USA > New York > New York City > Annals of St. Michael's ; being the history of St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church, New York, for one hundred years 1807-1907 ; > Part 17
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CHAPTER VIII
FIRST RECTOR REV. JOHN VANDERBILT BARTOW 1808-1810
R EV. JOHN VANDERBILT BARTOW, born in New Rochelle on October 17, 1787, was the sixth son of the Rev. Theodosius Bartow, known as "Parson Bartow," of New Rochelle, and the grand- son of the Rev. John Bartow, who came to this country from England as a missionary for the Society of the Pro- pagation of the Gospel. In the Journal of the First Con- vention of the Diocese of New York, June 27, 1787, Theodosius Bartow appears as a lay-delegate represent- ing New Rochelle, which parish he continued to repre- sent for a number of years. In the Diocesan Journal of 1799 mention is made of the fact that he had regularly officiated as lay-reader at New Rochelle for five years, and he is recommended to the Bishop for Holy Orders. The following year, 1790, he appears as rector at New Rochelle and continues rector until 1819.
His son, John Vanderbilt, was graduated at Columbia College in this city in 1806, and studied for the ministry under the direction of Bishop Moore, then Bishop of the Diocese. He was ordained deacon in the following year, at a special ordination held in St. George's Chapel,,
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New York, December 13, 1807, and priest three years later, November 2, 1810. He was called to the charge of St. Michael's Church on May 16, 1808, and resigned his charge on August 27, 1810.
Being deacon during the whole period of his incum- bency at St. Michael's, he does not appear as rector of that church in the Convention Journal and was not entitled to a seat in Convention.
Minutes of his official acts in his own hand-writing on loose sheets of paper, bound together by his successor, are in the possession of the parish, no regular parish register having been opened at that time. These records commence almost immediately after his ordination as deacon and continue during the period of his incum- bency. They include baptisms, marriages, etc., per- formed not only at St. Michael's Church, but in Trinity Church and its various chapels, St. Stephen's and Zion churches, in New Rochelle and in Savannah, Ga. Some of them are rather interesting as revealing con- ditions at that period. The first baptism recorded, December 20, 1807, is that of "John Farr, aged ten years, supposed to be at the point of death, a poor widow's son, William Street, New York." There was slavery in those days, as is shown by such entries as this: "Saturday night, April 12, 1817, at New Rochelle, John Thompson, a black man of my father's, to Mrs. Thompson, a widow, black." The most curious en- try, however, is the following: "Saturday afternoon, August 17, 1809, attended the funeral of Mr. Stouten- burgh from the corner of Lombard and Cedar Streets, to Trinity Church, but refused to read the service, as he was found drowned and supposed to have committed suicide. Aged fifty-six." In connection with the no- tices of weddings, Mr. Bartow has added a memorandum
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Bartow Descendants
of fees given, which vary from $I to $5; while at burials it was the custom to give to the clergyman a scarf and a pair of gloves.
Two years after leaving St. Michael's Church, in 1812, Mr. Bartow became rector of Christ Church, Savannah, Ga. In 1815 he accepted the rectorship of Trinity Church, Baltimore, Md., where he remained until his death, July 14, 1836, at Perth Amboy, N. J .; in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church at which place he is buried.
He was married by his father in 1811 to Matilda Wilson, daughter of Archibald and Phoebe Helms Stewart, by whom he had three sons and four daughters. Several of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now living in Montclair and Englewood, N. J., and in Baltimore, Md., and one granddaughter lives in Germany.
CHAPTER IX SECOND RECTOR REV. SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS 1810-1820
R EV. SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS was the son of Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D. (later the second Bishop of Connecticut), and Ann Farmar of New York. He was born at Middletown, Conn., where his father was first rector of Christ Church, and studied at Yale College, from which he graduated in 1805. He was ordained deacon on Sunday, March 18, A.D. 1810, by his father, the Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut, in Trinity Church, New Haven, and priest in the same church by the same bishop on Friday, April 5, 1811.
On Saturday, November 17, 1810, the Vestry of St. Michael's Church, Bloomingdale, chose him to be their minister, or, in the event of his obtaining priest's orders, their rector. He accepted the invitation on March 22, 18II, and took charge of the cure in April of the same year.
Dr. Jarvis's scholarly character and accurate methods are illustrated in the register of St. Michael's Church. From the loose sheets which Mr. Bartow had left he abstracted all the records dealing directly with St. Michael's Church and entered them very carefully in
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REV. SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS, D.D. Second Rector, 1810-1820
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Faithful Records
a book provided for the purpose, appending this certifi- cate: "The above record I certify to be a true copy from several loose papers found by me in the secretary's register of the parish of vestry meetings of St. Michael's Church, Bloomingdale. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, Rec- tor." His devout Churchmanship makes itself mani- fest in the invocation which he prefixes to the record of his own entries :
In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, I, Samuel Farmar Jarvis, do promise that every page of the following book subscribed by my name shall contain as true and faithful a record as I shall be able to make, without any willful addition, alteration or omission, of all the baptisms, marriages and burials which shall be celebrated in this parish by me during the course of my ministry in the same, so help me God: through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Dr. Jarvis's portion of the records of St. Michael's parish is a credit to any parish and any rector- accurately kept, written in a careful and legible hand, with very few erasures or corrections.
St. Michael's parish was in Dr. Jarvis's time, a small country parish designed principally for the convenience of persons who resided in their country seats in the neighborhood of the church during the summer, and at the outset Dr. Jarvis lived in the city, at 490 Broadway. Later a residence was provided for him in the neigh- borhood of the church, and mention is made of hiring the Striker house for that purpose. This was after he had become rector also of St. James's Church, Hamilton Square (Lexington Avenue and 69th Street).
As will appear from the history of the parish, Dr. Jarvis interested himself in educational matters, and under his rectorship free day schools were established for poor people in connection with both St. Michael's
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and St. James's churches. These schools were designed for the poor people of the neighborhood, not for the children of the well-to-do. Dr. Jarvis's interest in improving the condition of the poor is attested further by the fact that during the last year of his rectorship, 1819, he commenced holding services in the two spots on the upper west side of the city where there were at that period small villages containing a population of poor people, namely, Manhattanville and Fort Wash- ington. In September, 1817, Dr. Berrian, Rector of Trinity Church, was granted a leave of absence, and Dr. Jarvis of St. Michael's and St. James's and Mr. Johnston of Newtown were engaged to officiate in that parish on Sunday afternoons for six months during his absence. In 1818 and again in 1819 Dr. Jarvis was elected a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese. In 1817 began the agitation for the establish- ment of a Theological Seminary for the instruction of young men for the ministry, and in 1818 Dr. Jarvis was given a leave of absence for a period in order to devote himself to collecting money for the seminary.
On May 22, 1819, Dr. Jarvis resigned the rectorship of St. Michael's and St. James's to accept a professor- ship of Biblical Learning in the new General Theological Seminary, a position which he did not long retain, however, owing apparently to the controversy between the general Church and the Diocese of New York as to the control of that seminary. During the entire period of his connection with the seminary he continued to act as rector of St. Michael's and St. James's, not finally severing his relations with these churches until the end of June, 1820. In the same year he became rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston, a position which he con- tinued to hold until 1826. From 1826 to 1835 he
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Dr. Jarvis's Family
travelled in Europe. On his return from his travels he was made professor of Oriental Literature in Wash- ington College, now Trinity, Hartford, Conn., but two years later he resigned this position to accept the rectorship of Christ Church, Middletown, of which his father had been rector at the time of his birth, a charge which he filled until 1842. In 1819 the University of Pennsylvania gave him the degree of D.D., and in 1837 Washington College (Trinity), Hartford, gave him the degree of LL.D. He was regarded at that time as one of the most distinguished scholars of the Church, and the General Convention of 1838 appointed him histori- ographer of the Church. In connection with this office he planned a great work of Church history, only one volume of which was ever published, namely, A Chrono- logical Introduction to the History of the Church, 1845.
He married Sarah McCurdy Hart of Saybrook, Conn., and in the records of this parish there is mention of the births of three children: John Abraham, 1814; Jeannette Hart, 1815; and Ann Christian, 1819; and the death in Europe of the eldest of these children, John Abraham, in 1834. The remains of this son were in- terred in St. Michael's Churchyard and lie beneath the present church building. One of Dr. Jarvis's sons, born at a later date, the Rev. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, D.D., is at the present time Rector Emeritus of Christ, Church, Brooklyn, Conn., opposite Middletown, where his grandfather and father served before him.
Dr. Jarvis died on March 26, 1851. How highly he was esteemed by the parish of which he was once rector is shown by the fact that, on receipt of the news of his death, more than thirty years after the date of the severance of his relations with this parish, a special meeting of the Vestry was called on March 28, 1851, to pass resolutions of bereavement.
CHAPTER X
THIRD RECTOR REV. WILLIAM RICHMOND 1820-1837, 1842-1858
W ILLIAM RICHMOND was of an old New England family, of which John Richmond (+1664), originally of Ashton Keynes, Wilt- shire, England, who came to this country about 1635, was the American progenitor. His son, Captain Ed- ward Richmond (+ 1696), General Solicitor (1667-72) and Attorney General of the colony (1677-80), acquired a farm at Little Compton, Rhode Island, including within its limits Treaty Rock, where Colonel Benjamin Church made the treaty with the queen sachem of the Saconets, Awashonks, which broke up the power of King Philip of Mount Haup. This is the Richmond
homestead. Here Edward Richmond was buried, and his farm has remained in the family up to the present time, through seven generations of descendants, serving its later owners as a place of rest and temporary retire- ment from the toil and tumult of their life work.
William Richmond, grandson of Colonel Silvester Richmond and son of William Richmond (1770-1850) and Clarissa Andrews, his wife, was born at Dighton, Mass., on Dec. II, 1797. His parents were Congrega-
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REV. WILLIAM RICHMOND Third Rector, 1820-1837, 1842-1858
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Richmond's Conversion
tionalists and apparently belonged to that wing of the Congregationalists who either did not believe in infant baptism or at least were not strenuous with regard to it. He was educated at Brown College in Providence, and after graduation went to Schenectady, N. Y., where he began the study of the law. Here he was converted, if we may apply that term to the conscious awakening of the Christian spirit within him, and baptized at St. George's Church, March 31, 1816, by the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins; Thomas C. Brownell, afterwards Bishop of Connecticut, and Samuel Johnstone acting as his witnesses. Later his whole family felt the influence of this action, through which most of them were finally brought into the membership of the Church. He him- self baptized three of his sisters and one brother, together with various of his Rhode Island and Massa- chusetts kinsfolk-Richmond, Tillinghast, Pitman, Whitmarsh-and recorded their baptisms in the register of St. Michael's Church, during his ministry there. Richmond's conversion meant, however, far more than baptism and the acceptance of Christianity as the rule of life. He was filled with a great zeal to preach the Gospel, especially to the poor, the outcast, the ignorant, and the unbelieving, and among his earliest papers is a record of his desire to give his days to a frontier mis- sionary life. He at once commenced to study for the ministry, and in the Convention report of 1817 appears as a candidate for orders. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Hobart in Grace Church, New York, December 21, 1818, and at once removed to the Diocese of Penn- sylvania, where for eighteen months he was engaged in missionary work in the service of the Society for the Advancement of Christianity, partly in the new State of Ohio and in Western Pennsylvania, about
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Pittsburg, where he was for a time minister of Trinity Church, and partly in and about Philadelphia.
In 1817, William Hamilton, Esq., of Hamiltonville, now part of West Philadelphia, had deeded four fifty foot lots for a church. Knowledge of this finally com- ing to the Society for the Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania stimulated that Society to undertake a work of church extension in Philadelphia, which is thus recorded in the Society's report for the year 1819:
The Trustees having ascertained that there were a con- siderable number of the members of our church residing in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia, who were anxious for the enjoyment of public worship, thought that, by some attention on their part, congregations might be established, and churches erected in the suburbs of the city, and in one or more of those pleasant villages which are situated on the banks of the Schuylkill. An appropriation was therefore made for a domestic mission. Information having been conveyed to those for whose benefit this appointment was intended, they entered into the plan with much earnest- ness and zeal, and provided places for the celebration of Divine Service. At Hamiltonville Divine Service was held on every other Sunday morning, from the begin- ning of May to the 7th of November, and on every Sunday morning from November 7th to December Ist, in a school- house, where a respectable and pretty numerous congrega- tion usually assembled. And there were a number of Episcopal families, some of whom came from Mantua and the surrounding country.
The Rev. William Richmond was placed in charge of this mission, officiating in the district of Southwark, at the Falls of Schuylkill and at Hamiltonville. Out of the work at the latter place grew later St. Mary's Church, now one of the strong parishes of Philadelphia.
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Richmond's Marriage
On May 24, 1820, Mr. Richmond was called by joint action of the vestries of St. Michael's and St. James's to become minister of the two churches, or, in the event of his receiving ordination as priest, to become their rector. His acceptance of the call is dated June 3, 1820, and he began his work at Bloomingdale with the close of that month, although he did not technically become rector until he was priested by Bishop Ho- bart in St. Michael's Church, December 21, 1821. From the outset his relation to his parishioners seems to have been most cordial. He was a man of attrac- tive personality, a good but not a great preacher, and an admirable pastor, sympathetic and affectionate, one who made no enemies and who was beloved by all to whom he ministered.
In the vestry records of St. James's Church, under date of May 15, 1823, there is an entry which throws some light on Mr. Richmond's domestic relations, to the effect that the vestry, being notified of an increase of $150 in the rector's salary on the part of St. Michael's Church, with the suggestion that St. James's Church should increase the salary to the same amount, votes not to comply with this request, but to grant a "gratuity of $100 to be given on the day of the rector's wedding." In fact he married in that summer Christiana Beckham of Philadelphia. But his life with her was brief. She died of consumption at her parents' home in Phila- delphia a year later, August 20, 1824, aged twenty-two years and six months. A few years afterwards Mr. Richmond married a second time, Sarah Clarkson, the youngest daughter of General Matthew Clarkson of Revolutionary fame, one of the leading citizens of New York, a marriage which brought him into connection with all the older New York families who at that time
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owned country seats in Bloomingdale and the surround- ing neighborhood.
At the very outset of his ministry Mr. Richmond commenced an aggressive work of Church extension. He regarded the whole of the upper part of the island, from below 59th Street northward, as his parish, in which it was his duty to establish the church. Dr. Jarvis had already, in 1819, begun some sort of occa- sional services at Fort Washington, in which region there was a settlement of very poor people. In the church register there is a record of thirteen "children baptized in the School House at Fort Washington at a lecture, January 17, 1819, P. M., Second Sunday after Epiphany." Mr. Richmond took up the work thus begun. On a scrap of paper in his handwriting, now in my possession, he states that the first record which he can find of his services at Fort Washington was on November 26, 1820, at Mr. Morse's house. These services were continued for many years in the school-house, at Fort Washington, and out of them grew St. Ann's Church, as recorded elsewhere in this volume. On November 26, 1820, Mr. Richmond also conducted his first service in Manhattanville. In 1819 Dr. Jarvis had begun holding occasional services there. Mr. Richmond took up his work, with a view to the ultimate organization of a church, and on Thanksgiving Day, December 1 8, 1823, a church was organized under the State law with the title "The Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of St. Mary's Church, Man- hattanville, Ninth Ward, of the City of New York." Mr. Richmond was chosen rector and continued to fill that office, with brief intermissions, until 1853. Dur- ing the greater portion of this period he received a nominal salary of $300 a year, which was never paid,
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Founding Churches
and which he ultimately donated, with other sums for which the parish had become indebted to him, total- ing over $7000, to the parish.
On the east side of what is now Central Park and within the parochial limits of St. James's, Hamilton Square, of which Mr. Richmond was also rector, lay the village of Yorkville. York Hill was the name then applied to the hill on which stands the old reser- voir in the Park. From this hill the neighboring village of Yorkville took its name. The people of this village, who were very poor, did not attend St. James's Church, which was meant for the well-to-do occupants of the country residences in that neighborhood. If they were to have any church at all, it was manifest that the Church must go to them. Accordingly, Mr. Richmond undertook special services among these people, begin- ning April 6, 1828, and continuing for many years. This ultimately resulted in the organization of a church, never incorporated and never admitted to union with the Diocese, St. Matthew's, which at a later date was replaced by the Church of the Redeemer.
Toward the end of the same year, 1828, Mr. Rich- mond extended his activities to Harlem. This was a village of considerable importance, founded at an early date and having a well-established Dutch Reformed Church. There were, however, not a few Episcopalians residing in Harlem, some for the summer and some all the year round. These found it diffi- cult and inconvenient to attend services at St. James's or St. Michael's. In 1828 Mr. Richmond engaged the Rev. G. L. Hinton as assistant minister to him in his capacity as rector of St. Mary's Church, Manhattanville, with the understanding that Mr. Hinton's special work should be to endeavor to organize a church in
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Annals of St. Michael's
Harlem. Through the courtesy of the trustees of the village academy, who were members of the Reformed Church, the use of that building was secured for the Episcopal services. The first service was held in this school-house on December 7, 1828, Mr. Richmond officiating, after which date the services were continued by the Rev. G. L. Hinton, acting as Mr. Richmond's assistant. The success of this work was instant, and on the 14th of February, 1829, St. Andrew's Church, Harlem, was duly organized and Mr. Hinton elected its first rector.
In 1829 it seemed good to the Church in Convention assembled that some one of its bishops should visit the great western and southwestern territory, and at a meeting of the Board of Domestic and Foreign Missions, held August 29th, it was arranged that the Rt. Rev. T. C. Brownell, Bishop of Connecticut, should make a missionary trip through this country, the Rev. Frank L. Hawkes being appointed to accompany him. The latter, after his appointment, resigned and the Rev. William Richmond was appointed by the Executive Committee to take his place. Mr. Richmond was a family connection and a distant kinsman of Bishop Brownell, who, it will be remembered, stood as his godfather. The special work assigned to Mr. Rich- mond was to collect money for the mission work in the south and west and organize auxiliary missionary committees wherever he could do so. This missionary trip lasted about four months, from the middle of November, 1829, until the latter part of March, 1830. Going through Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, they then descended the Ohio and the Missis- sippi to New Orleans, thence to Mobile by water and from Mobile overland through Alabama and the terri-
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A Missionary Journey
tory of the Creek nation to the Atlantic States and so up through Savannah, Charleston, Richmond, and Wash- ington. Several churches were consecrated on this trip; in some cases, as at Louisville, the money to pay off the debt being first collected by Mr. Richmond. Several clergy were ordained, confirmation was administered in a number of churches, in some States for the first time, and finally a convention of the clergy and lay dele- gates from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama was held to organize those States into a new diocese, the Southwestern Diocese.
Bishop Brownell's report of this trip was first pub- lished in the Spirit of Missions, something over twenty years later, in 1851. Mr. Richmond's report, to which the Bishop refers, was never published, but a manuscript diary in his handwriting has been preserved, which con- tains much interesting information about the country visited, the state of the Church in the same, with inci- dental allusions to politics and prominent persons whom they met in every community. Mr. Richmond's earlier missionary work in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio stood him in good stead on this trip. He was familiar with the ways of the country and had many acquaintances who were not only glad to see him again, but also to pass him on to others.
While at Lexington they went out to visit the famous Henry Clay, who lived about a mile and a half from he town. Of this visit Mr. Richmond writes :
Just such a house as you might expect him to reside n. Has about 20 negroes. Is supposed to have prop- rty. His sons, the elder, dissipated. He was out on his arm but soon came home. Received us politely. Talked good deal about education. Considered it one advantage f the divisions among Christians that they are compelled
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by emulation to found colleges, etc. This is the case with the Baptists. Said that he considered that there were some of the worst people morally and politically assembled in the city of New York. Told us his wife was an episcopalian, but that his father and most of his connexions were baptists. Mrs. C. had gone to the funeral of his mother, who died yes- terday. Said we should see his only daughter Mrs. Irwin at New Orleans; and that he hoped we might strengthen some religious impressions of her's. I told him I was glad to hear him express himself in that manner. He said he was always glad when he heard any person was going to join any church. He valued religion for its practical influence. His conversation fluent, his manner good and affable. Upon the whole I was highly pleased.
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