy M. Cooley, D.D., Peter Fish, Joel Hays, Theodore Hins- dale, Payson Williston, Thomas H. Wood, Royal Phelps, John Bascom, Samuel Parker, and Oliver Hitchcock. Mr. Parker, who had a pastoral charge in Danby, was in the employ of the Society one quarter of the time for a number of years, laboring in the vacancies around the place of his residence.
As to the results of the labors of the missionaries, Mr. Bascom, in his report of missionary labor performed by him in 1815 or '16, mentions that, in the town of Spencer, the word appeared to be effectual on about thirty individuals. Mr. Parker, in 1819, states, that a church had been formed in Cayuta, consisting of between thirty and forty members ; also, a revival was in progress in Up- dike Settlement, and about thirty individuals had entertained a hope. In the report of the trustees of the Society, August, 1808, they say, " The missionaries of the Society, as appears by their journals and letters, and by letters from those among whom they have labored, have fulfilled their missions with an exemplary fidelity, activity, and zeal, and with a patient self-denial. They travelled over ex- tensive regions of the new settlements, seeking for places and opportunities, where they might do good to the souls of men, and honor the grace of the Divine Redeemer. They were constant in preaching, in the administration of the holy sacraments, in settling difficulties in churches already established. in forming new church- es, in holding religious and church conferences, in visiting and in- structing schools, in comforting the sick and afflicted, in assisting mourners by their prayers and counsels, submissively to bury their dead, in going from house to house to teach the people the good knowledge of God. In addition to these services, and the diligent distribution of books, they preached nearly as many discourses as they spent days on missionary ground. Nor may the kind and grateful reception they met with from the people, be passed over in silence. Cordial was the welcome given to them by the needy and scattered inhabitants of those new and destitute settlements. Lively joy was impressed upon the countenances of Christ's chil- dren in the wilderness, and a general solemn attention to their labors was yielded by the people whom they visited. There was the evidence of serious and useful effects upon the hearts and lives of not a few who were favored with the instructions and counsels of the missionaries of the Society."
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Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America.
A number of gentlemen in Boston and its vicinity, desirous of promoting the salvation of their fellow-men, associated themselves for this object, and in accordance with the provisions of an Act of the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, obtained for the pur- pose, organized themselves in a Society with the above appellation, in the month of December, 1787. Their missionary efforts were principally directed to the christianization and civilization of the Indians, for a considerable period, and they also distributed Bibles and religious books in considerable numbers. As their funds were enlarged, they employed missionaries to preach to the inhabitants of the new settlements, and destitute places. This Society, at an early period, employed missionaries to labor in Western New York, but to what extent is not known to the writer. He distinctly re- collects Rev. Daniel Oliver, as performing missionary labor on this field, in the service of that Society, about the year 1810.
New Hampshire Missionary Society.
This Society was organized at Hopkinton, in the State of New Hampshire, Sept. 2d, 1801. In the year 1803, the Society em- ployed missionaries, to the amount of forty weeks, of which twelve weeks' service was allotted to Western New York. In 1804 they employed missionaries to the amount of fifty-two weeks, of which twenty-two weeks' service is reported as having been performed on the same field. The author recollects Rev. Mr. Webber and Rev. Daniel Waldo as missionaries from this Society. Whether any others were employed on this field is not known.
In the year 1780, four ministers of the Presbytery of New York, Rev. Jacob Green, the father of Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., of Phila- delphia, Rev. Joseph Grover, Rev. Amzi Lewis, and Rev. Ebenezer Bradford, seceded from the. Presbytery of New York, and from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, and organized themselves into an ecclesiastical body by the name of "The Presbytery of Morris County." This body adopted the Congregational form of church government, and, when organized for business, was com- posed of ministers and delegates from the churches. After a short time the designation was changed to that of " The Morris County Associated Presbytery." Subsequently, on account of the increase of the body in the number of its ministers and churches, a division took place, and the Westchester Associated Presbytery was or- ganized. These Presbyteries for a time embraced a large number of ministers and churches in the lower counties of New York, and adjacent parts of New Jersey. A society, composed principally of the ministers of these Presbyteries, and members of their churches,
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was formed for the promotion of religion and learning. The exact designation of the Society is not known to the writer. This Society acted as a Missionary Society, and some of its missionaries, at an early period, visited Western New York. Rev. Joseph Grover, who was settled in the ministry in the church of North Bristol, in 1800, came into the country as a missionary from this Society. Rev. Simeon R. Jones, who preached in the congregation of Elmira several years, was also a missionary of this Society. Some other missionaries to Western New York, it is believed, were sent by this Society ; but, at this late period, no definite information on the subject can be communicated.
Reformed Dutch Church.
Whether any missionaries of this denomination visited Western New York previous to the year 1806, is not known to the writer. In that year a special committee, consisting of four ministers and four elders, was appointed by the General Synod, with plenary powers to conduct the concerns of missions to the new settlements. This committee was designated " The Standing Committee of Mis- sions for the Reformed Dutch Church in America." Under their auspices, missionaries were sent to visit the settlements in Western New York, and in Upper Canada. The first missionaries men- tioned in the record of their proceedings, as employed by them, are Rev. Messrs. Conrad Ten Eyck, Christian Bork, and Peter D. Froeligh. These brethren were appointed to visit the northwest- ern frontiers of the State of New York, and the Province of Upper Canada. They entered upon their mission in the month of August, 1806, and spent eleven weeks in missionary service on the ground assigned them. Probably the greater part of the time was spent in Canada. They speak of the people among whom they labored, as hearing the gospel with eager attention and warm expressions of gratitude.
In 1809, two other missionaries were appointed to visit the same field. Their names are not known to the writer. They fulfilled their appointment, and continued in service three months. What portion of their time was spent in Western New York, does not appear. In 1810, another missionary, Rev. John Beattie, was em- ployed on the same ground, eighteen weeks.
Respecting subsequent missionary operations of the Reformed Dutch Church, the writer has not the means of information.
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CHAPTER XVI.
Genesee Missionary Society, its organization, operations ; Funds derived from Female Associations, Indian School, Dissolution of the Society. Female Missionary Society of the Western District ; Young People's Missionary Society of Western New York ; the Western Domestic Missionary Society, Auxiliary to the American Home Mis- sionary Society. Young Men's Missionary Society of New York. The New York Evangelical Missionary Society. United Domestic Missionary Society. American Home Missionary Society, its Object, its * Auxiliaries, and Agencies; Western Agency, Central Agency : Mode of Operations. Field of Labor : Amount of Ser- vice. Operations of the Society in Western New York: Result of these Opera- tions.
Genesee Missionary Society.
THIS Society cannot compare, in the amount of its operations, or in the magnitude of its results, with the larger societies of Con- necticut and Massachusetts, or with the Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. But it was one of the early missionary organizations : it originated in Western New York; its operations were confined within that region ; and its influence, for a number of years, in increasing the number of churches and in sustaining those of them that were feeble, was salutary.
The Genesee Missionary Society was organized at the town of Phelps, where now stands the village of Vienna, in the month of January, 1810. It may not be amiss to record the incident which gave rise to the idea of forming a missionary society in the Gene- see country, at a period when the churches were few in number and feeble in means. The semi-annual meeting of the Ontario Association was to be holden at Phelps, on the second Tuesday of January. On the Sabbath preceding this meeting, Deacon Abiel Lindsley of Prattsburgh, a man of eminent piety, and who has long since gone to his final rest, being detained from public worship on account of ill health, and feeling impressed with a strong desire that some additional means might be employed to promote the in- crease of piety in the region, directed a note to his pastor, Rev. James H. Hotchkin, who was expected to attend the meeting of the Association, suggesting the propriety of some action on the part of the Association, to raise from the churches under their care funds for the distribution of Bibles and religious tracts among the destitute in the region around, or in some other way to provide for the religious instruction of perishing souls. The receipt of this note suggested to the mind of Mr. Hotchkin the idea of a mission-
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ary society, as the most permanent means of supplying the spiritual wants of Western New York. At that period much of the region was an unbroken wilderness. Where settlements had commenced many of them consisted of a few families, widely separated from their neighbors. The churches were comparatively few, consist- ing of a small number of members, and many of these poor as to temporal estate. Without missionary aid their condition was al- most hopeless. The aid received from the General Assembly's Board of Missions and the several missionary societies in the East- ern States, though immensely valuable, was inadequate to the wants of the country. Some of the churches in Western New York, in the earliest settled places, had acquired such a degree of consistency and strength, as to be able to support the institutions of the gospel for themselves, and do something to assist their more indigent neighbors. This ability, it was believed, might be more effectually called out, by the organization of a society of which their pastors and members should be the responsible agents. Un- der this impression, Mr. Hotchkin, at the meeting of the Associa- tion, introduced a resolution for the immediate organization of a missionary society, and was highly gratified in finding that his views of the subject were embraced by all his brethren of the As- sociation, both clerical and lay members. A constitution was the next day adopted, and the necessary officers of the Society elected. As members of the Society were included all regularly ordained ministers, of the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations, residing in the Genesee country and its vicinity, who were disposed to act with the Society ; and one elder, or delegate, from each church of those denominations, within the same limits ; also all other persons who should subscribe and pay an initiation fee of two dollars, and one dollar annually thereafter. Rev. Jedidiah Chapman, of the Presbytery of Geneva, was elected president of the Society. At a subsequent period the Society was legally incor- porated by an act of the Legislature.
The Society thus organized, was, in a short time, by the aid of contributions from several congregations and individuals, enabled to commence missionary operations. But for a period of two or three years, the amount of contributions was small, and almost ex- clusively confined to the congregations in connexion with the On- tario Association. After the dissolution of the Association, as has been related, and the union of most of its ministers and churches with the Presbytery of Geneva, the annual meeting of the Society was made to coincide, as to time and place, with the meeting of the Synod of Geneva, which body, at that time, and for some years af- terwards, embraced the whole territory of Western New York. The Presbyterian brethren generally engaged with spirit in the en- terprise, and from that period the Genesee Missionary Society re- ceived the support of all the Presbyterian and Congregational churches in Western New York.
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WESTERN NEW YORK.
In January, 1814, the Society having been in existence about four years, the Trustees published a Narrative of the missions, which had been directed by them, from the time of the organization of the Society, to which was subjoined a statement of the funds, and of the expenditures of the Society up to that period. From this Narration it appears that the ministers and licentiates, who had been employed as missionaries in the service of the Society were Rev. Simeon R. Jones, Rev. Reuben Parmele, Rev. Aaron C. Col- lins, Rev. David Tullar, Rev. Oliver Ayer, and licentiates, Robert Hubbard, Silas Hubbard, Lyman Barritt, Samuel Parker, Orange Lyman, and Daniel S. Butrick. From their several journals, it ap- peared that they had performed seventy-five weeks of missionary service, and had, in the aggregate, preached four hundred and twenty-six sermons, besides performing the other duties of mission- aries. It appeared that the missionaries had been cordially re- ceived, and that their labors had been useful. The contributions to the funds of the Society, up to this period, amounted to the sum of seven hundred and twenty-seven dollars and forty-seven cents, a portion of which was expended in the purchase of religious books and tracts. Subsequent to the period embraced in the narration, it appears from the Treasurer's book, that the receipts of the treasury amounted to the sum of eight hundred and forty-seven dollars and forty-three cents, making the whole amount of receipts, during the continuance of the Society's operations, twenty-five hundred and seventy-four dollars and ninety cents. Of this sum, more than eight hundred dollars were donations from Female Associations, organ- ized for benevolent objects. As so large a proportion of the funds of the Society were derived from this source, it may be due to the benevolent ladies of these Associations, to name the several institu- tions, with the amount of their respective contributions. They are the following, viz. :
The Female Charitable Society, of Marcellus, $133 44
The Female Cent Society, of Prattsburgh, . 143 46
The Female Cent Society, of Bath, . . . 188 86 The Female Cent Society, of East Bloomfield, 59 00
The Female Cent Society, of Lima, . 8 00
The Female Cent Society of Skeneatoles, . 23 69
The Female Cent Society, of Victor, 37 00 The Female Cent Society, of West Bloomfield, . 44 68
The Female Association, of Genoa, . 9 00
The Female Cent Society, of Danby, 32 00
The Female Charitable Society, of Locke, 16 54 The Female Charitable Society, of Auburn, 5 00
The Female Charitable Society, of Homer, . 107 33
Besides the above, twenty-six dollars and twenty cents are credit-
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ed as donations from female societies, without naming the socie- ties. The societies denominated Cent Societies, and probably those otherwise designated, were organized on the principle, that the members should contribute each one cent a week to the treasury of the Society. The ladies of these Societies deserve warm commen- dation for their labors of love, in furnishing the destitute with a preached gospel, and the aggregate amount of their donations illus- trates the truth of the proposition, that " large results may grow from small causes." The " cent a week" seems very insignificant, but given perseveringly, and by large numbers, in time it swells to a large amount, and, if given from love to Christ and the souls of men, may result in the accomplishment of incalculable good.
In the latter part of the year 1813, the Society was directed to the state of the Indians in Western New York. Mr. Daniel S. Butrick, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Geneva, was preaching to the congregation of Geneseo, in the vicinity of the Indian settle- ment at Squakey Hill. During his preparatory studies for the ministry, his attention was directed to a consideration of the state of the heathen world, particularly the aborigines of our own country. He viewed them in their state of degradation, wretchedness, and sin, and he longed to do something to pro- mote their spiritual and eternal welfare. It was his desire, at that period, that he might, when admitted to the ministerial office, be employed as a missionary to the Indians, a desire which has since been gratified by his appointment, by the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, as a missionary to the Che- rokee Indians, in which station he has been honorably and usefully employed for many years. While Mr. Butrick resided at Geneseo, he often visited the Indians in their lodges, and sometimes addressed them, by means of an interpreter, on the subjects which concern salvation. At a meeting of the Presbytery of Geneva, Mr. Butrick brought the case of the Indians to the notice of the Presbytery, and by the Presbytery it was referred to the Genesee Missionary So- ciety. The Society instructed their trustees to act upon the subject. The trustees, through their committee, established a school for the children and youth of the Indians, at Squakey Hill. The school was placed under the care and tuition of Mr. Jerediah Hosford, a pious young man from the State of Vermont. For a season, the school engaged the attention of the Indians, and some of the chil- dren made some progress in reading. As a proof of their aptitude for learning, it may be observed that one of the Indian boys learned the whole alphabet the first day of the school, although, in the morning of that day, he did not know a single letter. The school was continued for about six months, and then ceased, in consequence of the impaired health of Mr. Hosford ; and as no suitable person to succeed him appeared, it was never revived, and the Society made no further attempts to Christianize the Indians. Whether
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